At what point does a team cut its losses?

On Sunday, Tommie Harris was ejected 54 seconds into the Bears' loss to the Cardinals for punching a lineman in the facemask. After the game, coach Lovie Smith was pretty blunt about his displeasure with Harris, using the word "stupid" when speaking about Harris' "mistake."

This comes two weeks after Harris was a healthy scratch from the Bears game in Cincinnati, also a blow out loss, in a decision made by Smith. Smith later explained that Harris hadn't practiced all week, and the team wanted to go with guys that had been active during the week.

The subtitles on Smith's comments about Harris two weeks ago included "work ethic," and bordered on questioning the me-first attitude of his former All-Pro defensive tackle.

All of this is happening within the context of a defense that's banged up all over the place. Brian Urlacher was lost for the season on opening day due to a mangled wrist, the team has missed his replacement, Hunter Hillenmeyer, for some with a rib injury, and lost Charles Tillman and Al Afalava to shoulder in