Thread: Pressure will build on Cutler, offense

Pressure will build on Cutler, offense

Bears QB quickly becoming most scrutinized civic treasure since Picasso sculpture unveiled 45 years ago
Mike Mulligan 7:32 p.m. CDT, October 30, 2012

It's a tribute to the skill of Jay Cutler — as opposed to, say, generations of previous Bears quarterbacks — that the interpretation of his leadership ability now includes fluency in body language, facial expression recognition and, of course, lip-reading. (Yeah each week it's getting to look like an episode of "Lie to Me" and the sportswriters all think their Cal Lightman)

The guy quickly is becoming the most scrutinized civic treasure since the Picasso sculpture was unveiled 45 years ago. Legendary columnist Mike Royko wrote that the sculpture "has a long, stupid face and looks like some giant insect that is about to eat a smaller, weaker insect.'' Nobody is saying Cutler has a long, stupid face. But there are times he seems ready to devour an underling, be it a player or coach.

Jay doesn't suffer fools in the media. Whether real or imagined, he appears to wear his disdain proudly. It's a universal disdain, be it for fans or teammates, friends or foes. Watching that disdain emerge there are times where you wonder how the guy ever got stuck playing a team sport. Golf would suit him better, provided he wasn't selected for the Ryder Cup. Ditto tennis sans Davis Cup.
Why in the world would a guy like Cutler actually play a sport where 10 other players play a part in whether he succeeds? Why play a game in which the coach isn't a guy you hired to work your corner, get a small percentage, then move on?

Football is the ultimate team game, even for the guy under center who touches the ball on every offensive play. But quarterbacks are judged on a different criteria than any other players. It's victories and defeats for quarterbacks. Super Bowl titles for great quarterbacks.

Cutler has done a lot of winning with the Bears. In fact, he's 11-1 in his last 12 starts for the NFL's best winning percentage over that time. He has won 25 of his last 34 starts and has gone 23-9 in the regular season since the start of the 2010 season. Maybe the best example of his quality came last year when the Bears won seven of 10 games with him, then fizzled when he went down with an injury. (Maybe this is what we should be paying more attention to instead of facial ticks and lip reading)

Part of the problem with Cutler these days is that he's playing in Chicago, a city that understands running backs and middle linebackers a lot more than quarterbacks. The urge for fans, just like his coaches, is to look at Cutler's skill set and want him to be Dan Marino. That is not Cutler's game or at least not what he does best. Sure, he's a big-arm guy with a good release and he can make all the throws at every level of the field.

But Cutler isn't really a pocket passer. In fact, he's a thrower, not a passer. You can ask him to sit in the pocket and go through a read progression and deliver the ball in time and on time. Getting him to do that well is another matter. Cutler is at his best when he's making plays with his feet and his arm. He likes to look the ball into a target and seems most comfortable operating as a one-route quarterback, throwing the ball on the move.

You can argue his mechanics were better a year ago, but he never really has been a quarterback with great mechanics. People want to compare him with Brett Favre for his penchant to throw off his back foot and take chances with his big arm. The better comparison might be a younger Donovan McNabb. He's more accurate than McNabb, who was a great player for a number of years in Philadelphia, getting to but never winning a Super Bowl.

You saw Cutler make plays with his feet against the Lions and try to sit in the pocket against the Panthers. He was much better on that Monday night than he was Sunday. Not that Cutler didn't close well. That's the nifty difference in him this year: his ability to play well late in games.

His passer rating in the first half of games this season is 56.6, followed by 103.6 in the second half. The big difference has been the fourth quarter, in which Cutler has a 132.0 rating. That certainly has been the quarter when you want to be at your best. The comeback against the Panthers was the 13th fourth-quarter rally of Cutler's career, including his sixth with the Bears. (And we're not used to a Bears QB being able to do this)

The way the Bears defense has played this year, Cutler has been asked to be more of a game manager than he probably would prefer. That formula figures to change. There will be adversity at some point. While the defense has defied the aging process, the weather will get colder, a few injuries will occur and the offense will have to be there for the Bears to make a playoff run.

Defense has carried the day thus far, but for the Bears to win a Super Bowl, the offense will have to improve and Cutler, in particular, offers hope they can. He could make the journey easier on himself if he wanted to, but as long as he ends up a winner no one will care. If not, every moment to this point will be scrutinized as the reason why. (Of course, and why not it seems some have nothing better to do with their lives than that. They're like a bunch of bored housewives dissecting a character in a soap opera.)


Special contributor Mike Mulligan co-hosts "The Mully and Hanley Show" weekdays from 5 to 9 a.m. on WSCR-AM 670.


Copyright © 2012, Chicago Tribune

Call this my thread to counter the "Cutler Watchers" if you will. THIS is what's important. Not what he feels about the media, the fans, or your Uncle Bob. THIS is what we should be concerned about.

Is the guy winning games? Can he bring a team from behind to win a game? Even after a bad half offensively is he still able to get his offense to regroup and regroup himself? Can he lead well enough to win games even when he and the offense are having a "bad day"?

In my entire lifetime as a Bears fan, and it's lengthy compared to some of you, I have never seen a Bears team ever have a QB that could consistently pull off come from behind wins when the pressure was on. Never! Not even in the glory days of the '80s when Mac was running the show.

The way the Bears won was to score points and let their defense prevent the other guys from catching up or out scoring us. I guess now we'll all have to stop turning games off when we're getting killed at half time won't we?

All of the things Cutler was brought here to do he's done or is in the process of doing so for one lousy week can we just forget about what he might have muttered under his breath and who he muttered it about? Can we forget about who he sits next to on the bench? And unless he pulls out a sap and beat a guy over the head with it can we forget about who he chastises for not doing his job.

Cutler is doing what he's been paid to do. Win football games. And he's done a lot of that with far less than all of the help he's needed to get that job done. A very mediocre line, poor receivers, and his third OC and offense in the four years he's been here.

Time to get a grip on reality. The defense keeps us in games and has also been a big part of the reason we've won a few but without Cutler how many of those 23 regular season games would we have won with Kyle Orton at QB? That's just shy of a 68% winning percentage.

That's good enough to get us to a SB if we can just keep it up. If the Cubs ever had a pitching staff that could win that much even they might win a World Series. Well there's always next year right?

Originally Posted by soulman

Call this my thread to counter the "Cutler Watchers" if you will. THIS is what's important. Not what he feels about the media, the fans, or your Uncle Bob. THIS is what we should be concerned about.

Is the guy winning games? Can he bring a team from behind to win a game? Even after a bad half offensively is he still able to get his offense to regroup and regroup himself? Can he lead well enough to win games even when he and the offense are having a "bad day"?

Great post, and I agree. But, when I try to read Cutler's lips, I have that sneaky suspicion he was cursing my Uncle Bob under his breath.

This is a dupe of another thread, so I will combine.....

Originally Posted by BearStuff

This is a dupe of another thread, so I will combine.....

My bad brother. I missed shorty's post from last night.

Originally Posted by Riczaj01

This O needs to be more efficient. It needs to grind grind grind, then go for the big shot once it's opened up. Right now this O is trying to force the big play from the get go and it's forcing the team away from it's bread and butter, Forte/Bush. Run the ball and when the D finally starts putting 8-10 in the box, audible out to a pass to burn them. You'll see an huge improvement on this OL also. once the DL is sitting on it's heals, it will be harder to rush Cutler.

Yeah now if we can only convince Tice of this we'll be good. It's not even that one deep pass it's the combination of passing plays where he's trying to pick up 12-15 yards early one where we're getting beat up.

If Marshall isn't open he has no one to throw to and he gets sacked. Two things need to change. One is to start Bennett so he has at least two receivers who can open and whom he trusts and the other is to shorten those pass routes and get the ball out quicker.

If I can predict Tice's tendencies from my view of it then I'm sure the DC on the other team isn't either.

Okay, JABF99, you watch all the games numerous times, am i right in saying that some of the formations the bears went with no huddle were the only time they've used them in weeks? I really like the 3 wr sets, only if we have them as quick pass plays, and not so we get cute, and think we're gonna spread the field every time.