Bears Hangover

If you have absolutely no interest in Bears football, you'll probably just want to skip this post.

So in the matter of about 4 hours Jay Cutler went from Bears savior to pariah. It will be interesting to see what kind of a reception he gets next week during his first home game. My prediction is that he'll get cheered but god help him if he doesn't get off to a good start or throws an early pick. As bad as his performance was (and it was pretty bad), I'd urge my fellow Bears fans not to overreact. It's still just one game. Not that I'm comparing the two, but Favre once threw 6 INTs in a playoff game, and also threw 5 in a regular season game. The point being that even the great QBs can look absolutely terrible on occasion. It's actually a good thing that the 4 INTs were a career high; it would be much worse if he'd already done that 3-4 times. Still, the wrap on Cutler was that he can't win a big game and folds in pressure situations and this certainly didn't do him any favors in that regard.

If you break down the 4 picks, one was an absolutely atrocious throw (the first one), one was actually a sensational defensive play (the 2nd one), and the other two (while still absolutely Cutler's fault) had as much to do with the receiver and the QB not being on the same page as the throw itself. For the 3rd pick, Cutler is scrambling and he sees Knox cutting across the middle but then almost simultaneously as Cutler releases the ball Knox abruptly cuts back. As a receiver, that's what you're supposed to do. When you see your QB out of the pocket, you run to that side of the field so that he doesn't have to throw across the field away from his momentum. But Knox worked mainly with the 2nd and 3rd team during preseason, so Cutler and him likely don't have a good rapport yet but that should change (and hopefully soon). Finally, on the last pick (although again an ill-advised throw) Knox really needs to help his QB out and doesn't. It's a quick out route towards the sidelines and Cutler throws it to where both his receiver and the corner are (which is why it was ill-advised; there was no separation). Both the receiver and defender turn and see the ball coming, but rather than come to the ball Knox inexplicably decides to move backwards and gives Al Harris an easy pick. If he makes a move towards the ball, 8 times out of ten they both fight for it and it drops incomplete.

As for positives from the game, the defense (apart from one Nathan Vasher slip) actually played spectacularly. Although you rarely say that about a game where the D gives up 21 points, considering the 4 turnovers (which doesn't even include the idiotic "fake" punt) it really was. Of course, as I sit here and write this it looks like Urlacher is now done for the season and 2 other defenders went down with injuries, so it could be that this is the best effort we'll get from the Bears D the whole year. If so, it's a shame to waste it.

In the end, this doesn't change my season win prediction. In reviewing the schedule, I already had this game marked down as an L when I came up with the 11-5 mark. That still doesn't stop me from being disappointed about yesterday (and force me to repeat my mantra: it's not THAT they lose, it's HOW they lose). I also have them losing this week at home to the Steelers, before winning 7 of their next 8. This is how I see the rest of the season:

Pitt L
@ Seattle W
Detroit W
@ Atlanta L
@ Cinncy W
Cleveland W
Arizona W
@ San Fran W
Philadelphia W
@ Minnesota L
St. Louis W
Green Bay W
@ Baltimore L
Minnesota W
@ Detroit W

That's 7-1 at home this year, and 4-4 on the road. I still think that's doable. Assuming, of course, that we are spared any more Rex Grossman impersonations from Mr. Cutler.