The Bears game last night was awesome.  Sure they were playing against an unraveling team with a 40-year old quarterback and some injuries to key defensive players, but it was still sweet.  Aromashodu was amazing and Cutler seems to have retained his confidence even through the toughest of stretches.  The other sweet thing about this game?  The usual December meltdown of Brett Favre in full swing.  Not only that, but in an extremely odd pre-game mic’d up segment, Favre revealed some combination of gay and “having fun out there” that was more unsettling than anything else.  Take a look:

My girlfriend, who doesn’t have that great a grasp of football and only watches occasionally, summed up the media’s strange love affair with the NFL’s all-time interception leader: “Why won’t those guys stop talking about Brett Favre? They think he should be the quarterback, the coach, and the owner, but he’s old!” Well put sweetheart.

Oh, and more to come about all the good things the Bears showed this week. Bear Down!

[Side note: Dave Toub for head coach?  Where do I sign?]

It’s a bit goofy, but this cartoon pretty much symbolizes how most of Chicago feels right now when they watch Jay.  The whole last part where he is just throwing pick after pick doesn’t really flow with the rest of the clip, but its funny all the same.  Enjoy!

h/t: WCG

I feel like this one is hit or miss.  With all the stupid crap out there about all the terrible Bears quarterbacks over the years, you have to be careful not to waste your time with the dumb ones.  I thought it was pretty funny though, it manages to mock Cutler instead of pretending like he is the savior.  Enjoy.

h/t: SI Extra Mustard

I’m not sure how I missed this last week, but it definitely made me laugh.  Or cry.  Whatever.

Oh and just in case you didn’t know, it’s actually 20 interceptions on the year after Sunday’s stinkbomb against  Minny.

h/t: Deadspin

I was just sitting around thinking, “Hey, what could make this Bears season even worse?”  With the poor play on both sides of the ball, an embattled stubborn coach being stabbed in the back by ownership, and a bleak future with the Bears having dealt their 1st and 2nd round picks for next season, there is really only one thing that the scenario is missing: Drama.  And who better than an injured Brian Urlacher to make it happen.  Apparently he feels that Cutler may be good, but he has created a new identity for the team and this new identity is what’s causing all the losing.  Here’s what Brian had to say:

“Look, I love Jay, and I understand he’s a great player who can take us a long way, and I still have faith in him,” Urlacher said. “But I hate the way our identity has changed. We used to establish the run and wear teams down and try not to make mistakes, and we’d rely on our defense to keep us in the game and make big plays to put us in position to win. Kyle Orton might not be the flashiest quarterback, but the guy is a winner, and that formula worked for us. I hate to say it, but that’s the truth.”

Wow.  I mean Urlacher is not playing right now, but you know he is around the team and that he is still a respected figure in that locker room.  The last thing Jay needs now is for Urlacher to be questioning his leadership and what he brings to the team.  Not to mention that Urlacher is COMPLETELY WRONG.  He’s not wrong that the identity has changed, he’s wrong that somehow Kyle Orton was the key to that identity.  The key to that identity was a run game that was remotely functional and a good defense.  We have neither of those.  How would Orton’s “game management” make a difference?  Sure he could “manage” the Bears to a 37-10 loss, but at least Cutler gives us a shot at getting back in games.

Hey Brian, SHUT UP.

This video might be painful for most of us, since it is from Cutler’s 5 pick game against the 49ers.  I don’t remember seeing all these clips during the live broadcast of the game, but Jay Cutler Superstar found this video on youtube so here it is for all of you.  Personally I am impressed with his leadership even in the face of one of his worst games ever.  Also it shows you an inside look at exactly how little time the offensive line is giving him.  Enjoy.

What exactly happened last night?  Besides Hester getting literally pantsed towards the end of the game, it was a complete disaster.  Yet somehow the Bears were “in it” until the end.  Later this week when I have time to think about this game more, I’ll have some better analysis, but here are a few quick observations:

• We weren’t playing from way behind the whole game, so why did we pass the ball 43 times and run 20?
• This must be some kind of anomaly, but Jay Cutler had 0 accuracy.  He was overthrowing, underthrowing, just not making passes that he generally can.
• The D-line got some pressure on McNabb.  They couldn’t plug the holes in the run game, but at least it felt like there was a pass rush.
• I know Robbie Gould missed that field goal, but him and Maynard are awesome.  I love those guys.
• Kahlil Bell (rb) and Tim Shaw (st)?  I don’t know who they are, but wow.  Loved Shaw’s hits on kick coverage.
• Charles Tillman may not be able to cover anyone, but boy can that guy strip the ball.

At 4-6, the Bears season is pretty much over.  Unless they go 6-0 (we’ll be lucky if they go 2-4, its a tough stretch with Minnesota twice!), the front office can probably start planning for next season.  Just getting Urlacher back from injury may be enough to shore up an aging, fading defense, but what about the offensive line?  Wide Receivers?  Secondary?  There are a lot of questions with seemingly very few answers.

h/t pic: Detroit4Lyfe

This season has been brutal on Bears fans, and the 41-21 drubbing the Bears got at the hands of the Cardinals in Week 9 was no small part of that.  Not only did Cutler throw 5 interceptions that week, but he looked all-around awful.  The news for Cutler got worse a few days after the game, as he was fined $20,000 for “verbal abuse” towards a game official.  Initially that seems okay considering we don’t know exactly what was said.  A 20k does seem a bit high for what was likely a “you have no idea what you’re doing out here” type of comment from Cutler, but still acceptable.  Acceptable until you hear this:

Meanwhile, Bears defensive tackle Tommie Harris was fined $7,500 for unnecessarily striking an opponent. He was ejected just 65 seconds into the game for slugging Cardinals offensive tackle Deuce Lutui.

So Tommie Harris punched a guy in the face, on camera, with most of the country watching, and got slapped with a $7,500 fine.  Cutler on the other hand, was fined $20,000 for “verbal abuse”?  Anything short of “I know where you live and I’m going to kill you and your whole family” does not deserve a larger fine than the one for punching someone in the face on purpose.  Right?  Am I taking crazy pills?  Does anyone else think this is odd?

Apparently the NFL would rather encourage people to utilize a more violent approach to conflict resolution, and are willing to make incentives to promote that behavior.  Hmmm, after reading that last sentence I just realized how naive I am.  It’s the NFL, of course they would rather encourage people to act like steroid-filled animals than try to talk things out like human beings.  My bad.  Next time Cutler should just jack the line judge in the face.  It would save him about $12,500 by my calculations.

The Bears stand at 4-5 and without a winning streak of some kind, they will likely be out of the playoffs.  Hell, Lovie and Jerry Angelo will probably be out of a job.  That being said, the media, fans, and pretty much everyone connected to the league in any way is down on the Bears.  As such, Lovie, Jerry and Jay have gotten pretty sick of answering questions about their terrible team.  So sick in fact, that they will no longer be answering those questions.  Not for NBC at least:

In a sign of how difficult things have become in the Bears’ world, the beleaguered team stunned a network giant Wednesday by rejecting NBC’s request for prime-time access to coach Lovie Smith, quarterback Jay Cutler and general manager Jerry Angelo.

Smith and any requested players, including Cutler, will be made available to NBC for standard pre-production meetings Friday with announcers Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth. Such sessions always are off-camera. But no Bears personnel will be on-camera for NBC’s pregame show.

I’m not sure what this is meant to accomplish.  As the article points out, an opportunity to talk to Costas is usually a chance to put your own spin on the story.  That being said, I’m sure the frustration of the last month or so is difficult to deal with and having to explain to the media over and over again what’s wrong can’t be good for anyone’s confidence.

Or maybe the Bears are just hoping that if they don’t talk about how bad things have been, those things will just go away.

Jay Cutler is bad.  Jay Cutler cannot live up to the expectations.  Jay Cutler is so arrogant he has never seen a pass he didn’t think he could make.  Am I missing anything?  Okay now that we have that covered, let’s get down to business.  The Kool-Aid is tasting a little sour the last few weeks, I’ll admit that.  But its still 10,000 times better than any QB-Kool-Aid I ever drank (besides Kurt Kittner in 01-02, but I digress).

Now there are 2 schools of thought when it comes to this Cutler situation.  The first is that Cutler is awesome, but he has no defense, offensive line, or wide receivers, so he is in an impossible situation.  The second is that, yeah, the rest of the team is bad, but that doesn’t excuse Cutler for being so terrible.  Both are correct to some degree.  Here is what I think is really going on though.

Jay Cutler came to Chicago with high expectations.  I mean he personally had high expectations for himself and this team.  He thought this was it.  He was one of the top quarterbacks in the league going from a sub-par team to a pretty good team.  He wanted to win bad.  Their was Super Bowl talk and contender talk and he, being the confident guy he is, thought he could make it happen.

Then the season started with that hiccup in Green Bay, but he bounced back from that.  Even though the Bears started winning, however, it became clear that the defense was rusty and aging and they would not be able to help carry the load.  So he started pressing.  And pressing.  And as the defense deteriorated into a worthless pile of shit, he began to revert to what he did in Denver, try to win games by himself.  While the offensive line does look like swiss cheese, it really doesn’t seem to affect Jay too much.  He is able to scramble and create time for himself (although the run game being shitty is a huge factor).  Thus we can’t blame them too much if that was what you were thinking.

So Jay’s bad performance, well that is on Jay, although I can understand why.  He DOES need to win games by himself on this joke of a team.  So while we should be pointing our fingers at him for being somewhat shitty and pressing, we should also do it while understanding that it’s not him giving away games we should win, but instead trying to salvage games that we most assuredly will lose.

H/T Picture: Sun-Times

I have one simple request.  Can everyone stop emailing, instant messaging, texting, and calling me to talk about or ask what I thought about last night’s Bears game please?  I don’t feel like talking about it.  You can all expect one or both of these 2 posts next week: Does Cutler Suck? And should the Bears fire Lovie?

Until then, here is a video from the telecast of the game last night.  It is the Micro Machines guy listing every Bears quarterback from McMahon to Cutler.  It’s a combination of sad and hilarious.  Enjoy!

h/t: Bear Goggles On

Due to some combination of my laziness and being busy, I decided to bring in a guest writer for the preview today.  Adam is a loyal reader of NQTC and is here to give his thoughts on the upcoming game.  Enjoy!

The Chicago Bears (4-3) start a very important and difficult four-game stretch as the Arizona Cardinals (4-3) come to Soldier Field this Sunday. The Bears are coming off of a sloppy 30-6 win over the lowly Cleveland Browns, while the Cardinals suffered a disappointing loss 34-21 at home to the Carolina Panthers. Kurt Warner turned the ball over 6 times, including 5 interceptions in one of the worst games of his career. How he bounces back this week will be a determining factor in the outcome of Sunday’s game. With 2 conference losses already and the Packers, also 4-3, playing Tampa Bay this week, this intra-conference match up becomes even more important. Arizona has played well on the road this year with a 3-0 record, but often struggle with the early start time in the central and eastern time zones.

The big question for the Bears is, which defense will show up? The one who gave up 45 points to the Bengals or the one who forced 5 turnovers and scored a touchdown last week against the Browns? My guess is that we’ll see the defense somewhere in between. The key for the Bears defense is getting pressure on Kurt Warner. As he proved last week, he’s prone to turn the ball over when he’s under pressure. The Bears must get pressure from their front four to disrupt the great timing Warner has with his receivers. Larry Fitzgerald hasn’t really gotten going yet this year but if Warner has time to throw, he may have a big game against the Bears weak secondary, making the front four that much more important.

For the Bears to win: The best defense against the Cardinals this week will be a good offense. Matt Forte and the offensive line must get going this week and force the Cardinals offense to stay on the sidelines. The Bears have been unable to get the running game going and that may be due to a lack of commitment. Ron Turner has them running the ball only 41% of the time this season and often times in straight run formations. The best way for the Bears to jump start the running game is for Turner to get creative and start running the ball in passing formations. The Bears love to run the ball out of the “I,” which often times is predictable. They need to mix it up by running in 3 and 4 wide receiver sets, as well as mixing in some draw plays and pitches to the outside. The Cardinals have been stingy against the run, so establishing it early in the game will be the key to the Bears success. The Bears also need to stretch the field in the passing game. Arizona has given up 8 pass plays of 30+ yards. The Bears should look to get Devin Hester and Johnny Knox on the outside, and look for something over the top of the defense. Jay Cutler, who needs more time to throw, must continue to make better decisions as he becomes more comfortable in the offense.

For the Cardinals to win: Kurt Warner must have a short memory and get back on track and in a better rhythm with his receivers. Negating the Bears pass rush with some quick routes and three step-drops will help get Warner back on track. The Bears always have a tough time covering premiere wide receivers, so Warner should be looking for Fitzgerald all day. The Cardinals run defense has been pretty solid all year. Turning the Bears into a one-dimensional passing team will shift momentum in the Cardinals favor. The Bears proved last week that they couldn’t protect Jay Cutler against the last-ranked Browns defense. Forcing the Bears to pass and putting pressure on Cutler will lead to a Cardinals victory.

Injuries: Each team has an injury to a key wide receiver. Devin Hester (ankle) practiced today and should be ready. His availability and mobility are crucial for the Bears if they want to stretch the field. Anquan Boldin (ankle) is a game-time decision for the Cardinals. While Boldin’s presence is important, third wide receiver Steve Breaston isn’t much of a drop-off. Boldin will probably try to gut it out. If he does, he’ll often be used as a decoy and has proven in the past to be much less of a factor.

Prediction: The Bears have yet to play a game to their full potential this year. Their defense isn’t what it once was and their offense has struggled, especially in the red zone, over the past few weeks. Besides the Steelers, the three Bears wins have come against teams with a combined record of 4-18. Arizona will prove to be a much tougher challenge. Arizona’s best this year has far exceeded what the Bears have shown. I think the Bears will start to get the running game going this week, but their inability to rush the passer and cover star wide receivers will prove to be the difference. I expect Larry Fitzgerald to have a huge game and for Tim Hightower to get going this week as well.

Arizona Cardinals 28 Chicago Bears 17

So due to a family tragedy, I was unable to watch the Bears completely meltdown yesterday.  And I mean meltdown.  I’m hoping most of you turned the game off at halftime with the Bears already down 31-3.  I can only look at the statistics and wonder what went wrong.  Here’s the things that jumped out at me and the questions they left behind:

Jay Cutler: 26/37; 256 yards; 1 TD; 3 INTs.  What happened here?  Thats a pretty good completion percentage and it looks like two of the picks were in the 2nd half when they were coming from behind.  Fumbles?  3 and outs?  What happened here?

Matt Forte: 6 carries; 24 yards.  My gut reaction is, of course, to blame the offensive line.  But what went on here with the playcalling?  They must have abandoned the run really early to have only 12 rushes against 37 passes.  And is this the story with Forte (the story being he sucks)?

Cedric Benson: 37 carries; 189 yards; 1 TD.  I don’t care how good Benson is now, the run defense is awful.  Can we just admit that even though Tommie Harris isn’t what he once was, he’s still the anchor of that run defense?  What the f#$% happened?

Carson Palmer: 20/24; 233 yards; 5 TDs; 0 INTs.  Chicago Bears Defense: 0 Sacks.  The pass rush was obviously non-existent, but where was the secondary?  Did they do the best they could and just couldn’t cover Ochocinco for 20 seconds per play?

Those are the questions that arise, though I’m sure there are many more.  Since I was unable to see the game, I am asking you, the readers, to please try to answer my questions and explain to me what the hell went wrong.  Please leave a 1-2 short paragraph comment on this story, and I will print all the good comments tomorrow as part of a Bears recap post.  Help me understand how this could have happened!

The Bears decided to sign Jay Cutler to a 2-year extension yesterday, which is really a win-win situation for Cutler and the Bears.  Jay had been signed through 2011 and this extension will keep him in a Bears uniform through 2013.  When the Bears first acquired Cutler, we were all thrilled to see that he would be here at least 3 years.  This extends that to 5 years.

The move works well for the Bears, since Cutler promises to be a premiere free agent when his contract expires and the going rate for QBs of his caliber in this league is exorbitant.  With Eli Manning and Philip Rivers signing enormous 6 year $100 million dollar deals, Cutler is looking at a huge payday whenever he is able to negotiate a new deal.  By signing Cutler for 2 additional years at a rate of about $15 million per season, the Bears are able to put off committing long-term to Cutler until 2013.

On Cutler’s side of the deal, he gets his market value per season, and retains the security that if he somehow gets injured or loses value, he will still collect a good amount of guaranteed money through 2013.  Also, he will only be 30 years old when the contract expires, allowing him the possibility to sign another decent sized contract when the time comes.

I love the deal for both sides.  Hopefully now with this kind of security, Cutler can move forward with even more confidence and lead us to a championship although at 3-2 with a tough late season schedule, it might not be so easy this season.

Okay before I start I want everyone to take a deep breath and count to 10.  Are you back?  Good.  Now we can try to be as rational about last night’s Bears loss as possible.  Here are some things we should take away from the game.

Jay Cutler:

So the sports media wants to blame Cutler.  That’s fair enough.  He did not have a great game.  Most Chicagoans’ gut reaction is not to blame him though.  I have not heard a single sports fan who hasn’t defended him.  Whether the media is being to harsh or the fans too forgiving (the kool-aid does taste pretty good), the bottom line is he had a bad game.  Is this turning into a good Rex/bad Rex situation?  Cutler has looked terrible in primetime, throwing 6 interceptions in the two Sunday night games.  The other 3 games he has looked nearly perfect.  Don’t stress, though.  Even in his bad games, he has looked poised and put together some decent drives to offset the bad decisions.  Cutler is a good quarterback that has bad days (nights) sometimes.  Rex was just a roller coaster.

Johnny Knox:

I can’t find the words to describe how great Knox looks.  Versatile? Lightning Quick? Good Route-Runner? Great Return Man?  He is developing into a great receiver for Cutler and as the develop a rapport together things will only get better and better.  I loved seeing him throw those blocks.

Offensive Line:

It looks like age is catching up to this veteran unit.  Even when the Bears have won, they have looked average at best and most of that can be attributed to Cutler’s ability to scramble for more time.  The pass protection was non-existent.  There was not a single play where the pocket wasn’t collapsing around Cutler from the moment he snapped the ball.  If there was one guy to put all the blame on it would be Omiyale.  Penalties, missed assignments, and poor footwork doomed the Bears guard in pass protection.  Pace may have made the big flashy mistake at the end of the game, but Omiyale was just awful all game.  Are we going to get a look at Beekman?  I don’t even want to talk about run blocking, since there’s really nothing to talk about.  They didn’t get any kind of push all night long.

Matt Forte:

Doesn’t it seem like he’s kind of running into the ground?  I mean literally.  Is this the offensive line’s fault that he can’t seem to get going?  Absolutely, but he just seems slower hitting the holes than last year.  Whatever his problem is he needs to fix it fast, because Garrett Wolfe is not the answer as an every-down back.  A quick positive note, he is looking very good at picking up the blitz and of course as always he has decent hands when they throw him the ball.

Defense:

Finally the defense looked good.  Although Pisa went out with injury again, Roach has been spectacular.  He is undersized, but you can barely tell the way he plays.  Rumors that the Bears are pursuing Derrick Johnson notwithstanding, the linebacking corps has picked up the slack from the Urlacher injury admirably.  Afalava has also been great, making big play afterbig play in the secondary.  One big problem this week: where was the pass rush?  Marinelli has been coaching that d-line up and doing a great job of it, but last night Matt Ryan had alllllll day.  Extremely frustrating for a defense that is predicated on disrupting the quarterback.