Response to the Falcons Game and Stop Beating Up Cutler!

So, are they that good?

A 300-yard game from Cutler, 150 yards of offense from Forte, 5 sacks, 3 turnovers forced, a defensive touchdown (!), and an 18-point victory over the Atlanta Falcons. Ending up on the winning side of 30-12, the Bears certainly opened many eyes and left us fans posing questions this past weekend.

The line surrendered frequently under pressure and allowed 3 sacks, but their performance greatly exceeded expectations.  The defensive line was phenomenal, sacking Matt Ryan 5 times and not surrendering a touchdown. Even the secondary did not get demolished by the talented Falcon wide receiving core.

Yet I can’t help feeling weary.  First off, the Falcons are not going to look that bad for the rest of the year. And secondly, there are much more imposing shadows looming over Halas Hall, in the form of the Saints and Packers.  We have seen those two offenses do some amazing things, against each other no less!

For this season, the Saints are the more beatable of the two teams, due to their weak offensive line, anchored by former Bear Olin Kruetz.  As for the Packers, sorry, I just can’t see the  Bears beating them. There are two ways to beat this Bears team. Attack the shaky secondary, and pressure Jay Cutler. Green Bay’s strengths? Passing the ball, and getting to the quarterback.  Not a great match up on our end.

Speaking of our perpetually abused QB, I’d like to get some facts straight.

Last year in the NFC Championship game Cutler left mid-game with what turned out to be a partially torn ACL. In the weeks that followed many ill-informed fans, players, and media wrongly dubbed Cutler a quitter and accused him of not being tough. We found out they were wrong about Cutler when we learned of the severity of his injury.

Even so, the Fox team of Darryl Johnson, Kenny Albert, and the consistently irritating Tony Siragusa went back to talk about it in the fourth quarter, even having a graphic prepared. The graphic featured allegedly clipped headlines such as "Cutler’s No Leader" and "Cutler Quit."  After showing the graphic, Daryl Johnson noted "these are all local newspaper headlines." After doing some research, I’ve found that not only were these never in any local or national headline, but the only line that even appeared in a newspaper column was "Cutler’s No Leader," referring to his time in Denver. 

Please football fans, lose the notion that Jay Cutler quit or is not tough. A man who was sacked 88 times in two seasons and only missed 1.5 games is not weak, and is not a quitter. Tack that on the list of stupid things poorly educated Bears fans say, and to issue a challenge the media; get a story thats relevant to the 2011 season.

As always, your feedback is welcomed either in the comments or at jakeandtimblog@gmail.com! Also, if you like your football talk in a slightly more freeform format you can hear Jake Buss on The Jake Buss and Jon Duca Podcast Show!