Knowshon Moreno, Donovan McNabb, Mike Shanahan and David Garrard enter pivotal seasons where they will be scrutinized if they do not perform at a high level.
The Eagles seemingly came out of nowhere to sign Nnamdi Asomugha as they eye a trip to the Super Bowl.
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Livid after the Bears? lackluster showing in Sunday?s 36-10 loss to the Minnesota Vikings, Jay Cutler shoved away a microphone. The media wanted to hear what he sad to say about a couple of egregious interceptions he had thrown. He wasn?t in a chipper enough mood to chat.
I don?t blame him.
The team is 4-7, and the 26-year old from Santa Claus, Indiana is leading the NFL in interception throws, a morbidly impressive statistic in a league that also has Jake Delhomme. These Bears won?t make the playoffs unless they win their last five games, along with the current NFC Wild Card-holding Packers and Eagles each losing at least four of their last five games. (Both teams hold tiebreakers over the Bears.) In simpler language, the Bears are all but mathematically eliminated.
The combination of Cutler?s frequent errant throws and the team?s record looks damning to their quarterback. This was a team that came into the season with high hopes; many in the media picked them to make the playoffs, and some even said they?d win the division (my eyes are getting shiftier with each line).
Instead, they have no shot at a division that?s increasingly becoming the Vikings? to rule, and they are only two games up on the Lions, who went 0-16 last year in case anyone forgot. If the Bears lose their last four games (Minnesota, Baltimore, Green Bay, Detroit), which seems plausible at this point, the Lions would only have to scrounge up two more non-Bear wins to put Chicago in the NFC North?s cellar.
No team teetering on the edge of that much agony has the luxury of singling out one player, much less a player who?s spent less than a full season with the team.
Aside from his horrifying interception stat (20 through only 11 games), Cutler hasn?t been an issue for the Bears. His completion percentage, attempts per game and touchdowns are all on par with his Broncos career. The decline in his touchdown percentage over his career (4% of his passes have been for touchdowns this season, as opposed to 6.6% during his rookie year) can easily be attributed to the fact that he?s thrown more passes as his career has progressed. On this Bears team, especially, he?s had to do so.
Cutler?s 20 interceptions this season are a career high, compare to last season?s 18 interceptions in 16 games. He?s been forcing passes, looking for open receivers who aren?t there, and trying to make big plays that can keep the Bears in games. He?s been trying to win games by himself, an impossible feat in what?s so often termed the ultimate team sport, and it?s easy to see why he?s had to think that way.
The Bears have, in no particular order: no veteran backup quarterback, no power/fullback, no wide receiver who?s played with the team longer than Cutler has, no veteran wide receiver, and a patchwork offensive line. If you listen to Cutler?s detractors, who have been making a living out of sitting at home and sifting through every one of his flaws, this bumbling offensive scheme is apparently Cutler?s fault.
Vince Young?s recent emergence as Tennessee?s quarterback of the future (capped by 387 yards against the Cardinals on Sunday, including managing an incredible 99-yard drive to win the game) has a lot to do with having Kerry Collins as the backup. Collins, who was instrumental in the Titans? gaudy 13-3 record last season, has been able to help Young learn to be an effective NFL quarterback.
Tarvaris Jackson, who seemed to have vanished before garbage time against the Bears, has been watching Brett Favre closely while holding the clipboard. Favre?s been stringing together a sensational season with the Vikings, haunting his old team in Green Bay and inflicting another round of misery on the Bears.
Dennis Dixon, who had thrown exactly one NFL pass before starting in the Sunday night game, faced a bloodthirsty Ravens defense as bravely as he could have. Unsurprisingly, he was in constant communication with starter Ben Roethlisberger, who could be seen wearing a headset during the game and looking upbeat despite a concussion. After Dixon threw an overtime interception that led to the Ravens? game-winning field goal, Roethlisberger talked to him reassuringly and patted his helmet. Even opposing quarterback Joe Flacco looked cordial while shaking hands and having a short word with Dixon after the game.
Cutler is more experienced, and arguably more talented, than all of them. He doesn?t need to spend a season on the bench watching a savvy veteran like Collins or a Hall of Famer in waiting like Favre. He doesn?t need to sit behind a highly decorated starting quarterback who?s wearing a headset on the sidelines. It would be nice, though, if he so much as had someone to talk to instead of sulking after every broken play. He looks alienated and defeated after each loss, which summarizes the entire team nicely.
The Bears? rushing game is probably the biggest issue of all. Matt Forte has performed admirably, being the Bears leading rusher in both of his NFL seasons. He?s also been a good receiver out of the backfield, including an 8-catch, 120-yard receiving day against the 49ers a few weeks ago. He?s also only 218 pounds and relies more on speed than power, which has become evident as his yards per carry have slowed to an anemic 3.5 this season.
In the same way that fans outside of Chicago probably don?t know who the Bears? backup quarterback is, the same could be said about the team?s running back situation. No one on the Bears? roster is equipped to run up the middle, which removes arguably the most important dimension of an NFL offense. Without a bulkier halfback or a fullback who can run between the tackles, the Bears? rushing is entirely dependent upon Forte, a second-year player who looks more natural catching the ball than running inside or blocking for a Cutler pass.
Effective rushing can also mask quarterback problems or deficiencies. Delhomme, who?s looked every bit as bad as Cutler this season but without many of the good points, looks his best when DeAngelo Williams is shredding front sevens. Carson Palmer, who?s been looking good anyway, looked even better with new acquisition Larry Johnson churning 100 yards in his Bengals debut. The aforementioned Roethlisberger was able to not be the focus of the Steelers? offense his first couple years in the league because the team had Jerome Bettis.
The Bears have had exactly one 100-yard rusher this season, in a game against the Lions, no less. Forte?s other biggest game on the ground, a 26-carry, 90-yard performance, came against the even sadder Cleveland Browns. Not once have the Bears had anything resembling professional-caliber rushing against a team that has won more than two games. It?s no problem with Forte, so much as that Forte?s limitations come in the areas in which the Bears? offense is weakest.
With Forte getting under ten carries in three of the team?s past six games, and over fifteen carries in only four games all season, it?s not surprising that Cutler is effectively forced to pass on almost every down. When his receiving corps consists of a converted kick returner, a rookie and a second-year player who had to sit out his rookie season, it can?t end well. There?s no star receiver, no wideout with great hands, no expert route-runner, and not even a veteran in the locker room who can help any of the Bears? current receivers turn into one of the above.
Cutler?s job is to complete passes to receivers who aren?t accustomed to NFL secondary packages, and who are often in coverage so tight that it?s almost impossible to find them. If anything, Cutler should be lauded for throwing only 20 interceptions so far this season, ludicrous as that sounds.
His only alternative seems to be to get sacked. Cutler has already been sacked 24 times this season, more than in any other season. He has lost 148 yards on sacks this season, again a career high. A disappointing offensive line has provided so little pass blocking that Cutler has to frantically launch the ball on every down for fear of having his helmet connect with the grass. Again, the lack of a functioning fullback who can run up the middle and block for the passer also takes its toll. In this age of worsening concussions, the Bears have to address their lack of pass blocking before Cutler risks going the way of Rob Johnson and David Carr.
Not only has the Bears? offense been horrible, it?s been predictable. Defenses know that on any given down, Cutler will probably be passing, with an off-chance of Forte running sideways. NFL defensive coordinators have a plethora of zone defenses, nickel packages, and all kinds of weapons they can use against the pass. They can also bring a consistent pass rush comfortably against the Bears even on traditional rushing downs, knowing that Forte?s small enough to be tackled by a safety if necessary.
The Bears? defense has helped even less. The team allowed 36 points against the Vikings, 41 against the Cardinals earlier this season, and 45 against the Bengals before that. Good competition destroys these Bears. It?s the same issue Cutler had last season in Denver, when the Broncos allowed over 30 points per game during their last three games to miss the playoffs. Expecting the offense to put up 40 points per game just to win is completely unrealistic. If the Bears were to have won their toughest games this season, 40 points per game wouldn?t have been enough in two of them.
The early season injury to star middle linebacker Brian Urlacher was an early bad omen, despite the team leaping to a 3-1 start. Hunter Hillenmeyer has only 50 tackles in 9 games filling in for Urlacher, averaging three tackles for every four Urlacher?s accrued over each of the 2005, 2006 and 2007 seasons. (2008 was admittedly a down year.) The Bears also lost safety Mike Brown to the Chiefs in free agency this past summer, opening a wound in the secondary that the team hasn?t closed. Losing a key player in the middle of the defense is often fatal, as the Panthers learned earlier this season without Chris Harris and as the Eagles have learned with their once-fearsome secondary missing Brian Dawkins.
Dawkins, of course, is now in Denver with Kyle Orton, the Broncos? return for Cutler this past summer. That Orton?s Broncos are 7-4 and Cutler?s Bears are 4-7 isn?t a matter of some fictitious competition between quarterbacks. The Broncos have quality receivers in Brandon Marshall and Brandon Stokley, both of whom were there last season with Cutler, when Cutler wasn?t throwing more interceptions than touchdowns. Just as they helped make Cutler look better than he does now, they?re helping make Orton look better than ever.
Denver?s defense is extremely far ahead of where it was when Cutler was there, with Dawkins pushing his teammates and the team finally hitting hard. The Bengals team that scored 45 points against the Bears scored only seven against the Broncos. Even the Bears can score more than seven points.
All of these issues are connected. Non-existent rushing forces Cutler to the pass, poor pass blocking and receiving lead to sacks and interceptions, and then the resulting field position means that opposing offenses get great chances to score. The Bears allow points, they don?t score nearly enough of their own, and it?s another Bears loss. This has happened six times in the past seven games. Sometimes, the opponent is so suspect offensively (like the 49ers) that the game is still relatively close. Others, as with the Vikings game, it becomes a blowout.
When the Bears traded Orton and draft picks for Cutler, they thought they?d snagged their quarterback of the future. They very well may have. What they need to do now is make something out of Cutler?s present. He isn?t, and will never be, a savior. No one player in the NFL can be. The hallowed quarterbacks of earlier days and the current greats have all operated within team systems.
To succeed in a Bears uniform, which is certainly possible, Cutler needs to be able to play within a team system, with a real rushing attack, capable receivers, blocking, and a defense that won?t spend two-thirds of the game on the field, as it did against Minnesota. (Not that the defense had much choice in the matter, considering the Bears? inability to do a thing about a suffocating Vikings defense on other side of the ball.)
The Bears traded for a young, improving quarterback with a rocket launcher for an arm and an eye for accuracy. Cutler held up his end of the pact. Now it?s up to the Bears to not put everything on Cutler. They need to assemble a team.
Matthew Gordon can be reached at matthewpmgordon@gmail.com
P.S. The Eagles? 7-4 record is more attributable to their offense this season, a marked departure from their traditional defensive style.
P.P.S. Santa Claus, Indiana is such a cheerful-sounding town.
