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Bears Mon Aug 31 2009
A Cutler Above
Something tells me they're still booing in Denver, but now it's directed at someone other than Jay Cutler. When the prodigal quarterback returns to the home of his former team, wearing a Bears uniform no less, Broncos fans let him know loud and long that they didn't cotton to his various transgressions, from having the audacity to let himself be traded to dissing them on a Chicago radio station.
Somewhere around the third quarter, they were still booing but probably at a different target: Denver ownership and coaching for letting Cutler get away.
Let that be a lesson to Bears opponents of the future: don't get Cutler mad. True this was only a preseason game, but "The Franchise", as NBC's Chris Collinsworth has now dubbed him, ran the offense as if it were Week 10 of the regular season. The final numbers: 15 of 21 passing for 144 yards and one TD leading the Bears to a 27-17 win.
If it wasn't the fans who got Cutler all riled up, it was his former teammates with whom he had a, let's say, healthy running dialogue with for most of the time he was out there. It was, Cutler explained afterwards, a motivating experience.
"It meant something to me," Cutler explained. "It meant something to this entire offense. It's the third preseason game, one of the biggest of all preseason, so we wanted to come out here and set a tempo and set a tone and we did a good job."
He outshone his counterpart, formerly hursuit throated Bears quarterback and Denver savior Kyle Orton. Orton completed passes to sevenr different receivers and hooked up with best bud Greg Olsen three times for 47 yards.
So should be take this as a sign that finally the Bears have the real deal at QB. There are those who caution us against going crazy after a mere preseason game, and still others who send a big "meh" in Cutler's direction and cite past history that they claim that he's a mediocre passer when all is staid and done.
Whatever the assessment, the determination Cutler showed last night might mean a new look for the NFC North. After the final preseason game with Cleveland at Soldier Field, it'll be Green Bay's turn to try to rattle him with boos. Good luck with that.
