Does This Look Like The Face Of Unforced Error?
Excuse the baseball terminology. Curb your enthusiasm, Jay Cutler. First, you were crucified for your perceived cry-baby role in the well-documented, messy breakup from the Denver Broncos; well, mainly just from Josh McDaniels and his immediate blundering of the franchise. Now, via chat, you’ve been assumed to evoke memories of Bad Rex Grossman. Isn’t it illegal to be mean to diabetics?
During an ESPN Sports Nation chat session on Thursday, ESPN Insider, a.k.a. “The Football Scientist”, KC Joyner, told an unsuspecting Alex from Chicago:
“Cutler will make Bears fans remember Rex Grossman. He’ll make just as many crazy passes but won’t suffer the Grossman fate because Chicago’s fan base is so in love with him that they will forgive the nutty throws he makes in ways that they never forgave Grossman.”
Of course, the comments garnered a bunch of attention and even nifty retort like this from the Sun Times’ Brad Biggs.
Say even if Cutler does make as many I-want-to-rip-my-face-off game-changing flubs as Grossman did, he’s proven himself enough–conversely, on teams with horrible defenses–for us fans to trust he will rebound.
The problem with Rex was that he never maintained any level of play long enough for us to ever know what the fuck was coming next. Part of our contempt for his performance was actually masked frustration, anger, and depression; frustration that the glimpses of greatness were too short and far in between, anger that the glimpses of greatness were too short and far in between, and depression that he wasn’t the second coming-of-Christ we expected him to be.
But, the truth is, none of this matters. It’s all speculatory. Wait until we see what Cutler does through five, six games before a) reserving those Super Bowl tickets, b) jumping off the ledge of your apartment building, or c) –let the Sam Bradford talk begin. Too soon?
The Bears needed a little bit more than a quarterback. Crucify me for saying this if you want, but Kyle Orton is one of the better quarterbacks I’ve seen. The problem was not his decisions, or bad throws, it was the .25 seconds he had to make a decision before dumping the ball off to the nearest target.
I’m sorry, but you can put Joe Montana in his prime behind Kreutz, once he hikes the ball, if he has only .25 seconds I doubt he would have made that “miracle play”.
I think the focus should have been put more on the “O” line to protect these young athletes. Give them another second or two to make a healthy decision. For one, it would have made them realize that they can throw the ball. Two, it would of made some of our better wide recievers make bigger plays and send them to the Pro Bowl.
Getting Cutler is great. But I doubt he lasts too long with .25 seconds of coverage when he’s used to Denver’s “O” line that year by year is usually better than average.
Or I’m just insane.
I’ll give you that. Orton was sacked 27 times to Cutler’s 11 in 2008*, but that’s why we added Pace, Omiyale, and Shaffer during the offseason.
*Stat is more reflective of unique sexual conquests during football season than number of times tackled by defensive player while in possession of football.**
**Okay, not true. Probably.