Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2011
3:06 p.m.
By John Mullin
CSNChicago.com
Jay Cutler doesnt like pressure. He doesnt like it in his face when hes wearing a helmet and he doesnt particularly care for it when its in the form of questioning him.
So when the issue was raised Wednesday about what the Bears might see a need to change in the wake of the Green Bay experience, Cutler cut the question short.
Were not fixing anything, he said abruptly. Were going to run our offense exactly how weve been running it. We took a look at the film and learned from it, corrected the mistakes we had to correct.
But were not changing anything. Were not going to let off what were doing. I think the guys have a very good belief in what were doing and know why we do it.
Well, OK, then.
NFL
Not making radical changes is without question the sensible approach, even for an offense that ranks 30th in yardage (28th in passing yards) and 21st in scoring. The Bears have struggled through portions of this season just mastering their Mike Martz offense and to start introducing gimmicks is far more likely to do damage than good.
There are some things we look at that I think wed like to try to do, Martz said, then qualified that, maybe. Were very well aware of any shortcomings that we have and well try to address them for this playoff.
Besides, said receiver Earl Bennett, we know what we can do, what type of team we are, and weve just got to go execute it, and feel like were able to do that.
What didnt work
The Chicago offense has defied typecasting in 2010, which makes any obstinance or defiance on the part of Cutler, Martz or others marginally understandable.
The simplest reason lies in the fact that as the season went on, in a business where trends are significantly more important than averages, the Bears got better offensively.
Cutler had 100-plus passer ratings in the first two games of 2010. Then he went missing in the stretch when the Bears were losing three of four, with the only victory coming in the game he sat out with a concussion.
But he posted 100-plus ratings in four of the final six games, melting down in the Green Bay and New England games.
His teams remain undefeated (21-0) in games when he reaches the 100-rating mark.
What has not worked for the Bears is when Martz and the offense has asked Cutler to carry the offense. He simply cannot. He is not Montana, Elway, Favre, Manning, Brady, and given that he is in his fifth NFL season, he likely never will be.
The flop in Green Bay that saw the Bears score 3 points and Cutler throw at a 43.5-rating rate revealed some of the limits the Bears need to avoid. Indeed, that result confirmed that the Bears in fact do not need to change what theyre doing, as long as its what they were doing since the off week and not what they did Sunday afternoon.
The last 12 plays were probably passes, I think, all passes, Martz said. Other than that, I think we had 23 called runs and 24 called passes or somewherethere were a couple of plays in between therebut we were trying to get something going in the passing game on first down a little bit more than maybe what we have in the past.
We didnt make any of those plays, and weve got to make them, obviously. We had eight opportunities in the passing game to make really big plays, and we didnt make one of them, which is not like us. Im very disappointed in that. And of course if you dont make the play on first down, you give them second and 10 and so forth and so on. So that was unlike us, both in terms of the numbers and performance, I think, in the passing game, really.
So, change things? Not likely.
John "Moon" Mullin is CSNChicago.com's Bears Insider, and appears regularly on Bears Postgame Live and Chicago Tribune Live. Follow Moon on Twitter for up-to-the-minute Bears information.