CHICAGO (CBS) — Bears quarterback Jay Cutler said Thursday that the team’s offense last year was so poor that he doesn’t know how they won games, and the offense absolutely must carry its weight this year.

“If I was the defense, I’d be so mad at the offense,” Cutler said on the Mully & Hanley Show. “I mean, I wouldn’t be able to even look at us. Looking at the film it was embarrassing, I was watching it with Mike (Martz), and I don’t even know how we won games.”

LISTEN: Jay Cutler on the Mully & Hanley Show

Even after the offense improved over the course of the season, Cutler says the disappointment of how it ended still stings.

“We got a lot done. Defensively, we carried all year, and looking back at the film offensively, those first four or five games , it’s hard to watch at this point,” he said. “But we got better and better, and this year we’re farther along in the offense, but we didn’t get the job done last year. We were one step away from getting to the Super Bowl. So this year, we have more to prove.”

As for this season’s offense, Cutler says it has “a lot of potential.”

Cutler also talked the attention and criticism he received from the tabloid media after having to leave the NFC Championship Game in January due to an injury.

“You learn stuff about yourself; other people. It was interesting, with Twitter and with the newspaper the landscape of that these days. everyone’s looking for a story, and as soon as it happens, it’s out there immediately and you can’t take it back,” he said. “You know, you just have to roll with it.”