Baffoe: Jay Cutler Won A Football Game
By Tim Baffoe--
(CBS) The kicker didn't win the game. The quarterback did.
Say it. Out loud. Repeat it.
The Chicago Bears won their first game of the 2015 because of Jay Cutler.
The Bears are by no means a good football team right now, both for lack of talent and health. But what was on display Sunday against the Oakland Raiders, by no means a good football team yet getting better, was night and day from a week ago against the Seattle Seahawks in which every single Jimmy Clausen-piloted possession resulted in a punt. All of them.
With Cutler instead, the Bears are a competent football team, albeit one that will still compete for the league's worst record. Check that — competent on offense, saving some gas for the defense that could be way worse without Vic Fangio, while best attempting to overcompensate for special teams play that each week gets to hide its terrible self in the shadows of the larger phases of football.
Hate Cutler if you must. It's not hard to do. Nationally, his is the easiest narrative to fall back on and pretend one knows what the hell is going on -- particularly after Cutler throws an interception, any interception, even with the lead when his quarterback rating is over 100 at the time, even if it was really his only bad move in 60 minutes of football.
What's much harder to do is give Cutler credit when it's due, such as it is for starting only two not-post-turnover drives past the Bears own 20-yard line and his two-minute drill that both showed resiliency from that mistake and negated his coaches' unnecessary conservatism (again, but instead of not going for it on fourth-and-1 in Seattle it was kicking an extra point when two points was needed).
Or you could just credit Robbie Gould, who had an extra point blocked Sunday.
It was a very Cutlery game Sunday: two touchdowns thrown and a late pick -- rinse, repeat. That's how almost every description of the game has gone on local and national shows -- "Jay Cutler had two touchdowns but also a costly interception..."
It's like when you got an A on your report card but your parents harped on the teacher noting your effort or behavior could stand to improve.
Consider the alternative behind center, though. This is the glass half full (of vinegar) approach that Bears fans have to accept for this season. You watched and you enjoyed yourself, which a week ago you weren't all that sure was possible going forward with this team. This is the very least Cutler can provide for you.
He was playing hurt, too, by the way, and his severely compromised mobility was a facet of his game he had to make up for. That deflates a bit of the misassumption that Cutler isn't tough, but a one-legged Jay gets you miles farther than Jimmy's two legs on a jet-powered hoverboard.
Cutler also has a porous offensive line. Nobody outside of Chicago can name two of his wide receivers. Sans Cutler, that game is a 27-3 win for Oakland with a Chicago defense that's gassed and probably more injured from the extra time spent out there. Not to mention that Cutler lost his center, Will Montgomery, to a broken fibula in the first quarter, and quarterback doesn't just, like, instantly jell with a new one.
Gould made three field goals, though, and that's more comfortable to lean on in discussing the Bears victory. Because Cutler can't be necessary. He has to be not a winner, as he's been declared over and over. It's too painful to accept that without him, this is a car with all its tires blown out. With him, it's a really ugly car (the Bears open as 10-point underdogs against the Chiefs next week). The win wasn't pretty, but how do the aesthetics of a team getting its first victory in Week 4 of the season matter?
The rickety car Cutler's driving runs at least, and it gets you somewhere for now. Haters of a team nobody expected to be anything special anyway be damned. Take it from Martellus Bennett, who when asked if Cutler gets enough credit in a win like this responded in a way only Bennett could.
"They threw stones at Jesus, and Jesus was an excellent guy who did a lot of awesome stuff – and they still threw rocks at him," Bennett said. "How do you think they do us? I'm not perfect. Jesus was, and he got stoned. They throw rocks at us, too."
Meanwhile, Cutler moved the Bears efficiently on the final drive to set up the game-winning field that gets the love. I shudder to think what would have happened had there been a touchdown pass on that final drive.
Still, people paying attention knew that as the ball sailed through the uprights with two seconds left, the quarterback won that game anyway. Even if they didn't want to say it out loud.
Tim Baffoe is a columnist for CBSChicago.com. Follow Tim on Twitter @TimBaffoe. The views expressed on this page are those of the author, not CBS Local Chicago or our affiliated television and radio stations.
