Imrem: Full Cutler on display: Good, bad and ugly
The entire Jay Cutler repertoire was on display Sunday afternoon,
The Good: 34 completions in 49 attempts for 349 yards and 2 touchdowns.
The Bad: 2 interceptions that that led to 10 precious Buffalo points.
The Ugly: The snarly disposition that is so unbecoming an NFL quarterback.
One question asked of Cutler was whether he was frustrated by his play.
“No,” he said curtly.
Cutler did proceed to mention something about, “We'll clean it up (today) with the coaches,” which he has had to say too often during six seasons with the Bears.
What needs to be cleaned up, again, are Cutler's two errant throws that led to the Bears' 23-20 overtime loss to the Bills.
It would be fair to wonder how many times Tom Brady has to sit down with Bill Belichick to figure out why he threw 2 interceptions. A good guess is that Brady already knew and also already knew how to clean them up.
Trestman was asked whether Cutler should be past making mistakes late in games.
“To be able to make those kinds of statements after being out in the heat, those are tough,” he said. “There are a lot of reasons why these plays come up. I think I'm going to leave it at that.”
Bears bosses still give Cutler the celebrity treatment — and still make excuses for him — even though he remains more a project than a $127 million quarterback.
“I thought Jay made some great decisions today,” Trestman said. “Other times he tried to make a couple things happen, and that's part of what makes him special.”
Stop it. Jay Cutler isn't special. He has a special arm and special legs, but nine years into his NFL career he's still trying to be special.
“You guys are going to be as negative as possible,” Cutler predicted, somehow sensing that after 2 interceptions and a loss.
By “you guys,” Cutler meant the media in the interview room. But “you guys” could have meant “you guys” who sat through the loss in Soldier Field, “you guys” who threw shoes through the TV at home, and “you guys” who choked on cold ones in sports bars.
“Nobody knows exactly what we're doing out there,” Cutler added, oblivious to how that might be interpreted. “You guys think you know, but you don't.”
Again with the “you guys.” Listen, the thing that “we guys” — and “you gals,” for that matter — know is that Cutler threw 2 interceptions that led to 10 Buffalo points and the Bears lost by 3 in overtime.
You don't have to be a sabermatrician, break down tape or live a football life to calculate the truth and consequence.
Even all of us dunderheads know what Trestman knew: “If you turn the ball over three times and are minus-2 in the turnover department, you have all the answers you need.”
For the record, the third turnover was Brandon Marshall's fumble that led to 3 more Buffalo points.
As usual, the Bills — a 6-10 team last season and not expected to be much better this season — were there to be had.
All the Bears had to do was be disciplined, limit mistakes and let the Bills beat themselves.
Instead, the Bears made just enough boo-boos to make fans want to boo and boo some more.
In the end this was a game that begged for a quarterback to lead a team — a team with playoff aspirations — to victory.
Jay Cutler led them in the other direction and had the audacity to be mad at the media and myriad Bears fans for questioning why those critical interceptions keep coming.
Call it full-metal Jay at his full-metal worst.
mimrem@dailyherald.com