Rozner: If Bears lose, season gets ugly for Cutler, Trestman, Emery
It's pretty obvious that this is a must-win situation for the Bears.
They can't lose in New England, fall to 3-5 and expect to make a run in the second half big enough to land a playoff spot.
But it might not be overstating it to suggest that this is also a potential turning point - or tipping point - for Jay Cutler.
The Bears' season is teetering, and the Marc Trestman experiment is starting to look like a mistake. It was also Trestman who went to bat for Cutler, promising GM Phil Emery that Cutler was the right guy at the right time and worth a seven-year extension for $127 million - $54 million of it guaranteed.
Through seven games, the deal looks like a waste of money and Trestman looks like he backed the wrong horse.
On the surface, it's a chicken-or-the-egg argument. Does Trestman look like a bad coach today because Cutler looks like a bad quarterback, or is Cutler a bad quarterback because Trestman can't coach?
Maybe, just maybe, they are both bad at what they do, though Cutler has been bad under too many coaches and coordinators to count them all.
Either way, it looks dreadful at the moment, and there is a lot on the line Sunday in Foxboro.
Let's assume that it doesn't go well. If the Bears lose they will fall to 3-5 and be staring at a bye week and then the 5-2 Packers in Green Bay, with two games looming against 5-2 Detroit and a date at home with 6-1 Dallas.
If they lose to the Pats, the second half of the season will be a long and painful examination of all things Bears, from the quarterback position to the coach's future to the GM's ability to draft and evaluate talent.
It will, most assuredly, get ugly.
Trestman will immediately be on the clock and there will be much conversation about what happens if the Bears don't improve and make the playoffs in 2015.
That's where we are, already wondering about how any of this gets better next year.
So, yes, this is a huge game.
"Our goal is to prove we can bounce back once again, win a football game, get to .500 and move forward on our goals," Emery told the team's website a few days ago. "Our team and our coaches have repetitively shown us that they have the physical and mental toughness to bounce back from adversity to win football games.
"We've been in a hostile environment and bounced back after coming off a defeat this season. I have complete confidence in our team's ability to do that this week against the Patriots."
If the Bears lose, Emery will not escape scrutiny as the Bears' depth is examined, and the ability of the coaching staff to develop and motivate will be seriously in doubt.
Cutler's future both in Chicago and in the NFL will be up for debate - again - and the very future of the team will be the stuff of grand speculation.
All this will happen quickly because we live in a lightning-fast world where the race to decide tomorrow and the jumping to conclusions is a simple fact of life.
It could be a tipping point. Or, it could be a turning point.
Cutler has the chance to save the season and postpone apocalyptic predictions.
He can be the guy who was deserving of all that money and his coach's confidence.
He can go out and make plays and win a football game by being a great quarterback and true leader of men who rallies his team and carries it on his back.
When things are at their worst, this is what Tom Brady does. This is what Peyton Manning does. This is what Aaron Rodgers does. This is what Andrew Luck is becoming.
This is what Jay Cutler has never done consistently.
But this is an opportunity for him to be the guy worth all that money and the man the Bears thought he would be when they handed him that giant contract.
It's what great players do when things are at a breaking point.
And in a season that began with such great expectations, the Bears are there.
brozner@dailyherald.com
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