With no go-to guy, Cutler sharing his passes

The Bears do not have a player among the top 50 in the NFL in catches, receiving yards or even third-down receptions.

That's not necessarily a bad thing, however.

Their designated No. 1 wide receiver, Devin Hester, has 14 catches for 189 yards, rookie Johnny Knox, the team's No. 3 wideout, has 14 catches for 190 yards, and Earl Bennett, their No. 2, is the team leader with 15 receptions and 200 yards.

And let's not forget that running back Matt Forte has 13 grabs for 92 yards, and tight end Greg Olsen has 10 receptions for 94 yards.

Knox, Hester, Olsen and No. 3 tight end Kellen Davis all have 2 touchdown catches.

Call it a passing game by committee.

Not having an undisputed go-to guy hasn't kept quarterback Jay Cutler from posting a solid 89.3 passer rating, including three straight games with his passer rating going above 100. And the Bears are a respectable 19th in passing yards and 16th in average gain per pass play, up from last year's No. 21 and No. 25 rankings, respectively.

Most important, though, the Bears are also No. 7 in scoring, a considerable jump from last year's tie for 14th.

"We've got a lot of different guys that are contributing and making plays for us, and they can (all) catch some touchdowns," Cutler said. "That's good. We just have to keep doing that and keep everyone involved and not lock in on any one person out there. Even if you have a go-to guy, you still have to be smart about it."

While the Atlanta Falcons have given up an average of 228.8 yards passing per game (22nd in NFL), they've only surrendered 3 touchdowns by passing and have been stingy in the red zone. They've also registered just 8 sacks on the season (tied for 25th overall), so Cutler should have time to throw Sunday.

Not having a dominant receiver is nothing new for the Bears. They haven't had anyone with more than 71 catches or 951 yards in a season since 2002, when Marty Booker caught 97 passes for 1,189 yards.

"That's been this offense since I've been here," said tight end Desmond Clark, who arrived in 2003. "This year is the same type deal. We don't have a superstar that we want to go to 40 or 50 percent of the time. There's no Randy Moss ratios around here. It forces the defense to cover the whole offense and cover everybody. I don't know if that's going to give us an advantage or not, but it's working pretty good now."

With just 3 catches for 31 yards and having missed two games with a fractured rib, Clark has yet to become fully involved in the offense, and neither has Olsen, the No. 1 tight end. But Clark believes Olsen will eventually have a greater impact.

"You heard the last couple weeks people getting down on Greg, that he isn't making the impact people thought he was going to make," Clark said. "It's not that. It's that other people are making an impact also. There's only one ball to go around.

"Somebody is hot for a couple weeks and then they try to take him away, and it switches to somebody else. (Olsen) is going to have his three or four or five games where he's going to heat up, and he's going to get those catches and get those stats that everybody thought he would get. It's just that right now the wide receivers are making some outstanding plays. Because they're making plays, we don't have to look to Greg to make those plays."

Olsen has had just 1 catch in two of the Bears' four games, but Cutler foresees a lot more of the 5-catch, 44-yard, 1-TD effort that the tight end had against the Seattle Seahawks.

"A lot of teams are going to try to take him away from us, which is fine, but that's why it's opened up stuff for everyone else," Cutler said. "There's going to be a time and a place where Greg's going to start catching balls and really starts getting involved, and there will be a couple-week span where he doesn't, where he gets two or three balls. He understands that. This offense understands that. We're not going to make a big issue out of how many balls anyone catches or how many yards we run for or pass for.

"You have to be balanced, and that's our goal, to be a balanced offense."