Busting loose, Cutler's running makes Seahawks sick
Jordan Babineaux just rolled his eyes and uttered a barely audible curse word.
The thought of Bears quarterback Jay Cutler breaking free and running wild on Soldier Field's turf during Sunday's NFC divisional playoff game disgusted Seattle's veteran safety.
“That can't happen,” Babineaux said. “You play solid coverage for a nice little time frame, and you turn around and look and the (darn) quarterback is taking off for 15-20 yards. That's ego-crushing right there. It hurts.”
Jay Cutler can throw.
Jay Cutler can ... run?
“We know that he can run well,” Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll said. “He has pretty good speed.”
Cutler sped for 43 yards on 8 rushes — Seattle rushed for 34 yards on 12 carries — during the Bears' 35-24 win.
With the Bears leading 14-0 early in the second quarter, Cutler took a snap out of the shotgun on third-and-5 from the Seattle 6 and sprinted into the end zone. Mind you, the Bears rarely run QB draws.
Then again, they normally don't run “Wildcat,” either, and they threw that Cutler-less formation at the Seahawks three times.
“The quarterback draw was a nice call by them,” Carroll said.
The Bears' fourth TD also came on a Cutler run. Late in the third, on third-and-6 from the Seattle 9, he rolled right and won a race to the end zone.
Cutler had 1 rushing touchdown during the regular season.
“Jay's a very athletic quarterback, so we had to account for him,” linebacker Will Herring said. “He really hurt us with his feet.”
In the fourth quarter, Cutler scrambled and busted off a 21-yard gain, much to Babineaux's chagrin.
“He's a good quarterback,” said defensive end Chris Clemons, who had 1 of the Seahawks' 3 sacks on Cutler, who passed for 274 yards and 2 TDs. “I think he got his confidence up real early in the game after he made those two big throws (58-yard TD pass to Greg Olsen and 18 yards to Johnny Knox). Once he saw that he could run, he ran a few times, and he actually caught us in certain defenses that we weren't expecting him to run.”
“He took what the defense gave him,” safety Earl Thomas said. “When he scrambled, he made plays. That's a credit to him.”
In the first quarter, Babineaux dropped a would-be interception by the goal line. Four plays later, Bears running back Chester Taylor scored from the 1 to put the Bears up two touchdowns.
“He threw it right to me,” Babineaux said of Cutler. “I think it's a different ballgame if I make that play.”
It darn might have been.