LeGere: Must win for Cutler and the Bears

Jay Cutler faces another supreme test Sunday night at Green Bay's Lambeau Field.

As the Bears' quarterback and highest paid player, Cutler has the most responsibility for helping his team salvage a season that began with high hopes but is on the precipice of failure. Too often in the past, at least in the eyes of his many critics, he has come up short when it mattered most.

In his six seasons with the Bears, Cutler has been a lightning rod for criticism, never more so than this year. Despite having statistically the best season of his career, Cutler has committed 12 of the Bears' 15 turnovers. Eleven of those have occurred in the Bears' 5 losses. In the 3 victories, Cutler has given it away just once.

Chances are it will require a similarly clean performance from the league's 11th-rated quarterback in order for the Bears to upset the 7½-point favorite Packers and Aaron Rodgers, the league's top-rated quarterback.

Even Cutler acknowledges his burden as the offensive leader of a 3-5 team that would be all but eliminated from the playoff race with another loss.

"Quite a bit, quite a bit," Cutler said when asked how much pressure he felt this week. "I think all quarterbacks throughout the league put a lot of pressure on themselves, look at themselves as leaders of the team and energize guys throughout the week and get everyone Sunday ready to play."

The Bears have looked anything but ready in their last two games, both losses, in which they were outscored 52-7 in the first half.

This was supposed to be the year Cutler didn't have to shoulder an unfair burden because of a talented cast of teammates. But, even in the second year of the Marc Trestman-Aaron Kromer offense, the Bears' numbers are down across the board. They were averaging 30 points per game halfway through last season; this year, they're at 22.5. It's not all Cutler's fault, but the offense has fallen far short of expectations.

"I think we're getting there," Cutler said. "I think the system is coming along. It's a work in progress. We're still cleaning some stuff up, we're still making some mistakes. But we're definitely headed in that direction."

Bears fans dreading missing the playoff party for the seventh time in eight years expected more, especially from Cutler. He helped last year's team top 30 points in four of its first eight games. The Bears haven't scored more than 28 points in any game this season, and Cutler shares the fans' disappointment.

"I think we're all surprised," he said. "I think offensively we're all disappointed in where we're at. That's why we're working to try to get better."

But Cutler can't do it without help, as Kromer pointed out.

"The thing about playing quarterback in the National Football League is you're relying on 10 other guys," the Bears' offensive coordinator said. "You're not shooting a free throw in a basketball game. You're actually relying on a guy to block. You're relying on a guy to run the route right. You're relying on everyone to get lined up correctly.

"It's impossible, really, to feel like it's one guy."

As much as Trestman touts the team concept and complementary football, he knows that the offense won't function at peak efficiency until Cutler does. And Cutler is in the best position to lead the Bears back from the brink what could soon become a lost season.

"I think it's about everybody, (but) your quarterback is always a significant person to do that because he handles the ball on every play," Trestman said. "Certainly he's part of it, but I don't just think he's the only one. I think we want to do it together. We do it as coaches. We want to do it as a complete team. Everybody has got a say in this thing. Everybody does.

"Our guys understand this. You can tell by practice; they get it. You can tell by the dialogue they have with each other during the course of the day. But certainly Jay is a big part of that."

Trestman says Cutler is playing his part and leading, from time spent on the field and in the classroom to his interaction with teammates.

But the results haven't been there yet.

"He's a team leader," Trestman said. "He's around the guys all the time. He's influential in our locker room. He's influential in our meeting rooms and certainly on the field.

"His level of play is going to be indicative of where we're going to go in the next eight weeks."

Without a victory Sunday night, the Bears don't have much of a chance to get very far.

• Follow Bob's Bears and NFL reports on Twitter@BobLeGere.