It took me a decent amount of time to get over the loss last Sunday. Obviously the circumstances around the loss were not the easiest for Bears fans to swallow, but I've had time to reflect on the season, and I've come to a realization that should have been blatantly obvious: The Bears vastly overachieved this year.
Back at the beginning of the year, I had them down for 8-8, expecting them to beat the bad teams and lose to the good teams. It just seemed like the holes on the offensive line and in the secondary would be too easy for decent teams to exploit, and I was expecting Cutler to continue to be inconsistent.
After the debacle in week 1 against the Lions, I adjusted my projections down to 5-11. The team that needed a loophole to beat a Shaun Hill quarterbacked Lions team was not only going to have a hard time beating good teams, but even halfway decent ones, like the Redskins and Seahawks.
Then the Bears started getting lucky. They picked the right week to play a few teams, and somehow managed to keep themselves healthy all year. In a year with a record amount of players on injured reserve (352), the Bears somehow managed to have their most significant injury be to Nick Roach. Last time before this the Bears were that injury free? 2006. Before that? 2001. Sensing a trend?
The Bears don't need to apologize for being lucky, though, and managed to make some adjustments to beat some good teams. The linebacking core played as well as ever, the front four, while they disappeared on occasion, still managed to come up with some big games (Philly springs to mind) and Matt Forte started to run through tackles again. Most importantly, though, Cutler seemed to mature a little as the season went on, and after the Redskins game he finally stopped forcing throws where they didn't belong.
Which brings me to the elephant in the room. What to do with a franchise quarterback like Cutler? I'm mostly willing to give him a pass for the injury. In hindsight it seems like he actually couldn't go, and the best thing for him to do was to sit down and let someone else try. If I was to adjust the blame game from last week, I'd take about 10% off Cutler and give it to the offensive line.
What I can't get past is how intimidated he looked before the injury. So many overthrown and underthrown balls. Cutler looked like someone who didn't want any part of that game before anything happened to his knee, which brings me to the inconvenient conclusion: Cutler is not going to win you a Super Bowl. There are some quarterbacks you can tell just don't have it in them. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think Cutler has it in him. You have to want to go out there and compete right from the start, which I can't say he ever did.
Maybe the Bears will realize their offensive line is one of the worst in the league and fix it, and Cutler can look good again next year. But I lost a little faith last Sunday. Correction: I lost a lot of faith last Sunday, and not all of it has returned a week later. I'd love to see the Bears bring in a Vince Young or Donavon McNabb in the offseason, someone to push Cutler for his job, and maybe be there to come in and not just throw the ball straight to defensive linemen if Cutler can't get it done in big game.
Anyway, I'm proud of how the Bears played this year, and hope they can plug a few holes (cornerback, left tackle, right tackle, left guard) and keep the momentum going for next year.
And please sign a decent backup quarterback, Angelo.
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