Jay Cutler Chasing Redemption

The Bears play Sunday for the right to go to the Super Bowl. At home. Against the Packers. A year ago at this time (hell, 3 months ago), the Super Bowl was a goal, far off in the future. The Bears were coming off a wildly disappointing 7-9 season. Jay Cutler, their prize offseason acquisition, had thrown an astonishing 26 interceptions. The future looked bleak in Soldier Field.

I drove to Champaign for an Illinois game at the end of October of this year, a drive relevant to this column because I had access to the Score, Chicago sports radio. Callers were hammering the Bears. They were 4-3, coming off back to back losses to Washington and Seattle. The offensive line was woeful. Jay Cutler was spending more time on his back than under center. The Bears were 4-3 because of a disputed TD catch week 1 against the lions, and in spite of one of the worst games played by a quarterback in NFL history in week 5 (a 23-6 win over Carolina where Todd Collins was 6-16 with 4 interceptions).

Fast forward to Sunday. A day that started with an absolutely electric performance of the National Anthem. A performance straight out of a Blackhawks game at the old Chicago Stadium. It was a perfect moment as snow flurries drifted onto the field and the Bears, once more, transformed into the Monsters of the Midway.

After the game, as the fans celebrated, looking ahead to the first playoff meeting in the greatest, longest, and most storied rivalry in the NFL since the week after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Jay Cutler was interviewed on the sidelines, a step closer to vindication.

There are two ways Jay Cutler’s career can go: he can either go down in history as the greatest Bears quarterback of all time, or he can be Rex Grossman. The Bears traded their 2010 draft for the strong armed quarterback, and, before Cutler played a down for the Bears, they were on the cover of Sports Illustrated, projected to win their first Super Bowl since 1985. Never, in the long history of Bears football, has a quarterback been subject to such expectations.

Jay Cutler is a lot of things. One thing that he is not is a friendly, gregarious guy. Cutler will not be featured in any commercials chanting “Cut that meat!” like Peyton Manning. He is an extremely difficult interview, unlike Tom Brady. And that rubs people like Rick Riley the wrong way leading to a completely unnecessary column from Riley last week slamming Cutler. Buried, deep in that column, as he discussed how unlikeable Cutler is, Riley hid this gem, “He's a giving person who does things behind the scenes and hates it when he gets found out. A few days before Christmas, he and Cavallari brought presents for an entire ward of sick hospital kids. A reporter for the Sun-Times got wind of it and asked him about it. Cutler refused to discuss it.” Riley wrote the above as if donating gifts because he wanted to, rather than for the cameras, is a bad thing. Cutler may wear his hat backward (is Riley 90, complaining about that?), and he may not be outgoing or well spoken, but he deserved better than the Riley column.

On Sunday, Cutler was magnificent. He started the game by making a perfect throw through the wind and snow to Greg Olsen for a long touchdown. Cutler ran for touchdowns (2 touchdowns and 43 yards on the ground), he made every throw in the book, and he showed leadership, yelling encouragement to his offensive line as they gave him days to throw. Cutler is not a perfect quarterback, and he was not perfect Sunday (he was bailed out on an awful throw at the goal line when a sure interception was dropped). He is going to take chances, and make a throw or two every game that make you cringe. When Cutler is playing like he did against Seattle, you live with the bad decisions because the good far outweighs the bad.

Over time, Cutler is not going to be judged by a Divisional win over Seattle. Fans forget performances early in the playoffs. If you bring up Rex Grossman, no one will talk about a 282 yard performance in an overtime Divisional round win over Seattle in 2006. People will, however, tell you about fumbled snaps and an awful Super Bowl performance that same year. Cutler will absolutely be judged by how he performs this coming Sunday. There is a reason that Lovie Smith’s first goal upon becoming head coach of the Bears was to beat the Packers. The hatred between the franchises and their fan bases runs deep. Not to overstate the importance of this game, but there are Bears fans who consider a 5-11 season a success if you beat the Packers twice.

If Cutler struggles Sunday and the Bears lose, Cutler will just be that inconsistent quarterback we all knew he was. But if Cutler is magnificent, if he leads the Bears to victory over their archrival with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line, everything that happened prior to this - every interception, every poor interview, every single time that he failed to connect with the fan base. Every single one of those things will be forgiven, if not completely forgotten.