The scouting report on Cutler always has been that the rewards outweigh the risks on the field. He'll brashly, rashly throw into coverage and break a coach's heart once in a while, but he'll make more plays than not.
On Sunday night, Cutler's worst attributes crept into the light. Time and again, he tried to make plays only he saw. He threw across his body. He threw off the wrong foot. He screamed at a world that would do him so wrong.
Jay Cutler, hear him roar.
Stop me if you've heard of this kind of categorizing before, but the best way to put it is that there's a Good Jay and a Bad Jay. Good Jay threw such a sweet touchdown pass to Devin Hester in the third quarter that it could have made a grown Bears fan cry. That 36-yard connection helped cut the Packers' lead to 10-9.
Bad Jay loitered and lurked.
What became clear Sunday was that the Bears face a delicate balancing act: How do they get Cutler to be smarter with the football without taking away the playmaking ability that makes him so dangerous? The early outlook: Good luck with that.
The Bears have given him the keys to the car, and it's hard to turn around and tell him to drive safely. With the puppy love they've shown him, it might be hard to tell him to do anything. He could turn out to be their version of Carlos Zambrano. They're going to have to live with a game like Sunday's. The payoff is supposed to be huge numbers and big victories. We'll see.
