MasterOLightning
Optimator
You can't just ignore the penalties. I recall from watching that game that many of them were deliberately caused by the Bears. They were not temporary mental lapses, as false starts/offsides often are. When a guy holds Peppers and drags him to the ground, the Bears deserve credit for that. It happened a few times. Pass interference or defensive holding on an open man is something the offense can take credit for. Also, the Bears can not be overrated, because no one ever has rated them highly, and the consensus has never been that they are more than merely good. The fact that Chicago is an underdog at home should back that. Green Bay has been often dumb over the last two years, as evidenced by bad in-game coaching, clock-management, and penalties. I think they have a wealth of talent, but McCarthy is an underwhelming coach who is lucky to have Capers. Bad personal fouls/late hits aren't luck either. That reflects on who the team is, and it may or may not show up later.
It's hard to rate Cutler's performance due to his competition this last weekend compared to everyone else, but he sure handled Seattle better than Brees did. I can understand doubting his supporting cast, but I don't know why people give guys like Flacco and Sanchez slack, when by any eye test they have far, far less ability. I recall Terry Bradshaw's feature where he did not rank Cutler as one of the top 10 QBs under 30. Cutler is already more accomplished than Matt Ryan is in the playoffs. This sort of speaks to the above discussion about playoff performance. Unless a guy craps his pants, you should expect something close to typical performance, but there is a lot of luck involved, and the small sample size means that no one should read too much into it whether good or bad. Defense and special teams matter a lot too.
It's hard to rate Cutler's performance due to his competition this last weekend compared to everyone else, but he sure handled Seattle better than Brees did. I can understand doubting his supporting cast, but I don't know why people give guys like Flacco and Sanchez slack, when by any eye test they have far, far less ability. I recall Terry Bradshaw's feature where he did not rank Cutler as one of the top 10 QBs under 30. Cutler is already more accomplished than Matt Ryan is in the playoffs. This sort of speaks to the above discussion about playoff performance. Unless a guy craps his pants, you should expect something close to typical performance, but there is a lot of luck involved, and the small sample size means that no one should read too much into it whether good or bad. Defense and special teams matter a lot too.
nice
