We heard about how Cutler was going to limit his turnovers, how Mike Martz was going to turn the offense around, and how the defense would return to form. We heard this and saw none of it come to fruition during the preseason. We weren't going to buy into the hype and be fooled for a third straight year.
That is, until the third week of the season.
The city of Chicago has turned into believers once again. A referee's interpretation of a rule earned us a victory against the 0-2 Lions, and a road win against a 0-2 Cowboys team that no one knows what to make of, and all of a sudden, we're legit.
I wouldn't go that far. This Monday night Packers game will go a long way in determining if the Bears can compete for a playoff spot, but it will not make or break their season.
A lot of people are forgetting the Packers have some issues of their own. They just lost running back Ryan Grant for the year, and had a suspect offensive line even before that. Outside of Woodson, their secondary is a liability. Basically, they're overly dependent on their front 7 providing pressure, and Rodgers running for his life to make plays.
Besides the obvious fact that this is the NFL's best rivalry, and a division game between two teams with postseason expectations, this match up just became a whole lot more interesting because of the play of Jay Cutler and Aaron Rodgers.
I still don't know what to think of Cutler. Is this the year he finally breaks out and takes on a leadership role, or has he simply feasted on two mediocre secondaries to start the year? I will say this. I've always hated Jay Cutler, going back to his Denver days. I hated his body language, I hated the way he quit on his team, and I hated the way he refused to take responsibility for his or the offense's mistakes.
But, to quote myself, "I'm not above rooting for a dousche bag."
Remember when Cutler was traded to the Bears and the way the media was hyping the Rodgers-Cutler match-up? It was supposed to be an epic division battle between two young quarterbacks for the next ten years. This may be the year when comparing them isn't laughable.
In the first two games of the season, I've noticed two things from Cutler that I thought I'd never see.
1) First game against the Lions, and running back Matt Forte makes a spectacular catch in the end zone to put the Bears up 19-14 with 1:32 left in the game. Forte lands awkwardly and stays down for a few minutes. Cutler makes his way down the field and checks on Forte while the rest of the team heads to the bench. Cutler was the only player, along with the training staff there while Forte was being treated. Last season, this doesn't happen.
2) Two things in the Cowboys game. First, Cutler was rushed out of the pocket and knocked down so many times in the first quarter that I expected him to give up and mail it in for the rest of the game. He didn't.
Second, after throwing either his second or third touchdown pass, I think it was his third, he jumps into offensive lineman Frank Omiyale's arms. If Cutler tried to do that last year, I'm pretty sure his lineman would have body slammed him to the ground.
The point being, that we all know Cutler is a highly skilled football player. The big questions about him are his attitude and leadership ability. For the first two games of the season, that stuff doesn't seem to be an issue.
Rodgers, on the other hand, sat behind Favre for three years, didn't complain when Favre skipped camp and announced he was coming back, and took on a leadership role immediately after taking over three season ago. He even wears the same type of chin strap Favre does.
This game has the potential to be the first game of many that pits the division's two best quarterbacks against each other. The Bears and Packers have been playing each other for 89 years, these games need a rivalry within a rivalry.
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