Three days ago, during the NFC Championship game, Jay Cutler had the (as some have said) audacity to pull up lame with an injured knee. Starting with tweets during the game, and continuing through today (and for who knows how long), Cutler has been raked over the coals for not playing in virtually the entire second half of the title game, all the while looking completely disinterested in the game.
I am not questioning Cutler's toughness. There is no possible way anyone can know what his pain tolerance is, least of all people sitting at home watching him play on national TV. He's a professional athlete and in one game versus the Giants this year was sacked nine times. Wasn't everyone lauding his toughness then? His offensive line had arguably the worst performance of any offensive line in the 2010 season, yet Cutler peeled himself off the new Giants Stadium turf time after time. In my opinion, he's earned the right to say he was injured, and not to play in the second half when he couldn't perform at a high enough level to help his team.
Let's get one thing straight though...Cutler was having a terrible game versus the Packers. In his one half plus one series of work, he was 6-14-80 with no touchdowns, one interception and a QB rating of 31.8. He was ineffective versus Dom Capers' schemes, missing a wide open Devin Hester twice, both of which would have severely changed the course of the game. Even the debacle that was second string QB Todd Collins had a higher rating (39.6) and he was 0-4 for zero yards! Did Cutler give up because he was ineffective? I highly doubt this because an MRI on Monday did show a Grade 2 strain of his MCL. A Grade 1 strain is mild, so this does show that he was in at least a fair amount of pain.
I believe the biggest criticism of Cutler was his demeanor on the sidelines. People obviously haven't been paying much attention to Cutler through the years because he has always looked like he's moping. The look on his face when he signed a huge extension with the Bears before the 2010 season was exactly the same as when he was sitting next to third string QB (and nearly the newest Chicago legend) Caleb Hanie on the bench. Hanie was sitting looking at photos of the previous series and trying to determine which players were Packers and which were Bears, with Cutler staring off at the jumbotron. Hanie has since come out and said that Cutler did provide advice, but somehow this completely escaped every single camera that Fox had at the game.
Cutler is just not a leader...he never has been, and at this point probably never will. He's not dynamic enough. On ESPN Radio with Mike and Mike, Herm Edwards said that Cutler is not a leader because he doesn't make the players around him better. He went on to say that Cutler is highly talented, but, again, he doesn't develop his teammates. This is the best description I've heard of Cutler. In an earlier post, I wrote about how Tim Tebow rallied not only the offense around him, but the entire team...this is just not Cutler.
A sports minded friend of mine compared Cutler to the legendary Jeff George because he has zero brain with a big arm. Putting together a bunch of tweets and comments, it sounds like people think he's three characters from the Wizard of Oz rolled into one...no brain (Scarecrow), no heart (Tin Man), and no courage (Cowardly Lion). If only he was afraid of water.
It's not right for anyone to question Jay Cutler's pain threshold, but it's completely valid to question his ability to be a leader.
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