Cutler Injured, Battered Bears Fall to Redskins 45-41
Oct 20, 2013; Landover, MD, USA; Chicago Bears running back Matt Forte (22) leaps into the end zone for a touchdown against the Washington Redskins during the first half at FedEX Field. Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports
Matt Forte led the way for the Bears with three rushing touchdowns. That’s the first time the Bears rushed for 3 TD’s since Rashaan Salaam rushed for three TD’s against the Tampa Bay Bucs in December of 1995. With Cutler sidelined, Josh McCown spread the ball around to go 14 of 20 for 204 yards and a touchdown pass. That’s good enough for a 119.6 quarterback rating. That’s after Cutler had a disastrous 3/8 for 28 yards and a pick-6 on an Alshon Jeffery tipped ball that ended up in the welcoming arms of Brian Orakpo. McCown guided the Bears to four second half scoring drives and also had a missed chip shot 34 yarder by Robbie Gould.
Heading to the bye week, there are a couple of big concerns. Jay Cutler’s status is obviously the big question, with the team not providing an update to his status. The bigger concern from my point of view is their porous defense. The Bears gave up 209 rushing yards to the RedskinsThere are numerous holes that need to be plugged and no clear help is on the way.
While a week off is sure to help Charles Tillman and Lance Briggs in the short term, the aging defense seems to be on its last legs. Julius Peppers is marginally effective, Shea McClellin can’t hold the edge and gets run on routinely and the interior is a patchwork of guys playing out of position or off the scrap heap. With the lack of a pass rush, the safeties have been exposed. They can’t cover and blow assignments with alarming regularity for a veteran group.
Mel Tucker needs to hit the books over the off week and devise a plan. The Packers await coming off the bye week in a Week 9 Monday Night Football showdown.
Stay tuned for a lot more coverage on Jay Cutler’s injury status and all our regular post-game feature articles. Keep your head up and