Chicago Bears Week 1 Milk Carton

For those new to the site, when a player or coach doesn’t really show up during a Bear’s game, they get put on the Milk Carton. As most of you know, people’s pictures used to be put at the back of milk cartons when they went missing. So the Milk Carton for the Bears is more about who went missing or played terribly during the game. Here are the nominees.

The Bears have this weird theme where they go into games with a clear mentality of “How can we screw up this time?” This time, it was untimely turnovers and a plethora of injuries. It couldn’t have been worse. Marshall was hobbling a lot of the game, Jeffery never came back in, and Iron men Roberto Garza and Matt Slausen went down. And to literally add insult to injury, the Bears lost.

Sep 7, 2014; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler (6) drops back to pass against the Buffalo Bills during the second quarter at Soldier Field. Mandatory Credit: Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports

This week, the Milk Carton goes to Alshon Jeffery and Jay Cutler.  Jeffery played well, but I am very concerned about his injury. Without him, the offense is anemic. He would have come in handy down the stretch.

Jay Cutler had the Good Jay Bad Jay on display the entire game. He made some great throws but a few that were truly awful. The one across his body on third and one was nothing short of absurd. I think that fake pitch rollout would have been better for a second and 1, but there are no excuses for that boneheaded interception. I know that he didn’t “go missing” in the game, but his mind did on several plays.

Some things were good. Martellus Bennett and Matt Forte played extremely well.  The defense played decently minus a few foolish plays. The special teams wasn’t particularly bad. Cutler did make some terrific plays. But questionable play calling, undisciplined moments, avoidable turnovers, and costly injuries prevented the Bears from losing a very winnable game.