The year was 2011 and the Chicago Bears allowed the Green Bay Packers into the playoffs just mere weeks before the two met again in the 2010 NFC Championship game. In the final game of the 2010 season, the Chicago Bears could have put a nail in the Packers’ coffin, but instead allowed them to come away with a 10-3 win.
The Chicago Bears were up 3-0 at halftime and the teams were tied heading into the fourth quarter. Although the Bears had nothing to play for in the game, Lovie Smith played all of his starters. It was a risk as far as injuries were concerned, but it would have been beneficial had they knocked the Packers out in Week 17 since this same team beat them in the NFC Championship game — a game that led to Jay Cutler missing nearly half the game. An injury that led to many critics calling Jay Cutler out for his toughness.
This is not the first time we have heard Cutler’s teammates come to his aide after the 21-14 loss in what was likely the team’s best chance at winning a Super Bowl. This isn’t even the first time that Brian Urlacher has made these comments, but there are still plenty of people and critics out there who don’t fully believe that Jay Cutler tore his MCL before halftime. Maurice Jone-Drew was one of Cutler’s biggest critics and he tweeted out what he later called a joke — probably to save face.
Hey I think the urban meyer rule is effect right now... When the going gets tough........QUIT..
— Maurice Jones-Drew (@MJD) January 23, 2011
Brian Urlacher defends Jay Cutler in Chicago Bears 2010 NFC Championship loss
This tweet was in reference to Jay Cutler not coming back in the game and Jones-Drew wasn’t the only critic out there of Cutler that day. However, in an interview with Barstool Sports, Brian Urlacher, someone who has had his one critics to deal with, had this to say about the situation:
"He tore his MCL in the second quarter and kept trying to play. The media said he just copped out because they were getting beat. No, Jay was tough. I don’t care what anyone says, that dude…he dislocated his thumb the next year and played the rest of the game. Don’t tell me he’s a bitch, he ain’t no bitch."
Urlacher went on to talk about how Jay Cutler was hurting the team trying to play.
"He was hurting our team by being in there because he couldn’t throw, he couldn’t step into his throw with a torn MCL."
He then spoke highly of Cutler again by talking about the cannon that Jay Cutler has.
"You talk about a guy who can make any throw? That’s the guy right there. In practice I would be like…holy shit…holy shit. How’s he getting those balls in there? It was unbelievable to watch him throw the football, but we just couldn’t get it all together. I don’t know what it was, but we just couldn’t get it figured out the few years we had him."
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There isn’t any love loss between Jay Cutler and Brian Urlacher. He clearly isn’t going to say these things unless he knew them to be true. Toughness in my opinion was never Cutler’s problem while playing for the Chicago Bears. This team struggled more because of a lack of leadership from Cutler. Had Culter been a better leader both on and off the field, had he not suffered a few key injuries, who knows what this team could have achieved.