There were lots of boos, there were some cheap shots, there was some jawing. But Jay Cutler handled it all, and handled it quite well.

Now, Cutler was no choir boy. At points he jawed back at some of his former teammates; he was barking on the sidelines. But, he kept his emotions from getting the best of him. He was also an excellent 15 of 21 for 144 yards and one touchdown during his time behind center in the first half. Cutler came into Denver a marked man, and left with his head held high. This is not an easy thing to do.

This was a game that felt like a regular season game — an important regular season game. Where you watched with casual interest against the Bills and Giants, there was a decidedly serious atmosphere surrounding last night’s affair. The Bears had to win. Jay Cutler had to play well. There was just no way around it. I constantly had to remind myself that it didn’t really matter, even though it did matter.

Cutler almost exclusively used his tight ends (Greg Olsen, Desmond Clark) and his running back (Matt Forte) in the passing game. Whether that’s a sign of how it’s going to go this season — and I tend to think it is — it worked for one night. Olsen flanked outside and became more of a true receiver at points. And as David Haugh wrote this morning, when you couple the Bears’ special teams — Devin Hester 54-yard punt return reminded us what he’s best at — and defense with an improved offense, when all these units are firing on all cylinders, it’s encouraging.

The Bears head to Lambeau Field in two weeks to take on the Packers. If they can put up a collective effort like this, they stand a much better chance of starting the season 1-0.

As Ryan pointed out this morning, the Bears are currently wrestling with whether or not they should pay Kyle Orton long-term money. After all, he did take a while to steal the starting job away from Rex Grossman. (Although, really, can’t we fault the Bears for that as well?) Sure, it would be somewhat risky, but then again, Orton is kind of playing out of his mind this year.

And as MDS pointed out at FanHouse today, he was actually better than most of us realized — or the stats said — during Sunday’s win against the Vikings.

Marty Booker dropped what should have been a 14-yard touchdown pass at the start of the second quarter. He also dropped what should have been a 24-yard touchdown pass late in the second quarter. And Desmond Clark fumbled what should have been a 36-yard touchdown pass at the 1-yard line.

So what would Orton’s numbers have looked like if his receivers had held onto the ball on those three plays? He would have had two more completions, 39 more yards and three more touchdowns, meaning he would have gone 23 of 32 for 322 yards, with five touchdowns and no interceptions. That’s a passer rating of 143.5, which would have been the best passer rating in the NFL on the week.

So, yeah, that’s right Chicago front office. Your boy — against the in-division and stout-defensively Vikings no less — was basically the best quarterback in the NFL on Sunday. If, you know, you had the smarts to surround him with some people that could catch the ball.

Keep reading →

I know what I saw back then. You can’t tell me I didn’t see it. No amount of sensory deprivation or illicit drug use could cloud my memory.

Kyle Orton was terrible at football. Just terrible.

Now, not only is he decidedly not terrible, he’s good. He threw for 283 yards and two touchdowns yesterday, and he should have had at least one more (Desmond Clark’s fumble on the goal line, which Rashied Davis recovered in the end zone). Marty Booker dropped two passes in the end zone too. Orton could have thrown for five touchdowns! Five! In 15 games in 2005, he threw for like nine. He was terrible. And now he’s really kind of better than that.

What’s more, the Bears are now arguably superior on offense to their defense, which allowed 41 points yesterday, the most in franchise history in a win. Probably the most embarrassing defensive play came on Mike Brown’s sad attempt to tackle Adrian Peterson in the secondary on Peterson’s second touchdown run. It was less a fake out and more a complete display of athletic superiority; Brown got utterly embarrassed. Turnovers excepted, the rest of the defense didn’t fare much better.

Still, it was an offensively-oriented win in which Kyle Orton played well, the defense forced a few turnovers, and the special teams made plays. It was far too offensive, actually, but it was a win. Kyle Orton is now, apparently, good at football. These are the truths of our new reality.