Thoughts on a 41-21 beatdown at the hands of Kurt Warner …

Bears need more than Cutler.

In the first quarter, Jay Cutler threw an absolute strike down the sidelines to Devin Hester, then followed it up with a great TD pass to Greg Olsen. This is Cutler at his best: throwing with strength, accuracy and precision, making those throws the media told us about during training camp, making those throws most other quarterbacks wouldn’t even dare to.

But as we’ve come to find this season, the Bears need more than a quarterback doing those type of things to be successful. They need a defense that can keep great receivers in check; they need an offensive line that’s going to control the line of scrimmage; they need an effective running game to balance out what they’re doing through the air.

No quarterback, no matter how great, is going to be able to overcome the other glaring deficiencies on this Bears team. This was never more apparent than yesterday against the Cardinals. You can put up 369 yards of passing, but when there are penalties negating any progress and your defense struggles, it’s tough to pull out a victory.

G-reg to the rescue.

We’ll start with the positive(s) first: Greg Olsen had a day yesterday, catching three TD passes from Cutler. This was the expectation this year for Olsen: that he’d be an oft-used weapon in the Bears’ offensive assault. But because there was perhaps a little too much hype surrounding his on-field rapport with Cutler, mixed with defenses keying on him, we haven’t seen what we’ve expected.

But yesterday showed what sort of potential these two can have when they’re both feeling it.

Warner is as Warner does.

Just when Warner was having a bit of a ho-hum season, he comes out against the Bears and puts on a ridiculous show. Sure, it helps that he has Larry Fitzgerald, who made a mockery out of the Bears’ secondary. (Though, he was without Anquan Boldin.) But throwing for five TDs on 22-of-32 passing for 261 yards at the age of 38 is no easy feat.

The Cardinals were able to establish a solid run game between Beanie Wells and Tim Hightower (28 rushes for 149 yards between them), which made it all the more easier for the passing lanes to open up and for Warner to toss five TD passes.

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