Bears Blitz

It’s probably not surprising how Bears coaches and players rushed Wednesday to defend quarterback Jay Cutler from the verbal attack of a couple former NFL head coaches.

Cutler is going to need every bit of backing from the team—and their confidence—this Sunday if not the rest of the season.

Facing the world champion Pittsburgh Steelers Sunday at Soldier Field and playing out the schedule without Brian Urlacher on defense only puts so much more pressure on Cutler to produce.

Coming off a career-worst, four-interception effort against Green Bay can leave anyone in need of a confidence injection. Cutler certainly couldn’t help but get one from the words of head coach Lovie Smith and offensive coordinator Ron Turner Wednesday when they answered Rams coach Mike Martz and former Saints/Colts coach Jim Mora, who on “The Coaches Show” had lambasted Cutler’s “nonchalant” attitude during his post-Packer game press conference.

“We had just come off of a tough loss to one of our rivals,” Smith said. “I looked at Jay’s comments that he made, and it’s a little disappointing especially coming from a couple of former coaches to make those type of comments about Jay.

“Everyone that has been around him, his teammates, former coaches, they know what type of player he is, what type of person he is. He represents our organization well. We’re glad he is on our football team, but at the same time we cannot be concerned about criticism coming from the outside. Right now it’s easy to dog pile us because we didn’t play well. But how you get rid of things like that is to play well. That’s why we’re anxious to play Pittsburgh this week and go from there.”

Turner insisted he had talked to former Denver coaches and players about Cutler’s leadership prior to the trade and that the Bears have found their QB to be exactly what they wanted.

“He is a tremendous leader. He’s great,” Turner said. “I’ve heard the receivers say he’s as good a leader that we’ve had and I’ve never heard guys say stuff like that, to tell you the truth.”

Turner’s voice got to the verge of breaking.

“It’s upsetting to hear that stuff to be honest with you,” he said. “If you want to talk about interceptions, talk about his play, that’s one thing.  But to talk about that when you don’t know is totally, totally off base. It’s off base.”

Considering Jim Mora’s infamous “Playoffs? Playoffs?” and “we suck… we didn’t do diddily pooh,” press conferences, the comments smack of being hypocritical.

Even Smith didn’t mind delivering a sort of “who cares?” toward Martz, the coach who was his boss in St. Louis.

Asked if he had talked to Martz about the situation, Smith said:  “I’m trying to get ready for Pittsburgh. I’m talking to my wife, a little bit, right now. Everyone else is a little bit lower on my list.”

Cutler found it no surprise that everything from his facial expressions to his body language and comments have been scrutinized after the season-opening loss.

“You expect it, and when you lose, that stuff gets magnified even more,” Cutler said. “If we win that ballgame and I play a little bit better, it’s going to be a lot better outcome.

“I’m sure some of the columns are going to be a little more positive. When you throw picks, you’re going to get criticized, you’re going to get picked apart a little bit, and that’s as expected.”

If all the attention on Cutler’s pouting lips, slumped shoulders, or disinterested answers bothered him, he sure did a good job of disguising it.

“I haven’t really read anything this week or previous weeks,” he said. “I’m worried about the guys in the locker room; this offense, this team and how we’re playing on a week-in, week-out basis.

“We’re worried about the Steelers right now.”