BEARS, CUTLER MANHANDLE GIANTS

The New York Giants weren’t the only losers in their NFL preseason game against the Chicago Bears.  The Denver Broncos and their fans had to watch as their former franchise QB Jay Cutler carved up the Giants’ defense and think of what might have been.  After a rough opening week, Cutler looked to be in regular season form and the Chicago Bears went on to win 17-3.  Both teams are now 1-1 in NFL preseason action.

NFL preseason bettors who ‘invested’ in the home team cashed their tickets as Chicago easily covered the -2’ point price.  Both teams are now 1-1 against the money in the NFL preseason.  The 20 combined points went well UNDER the posted total of 36, with each team evening their O/U record at 1-1.

Cutler completed 8 of 13 passes for 121 yards, led drives of 80 and 92 yards and passed for a touchdown.  After the game, he tried to maintain some perspective after hearing the criticism last week:

"It's preseason. Everyone got a little excited last week when we didn't produce but we looked OK tonight. There's still room for improvement, so we're going to go back to work. We're coming together as an offense. We're not quite there yet."

"We're kind of coming together, myself and the line, you know, with how I can move in the pocket, and when I can step up, when I can take off. It doesn't happen overnight. We've got some new linemen, new receivers, a new quarterback. We're all trying to figure it out.”

Chicago’s new starting QB badly outplayed the Giants’ Eli Manning, who was 7 for 10 but was also sacked twice, fumbled once and called for intentional grounding.  He dismissed suggestions that the Giants’ struggled due to their short practice week:

"That's no excuse. We were prepared and we looked at everything. We just didn't execute. Too many negative plays.”

The Bears have long prided themselves on their tenacious defense, and this game was no exception.  They held the Giants to eleven first downs and afterwards New York coach Tom Coughlin wasn’t in the mood for serious analysis:

"We got beat. We have no excuses."

The value of a solid passing game in Chicago should be obvious to any NFL fan—with the long absent passing threat, opposing defenses can no longer put 8 or 9 men in ‘the box’ to stop the Bears’ productive rushing attack.  This opens opportunities for the run game, and as any football strategist knows a productive rushing attack opens the field up for the passing attack.  The addition of Cutler transforms the Bears’ offense from predictable and one dimensional to perfectly balance and extremely dangerous.

The Giants continue their preseason slate hosting the New York Jets on Saturday.  Chicago travels to Denver to face the Broncos on Sunday.  New York begins the NFL regular season traveling to play the Washington Redskins on September 13th, while the Bears also start their schedule on the road playing against traditional rivals Green Bay.