Marc Trestman-Jay Cutler Partnership Is Failing the Chicago Bears

Head coach Marc Trestman and quarterback Jay Cutler failed the Chicago Bears on Sunday.

The Bears offense played with no fire in the 27-14 loss, nor did the offense play with any sort of consistency. That starts with head coach Marc Trestman and ends with Cutler.

Predicting the success of the Bears offense is pretty impossible these days. One week it’s roses, and the next week it’s coal. Loss, win, win, loss, loss, win, loss.

Year	Points for	Points against
2013	27.8	29.9
2014 (through 7 games)	22.4	28.5
Difference	-5.4 per game	-1.4 per game

What happened to all of the offensive scoring we saw last season? Sunday’s 27-14 loss to the Miami Dolphins paints a pretty good picture of what has been ailing the Bears this season.

While it might be unfair to put all the blame on Cutler for the offensive failures, he’s the easiest target.

Trestman comes up with the game plan, and Cutler acts it out for the rest to follow while millions upon millions watch. What happened to the offense Sunday should be characterized as an unmitigated disaster.

Before we begin, let’s journey back to last week, when the Bears put together their best offensive effort of the season in the win over the Atlanta Falcons. The Bears offense was somewhat balanced—38 pass plays to 29 run plays—given the pass-happy nature of the guy who’s calling the plays. 

Player	Output
Jay Cutler	26 of 38 for 381 yards with one TD
Matt Forte	17 carries for 80 yards & two TDs, 10 catches for 77 yards
Brandon Marshall	Six catches for 113 yards on nine targets
Alshon Jeffery	Five catches for 136 yards on seven targets

For the first time in weeks, the Bears offense moved the ball vertically instead of relying on playing small ball. Cutler connected for completions of 74 yards, 47 yards and 25 yards. Forte carried the ball at 4.7 yards per carry. The production was balanced.

Trestman entered the game with the perfect game plan. Cutler carried it out as perfectly as Cutler is capable of carrying it out. And the rest of the team followed suit.

Now, back to Sunday’s loss to the Dolphins; again, coming off the most consistent offensive performance of the season.

Let’s lay out a few facts that will help paint the picture of offensive struggles.

1. The Bears offense entered Miami territory only one time in the first half, before the drive ended with a Cutler interception.

More on the INT later.

2. On 3rd-and-1 from the Chicago 47, Cutler threw deep down the right side to Jeffery, who was unable to win the route and complete the pass. Trestman immediately sent out the punt team, resulting in a net gain after the punt of only 34 yards.

Going for it on fourth down didn't even appear to be in consideration. Chicago’s so-called strength is the Cutler-led offense. Seems like an opportunity was missed right here. For a look at more Trestman missed opportunities, go here.

3. Forte carried the ball two times for 11 yards in the first half, 12 times for the game.

4. Cutler turned the ball over two times, the aforementioned interception and one fumble. Dante Rosario also turned it over.

What it all means is this: Trestman is failing to make in-game adjustments. He failed the team on many levels, as did Cutler. Sometimes the quarterback needs to be able to find the silver lining in every play, and if there isn't one, he needs to get rid of the ball and start over.

But more often than not, Trestman isn't putting his quarterback in position to succeed. You can tell this by the theme of his play-calling. Sunday is a great example.

All week leading up to the game, we heard about the size advantages Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery have over Miami cornerbacks Cortland Finnegan and Brent Grimes.

Cutler said after the game, via Dan Durkin of CBS Chicago, that of the 19 plays the Bears ran in the first half, four of them were called runs. He changed the play at the line on two occasions, both times run to pass.

The Dolphins coaching staff isn't full of dummies. They clearly have the ability to look at a media guide and see that their cornerbacks lack size in comparison to the Bears receivers. As a result, they game-planned to stop the Bears' vertical passing attack, knowing they might have to give up something in the run.

So what do Trestman and the Bears go out and do?

Pass, pass, pass, pass and pass some more. It will continue to be tough for Cutler to take advantage of the matchups if Miami’s defense knows exactly where the ball is going. The Bears' passing attack never got off the ground because Forte was never a threat to run. Marshall finished with six catches for 48 yards on 10 targets, and Jeffery had two catches for nine yards on seven targets. The longest reception from either of them was 15 yards.

This isn't rocket science. If the opponent is scared of getting beat deep, they’re likely vulnerable up front, yet Forte only ran the ball 12 times on the day. No commitment was made to the run.

Now, on the Bears’ first drive of the second half, it looked like some adjustments were made at halftime. The offense was firing. Trestman called three Forte runs right out of the gate, gaining a total of 22 yards. Cutler went into muddle-huddle mode, and the Bears drove 80 yards on 12 plays (seven runs, five passes) in just over seven minutes.

Cutler and the offense finally appeared to be playing with some confidence. It didn't last long, though. Trestman went right back into the mindset that brought the Bears 54 yards in the first half. The Bears ran 21 plays on their next four drives, three runs and 18 passes. You can’t really blame the score, either. The Bears didn't trail by more than two scores until a little over two minutes elapsed in the fourth quarter, when the Dolphins kicked a field goal.

Now, that’s all on Trestman. Here’s where Cutler is getting himself into trouble.

On the Bears’ first-half drive that ended after an interception by Reshad Jones, Cutler never should have thrown that ball. Even now, after all parties involved have spoken to the media, we still have no idea why the ball was thrown or where it was supposed to go.

“After watching film all week we saw he was looking where he threw the ball,” Jones said. “He [Cutler] was always looking at his receivers and never looking off. I tried to take advantage of that and it paid off.”

Cutler, who completed only 21 of 34 pass attempts for 190 yards, with one touchdown and one interception, threw the ball in the direction of a well-covered Martellus Bennett, while Santonio Holmes was in the vicinity and wide open.

“That’s where it had to go,” Cutler said of the throw.

Bennett, on the other hand, didn't even know the ball was coming to him.

“I thought he was throwing it [to] somebody else, because it was kind of high and I couldn't jump to get it,” he said.

Cutler said the throw was Bennett’s, who said the throw was for someone else.

Let’s bring in the head coach and see if he can help clear this up.

“I think Marty had an outside route, corner sunk inside,” Trestman said. “I think the tape will give me a better answer. That was the play design, for [Holmes] to clear to the outside and the corner came off and squeezed Marty inside.”

Hmm, that didn't work. OK, maybe Santonio knows.

“I don’t know what happened,” Holmes said. “I don’t know if he got hit, I just turned around and saw the guy intercepting the football, that’s all that happened.”

There isn't much communication or accountability there. And this is where Cutler is getting himself into trouble. When ESPN makes a 30 for 30 on Cutler’s career, it’s going to be titled, “The Throw That Never Should Have Been Made.” Bad judgement is something Cutler has not been able to shake throughout the course of his career. The moment you think he's about to take the leap, he falls short.

When Trestman took over as coach, we expected to see a better, more consistent offense and better all-around judgement from Cutler. While Cutler’s decision-making has been better at times, last week being one of those times, a franchise quarterback cannot turn the ball over 10 times in seven games and expect to win games with a middle-of-the-road defense (the Bears rank 22nd in the league in points allowed).

Let’s remember that it’s not Cutler who’s calling the plays. Cutler isn’t deciding that two Forte runs is good enough for the first half. That’s on Trestman. The head coach needs to be putting his skill players in position to succeed. If the Dolphins game plan is to stop Marshall and Jeffery, then Trestman needs to force Miami’s defense to focus elsewhere.

Here's Trestman's assessment of Sunday's performance:

"

Today was an unacceptable performance by our football team. Guys worked very hard this week, we came to work today and we didn’t get it done. I think we were ready to play. And that starts with me because we didn't get it done.

"

The head coach is supposed to be the maestro. He’s the guy who sees the big picture and is able to play point and counterpoint when it comes to the ebb and flow of a game. He’s the guy who can pinpoint the best and worst his talent has to offer and finds ways to maximize the positives.

Sadly, Trestman hasn’t been the guy for Cutler as we all hoped he would be up to this point. Cutler has thrown seven interceptions in seven games. The Bears are 0-4 in games when Cutler throws a pick. That’s not to say the Trestman-Cutler relationship can’t change course and the Bears become an offensive juggernaut overnight, because it can. The potential is there. The blueprint is there. The talent is there. But the offense changes course virtually every week nowadays. Trestman's overall record of 11-12 speaks for itself. 

Frustrations boiled over after the game. Adam L. Jahns of the Chicago Sun-Times reported that shouting could be overheard from outside the Bears locker room. ESPN Chicago’s Michael C. Wright reported that Cutler was “called out” by Marshall because he “wanted to be a more important part of the offense.”

Because of the volatility, it’s easy to overreact. What you’re reading here hopefully is not seen as an overreaction. This is simply a summation of the inconsistency we’ve seen this season. While there are many possible ways to sum up the Bears’ offensive failures, Marshall’s take is the best:

"

We make the same mistakes. Same mistakes. Same mistakes. We've got to protect the football. We've got to execute the game plan. We've got to adjust when things don't go as we saw on film. We've got Alshon Jeffery, Martellus Bennett, Matt Forte ... We've got a stud offensive line. We've got a great, great group of guys, and this is unacceptable. What did we put up? 14 points? That's unacceptable. That's unacceptable.

"

The two names Marshall excluded: Trestman and Cutler; the two guys who continue to make the “same mistakes.”

All quotes pulled from the postgame transcripts unless otherwise noted.