Jay Cutler may have bought Brandon Marshall’s condo, but he’s all but destroyed the Chicago Bears foundation to do it.
Well, check that. In all fairness, the Bears’ demolition of a season hasn’t solely come at Cutler’s bumbling hands. Coach Marc Trestman, unflinching enabler and protector of his erratic and interception-prone quarterback that he is, surely has proven to be just as destructive to what should be the common cause.
That’s why when Marshall joked to the media this week about his “really nice condo” and how he and Cutler’s propensity for making big plays together largely affords him such levels of opulence paying Bears’ fans fail to see the humor.
And how could they given the nightmare this season seems to be quickly spiraling into? After beginning training camp projected by some as legitimate Super Bowl contenders, the 3-4 Bears now rate as less than average in every viable department. That all starts with Cutler, just as far too many of the team’s would-be drives seem to end with yet another of his boneheaded miscues.
All the frustration was enough for Marshall to take his quarterback to task in the wake of his latest meltdown during last Sunday’s 27-14 loss to Miami, leaving the team winless at Soldier Field and, with Dallas and New Orleans left to make visits, not presented with many promising prospects of improving on that anytime soon.
In each of the Bears’ losses, the man assured and guaranteed of pocketing at least $54 million has turned the ball over multiple times at the most costly times, paving the way for opponents to now average a whopping 9.25 points off such screw-ups.
And the incompetence doesn’t end there. After ranking in the top five in offense last season, the Bears now rate as No. 17, and after finishing 2013 tied for second in scoring they currently rank at No. 13.
“Same mistakes, same mistakes, same mistakes,” Marshall bemoaned to ESPN during his short stint of brevity. “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 the film.”
But how do those things truly matter when Marc Trestman, no matter what, seems to be totally tuned out where the shortcomings of Jay Cutler are concerned? How much can the players really do to change things when their coach won’t even admit that teammates like Marshall might be justified in demanding more accountability from their best-paid star?
“I don’t think that was the case at all yesterday,” he said of rumors of Marshall calling out Cutler. “What I understood happened after the game was players expressing themselves in different ways, at their disappointment in the loss. I don’t think it’s anything more than that. I’ve heard players express themselves dramatically in wins, too, that they were angry we didn’t win the right way or that we weren’t as good as we can be.”
But the Bears aren’t winning and they definitely aren’t playing the right way, leaving Marshall with every conceivable reason to be peeved. And much of that ire can rightfully be cast in the direction of Jay Cutler and Marc Trestman.
