Bears, Cutler, glad that Bills game was first preseason game

By Edward Kensik  |   Thursday, August 20, 2009  |  Comments( 0 )

Chicago Bears
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Talk shows have been all abuzz about the first exhibition openers, but when you look back at the 2009 season for the Bears, many will not point to Saturday’s 27-20 loss to the Buffalo Bills as a turning point each way.

Many were over-analyzing quarterback Jay Cutler’s comments about wide receiver Devin Hester in that he did not come back to get the ball. Some were taken aback, but these are the same people who want the athletes to be more outspoken. Cutler was and he shrugged it off as being the first preseason game and there is more work to do.

That really can sum up the first preseason game.

For new quarterback Jay Cutler (5-of-10 pass attempts for 64 yards), it was to get a peak of him in the Bears’ offense. It was not much, but for Chicago, they were sort of at a disadvantage.

Buffalo already had an exhibition game in hand, the Hall of Fame game against Tennessee so you could tell especially that the Bills offense was still in gear. Trent Edwards went 10-for-10 against the Bears defense.

For Cutler the next two preseason games will be important against a very good team in the Giants on Saturday at 7 p.m. Central Time and then back home in Denver on August 30 at 7 p.m., Central Time.

The new quarterback is still getting his feet wet in Ron Turner’s offense and it did not help with running back Matt Forte and tight end Greg Olsen not in the lineup on Saturday. Both have minor injuries and basically why acerbate their injuries in the first preseason game.

Despite the accolades, it will take time for Cutler to get going in this offense. Also, the Bears wide outs are not as good as the Broncos group led by Brandon Marshall and Eddie Royal.

But that does not mean that some of the group of these wide receivers will become the next Royal. The Vanderbilt product though should not think that this is Denver East because the Bears have not been known to throw the ball, barring one of the years of Rex Grossman and Erik Kramer‘s glorious pass-happy season of 1995.

For Cutler it was a mediocre performance, but the Bears performance was typical of a first preseason contest. There were some players that showed some promise especially the two guys that caught touchdown passes in wide receiver Juaquin Iglesias, third round pick from Oklahoma, and fullback Will Ta'ufo'ou, a fullback rookie from California.

In terms of the backup race, Caleb Hanie definitely is in the driver’s seat to at least beat out Brett Basanez. While Basanez did throw three interceptions, two of those were not his fault, but you could definitely tell that Hanie (8-of-11 for 87 yards) had a better command with the team that might help from this being his second season with the Bears.

Depending on how Hanie plays in the next two games, he could either back up Cutler or you could see Bears general manager Jerry Angelo looking over the waiver wire for a veteran quarterback.

While wide receiver Iglesias looked very good, the other top rookie wide receiver Johnny Knox attributed to one of Basanez's interceptions.

Also, Al Afalava, the rookie afety, who is a sixth round draft pick from Oregon St., was everywhere on the field and showed that he might be a guy that could be very useful. Defensive end Mark Anderson is looking to put 2008 away and hoping to benefit from the arrival of Rod Marinelli as the new defensive lineman coach.

But overall it was the first opportunity to hit someone else. The Bears do not scrimmage against other teams like some especially the teams that have camps in Wisconsin.

One player though who will need to be impressive in the next couple of weeks is veteran defensive back Nathan Vasher, who was burned a few times against Buffalo. Three of the four starting defensive backs were out for the Bills game.

But for the Bears, there will be no excuses after the Giants game. They have one game under their belt and will need to show some improvement against a quality team be it Cutler or his group of receivers.
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