Thrill Shots

At least that’s out of the way.

His debut with a new team against its biggest rival on national television was hardly the ideal time for Jay Cutler to have the worst game of his sterling young career.  He threw four interceptions and only one touchdown as his Chicago Bears lost to the Green Bay Packers 21-15 on Sunday night.

The game was strange, and often nightmarish for Bears fans, after so much anticipation for the debut of their first franchise quarterback in decades.  The first half was riddled with Cutler’s bad decisions.  Injuries to key players popped up around every turn for the Bears, as Btian Urlacher, Dez Clark, Pisa Tinoisamoa and Trumaine McBride all left the game with various ailments.

Important to note was that the defense had an outstanding game overall, giving up only one legitimate touchdown drive, albeit the game-deciding one.  They were able to pressure Aaron Rodgers, sacking him four times including once in the end zone for a safety.  If the defense can continue to pressure quarterbacks with that type of success, the Bears may be in even better shape than I thought they’d be this year.

As for Cutler, there is little to say.  He’s one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, and he had the worst game of his career.  These things happen.  Assuming his career doesn’t devolve into some sort of cosmic death spiral – and that Matt Forte can have better success finding running lanes – the Bears will win their share.

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As for the rest of the league, it was a hell of an entertaining day, even if my picks were unceremoniously blown to smithereens.  Here are a few quick hits on the other games.

- NFL RedZone Channel is quite a thing.  Hard to get into the rhythm of individual games, but if you like seeing the big plays and scoring, and enjoy seeing the results of all the games as quickly as possible, it is fantastic.

- Drew Brees and Adrian Peterson both showed why they’re the best at what they do.

- Kyle Orton’s spectacular string of mediocre skills and magnificent luck continued with an immaculate reception that turned his Broncos debut loss into a shocking win.

- Mark Sanchez had a nice debut; Matt Stafford?  Not so much.

- I can’t believe I picked the Rams to win 9 games.  They may not score 9 points.

- I still see nothing in the 49ers; that game only showed me that the Cardinals were more lucky than good this past January.

- The Bengals sure do find interesting ways to lose, don’t they?

- The Giants are still going to win the Super Bowl.  I have a feeling.

- Tennessee put up an impressive fight against Pittsburgh on Thursday night.  I hope to see a rematch in January between those two teams, because that’d be a fun one with the Lamar Hunt trophy on the line.