I consistently ranked the Bears lower than their record suggested in my Power Rankings and I never bet heavily for one reason. I never trusted them. I never trusted them to win 3 or 4 games in a row to win a Super Bowl and I never trusted them enough on a weekly basis to bet heavily on them, especially as favorites. My reasoning was their lack of consistency.

They had some great performances this year. Don’t get me wrong. However, there was that 9 sack game against New York, that 4 pick game against Washington, their home loss to Seattle, their 36-7 loss to New England, their season finale against Green Bay where they only scored 3 points, I just didn’t trust them. I expected them at some point, at any point, to just bomb and have a terrible game. Turns out I was right as they did so in the NFC Championship game, only it was worse than I could have imagined.

They got down early 14-0 against Green Bay. Jay Cutler was 6-14 for 80 yards and a pick. However, he got “hurt.” He came out with a knee injury despite being able to walk around on the sideline. He was later spotted walking up stairs at dinner with his incredibly hot girlfriend Kristin Cavallari and thus it became “kneegate.” It was revealed he had a minor MCL tear the next day, but former and current NFL players still bashed his decision to sit because it was the NFC Championship. As Deion Sanders said, “you would have had to carry me out on a stretcher.”

I am in no position to question Cutler’s toughness, but fellow NFL players are. They played through injury before. They’ve played in Conference Championship games before. They’ve played in and won Super Bowls before. Yes, his teammates said all the right things after the game, but when do teammates ever not say all the right things after a game. Lovie Smith said it was his decision to bench Cutler, but even if that is true, it speaks volumes about Cutler that Lovie Smith would bench him for Todd freakin Collins if he wasn’t badly hurt. Besides, you can always fight to stay in the game.

I’ve never liked Cutler. I’ve  never liked his body language. I’ve never liked his attitude (John Elway and John Lynch, two Hall of Famers, have antecodes about his inability to listen during his time in Denver). I’ve never liked that he hasn’t won on any level. I’ve never liked how many picks he throws.

The Bears look like they will stand behind him, but I’d trade him and get a veteran and picks (Donovan McNabb and 2 future picks?), draft a mid round backup to groom behind him and keep the promising Caleb Hanie as 3^rd quarterback. This is a talented team, with a good defense and experienced coaches, but, as has been the case for 20+ years, they appear to be a quarterback short of a Super Bowl.