Predictably boring. And for the fourth straight game the Bears were essentially dead even with their opponent, got a wonderful performance from their quarterback and the game was decided at the death. Rapid fire…

• Feel bad for Jeremy Langford. If he catches the ball, Bears can do no worse than overtime and knowing Cutler’s season, they probably win in regulation. Other than that moment Langford looks like a real back with a great burst through the hole.
• Tom Brady aside, Jay Cutler is the best fourth quarter QB in the sport right now. (Brady is the best everything.)
• If the Bears faced a better quarterback yesterday Mike Wallace might have had a career game. How wide open does Teddy Bridgewater need him to be?
• So how is Pernell McPhee’s sack on Bridgewater NOT a penalty? Isn’t that 100% always called now? He could have broken his leg.
• Fact that McPhee continues to produce with no help is astounding. How good is this guy gonna be when the opponent has to block someone else too?
• I think Alshon Jeffery is going to get his money.

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Pete Prisco is not for everybody’s taste but he is for mine. He, unlike many other national football writers, does the work. He studies every game. He evaluates players based upon his eyes not the consensus belief.

I strongly encourage Bears fans to take a few moments and read his entire column on Jay Cutler by CLICKING HERE. Here are some excerpts.

On his status with media & fans…

“I don’t think the people who see him on the sidelines see the real Jay,” said Bob Clayton, his high school coach. “They see the guy who they think doesn’t like playing, a guy who gets mad on the field. It’s just that he’s such a competitor.”

When I asked Cutler about all the negative talk, and his status as the most-persecuted quarterback in the league, he laughed loudly.

“I think I used to (let it bother me),” he said. “Now I am at a point where I really like the coaches I am with. I like the players in the locker room. That’s where my concentration is each and every day, just trying to get better with those guys. That’s all I can worry about.”

On the potential of his being traded…

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When I was a sophomore in high school, my JV football coach opened practice with telling us his new philosophy was going to be K.I.S.S. — Keep It Simple Stupid. The thought was that the less we had to think on the field, the better we would play. It might have worked if he didn’t then try to install Gary Crowton’s spread offense after the team ran the Wishbone the year before. The Bears aren’t going from the Wishbone to the spread, but they seem intent on simplifying what they’ve done in recent years and the result should be fewer big mistakes.

Mistakes were ultimately what did the Bears offense in last year.

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Following the 2013 season, a buddy of mine ran into a Broncos player at a booster event for a major university. My friend had one question for the player: What is it like to play with Peyton Manning? His response was he doesn’t play with Manning, he plays for Manning. He said Manning was the team’s head coach, offensive coordinator and quarterback. Everything they did revolved around what Manning wanted them to do.

John Fox was a successful head coach before he ever coached Manning. There are no questions about him. Adam Gase, however, is still a mystery that could prove crucial to the Bears season.

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2014 never happened. It never took place. It was a kind of perfect shit storm that rarely strikes an organization in professional sports. Last year’s Chicago Bears were not just a horrendous football team. They were a public disgrace; an alarming amalgam of overmatched and out-witted coaches, underperforming and over-chatty divas and straight up rats.

It never happened. Any of it. And understanding that concept allows one to draw an optimistic conclusion: the Bears 2015 offense has the talent and vision to carry the club through a successful campaign.

Does this mean they will be a playoff team? Perhaps not. A winning record? Possible if not likely. What this means is they will be competitive week to week. They will line up and play sixteen professional games whilst delivering sixteen professional performances. They will be an enjoyable experience for their loyal fans.

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Adam Gase has to love this opportunity.

He has one of the league’s top backs, one of the league’s top tight ends, a terrific receiving corps (especially if Kevin White makes an immediate impact) and a quarterback that can make every throw. The unit has two holes: health/production from right tackle and the decision-making of the quarterback. Gase’s system should mitigate both to an extent with a run-heavy approach and quick, timing throws. Gase is going to be a head coach in 2016.

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There was a popular refrain sung on social media about midway through the 2014 season, denigrating General Manager of Christmas Past Phil Emery for building a fantasy team on offense. The connotation of this accusation seemed to be that the Bears offense was a collection of talented individuals who somehow did not work as a unit. The string quartet brought together two brilliant violins, a heartbreaking cellist and virtuoso violist but their  performance lacked cohesion.

Now, unless fantasy football has changed drastically since I last played (Marshall Faulk won me a fantasy title in my last year involved), the object of the game is production. Productive players equal fantasy points equal victories equal a nice pile of cash men can hide from their wives to use at strip clubs with oddly vague names like Sensations.

Only Chicago Bears fans, who’ve had maybe six great skill players in the organization’s history, could wage the complaint “We’ve got too many productive players on offense!”

Phil Emery made mistakes as Bears GM, most notably hiring the worst head coach in team history.

But Emery deserves nothing but praise for this assemblage of offensive talent. The Bears, the damn Chicago Bears, have two top receivers, a top tight end and two top guards. (Yes, Matt Slauson is a top guard. His absence was THE major factor in the offensive line’s decline in 2015.) The team also has one of the league’s finest backs and a productive quarterback. 2013’s offensive production was not an aberration or anomaly. It was the proper output from one of the league’s most talented units.

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Two things on this hire.

• Adam Gase has never actually called plays. He has never told his quarterback to run “X right wide 7 triple diaper dance.” The system in place between he and Peyton Manning was Gase sending in a handful of options to Manning and Manning making the decision at the line of scrimmage. Gase made suggestions. He did not make calls. Should this be a cause for concern? No. Because, and I shall repeat this often, the Bears will be running John Fox’s offense. He is a head coach, not just a defensive-minded head coach. (Spoiler alert: this will not stop fans from placing all their blame on the OC moving forward.)
• Notion that Gase and Brandon Marshall can not co-exist is poppycock. If the Bears are planning to move on from Marshall – and I’m not sure how that works financially – fine. But if they let a talent such as Marshall’s leave the organization because two adult males can’t get along, they are wrong to do so.

Adam Gase may be the best young assistant coach in the NFL. He may be the next great head coach in the NFL. But there is one major issue facing his candidacy, illustrated perfectly by a Google image search of his name.

The issue: Gase doesn’t come with #18.

So who is Adam Gase?

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