Cutler, Bears make Luck loser in debut with Colts

CBSSports.com wire reports
Sep. 9, 2012

CHICAGO -- Jay Cutler and Brandon Marshall weren't about to let Andrew Luck upstage them. Instead, they played like they'd never been apart.

Cutler threw for 333 yards and two touchdowns, Marshall added 119 yards receiving with a TD, and the Chicago Bears spoiled Luck's debut, beating the Indianapolis Colts 41-21 Sunday in the season opener.

"We got the guys," Marshall said. "We have the pieces. We have the coaches."

Matt Forte ran for 80 yards and a touchdown to go with 40 yards receiving. Newcomer Michael Bush added two TD runs, and the defense did its part, holding Luck in check.

He was 23 of 45 for 309 yards with a 4-yard TD pass to Donnie Avery early in the fourth. But Luck also lost a fumble, got sacked three times and threw three interceptions -- two to Tim Jennings -- in an up-and-down start for a rookie with huge shoes to fill. All he has to do is prove the Colts were right to take him with the No. 1 pick in the draft and part with Peyton Manning after he missed last season with a neck injury.

"There will be a lot of positives, a lot of negatives, we'll try to learn from it," Luck said. "I'm still disappointed fresh off what happened but we'll get over it."

Reggie Wayne, one of Manning's old targets, caught nine passes for 135 yards. But it was a familiar result for a team with new management and a new coach in Chuck Pagano after winning just two games.

Then again, it was hardly a surprise.

The Bears are eyeing big things, and they wound up with their highest point total since they scored 48 in a win over Detroit on Oct. 4, 2009.

With their Pro Bowl running back and strong-armed quarterback leading the way, they racked up 428 yards -- 287 while building a 10-point halftime lead - in their first game with Mike Tice as coordinator.

Forte's 6-yard run early in the third quarter and Robbie Gould's field goal after LaVon Brazill fumbled away the ensuing kickoff made it 34-14.

Cutler shook off a rough start and completed 21 of 35 passes. He got sacked by Robert Mathis for a 12-yard loss on the game's first play from scrimmage, a familiar site for the Bears, and had an interception returned 3 yards for a touchdown by Jerrell Freeman on the second possession. But Chicago caught a big break when the Colts' Dwight Freeney left with a sprained an ankle in the first quarter.

The Bears believe they are poised for a playoff run after injuries wrecked a promising season a year ago, sending them to an 8-8 finish. New general manager Phil Emery revamped the roster and brought in a go-to receiver, reuniting Cutler with his old friend from Denver in Marshall in that blockbuster trade with Miami.

"The chemistry he has with 15 (Marshall) dating back to their time together showed up today," Pagano said.

Cutler said the opportunities for Marshall to make plays were there.

"I thought Indy, they weren't really scared of him," Cutler said. "They were going to let him make plays if he was capable of making plays. They wanted to stop the run, and they were going to play man against us and try to beat us outside."

One big concern is Brian Urlacher's left knee after he initially injured it in the finale last season and had it scoped last month. The eight-time Pro Bowl linebacker practiced this week for the first time since July 31, and there was some thought that he should sit this one out, with a trip to Green Bay on Thursday. Instead, he started and coach Lovie Smith pulled him from the game after things got out of hand even though he wanted to stay in it.

"I don't like to leave the game, but he's the head coach, so I do what he says," Urlacher said.

Pro Bowl cornerback Charles Tillman limped off the field with what Smith said was a lower leg injury. He appeared to be favoring his right leg after Indianapolis punted on its first possession and came back for the next defensive series before sitting out the rest of the way.

The Colts were missing receiver Austin Collie, who was held out because of a concussion, and their defense took a hit when Freeney rolled his ankle on a low block early in the game.

That happened on the Bears' first scoring drive, which wiped out a 7-0 deficit and quieted the groans that were rumbling through Soldier Field.

That sack on Cutler was an all-too-familiar sight, and Freeman's touchdown return on a short swing pass intended for Forte to start the second possession wasn't what the Bears had in mind.

"When you come out and give up a sack, that's not playing well," Forte said. "That's just a lack of effort right there, and then, we throw a pick-6. It's just we're not focusing. We had to get that out of the way, and as you could see, it looked like everybody was focused on all the drives after that."

They quickly erased that deficit, with a 32-yard run around the left end by Forte and a 15-yard spin through the middle leading to Bush's 1-yard scoring run. And they grabbed a 14-7 lead early in the second quarter on Cutler's 3-yard pass to Marshall. That came after a neat one-handed grab by Forte, who leapfrogged a defender while turning a short pass into a 31-yard gain.

A deep pass by Luck intended for Avery got picked off by a leaping Jennings. That led to a field goal by Gould, making it a 17-7, and the Bears led 24-14 at the half.

"Bad start to the game, great start to the season," Marshall said.

Notes

Freeney was scheduled for an MRI. Colts RT Winston Justice left the game with a concussion. There was a moment of silence in the press box before the game in honor Associated Press sports writer Joe Mooshil, a fixture in Chicago who died Friday night at age 85.

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Luck good, not great, in debut, but we can't say the same of the pitiful Colts

Andrew Luck puts together a debut better than Peyton Manning's. (AP)

CHICAGO -- Andrew Luck is going to be good, and I mean really good, and Sunday confirmed it. Yes, this Sunday, when Luck completed barely half his passes and had three interceptions and one touchdown. Most times, a quarterback who puts up those numbers has had a bad game.

Andrew Luck did not have a bad game.

What Luck had was a bad team.

The Colts are lousy. I mean, awful. From an overall talent standpoint, there's not much difference between the 2011 and 2012 Colts. And the 2011 Colts went 2-14. Do I expect the same out of the 2012 Colts? No, because Andrew Luck is very good. But he's not good enough to turn this collection of chicken crap into chicken salad, so the Colts will not be appearing in the playoffs or even winning half their games. Not with those receivers, that running game, that offensive line. (To say nothing of the defense. Yeesh.)

And still, even with those receivers, that running game, that offensive line, Andrew Luck threw for 309 yards on the road in his NFL debut. He didn't win it -- didn't come close -- but the Colts' 41-21 loss Sunday to the Bears wasn't an indictment of Andrew Luck.

It was an indictment of the Colts.

It was a testament to the ability of Luck that the game was this close, frankly, because the 2011 Colts -- quarterbacked by an ugly monster named Kerry Paintlovsky -- wouldn't have been as competitive as the Colts were Sunday, when Luck drove them 80 yards for a fourth-quarter touchdown that cut the Bears' lead to 34-21. Get a stop after that and ... oh. Never mind. The Bears answered that Indianapolis touchdown with one of their own, tearing thru the Colts' defense for 80 yards in seven plays to make the score 41-21.

Because the Colts are lousy.

But not Andrew Luck. He's not lousy -- not even close. In fact, an argument can be made that Luck's NFL debut (22 of 43 for 309 yards, one touchdown, three interceptions) was more promising than that of Peyton Manning, the franchise quarterback he's replacing. In his NFL debut, against the Miami Dolphins, Manning was 21 of 37 for 302 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions.

Nearly identical debuting numbers from 1998 Manning to 2012 Luck, but with some major discrepancies. Manning was playing at home, Luck on the road. Manning had Tarik Glenn, an eventual three-time Pro Bowler, protecting his blind side; Luck has Anthony Castonzo, a second-year pro who hasn't (yet?) distinguished himself. Neither had great receiving corps -- Manning had Marvin Harrison and some junk; Luck has Reggie Wayne and some junk -- but Manning's running back was Marshall Faulk. Luck's running back is Donald Brown.

And still, Luck looked pretty good Sunday. He looked great only on a handful of occasions, but he never looked bad, not even on his interceptions. The Bears made a great play on one of them, a diving tip by cornerback Tim Jennings that ended up in the hands of safety Chris Conte. Another was a leaping catch in the end zone by Jennings on the Colts' final drive, when Luck was just chucking it, odds be damned, because there were less than two minutes left and his team needed three touchdowns and Luck, naive youngster that he is, thought they could still win it.

The only bad interception Luck threw comes with an asterisk of sorts. It was early in the second quarter, and one of the Bears jumped offsides. Or so Luck thought. Thinking it was a free play, Luck took a shot downfield, throwing a 50-50 ball in the vicinity of receiver Donnie Avery and -- yes -- cornerback Tim Jennings. As he did all game, Jennings won this battle. After throwing it, Luck looked around for the flag and realized his error.

"Never," Luck said, "assume anything in this league."

Lesson learned. There will be more lessons, of course, as Luck continues to struggle through his first year. He has some Jay Cutler in him, that confidence that says he can squeeze a ball through a tiny window, and he'll need to get past that. Cutler still hasn't, which is one reason why Cutler has six seasons and 78 career starts -- but only one playoff victory to his credit.

That playoff figure could change this season, by the way. This story's about Luck, so you won't read much about Cutler here, but the 2012 Bears look potent. Certainly this is the franchise's best-looking offense in years, and defense has not often been the issue in Chicago. On Sunday, Cutler overcame a 1-for-10 start, including a dreadful pick-six that gave the Colts a 7-0 lead, to finish with 333 passing yards and a solid 98.9 passer rating. After his slow start, Cutler was 20 of 25 for 320 yards, two touchdowns and no picks.

Some day Luck will put up great numbers like that (20 of 25, 320 yards, two scores, no picks) because he's going to be a great quarterback. He's not there yet, but it'll happen sooner than later. Sunday showed that. The Bears collapsed the pocket all game, because it's like I've been saying -- the Colts' offensive line, much like the team itself, is lousy -- but Luck moved around the pocket with composure, repeatedly creating extra time to make a pass.

"He did a great job of being mobile in the pocket and finding different receivers," Bears coach Lovie Smith said. "He's definitely going to win a lot of games."

Well, slow down. Smith was wrong about one fact in that quote, the one about "finding different receivers." Luck wasn't great at that, but that's not Luck's fault. More than half (15) of his 23 completions went to Wayne or rookie tight end Coby Fleener. Luck targeted that duo 28 times, including 18 just for Wayne. Why? Because the rest of the receiving corps isn't any good.

Not that Luck would say that.

"I'm not talking to myself, 'Where's Reggie, where's Reggie, where's Reggie,'" Luck said. "I think he just ... seems to be in the right place at the right time."

Eventually, if he's lucky, the Colts will surround Luck with more players like Wayne, just as the 1998 Colts surrounded Manning with more players like Harrison and Faulk. Meantime, the Colts are going to lose more than they win -- just as they did in 1998, when they went 3-13 with Peyton Manning.

These things take time, which means the pressure right now isn't on the Colts' quarterback. It's on the Colts' front office.

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