Maybe it’s one of those situations where no matter what Jay Cutler does, he’s wrong.
If he shows no emotion and doesn’t gesticulate emphatically that Kevin White hadn’t gone where the wide receiver was supposed to be on a third-quarter pass attempt, resulting in a game-turning interception, Cutler’s being inert.
If he does give that arm-wave in White’s direction, effectively letting the nearly 72,000 fans in NRG Stadium and beyond know that the young player in his first game has screwed up, he’s showing up a teammate.
For all of his attitude signs over the years, Cutler in fact does react forcefully, if not always pointing the thumb instead of the finger.
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It would not be the first time that Cutler has given a verbal or body-language shot at a teammate, or offensive coordinator for that matter. That has happened less frequently in recent years. And at least publicly his head coach is OK with the demonstration of frustration.
“It’s an emotional game,” said coach John Fox. “I think … I can’t expect people not to show emotion. I don’t think any of that’s intentional. They’re just all competitors. They want good things to happen and when bad things happen, there’s probably an element of frustration with a lot of people.”
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Then he added: “I’m kind of glad you didn’t see my reaction at that point.”
For his part, Cutler did not downplay the mistake after the Bears’ 24-13 loss to the Texans. If anything, he reverted to a calmer base course of behavior, something a young receiver, who absolutely will make mistakes, needs as a steadying and reassuring hand.
“I’ll talk to Kevin about it, but it’s the first game out there,” Cutler said. “[The pass] left my hands, so it’s my responsibility… .
“We need him. He’s going to be fine. We’re not worried about him. We like our group of receivers out there. I thought they made some plays for us. There were a few times they needed better balls. I’m going to play better. As a whole offensively, we’re going to play better.”