Sources: Cutler broken thumb; likely out rest of reg season

[SouthSideRyan]

Why is everyone convinced the Lions are in?

[ctcf]

Just when I was starting to believe the Bears were a legitimate threat in the NFC. That really sucks for you guys, but I can't say that I'm unhappy about this development.

 

I don't feel like our season was robbed from us, as I recognize just how lucky we were with injuries last year. Not that this has any effect on injuries suffered this year, but it doesn't feel as unfair due to how fortunate we were last year.

 

This is the king of all injuries, dude. Explain to me why this never happens to a Packer QB?

 

Don Majkowski got injured.

 

 

Enough about the Packers. They lost half their team last year and still won the Superbowl. I know that Packer fans are too afraid of the backlash to say anything here, but this stuff makes Bears fans seem really bitter.

 

That said, this blows. Who knows? Maybe Caleb Hanie is actually good. Tom Brady did pretty well when Bledsoe went down. Gulp. I just compared Caleb Hanie to Tom Brady.

 

While that is pretty much impossible, he certainly can't be as bad as Collins, which means we've certainly got a chance.

[chuckywang]

Why is everyone convinced the Lions are in?

 

I say they go 3-3. That puts them at 10-6 ... should be good enough.

[bukie]

Yeah after watching the game tonight, I feel a bit better about that. Dallas wins the East and the Giants fade. That leaves us and Atlanta for the 6 seed, and we hold the tiebreaker over them, so they would need to go 5-1 to even have a chance unless we really [expletive] the bed without Cutler.

Why do you assume Detroit gets the 5 seed? Have you seen their schedule from here on out?

[UMFan83]

Its so weird watching Cutler's postgame press conference, no kind of protection on his thumb, no mention of any sort of injury, just talking about the game and the season as if he is going to be a major part of it. Combine that with not one sign of injury shown on TV during the game, and this is a really bizarre, completely out of nowhere injury. I don't think I could have been less prepared to hear about the injury and its severity. Talk about being blindsided. I even cleaned the house today after the game because I was in such a good mood because of the win.

[Guest]

Its so weird watching Cutler's postgame press conference, no kind of protection on his thumb, no mention of any sort of injury, just talking about the game and the season as if he is going to be a major part of it. Combine that with not one sign of injury shown on TV during the game, and this is a really bizarre, completely out of nowhere injury. I don't think I could have been less prepared to hear about the injury and its severity. Talk about being blindsided. I even cleaned the house today after the game because I was in such a good mood because of the win.

 

He was clearly rubbing the thumb/hand and looking at it way too much on the last drive of the game. I noted it but thought nothing of it when he actually threw the ball a few times on the drive.

[UMFan83]

Yeah after watching the game tonight, I feel a bit better about that. Dallas wins the East and the Giants fade. That leaves us and Atlanta for the 6 seed, and we hold the tiebreaker over them, so they would need to go 5-1 to even have a chance unless we really [expletive] the bed without Cutler.

Why do you assume Detroit gets the 5 seed? Have you seen their schedule from here on out?

 

I dunno, I forgot to include them to be honest. It is possibly that they could finish 2-4 or so, which would likely put the Bears ahead of them. Unfortunately, the tiebreaker is murky at best, it doesn't look horrible for the Bears, but its not great either. Considering the Bears will almost surely lose to GB, if we beat Minnesota, we will finish the division 3-3. Detroit is 2-1 with 2 games left against the Packers and one against the Vikings. However, one of the Packers games is week 17. If Detroit and the Bears tie in division record, it goes to record in common games. The 2 non common games between the 2 teams is SF (L) and DAL (W) for the Lions and SEA (?) and PHI (W) for the Bears. This means that if they tie at lets say 10-6, the Lions would win the tiebreaker by having a 9-5 record in common games, while the Bears would have an 8-6, assuming they beat Seattle.

 

If it does get to conference record, it looks good for the Bears. Bears currently lead 6-3 to 5-3, with the Bears having 3 conference games left (Sea, @GB, @ Min), Lions with 4 left (GB, @NO, MIN, @ GB). It's gonna be hard for Detroit to go even 2-2 in those 4 games, while the Bears have a good shot at going 2-1. If that holds, we get the tiebreaker. If we tie on that, we go to strength of victory, which I don't feel like figuring out.

[UMFan83]

Its so weird watching Cutler's postgame press conference, no kind of protection on his thumb, no mention of any sort of injury, just talking about the game and the season as if he is going to be a major part of it. Combine that with not one sign of injury shown on TV during the game, and this is a really bizarre, completely out of nowhere injury. I don't think I could have been less prepared to hear about the injury and its severity. Talk about being blindsided. I even cleaned the house today after the game because I was in such a good mood because of the win.

 

He was clearly rubbing the thumb/hand and looking at it way too much on the last drive of the game. I noted it but thought nothing of it when he actually threw the ball a few times on the drive.

 

Was that play where Cutler tied to dump a throw off towards Forte on the sidelines, but it slipped out of his hands and went like 3 feet in front of him after the injury or earlier in the game? I thought it was rather odd when he did that.

[JonJayCutler]

I think it's funny how everyone is running with the 6-8 weeks timeline when the Bears have not disclosed the particulars of the injury, including the exact location of the break and whether or not for sure he needs surgery. Jim Miller apparently said if the break is closer to the joint, he wouldn't need surgery and therefore wouldn't miss 6-8 weeks.

 

Still no word on the Bears site about the injury either. My kingdom for this being an internet hoax or at the very least an extremely exaggerated injury.

[bukie]

Here's how I see the NFC playing out:

- SF and GB clinch byes by Week 13

- DAL and NO win divisions

- NYG fade and finish 8-8 at best

- Any team with 4 wins or fewer doesn't finish better than 8-8 (I'm looking at TB and PHI, specifically...and SEA I guess?)

 

That leaves just the Bears, Lions and Falcons for two playoff spots. Of the three, the Bears have the easiest schedule remaining, and the Lions the toughest. Detroit could very well lose the next two vs. GB and @ NO. They also still need to travel to GB and Oakland and play San Diego. Even if they somehow pull a 3-3 out of that schedule, the Falcons are likely looking at a 4-2 finish.

 

That would mean that if the Bears go even 3-3 to finish, they're the 5 seed in the NFC.

[UMFan83]

I think it's funny how everyone is running with the 6-8 weeks timeline when the Bears have not disclosed the particulars of the injury, including the exact location of the break and whether or not for sure he needs surgery. Jim Miller apparently said if the break is closer to the joint, he wouldn't need surgery and therefore wouldn't miss 6-8 weeks.

 

Still no word on the Bears site about the injury either. My kingdom for this being an internet hoax or at the very least an extremely exaggerated injury.

 

Yeah John Mullin was on CSN a few minutes ago and stressed that nothing has been confirmed by the Bears, and that those running with the 6-8 week timeline are likely speculating based off of 1 report. Maybe we'll wake up and find out its determined that he will not have surgery and will play next week ha. It does seem weird how Jay seemed to show absolutely no concern in his post game press conference. Maybe he was hiding it well or maybe he didnt understand the severity of it at the time, or maybe there has been erroneous information out there being widely reported as fact.

 

I still think that's highly unlikely to be the case, as major media outlets like ESPN and CSN have deemed their information credible enough to report as fact.

[UMFan83]

Here's how I see the NFC playing out:

- SF and GB clinch byes by Week 13

- DAL and NO win divisions

- NYG fade and finish 8-8 at best

- Any team with 4 wins or fewer doesn't finish better than 8-8 (I'm looking at TB and PHI, specifically...and SEA I guess?)

 

That leaves just the Bears, Lions and Falcons for two playoff spots. Of the three, the Bears have the easiest schedule remaining, and the Lions the toughest. Detroit could very well lose the next two vs. GB and @ NO. They also still need to travel to GB and Oakland and play San Diego. Even if they somehow pull a 3-3 out of that schedule, the Falcons are likely looking at a 4-2 finish.

 

That would mean that if the Bears go even 3-3 to finish, they're the 5 seed in the NFC.

 

I hope so. How awesome would it be to have Jay coming back to play in the Wild Card round?

[JonJayCutler]

Here's how I see the NFC playing out:

- SF and GB clinch byes by Week 13

- DAL and NO win divisions

- NYG fade and finish 8-8 at best

- Any team with 4 wins or fewer doesn't finish better than 8-8 (I'm looking at TB and PHI, specifically...and SEA I guess?)

 

That leaves just the Bears, Lions and Falcons for two playoff spots. Of the three, the Bears have the easiest schedule remaining, and the Lions the toughest. Detroit could very well lose the next two vs. GB and @ NO. They also still need to travel to GB and Oakland and play San Diego. Even if they somehow pull a 3-3 out of that schedule, the Falcons are likely looking at a 4-2 finish.

 

That would mean that if the Bears go even 3-3 to finish, they're the 5 seed in the NFC.

 

This does make me feel better. We obviously weren't getting better than the 5th seed with Cutler anyway. The Bears first playoff game would be January 7th or 8th, which is exactly 7 weeks from now. Hanie should be able to keep us above water until then. Cutler played like crap in the Carolina, Tampa Bay, and 2nd Detroit game, all of which we won, dominating the latter two.

 

We'll be fine, but we should obviously continue hoping the injury is less serious than originally thought.

[UMFan83]

A shitty thing about this is that Soldier Field's turf, which our own players constantly bitch about, indirectly caused this to happen.

 

Knox slips and falls on his route leading to an INT, which leads to Cutler's injury.

[JonJayCutler]

A [expletive] thing about this is that Soldier Field's turf, which our own players constantly bitch about, indirectly caused this to happen.

 

Knox slips and falls on his route leading to an INT, which leads to Cutler's injury.

 

Don't worry, if Cutler doesn't break his thumb forcing that guy out of bounds, he probably scores and it's a 4-point game. The game then changes completely and we easily could have lost.

 

He died a hero.

[UMFan83]

A [expletive] thing about this is that Soldier Field's turf, which our own players constantly bitch about, indirectly caused this to happen.

 

Knox slips and falls on his route leading to an INT, which leads to Cutler's injury.

 

Don't worry, if Cutler doesn't break his thumb forcing that guy out of bounds, he probably scores and it's a 4-point game. The game then changes completely and we easily could have lost.

 

He died a hero.

 

Or the turf doesnt suck so Knox doesnt fall and gets a 7 yard completion in a drive the Bears eventually convert to a TD, giving an 18 point win to the increasingly dangerous Chicago Bears.

[Sammy Sofa]

You're really doing this.

[BigSlick]

Pretty unfortunate waking up to this news, but I'm not as devastated as I thought I'd be. I dunno...maybe just because knowing a wild card was the best we could do, I was gearing up for us to lose it in dramatic fashion too, a la the 2004 Cubs.

 

They were playing really well, Cutler was having his best season as a Bear, so its really unfortunate. It'll be interesting to see if Hanie can offer us anything, he can move around there, had a good arm, and has been in the system forever now, but super unlucky to have to go vs. a resurgent Raiders road game. I felt pretty confident with Cutler against them, now we're gonna need a strong game from everyone else.

[Wilson A2000]

Mark Bulger never retired and knows the system

[rawaction]

Just showed on ESPN that Cutler hurt it EARLY IN THE SECOND QUARTER. So, clearly he played over 1/2 a game with it, and made some pretty major throws. The deep ball to Knox. The fastball to Davis for the TD. The corner route to Bennett on the sidelines. This is a weird situation.

[rawaction]

Patrick Mannelly probably tore his ACL too to throw salt on the wound.

[Wilson A2000]

Patrick Mannelly probably tore his ACL too to throw salt on the wound.

 

No Desmond Clark

[UMFan83]

You're really doing this.

 

I'm not serious relax

[UMFan83]

Just showed on ESPN that Cutler hurt it EARLY IN THE SECOND QUARTER. So, clearly he played over 1/2 a game with it, and made some pretty major throws. The deep ball to Knox. The fastball to Davis for the TD. The corner route to Bennett on the sidelines. This is a weird situation.

 

 

What play was it? That's so odd because everyone else is saying it was on the int return and it kinda looks like it if you watch the replay. We're they reporting as fact or just speculating on when it might have occurred?

 

If that is when he injured it, I definitely makes me wonder why he can't play. He made some really nice throws in the 2nd half, which was his better and more accurate half of throwing the ball. I'm sure adrenaline helped mask the pain, but shouldn't be enough to overcome that sort of injury.

[Old Style]

I've stepped back from the ledge a bit. We should still make the playoffs, but even if Cutler comes back for the Wild Card game he will be quite rusty.

 

And I'm certainly not questioning his toughness, but if he played more than half the game with the injury why can't he continue to play and get surgery in the offseason?