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The big play is back in the Chicago Bears offense, and it bodes well for the season's second half even if it might mean nothing in terms of playoff chances. At worst, it temporarily relieves some pressure building on the Bears as they continue their rebuilding process.
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The Chicago offense appears more capable of challenging defenses all over the field and breaking big gains now after Jay Cutler recovered from a thumb sprain and brought the deep ball back to Alshon Jeffery back to the offense in a 20-10 victory Monday over the Minnesota Vikings.
"We played a full 60 minutes, played both halves well," Jeffery said. "We've just got to build on it."
The offense scored more than 17 points for only the second time and the gateway was Cutler to Jeffery. With their potential for stretching defenses restored, the Bears not only found achieving bigger chunks of yardage easier, but also had an easier task consistently achieving smaller gains.
Jeffery came into the game with only six catches of 20 yards or longer and Cutler had thrown half of them -- even though he had played only 1 1/2 games.
Against the Vikings, Cutler found Jeffery for a 34-yard catch down the sidelines with a back-shoulder throw early, and it opened the way for even more big gains by the whole offense.
"I told him that I'm just going to keep coming to you," Cutler said. "We wanted to get him vertical at some point in the game.
"To get him going is huge because he's such a big part of this offense."
Cutler shook off rust early but got the Bears into the red zone twice in two tries, one to Jeffery. The previous three games they'd gone 2-for-7 in the red zone at scoring TDs.
The scoring and dominant all-around performance on both sides of the football left Chicago with a more positive feeling heading into the second half of the year.
The defense forced punts on seven of Minnesota's first eight possessions and had four three-and-outs -- a problem area most of the year.
"We need to start climbing that hill," defensive end Akiem Hicks said.
The 1-6 start had left Bears fans apparently disinterested. Empty seats have been obvious the past two games at Solider Field.
A report by NFL Network last week said the Bears organization hired an outside consultant to look at the organization and team because of the failures. Everything from coach John Fox's failures to Cutler's lack of leadership to general manager Ryan Pace seemed the target of the story, and it pointed out a potential rift between management and coaching.
"You know, there's a lot of reports," Fox said. "I've dealt with reports for some time now. When you're 1-6, that's what you expect. I think that's part of the business. This is a tough profession, or it can be. But everyone is compensated well, we all sign up for it and we get it.
"But I can tell you there is no truth to that report. This is as unified of an organization and a football team that I've ever been associated with. The National Enquirer has a lot of reports too."
It would appear the Bears found a way heading into the bye week to silence such talk.
"They've stuck together all this time," Fox said. "It hasn't been easy at 1-6 -- nobody's satisfied with that. But they've remained close, they've worked hard, and they've had a great attitude. We're excited to get some time away, heal some guys up and come back for the second half of the season."
