Benched and ridiculed Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler has thrown 332 passes when his team has been behind, a clear indicator that he's usually in scramble mode, which can make it tough to play quarterback in the NFL.

Even more telling, 213 of those passes have come when the Bears have been behind by nine or more points.

To put that in context, here are the pass attempts from behind for the quarterbacks of some of the league's best teams, with their attempts behind by nine or more points in parentheses.

 

 

The disparity is unreal. It's a reflection of how poorly the Bears have been on defense this season, ranking dead last in points allowed. That leads to a quarterback pressing. That's when mistakes are made.  Here's another stat: When Cutler and the Bears went to the NFC Championship Game after the 2010 season, he only attempted 63 passes when trailing by nine or more points.

Cutler has 18 interceptions this season, tops in the league, but only three of those have come in the first quarter, the fewest he's thrown in any quarter. Seven of his interceptions have come on attempts 30 and above in games. That's scramble mode.

Yet as Cutler heads to the bench, replaced by Jimmy Clausen in one of the strangest moves a coaching staff has ever made, he leaves vilified by the NFL media and fans alike.

Yes, his body language is terrible at times. Yes, he makes pouty faces and seems to be bothered to be on the field. That's disturbing. That's something that has to change.

 

Jay Cutler has been benched by the Bears.
Jay Cutler has been benched by the Bears. (USATSI)

But that's not a reason to sit a guy down. That's a reason to sit a guy down and talk some sense into him.

Too much is made of body language. When Tom Brady was yanked in Kansas City earlier this year, he sat on the bench and pouted like a 2-year-old. Nobody said a word. It's different for different players.

Cutler has brought a lot of this heat on himself because he does act disinterested at times. But let's get back to the field.

He is completing 66.1 percent of his passes, a career best. He has 28 touchdown passes, a career best. Only five quarterbacks have more TD passes this season. I will say that the yards-per-attempt average being just 6.9 is a bit concerning, but the tape shows the line and the protections have something to do with that.  Matt Forte's rushing numbers are down, too. Is anybody talking about that?

I went back and studied the Saints game from Monday night. Cutler wasn't good, completing 17 of 30 passes for 194 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions. But it's hard to pin it all on him. On his first interception, a poorly thrown ball inside to tight end Martellus Bennett, the tight end made a half-assed attempt to catch it. Bad throw. Bad effort.

Later in the game, I found Alshon Jeffrey jogging a route. Take a look.

 

 

Is that on Cutler?

The protection wasn't good either. Here's a play that highlights the trouble last week against the Saints.

 

 

You can see Cutler come to the line and identify the blitz coming inside. The line was ready for it. They did a good job of picking it up. But the problem was Bennett didn't get over to cut off outside linebacker Kesim Edeball. Cutler first tried to throw to his left quickly, but it was covered. When he came back to the other side, Edeball was in his face. He had to pull it down. When he did, Josh Morgan broke free on a scramble route, but Cutler didn't see him as the rush closed in on him. It was a sack. Cutler wasn't perfect on the play. But it's hard to fault him on this one.

That doesn't mean he is without blame. When he was intercepted in the third quarter trying to hit Jeffrey down the right sideline, he did a poor job of holding the safety with his eyes. His pass, which should have been a touchdown, floated and free safety Pierre Warren came over and made a nice play to pick it off. That was on Cutler.

This wasn't a pretty game by any standards for Cutler. But it was ugly in a lot of ways for the entire offense.

I think it goes back to being an offense that has to press on every possession, taking the field knowing the defense is horrible. It's been that way all year. It's hard to win as an offense with that mindset. It's hard to play well as a quarterback with that mindset.

I am not absolving Cutler of all the blame. There are times he makes decisions that make you wonder if he knows what he's doing. And I certainly think his contract is way too much, even if the Bears had little in terms of alternative if they didn't give him that extension last year.

Wasn't coach Marc Trestman, the so-called offensive guru, supposed to fix all of Cutler's and the offense's issues? Instead he's pointing the blame at Cutler and sitting him down.

For Jimmy Clausen? What's the point? To try and prove Trestman wasn't the issue? That his system works? It doesn't.

Blame Cutler all you want, but he is clearly not alone for the offensive struggles.  Does he manage the game the way many in the media seemingly want their quarterbacks to play the game? No, but you can't do that with a defense that is essentially a doormat. Give him the Seattle defense and then judge.

Cutler is an easy target and the low-hanging fruit of quarterback evaluations. It's easy to call him this generation's Jeff George, a pretty thrower with a big arm and a little football brain.

But look deeper into the numbers and you will see why he's struggled at times. Then again, why would anybody want to do that when it's just so easy to bash the guy?