Jay Cutler Beat The Packers Because He’s ‘More Gutsy Than Good’

Oh God. We love Rick Telander. He wrote Heaven is a Playground. He’s beyond reproach.

But this was just horrendous:

Cutler took a shot to the helmet and jaw in the fourth quarter from Packers rookie headhunter Frank Zombo -- as he was throwing -- that would have knocked out many a man. Cutler threw what would have been an interception on the play, but it was overruled because of the helmet-to-helmet penalty. And he swiftly set up the Bears for Robbie Gould’s field goal that tied the score at 17.

And by “set up the Bears” he means... “Got lucky with a pass interference penalty that single-handedly guaranteed the Bears success.” All part of a column called Jay Cutler’s More Gutsy Than Good, But He Gets The Job Done. Which... Gutsy? GUTSY???

We’re talking about THE Jay Cutler, right?

Jay Cutler is a lot of things--including good, probably--but gutsy seems like a stretch, even after he took a hit “that would have knocked out many a man,” as Telander writes. And there was this, too:

Yes, it was more than Bears quarterback Jay Cutler vs. Rodgers, but if that was all you noticed in the Bears’ 20-17 victory, you can be forgiven.

The pair are about as good as it gets in the NFL right now, though there are several other quarterbacks with a lot more real credentials -- Peyton Manning and Drew Brees come swiftly to mind.

Did we just compare Jay Cutler to Peyton Manning and Drew Brees? Did we just give him credit for a game decided by penalties and Devin Hester? And seriously, who called Jay Cutler gutsy?

I understand that sportswriters have trouble processing excitement over a game in which nobody really played well, but let’s not resort to outright heresy here. Jay Cutler is not gutsy, he’s not Peyton Manning, and last night’s game wasn’t Aaron Rodgers vs. Jay Cutler. If anything, it’s an insult to Cutler.

He’s so talented and “good”, it doesn’t even matter that his teammates think he’s gutless.

You know what they say, though: Never let the quarterback’s diva-like tendencies get in the way of a good, meaningless, borderline insulting sportswriter cliche. “More gutsy than good.” Ahh... Just sounds like (terrible, lazy, cliched) sports journalism.