GREEN BAY, Wis. — Now would be a good time for Bears fans to tell their quarterback to please, please, please tone it down.

Like everybody else in Chicago, Jay Cutler got carried away by the Bears’ 41-point performance against the Colts. When Cutler wasn’t telling people when to cheer at Soldier Field, the cocky quarterback was offering the Packers “good luck” in stopping the Bears wide receivers.

Turns out they didn’t need it. Preparation met opportunity Thursday night at Lambeau Field, and the Packers made Cutler look like a quarterback who talked too much.

There is nothing wrong with an NFL quarterback showing bravado. Confidence can be as important as a quick release. But Cutler talked big and played small. His mouth wrote a check his body couldn’t cash. He dared the Packers defense to raise its game, and that is exactly what happened in a humbling loss.

A Bears offense that only four days earlier looked as if it finally had joined the future resembled so many other overmatched units of their futile past. The command Cutler showed in the opener was nowhere to be found as his competition stiffened and the stakes increased.

He lost his cool and let his mechanics lapse as often as his judgment. That wasn’t a fiery quarterback showing leadership. That was a frustrated quarterback losing his grip. Left tackle J’Marcus Webb’s ears still might be ringing from incurring the wrath of Cutler.

Nothing symbolized Cutler’s frustration more than his third-quarter pass that went through Brandon Marshall’s fingertips in the end zone. Before that play, I wondered if the Bears had left Marshall in Appleton. After being targeted 15 times in Week 1, Marshall didn’t see a pass thrown his way until he got behind Packers cornerback Tramon Williams as Cutler promised. Then Marshall, clearly not in the flow, dropped Cutler’s prettiest pass of the game.

Nothing better illustrated a quarterback trying too hard to make something happen than the way Cutler, keeping the play alive, forced a pass Charles Woodson intercepted on the pivotal series of the third quarter. On a fourth-quarter pick by Williams, intended for Marshall, Cutler seemed just as rattled.

Not surprisingly, the rest of the Bears offense regressed too. They say confidence is contagious, but so is hysteria. Right tackle Gabe Carimi proved that with a dumb penalty to kill a promising first-quarter drive. Packers linebacker A.J. Hawk pushed Carimi in front of a replacement official, but Carimi drew the flag because he pushed back.

Carimi should know better. He and his offensive linemates need to block better. Their missed-block party featured tackles Webb and Carimi along with guard Chris Spencer, who exacerbated Cutler’s off night with poor protection. Once running back Matt Forte missed a blitz read that resulted in a sack on the Bears’ first snap, it empowered the Packers to believe they could come after Cutler the way they always have. And they came hard.

Yet offensive coordinator Mike Tice kept giving the Bears’ pass protectors ample opportunities to fail. I know it was a short work week, but did the Bears watch videotape of the season opener in which the 49ers ran all over the Packers? Not until the Bears trailed 13-0 to start the third quarter did Tice commit to running the ball enough to set up the passing game Cutler had hyped. It was too late.

In contrast, the Packers came out determined to run the ball, and Cedric Benson helped them do it against the team that drafted him in 2005. The Bears always said Benson would be a factor in football’s oldest rivalry — but not like this. Benson hit holes like a guy with something to prove and was the Packers’ best offensive player in the first half. He ran with the sense of urgency obvious in a team desperate to avoid an 0-2 start.

Mike McCarthy simply had the Packers more ready for prime time than Lovie Smith did the Bears. That showed when the Bears were caught with 12 men on the field after a replay review, allowing the Packers to keep alive a drive that led to their first points. It showed when the Packers caught the Bears napping on a fake field-goal attempt with 1:56 left in the half. Holder Tim Masthay tossed a shovel pass to tight end Tom Crabtree, who ran 27 yards untouched into the end zone.

When the Packers’ backup tight end has more impact on the outcome than the Bears’ Pro Bowl wide receiver, it shows how badly Cutler and the passing game struggled.

Now Cutler’s challenge becomes forgetting the night his actions defied his words.

Good luck.

Packers' Williams shuts down Bears' Marshall

GREEN BAY, Wis. - Tramon Williams didn't need Jay Cutler's sarcastic good-luck wishes when it came time to defend Brandon Marshall.

The sixth-year cornerback's standout performance was a display of skill, not luck, in the Green Bay Packers' 23-10 victory over the Chicago Bears on Thursday night.

Williams had a pair of interceptions and played a primary role in marginalizing Marshall, limiting the Bears' new No. 1 receiver to a pair of catches for 24 yards.

Afterward, Williams went out of his way to credit a ferocious Packers pass rush that sacked Cutler seven times.

"It's tough to shut down a guy like that," Williams said. "It's a total defensive effort to shut down a guy like that. I think that's what it was more tonight. Like I said, the front seven (did) their job, and it makes our job that much easier in the back, as we want to play aggressive. We play aggressive on guys. If that can happen all year, we'll be back to where we need to be."

With the Packers reeling from a Week 1 loss to San Francisco at home, and the Bears feeling confident after steamrolling Indianapolis in their opener, Cutler was asked beforehand about the Packers' potential for physical, aggressive man coverage to throw Bears wide receivers off their game.

Cutler said the Bears welcome aggressive man coverage on their receivers, even wishing the Packers "good luck" in defending Marshall.

When Williams was told about Cutler's confident comments during the week, he acknowledged Marshall's skill and said he was up for the challenge.

Was he ever.

Spending much of the game lined up across from Marshall, Williams made sure the Bears' No. 1 receiver was a non-factor. Williams and the Packers held Marshall without a catch for the first three quarters.

"You've got to keep an eye on it," Williams said. "We know Jay was looking to go to Marshall. You want to take that away from him early. He stopped looking at him, and at that point he probably didn't start looking back at him until the end of the game. We got what we wanted out of the scheme."

Cutler targeted Marshall only five times all night after targeting him 15 times for nine completions, 119 yards and a touchdown in the Bears' season-opening win over the Colts.

"He wasn't open," Charles Woodson said. "What do you want him to do?"

Williams said he didn't see Marshall getting exasperated.

"I didn't sense any frustration from him," Williams said. "I didn't think that the quarterback can get it to him with all of the pressure that was on him. It just made our job easy."

And Williams accounted for two of Cutler's four interceptions. Only afterward would the good-natured Williams come anywhere close to crowing about it.

"It was funny to me because it's like a kid with new toys," Williams said of Cutler. "He had a couple new receivers — Brandon and Alshon Jeffery, big guys and tough guys — but at the end of the day you have to be able to get the ball to those guys. And we knew that our guys would get after him, and they did that tonight."

Woodson made it clear that even if the Packers weren't insulted by Cutler's comments personally, they did take notice.

"I don't know if we took it personal, but we thought it was kind of funny that all of a sudden they're the team to beat because he's got a couple new guys," Woodson said.

It was an impressive performance for Williams, a former practice squad player who had a breakout stretch during the Packers' Super Bowl run in the 2010 season. But he seemed to take a step backward in 2011, hampered for much of the year by a shoulder injury.

If Williams is back to his old self, that's a good omen for a Packers team that must improve on defense after allowing far too many yards and big plays last season.

After struggling against San Francisco in the opener, the defense showed far more promise Thursday night.

"Last game we didn't make many mistakes, but the mistakes that we made we paid for," Williams said about the 49ers game. "Against a good team, you'll pay for those things. San Francisco was a good team, and we paid for it. We want to correct those things. I don't think we made many errors tonight, and I think it showed. And if it didn't, the front seven was going so hard they covered it up for us."
 

Bears' offense looks familiar in loss to Packers

CHICAGO - What was it that people were saying about the Chicago Bears' new and improved offense?

Things sure looked familiar Thursday night, with Jay Cutler getting knocked around like a human tackling dummy in a 23-10 loss at Green Bay that left him venting afterward.

Considering he got sacked seven times, it's not hard to see why.

"When he's getting hit that many times, that's on the O-line, so we have to do a better job protecting Jay and giving him more time," right tackle Gabe Carimi said.

Besides the beating Cutler took, there's also some concern about running back Matt Forte after he left the game with a right ankle injury. The Bears had no update and agent Adisa Bakari declined comment Friday, although several outlets reported he has a high ankle sprain.

As for Cutler, this ranked among the worst beatings of his career. Only once had he been sacked so many times, and that was the debacle at the Meadowlands in 2010, when the Giants got him nine times in the first half and knocked him out of the game with a concussion.

He was sacked on the Bears' first snap from scrimmage for the second straight week, this time for 13 yards when Forte blew a block, but the hits came in different ways.

At times, Cutler held onto the ball too long. Other times, it was simply bad blocking.

J'Marcus Webb had a particularly tough time at left tackle, with Clay Matthews going off for 3½ sacks, and it's fair to wonder if he'll now be on a short rope. The Bears could turn to Chris Williams or newly signed Jonathan Scott, depending on how quickly he grasps the offense.

"I got myself into trouble not using my hands, not moving my feet at times, and it showed," Webb said.

Things were so bad for Webb that the TV camera caught Cutler berating him on the sideline and bumping him at one point, and the quarterback didn't back off after the game. He said the outburst was simply a product of his desire to win and that if the Bears "want a quarterback that doesn't care, they can get somebody else." He also said he's not going to "act like everything's OK."

It certainly wasn't for the Bears. A promising opener against Indianapolis simply got washed away in Green Bay.

Besides all those sacks, Cutler threw four interceptions and was 11 for 27 for 126 yards. Brandon Marshall had just two catches for 24 yards and dropped a potential touchdown. Forte went to the locker room midway through the third quarter after he appeared to twist his right ankle while being tackled by Charles Woodson, and unlike the opener, the offense never found a rhythm after the slow start.

It certainly wasn't the sort of performance the Bears envisioned after a busy offseason. They're aiming high after being hit hard by injuries in an 8-8 season, and the revamped offense is a big reason why.

The trade with Miami for Marshall sent expectations soaring. After all, it gave Cutler a go-to receiver for the first time in Chicago and reunited him with his old friend from Denver.

They also added depth in other areas, bringing in Michael Bush to team with Forte in the backfield. But the offensive line was largely untouched.

The Bears are counting on improvement from within and a scheme they believe better fits the personnel to overcome the deficiencies in the blocking game now that Mike Martz is gone. Mike Tice was promoted from line coach to replace him as coordinator.

The question is: Can the Bears protect Cutler against a team with a top pass rusher? Their next game is at home against St. Louis, and then they face DeMarcus Ware when they visit Dallas.

"We're definitely as good as we think we are," Marshall said. "But offensively, we've got to do a better job. Defense made some great plays, gave us the ball back a few times. We've got to take advantage of those opportunities and we didn't tonight.

"That's a great team over there. It's the team we're chasing. They won the Super Bowl two years ago, so it's going to take more than just walking on the field to dethrone them."