Bears need Jay Cutler back

The last time the Chicago Bears were shutout in a game was Dec. 29, 2002. In that game, two-time Grey Cup champion Henry Burris started for the Bears, throwing four interceptions before stepping aside for Cory Sauter.

It would be the last time either quarterback would ever see game action in an NFL game.

That was truly, the bottoming out of the Bears' quarterback carousel.

Pick your favorite awful QB name, argue all you want, but that day, in 2002, was the bottom of the barrel. The next April, the Bears selected Rex Grossman. The 2004 season came awful close to the bottom, but even the three-headed monster of Chad Hutchinson, Jonathan Quinn and Craig Krenzel had two QBs who played for other teams, Krenzel even spent time on the Bengals in '05.

They also all led the teams to scoring points.

The 194 game streak of not getting completely and utterly embarrassed ended yesterday when the Jimmy Clausen-led Bears failed to find pay dirt in the ugly 26-0 loss at the hands of the Seahawks.

Can the Jimmy Clausen fan club please sit down and keep quiet from now on? There's nothing left to see there, Clausen is simply not good enough to be an NFL starting QB.

The Bears absolutely missed Jay Cutler yesterday.

"But, but, the Bears committed no turnovers, they punted 10 times, Jay would've turned it over, possibly numerous times," the detractors will say.

Yeah maybe he would have. But even so, the team likely would've done better than the 3.6 yards per rush they had without No. 6 under center. Matt Forte would've likely caught a pass. They likely would've averaged more than 3.7 yards per pass attempt. They likely would've had a drive last longer than 11 plays, 47 yards that still ended in a punt.

"But, but the team should've put in David Fales, see what the young guy can do."

Why? For what? I saw some people complaining about John Fox not putting in more young guys in general (Not just Fales) but why should he? For evaluation? What good would that do? Especially with Seattle continuing to trot out their starters and keeping the pedal down when they were on offense? All that could have done was give up more points.

There isn't much to evaluate anyway. This team is garbage, they didn't have their best players and without those players it didn't matter who was on the field. John Fox is trying to win games. He can't be worried about how Johnny Third String is going to look in a blowout at the end of the fourth quarter. Fox and Ryan Pace are safe no matter what happens this year, they just want to win as much as they can. They know it's going to be a long process and there is no need to rush it.

What I know is that I've seen all I need to of Clausen and if that's the last time I need to see him, then it wasn't soon enough.

In Clausen's six-and-a-little-more quarters this season, he has led the offense to nine points and 13 punts.

That 2002 Bears squad went 4-12. If this team is on its way to even equaling that mark, they need Jay Cutler. It is clearly worse without him.