Halfway through the game Sunday against the Dolphins, the Bears decided that less of Jay Cutler was a good thing.
Matt Forte ran the ball only two times in the first half in part, coach Marc Trestman said Monday, because four other plays were turned into passes by Cutler.
Two were changed at the line, he said, and two more were run/pass options in which Cutler chose to throw.
“We threw it a little bit more early, but that wasn’t the plan,” Trestman said. “The plan was to kind of do it the way we did it in the third quarter. And that’s what we went back to doing.”
They scrapped the options at halftime, taking some decision-making away from Cutler. The Bears handed the ball off seven times to Forte on the first possession of the second half, the team’s lone consistent drive in its 27-14 loss.
“We took some of the options off, and we handed the football off,” Trestman said. “And we got more of what we would expect out of our offense — a good, solid drive.”
The Bears had 14 rushing yards in the first half and 16 on the first handoff of the second half to Forte. He finished the drive with 33 rushing yards.
Forte sounded frustrated about not getting the ball more in the first half, when the Bears fell behind 14-0.
“You just wait,” he said. “It’s just aggravating. You have to wait for stuff to come together. Obviously, you’ve gotta run the ball more in the first half.”
If Cutler had an opinion on the matter, he didn’t share it Monday. He went radio-silent, canceling his appearance on his own show.