ZOMG, CUTLER THROWS HESTER UNDER BUS!! Uh, not really.

There was plenty not to like about Jay Cutler's Bears debut on Saturday night. For me, it pretty much boiled down to the fact that a) it was on a Saturday night, and b) it was in the preseason. Nothing grinds my gears like preseason football. This is the only thing college football does better than the NFL. I wish every team could open with Appalachian State. Or the Raiders. Sports just aren't much fun when they don't count.

That aside, Cutler played Grossman-like, otherwise known as 'sort of crappy'. He didn't make any big plays, threw a pick, definitely should have thrown two, and maybe could have thrown three. It means nothing, of course (kind of like that entire game), but I suppose it is a bit of a bummer to see the Jay Cutler Era get to off to anything other than a God-like start.

When he woke up and opened the Chicago newspapers on Sunday morning (yeah right), Cutler found a bit of criticism directed his way. It wasn't for the way he played, mind you, it was for something he said.

The quote in question is this one, regarding the interception:

"Devin is more of a go-get-it guy," Cutler said. "He's not really a back-shoulder, jump-up-and-get-it [guy] and ... you learn from it. You make some mistakes. It's a preseason game."

This caused quite a stir.

"First Jay wants to pick his receivers, now he's throwing his best one under the bus!", proclaimed idiot Chicago sports fan #3.

The Tribune's David Haugh, who I normally think is very good, set up the quote like this:

(Cutler) might even raise an eyebrow as he holds his wide receivers publicly accountable for an interception he threw, as Cutler did when beginning an answer about his interception with an explanation of Devin Hester's role in it.

Asked what happened on the underthrown first-quarter pass Cutler heaved off his back foot that cornerback Leodis McKelvin intercepted, the Bears quarterback introduced Hester into the equation.

Did Cutler really hold Hester accountable? Certainly not in my view.

Watch this video of Cutler saying it and judge for yourself. (Note: this video was embedded, but it started playing right away so I decided to throw it back in the archives. Because we all know how annoying it is to have a video play right away. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, Brian.)

Back? Good. Glad to see you survived that avalanche of 'you knows'.

It seems pretty clear to me that Cutler wasn't publicly blasting Hester, rather he was pointing out his own mistake.

What I think Jay meant was that Hester prefers to run under the ball, not fight for it in the air like Larry Fitzgerald or Brandon Marshall.

No big deal. Nothing to see here. Please move along.

Also: START CALEB HANIE!!1!

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Warning: I start work again today (booooooo), so it may take a week or two to figure out how to balance this with that. On the plus side, I gots no more schoolz (w00t) and no more homework (double-w00t), so it shouldn't be all that tough.