Deep is suddenly so doable
Bears hope defenses were watching Cutler throw those bombs
Jay Cutler walked around the corner of the locker room Sunday and defensive tackle Jeremiah Ratliff bellowed, ‘‘ Gunnnn- slinnnnnger!’’
Ordinarily, yes. But in the 27- 13 win against the Atlanta Falcons, the Bears quarterback was Bombs Away Jay.
Cutler completed the Bears’ most jaw- dropping pass of the season, a 74- yard play- action corner route to Alshon Jeffery, to turn the tide of a tied game in the third quarter.
Against a cover- 3, Falcons cornerback Desmont Trufant followed Brandon Marshall, who ran a deep cross from left to right. Trufant wound up out of bounds, Cutler hit Jeffery in stride down the right sideline, and the Bears logged their longest play of the season and the second- longest pass of Cutler’s Bears career.
His success didn’t stop there. No matter how you parse it, the Bears’ vertical passing game was the best it’s been all season:
Cutler tried five passes to receivers who were at least 20 yards from scrimmage, according to Pro Football Focus, and completed three, his most completions since Week 15 last season.
The Bears gained 146 yards on those three completions, the most of the Cutler-Marc Trestman era on attempts of at least 20 yards.
In the previous four games, the Bears totaled exactly 146 yards on targets at least 20 yards deep — and that took 12 attempts.
The benefits stretch beyond yards and catches, Trestman said Monday at Halas Hall. Strategically, the Bears have to keep defenses honest.
‘‘ I think that here is a residual affect of these ‘ shot’ plays — that’s why everybody does them,’’ Trestman said. ‘‘ Completion percentages aren’t going to be as high as your intermediate or short game, but they do have a residual effect overall on how the defenses play when they know you’re going to stretch you out a little bit. Then it helps you out with the underneath stuff or the intermediate game.’’
The Bears know all about the short stuff. Matt Forte’s 46 receptions — dinks and dumps and drop- offs — lead the NFL. In Weeks 3 through 5, the Bears tried only six passes to receivers at least 20 yards deep.
Without as much of a deep threat in recent weeks, Trestman focused on distributing the ball to different receivers. It was like playing basketball without a three- point line, though— there was no reason for the defense to extend.
But the return of Brandon Marshall from an injured right ankle spurned the Bears to go deep.
‘‘ He’s feeling more comfortable,’’ Cutler said Monday on his weekly WMVP ( 1000- AM) show, ‘‘ and we opened it up a little more offensively.’’
Marshall practiced in full the last two weeks.
‘‘ It’s difficult to have [ a vertical passing game] when the players you’re practicing with aren’t able to practice those types of things,’’ Trestman said. ‘‘ And we said it during theweek— lastweek was really the first week we had everybody at full speed.
‘‘ All those plays you saw out there that we went deep, we did practice, we did work on them, and they all didn’t have to hit. But they certainly stretched the defense to enable us to balance our attack and move the football around as we did.’’
Cutler said the Bears wanted to try deeper passes because they weren’t sure if they’d need to score 40 to beat the Falcons. They didn’t, but that didn’t stop Cutler from perhaps his most efficient game as a Bear. His 381 yards — on 26- for- 38 passing — were his most with the team and matched Brian Griese for the fifth- highest total in franchise history.
It didn’t feel like it. Cutler had to be told after the game of his stats.
‘‘ We took some shots, got some big plays,’’ he said. ‘‘ You start getting 70- yard, 40- yard chunks, you have 200 yards after five plays.’’