There weren’t many bright spots in Sunday’s Bears loss to the Minnesota Vikings. The Bears lost at home to a team with a young quarterback without many weapons on the outside and fell to 2-5 on the season. However, Jay Cutler continues to shine at quarterback.
The eighth week of the NFL season was one with a number of great quarterback performances. Cutler completed 22-33 passes for 211 yards and a touchdown under duress this week. With Matt Forte out of the second half of the game, much pressure was put on Cutty and he delivered.
But the most notable signal-calling performances of the week came in the New York Giants-New Orleans Saints game. Drew Brees tied an NFL passing touchdowns record (7) and Eli Manning came close to it as he tossed six scores in a thrilling Saints 52-49 victory.
Though the numbers Manning put up were gaudy, they weren’t Cutler-like. According to Pro Football Focus, Cutler had one of the better performances of Sunday — better than Manning’s.
Highest Graded QBs in Week 8:
— PFF (@PFF) November 2, 2015
1. Tom Brady +7.6
2. Carson Palmer +4.6
3. Drew Brees +3.7
4. Peyton Manning +2.8
5. Jay Cutler +2.0
It doesn’t seem logical to say that Cutty had a better game as Manning produced greater in each of the passing categories, but there’s more to the numbers. PFF says it grades every single player and every single play on a scale of -2 to +2. Then each play is looked over a few times by more analysts. The grades are then verified by the PFF Pro Coach Network. The formula even accounts for situations and weighs plays appropriate to them.
Shockingly, Cutler is outplaying some of the better quarterbacks in the league and the Bears are three games under .500.
