5 Reasons Why Chicago Bears Need To Hit The Panic Button

The offense is stacked with huge, talented receivers and a running back who glides by defenders in the open field like no other back in the league. Yet the offense struggles to get out of the blocks in most games, and stalls and falters at some point in every single game.

Jay Cutler is who critics think he is. A gunslinger. A sporadic playmaker. A risk taker. The offense lives and dies on the decisions of Cutler, who can't seem to dominate opponents despite a wealth of receivers, a dynamic running back, and an outstanding offensive line. Cutler is proving he is the problem, and not the players around him, offensive coordinators or coaches.

The play calling at times can be brilliant, but those moments are too few and far between. In Week 5 against the Panthers, the Bears rarely stretched the field to their big receivers, opting instead of for dink and dunk passes to Matt Forte, who made up a majority of the offense for the game.

The theme for the Marc Trestman Bears is not a high flying offense, but rather a team that plays uninspired football. Lackluster is the word that comes to mind from a team that seemed to be on the verge of weekly explosive scoring potential. The team lacks a spark and a fire that has left them flat in most games and susceptible to abuse from more aggressive teams.

The defense is better than the unit that was gashed for huge yardage on a weekly basis last year. That should have been enough improvement to propel the Bears to a playoff caliber team this year. But the unexplainable struggles on offense has put too much pressure on a rebuilt defense that can't seem to put together a complete game effort.