CHICAGO -- After watching film of the Chicago Bears' 21-19 loss to the Detroit Lions, coach Marc Trestman said Monday morning that he should've pulled injured starting quarterback Jay Cutler before the team's final offensive possession.
Three weeks removed from a torn groin muscle, Cutler played almost the entire game, despite suffering a left ankle injury late in the first half that adversely affected his performance following halftime. Josh McCown replaced Cutler on the team's final drive and led the Bears to a touchdown, but the offense failed to convert on two chances to add a two-point conversion.
"I went through the tape closely this morning and watched Jay's performance, and I thought he did well into the fourth quarter," Trestman told WBBM-FM, the Bears' flagship radio station. "But at the end of the day, if we had to do it all over again, maybe it would be one series before the two-minute drill [that Cutler comes out]."
However, Trestman felt that Cutler still had the ability to lead the offense at times in the fourth quarter, specifically when the quarterback fired an apparent 14-yard touchdown pass to Alshon Jeffery with 9:30 left in the game. Replay officials went on to rule the pass incomplete.
"I thought Jay made a terrific throw to Alshon in the corner of the end zone as well and made the play that he needed to make," Trestman said. "But maybe [I should have pulled Cutler] after that series.
"But looking back, at the end of the day, we scored two touchdowns in one drive and came up with nothing. We didn't have enough there, and we had [another] opportunity to score in the red zone and we had a drop. We had a fourth down on a drive that was already a 10-play drive and we just didn't make the plays when we needed to offensively. We just didn't get it done, and everybody took a turn."
Cutler completed 21 of 40 passes for 250 yards with one touchdown and one interception.
"He made some tremendous throws during the course of the game," Trestman said. "We just didn't have enough and certainly as the game progressed right into fourth quarter there, it was time, going with a two-minute drill, we had to take him out. But I thought he stood in there and played very, very courageously yesterday."
Trestman said it's too soon to say whether Cutler will be OK to start against the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday at Soldier Field.
"Really don't know," Trestman said. "We'll know more [later in the week]. We'll see how he wakes up and what kind of swelling he has in that ankle. We'll just have to see. We'll be optimistic, but the doctors and trainers will tell us what he has to do get himself well."