Orton living the good life

Kyle Orton must feel like the luckiest man on earth. After being shunned by every single Bears fan in Chicago, not to mention head coach Lovie Smith, he was shipped off to Denver to replace the high-profile Jay Cutler, who could march an offense up and down the field with his eyes closed.

Orton was only expected to fill the shoes of a man whose pass rating hovered around 90 and who surprised the Broncos' faithful if he threw more than one pick in 60 minutes of football. No pressure, really.

But this weekend was an entirely different story. It seems Cutler has a confirmed case of the flu going around Chicago that makes quarterbacks play like they aren't getting paid millions of dollars to win football games.

Cutler threw a career-high four interceptions while mustering up a puny 43.2 pass rating, which reminded Chicagoans that getting their hopes up about a Bears quarterback is about as useful as waiting for the Detroit Lions to win a regular season game.

Now, I can't put all the blame on Cutler because the Bears' receiving core did not exactly put on a show. But I'm sure Orton cracked a smile when he saw Cutler lose in his debut against the Packers.

Any Bears fan that switched on the Broncos game wasn't too surprised. Orton slowly but surely moved up and down the field with his new offense. He got his team in field goal range a few times and managed the game fairly well. But then the world shook. With under a minute to play and his squad down by a point, Orton looked all but cooked as he lined up on his own 13-yard line. I'm sure he was imagining what the newspaper headlines would be the next morning if he didn't win in his debut. My guess would be something along the lines of "We miss Cutler, big head and all".

Orton set up in the shotgun formation, stepped back and threw an incomplete pass — not too surprising. But on second down he stepped back and threw a deep bomb to Brandon Marshall. The ball was tipped into the air by a Bengal defender and found its way into the hands of Brandon Stokley, who proceeded 87 yards into the end zone for the game-winning touchdown.

Orton was ecstatic, and all Bengals fans and Bears fans could do was put their hands on their heads and let out a sigh. Did I mention that it was the only touchdown pass of the afternoon for either team, and the first time Stokley had touched the football all afternoon?

This one play catapulted Orton's pass rating to 100.7 and beefed up his yardage to 243 instead of a meager 156. Oh, and Orton is also undefeated as a Bronco.

But Orton's luck doesn't stop there. He also finds himself on a team that has a mostly healthy defensive core that can cover up some of the mistakes he will undoubtedly make this season.

On the other hand, it was announced earlier this week that Brian Urlacher underwent season-ending surgery on his right wrist to repair a dislocated bone after Sunday's game. That opens up a huge hole at the middle linebacker position that will most likely be filled by Hunter Hillenmeyer. But honestly, no one person is going to fill the Grand Canyon that Urlacher will leave in the Bears' defense.

The Bears proved they could make it to a Super Bowl with an excellent defense and special teams unit and a mediocre quarterback a few years ago. But with Devin Hester staying busy with commercials, Cutler playing terribly and Urlacher being reduced to a cheerleader for the rest of the season, Orton has reason to be happy that he laces up his cleats in Colorado.

With all of this said, the problem with luck is, it has the tendency to go away in a flash. Orton's not going to be able to game plan for 87-yard touchdown bombs every game. I also find it hard to believe that Cutler will underwhelm for 16 games.

I feel like the future of the both franchises with settle somewhere in the middle this season. Cutler will get in tune with his receivers and tight ends, and Orton will occasionally set up a game-winning drive. But if I was Mr. Orton, I would probably still go out and buy a lottery ticket this week just in case.

Bret Greenberg is a senior in Media. He can be reached at bgreenb4@illinimedia.com.