Tweet This, Cutler: Orton Kicks R Butt

Upon hearing that Jay Cutler was engaging in trash-tweeting with one Chad Ochocinco, my first impulse was obvious. Given his inaccuracy in the red zone, Cutler surely would hit the wrong letters on his cell-phone keyboard and require spell check. It wasn't wise for the Bears quarterback to answer Ochocinco's cybertaunts, not when he's being soundly embarrassed by Kyle Orton -- Kyle Orton, ladies and gentlemen! -- in first-half returns on the NFL's biggest offseason trade.

Yet there was Cutler, firing back when he should have been (a) working on his flawed passing mechanics, (b) pleading with management to find better weapons and (c) studying game film to determine why he went 2-of-9 with a bad interception inside the Atlanta 20-yard-line in Sunday night's loss. This while Orton has been the model of efficiency and near-perfection for a Broncos team that is 6-0 under coach Josh McDaniels, the first-year revelation who dared to unload Cutler and misses him now about as much as an unflushable toilet. Considering the mounting evidence against him, didn't Cutler have something better to do than play Twitter tag with a troublemaker?

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Ochocinco: @jaycutler6 tell your defense I'm gonna run circles around them, I'm mad we lost, peanut Tillman is gonna kiss da baby along with the rest

Cutler: @OGOchoCinco it's only Monday. Already starting?

Ochocinco: @JayCutler6 Jay I have to get a jump on yall, on a serious note tell Lovie to put Tillman on me all game with safety help, please!!!!

Cutler: @OGOchoCinco Peanut on you with safety over top. You got it. Anything else you would like me to pass on?

Cutler again: @OGOchoCinco double coverage all game might be difficult. Don't you think?

Ochocinco: @JayCutler6 well after I embarass the secondary I want your jersey after game, that's all for now.

This exercise in silliness struck me as everything that's wrong with Cutler. For all his strong-armed gifts, he has an immature, reckless streak that isn't conducive to consistently excellent performances and leadership at the sport's most important position. When Cutler is on, he's as dangerous as any passer in the league, which is why the Bears signed him to a two-year extension Tuesday that will guarantee him an additional $20 million as the NFL enters troubled labor waters. When he's off, he's capable of self-destructing and doing his team no favors with pouty, mopey body language. He played at Vanderbilt, which suggests he must have some brains. Yet he also reminds me of Frank (Cush) Cushman, the guitar-playing doofus/QB prospect in Jerry Maguire.

I was among the many who thought McDaniels was clinically insane when he traded Cutler, who threw for 4,526 yards last season and is only 26, for Orton, a journeyman best known for a bushy neckbeard. But now people in Chicago are beginning to grasp why McDaniels was so eager to cast Cutler loose. The two would have gotten along like Jon and Kate Gosselin. McDaniels wants to run his New England-style pass system, which places a premium on accuracy, maximizing yardage on the scoreboard and avoiding mistakes. Cutler has a maddening way of amassing yardage and having nothing to show for it, exhibited by the Broncos' rank in the yards-per-point category the last two seasons: 28th and 25th. As national TV audiences have seen on two Sunday nights, in Atlanta and Green Bay, the Bears can drive downfield smoothly enough but are vulnerable to Cutler interceptions -- six total. Granted, his offensive line isn't nearly as good as the one he left in Denver, and the 27th-ranked running game is underachieving thanks largely to Matt Forte's fumbles and lack of power around the goal line. He also could use a legitimate No. 1 receiver, with Devin Hester falling far short of the standard while an explosive weapon such as Steve Smith goes to waste in Carolina.

Still, Cutler looks skittish. Three of his seven picks this season have come inside the 20. After his latest red-zone interception, coach Lovie Smith had words with the so-called franchise savior. "Don't do it,'' Smith said. "It's really kind of as simple as that. We can't have those interceptions down there. Jay realizes that, but he was trying to make a play.'' Contrast that with the careful, impeccable play of Orton, who was magnificent again Monday night in San Diego and has compiled these blurry numbers: 1,465 yards, nine touchdown passes, one interception (on a Hail Mary attempt) and a 100.1 passer rating. In the second half against the Chargers, he went 11 of 15 for 146 yards, two touchdowns and a 143.3 rating.

"Thank goodness we have him. He has been just superb,'' said receiver Brandon Stokley, who caught the clinching TD pass Monday and once played with a certain Peyton Manning. "He has stepped up to the plate when we needed him. None of these games have been easy, and he has made the plays we had to have.''

It's not a matter of which team is getting the better end of the deal. No, the lopsided results go far deeper, exposing the Bears' front office and coaches in their inability to take advantage of the team's first franchise quarterback in the modern era. Compounding those issues is the startling success of McDaniels, who has remarkably calmed the turmoil that crept in after the Cutler trade and the suspension of receiver extraordinare Brandon Marshall. Suddenly, the Broncos are united as one, and even Marshall is buying into the program -- though keep in mind he's playing for a contract. It helps to have a weapon such as Eddie Royal, a potent receiver who ran back a kick and punt for touchdowns against the Chargers. And how about a defense that is the real stunner, allowing only 10 points after halftime in six games thanks largely to pass-rushing force Elvis Dumervil? Last time the Broncos were in Qualcomm Stadium, they were destroyed 52-21 in what ultimately was the swan song for Cutler and coach Mike Shanahan. Ten months later, they're a Super Bowl contender in the AFC, where only Indianapolis and New England might be in the way. Maybe Orton won't best Manning or Tom Brady in the playoffs. But at least he'll be in the playoffs, something Cutler can't say for sure.

"I wasn't here last year, obviously. But I know the past. We know the past as a team. It has kind of been a one-sided deal for the last few years," Orton said. "Divisional games are at a premium. You've got to play your best ball, especially on the road and [on] Monday Night Football. We pulled one out."

The good thing about Cutler is that he realized Tuesday he has to stop the Twitter wars. On his off-day conversation with ESPN Radio, he declared a cease fire with Ochocinco, perhaps because management told him so. "I'm going to have to bow out of that," Cutler said. "Chad is great. He's a fabulous player. He is a social media sensation. Once Wednesday starts, I'll probably be out of that whole situation. The guy does some different stuff, but I think that's 100 percent him. That's his personality. That's how he is on the field. I love watching him on film. He comes to practice, he comes to work, and he does what he has to do to get himself prepared to play."

He also acknowledged the offense is sputtering. "We've got to get better. I've got to get better. The whole team in general, we've just got to do some things to help us win ballgames," Cutler said. "We're just not getting it done with the turnovers and interceptions. The trouble in the red zone, [the Falcons] didn't really do anything to really stop us. I think the entire offense felt good about our game plan and what we had going into it. It was just a matter of us making mistakes and making costly mistakes, really. Turnovers and penalties in the red zone; you just can't do that and expect to be a good offense."

To his credit, Cutler doesn't hold a grudge against McDaniels. He was the one who flipped out when the new coach sought his former New England project, Matt Cassell, and made Cutler available on the trade market. Cutler got his wish and a ticket to Chicago, but he left behind swarms of angry Broncos fans who are laughing loudly now. For Cutler's sake, it's a good thing the Bears played in Denver in the preseason and not anytime soon. Even if he's extending olive branches, the hatred for him out there is deep.

"A lot of people think I'm wishing the worst for the Broncos and Josh McDaniels. I don't," Cutler told ESPN Radio. "I watched the game [Monday] night. I have friends on that team. I talked to some of them afterwards and congratulated them. They're playing really good football. I'm happy for those guys offensively, defensively.

"This league is funny. It's all about timing. You could be one of the best players in the league but if you're not in the right system, you don't have the right people around you, there're a lot of different aspects that go into making a player or breaking a player. It's working for Kyle. It's working for Josh, and it's working for the Broncos. They've got a good thing going."

The Bears, meanwhile, are 3-2 in a division in which Brett Favre and the Vikings have started 6-0. If Orton, McDaniels are the Broncos are the NFL's best story, Cutler is a prime-time disappointment so far. Why do you think Ochocinco was tweeting him so early in the week, six days before the Bears and Bengals play in Cincinnati?

Because he wants to get inside Cutler's head, of course. Seems it's very cluttered right now.