LAKE FOREST, Ill. – Even with a cannon for an arm, Jay Cutler hasn’t yet mastered the art of throwing touchdown passes from the seat of his pants.

For that reason and others, the Bears must do a better job of keeping their quarterback upright Sunday against the Cardinals than they did a week earlier. After absorbing a season-high four sacks and seven hits in a win over the Browns, Cutler looked like a carved-up pumpkin two weeks after Halloween. 

Jay Cutler has taken 19 hits in the last three games after absorbing just 15 hits in the first four contests.

This season the Bears franchise quarterback has been sacked 15 times while throwing 239 passes (once every 16 attempts). A year ago when he played for the Broncos, Cutler was sacked just 11 times while throwing 616 passes (once every 56 attempts).

The disparity may have something to do with opposing defenses employing more complex blitzes.

“Last year when I was in Denver, we didn’t really get that much pressure,” Cutler said. “I saw a lot more cover-two. Watching some of the teams around the league, Peyton [Manning] used to see strictly cover-two. A lot of teams were going to take their chances and not let quarterbacks beat them. But now they’re going from just zoning it out to doing a lot of different crazy looks.

“[Browns defensive coordinator] Rob Ryan did some stuff that wasn’t very conventional. It’s not just blitzing, it’s blitzing from different angles, blitzing with different people and rolling up coverages. They’ve got to void some zones [when they blitz]. It’s just a matter if you have enough time to find them.”

While the Bears offensive line has been targeted by critics of late, it’s not always correct to assume that the line is responsible for allowing sacks.

“I think it’s sometimes blown out of proportion,” said offensive coordinator Ron Turner. “We give up four sacks and everyone says the line gave up four sacks. The line didn’t necessarily give up four sacks. If you get a sack, it can be the quarterback, a receiver, the tight end, a back; it can be a lot of people responsible for that.

“The line’s doing some good things. I know everyone’s talking about them and all that stuff. But we’re doing some good things. We have a good offensive line and they’re doing some things. They’re playing well.”

One way to reduce the number of sacks and quarterback hits is to utilize more designed rollouts, which moves the pocket and prevents pass rushers from teeing off on a stationary target.

“It keeps the defense off balance a little bit,” Turner said. “They don’t know where he’s going to be every time. Jay’s very good when he gets outside the pocket. Some of it he does on his own. We call a drop-back and he scrambles and makes things happen.

“It’s something we can mix in a little bit. We’re not going to go crazy with it. But it might be something we look at a little. We’ve done it some and we’ll probably continue to do it a little bit.”

Cutler said that he’s in favor of doing some designed rollouts.

“I think it’s in the back of Ron’s mind to move the pocket around to get some nakeds and just some quick stuff so I’m not sitting there at five or eight yards [behind the line of scrimmage] and the defensive ends don’t know exactly where to attack,” Cutler said. “I think it’s a great idea.”

It may be a great idea, but there are some negatives involved.

“It can [make things tougher on the defense], but it limits you also,” said coach Lovie Smith. “Right now when you have a quarterback in the middle of the field, you have a couple different options. Once you start [moving the pocket], you constrict the field. That’s limiting some of the things you can do.

“I think where a mobile guy is at his best is when he’s in the middle of the field and he can go to both sides. We’ll move Jay around a little bit, but just moving a quarterback around doesn’t automatically make you go up and down the field. You do a little of both, which we’ve done.”