The Philadelphia Eagles visit Soldier Field tonight to try and revenge a loss suffered last year on a Sunday night to this same Chicago Bears team. Well, same stadium, same coach, same team name … but, perhaps an entirely different Chicago squad.

A year ago, the Bears were anchored by a defense that twice stopped the Eagles with goal line stands that paved the way for not only a 24-20 Week Four win, but also allowed the Bears to hold at least a portion of first place in the NFC North Division for two more months. They finally surrendered that lead to the Minnesota Vikings in Week 13 when they lost to their division rival.

This year, the Chicago defense is not as talented as last year due to injuries, retirements and age, but they are still only allowing 22-points per game … same number given-up by the 2008 unit. The difference is that this year their offense was supposed to be spiked by the acquisition of a multi-talented quarterback, Jay Cutler, who they acquired from the Denver Broncos when the fourth-year pro out of Vanderbilt had disagreements with his new head coach before they ever had a face-to-face meeting.

What kind of leader do you think blows off the team that made him a first round draft choice and designed their offense around his skills before he ever had a meaningful meeting with the team’s new head coach?

This lack of leadership does not show up in his physical stats; which show Cutler to have the size and arm strength that any team would covet. The problem with Cutler is not in his passing arm, upper body or legs; it is strictly between his ears. He isolates himself when things go good or bad; taking more credit when it works, and dishing out responsibility when it doesn’t.

This week, San Francisco 49ers Hall of Fame Quarterback Steve Young discussed Cutler’s performance a week ago Thursday when the Bears lost to the San Francisco 49ers, 10-6. In that game Cutler surrendered five interceptions, including a couple in the redzone, the last one in the final seconds of the game to seal Chicago’s loss.

If you want to know about leadership, how to bring teammates together to accomplish a single shared goal of winning, Young is an excellent resource. He said something very interesting, he admitted that a quarterback isn’t always on; some games are simply not their day. But, Young said, “When you have those games as a quarterback you need to make sure of two things; you don’t lose the game for your team and you find someone on your offense that you can trust to carry the load.”

“But,” Young continued, “On Thursday night Cutler never turned to anyone else to carry the offensive load for the Bears, but instead just took them down with his bad play. You can’t do that,” Young repeated.

Yes you can, I suggest, just watch Cutler.

This was not the first time I’d seen him play out a losing hand to its logical conclusion of defeat. In fact, no starting quarterback over the past three seasons with at least 10 starts has a worse point spread record than Jay Cutler. It was just three years ago that Cutler replaced Jake Plummer as the starter in Denver, and after much hype, he led the Broncos out of the playoff hunt. In 2007, Plummer retired, and the path for success was wide open for Cutler and the Broncos.

Instead, they missed the playoffs for a second straight year, and last year closed out the season with three straight losses that had them surrender the largest division lead with three games left on the schedule in NFL history. The third straight year of no playoffs first got longtime Broncos Head Coach Mike Shanahan fired, and then Cutler threw his fit and he ended up in Chicago.

So, what does that mean for tonight?

Well, the Eagles come in off back-to-back losses and with revenge for last year’s agonizing loss to the Bears. Chicago has had extra time to prepare for the Eagles visit because their last game against the 49ers was 10 days ago.

Now for the investment side of this proposition … the Eagles are favored by a field goal, and betting on a road favorite off multiple losses that is backed by a wide margin of the wagering public is not a practice that is going to generate long term profits.

Not the Eagles, and seldom Cutler, but given his inconsistent play at quarterback it wouldn’t surprise me if this wasn’t a night Cutler had one of his good games.

I just wouldn’t bet on it.