The Bears are finally at the point where they have no choice but to acknowledge Jay Cutler’s poor play.

But even after Sunday’s disastrous performance in Green Bay, head coach Marc Trestman insisted on attaching the monotone caveat that the rest of the team has to play better too.

No kidding.

But it’s also OK to specifically talk about your quarterback when you are specifically asked about your quarterback.

“It’s very clear he did not play well enough yesterday,” Trestman said Monday. “We can’t sugarcoat that. At the same time, we didn’t play collectively well enough as a team.”

Asked directly if he considered benching Cutler at halftime, when the Bears were down 42-0, Trestman said, “Not at halftime. No.”

And would he consider benching Cutler going forward?

“There’s a lot of things that got to get done before something like that would be a consideration,” Trestman said.

But later, when asked if he would look at personnel changes on the depth chart, Trestman said: “We will. We certainly have to. We’re going to look at everything.”

Everything but the quarterback, that is.

Look, putting Jimmy Clausen on the field isn’t going to solve the Bears’ problems and, to be clear, I’m not calling for a change at quarterback. But the Bears’ public insistence on avoiding the elephant in the room — the NFL’s highest paid player performing like a rookie — simply reeks of denial and a lack of awareness.

The Bears say they hold their players accountable behind closed doors, but they also claim to have great practices every single day despite their 3-6 record suggesting otherwise. How is a fanbase supposed to believe that a team with an 11-14 overall record under Trestman has not had a single bad practice in two years?

They can’t. Just like they can’t believe that Cutler is actually being held accountable for his poor play.

Here’s a valid question: Does Trestman even have the power to bench Cutler at halftime if he wanted to?

The head coach was brought to Chicago to fix Cutler, something that we are learning is an impossible task. As the bye week began, general manager Phil Emery admitted that Cutler has habits and “habits are hard to improve. ”

Sunday’s tape from Green Bay proved him right.

Take a look at this play from the first quarter, with the Bears already down 14-0. Just from the alignment, Cutler has to know that Alshon Jeffery might have single coverage to the left:

The only question is whether or not there will be safety help over the top, but Cutler will know that shortly after the snap:

As you can see, Jeffery has his man beat and safety Morgan Burnett (circled in red) is moving away from that half of the field. Cutler appears to be looking at Jeffery and if he lets go of the ball now, it’s going to be a very long gain, if not a touchdown.

So what happens? Cutler starts backpeddling…

Why is he still holding onto the ball? Is there pressure we can’t see?

Nope. The pocket looks pretty clean. In fact, there’s room to step into the throw. Instead, Cutler continues to backpedal. By the time he unloads the ball, he’s two yards farther back and he throws with all his momentum moving backward:

Jeffery is still wide open, but with Cutler’s poor mechanics, this pass comes up well short and both defenders are able to close on the ball:

Now, to be fair, Jeffery should still have caught this pass. There was a little contact right before the ball got there, but as you can see, it’s right in his hands:

But this never should have been a contested reception. In fact, it should have been an easy throw to a wide open receiver streaking down the sideline. The ball should have been in the air almost immediately and it certainly shouldn’t have been thrown while moving backwards in a clean pocket.

Unfortunately, nine years of film proves that Cutler’s habits are indeed hard to break. And Sunday night was no exception.

Five Highest Grades

WR Brandon Marshall (Grade: 3.0) – Yes, there were actually some positive grades from Sunday’s game, although they are relatively low compared to most games. Marshall’s game looked like it might go south in a hurry as he could be seen sitting all by himself on the defensive side of the sideline while his teammates were going over plays after the first series of the game. That wasn’t a good look for him, but apparently it helped him keep his head in the game as he went on to have a good night. His 45-yard touchdown catch and run proved that he was among those who didn’t quit Sunday.

RB Matt Forte (2.0) – This was actually Forte’s second-lowest grade of the season, but was still among the five best against the Packers. He had a slow night averaging just 3.2 yards on 17 carries, but he had a run for 13 yards and a catch for 15.

LB Shea McClellin (2.0) – McClellin actually had a decent game, coming up with five tackles and two TFLs despite not being asked to rush the passer once. He wasn’t the problem on defense.

S Ryan Mundy (2.0) – Mundy didn’t have a perfect night, but he did make a nice stop at the goal line on the Packers’ first series and also came up with a fumble recovery in the end zone. Even better, he was smart enough to take the touchback and not run it out.

DE Cornelius Washington (2.0) – It was Washington, not David Bass, who got the extra reps with Lamarr Houston out for the year. In fact, Washington received 12 more reps than Trevor Scott. From a pass rushing standpoint, Washington didn’t do much, but he made a couple very nice run stops, which was enough to get him among the top five grades in this game.

Five Lowest Grades

QB Jay Cutler (Grade: -9.0) – By far Cutler’s worst game in the two years I’ve kept weekly grades. His mechanics were poor, his decision making was poor and his accuracy was poor. He even had a delay of game penalty on a crucial 3rd-and-7 when the Bears were still technically in the game. That’s unacceptable.

LT Jermon Bushrod (-5.0) – Bushrod allowed two sacks and was guilty of two false starts. He’s likely not 100 percent healthy, but he needs to play better.

DE Willie Young (-5.0) – Before Sunday, Young hadn’t registered any negative grades this season and was by far the best player on the defense this season. He’s still holds the best overall grade on defense, but Sunday night’s game was a rough one. He wasn’t effective against the run or as a pass rusher and his effort on the 56-yard Eddie Lacy screen pass was questionable. Not a good night.

CB Kyle Fuller (-4.0) – The promise Fuller showed at the beginning of this season has been taken over by regression in each of the last three games. I still think Fuller is going to be a good player, but this is where things can get very dangerous for the Bears. Do you want young talent developing in a losing culture? Getting Fuller back on an ascending track should be one of the Bears’ biggest priorities in the last seven games of the season.

CB Demonte Hurst (-3.0) – Aaron Rodgers torched Isaiah Frey in Week 4 and a week later the nickelback was cut. Hurst was no match for Rodgers either, although he’s not likely to lose his job. Hurst may not be the longterm solution at nickelback, but he has been an upgrade over Frey.

Other Observations

– There were a number of breakdowns on the 73-yard touchdown bomb to Jordy Nelson. First, Lance Briggs tried to change the defense way too late, which left the entire unit in a state of confusion. He tried to check to Cover-2 right before the snap, putting safety Chris Conte in an impossible position to cover a deep-half of the field, as he was near the line of scrimmage matched up on tight end Andrew Quarless. As you watch the film, you can see that Conte gets the check, but then realizes the ball is being snapped and he makes the call to stick with Quarless because there’s no way he can get back into his Cover-2 responsibilities. Meanwhile, cornerback Tim Jennings also receives the check and he lets Nelson go because in Cover-2, he should have safety help over the top. Of course, because the check came in so late, Jennings didn’t have the help, because Brock Vereen was the single-high safety and there was no way for him to cover that much ground with responsibilities to each half of the field. Thus, Nelson was wide open.

On his 87.7 The Game radio show Tuesday night, Jennings tried to take responsibility by saying he should have realized there was no way the safeties could have gotten into Cover-2 that late and he should have stuck with his original assignment on Nelson, but that doesn’t really fall on him. The check came in way too late and it left the Bears playing two different defenses.

– After saying Sunday night that he didn’t see any “loafing” from players, Marc Trestman reiterated that notion Monday after watching the tape. Well, he must have missed the 56-yard screen pass to Eddie Lacy, in which there was questionable effort across the board, especially from the trailing defensive linemen. To make matters worse, Fuller showed a lack of awareness as he slowed down and was late to react to Lacy’s cutback, which resulted in him running into Conte, effectively taking them both out of the play.

– Here’s a scary thought: Three of the Bears’ final seven games will be nationally televised in exclusive windows where they are the only NFL game being played. In a three week stretch, the Bears have the Thanksgiving game in Detroit, followed by a Thursday-nighter at home against the Cowboys, before hosting the Saints on Monday Night Football. If this team doesn’t get things together in a hurry, there will be more national embarrassments before this season is over.

Adam Hoge covers the Bears for 87.7 The Game and TheGameChicago.com. Follow him on Twitter at @AdamHoge.