ATLANTA -- Jay Cutler looked right and then left before amnesia took over.
"I don't know," he joked. "I don't remember."
But whatever Cutler told teammates during a meeting with the offense last week, it "absolutely" resonated with left guard Matt Slauson, who preferred to keep specifics of the conversation private. But Slauson acknowledged the power of the quarterback's words Sunday in the aftermath of the Chicago Bears' 27-13 win over the Atlanta Falcons, in which the offense finally cobbled together a complete performance.
"Jay is our guy, and we're gonna follow him all the way," Slauson said.
The gist of the conversation goes like this: Coming off a dreadful second-half showing for the second consecutive week in a loss, Cutler addressed the offense at Halas Hall and more or less said the group's performance up to that point was unacceptable. Or as running back Matt Forte put it, Cutler explained: "we know we're better than this."
Chicago certainly proved that during its victory over Atlanta during which Cutler lit up the Falcons for 381 yards through the air -- his highest passing total as a Bear -- and one touchdown to go with a passer rating of 109.6. Receivers Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery combined for 249 on 11 catches, with both surpassing the century mark.
Forte, meanwhile, averaged 4.7 yards per attempt on the way to picking up 80 in addition to scoring two touchdowns.
Most importantly, Chicago didn't turn over the ball.
"As an offense, we played our best game in terms of playing a complete game," Bears coach Marc Trestman said.
In the two weeks prior to Sunday's game, the Bears rolled up 496 yards of offense in a loss to Green Bay and 347 in a defeat at Carolina. But the bulk of the production came in the first half before virtually disappearing down the stretch as the Bears were outscored 34-3 in the second half of those games.
The Bears kept their foot on the gas for the duration on Sunday as well as protecting the ball. Cutler has thrown two interceptions in each of the three losses while not being picked off in the three wins.
"We got things going. We kept things going," tight end Martellus Bennett said. "It was what we talked about: Finishing as an offense. We were able to do that."
The Bears produced a total of 275 yards in the first half, converting on 3 of 7 third downs as they took a 13-3 halftime lead. Then over the third and fourth quarters, the club churned out 203 yards. But most importantly, they responded on offense when the Falcons scored the first 10 points of the third quarter on Matt Ryan's 41-yard pass to Antone Smith and Matt Bryant's 54-yard field goal.
In recent outings, Chicago typically went into a shell once the opponents starting scoring in the second half.
"We just knew offensively, we just had to stay consistent and keep doing our job," Cutler said. "You know, in the past games, that's kind of whenever we've [gone] into the tank too, and [we were] not able to move the ball efficiently as we should be able to. As far as an offense, I thought we played our best game, which was playing a complete game."
Trestman came away impressed with how Cutler handled the week of preparation for the Falcons, especially coming off back-to-back losses and dealing with the criticism associated with having a direct hand in both those defeats through turnovers.
"This couldn't have been a more difficult week for a quarterback of the Chicago Bears, and he came in on Monday and Tuesday," Trestman said. "He worked at it. His demeanor didn't change. It wasn't any different this week than it was after [wins at] San Francisco and New York."
