Jay Cutler apparently is fed up with being run down. And thrown down. And beaten down and beaten up.



And if the Bears quarterback had to pants his head coach to make things better, then fine, Cutler will offer cold-eyed honesty that ought to embarrass Lovie Smith.



The issue is the offensive line, such as it is, and it isn't enough for Cutler. Speaking at a school on the South Side on Monday, Cutler sounded like a guy who doesn't want to die young.



"The offensive line is definitely going to be a concern," Cutler said, "and seeing where those guys fit in and seeing what five we go with. You know, if Gabe (Carimi) comes back, if J'Marcus (Webb) pans out (and) Chris Williams, where we're going to put him ... there are some question marks there. Until we really get that resolved, get our front five settled, we've got some work to do on the offense."



That's what you'd expect a coach to say, but the Bears coach hasn't said that. He won't. Or can't. Whatever, it was left to the quarterback who was sacked at least 50 times the last two seasons and was on pace to reach that painful mark again last season before suffering a thumb injury.



When given a chance to make nice with his blockers, Cutler passed. He refused to say "All better'' when tossed a softball question about new offensive coordinator Mike Tice's tailoring an offense that includes designed rollouts, audibles and other sensible ideas that eluded the insane Mike Martz.



"It helps," Cutler said. "It's not a cure-all by any means. They're still going to be asked to protect. There are going to be times it's third-and-8, it's third-and-10, we're going to have to take seven steps, we're going to have to have a longer route, and they're going to have to protect."



Again, that's the quarterback talking. Where's the head coach with that kind of frankness?



Nowhere, that's where.



Compare and contrast Cutler's comments with the ridiculousness the head coach foisted on us during the NFL meetings in Florida two months ago.



"I don't want to picture it as we're looking for a left tackle," Smith said. "We feel comfortable with the two guys (J'Marcus Webb and Gabe Carimi) we started with last year. We like the group of offensive lineman we have right now. We feel we can be successful with them."



The quarterback isn't buying what the coach was shoveling. Facing near-death will do that to you.



When told that Webb allowed a league-high 14 sacks and committed a league-high eight false starts, Smith said, "You can make a case and throw out stats on what he did. But I think it's hard for all tackles by themselves in the league to block Julius Peppers from time to time.''