LAKE FOREST, Ill. — The Chicago Bears seemed to restore order offensively by finding their vertical passing game Sunday in a 27-13 victory over the Atlanta Falcons.

Whether quarterback Jay Cutler can continue attacking this way against the Miami Dolphins and a much better defense Sunday at Soldier Field remains a question.

“I think it helped out our whole football team,” coach Marc Trestman said of the ability to get the ball down the field.

Jay Cutler had his best yardage game as a Bear (381) and the Bears had a season-high in yards per pass attempt (9.0). Cutler did this without an interception.

“We hit a few things vs. man, hit a few things vs. zone down the field,” Cutler said. “If we can keep mixing it up like that and running the ball effectively, we should be good.”

Trestman put part of the credit for the return of the deep ball on healthier receivers, with Brandon Marshall now over his ankle sprain and Alshon Jeffery several weeks removed from a hamstring problem.

“It’s difficult to have one (vertical game) when the players you’re practicing with aren’t able to practice those types of things,” Trestman said.

Marshall didn’t practice for several weeks.

“We said it during the week, last week was really the first week we had everybody at full speed,” Trestman added.

Jeffery had catches of 74 and 26 yards, Marshall 47 and 20 and Bennett 25. In the first five games, the Bears had just nine plays of 25 yards or more and 11 of 20 yards or longer.

“I think part of it was the health issue, but the other part is, I think, that there is a residual effect of these ‘shot’ plays — that’s why everybody does them,” Trestman said.

Just by taking shots downfield, the Bears feel they loosened up the defense and made the underneath gains easier to get.

“The completion percentages aren’t going to be as high as your intermediate or short game, but they do have a residual affect overall on how the defenses play when they know you’re going to stretch you out a little bit,” Trestman said. “Then it helps you out with the underneath stuff or the intermediate game. It just balances out when you’re attacking every area of the field, not just horizontally, sideline to sideline, but certainly vertically.

“And that’s why you try to do it, knowing that it may be second-and-10, knowing that you could lose a down or get out of sequence, but they do have a residual effect on the overall productivity of your passing game.”

When the Bears were relying on the shorter pass against Green Bay and Carolina in losses, Cutler said they were playing into the hands of the defense.

“It wasn’t frustrating,” he said. “It’s just hard to go 80 or 90 going dink, dink, dink, dink, dink because sooner or later you’re going to miss one and you’re going to be third-and-8, third-and-9.

“Just to keep the flow of our offense, we kind of have to (throw deep) and anyone has to. It’s just so hard in the NFL to go 80 or 90 each and every time in six or seven possessions. It’s hard to do that.”

Marshall thought the passing attack’s success also could be traced back to Cutler, as he went without an interception for the third time this season.

“Jay was really just dropping those balls in places that him and only a few guys can do,” Marshall said.

The Bears had to be concerned they could pull off this type of approach with deeper drops and longer routes while Cutler’s backside protector, left tackle Jermon Bushrod, missed the game due to knee and ankle injuries. Still, Michael Ola did a reasonably solid job of protecting at left tackle.

Now the Bears are hopeful they’ll have Bushrod back against Miami.

“I am optimistic,” Trestman said. “We’re hopeful that we can get him back into the mix. We’ll see where he is on Wednesday at practice.”

With Miami’s pass rushing ranking much higher (ninth, 221.6 yards a game) and the Dolphins 13th in sacks with 14, the Bears’ attempt to gain their first home win this season should be far more difficult from an offensive standpoint.

“I’ve said this before,” Trestman said. “We’ve seen signs in the first six weeks of the season of the type of team we can be and the way we can play the game, but it’s a fluid league and it all starts over on Wednesday.

“We’ve got to go back to work. We’ve got to try to get better as a football team and do everything we can as coaches and players to get ourselves ready to play another very important game, a game in a season of 16 one-game seasons.”

REPORT CARD VS. FALCONS

PASSING OFFENSE: A — Brandon Marshall was healthy again and so was the Bears’ passing attack. Jay Cutler’s yards per pass attempt (9.0) were a season’s best and his 381 yards the most he’s had as a Bear. He not only went without an interception but really didn’t throw a pass into a situation that could have led to one. Alshon Jeffery was the big-play receiver downfield and — even though TE Martellus Bennett had a few drops early — the passing game worked for both for big plays as well as to seize momentum back once the Bears had lost it in a 13-13 game.

RUSHING OFFENSE: B-plus — Matt Forte’s 80 yards rushing served to keep pressure off the passing game, and the offensive line executed perfectly on his two TD runs — including one on a trap block out of the spread formation — as the Bears found a way finally to get into the end zone from within the red zone.

PASS DEFENSE: A-minus — Cornerbacks Kyle Fuller and Tim Jennings made the task of staying man-for-man with Julio Jones and Roddy White look simple when they had the task, and the safety help they usually had from Chris Conte, Brock Vereen or Danny McCray was physical enough to keep Falcons receivers worried. Jared Allen was made to face this type of offense on an artificial surface, so his first sack of the year wasn’t surprising, while Willie Young continued to record sacks at a rate near the top of the league. The only real flaw came on the screen pass for a TD.

RUSH DEFENSE: A — Jay Ratliff’s return at three-technique tackle made a huge impact in stopping the four-headed Falcons running attack, as did the play of nose Stephen Paea. Christian Jones played the Mike spot and stopped the run when he hadn’t even practiced there much through training camp and preseason.

SPECIAL TEAMS: C-plus — Getting an extra point blocked was inexcusable. It looked like a jail break on the play. Penalties again marred return units and Chris Williams’ best kick returns were the touchbacks. Still, the coverage teams bottled up Devin Hester except for one 12-yard punt return and a 26-yard kick return, and Robbie Gould kept it away from Hester with three touchbacks on kickoffs.

COACHING: A-plus — Although defensive coordinator Mel Tucker had a few great games earlier against San Francisco and the Jets, this one stood above all others. Tucker mixed in blitzes, switched up coverages and got his secondary to attack Atlanta’s drop-prone receivers, and linebackers coach Reggie Herring did a masterful job getting the team’s fifth, sixth and seventh linebackers ready to start and play well. He had Darryl Sharpton, who’d been with the team since Sept. 24, playing like a veteran starter. Somehow Jon Hoke had the secondary flourishing despite using a player with no experience, Demontre Hurst, as nickel back, and rookie Brock Vereen at safety following Chris Conte’s shoulder injury. Marc Trestman had his finger on the pulse of the offense and realized he had to get Marshall more involved immediately.