Winning ugly, part deux

We're 2-1 right now, and while I'll take an ugly win over a pretty loss any day, this team is making me awfully nervous. If not for some missed field goals by the Steelers and the Seahawks, field goals those kickers normally make, we could easily be 0-3 at this point instead of sitting at 2-1 and looking like we might be in the race in the NFC North.

Things I liked:

Lance Briggs was all over the field. He finished the day with an interception, a sack, seven tackles, and two tackles-for-loss. He's stepping up his already high level of play and doing everything he can do to make up for the loss of Urlacher.

Jay Cutler again orchestrated a come from behind victory and finished the day with a QB rating of 126.4, completing 77.8% of his passes. Those numbers are lights out.

The Bears wide receivers looked solid. Devin Hester made some really nice plays and looked as close to a legit number one receiver as I have seen. Johnny Knox continues to impress with another touchdown and solid kick off return work, and Earl Benett finished the day with four catches for 80 yards.

Things that scare me:

The Bears offensive line looks dreadful. They're just not opening up the holes in the run game. Seattle is not noted for its run defense, and they pushed the Bears O-line around all game. They get solid marks for pass protection, but failed miserably in the run game.

Why is Ron Turner calling a run up the middle when the diminutive Garrett Wolfe is in at tailback? That shows a total lack of awareness in the game situation. That just baffles me.

Brett Favre showed some of that old magic as the Vikings cruised to a win over Mike Singletary's 49ers, improving to 3-0. They're looking awfully tough.

Winning ugly

It wasn't pretty, but by gawd I'll take it! Any time you beat the defending Super Bowl Champs it's a good win. The Steelers are a tough team. After last week's dismal loss and the bad news about Urlacher, it was big for this team to come away with a win.

And, the Pack lost. To Cincinnati! Thank you, Bungles!

Good things in the game yesterday:

Cutler comes back from last week's disaster with two touchdown passes and no INTs. I thought he showed good poise against a tough pass rush and made the big plays when it counted the most.

Johnny Knox! Holy cow, the kid can play. After a pretty good game against the Pack, he comes up big against the Steelers in the home opener.

TEs Greg Olsen and Kellen Davis came up with some big catches. And Olsen falling on the Matt Forte fumble in the fourth quarter may have saved the game for the Bears.

The defensive line continues to get decent pressure on opposing QBs. Alex Brown came away with two sacks. It's good, but I think they can do better.

On to Seattle next week. That's a tougher game than a lot of people think, but I think the Bears should be able to come away with a win.

Bad break

Chicagobears.com is reporting that LB Brian Urlacher's season is over after he had surgery this morning to repair a dislocated wrist sustained in last night's loss to the Green Bay Packers.

Hunter Hillenmeyer is likely to assume the role of starting middle linebacker in Urlacher's absence. Fourth year player Jamar Williams may also be in the mix.

This is, to say the least, a tremendous blow to Bears. Expectations for Urlacher were high this season, as he reported his neck and back injuries were behind him and spent the entire off-season working out at Halas Hall.

Tough loss out of the gate

Patrick Mannelly is walking home from Green Bay tonight. What the hell was he thinking direct snapping the ball to Garrett Wolfe there? He's supposed to be team captain. Even if he caught Green Bay with an extra man on the field, we weren't going to get the first down. You just can't do that in that situation backed up on your side of the field late in the game. That was a terrible decision on his part.

And Jay Cutler, in his Bears debut, throws four interceptions. Ouch. While I think he should take a lot of the blame, the receiver play was not good. They looked sloppy. They ran bad routes, they made bad decisions. We need a legit number one receiver. Is it too late to make the trade for Marshall or Boldin?

My other beef with the offense was the play calling tonight. The running game was nonexistent in the first half. And one of the best ways to attack the 3-4 is to pass to backs and tight ends underneath where they're in coverage with defensive end / outside linebacker hybrids who, generally speaking, don't cover all that well. We have good pass catching tight ends and running backs. We should have tried more of that.

On defense, I thought we played well, particularly in the first half. Ogunleye looked fantastic. Nathan Vasher, on the other hand, looked flat out bad. And I don't understand why we brought the safety up on that last Packer touchdown. Coming out of a time out like that, with less than a 90 seconds on the clock, you have to play the pass.

We've got the Steelers next week while the Pack gets the Bungles.

Bear down.