Days after coach Lovie Smith opined that Brian Urlacher could improve on last season, the NFL’s reigning Defensive Player of the Year made one of those plays that dropped jaws and, indeed, raised expectations.
Backpedaling into coverage near the conclusion of the Bears’ three-day mini-camp Sunday, he leaped to deflect a Rex Grossman pass high into the air, then gathered himself to snare the ball and sprint off.
Call it divine interception.
Not that Urlacher would ever get all high and mighty on the coaching staff. In fact, he agrees with Smith.
“I know I can get better,” Urlacher said at Halas Hall. “I’ve said that every year. I still believe it. I need to make more plays. I left a lot of plays on the field. I screwed up a few times.
“Picks, fumbles, I’d like to get more of those. It doesn’t seem I’m around the ball very much anymore. Lance [Briggs] is always the guy making the plays like that. Hopefully, I’ll get around the ball more and make more plays.”
A coach’s dream, Urlacher remains his own biggest critic.
That is why January’s first-round playoff loss to Carolina left Urlacher morose for two months.
“I didn’t want to do anything,” he said.
It’s also why he scoffed at comparisons of Sunday’s play to his spectacular interception in that playoff loss.
“That was during the season,” he snarled. “This is practice. It doesn’t count.”
On the front end of his seventh NFL season, Urlacher appears to be in midseason form. He might rather get flattened by Jerome Bettis, as he did last season, than talk about himself, such is his reluctance to be a superstar.
And, just as during the season, he made his presence felt on most defensive sets throughout the weekend.
That’s why Smith’s sights are set higher than having Urlacher be the league’s defensive MVP.
“As you look at the numbers, if you would ask Brian, he would say he could get more interceptions,” Smith said. “We’re pleased with his sack total. But I think he’s capable of being at least a five-interception guy and possibly 200 tackles. Those are the goals we’ll set for him.”
Urlacher failed to intercept a regular-season pass last season for the second time and owns just seven career picks. He also didn’t recover a fumble and forced just one.
On the bright side, his six sacks raised his career total to 32.5, and he posted a team-high 10 tackles for loss. Overall, the Bears credited him with a team-high 171 tackles.
Urlacher wouldn’t reveal any personal statistics Sunday, probably because he doesn’t have any. It didn’t take a home playoff loss to Carolina for Urlacher’s goals to look beyond the individual.
“I want a ring,” he said. “I don’t see why there’s any reason we can’t make the Super Bowl and win it.
“We’re a better team now than we were last year at this time. We have more experience. We added guys. We’re all improved.”
That would include Urlacher then, too, right?
“Nah,” he said. “I screw up still. That’s why I’ve been trying to watch myself and see what I’m doing wrong.”
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kcjohnson@tribune.com
