Brian Urlacher, the face of the Bears, frowned at any assumptions that his ailing back has caused a drop in production.
“No. I’m fine. None. Good,” he said Thursday.
Then Urlacher really snapped.
“Was it on the injury report? Did you see the injury report? There you go,” he said. “Check it out.”
Urlacher’s name hasn’t appeared on the first two injury lists leading into Sunday’s game against the Eagles. But as he sat at his locker Thursday, the defensive captain positioned himself upright, his back apparently stiff.
Urlacher won’t make a big deal of it. Neither will coach Lovie Smith.
“Who’s at 100 percent at this time of the year? You know, you have bumps and bruises this time of the year,” Smith said. “I mean, Brian is healthy enough to play, like most of our other guys. … Our play doesn’t have anything to do with injuries.”
Urlacher has a combined 25 tackles over the last three games. And he stands a surprising second on the team in tackles with 54; Lance Briggs has 55 but has missed 1Q games.
Urlacher was asked about Briggs taking over the team lead in tackles.
“Not worried about it,” he said.
But people certainly are wondering why Urlacher had just five tackles against the Vikings last week.
“Don’t care what people think,” he said. “I’m fine.”
But the defense sure isn’t. No matter what Urlacher’s status is, the Bears can’t afford a repeat performance in Philadelphia. The Eagles, led by quarterback Donovan McNabb and elusive running back Brian Westbrook, are too good to take lightly. They average 352.4 yards per game. Westbrook might be even more dangerous all around than the Vikings’ Adrian Peterson.
“We have to make tackles,” Urlacher said. “We’re trying to make more plays than we need to make.”
Smith mentioned earlier in the week how a lack of effort could have contributed to last week’s pathetic defensive performance. Urlacher wouldn’t echo those words exactly.
“I don’t grade effort, the coaches grade the effort,” he said. “Coaches sometimes point guys out who aren’t running hard. I’m not worried about everyone else. I just need to worry about myself. I don’t really watch everybody else run.”
But as a defensive captain, Urlacher has to take it to heart when Smith calls out the team, or when defensive tackle Tommie Harris goes on record saying a lack of hunger exists.
“Who’s talking about lack of hunger?” Urlacher asked. “Well, I don’t worry about it.”
