Grading Sunday's performance -
What was obvious from the naked eye was that Jay Cutler was bad Sunday night. What was less obvious is that his receivers weren't anywhere near as inefficient as he was.
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Quarterbacks
Grade: 1
First, the good. Cutler made a pair of beautiful deep throws to Johnny Knox and Devin Hester, and he had a 158.3 passer rating in the third quarter.
Now, the bad. Take away the third quarter, and his passer rating was 20.6.
The TD was not just Vasher's fault -
Nathan Vasher wound up being the unfortunate victim of Greg Jennings' 50-yard touchdown that propelled Green Bay to victory Sunday night, but the veteran cornerback wasn't the only one to blame on the play.
Defending third-and-one at the 50-yard line, the play call directed rookie strong safety Al Afalava to walk down into the box for run support. Free safety Kevin Payne was supposed to have help deep, but after a play fake by Aaron Rodgers to running back Ryan Grant, he got frozen when Rodgers looked right to tight end Donald Lee. Jennings was already well beyond Vasher, who slipped a little, and that was the ballgame.
Replacing BU -
Replacing a six-time Pro Bowler, a defensive captain and the longtime face of the franchise is no easy task, so Bears linebacker Hunter Hillenmeyer would rather not burden himself with such lofty expectations.
"My job is not to go try to be Brian Urlacher," Hillenmeyer said Monday, referring to his injured teammate. "My job is to go play the best that I can. It's not my burden. It's the whole defense's burden when you lose a guy like him."
Why can't Urlacher play with a cast? -
The reason Urlacher was placed on IR is because of the bone he injured. He dislocated the lunate bone, according to the Bears, and that is the bone that is at the center of the wrist, at the middle of the eight bones. It holds the wrist together, and the risk in not treating the injury immediately, or coming back before the injury is completely healed is significant. It could lead to permanent nerve damage and that could affect Urlacher's hand long term.
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