OK. Here's the good news. Even though they lost, the Bears were still just a score away from taking a game in very hostile territory from a very talented team. They did so with their star QB giving up the ball 4 times, an ailing secondary, and 2/3 of their Pro Bowl-caliber LB corps down for the duration.
The bad news? Their QB and WRs still don't look to be on the same page, their secondary is still bad and it looks like Urlacher is going to turn into IR-lacher by this afternoon. Even worse... the Steelers are coming to town!
It could only be worse if the guy the Bears traded away to get Cutler had some sort of miracle come-from-behind, last-second win. On second though, scratch that... At least Grossman didn't come into the Houston game and lead his team to victory.
Well, it isn't time to panic. We knew the Bears WRs were young and inexperienced, and that it might take some time for them to gel with Cutler in real game action. That will come, and we saw some glimpses of talent out there with Hester, Bennett, and Knox, who all had shining moments and not-so-good ones.
And maybe losing Urlacher isn't as bad as it appears. While he was in there last night, he was getting blocked repeatedly and effectively by Donald Lee, the Packers tight end. Old Urlacher would've manhandled any tight end trying to block him one-on-one, but this one? Eh, not so much. If we are able to shift Briggs to the middle and put Roach and Williams outside, I think we're OK with our starters until (if) Tinoisamoa comes back. Hillenmeyer is a good starter whose time has passed, and we've been talking up Williams for 2 years now. Time to pass the torch there, and I think Briggs would be a more dynamic tackler, blitzer, and cover guy in the middle than Urlacher is at this point.
The secondary is where it gets hairy. If it's true that the only thing Vasher's lacking the past few years is confidence, then last night's game didn't do anything to help, especially being the guy who blew the coverage on the game-losing drive. Tillman did fine on the other side, and Payne was everywhere early in the game, but it may be time to pass the LCB spot to Graham.
But with the Steelers coming to town, I'm putting my money on Santonio Holmes and Heath Miller this week.