Chicago Bears: Reason To Be Concerned About Brian Urlacher?

As he promised he would, Brian Urlacher started Week 1 for the Chicago Bears against the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday, and played the entire first half. Then he sat for nearly the entire second half.

Of course, the concerns about Urlacher and his knee have been rampant all preseason. Urlacher missed most of training camp and all of the preseason with problems with his knee. He had to undergo arthroscopic knee surgery during the summer, one of many procedures and treatment he has received since injuring it in last year’s season finale.

Urlacher played every defensive snap for the time he was in. He looked good, too, with a pair of tackles and a pass defended. Nothing about his knee looked out of the ordinary and he didn’t look too slowed down by it. So why pull him?

The answer to that is simple. The Bears had a big lead in the second half, leading by 20, and the Colts were having a hard time getting much of anything done. Removing Urlacher from the game didn’t have much of an impact on this one, and it made sense just to pull him and rest him up for Week 2. Julius Peppers also grabbed some pine for a bit of the second half as well, presumably for the same reason.

If the Bears weren’t set to play again on Thursday, when they visit the Green Bay Packers, then it may have been a different story, but the Bears made the right move taking him out of the game.

At this point, we have no reason at all to be concerned about his knee. He looked good and was pulled for no other reason other than to rest him up, with only a three day break between games. Until anyone says otherwise, Urlacher is just fine.