Maurice Jones-Drew and I finally have something in common - Brian Urlacher doesn't like what we have to say about his quarterback. I haven't pretended to be a doctor since I was in college so I don't know for a fact whether or not Jay Cutler was seriously injured during Sunday's NFC title game, but I wanted to see more of him. I wanted to see more out of him.
In the coming days, or so, I assume we'll hear what really went down in the locker room and sidelines of Soldier Field but until that happens, we are left to speculate. I would never wish major injury on anybody but unless an MRI shows significant ligament damage or something similar, I don't know that there would be anything that would satisfy our questioning. It was the NFC Championship game, a trip to Dallas on the line, you need to be out there on the field.
Phillip Rivers played in a title game with a torn ACL. Hell, even Donovan McNabb finished out a game with a fractured leg. Now, I'm not going to say that he should have played on a significant injury but I didn't see that he even wanted to play. And maybe that's where I see the biggest issue. Argue with Mike Martz and Lovie Smith. Tell them that you "need to be in this fucking game!" Throw a water bottle, kick something, I don't care, but show me that YOU do. Show me that you care that you can't be in there. Maybe all of that happened in the locker room. I don't know. But since the majority of the people can only see what's on TV, you need to make sure it plays out on TV. Don't worry, the cameras will find you. If the equipment manager comes to hide your helmet so you can't get back in, the cameras will catch your argument. Troy Aikman would tell a story about when the same things happened to him in Dallas and he'd say that he hopes most of America can't read lips after your profanity-laced argument but we'd all see how much you want to be out there with your team.
Jay Cutler knows his body, he says. He knows when enough is enough. To a certain extent I believe that. He couldn't pinpoint the exact time when his knee started hurting though, he just knew it was some time in the first half. If it was a serious injury, don't you think you'd remember the play. You'd remember who hit you, when it happened and how much it hurt? Your knee hurts, OK. Suck it up and get out there. It comes down to this - was he injured or hurt? If you are injured, then get some ice, get a set of crutches and cheer on your boys. If you are hurt, get some ice, get a set of balls and get out there with your boys.
If he can't go, whether his call or the team doctor's I get that. But I need to see that he wants to be out there and I need to see why he can't be out there. Just saying that he is out with an apparent knee injury doesn't do anything for me. If I'm a Chicago fan, I'm pissed off today. The defense did enough to keep them in the game, and some dude named Caleb lead them on 2 scoring drives. Would Cutler have done better? I don't know. He's good for a few INTs so maybe he throws the decisive pick-six anyway. But despite horrible mechanics that I've never trusted, I still think that Jay Cutler, even at 75% is a better option than the other 2.
I don't have a problem with Brian Urlacher sticking up for his teammate. I respect that a lot. I would expect nothing else from a classy guy like Urlacher. But at the end of the day, when he looks back on yesterday I would expect Brian himself to be thinking that they were 30 minutes away from the Super Bowl, down only 2 scores. I expect him to think about what it would take to get himself out of the game. I don't expect him to ever say it publicly, but deep down Brian Urlacher is thinking the same thing - I can't believe they label a torn vagina as a knee injury in the NFL.
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