Battered Backfield Has Chicago Bears Looking for Help

The Bears have been all hush hush (shocking, I know) about the status of their running backs for next Monday’s game against the Dallas Cowboys.  Matt Forte’s status is still up in the air and Michael Bush seems to be a little dinged up.  Fullback/H-back Evan Rodriguez is expected to miss at least a couple of weeks with a sprained MCL that he suffered vs the Rams.

Tuesday was an off day for the Bears players, but the front office was busy, bringing in running backs Ryan Grant and Jacob Hester a week after working out Steve Slaton and signing back Kahlil Bell.  Early reports indicate that Matt Forte will miss Week 4 vs Dallas and as I’ve said all along, it makes the most sense for him to sit through the Week 6 bye and be ready for the push in the second half of the season.

While I was at the game last Sunday, I noticed that Bush was conspicuously missing in the final 10 minutes of a tight ballgame while reputed fumbler Kahlil Bell was given the bulk of the work and thought that something must be wrong with Bush.  Here was head coach Lovie Smith’s assessment of Bush:

"“We have a lot of guys that got a little banged up (Sunday) from the physical play of the game,” Smith said. “No, we were playing Kahlil Bell before that. Mike took some good shots. You know, he came out one play on a hard hit but it was that type of game.”"

I looked back through the film and checked Bush’s last carry early in the 4th quarter and couldn’t see anything that would have caused him to leave the game.  There’s been some speculation that he could have suffered a mild concussion, but again, nothing is substantiated.  If Bush is indeed banged up and misses the Cowboys game and Forte also sits out while healing up his bum ankle, the Bears and the ground game could be in for a rough game against the Cowboys and puts that much more pressure on Jay Cutler and the passing game.  Just in time for DeMarcus Ware. Gulp.