Chicago Bears: Will Early Key Injuries End Season After Two Weeks?
After starting Week 2 with just one player on the injured list, the Chicago Bears are now faced with several players that are on the mend after their 29-14 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. During Monday night’s thrashing, the Bears saw seven of their players exit the game.
The injury that receive the most attention was the sprained right thumb of quarterback Jay Cutler. After injuring his thumb and later aggravating it while getting sacked, Cutler took himself out of the game. Head coach John Fox stated that Cutler’s status is day-to-day, and that the 11-year veteran shouldn’t be ruled out for the Week 3 matchup against the Dallas Cowboys as for now.
Along with Cutler, inside linebacker Danny Trevathan also sprained his thumb, and has been said to be out indefinitely. Trevathan will have surgery on his injured thumb on Wednesday.
The most serious injury occurred to outside linebacker Lamarr Houston, who suffered a torn ACL in his left knee. This unfortunate incident will put much pressure on rookie outside linebacker Leonard Floyd to step up to the plate immediately. Let’s not forget that Chicago also has outside linebacker Pernell McPhee still on the unable to perform list. McPhee could come back this season, but will have to still sit out for at least the next four games.
Other key injuries the Bears suffered versus the Eagles were to nose tackle Eddie Goldman (ankle), safeties Adrian Amos (concussion) and Chris Prosinski (calf), running back Ka’Deem Carey (hamstring), and cornerback Bryce Callahan (concussion). No time table has yet to be set for any of these players regarding their status for Week 3.
In addition to this laundry list of casualties, let’s not forget that right guard Kyle Long is playing with a torn labrum in his left shoulder. Let’s just hope for Chicago’s sake that Long’s shoulder doesn’t get worse, adding more turmoil to the already hobbled Bears.
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With such a huge number of injuries to key players after a 0-2 start to the year, is it safe to say that fans should start hitting the panic button already? Personally, I don’t think it’s about that time just yet. However, I do think that fans should have their hands pretty close to the panic button right about now. After going winless in their first two games, the Bears are now heading into a short week of preparation for a Sunday night showdown with the Cowboys on the road. Following that, Chicago will then have their first NFC North matchup against the Detroit Lions at home. Usually, playing at home sounds good, but the Bears are 3-14 at Soldier Field dating back to 2014. Furthermore, Chicago has lost the last six meetings against Detroit.
Basically, after looking at all the injuries, the short week to prepare for Week 3, and the recent history against the Lions, in addition with their home disadvantage, there is a good chance that the Bears could start the first quarter of the 2016 NFL season with a 0-4 record. Now, I’m not etching this in stone because we do have to see how all of these injuries play out throughout this week. However, if Dallas does somehow hand the Bears their third defeat of the year, then all hands will have no choice but to press the panic button.