29-year old linebacker Lance Briggs has not slowed down one bit this season.  He has played in 13 games for the Bears this season and he has 100 tackles, 4 tackles for a loss, 2.5 sacks, 5 passes defensed and 1 interception.  Briggs now has six straight seasons of 100+ tackles for the Bears and the hope is that he and Brian Urlacher will lead a much improved Bears’ D in 2010.

23-year old undrafted rookie running back Khalil Bell should be more involved in the offense the last couple of weeks.  With Matt Forte still struggling it would make sense to give Bell a shot to show what he can really do.  Bell has played in 5 games for the Bears this season and he has carried the ball 25 times for 155 yards (6.2 ypc) and he has also caught 1 pass for 4 yards.  The Bears’ season is pretty much over so it wouldn’t hurt to see what they have in Bell.

The Bears really found themselves a player when they picked 23-year old WR Johnny Knox out of Abilene Christian in the fifth round of last April’s NFL Draft.  Knox has played in all 10 games for the Bears this season and he has caught 32 passes for 376 yards (11.8 avg) with 3 TD grabs.  Knox has also excelled on special teams as he has returned 25 kickoffs for 699 yards (28.0 avg) with a TD return (102 yarder).  It’s good drafting to find a guy in the fifth round that is averaging 107.5 all purpose yards per game in his rookie season.  The Bears have high hopes for Knox in the future.

27-year old Devin Hester is starting to improve as a WR right before our very eyes.  He has played in 9 games this season for the Bears and he has caught 48 passes for 596 yards (12.4 avg) with 3 TD grabs.  Hester was a cornerback when he came into the NFL but he wasn’t getting much P.T. which caused him to want to try WR and the results have been pretty good.  Hester also has returned 17 punts for 169 yards (10.0 avg) this season and 1 kickoff for 26 yards.  The Bears really need Hester to keep up the good work at WR.

Earl Bennett had the look of a bust for the Chicago Bears after a rookie season in which he played 10 games and didn’t catch any passes.  He did return 1 punt for 17 yards and he had 2 tackles which was the extent of his production as a rookie.  He has been revived by the fact that his old college buddy at Vanderbilt (Jay Cutler) has come to the Bears as the starting QB.  Bennett has caught 15 passes for 200 yards (13.3 avg) this season and he has also returned 4 punts for 63 yards (15.8 avg).  Now that is the player the Bears thought they were getting when they drafted Bennett and they need him to keep up the good work.

Cornerback Charles Tillman was a little gimpy coming into this season but he is playing very well right now.  He has made 12 tackles, 1 tackle for a loss, has defensed 2 passes, forced 2 fumbles and he has 1 interception.  Tillman will likely make some big plays against rookie QB Matt Stafford in the game on Sunday.

DE Alex Brown has really stepped up this season as he is living in the opposing backfield so far this year.  Brown has made 9 tackles, has 2 sacks and he has 3 tackles for a loss already this season.  He looks to have another big game Sunday against a Seahawks team that is having huge problems with injuries on the O-Line.

When the Bears selected Johnny Knox in the 5th round out of Abilene Christian they weren’t expecting much.  But he is proving to be a steal as he is turning into Jay Cutler’s favorite WR.  Knox has caught 8 passes for 152 yards (19.0 avg) with 1 TD grab.  If Knox continues to play well he could establish himself as a legit #1 WR because the Bears don’t have one right now.

The Chicago Bears (1-1) were able to pull out a late victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers (1-1) at Soldier Field today.   A 44-yard Robbie Gould field goal with 15 seconds left put the Bears ahead for good, winning 17-14.  The Bears probably would not have won if not for the Steelers kicker Jeff Reed missing on two costly field goal attempts in the 4th quarter.  Jay Cutler looked like a different quarterback today, and nothing like the Jay Cutler who threw a career high four interceptions against the Green Bay Packers last week.  Cutler has obviously settled in as the Bears quarterback, as he hit seven different receivers for 236 yards and two touchdowns today against the defending champs.

Cutler completed a ridiculous 71% of his pass attempts (27/38), using a lot of screen and dump passes to slowly eat through the dynamic Steelers’ defense.  That completion percentage is very impressive, especially since it was raining and a lot of receivers were dropping passes early in the game.  The speedy Johny Knox was Cutler’s favorite target today, as he had six receptions for 70 yards and a touchdown.  The Bears running game has still not gotten going yet, as they only racked up 43 yards on 18 carries (2.4 avg).  Running back Matt Forte, who was a top 10 pick in most fantasy drafts, has not been producing like he did in his outstanding rookie campaign last year.  He only had 29 yards on 13 carries today and Forte has only racked up 84 yards on 38 carries through the first two games (2.2 avg).

The defenses played well on both sides today, despite both teams missing their star defenders.  Brian Urlacher is out for the year with a dislocated wrist and Troy Polamalu is out six weeks with an MCL injury.  This was a big win for Jay Cutler and the Chicago Bears, as they have now established themselves as a top team in the NFC after beating the defending Super Bowl champions.

FINAL SCORE:  Bears 17, Steelers 14

Not only will Devin Hester be the #1 WR for the Bears this season but he will continue to return punts and some kickoffs.  Hester caught 4 passes for 90 yards (22.5 avg) with 1 TD grab against the Packers last Sunday Night.  He also returned 2 punts for 15 yards (7.5 avg) and 1 kickoff for 26 yards.  The Bears would like to limit Hester to playing WR and returning punts so that they down wear him down.