Some Updates From Chicagoland

In anticipation of Sunday's Steelers-Bears game in Chicago, Joey Porter's Pit Bulls scoured Chicago media and found the following tidbits of interest ...

As shown in the Chicago Tribune photo above, the Bears this week are replacing the turf at Soldier Field. The team waited until the band U2 held back-to-back concerts at the stadium last weekend. Last week, writing on his blog, veteran tight end Desmond Clark had sharp criticism for the field conditions. In a post titled, "Our field is terrible," Clark wrote the following:

"Did you guys take a good look at our field. If you did you had to be disgusted. ... It was not always this way until the last couple of years when they revamped it by adding a synthetic grass that is woven in with the real grass. Some of our opponents comments: "yall play on a cow pasture" "this is the shittiest field in the league" "what the hell is going on with this field". These are a few comments that come to mind. What the hell is the park distict of Chi cgo doing when it comes to taking care of this field. They have to resod the whole field before we play Pittsburgh, which will lead to loose turf. Basically, to some it up in a sentence, we have one of the worst fields in the NFL and there are no excuses why the Chicago Bears, of all teams, should have to play on such a bad surface."

Beautiful. Considering Heinz Field's reputation for having shoddy turf, Soldier Field must be really bad. Let's hope nobody gets hurt because of it.

• Speaking of Clark, he will miss Sunday's game with a cracked rib. Greg Olson is the starter, and he's a good one. For all that, quarterback Jay Cutler targeted Olson six times on Sunday -- but completed only one pass (Olson dropped another).

• In addition to Clark, several other Bears sustained injuries last weekend, most notably linebacker and defensive leader Brian Urlacher, who is out for the season with a broken wrist. The Chicago Tribune reports the following players might miss Sunday's game against the Steelers: starting linebacker Pisa Tinoisamoa (knee), backup cornerback Trumaine McBride (knee) and Mark Anderson (toe). Kick returner/defensive back Danieal Manning has been held out of practice with a back injury this week. Also hampered this week are defensive lineman Tommie Harris (knee), Frank Omiyale (ankle) and cornerback Al Afalava (shoulder).

• Jay Cutler's act isn't going over so well, either in Chicago or with observers elsewhere. Former Colts head coach Tony Dungy, a former Steeler and an all-around good guy -- about as gentlemanly a fellow as you'll ever find -- had previously questioned Cutler's leadership abilities. Now, in the wake of Sunday night's debacle in Green Bay, where Cutler threw four interceptions, former NFL head coaches Mike Martz and Jim Mora Sr., both of whom are reputed to be friends of Bears head coach Lovie Smith, criticized Cutler for how he defected blame during the post-game press conference on Sunday. Cutler blamed his four intereceptions (two other potential interceptions were dropped) on "miscommunication," which could be interpreted as meaning, "My wide receivers don't know what they're doing or where they should be."

As reported in the Chicago Tribune, Jim Mora Sr. said, "When I saw that postgame press conference last night, I thought he looked completely immature. He acted like he didn't even care."

Mike Martz is quoted as saying, "He just doesn't get it. He doesn't understand that he represents a great head coach and the rest of those players on that team ... somebody needs to talk to him."

Additionally, this morning on ESPN's "Mike and Mike Show," Mike Golic ripped Cutler, saying Cutler should have showed more accountability.

Like we said earlier this week on this here blog, Jay Cutler's a punk.

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More Links

Rick Morrissey, Chicago Tribune: Somebody Must Tell Jay Cutler to Wise Up

Dan Pompei, Chicago Tribune: New QB grades out the worst after Bears' opening-night loss

Brad Biggs, Chicago Sun-Times: Could the Bears and Steelers chuck it 80 times on Sunday?

Brad Biggs, Chicago Sun-Times: Cutler in bad QB company with the Bears

Brad Biggs, Chicago Sun-Times: Bears Coping for the best

Photo credit: Chicago Tribune