Charles Tillman vowed to be ready to go Thursday night at San Francisco after being knocked out of Sunday's game with a left shoulder injury, and rookie strong safety Al Afalava labeled himself day-to-day.
The Bears weren't just beat by Arizona quarterback Kurt Warner, who threw five touchdown passes in the 41-21 Cardinals' victory at Soldier Field, they were beat up. Tillman left the game after trying to arm tackle wide receiver Steve Breaston on an end around as he was blocked by wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald.
"I will be ready to see Isaac Bruce and [Michael] Crabtree, Josh Morgan and Vernon Davis,'' Tillman said. "That guy can run. He's not your average tight end."
Tillman was knocked out of multiple games last season with shoulder injuries, and he has a history of subluxations in his career. He underwent surgery on his right shoulder in January but said that he will not be worried about his shoulders returning to the field.
Afalava was knocked out of the game when he re-injured his right shoulder that first became a problem in preseason. Afalava said after the game that he expected to have an MRI today, but that apparently didn't happen.
Running back Garrett Wolfe was taken to the hospital during the second half of Sunday's game and will remain hospitalized for another day with what is believed to be a lacerated kidney, a source told the Sun-Times.
Wolfe was knocked out of the loss to the Arizona Cardinals at Soldier Field with what the team described as a back injury, but Wolfe was urinating blood at halftime, and was taken for medical treatment and evaluation immediately.
The injury is not believed to be serious longterm, and it could be something that Wolfe heals from in two to four weeks. It's unknown how that would affect his roster status. The Bears went two games without running back Adrian Peterson while he nursed a sprain knee. Wolfe is considered a key special teams player.
One of the issues that has plagued Charles Tillman in his career has been frequent shoulder dislocations, or subluxations, and it is possible that is what happened when he reached out in an effort to tackle a streaking Steve Breaston during the second quarter.
Breaston came around the left side on an interesting end around where the Cardinals brought another player in motion in front of him. Tillman was being blocked well downfield by wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, who was engaging him at his right shoulder. When Breaston went by, Tillman reached out with his left arm in an effort to make the play and failed. He instantly went to the ground in pain, and came off the field.
Tillman had surgery in January to repair his right shoulder, which was injured against Philadelphia when he went to make a tackle on tight end Brent Celek. Two weeks later, Tillman left the game at Atlanta with an injury to his left shoulder. He played through the remainder of the season with injuries to both shoulders, and admitted recently that it was difficult to raise his arms above his head last season.
Rookie strong safety Al Afalava will undergo an MRI on his right shoulder to determine the nature of his injury on Monday morning.
Afalava left the game in the first half when he missed an arm tackle on a running play.
"He ran through my arm and the shoulder went numb,'' Afalava said.
He originally injured his right shoulder in preseason, and has occasionally appeared on the injury report this season. The Bears replaced Afalava with veteran Kevin Payne.
Chad Ochocinco has been tweeting up a storm this week but he put the kidding aside Wednesday morning in an entertaining conference call with reporters. He's seen Charles Tillman do a pretty good job the last games on Atlanta's Roddy White and Detroit's Calvin Johnson.
The Bears were burned by Johnson in the first half of the Lions' game, and coach Lovie Smith made a halftime adjustment having Tillman shadow him on the field where he went. Johnson had three catches for 14 yards, and Tillman followed it up Sunday night in the Georgia Dome against White, who had four catches for 56 yards. White scored on a bubble screen that went 40 yards, and Tillman was wiped out by tight end Tony Gonzalez on the play.
"Beautiful. Beautiful,'' Ochocinco said when asked about Tillman. "I've been studying film on Peanut since training camp actually. I got some of the film that I could from when he played before and watched some of the things he does. He's really, really good, man. I know I've been playing around on Twitter and going back and forth with the nonsense--it's the way I play the game--but he looks really good and he's put up some shut-downs on some pretty good top receivers, so it's going to be a fun, interesting matchup come Sunday."
Ochocinco, who called out the secondary in a playful way on Twitter, said the Bears will be kissing the baby from the moment the whistle blows. He's got an end zone celebration planned for the game, too. When he was known as Chad Johnson, he scored two touchdowns vs. the Bears at Soldier Field in 2005, doing his take on Michael Flatley's Riverdance. That was at a time when Brian Urlacher was embroiled in a dispute with Tyna Robertson, the mother of his son. Robertson had falsely accused Flatley of rape, and he won a successful lawsuit against her. He said he's not going to repeat a dance he's already done.
"A very good friend of mine, Ronaldinho, I'm thinking about doing the Samba this week,'' Ochocinco said. "Courtesy of my friend Ronaldinho."
GREEN BAY, Wis.--The Bears announced that Charles Tillman will be active and is expected to start at left cornerback.
Tillman warmed up on the field two hours before the game with Lance Briggs, and had a short visit with Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
The surprise is that Zack Bowman, who the Bears raved about all spring and summer, has not supplanted veteran Nathan Vasher at right cornerback. Coach Lovie Smith hinted strongly during training camp that the Bears were holding starting spots for Tillman and Bowman while they were injured, but Vasher gets the nod.
Charles Tillman will be questionable for Sunday's game at Green Bay when the injury report is released later this afternoon.
Coach Lovie Smith said that the decision will rest in the hands of medical people, but at this point, two days before the start of the season, you would have to imagine a decision has been made. Tillman had back surgery in July, and just returned to the practice field on Monday. He completed his fourth practice this afternoon, and he and fellow cornerback Zack Bowman were the last two players on the fields behind Halas Hall.
"Either way,'' Smith said when asked if he didn't know or just didn't want to say. "What difference does it matter? Don't want to say, don't have to say, what I have to say is give you a questionable for him and that's what I'm saying right now and why would I want to say anymore.''
Tillman, well coached on the matter, said his gut feeling is ... what else? Fifty-fifty.
"I'm in the paper all week long,'' Tillman said. "What the hell?''
Tillman said the difference today as opposed to earlier in the week is he is no longer sore.
"It's really not about me pushing them to make me play,'' he said. "They're going to make their decision and the doctor is going to make his decision regardless of what I say or what I do. They have the green light to whatever it is I need to do. I'm just prepared if I get it, prepared if I don't get it. That's why I've been saying 50-50 all week.''
Did Lovie Smith tip his hand on the plan for Sunday night at Green Bay?
We're going to have to wait until we get to Lambeau Field to find the answer, but Smith at least seemed to indicate that veteran cornerback Charles Tillman will be on the field against the Packers.
Smith was asked how tough it has been to prepare the secondary through what has been a series of injuries. Tillman didn't return to practice until Monday after missing all of the preseason, training camp and the majority of the offseason program as he had back and shoulder surgeries. Cornerback Zack Bowman missed most of camp and three preseason games with a pulled hamstring. Projected free safety and nickel back Danieal Manning was in and out with a hamstring pull, and now looks like he'll just play the nickel, at least to start the season.
"Well, I think it is a good thing though because now we have all of the players that we started training camp hoping would be on the field, we have for our first game,'' Smith said in answer to the question. "That's a good thing. Players tell you who should start, who should dress. We have a pretty good idea of how we will play our players this week. We are confident they will play well and again we have a good group to choose from."
Ran down the list of Pro Bowl quarterbacks and wide receivers that the Bears face in the first eight games of the season in the print edition this morning.
Pretty impressive list.
Sept. 13 at Green Bay Aaron Rodgers, Greg Jennings, Donald Driver (3)
Sept. 20 Pittsburgh Ben Roethlisberger (1), Santonio Holmes, Hines Ward (4)
Sept. 27 at Seattle Matt Hasselbeck (3), T.J. Houshmandzadeh (1)
Oct. 4 Detroit Matthew Stafford, Calvin Johnson
Oct. 18 at Atlanta Matt Ryan, Roddy White (1)
Oct. 25 at Cincinnati Carson Palmer (2), Chad Ochocinco (5), Laveranues Coles (1)
Nov. 1 Cleveland TBA, Braylon Edwards (1)
Nov. 7 Arizona Kurt Warner (4), Larry Fitzgerald (3), Anquan Boldin (3)
(Pro Bowl appearances in parentheses)
You have to figure Rodgers and Ryan both have all-star games ahead of them as brightly as they began their careers last season. I think you could put together a case for the Packers presenting the most challenging group, too. Cornerback Charles Tillman was asked Monday if the Packers' receivers are among the best in the league.
"Driver and who was the other one, Jennings, Greg Jennings,'' Tillman said. "They get a lot of YAC after the catch. I think they do a great job of catching the ball and going north and south. They don't dance around. They go north and south. They do a good job of turning up the field and getting as much yardage as they possibly can. So we've definitely got our hands full.''
Tillman, who is no lock to play in the game, pointed out that Rodgers bring a different dimension to the Green Bay offense than Favre did. He's less prone to errors and threw just 13 interceptions last season in 536 attempts. Only one quarterback, Peyton Manning, had more attempts (555) and less interceptions (12).
Danieal Manning and Zack Bowman were both on the practice field at the start of practice this afternoon, and that's a good sign as the secondary continues to slowly round itself back into form. Cornerback Charles Tillman was out playing catch with the quarterbacks before the session got started, but he hasn't been cleared for drills yet. We'll see how much work the others get done today when coach Lovie Smith speaks after practice.
Rookie defensive end Henry Melton was spotted with a walking boot on his right foot, and that's not a good sign with final cuts fast approaching. Melton really didn't do a whole lot in training camp, but he's incredibly athletic and the Bears admitted he was a project when they selected him in the fourth round from Texas. No word what the exact nature of his ankle injury is.
Defensive tackle Dusty Dvoracek will undergo surgery on his right knee on Friday to determine if there's more to his injury than a sprained MCL. The Sun-Times reported he also has a torn ACL, and ESPNChicago.com confirmed that report on its own. The folks at Football Outsiders put together a chart looking at the most injured players of the last decade. Dvoracek, who has been sidelined for 35 of 48 regular-season games over the last three seasons, will rank as the most inured player of the decade if he misses 11 games this season. The way his teammates spoke of him earlier this week, it's apparent they have been told to expect him to miss the season.
It's a tough story because Dvoracek has been such a diligent worker and is so well respected by everyone in Halas Hall.
We should get a pretty good indication of how the Bears feel about Nathan Vasher Saturday night when the Bears face the New York Giants in the second preseason game at Soldier Field.
Smith has walked a fine line in calling out Vasher, but he's included his name in a group of players that need to step up their performances.
"We've had one game,'' Smith said. "With DB's you never know. Just think about it. The quarterback has an opportunity to hold the ball every play. So its tough on the defensive backs. We've seen Nate do some good things. Just like the rest of our football team didn't play as well as we probably would like to have played last week but there's a big challenge coming ahead this week.''
Bowman is sidelined with a pulled right hamstring right now, but he did some work on the side Monday, joining cornerback Charles Tillman, who is working his way back from back surgery. Smith made it sound like the team is biding its time right now, waiting for the pair to return.
"[Tillman and Bowman] don't have to come out here and prove to us that they can play," Smith said. "So we'll just do what we need to do. Everything we do in general is to set up our play for [Green Bay]. Yeah, we would like to have them out here practicing, but as long as we can get them back around in time, we'll be OK."
Asked if he was endorsing Bowman as a starter on the spot, Smith continued.
"I speak of Bowman based on what he's done since [offseason team activities], and he's played as well as any of the defensive backs. That's how I am looking at it.''
There is no disputing that in the first week of training camp Bowman made more plays than any one player has made in all of camp to this point. He's been out since Aug. 5, and the Bears are hopeful to get him some preseason action soon. They need to because he played in just one regular-season game last year after beginning the season on the practice squad. He suffered a ruptured biceps and his rookie campaign was done.
It doesn't bode well for veteran Nathan Vasher. The hope the team had for him entering camp appears to have faded. Vasher's in good shape, he's been working hard, but the results haven't appeared like anyone would like to see. He's making good money but will be needed when you consider the health risks associated with Tillman and Bowman at this point.
Meanwhile, Corey Graham worked primarily at the nickel in practice and he also got some occasional reps at left cornerback in place of Trumaine McBride. Graham said he is taking a liking to the nickel, and the Bears would be best served to get him comfortable there right now. Danieal Manning will be out for a while as he heals his hamstring injury. The Bears need someone they are comfortable with in that role in reserve, and training Graham will give them two options.
