BearTalk

Well, the Bears wrapped up the week of practice for the Big Game in spirited fashion. They had a good practice, culminated with some good hooting and hollering as the team huddled at the end of the session. Anybody who might be worried about a lack of morale or motivation for this game can rest easy. It’s pretty apparent these guys are definitely focused and up for this game on Saturday.

Unfortunately for the Bears, they won’t have the services of safety Brett Johnson, whom Jeff Tedford said was out with a shoulder injury. Defensive coordinator Bob Gregory said Sean Cattouse will start in Johnson’s place with Bernard Hicks seeing plenty of snaps off the bench. It’s a pretty significant loss for the Bears. Johnson had been playing well.

One thing Gregory did back in the spring was change the way the defense plays the safety positions. There’s really no more strong safety and free safety. It’s more like left safety and right safety. All safeties have learned the skills and techniques of playing both strong and free, and that has allowed the secondary to become more versatile. That also helps in a situation like this when someone gets injured. Cattouse has played well as a reserve and HIcks only played a few snaps last week after missing six games with a thigh injury. It’s allowed Gregory to plug in Cattouse because he’s probably the more productive player at this point. If Johnson had only been playing free safety and Cattouse just strong safety, it might make the defense more limited.

Kicker Giorgio Tavecchio had a strong practice on kickoffs, sending one to the goal line and another inside the 5. Tedford said after practice that Tavecchio still is the kickoff guy and field goal kicker.

I’ll have more Big Game coverage on Friday.