Though it wasn’t the focus of the article (which was Brian Urlacher‘s mouth), Rick Telander at the Chicago Sun-Times shared this interesting tidbit:
“As [quarterback Jay] Cutler admitted, it was a surprise when the refs wouldn’t let him run the plays as quickly as he wanted, because if the Bears substitute players on offense, they have to allow the foes to substitute, too.
‘‘Kind of a learning experience for us,’’ Cutler said. ‘‘I talked to the ref about it. If you want to do it, don’t sub, and you can go as fast as you want to go.’’
I’m a little surprised the Bears didn’t know about this rule or at least didn’t account for it. But it will be interesting to see what they do about it. It was fascinating to watch the Philedelphia Eagles run their frenetic offense against the Washington Redskins last week. I doubt the Bears will go quite that fast but it will be interesting to see if they begin to forgo substitutions to pick up the offensive pace this week.