Bad News For Brian Urlacher (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

Tuesday, the Chicago Tribune reported that Brian Urlacher suffered a Grade 2 hamstring strain in Sunday’s overtime loss to Seattle. Even worse, they reported Urlacher may miss the next three games, and possibly the rest of the regular season.

Keep in mind that this comes recently after Urlacher, and the Bears’, busy off season avoiding the media and denying reports of x, y and z treatments regarding the PCL injury he suffered versus the Vikings.

And as much as I love Brian Urlacher (which is a lot), we have to remember he is 34 years old. His body may not recover as quickly as we’d like. Sucks, but I’m just being realistic here. The rest of the defense will have to step up from this point forward. We cannot let this playoff opportunity slip past us because of this set back.

I’m convinced the division will come down to the Bears-Packers match up, and what makes me a little nervous is that the Packers will most likely have Matthews and Woodson back by that time. I’m not making excuses and I’m still confident in our defense, but this will change things in the coming weeks and we will have to adapt immediately in order to seize the playoff opportunity.

On a more positive note, I thought Brian had a pretty great game on Sunday. He was continuously making plays and I remember thinking (prior to the injury) during the game, how well he has been doing. It truly sucks having to go through this again with one of the greats. He may not be AS explosive as he once was, but he is a leader on this defense and his presence alone makes an impact on the rest of the guys.

So far this year, Urlacher has 68 tackles, two forced fumbles, one interception and one touchdown.

Wishing Brian a speedy recovery and hope to have him back soon.