Bears will try to send Pats WRs a message

The Patriots' success on offense owes a great deal to Tom Brady's precision throws on routes run underneath the coverage, while the Bears' defense focuses on preventing deep balls at the expense of conceding shorter completions.

The Bears' philosophy is that they'll give up some short passes, but they want to make the receivers pay for those catches with physical hits.

“It's critical,” Bears defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli said. “That's a big part of our system. That's what zone defense is about: having the chance to break on the ball and gang tackling.”

It will have to be a team effort, said middle linebacker Brian Urlacher, who had 18 tackles last week, the most by any Bear all season.

“If you get a chance to get them early, (you put) a little thought in their mind that you might be there,” Urlacher said. “But it's hard to do, especially for me running down the middle in Cover 2. But Lance (Briggs) will be around the ball, D.J. (Moore) will be around the ball. Whoever's in there will have to hit them when they do catch it, so we'll try to send a message early. But they're tough to hit, they're little, shifty guys, so we'll just try to do what we can.”

Slip sliding away: Brian Urlacher well remembers the last meeting with the Pats, a 17-13 loss in which he was inexplicably faked out by quarterback Tom Brady.

On third-and-9 in the fourth quarter of a tie game, Brady was chased form the pocket and scrambled up the middle, where Urlacher appeared to have him short of the first down. But Brady busted a move and picked up 11 yards to the Bears' 14-yard line.

Five plays later the Patriots scored the winning touchdown.

“I'm pretty sure Brian slipped on that,” linebacker Lance Briggs said with a smirk. “I'm pretty sure he won't be slipping this week.”

Urlacher appreciated his teammate's loyalty.

“Yeah, yeah, I definitely slipped,” he said, going along with the charade. “No, that's not how I remember it, but that was nice of him to say that. I remember me going this way and him going that way. First down.”

Look-alikes: Coach Lovie Smith was asked if he saw any similarities between himself and the Patriots' Bill Belichick, the only coach in NFL history to win three Super Bowls in four years.

“Just looking at me, you'd see quite a few,” Smith said, drawing laughs all around. “(Maybe) the sweatshirt. (He's) one of the all-time great coaches; does a great job. We're trying to get a little bit of what they have.”

Injury report: Linebacker Pisa Tinoisamoa (knee) and defensive tackle Marcus Harrison (illness) did not participate in Thursday's outdoor practice. Linebacker Nick Roach (back) was limited, as was running back Chester Taylor (knee).