Bears' linebacker tandem on top of their game

Since Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs starting playing together in 2003, Briggs' rookie season, one of them has led the Bears in tackles every year, and when they've both been healthy they've usually finished 1-2.

When Urlacher passed Mike Singletary earlier in the season to become the franchise leader in career tackles, he was asked what it meant.

“It means Lance will probably be passing me up in a few years,” Urlacher said.

Even though Urlacher is 32 and Briggs 30, together they are still as talented as any linebacker tandem this side of Pittsburgh.

“We're very comfortable, not just from being relaxed, but comfortable in understanding where everyone's going to fit, getting people aligned and making adjustments because we understand the defense so well,” Briggs said. “Right now our confidence in our abilities is sky high.”

Urlacher leads the Bears with 109 tackles and 9 tackles for loss, while Briggs is second with 92 and 6, respectively. Urlacher has the range and speed to patrol the deep middle in the Bears' Cover-2 pass defense, and Briggs has the open-field tackling skills to make plays sideline to sideline

“Of course I think our skill sets complement each other,” Briggs said. “Brian's 6-4 and down the middle of the field it's pretty difficult to fit a ball in between him and the safeties. One of the toughest things in football is to make open-field tackles. But I feel like if there are five open-field tackles, I'm going to get three or four of them, and if I miss one Brian or somebody else or Peanut (Tillman) or somebody else is going to fly in and make that tackle.”

Room for improvement:

For the first time as a Bear and just the second time in his career, Jay Cutler has played back-to-back games without throwing an interception.

During the five-game winning streak, he has 10 TD passes and just 3 interceptions. His passer rating was 117.0 against the Lions and 146.2 against the Eagles.

Is he playing the best football of his five-year career?

“No,” Cutler said. “I'm playing well, doing some (good) things. But we're still missing some things, we're still leaving some stuff on the field.”

Offensive coordinator Mike Martz doesn't believe Cutler has peaked.

“He's playing good,” Martz said. “He's getting better. I think he can get a lot better. We're getting closer. We still made too many mistakes in that (Lions) game, but each week we inch closer to our goal and to where we want to be. But there is stuff every week we need to clean up and get better at.”

Health report:

Linebacker Pisa Tinoisamoa (knee) did not practice Friday and won't play Sunday.

Nick Roach started in Tinoisamoa's place last week but left the game late in the first quarter with a hip/back injury. He practiced without limitations Friday for the first time this week and is expected to start Sunday.

“With Pisa down, of course we could use Nick,” coach Lovie Smith said. “We didn't think it was anything serious, (and) he got better as the week went along, so hopefully he'll be able to go.”

Tinoisamoa hopes to return next week with a healthier knee after last week's arthroscopic surgery.

“It isn't like we've (just) got four games left in the season,” Tinoisamoa said. “I feel like we've got a lot of games left, so my goal is to get healthy so that when the games do count in the postseason I'll be able to contribute good stuff.”

Staying grounded:

With a combination of snow, high winds and low temperatures bringing wind chills well below zero on Sunday, game plans may become more conservative as the conditions deteriorate.

“You have to run the ball and try to control the clock some,” quarterback Jay Cutler said. “We're still going to throw it when it's called upon. But the O-line's going to have to dominate the game.”

The Bears have run at least 28 times each week during their five-game winning streak.