Despite injuries and record, Bears coach Fox staying positive

Eight players did not practice Wednesday, including at least three who won't play Sunday night against the Cowboys. Six others were limited.

Most of the serious injuries are on defense, but coach John Fox said it's part of the game and not worth lamenting.

"Any time you have front-line players get hurt, obviously it's an issue," Fox admitted. "They're front-line players for a reason. But, if you look around the league, even going into Week Three, there are plenty of significant injuries to some star-caliber players.

"But you keep 53 men on the roster, you get 46 on game day, and it's next man up. You don't have any choice. Nobody comes to rescue you. They're not going to cancel the game. (So) I don't get much into it."

Quarterback Jay Cutler (right thumb), running back Ka'Deem Carey (hamstring), nose tackle Eddie Goldman (high ankle sprain), outside linebacker Lamarr Houston (left knee, torn ACL), linebacker Danny Trevathan (thumb, surgery), safeties Adrian Amos (concussion) and Chris Prosinski (calf) and cornerback Bryce Callahan (concussion) did not participate at all during the indoor workout at the Walter Payton Center. Those limited were wide receiver Alshon Jeffery (knee), offensive tackle Bobby Massie (toe), guard Josh Sitton (shoulder) and cornerbacks Tracy Porter (knee), Kyle Fuller (knee) and Sherrick McManis (wrist).

Not all bad:

There were some encouraging signs from the defense in Monday night's loss, like limiting the Eagles to 280 yards, 4 less than the Bears' offense managed. Third-down efficiency was much improved. After allowing the Texans to convert 12 of 20 third downs (60 percent), the Bears held the Eagles to 20 percent (3 of 15).

"I thought there was a lot of good in the game," defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said. "I thought we played well for a good bit of time there. We just came up empty in the takeaway department, which we needed to at least match Philadelphia there. They got three on us; we didn't get any. That's probably the turning point of the game. I thought overall our play was pretty good."

Fangio said the pass rush was "average" in Week 1, when it had 2 sacks, the same number as Monday night.

"I'd say about the same," he said. "I didn't think the pass rush was a problem in the game for any negative plays other than (quarterback Carson Wentz) got out one time on a third-down scramble for 7 yards when it was third-and-10, so that didn't hurt us tremendously. I thought the rush was OK."

Sky isn't falling:

Coach John Fox is staying positive by being realistic.

"The reality is we're 0-2, (but) there are things to look at that are still positives. Obviously, the record is not one of them. (But) there's still 14 games to go. I've been on teams that were 1-7 and went 7-1. Four years ago, we were 1-3 and went 13-3." Fox's 2012 Broncos actually started out 2-3 before running the table with 11 straight victories. A year earlier they started 2-5 before winning seven straight. Fox's 2003 Carolina Panthers team started out 1-7 but went 6-2 in the second half.

"It's a start," Fox said. "It's not ending. A lot of times on the outside it's crisis or carnival, and we don't look at it that way. It's two games."

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