LAKE FOREST, Ill.—Bears coach Lovie Smith wasn’t thrilled with the remarks linebacker Brian Urlacher made publicly about his struggling team over the weekend, but the coach acknowledged there isn’t a lot he can do about it.

Urlacher was critical of the Bears’ identity in remarks to Mike Silver of Yahoo! Sports, and also seemed to take some shots at running back Matt Forte while he watched the team get dismantled 36-10 by the Minnesota Vikings.

“Look, I love Jay (Cutler), and I understand he’s a great player who can take us a long way, and I still have faith in him,” Urlacher said. “But I hate the way our identity has changed. We used to establish the run and wear teams down and try not to make mistakes, and we’d rely on our defense to keep us in the game and make big plays to put us in position to win. Kyle Orton might not be the flashiest quarterback, but the guy is a winner, and that formula worked for us. I hate to say it, but that’s the truth.”

As far as the Bears’ last-ranked rushing offense, he seemed to point his commentary at the play selection of offensive coordinator Ron Turner and Forte, the second-year back who has struggled.

“Now we’re gonna run that (expletive)!” Urlacher said of a run play in the fourth quarter. Earlier, discussing a botched screen pass, he said, “You know why that doesn’t work? We don’t make anyone (expletive) miss. I guess I just don’t realize what great tacklers these (opposing defenders) are. They’re amazing.”

Those are not words that are going to go over well in Halas Hall. Remember, ex-Bear Bobby Wade said on the eve of training camp that Urlacher had called Cutler a word that rhymes with wussy, one that we don’t condone at the National Football Post. So does that make these remarks a coincidence?

“I think right now at this stage, everyone is frustrated with where we are and everybody will speak their mind,’’ Smith said. “Brian Urlacher is a team guy, like all of our players are, and they will voice their opinion. I would like all comments to be positive toward what we’re doing but guys have a chance to voice their opinion. I can’t do a whole lot about that, I just know that brian is a team player. He’s behind everything that we’re doing.”

Teammates were not sure what to make of the most recent hullabaloo.

“The identity of losing we're not happy with,” said Olin Kreutz. “If that's what he means.”

Yeah. Something like that.

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