The nauseous feeling in the pit of the stomach of Chicago Bears fans is a familiar feeling.
Almost one year ago a promising season came to a screeching halt when Jay Cuter broke his thumb and backup Caleb Hanie crumbled under the pressure. On Sunday, Cutler went down in the second quarter with a concussion and did not return.
"That's why we got Jason (Campbell) over the offseason -- in case Jay went down," Bears linebacker Brain Urlacher told Mike Silver of Yahoo! Sports. "I don't think he did a bad job. He just came into a tough situation.
"Don't get me wrong -- I hate that Jay is out, and it [expletive] stresses me out. He's such a tough son of a bitch, and I know he'll try hard to get back soon. But trust me, we're better off now than we were last year at the backup position."
The Bears fell to 7-2 with a sloppy 13-6 loss to the Houston Texans, but they remain in the driver's seat to make the playoffs.
Campbell went 11 of 19 for 94 yards and the offense seemed to lack punch, especially in the final drive when the veteran seemed reluctant to force the ball downfield, and he had some drops by his receivers. He also wasn't the train wreck Hanie was last season.
The Bears take on the San Francisco 49ers next Monday night, in what could be a battle of the backups after both Cutler and Alex Smithsuffered concussions on Sunday.
"Jay being out just puts more pressure on us to make more plays," Urlacher said. "And we've done that. We can do that. Our goal is to outplay the other team's defense every game -- it doesn't matter who we're playing. We need to get better."
Follow Kevin Patra on Twitter @kpatra.