Jay Cutler suffered a concussion on Sunday night that kept him out of the second half of Chicago's 13-6 scorcher of a loss to the Texans. After he suffered the hit, nearly five minutes elapsed before he was evaluated, leading to the league looking at whether the Bears went through the correct evaluation procedure.
And the NFL's ruling is in, with the league saying the Bears "properly handled" Cutler's concussion.
"Our office reviewed it with the [Bears] medical staff, and it was properly handled," NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said. "The team followed the correct protocol."
Cutler was crushed by Tim Dobbins on a hit that drew plenty of flags for the helmet-to-helmet nature of the contact:
The biggest concern with respect to the handling is the time lapse between when Cutler took the hit and when he was removed from the game.
The league clearly thinks the Bears didn't allow too much time to pass before evaluating and removing Cutler. It warrants wondering whether the team's candor in ruling him out with a concussion at halftime of an important game negated any length of time in between when Cutler took the hit and when he was evaluated.
Either way, there's a good chance Jason Campbell will get the start for the Bears on Monday against the 49ers.
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