The Bears and Oakland Raiders both played their starters for the most part for most of the first half.The Bears know they still have some work to do,mostly on the offensive line. Oakland won the game 32-17 as Jay Cutler again had to run for his life and Brian Urlacher hurt his calf muscle.The Raiders won the toss,and unlike the Bears of the past couple of seasons, they chose to take the ball. Oakland,as they have done in their long time tradition had a quick holding penalty and a false start,but they recovered and Jason Campbell picked the Bears number one defense apart, driving them 81 yards in ten plays, using 8:27 off the clock. TE Zach Miller and RB Michael Bush did much of the work before Campbell broke the plane of the goal line on a third down after he had been stopped by Julius Peppers on second down.The Raiders thus led 7-0.Oh yes, to make things worse,Urlachler suffered a calf strain and was ruled out for the game. The Bears first offensive series was awful against Oakland’s three man front. After a two yard gain by Matt Forte, Cutler was sacked by Tommy Kelly for a nine yard loss and then by Kamerlon Wimbley for 11 more yards leaving it fourth and 28 at the 4.Following an incomplete pass,Bush ran up the middle for 15 to the Bears 24.From there the Bears forced a Janikowski 43 yard field goal which he drilled to make it 10-0 with 4:58 left in the quarter.On the Bears second possession,Forte ran for a first down,but Brad Maynard had to punt the Raiders back to their 19. On first down,Peppers was shaken up while tackling Bush but went off on his own power.Campbell hit Marcell Reece for 40 yards to the Bears 26 on a screen pass.Campbell then lobbed a pass that was nowhere near Miller and went right into the hands of Charles Tillman for the interception at the Bears 11.Forte then brought the crowd to it’s feet with an 89 yard run down the West sideline with :22 left to make it 10-6 as a bad snap from Desmond Clark (who was filling in for injured Patrick Mannelly)bounced to Maynard who simply fell on it.The first quarter ended with Oakland on the midfield stripe.The Bears drove into field goal range thanks to a nice Cutler to Devin Hester pass and a Hester end around,but again Clark’s snap was a “ground ball” that Robbie Gould picked up a threw away for what was intentional grounding and Oakland took over at their own 33 but went three and out as did the Bears as Cutler was sacked for the third time of the half. The next time Oakland got the ball,they took over at midfield and went 25 yards to set up another 43 yard Janikowski field goal,this one with 4:24 left in the half to make it 13-6 Raiders. After another Bears punt, Campbell couldn’t handle a snap and Isreal Idonije fell on it at the Oakland 25.Four plays later,Cutler avoided a rush on third down and hit a wide open Johnny Knox in the end zone and this time they they went for two points and Chester Taylor ran around right end and got in easily to give the Bears their first lead 14-13 with 1:40 left.The half ended that way with Cutler getting sacked five times on the night.Dan LeFevour started the second half for the Bears and the first series ended with a punt as did Oakland’s,but Swayze Waters punt was muffed by Eric Peterman into the Bears end zone and recovered by Norris for a touchdown as the Raiders regained the lead 20-14.Norris also later blocked a Maynard punt out of the end zone for a safety.

NOTES—Cutler completed 7 of 15 for 99 yards with a 22-yard TD pass to Johnny Knox and was sacked five times – four of them credited to Raiders’ linebacker Kamerion Wimbley…..Oakland’s Campbell was 10-for-20 for 170 yards with the short TD run and one interception…..Next Saturday the Bears host the Arizona Cardinals.