Bears' Charles Tillman won NFC Defensive Player of the Week. (US Presswire)

For the second time this season and third time in his career, CB Charles Tillman won NFC Defensive Player of the Week honors.

But this time he did it without even making an interception. Tillman had nine tackles, a forced fumble and two pass breakups in the 13-7 victory over the Detroit Lions. The most important aspect of Tillman's play was holding Calvin Johnson to only one catch for 6 yards until midway through the fourth quarter, and then only three catches total for 34 yards.

Usually it takes interceptions for DBs to win player of the week honors, but coach Lovie Smith saw this as proof good cornerback play entails more.

"It says that people are really watching the game and looking at detail to what happened," coach Lovie Smith said. "When you know you have that kind of classic matchup coming in, you do pay attention to it. And, sometimes those stats don’t tell the full story of the game.

"I will just say it is hard to do and that says how special that performance was, which it was by Charles."

He'll be here all week: Offensive coordinator Mike Tice was referring to a conversation he had in the players/coaches cafeteria with Jay Cutler, when decided to go into his comedy routine.
"Jay and I were talking in the cafeteria -- I actually sat down and he didn't get up."

Tice, of course, referred to the incident in Dallas on the sidelines when TV cameras caught him trying to sit down and talk on the bench to an irrate Cutler, and Cutler snubbed him by standing up and walking away.

Historical pace: Panthers coach Ron Rivera, who played on the Bears 1985 Super Bowl champion team, couldn't call this Bears defense in the same class as the one he played on, but saw similiarities to the 2006 Bears team which he served as defensive coordinator.

"I think for the most part, because of Lance (Briggs) and Brian (Urlacher) and Israel (Idonije) and Charles (Tillman), I think this group can be better. I really do," Rivera said in a teleconference. "Because the front four is probably better (now) and it really begins with those guys up front and that has been outstanding to watch these guys."

The Bears lead the league with 21 turnovers forced after six games. They forced 44 in 2006.

Slip of the tongue: WR Brandon Marshall was explaining that if Jay Cutler somehow could not play this week, the team would be fine.

"We've got Jason Williams, er, Jason Campbell," he said. "I don't know why I say Jason Williams, but we've got Jason Campbell. We'll be fine."

Cam Campbell: Even though Marshall isn't certain of his name, Jason Campbell will play the role of Cam Newton for the scout team this week against the first team Bears defense.
"How do we create Cam Newton in practice? You can’t do that," Smith said. "Cam is a special guy. There are only so many guys like that."

Injury update: The Bears did not practice Wednesday and went through meetings instead. Their normal approach after a Monday night game is to practice Thursday, Friday and then do a walk-through Saturday. The injury report listed WR Alshon Jeffery (hand fracture) as the only player who would have missed practice if it had been held. Jay Cutler was listed as having limited participation due to his rib injury.

Follow Bears reporter Gene Chamberlain on Twitter @CBSBears.