It's been a few days since the Chicago Bears came away with a gritty, nasty and downright ugly victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The discourse, this past week, has been all about the Bears entering their bye week at just the right time, and I tend to agree completely.
What, exactly, are the Bears players and coaches saying, though, coming off a win like that and heading into some extra time off?
Let's highlight a few good ones.
- Bears players take on 'a win is a win' mentality
- Jonah Jackson addresses Bucs' OL whining about Jeffery Simmons
- Ben Johnson sums up sloppy game vs. Bucs in the best way possible
- Ben Johnson acknowledges the run game must improve
Bears players take on 'a win is a win' mentality
As easy as it would be for us, as fans, to be upset with the win this past week, the old saying still rings true.
A win is a win.
Safety Cam Lewis on the win over Tampa Bay (via Chris Emma):
"We didn't play our best ball as a collective unit, as a whole team. ... And we still pulled out a win. So, that's what you expect from a good football team. Once we put it all together, it's like, man, we can really, really make a run at it."
Guard Jonah Jackson takes the victory amidst plenty to clean up (via Chris Emma):
"A win’s a win, so you’re obviously happy about it. To our standard, it wasn’t exactly what we want it to be. There’s a lot of things on tape that we need to fix and clean up. Nothing that we can’t be better on next game. ... You always got to be your toughest critic, and especially in a game like that where we kept it close and it probably shouldn’t have been."
There's nothing earth-shattering, here. For people who want to criticize the Bears or, specifically, Caleb Williams, I'm sure they'll always find a way.
But, the Bears are a contender. Contenders are not going to smoothly sail to victory each week, nor will they escape defeat. Remember that.
Jonah Jackson addresses Bucs' OL whining about Jeffery Simmons
After the Bears-Bucs game, Tampa offensive linemen were apparently complaining about Jeffery Simmons being too physical and launching himself at them, which is quite hilarious when we're talking about offensive and defensive linemen literally signing up for exactly that.
Jonah Jackson joined 104.3 The Score this week to comment on the absurd display of whining:
"The guys on [Tampa Bay] tried to launch themselves at us every play ... this is football. Especially in the trenches, it gets rough and rowdy."
"Did you see that big guy, no. 50, launching [himself] at us? It is what it is man, we signed up for this."
Jackson's talking about Vita Vea, of course, who's also one of the better defensive linemen in the league.
You didn't hear the Bears' offensive line whining, I'll tell you that much.
Ben Johnson sums up sloppy game vs. Bucs in the best way possible
Earlier this week, Ben Johnson joined FS1's First Things First and had a chat with Chicago's friend, Danny Parkins, addressing the sloppiness against Tampa Bay, but still being able to pull out the win:
“My dad sent me a quote: ‘Only mediocre people can be at their best all the time’… As a team, to be able to still find a way to win and other guys step up and fill the void, I think that’s what good teams do.”
The quote has been making its rounds, nationally, but let's not forget where it came from. So many people are crediting Johnson for the quote when, in reality, he said it came from his father.
Pops knows best.
The Bears are a great team, and even great teams have bad games. Just look back at the 2006 Bears squad and their games against Arizona and Miami.
Ben Johnson acknowledges the run game must improve
With Kyle Monangai on the field, Chicago averaged over 173 rushing yards per game.
Over the Bears' last four games, they've averaged just 103.0, with their fewest coming against the Bucs at just 76. It is abundantly clear that they miss Kyle Monangai, who finally returned to practice a week ago.
Ben Johnson touched on the importance of the run game needing to improve while acknowledging what Monangai will bring when he's back, hopefully after the bye week:
“It’s simply not good enough right now. Kyle is a big part of that running game. Whenever we get him back that will help.”
This is about as cut-and-dry as it gets. The run game hasn't been good enough. We've seen it, essentially, in survival mode.
Johnson has not gone away from the run, too much, and Swift has been holding it down as best he can.
But, now that Monangai is coming back and it's getting colder out, I suppose you could say a perfect storm is about to unfold.
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