No Quitters Here Say Bears Defense, Chuck Pagano to Tony Dungy
Chuck Pagano and Bears safety Tashaun Gipson have an axe to grind with former NFL coach Tony Dungy.
So does the entire Bears defense.
It was Dungy while announcing for NBC Sunday night who said the Bears defense quit.
"Our guys never give up," Bears defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano said. "I'll fight anybody tooth and nail on that. And I love Tony. I have great respect for Tony.
"But I don’t pay attention to any of that stuff. Our guys don’t ever quit. They would never give up."
Gipson said he hadn't heard about the comments but agreed with Pagano.
"I think that's unfortunate for somebody to put that out there on us because I feel like at the end of the day we didn't play our best performance, let's be honest, I think everybody can attest to that," Gipson said. "But at the same time I wouldn't say it's guys quitting.
"It's not a situation where guys are quitting. It's just one of those things where everything went right for them and nothing was going right for us, and they came out there and they 100 percent handed it to us. But when you talk about quitting, that's an effort, that's a pride thing. That's a mental thing. And I don's think that no guy in here quit. Did guys not play their best game, of course. I wouldn’t deny that. But I don’t think, for us to say quitting, I think that’s a tough term to say about this defense. We got a bunch of dogs out there who will fight to the end."
It wasn't the first time this year the Bears defense got torched, although it was the first time the scoreboard showed it. The Los Angeles Rams hammered the defense and it led to a 24-3 lead but defense came back with a late Eddie Jackson touchdown return on fumble and refused to allow anything else on the board.
About the closest they got to this besides this game was the opener when Detroit piled up a 23-6 lead on them going into the fourth quarter, but it all changed and the Bears rallied to win. And now they face Detroit again trying to explain a complete collapse.
"We ran into a buzzsaw, so to speak," Pagano said. "Best quarterback in the league, I think, and again, I didn't do a good enough job of mixing things up and he knows exactly what you're in. Again, I didn't do a good enough job of making sure that we tried to disguise well enough, and this that and the other.
"(Rodgers) knows exactly where he wants to go with the ball. They're playing at a really high level. You've got to credit Aaron Rodgers and Matt LaFleur and that offense. The way they executed, the way that they played, obviously had something to do with it. Usually someone makes a play and you do something to stop the bleeding. Just couldn't get it. We didn't have enough bandages and whatever to get the bleeding stopped."
It left a scar, Pagano said.
"It's the National Football League," the Bears defensive coordinator continued. "It's going to happen. Pittsburgh just lost a great, great player in Bud Dupree unfortunately. And you hate to see that in this league. But that's just how it is right now. And 2020 is ... Nobody will ever forget it. We all have spots when unfortunately -- the space shuttle, I know exactly where I was when that thing happened. 9/11. And 2020. And Sunday Night Football at Lambeau. Never forget it. Scars. You don't ever forget the scars and the bad things that happen.
"But yeah. We'll never make any excuses. And those guys are really good players and their teammates will tell you they're really good players. We'd love to have them on the field. We don’t have them on the field."
Gipson called it a case of being "big-brothered," which is alarming
"So any time that you have a situation where they big-brothered us, it was just like my big brother used to do me when I was 12, 11, before I got bigger than him," Gipson said. "Obviously it was just something that I've never seen before done to this defense.
"Obviously, like I said, we have players and we have guys that go out and play hard. I mean, for me to sit here and give you words, I mean, you look back and watch the film, it was like they knew everything that we was doing and they had checks and they had answers for every call that we had. It was just one of those games where everything went right for those guys. Man, it seemed liked nothing would click for us."
Pagano acknowledged the absence of Akiem Hicks due to a hamstring injury and also nose tackle Eddie Goldman's opt-out this year have hurt the run defense. They're missing key players up front, including Roy Robertson-Harris.
"Yeah. I miss my kids. I don't see them a lot," Pagano added. "I miss my daughters spread out all over the place. I miss my granddaughters. I've got a brand new grandson down in Indianapolis. I miss the hell out of him. I miss everybody."
For these reasons, the Bears defense doesn't seem too concerned about their own head coach taking them to task for the effort earlier this week in the media. At least this is what Gipson said after Nagy had talked in a meeting with his defense.
"It's never been a time when he's come in and pointed the finger at offense, defense, special teams," Gipson said. "That's not who he is. I think he just wanted to clear the air for any type of confusion. People can make out what they want to make out about it but I think that that's a stand-up guy to be able to say 'hey, these comments were taken the wrong way, this is how I feel about you guys.'
"And we know that Nagy respects the defense at the end of the day. He's an offensive guy but he knows that he respects this defense and some of the comments that I'm sure were probably taken out of proportion–like I said I haven’t read it but what he addressed us and let us know it's all love. And he's (not) pointing fingers and he expects a lot more from us and he holds us to a higher standard and it is what it is."
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