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Jonah Jackson Hints Packers Caught Ben Johnson's Bears Offense Off Guard

The pressure caused by gambling Packers defense may have had plenty to do with Bears' collapse in 31-7 loss at Green Bay.
Gene Chamberlain|
Bears guard Jonah Jackson suggested Packers tactics on defense had the Bears on their heels a bit.
Bears guard Jonah Jackson suggested Packers tactics on defense had the Bears on their heels a bit. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The tendency is not to throw out the film on the loss Sunday at Green Bay, although it does basically look like an aberration in many ways.

The Bears hadn't played a game like they did Sunday against the Packers. It resembled none of the other first four games in any way. It just so happened to have come against their biggest rivals and a division opponent. This made it sting, but didn't necessarily indicate anything about their future.

They played it without their quarterback, one of their running backs, and with a few defensive players suffering injuries during the course of play. That's not to cite those as reasons for defeat, but to point out the difference between that game and some of their other four.

Turnovers and pressure from Packers

"We’re a 3-2 football team," coach Ben Johnson said on Monday. "The part that stinks is that we’re 0-2 in the division right now, so we dug ourselves in a hole in that regard. And yet, we got a great opponent and a great opportunity coming up here this week, going on the road to Atlanta with a big game."

The biggest difference was the five turnovers, but beyond that they didn't run the ball with any consistency. For a brief time in the first half they did find some success with D'Andre Swift but then facing a two-touchdown deficit took them out of the balanced attack. Guard Jonah Jackson found the Packers on defense may have outsmarted or outschemed Johnson in trying to contain what was the league's top running game.

"They were bringing some heat," Jackson said. "We expect pressures and things like that, but they were closing ends, they were bringing corners and things we just didn't have accounted for during the week.

"They were bringing some heat. We expect pressures and things like that, but they were closing ends, they were bringing corners and things we just didn't have accounted for during the week."
Bears guard Jonah Jackson on Packers

"They did a good job with scheming up what we had," Jackson said.

It can be troublesome when you're 2-6 in your division under your coach and the divisional opponent is springing things that take your players by surprise.

On their second-quarter drive to a touchdown, the Bears running game flourished with 11 plays on a 16-play march.

"Everybody was in their spot and we also had guys make people miss," Jackson said. "Some guys came unblocked here or there, but we got the guys to make somebody miss or make somebody pay, and that's what happened.

"We wish we could've kept something like that rolling, but when you get behind like that, it's kind of tough to keep pounding the run game. When you're in a situation like that, you've gotta start airing it out, start passing the ball to catch up."

And then came the interceptions.

No QB named

Despite the five totals turnovers, Johnson wouldn't name a quarterback starter on Monday. They're not sure about Caleb Williams' return yet, and if it's not their regular starter there is still a chance it might still even be Tyson Bagent in spite of two interceptions on Sunday.

“We’re still working through that," Johnson said. "No determination has been made in terms of what direction we’re going. There are a lot of things that we’re assessing right now.”

Bagent caught a lot of grief from the social media critics after his two picks, and Johnson definitely did not shield him.

“The first one wasn’t where we wanted to go with the football," Johnson said after film review. "There was a defender in the window.

"We’ll look at those. We’ll learn from them. And we’ll keep it moving. He didn’t make those same type of throws over the course of camp, so we’re looking at those, talking to him about it and we’ll clean it up from there.”

It wasn't aberration, but they'll get little from dwelling upon it. They can't afford too much regret because the Falcons game in Atlanta comes up too fast.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.

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