Bear Digest

Long-suffering Bears like DJ Moore can get used to all of this winning

The Bears love this idea of extending their winning streak to six and to do it is going to take a more serious approach toward details say Moore and their coach.
Gene Chamberlain|
DJ Moore goes up for a catch against Philadelphia in last week's 24-15 Bears win.
DJ Moore goes up for a catch against Philadelphia in last week's 24-15 Bears win. | Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

This business of playing in big games and especially facing the Green Bay Packers in a big game for the NFC North lead is new to the 9-3 Bears.

It's really new.

For wide receiver DJ Moore, it's a first time playing for a winning team in eight NFL seasons, the last three in Chicago. But it's not as easy it might seem. 

"This is my first time ever being like this on the winning side but my emotions are still even keel," Moore said. "Can't get too high, can't get too low."

Nonetheless, Moore can't hide his feelings about being a winner after seven-plus seasons with seven wins as his team's high-water mark.

"It feels great," Moore said. "Out of eight years this is probably the best record I've done had and I'm just having fun with it. Winning makes football fun."

Fun, but still serious. Players got their first hint of how serious it was with the NFC North lead on the line as they met with their coach Monday after he had the weekend to put his shirt back on after the postgame celebration.

No more joking and laughing. Ben Johnson brought the passing game failures up to all the receivers and QB Caleb Williams.

"You can tell everybody is dialed in and based off of what Ben said in the offseason we need to really lock in and get this thing going," Moore said.

What Johnson said was how much he enjoyed beating Packers coach Matt LaFleur twice a year, and he doesn't take that comment lightly even if he has deflected all talk about it.

The message for receivers and QBs was rather blunt.

" 'Get that (excrement) done or we won't have a passing game,' " Moore said, quoting Johnson. "So we need to be on the details with that."

The running game exploded but Johnson and the offense know they need both if they’re to have a chance in big games.

"I mean I like running the ball and blocking for the backs to get all their  accolades but we need something else on the outside, too," Moore said. "So we need to get that going."

Moore said the details must be cleaned up, and Johnson is always a stickler for the details.

"Ben (Johnson) has talked about our passing game isn't exactly where we want it to be right now," offensive coordinator Declan Doyle said. "We all have a hand in that. That would be us as coaches, the players, Caleb, the pass catchers, the line.

"We all can clean up some of those details and I would say this, that's a reflection of where we're at and we want to see that number go up. But that (completion percentage) number goes up by all of us doing a better job."

Moore incurred the coach's wrath for his mistakes like anyone else.

"You never want to hear nothing," Moore said. "I mean, it was not negative but it wasn't the best feeling. So you just want to not have him say that any more so we've got to be on the details."

One detail Moore had trouble with in the Philadelphia game was simply keeping his feet. He was slipping.

"I can tell you from my perspective, I slipped twice this year and I usually don't ever do that and the one in Philly was bad. I can’t have that no more," Moore said.

It would seem slipping is more a matter of field condition than anything else, but Moore said he slipped coming out of his route and lost his footing because he hadn't run the route correctly.

"No, that's not out of my control," he said. "They're my feet."

Nothing is beyond reproach with the big game approaching.

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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.