No Need to Panic Now Says DJ Moore

Bears receiver DJ Moore sees the way to end losing streak as sticking to what they do in practice and not heaving up 50-50 balls.

Bears wide receiver DJ Moore failed to come up with a catch on one play in the opener and it had nothing to do with the way he was blanketed in coverage by the Green Bay Packers.

He'd already seen everything the Packers threw at him at some point in his career.

The new obstacle came on an attempt at a two-point conversion catch.

"Man, I think it should be a catch," he said. "I hit the camera and that's what really made, like ... my neck hit the camera and that's what really made the ball come out."

Moore maintains he caught it anyway, but on replay it looked like he actually was out of bounds. The  Bears didn't get the meaningless two points anyway. Avoiding injury on the play was more important.

"Like, that's a catch in my book. I don't care," he said. "If the camera man, the dude that was over there, I had hit the camera and that's what made me lose sight of the ball."

Moore has made plenty of catches in his career in all sorts of positions and circumstances, but never hit a camera before.

"That was the first time and I don't want to do it again," he said.

He'd also like to avoid something else that happened in the game—getting two catches on two targets, like last week.

"I didn't make a big deal out of it," Moore said. "Green Bay pushed the coverage over to me sometimes. Sometimes things happen in the back end, or behind us that I didn't see. But it's cool. I'm not too worried about it."

The Packers played two-man with a cornerback closely trailing and safety over the top.

It's possible they'd see this again against Tampa Bay, but the Buccaneers blitz so much on defense that committing extra defensive backs to coverage is rarely something they can afford to do. Anyone not committed to rushing the passer is locked up man-to-man on receivers.

"That front seven's gonna be going, blitzing all crazy," Moore said. "They're gonna have some blitzes from the back end, too, so you've just gotta be aware that they ain't gonna slow down and they're going to do what they do."

Moore is well-versed on what the Buccaneers will do because he played against them twice a year every year from the time Todd Bowles came in 2019 as defensive coordinator, to head coach last year.

"We've got to be aware of safety blitzes and stuff like that," he said. "Alert your quarterback … things of that such. For the most part we just have to hone in on our details and just know what we've seen on tape and trust our instincts."

Moore has 53 catches for 706 yards at 13.3 yards per reception, and six touchdowns for eight games against Bowles defense. He's never had less than four catches or 55 yards against those defenses.

It needs to come naturally, though.

Moore heard complaints by Justin Fields that he was possibly too conservative and needed to throw more 50-50 balls. It's nice to hear but maybe not realistic, Moore says.

"I don’t know," he said. "You just go out there and do what we've been doing all OTAs, camp. I'm not really too big on forcing the connection to just be there. You just got to be natural, like it was all through camp."

As he pointed out, a 50-50 ball becomes an "80-20 ball" when forced into coverage.

To Moore, the Bears need to stick to avoiding drastic actions and do what they practice, even in the face of blitzes by Tampa Bay Sunday.

"Even in practice, if the defense did it, we adjusted to it and we just gotta keep that going and really hone in on it this week," he said.

And also avoid running into camera men.

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