The Bears seemed to be showing their true colors in practice and the level of accountability needs to go beyond the coaching staff
This needs to be fixed immediately.
An 0-2 start to the season is far from the beginning head coach Ben Johnson imagined in his first year with the Chicago Bears and it’s already testing his abilities to lead a team.
And frankly, it has nothing to do with Johnson or the coaching staff around him. The players simply need to find a way to wake up and start acting like a team that wants to be competitive. Because right now, that’s not being shown on a day-to-day basis.
“I think our practice habits are yet to reflect a championship caliber team,” Johnson told reporters prior to practice on Wednesday.
Forget championship caliber, the Bears need to field a competitive team first. And the fact Johnson still feels the need to say this following a game where the Bears allowed 52 points is ridiculous. And the team’s head coach has made it known watchful eyes will be on the players this week already.
“We’re going to find out this week at practice who wants to practice hard and who wants to be a little bit more involved with the game plan here going into Sunday,” Johnson stated on Monday.
Bears need to start having more accountability for each other as players
There’s only so much coaches in the NFL can do to rally players and build a winning culture. Yeah, the great coaches such as Andy Reid are able to do it. But, the players have a role to play as well.
That’s where the disconnect is with Chicago. The players in that building have a losing mindset right now that’s deeply rooted into the locker room and unless they figure out how to get out of that funk themselves, Johnson is going to have to start laying down the hammer. If it continues beyond that, Johnson will have to start pulling the weeds out of his garden.
That’s where the leaders in this locker room need to step up. Particularly veteran players such as Joe Thuney, Grady Jarrett, and Kevin Byard who understand how a winning team is supposed to operate on a day-to-day basis.
“There is definitely conversations of ‘how did we let this happen?’ and ‘what do we got to do to be better?’ and that’s the positive thing about it,” Jarrett said on Monday. “It’s not something that we’re just sweeping under the rug. We’re going to address that. Absolutely inexcusable and that’s not up to the standards… This will be a defining moment.”
Yet, you play like you practice. If Johnson says the team is falling well below the standard during the week, the team is going to be far below that high standard on Sundays as well. It’s up to the players to start pushing each other at this point. Fortunately, it seems like things took a positive turn after hearing Johnson’s message before a 2+ hour practice.
“The intensity was there,” quarterback Caleb Williams said after Wednesday’s practice. “Ben spoke about it after. He was happy with the way practice went today, I believe. We gotta keep going. We gotta keep pushing. Obviously, when you’ve had the kind of setbacks that we’ve had, being 0-2 at this points, you can’t keep doing the same thing over and over and thinking something’s going to change. I think that’s the definition for insanity. We gotta change and I think today’s practice was a step in the right direction.”
Williams hit the nail on the head. Things won’t change from one positive day. Hopefully Johnson’s message this week was finally enough to light a fire under these players to get up to speed with the standard these coaches are putting in place. But, only time will tell.
Chicago Bears News
Ben Johnson again takes accountability for struggling offensive position, but actions speak louder than words going into Week 3
Let’s see some actual changes this time.
