Ben Johnson doubles down on the accountability message he’s sending to the players in the locker room following Week 8 loss
The Chicago Bears head coach is putting it on the players to do better.
The Chicago Bears loss to the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday was a difficult one to stomach. Not because the Bears were riding a three-game win streak, not because the Ravens were a 1-5 team, not because quarterback Lamar Jackson wasn’t playing, it was difficult because the Bears seemingly beat themselves.
Now, credit of course goes to the Ravens for coming out of the bye week prepared and playing clean football for 60 minutes. But, offensively, the Bears certainly beat themselves in Week 8 and the main culprit was the amount of drive-killing penalties that continue to haunt Chicago.
“We get away with it occasionally, but it’s just not the way you win in this league,” head coach Ben Johnson said on Sunday. “I really put it on the leaders in the locker room to get this ship going in the right direction in that regard. Us coaches, we have been pounding that drum now for a while and we haven’t gotten the results we wanted. So it is on the leaders on this team to get us right.”
Ben Johnson reiterated his desire for more player accountability after reviewing Week 8 loss
After reviewing the film Monday morning, the message remained the same for how Johnson feels about his team based on what they put on the tape against the Ravens.
“It takes more than the coaches saying it, we have to bring it to life,” Johnson said during his interview with Jeff Joniak on ESPN Chicago. “We’re here as coaches we’re all in this together. We’re gonna help support and we’re going to challenge these guys and we’re going to be along with them every step of the way.
But, I think it would go a long way if we just had a little bit more ownership in that locker room to take the bull by the horns here so we do get this cleaned up… I think now that it’s bit us in the rear-end here with a loss, I think it opens your eyes a little bit more.”
The frustrating part is how it’s gotten to this point. The penalties have been a consistent problem for this team all season long. Sunday was Chicago’s third game of the season with 10+ penalties. But not all penalties are the same, of course. The pre-snap issues on offense are clearly the biggest problem and something the unit has struggled well before the regular season started.
“Those are self-inflicted,” Johnson added. “The pre-snap things, those are on us. It’s all about discipline. It doesn’t matter that we’re on the road, it doesn’t matter that we’re at home, none of that matters. The pre-snap penalties are the ones that I have an issue with.”
On Sunday, the Bears were only called for two pre-snap penalties. A false start by rookie tight end Colston Loveland on 3rd-and-1 on the first drive inside the red zone that forced the offense to settle for a field goal, and another false start by veteran left guard Joe Thuney that backed the Bears up to their own two-yard line with an interception being thrown two plays later.
It is worth mentioning quarterback Caleb Williams had two post-snap penalties on intentional grounding calls as well.
At this point, Johnson’s right. It’s on the players to be better going forward and good on him for calling them out. Drive-killing mistakes turn into game-losing mistakes real quickly and the Bears need to put an end to it as soon as possible.
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