Retour
Coach Ben Johnson isn't pretending like there aren't problems with the Chicago Bears, despite a dominant 34-17 win over the Seattle Seahawks on Monday Night Football in Week 8.
On Wednesday, Johnson stressed that complacency isn't prevailing in the locker room after a dominant showing against the defending Super Bowl champions and the 12s at Lumen Field. There's a matchup with a Tampa Bay Buccaneers team that just beat the Atlanta Falcons 16-0 without completing a single pass all game.
“We’ve gotta keep winning,” Johnson said on Wednesday. “We’ve gotta win each and every week. We gotta go 1-0 this week. That’s all we care about. That’s all we’ve talked about for the last year and a half in this building, and that doesn’t change, no matter what our record is and what’s happened previously. We’re gonna go right back to work. We’re gonna prepare just like we’ve been doing.”
“When you win, all the mistakes are minimized. And then when you lose, everything gets magnified to the nth degree. But they’re still there. Each and every game, there’s always things that we’ve got to clean up and get better at.”
With Jeffery Simmons' arrival working out as well as possible for Chicago in his debut in Seattle, and optimism about winning it all in February, the Bears could easily look past a team like the Bucs. Baker Mayfield's return from a thumb injury hardly inspired confidence on Tampa Bay's end.
After reinjuring Sam Darnold on Monday because of such a fearsome pass rush, Chicago cannot ease off the gas pedal against a more mobile quarterback and a truly dangerous Buccaneers ground game.
Bucky Irving and Kenneth Gainwell combined for 310 rushing yards last weekend in the pouring rain. Running an offense similar to Army, Navy, and Air Force, Tampa Bay won an old school kind of game.
If the weather is bad on Sunday Night Football at Soldier Field, Johnson's squad is better-equipped than most. He thrives on bad weather. Even with Simmons giving the run defense a jolt, every level of the Bears' defense will be tested in Week 9.
Going from an injury-filled Seahawks running back room that just returned Jadarian Price and Zach Charbonnet to the Buccaneers will be drastic. Having too much confidence because of this past Monday's results would be a death knell.
Johnson has the attitude to avoid a letdown. We'll see if his team can execute on the field against Todd Bowles's team, given the 62-year-old head coach is playing for his job every week.
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