GREEN BAY, Wis. — The shine on the new brand of BearsDefense lasted for one week.
The players were proud of the way they ran to catch the ball and swarmed. 49ers, Sunday night’s reaction was a mix of bewilderment and dissatisfaction with all the missed tackles.
The Bears lost 27-10 against the PackersGreen Bay, and gave up 203 running yards. Aaron JonesThere were 132 total rushing yards and 38 receiving yards.
“It’s disappointing, I’m not gonna lie to you,” linebacker Nicholas Morrow said. “That’s football, right? You go out there and you perform, you look at the film and you say, ‘OK, how did we perform this way?’ Then you go and practice and look to improve on that. We’ll definitely improve on it, but it’s definitely one of those things that I think stuck out the most in that game.”
Jones was held hostage by the Bears AJ Dillon, who had 61 yards on 18 carries, to 10 rushing yards on five carries on Green Bay’s opening drive. They held the Packers to one field goal. When the Bears scored a touchdown to go up 7-3, it was a scene we’re not used to at Lambeau Field.
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But that didn’t last long. In the second quarter, the Packers scored 21 points.
“I don’t know if there’s anything that changed mentality-wise or schematically, I just think they found success and went to it,” Morrow said. “We didn’t do a very good job of tackling in certain situations, and that kind of hurt us. I think that’s the biggest thing, you’ve got to stop the run. We’re allowing too many yards rushing. There are too many leaky yards. We’re getting there, but just not finishing. We’ll improve on that.”
Aaron Jones ran outside of the tackles on 12 out 15 carries, gaining a total of 116 yards and one touchdown.
🔹Jones on Outside Runs (Tonight: +54 rush yards more than expected (2nd most in a game in a career).#CHIvsGB| Powered by @awscloud pic.twitter.com/RMihT4S3SL
— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) September 19, 2022
Having played Kyle Shanahan’s 49ers offense, the Bears defense knew to expect another week of jet motion concepts, but this time they hurt them.
“We’ve just got to make sure everybody’s doing their assignment,” cornerback Kindle Vildor said. “If you’re on the edge, make sure you get the ball, cut it up and make sure everybody’s pursuing to the ball.”
On Jones’ 8-yard touchdown on a touch-pass from Aaron RodgersHe was the only Bear to touch him up until the goal line.
Aaron Jones can’t be kept out of the endzone tonight! #GoPackGo @showtyme_33
📺: #CHIvsGBNBC
📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/OZNdRHH6Rv pic.twitter.com/ccvqc8xDej— NFL (@NFL) September 19, 2022
“Just got to tackle,” safety Eddie Jackson said. “That’s one of the biggest things. It felt like we missed quite a few tackles in the first half. We preach tackles. That’s one of the things that we preach a lot, tackles and turnovers. That just leads back to technique and we’ve got to correct that in practice this week and continue to get better at it.”
Jackson was one of the Bears’ best tacklers that night. This is a remarkable turn of events for someone like Jackson, who has had trouble making some of these plays.
“The tackling. We have to do a better job,” coach Matt Eberflus said. “You look at Eddie Jackson, he tackled very well. I don’t think he missed one. If you look at the younger guys, it might have been a couple. Maybe it was more angles than technique or fundamentals, so we’ve got to do a better job.”
Rookie safety Jaquan BristkerAlthough he flew several times to the ball, he failed to make it to the play.
When asked about his tackling difficulties, he took time to reflect on the game. These are the plays he would like to see again.
“Probably mostly all my missed tackles,” he said. “All those plays where I could’ve changed the game or whatever, maybe stopped him for a couple yards, because YAC is always important. Once I clean up that, we’ll be good.”
Primetime means @Showtyme_33.
Jones, with 140 yards total and 2 TDs thus far. #GoPackGo
📺: #CHIvsGBNBC
📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/OZNdRHH6Rv pic.twitter.com/yewojwa97v— NFL (@NFL) September 19, 2022
Brisker said, technique-wise, he needs to “take the extra step.”
“I’m not trusting myself,” he said. “But I will. That’s gonna come. I’m definitely gonna be way better, be cleaner really during the week, which I will be.”
TruMedia reported that the Packers had 130 yards following 16 catches. They averaged 8.1 yards of YAC for each reception. The 49ers only had 57 yards following the catch on 11 receptions last Thursday (a 5.2 yard average).
“We’ve got to find a way to do a better job tackling, do a better job setting edges, filling holes,” cornerback Jaylon Johnson said. “I don’t think it was anything they did. It was all us, really.”
Pro Football Focus charts a stat for players who make first contact but don’t make the tackle. The Bears had 23 such instances against the Packers, led by Brisker’s five, after 17 against the 49ers.
“We’ve got to tackle better,” Morrow said. “We didn’t tackle particularly great. They were not able to tackle them well, whether they were one-on-one or in a gang. We’ve got to do a better job of that. That’ll be a point of emphasis for sure.”
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For a team that is going to hammer home its acronyms and philosophies about fundamentals and gang-tackling, Sunday night’s loss was a step back.
“Fundamentally, we have to do a great job of getting in sync on defense in stopping the run,” Eberflus said. “That’s going to be a big part of our emphasis this week.”
Trial by fire
Rookie cornerback Kyler GordonBefore the game, Rodgers knew that he would be targeted. It seemed that every major play was won by Gordon, the closest defender.
“It’s frustrating,” he said. “I’m not mad at it because I’m gonna learn from it. It’s experience that I will learn and grow from.”
Gordon was on coverage in the second quarter. Allen Lazard in the slot when Rodgers found Green Bay’s top receiver for a touchdown.
Welcome back @AllenLazard! #GoPackGo
📺: #CHIvsGBNBC
📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/OZNdRHH6Rv pic.twitter.com/TvMV49YceQ— NFL (@NFL) September 19, 2022
Late in the game, the Packers had 14 more players than Rodgers. Sammy Watkins for the longest play of the night — 55 yards — with Gordon trailing in coverage.
Rodgers to Sammy 55 yards
📺: #CHIvsGBNBC
📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/OZNdRHH6Rv pic.twitter.com/pVqwCYniUX— NFL (@NFL) September 19, 2022
“Definitely what I was expecting is what happened,” Gordon said about getting targeted early and often. “It’s probably gonna happen again next game, so I’m gonna prepare for that and I’ll be ready for that next time.”
Vildor knows that Gordon will rise to the occasion.
“Second game of his career,” Vildor said. “He’s definitely going to bounce back from it, learn from it … and just know what to expectt. I know what talent he has, and everything. I know he’ll be ready when we see them again.”
(Photo of Aaron Jones scoring touchdown: Dan Powers/USA Today)
