During most of early training camp, the Chicago Bears offense looked good. There were occasional mistakes, but they seemed on even footing with the defense with a fair share of wins. That changed on Wednesday. All reports indicate the defense came out with their hair on fire, jumping on every mistake the offense made by forcing turnovers, sacks, and tackles for a loss. The energy was palpable, as was the trash talk. Two guys that weren’t happy about it were quarterback Justin Fields and wide receiver Darnell Mooney.
They immediately noticed that something was off with the offense during drills. There wasn’t enough “juice.” Guys weren’t operating with maximum energy. It’s why the defense always seemed a step ahead of them until the end of practice when Fields managed a solid two-minute drill. It wasn’t a pleasant morning of work. Both players didn’t mind saying so after practice. Fields and Mooney took turns saying to the media that the offense needs to come with more energy in these practices if they want to see results.
Justin Fields and Darnell Mooney remember last year.
One of the biggest problems the Bears had in 2022 was getting off to slow starts. They were a distant 18th in the league when it came to first half scoring. This is why they almost always played from behind in the second half. It is hard to win games that way, especially when your offense is built around the run. It isn’t a coincidence that other wide-zone teams like San Francisco (7th) and Miami (6th) ranked high in first half points. They understood their biggest strength came with a lead. The Bears aren’t there yet.
This rough practice was a timely wake-up call the offense needed. They were likely starting to get some undeserved confidence about their progress through the first week of camp. The defense reminded them such respect is earned. Justin Fields and Darnell Mooney understand that lesson well. It is encouraging that they used this opportunity to remind everybody else on the offense of it. Don’t be surprised if that unit comes to the next practice on Friday with bad intentions.
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Rough days happen to every team at some point on both sides of the ball. What matters is how you build upon it and learn from it. I would be more worried if one side was just consistently dominating the other, that means your team isn’t as dynamic and will have to rely more upon a single side of the ball to win. Since OTAs it looks like it’s been a good back and forth battle.
Iron sharpens iron
It is football, defense won today and put the offense on notice, now the offense needs to step up and respond with a better win against the defense come Friday. Both units need to improve, both need to develop chemistry and consistency before the season starts for real. It takes 44 players on 3 separate units of 11 each to play as one to win in today’s modern era of football where any 1 of the 3 can win or lose come Sunday.
Couldn’t possibly be that the defense is better than the offense and after a day of practice they’d seen all they needed to see??
@ Sam. Totally agree. it SHOULD go back and forth. O 1 day D next day…etc. (steel sharpens steel). They say competition (for positions generally but O vs D also)
Sucks that the offense had a rough day, but I admit I am happy to hear the D stepped up today. I think the offense will be OK this year. My bigger concern is that the D doesn’t give up 30 points every dam week. There should be back n forth between the O and the D winning the day. So I’m glad to see the D won a day 🙂. Will see if the offense rebounds Friday!