LAKE FOREST – One thing that he’s done since he came to Chicago is not to let distractions get in his way.
Allen Robinson has been waiting for a contract extension for a year as he continued to deal with quarterback and offensive inconsistency. Yet that hasn’t hurt the receiver’s performance, as he’s caught 200 combined passes the last two seasons for 2,397 yards and 13 touchdowns.
Now as the 2021 season approaches, Robinson is dealing with the same questions that have faced him the past two years. Now playing on a franchise tag, the receiver continues to hear the rumbling surrounding starting quarterback Andy Dalton and future signal caller Justin Fields.
Yet like always, he’s not letting that get into his head, and continues to keep his focus simply on the task at hand with one simple goal: Find a way to finally get the Bears’ offense going consistently in the Matt Nagy era.
“For me it’s about, like I’ve said before, as cliche as it might be, for me I’m locked into the moment, into what’s going on. Everything else outside of that is out of my control, and nothing I can really compartmentalize either because it’s so far out of my control ” said Robinson when asked about having the Dalton-Fields questions being out there. “Whatever cards are deal, however things play out, whatever the case maybe, I’ll adjust accordingly.”
IT’S SEAN’S DEFENSE NOW
He’s been with the Bears under three different head coaches, learning the nuances of the NFL game from a number of coaches and coordinators.
But now it’s time for Sean Desai to have his opportunity to run the Bears’ defense for the first time as he calls the plays for the first time as the unit’s coordinator. He’ll be the third person to do that in four years, with Vic Fangio leaving after the 2018 season to take the Broncos job and Chuck Pagano retiring after the 2019 and 2020 seasons.
Calling plays is something that excites Desai as he looks to return the Bears’ defense to the Top Ten of the NFL after they fell out of that in 2020 after being there in yardage & points allowed the previous three seasons.
“That’s always part of the game, whether you’re a position coach and you’re helping the coordinator, the play caller, see what you’re seeing in the game. Now as a play caller, you’ve got to continually stay on top of it, and I think that’s a strength of mine,” said Desai of getting the chance to call plays. “We’re gonna see how that tests out on game day, but I think a strength of mine is to see the game up top.”
CAN QUINN FIND THE PRODUCTION AGAIN?
It looked like Robert Quinn was going to pick up right where he left off at the end of the 2019 season in Dallas on his first play with the Bears.
That was in Week 2 against the Giants, when he had a strip sack of Daniel Jones on the first play, and it appeared the investment of five years and $70 million might pay off. But for the rest of the season, Quinn had just one more sack and two forced fumbles, unable to bring the production he had in a 11 1/2 sack campaign with the Cowboys the year before.
That was a reason the Bears’ defense couldn’t keep up their pace from a season ago, and that isn’t acceptable for Quinn.
“To go 8-8 and be in the middle of the pack isn’t the standard from what I can tell,” said Quinn. “I don’t accept that as my standard.”
STAT OF THE WEEK: 2-1
The record of starting quarterback Andy Dalton against the Rams in his career, with all three games coming while a member of the Cincinnati Bengals.