Bears
The Bears secured the No. 2 seed in the NFC this past week, but they backed into it, losing to the Lions and getting bailed out by the Commanders beating the Eagles’ B-team. Bears HC Ben Johnson was not happy about his offense being held scoreless for three quarters.
“That’s one we’ll have to take a look at the tape and figure out why that was,” Johnson said via ESPN’s Courtney Cronin. “I didn’t feel like it was one of our more elaborate plans. I felt it was one of our simpler plans. We need to do a better job of executing it and coaching it up.”
The good news is the Bears seem well aware that a repeat effort will get them bounced in the first round of the playoffs, so this game could pay off in the long run as a wakeup call.
“We can’t afford to have a phase — one of our three phases — play like we did today,” Johnson said. “So we’re going to have to pick it up. Like I said, I get fired up just thinking about it right now, and I know our guys too.”
Lions
Lions HC Dan Campbell said the team’s elimination from playoff contention will help them come back even stronger next season and prove they’re championship contenders again.
“Sometimes you’ve got to hit rock bottom before you can work your way back up,” Campbell said, via Pro Football Talk. “And relative to where we were at, this is rock bottom. But as bad as it looks, I said this the other day, it’s not as far away as it may appear. We’ve just got to get a few things back in line here. But it does apply to the coaches, and no different than the players, that’s what you look for as a head coach: How do other coaches respond to what we’re going through here?”
- Campbell says he gives himself an F grade as head coach, as they were not good enough to make the playoffs. (Woodyard)
- Campbell on the team’s injuries: “For whatever reason, we’ve just kind of been hit, man.” Says he likes the training staff. Thinks they do a hell of a job.” (Pouncy)
- He still hasn’t decided on play-calling for next season, but Campbell says he’ll make the best move for the team. (Woodyard)
Lions
Lions DC Kelvin Sheppard knows the team took a step back in his first season, but believes they will return to prominence next season.
“I understand where we’re at with eight losses and out of playoff contention,” Sheppard said Thursday, via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. “But I’m not going to sit up here and say there needs to be a drastic change and this didn’t work, that didn’t work. There were weeks we played at a high level with the exact same system and there was weeks that we didn’t. And after this game, we’ll go back and look at that in totality and find out the real whys behind that.”
“I don’t see drastic change,” Sheppard continued. “What I see and what I’ve learned in my first year on the job of calling defenses is something that me and [head coach] Dan [Campbell] talk about every day. You start off the year . . . I wanted to have top defense in this category, top this, top that, top that. And you get caught in these statistical things that means nothing if you’re not winning football games. This league is about adaptability and you can have a system all you want, but it’s whatever dictates that week is necessary to win the football game.”
- Lions OC John Morton on his future: “I’d like to be here. I love it here. …I love the organization. It’s my home. …So, whatever happens, happens.” (Colton Pouncy)
- Lions C Graham Glasgow on if he intends to play next season: “We’ll see.” (Pouncy)
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