Eddie Jackson Was Pissed At Bears Defense After Lions Collapse

Eddie Jackson is in unfamiliar territory right now. Most of his football career has been spent playing on good defenses. It was the case at Alabama under Nick Saban and again during his first five seasons in the NFL. He never imagined things could get this bad. The Chicago Bears have become alarmingly toothless on defense in recent weeks. They’ve allowed 42, 35, and 24 points in each of the past three weeks. Things reached a crisis point on Sunday against the Detroit Lions when a familiar setting unfolded.

Chicago held a 24-10 lead at the start of the 4th quarter. Everything was under control. Then some dubious penalty calls by the refs and some blown assignments allowed the Lions to narrow the gap to 24-17. Justin Fields then threw an ugly pick-six to tie the game. However, the young quarterback quickly got the lead back with another ridiculous 67-yard TD run. The defense forced a punt on the next series before the offense did the same. All the Bears needed was one more stop. Trenton Gill pinned Detroit on their own 9-yard line. It was a classic setup for the defense to do what they’ve always done. Then the Lions marched 91 yards for a touchdown, stealing a 31-30 victory.

Jackson was not happy after the game, feeling they wasted another great effort by the offense.

“Me, the type of player I am, it just eats me up inside, like I’m just not helping. Especially myself, you know, I want to go out there and make every play if I can. We got to be better on D, man. We got to get him some help. What him and the offense is doing, it’s something different. It’s something different. Them boys is balling. I feel like we just leaving them out to dry. Got to get that changed, man…

…We got to stop shooting ourselves in the foot. I’m tired of standing up here saying the same things every week. It’s just becoming repetitive.

I’m just tired of sounding like a broken record. Week in, week out. We got to do our job. We got to be better on defense. We got to get this fixed. We got to get this fixed fast.”

Eddie Jackson recognizes the same thing as everybody else.

If the defense played even average football over the past three weeks, there is a strong possibility the Bears would’ve won all three games. Instead, they’ve gone 0-3 and are 3-7 on the season. It’s been a giant wasted opportunity. He doesn’t want to hear excuses, either. Yes, the Bears lost two key members in Robert Quinn and Roquan Smith. Yes, the refs have been brutal with their calls. That doesn’t give guys a free pass for making mistakes and not doing their jobs. He feels they still have enough talent to play adequate defense. They haven’t done it.

This is the role Eddie Jackson has found himself. He is the last surviving member of that 2018 defense that dominated the NFL. Now he is the captain and expected to provide whatever leadership he can. Moments like this, where he holds guys accountable, are important. As Eberflus says, the standard is the standard. It won’t change just because different players are on the field. These guys are professionals, and they’re expected to play like professionals. They can’t keep wasting opportunities like this every week. Otherwise, the Bears will replace them with somebody who won’t.