Johnson on Bears defense: "We haven't been good enough" |
CHICAGO - Cornerback Jaylon Johnson is a bit of a perfectionist. He does not want anyone to keep a pass or score on him. That is why he has only allowed three catches on him this year and three touchdowns on him since the start of the 2022 season. The defense has generated at least one turnover in every game and at least two turnovers in three of the past four games.
Regardless, Johnson says the defense has not played well enough. “We haven’t been good enough, quite honestly. I feel like we definitely haven’t taken away the explosive play that we want to,” Johnson said. “We definitely let some of those go. We definitely have got hit in some of our runs, just not being disciplined and not being where we’re supposed to be consistently. Things like that are going to happen, but for us in our standard, we definitely haven’t, I don’t think, even scratched the surface for what we know we can do because we’re shooting ourselves in the foot.” The offense also shot themselves in the foot. Before Chicago’s victory against the Los Angeles Rams this past Sunday, some of the offense's leaders, including rookie quarterback Caleb Williams, receiver DJ Moore, and tight ends Cole Kmet and Marcedes Lewis, met with offensive coordinator Shane Waldron to discuss the play calling. Johnson said that everyone on the team was frustrated about not winning and playing up to their standard and this meeting showed the value of having open communication. “From a leadership standpoint, I think just being pissed off that we’re not being who we know we can be, and any team can beat any team in this league. But, I think for us, (the loss to the Indianapolis Colts) wasn’t a game that we could have and should have let go. I think that was definitely a winnable game for us to go out there,” Johnson said. “But, at the end of the day, it didn’t happen for various reasons. So, us really just looking everybody in the eye and just having that open communication and not letting it just be swept under the rug … At the end of the day, we have to go out there and have a certain standard. So, whether it’s coaches, players, whoever it may be, just holding each other to that standard and finding out the best ways to win games.” While both sides of the ball have made mistakes, Johnson and the rest of the team understand the importance of momentum and having all three phases play in sync and execute. That is exactly what happened against the Rams. For the Bears to be successful this season, this will have to continue throughout the season, starting with their next game against the Carolina Panthers this coming Sunday (Noon / FOX). “This league is all about momentum. So, it starts with offense. It starts with special teams. It can start with defense. But, when you have all three levels playing together, playing with that energy, executing and really, execution drives energy, drives confidence,” Johnson said. “So, I think it’s really just starting with one unit executing, passing that energy along to the next unit that goes out there (and) execute, and we’re really clicking on all cylinders. So, it just starts with one unit getting that execution, getting that energy, getting that momentum going, and then hopefully, the other units continue that.”
