Bears do their best to push aside dissent

On Wednesday, it didn’t seem like everything was together.

After it was revealed that Stevenson had not been focused on his role at the start of the Hail Mary and had tipped the pass to Noah Brown instead of covering Brown, captains and leadership council meetings followed and a few players also made critical comments about WSCR and elsewhere about decisions Eberflus made at the end of the 18-15 defeat.

BEARS INJURY REPORT DOES NOT LOOK GOOD FOR THE OFFENSIVE LINE OR SECONDARY

THE CARDINALS PRESENTING BIG PROBLEMS FOR BEARS

Hail Mary Tomcat, seen as Bear Problem according to power rankings

COLE KMET SAYS BEARS MUST STOP CHEATING IN PRACTICE

Jaylon Johnson thought they could have used a timeout to better organize for the Hail Mary, while Moore ridiculed the use of backup center Doug Kramer to carry the ball on the goal line, resulting in a lost fumble.

At the obvious risk of appearing defiant, both essentially stuck to their guns when they spoke at Halas Hall on Wednesday.

“I mean, we’ve all talked about it,” Moore said. ‘Me and Flus talked to the captains about it. And next time it should just stay in the house.

“I mean, I’m not going to say, ‘I’m sorry for what I said,’ but at the same time, it’s like, it should have just been left inside. But I said what I said.”

Eberflus would not reveal whether Stevenson will lose his starting job or playing time as a result of his blunders.

“Like I said, I’m not going to talk about Tyrique in terms of starting, not starting, all that stuff, but I will say this: Tyrique has played a lot for this group and for our defense and for our football.” team over the last few years, and he will continue to do so,” said Eberflus. “We stand behind Tyrique, and we are with him all the way, and again, we will work through this.”

The comments on radio shows questioning the coaching seem to contradict the team’s unique purpose. However, they have the leadership council and captains to express players’ feelings towards Eberflus behind the scenes.

Johnson still thinks the timeout would have been the best choice before the Hail Mary.

“Yeah, I mean, just really capturing the moment. My main thing was, I’m sure if we’re in the final, we’ll get another shot or another possession, which in a sense you’re going to call a timeout. making sure the piece is lined up correctly.

“We want to make this choice this way. I mean you have to put your guys in the best position to succeed. I mean, at the end of the day, that doesn’t necessarily change the outcome, but it does change. I would say your mentality in the changes throughout the day.” that game, so I don’t mean anything different for us: going in, getting a timeout, putting ourselves in the right spot and making sure we’re reminded of what we’re doing.

Johnson said he has no loss of confidence in his head coach as a result of the decisions.

When asked if he still supports Eberflus, Johnson said: “Yes, he is our head coach.”

This hardly seemed like a boosting vote of confidence, and it took Johnson back to last year when he was asked if he backed former Bears QB Justin Fields.

“How can we continue to believe in him? I mean, I feel like that’s part of the job, honestly,” Johnson said. “You would think, I mean (expletive), as long as someone is your head coach, I mean the same thing, in a way with the quarterback situation where everyone was asking, ‘Are you rooting for Justin?’

“He’s our quarterback. He’s who we go with. But I mean whoever is in that position, whoever is in our locker room, whoever our coaches are, that’s who we believe in. That’s who we trust to guide us.” to a championship.”

Another example of a player wondering what was going on in Halas Hall was Cole Kmet, who told the media on Monday that some players were cheating themselves with the way they were practicing.

“I talked to Cole about that, but it’s really about connecting on every play, and that’s basically what it is every week,” Eberflus said. “Again, you’ll have to ask him what exactly he was talking about.

“I don’t know exactly what it was, but we had a general conversation about it. It’s about connecting, the cycle of the click, doing our job and being where you’re supposed to be when you’re supposed to be there.”

Stevenson wasn’t where he should have been, but Kmet had said he didn’t necessarily mean Stevenson and that play.

In any case, Eberflus’ idea is to suppress talk of the punishment awaiting Stevenson, if any at all.

“Like I said, I’m not going to talk about Tyrique in terms of starting, not starting, all that stuff,” Eberflus said. “But I will say this. Tyrique has played a lot over the years for this group, for our defense and for our football team, and he will continue to do so.”

“We stand behind Tyrique, and we are with him all the way, and again, we will work through this.”

It doesn’t sound like the tough HITS principle they talked about so much when Eberflus became coach, if Stevenson goes unpunished.

Eberflus doesn’t care what it sounds like. He wants information about penalties or fines that remain ‘in-house’.

He is also not concerned that he has lost the respect of his players in any way for the decisions or the way they were handled.

“I will be the man I have been and the leader I have been, and I will remain steadfast throughout the process,” Eberflus said. “We are a team that is growing, and we are a team that is getting better, and we will work through this adversity.”

Moore summarized the company line in such a way that it seemed like they had all put it in the past, even though they are all still talking about it well after the end of the universal “24-hour rule.”

“It just moves on to the next one,” Moore said. “We’re not under .500. The sky is not too bad, so on to the next opponent, which is the Cardinals and we just have to find a way to be 1-0 next week.”

They would then be 5-3 for the season, and some of the heat might be off the coaching staff at that point, but the loss was definitely a missed opportunity to get even better.

Twitter: BearsOnSI