The Chicago Bears had a frustrating Week 8 showing against the Ravens, delivering one of their worst performances of the season on both ends of the field. Despite getting more total yards in the game, the Bears suffered from a ton of red-zone issues and an infuriating series of penalties that got the Ravens off the hook on multiple occasions.
Head coach Ben Johnson was understandably asked about this on ESPN Chicago Monday afternoon, and his answer can easily be interpreted as putting the locker room on notice.
Johnson said that the coaches are there to support the players, but "it would go a long way if we just had a little bit more ownership in that locker room to take the bull by the horns so we do get this cleaned up," per the Bears Wire's Brendan Sugrue.
Even though Johnson didn't name any players, the fact that he was willing to put the team on blast in this way points to the captains on both sides of the ball. Considering that Johnson seemed to be on different pages with Caleb Williams after the game certainly raises questions about the dynamics in the locker room.
Ben Johnson Shows Frustration with Bears Players Taking Responsibility
The coaching staff has every right to be frustrated about the penalties, but the fact that this has been an issue since the start of the season is deeply concerning. It's one thing if a team picks up avoidable penalties in one game, but if it's an issue that keeps repeating, then at least some of that burden has to be on the coaches.
No team has cost itself as much as the Bears this season, in terms of penalties. Chicago gets called for 9.1 penalties per game, only behind the Jaguars. The Bears cost themselves over 76 yards per game in penalties, more than any other team in the league.
Taking into account the penalties called in Chicago's favor, the Bears have lost a total of 279 yards this season, almost twice as much as the second-worst team in that department, per NFLPenalties.com and TeamRankings.com. Just on Sunday, the Bears gave up three first downs and a total of 79 yards to the Ravens on penalties.
This is an unacceptable level of lack of discipline. Ben Johnson can call out whoever he wants, but at the end of the day, this is his responsibility to fix. It's never a good sign when head coaches start throwing their players under the bus, and let's hope that this doesn't become a habit in Johnson's relationship with the team.