Bears defense determined to bounce back

[Staley Da Bear]

The Bears yielded five TDs on seven Green Bay possessions, not counting two drives that ended both halves. They also failed to record a sack or takeaway and were gashed for a season-high 182 yards rushing.


Perhaps the only positive that came from the defense's drubbing at Lambeau Field is that it has fueled an insatiable desire to rebound.


"It's a lot of motivation," Gipson said. "We were on a big stage … everybody is watching. For us to go out there and lay an egg, I think it was embarrassing for us on so many levels. So I think that the bounce back is so real and I think that's the beautiful thing about football. You get to erase the mistakes that you made seven days ago, a week later to go out there and reinvent yourself and get that taste out of our mouth."


"You know what the rivalry means," said safety Eddie Jackson. "We feel like we got embarrassed on national TV. Right now we've got that as fuel to our fire. We just can't wait until Sunday. That's all we've been focused on is Detroit, how we're going to bounce back, what we need to do and correct little things."


The morning after the Packers game, coach Matt Nagy garnered national attention when he offered pointed criticism of the defense's performance during his video press conference, telling reporters "that can't happen, and our defensive guys know that," and "that's not who our defense is."


Nagy dropped into a defensive meeting Wednesday to clarify his comments. But players who spoke to the media this week didn't feel it was necessary for their head coach to explain himself.


"I think that coach Nagy, being the stand-up guy that he is, wanted people to understand that, 'Hey, in no way, shape or form was I pointing the finger at nobody,'" Gipson said. "He's never been that type of guy, he's never pointed the finger in no way. That's not who he is. I think he just wanted to clear the air for any type of confusion.


"We're all grown men in here and the biggest thing for us as players and professional athletes is we've got to hold ourselves accountable," Gipson said. "No matter what's going on on the offensive side of the ball, we pride ourselves on being able to do a certain job and hold ourselves to a standard, and we just didn't do that.


"[Nagy] holds everybody accountable, and when you see the guys that we have on defense, these things should not happen. It's not a he's-calling-out-the-defense kind of thing; it's just one of the things where he expects us to play better, and it was flat-out embarrassing on our behalf for sure."