Young Bears stepping up; Aaron Rodgers doubles down: NFC North notes

Yes, the Chicago Bears offense found a rhythm not yet seen with this new regime under the bright lights of Monday Night Football. But it overshadowed a strong defensive performance that was led by players general manager Ryan Poles added this offseason — rookies and veterans alike. 

The Bears managed four takeaways on the day, with three coming by interception and a fumble recovery added in. The only player involved in those plays who was on the roster last year was Roquan Smith, who came down with an interception off a tipped ball by rookie Dominique Robinson, so even that play had a rookie attached to it. The turnovers gifted Chicago’s offense with bonus possessions and helped them control the game, winning the time-of-possession battle 37: 14 to 22: 46 and ultimately helping them win the game.

The first interception of the day came from rookie safety Jaquan Brisker. Early in the second quarter, Chicago was up 10-0 on the Patriots, with quarterback Mac Jones having started the game after a multiple-week absence due to an ankle injury. Brisker’s interception of Jones would be the last play of Jones’ night.

Head coach Matt Eberflus said following the game that they had scouted and prepared for both quarterbacks, which was evident given that the other three turnovers his defense forced came off Bailey Zappe, the fourth-round quarterback who has started the last two games for the Patriots and played in the last three prior to Monday night.

On the following Patriots possession after the aforementioned Smith interception, Zappe was picked off again. This time it came from Brisker’s fellow second-round defensive back, Kyler Gordon. The Washington product has perhaps the most put on his plate of any rookie thanks to him playing both outside and slot corner in Eberflus’ 4-3 scheme. The young player took his lumps early but has since figured things out. It culminated in primetime as he stopped a second straight New England drive by interception.

Though the fumble was on a handoff from Zappe, the recovery was by Justin Jones, who the team brought in via free agency when Larry Ogunjobi failed his physical. Quietly, Jones has had a great last few weeks for the Bears. In addition to his fumble recovery, he also batted down two passes at the line and registered two total tackles from the defensive interior. He recorded a 77.6 pass rush grade on Monday with two pressures and two hurries, according to PFF.

Perhaps the bigger point here is that this Bears offense and defense can coexist, and even thrive, simultaneously, and it’s due in large part to new players on the roster. Who says youth has to be a bad thing?

Lions facing stiff competition

For as fun as their offense was to watch in the first part of the season, the Lions have unfortunately reverted back to being, well, the Lions with two lackluster performances on either side of their Week 6 bye. They were shut out by the Patriots, 29-0, in Week 5, and after promising to reset and create some tangible improvement, they lost to Dallas 24-6 on Sunday. Their average points per game has plummeted to 24.3 after being as high as 35 this season. 

I don’t know if I can blame them much for faltering this past weekend, given Dallas has one of the best defenses — if not the best defense — in the league right now. The Cowboys are giving up the second-fewest yards per play in the NFL right now at 4.70 and their 12.24% sack rate ranks first. For more context as to how good their pass rush is, the second-ranked team (San Francisco) has a sack rate of 10.86%. That’s almost two percentage points lower. The Dallas pass rush has a league-best grade of 86.3, according to PFF.

 But the Lions won’t catch a break anytime soon. They face Miami this Sunday, followed by the Packers, the Bears (who no longer look like a ‘gimme’), the Giants, the Bills, the Jaguars, the Vikings, the Jets and then finally a winnable game against the Panthers. That isn’t until Week 16. They have to close the season with the Bears and then Packers again. 

Rodgers doubles down, suggests benching teammates

Following Green Bay’s loss to the Washington Commanders, fans were left wanting for a little more accountability from quarterback Aaron Rodgers. The 18-year veteran talked mostly about what those around him did wrong, bucking the notion that a quarterback take the blame when his team is underperforming.

“Outside of those two guys [Jones and Lazard] there’s too many mental mistakes,” Rodgers said after the game. “I talked about simplification last week, I don’t really know where to go when it comes to that. There has to be something inside that’s an accountability for performance, where we’re just having way too many mental mistakes.”

On his weekly appearance on the Pat McAfee Show Tuesday, Rodgers took that a step further.

“Guys who are making too many mistakes shouldn’t be playing,” he said. “Gotta start cutting some reps.”

He further distanced himself from his teammates by mentioning that Sunday’s loss was his best-graded game this season, according to quarterbacks coach Tom Clements.

It even caught the attention of his former teammate Greg Jennings, who was on FS1’s First Things First, reacting to the comments.

Jennings went on to say that even if he didn’t call out his teammates by name, calling for their jobs in a public forum outside the team wasn’t the way to handle it. He also brought up that by calling for benching players is also an indictment on head coach Matt LaFleur and the way he handles the team.

If Green Bay turns their season around a la 2016, this whole narrative will fade into the distance. But if it doesn’t, it could be what stops the Packers in their tracks.

Carmen Vitali covers the NFC North for FOX Sports. Carmen had previous stops with The Draft Network and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. She spent six seasons with the Bucs, including 2020, which added the title of Super Bowl Champion (and boat-parade participant) to her résumé. You can follow Carmen on Twitter at @CarmieV.