Have the kind of night the Bears did against the Patriots on Monday, and you’d be riding high, enjoying yourself to the fullest. After lofty comments he made about New England last week, Chicago defensive tackle Justin Jones might be the happiest of any Bears player right now.
You see, in the lead-up to their Monday night matchup, Jones said he would “check the balls” to ensure they were properly inflated before the Bears and Patriots actually squared off. According to the veteran, the ghosts of “Deflategate’s” past never left.
In fact, when asked what the first thing he thinks of is with Bill Belichick, Jones said, “deflated balls.”
#Bears DL Justin Jones plans on checking the balls Monday night. Has heard that Deflategate might still be going on. First thing you think of when you hear the name Bill Belichick? “Deflated balls” #ForeverNE #Forevercheaters pic.twitter.com/HtjueyggUo
— Mark Carman (@thecarm) October 20, 2022
Oh, boy. After giving up that kind of bulletin board material, you’d think the Patriots would be ready to back up their coach and general organization. They were not. The Bears smacked them around in a clinical 33-14 laugher on national television. In the process, Chicago’s defense racked up three picks (including some noteworthy revenge from Jaquan Brisker) of the rotating Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe.
That wasn’t lost on Justin Jones, who had a perfect callback to his Deflategate comments that built up to the game.
Post game analysis: Balls were inflated to the fullest. Result = 3 INTS🤷🏿♂️
— Justin M. Jones (@Twenty7Savage) October 25, 2022
We have no possible way to completely verify if Jones’ (serious?) accusation has any merit. But it’s admittedly hard to argue with the logic of the Bears’ defense hounding the New England signal-callers because, according to Jones, they had less control of fully-inflated footballs. Hey, that makes sense to me!
At any rate, Jones and the Bears certainly earned their flowers and earned the right to say whatever they please about Belichick and the Patriots.