The Chicago Bears have done a lot of losing. In franchise history. Against the Green Bay Packers. In recent memory. During the Ryan Poles/Matt Eberflus era. You name it.
Following Sunday’s deflating Week 2 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Bears have now lost 12 consecutive games dating back to Oct. 24, 2022. Taking it back even further, Chicago is 9-27 since the start of the 2021 season.
The continuous losing has to be weighing on these Bears players, as evidenced by the defeated sideline looks by the offense during last week’s season opener against the Packers.
That also includes cornerback Jaylon Johnson, who was drafted in 2020 and has yet to have a winning season in Chicago. Johnson admitted that the constant losing is starting to wear on him.
“Hell yeah,” he said, via The Athletic. “That’s what I think about consistently. I’ve been here for a good minute now. Going through the same things, the same letdowns, the same, in a sense, postgame speeches. For me as a competitor, I’m tired of that s—. I’d rather be happy when we come in on Monday where we’re celebrating a W.”
Perhaps the most frustrating thing about this 12th straight loss is that the Bears had an opportunity to beat the Buccaneers. They were down three points with two minutes left, before quarterback Justin Fields threw a pick-six from Chicago’s 6-yard line that sealed the win for Tampa Bay.
“This was a very, very winnable game,” Johnson said. “I think that we’re just tired of shooting ourselves in the foot. We’re tired of not capitalizing. I think the biggest thing for us, being a young team, we’ve got to learn how to win. We’ve got to learn how to pull through. We’ve got to learn how to come together and execute at a high level throughout the duration of the game and not shoot ourselves in the foot. It takes us getting burnt, but at the end of the day, we have to learn. I think it’s better to learn from wins and we have to learn to win.”
Things don’t get any easier next week when the Bears have to travel to Kansas City to face Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. While Kansas City’s offense hasn’t scored more than 20 points in a game this season, this Chicago defense could be the perfect remedy.