Bears head coach Ben Johnson wants to see his players work harder.
In addition to saying that the Bears’ practice habits aren’t good enough, Johnson also said that from watching the tape of Sunday’s loss to the Lions, he didn’t think the Bears were putting in the same level of effort as the Lions.
“There were things all over the tape, in all three phases, that we’re looking to clean up,” Johnson said. “I thought as a whole that that team, they played a little bit harder than us. That’s a reflection of me as a coach, that’s a reflection of our coaching staff and it’s a reflection of our players too. When you play a good team like that on the road, you’ve got to be all-out every single snap and that just was not the case. Specifically, it was everybody.”
It may have been everybody, but it’s ultimately Johnson’s job to make sure that his players are playing hard enough and practicing hard enough. Johnson was very well-regarded as an offensive coordinator, but two games into his head-coaching career, Johnson looks like he still leaves a lot to be desired from the standpoint of a head coach’s job of leading a team.
Johnson has been very candid about his team’s shortcomings in the first two weeks of the season, as well as his own shortcomings, but he needs to show some evidence that those shortcomings are being corrected.
