The Chicago Bears may have lost to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, but several players saw a silver lining to the defeat.
Running back Matt Forte and G Matt Slauson both recognized that the Bears had some mental toughness and didn’t quit the way the team did last year under the previous coaches.
Matt Forte: “The mentality of this offense, which I’m proud of, is nobody had that stupid look on their face [when down 31-16] like before.”
— Mark Potash (@MarkPotash) September 13, 2015
Matt Forte: “Before when something would happen, kind of saying that the game is lost already when there’s time left. … We kept fighting.”
— Mark Potash (@MarkPotash) September 13, 2015
#Bears RB Matt Forte (24-141) on the commitment to the run game: “That’s how it’s supposed to be. Offensive line did a great job.”
— Mark Potash (@MarkPotash) September 13, 2015
Slauson specifically compared this year’s team under new head coach John Fox to last year’s disaster under Marc Trestman:
Matt Slauson: “Had this been the past, we would have packed it in. That just goes to show the mentality this staff is instilling in us.”
— Mark Potash (@MarkPotash) September 13, 2015
#Bears G Matt Slauson added it’s good “to have a coordinator that actually trusts us to run, because we have the best back in the game.”
— Mark Potash (@MarkPotash) September 13, 2015
Trestman was famous for being in love with throwing the ball, which led to tons of turnovers for Jay Cutler. It’s also something Forte specifically complained about last year. While Cutler still had a critical interception at the end, they limited him to 34 attempts, and they handed the ball to Forte 24 times. He only topped that mark last year once when he toted the rock 26 times in a Week 11 win. What’s more is that the Bears’ offense didn’t give up and scored a touchdown in the final two minutes to make it 31-23.
