Bears Defense Has Its Day

Chirping, crowing, hitting and taking away the football were the order of the day Wednesday for the Bears defense as the offense suffered through its worst practice.

Frustration reached a new high for quarterback Justin Fields and the Bears offense in Wednesday's second padded practice.

First they were frustrated by performance, then by the defense's constant chirping and finally by their own inability to match the energy level of their defense.

"We definitely had a couple drops out there," Fields said. "I missed a couple throws out there."

An early Kyler Gordon interception set the tone of the practice.

The practice ended with a two-minute drive to a field goal by the offense but before that three straight possessions by the first-team offense and three straight by the second-team offense failed to net a single first down.

In between, they had a sequence of plays in 7-on-7 best described as a nightmare.

•  First Jaylon Jones intercepted a P.J. Walker pass that bounced off the hands of fullback Robert Burns. 
• Then the first team returned to the field and Fields' pass bounced off the hands off tight end Robert Tonyan Jr. and right to Tyrique Stevenson for an interception.
• Then Jaquan Brisker picked off a high pass by Fields intended for Chase Claypool. With each mistake, the defense's chirping got louder.

"Of course we had a bumpy practice but in two-minute we came back and bounced back and I was proud of the guys for that," Fields said. "Every practice isn't going to be perfect.

"It's really good to actually have days like this, just to see how guys respond to a little bit of adversity. I think the guys definitely had more juice toward the end of practice. I just wanted them to have that the whole time; start off with that same juice. We've got to learn from our mistakes and continue to get better."

The chippy play and chirping began earlier, and actually started with the offense. Wide receiver Chase Claypool put a nice, legal crackback block on linebacker T.J. Edwards during a running play and while the sideline offensive players hooted, Edwards and Claypool were toe to toe exchaning "pleasantries."

Later, Velus Jones Jr. got knocked to the ground out of bounds by safety Elijah Hicks and cornerback Kyler Gordon put a good hit on running back Trestan Ebner.

So no one was surprised when the chriping exploded into a fight of sorts. Jones was surrounded in close quarters by the whole chirping secondary after an incompletion and took a swing at all of them in general, and more specficially at cornerback Michael Ojemudia.

"I mean it's good that the defense is chirping at us, you know, because teams are going to do that," Fields said. "I just want to see our guys chirp back at them. When we have a good plays, even every little win, we chirp back at them and then it's just that competitive spirit going back and forth between us.

"That's going to do nothing but make us better. But I don't know, I think I have always kind of been like kind of, I usually never initiate the trash talk or whatever like that. Best believe if the defense is going to talk trash at me first and we do something good, I'm going to talk a little bit of trash back. So, yeah, it's definitely good having him chirp at us. (Jaquan) Brisk(er), Bo-Jack (Eddie Jackson), they're the biggest chirpers probably on defense, and D-Walk (DeMarcus Walker) too. It's definitely good for all of the guys."

The defense wasn't crowing after the strong showing.

"I think the competitive atmosphere is what you look for," linebacker Tremaine Edmunds said. "You know, iron sharpens iron and that's always been the recipe since Day 1.

"Just to be able to come out there and compete, I think that's the No. 1 thing. In the locker room, we're going to shake hands and everything's cool but when we're out there on the field we're trying to make each other baetter. That's all it is coming from the defense."

The chirping is one thing, but the poor offensive play hasn't necessarily been indicative of the whole training camp.

"I think the defense, they're doing a way better job this year hiding their coverage," Fields said.

Having been together for a year, it only makes sense the defense has advanced at this.

"They're doing a good job of switching it up and really scheming to our offense," Fields said. "That's why I think our offense is getting great work doing that.

"It's almost like a game plan. (Defensive coordinator) Alan (Williams) and the defense have definitely taken it up a step. It's not going to do anything but make our offense better and challenge our offense."

Offensive coordinator Luke Getsy immediately had explanations for the poor day by his group.

"Usually, my experience is defense does a better job in your install period, when you're just learning what you're doing," Getsy said. "But I think we've been doing a really nice job.

"It's been a good give-and-take all throughout camp. We've had our moments, they've had their moments. That's just going to make us a better football team if it keeps going that way."

Besides, Getsy said, his offense is at a disadvantage in practices where contact is limited or it's non-contact.

"It was touch football, that wasn't real football," Getsy said. "We're a physical football team. We run through tackles and all that stuff. I'm not going to get too worked up about that."

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven