Jones on blocked field goal to lose Packers' game: "It's super unfortunate" |
CHICAGO—In offensive lineman Braxton Jones’ third season with the Chicago Bears, he has never seen the playoffs. There was much hope that this year would be the year with a new quarterback and a trio of elite receivers. However, that has not come to fruition.
The offense's struggles, particularly since coming off the bye week, culminated in the firing of offensive coordinator Shane Waldron. Passing game coordinator Thomas Brown stepped in as the interim offensive coordinator. Chicago’s game against the Green Bay Packers this past Sunday was the first game with his offense and it clearly worked better than Waldron’s scheme. “Early in the week, (Brown) came in, told us we got to be on our details. It starts with us. It starts with the energy. It starts with Wednesday practice, Thursday practice and into Friday and then continuing that through Saturday and letting loose on Sunday and that’s what he started with and for me, myself, that’s what I did,” Jones said. “Coming back off injury, just trying to be able to give the juice where I could, being on my details, being as good as I could and I think every player, all 11, took that serious.” Part of why Brown’s offense worked better was because of a purposeful effort to get the ball in the hands of wide receiver DJ Moore. Last season, Moore led the Bears in receiving yards with 1,364 yards and eight touchdowns. This year had been a struggle for him to get the ball. But against Green Bay, Moore caught all seven of his targets for 62 yards. Moore also had a rushing attempt for five yards. Players like Jones know something good is going to happen with DJ Moore gets the ball in his hands. “I think the details of the screen game, being able to obviously get some of your o-linemen and playmakers out in space and then obviously when you put the ball in DJ’s hands, something cool is going to happen. Something’s going to happen,” Jones said. “So, just being on the details I think this week and having a bit more juice, I feel like (it) led to better success in (the) run game, pass game, all of it being a big correlation to us just having more juice and being better in practice.” Last Sunday’s game ultimately came down to a 46-yard field goal. Jones was one of the linemen tasked with protecting kicker Cairo Santos to prevent the field goal from getting blocked. Clearly, that did not pan out, as Green Bay blocked the field goal. However, the referees may have missed a critical call on the Packers' attempt, which would have allowed the Bears to redo the try and make it closer. “We all got to be better in protection and I just think it’s super unfortunate. Obviously, you look at some of the things that happened on the play and that’s unfortunate as well. But, not going to point figures. Not going to do any of that,” Jones said. “We’re that close to us being in here cheering still probably and it’s just unfortunate. I think the biggest thing is looking at the film, seeing where each player can be better in the protection and going from there and you can’t really do with whatever call should have been made or whatever it is. I think just executing better.”
