Washington on playing in London, Hicks stepping up for Brisker |
LONDON, U.K. - For the first time in five years, the Chicago Bears are back in London. This Sunday, they will face the Jacksonville Jaguars (8:30 a.m. / NFL Network), who are coming off their first win of the season and have scored 30 or more points for the first time this season.
Defensive coordinator Eric Washington says the Jaguars will face a challenge and that the Bears will have to set the tempo early. “We’re facing an offense that had an explosive performance last week, which came through the rushing attack. It came through the quarterback. It came through big plays,” Washington said. “So, they’re getting themselves together at a good time for them, and we’re going to have to make sure that we exceed their tempo (in) terms of pacing, in terms of what we need to do to get ourselves lined up and get set and to execute and we’re excited about the challenge. It’s great to be here for this particular game, and we’re looking forward to it. We’re looking forward to the environment.” Jacksonville’s win last season was the first time all season that quarterback Trevor Lawrence was not sacked. Conversely, the Bears have recorded at least one sack in every game and at least three sacks in four of their five games thus far this season. That is why getting pressure is essential for the defense to contain Lawrence’s passing attack and shut down the Jaguars’ offense. “We got to have pressure with our front four. We’ve got to make sure the pocket is getting collapsed,” Washington said. “We’re doing a great job of disguising our looks and not giving him information that he can easily access and figure out what to do with the football.” Getting pressure up front has started with second-year defensive lineman Gervon Dexter. Dexter leads the team in sacks with four and is also in the top 10 in the NFL through the first five games. He showed promising signs of having a solid sophomore season against the Atlanta Falcons last year, where he had 1.5 sacks and two quarterback hits. Nonetheless, some are worried about a sophomore slump, which is common with young defensive linemen. However, Washington is not one of those people. “He’s such a professional person, especially in year two. Going into a full-time starter’s role, his humility, his willingness to be open to constructive feedback and his just overall maturity. So, I don’t worry about any dropoff. I don’t worry about him being enamored with what he’s done,” Washington said. “Gervon, like everybody else on the defense, (understands) that once we get past one opponent or one particular play, we got to move forward because we’ve got larger goals than (four sacks). We have larger goals, not only for him individually but for our defense and for our team, and so, we continue to stay focused on that, and he really embodies that.” Perhaps an underrated member of the defensive line is defensive tackle Andrew Billings. Billings is now in his second season with the Bears and just recorded his first career sack with Chicago last week against the Carolina Panthers. Washington said Billings took it upon himself to identify his weaknesses and improve to help him reach this point. “We need to get (a) rush out of every person that’s on the defensive line and whatever that means for that player, we got to find a way to get that out of them and credit to Andrew, he’s really improved,” Washington said. “He’s taken it upon himself to identify certain aspects of his game that he wanted to improve and increase, and he’s really done a nice job with that.” Going against this high-powered Jacksonville offense, Chicago will be down one of its top secondary players, safety Jaquan Brisker, who self-reported concussion symptoms on Monday and did not make the trip to London. In his place will be safety Elijah Hicks, a fellow 2022 NFL Draft selection. Washington has a lot of confidence in Hicks and his ability to step in for Brisker. “Tremendous level of confidence. Number one, he’s familiar with what we’re doing. He’s an active learner, which means that when he was backing up Brisker, he’s preparing himself as if he was going to start,” Washington said. “When you watch him in practice and go about his business on a daily basis, and so, with that, with the way he prepares, his skill set, his attention to detail, I have the utmost confidence in him.”
