(670 The Score) The Bears got dominated by the Packers in their 38-20 loss Sunday at Soldier Field, but Chicago cornerback Jaylon Johnson is adamant that the starters’ playing time – or lack thereof, to put it best – in the preseason had nothing to due with his team’s ugly performance.
The Bears didn’t play the majority of their starters in the second of their three preseason games, and they played them minimally in the finale.
“People get lost in like the preseason and what the preseason is for,” Johnson said on the Parkins & Spiegel Show on Monday evening. “I feel like from the outside looking in, people don’t really know how you call a preseason game. You can almost go in knowing that the other team’s offensive coordinator, he’s going to call 50% runs, 50% passes. It’s going to be predictable. They’re going to run their base runs. They’re going to run their base passes. Some teams might throw in a few double moves or a few, I would say, elite concepts. But that’s rare. Nobody really shows their hand in the preseason. So it’s not like we can go out here and say, ‘Oh, if all of our starters played, they’ll be better.’ No, because at the end of the day, those teams aren’t playing their best ball. That’s just the reality of it. You get to Week 1, now the whole playbook comes alive. Now you’re scouting. Now you’re doing different things versus you’re just going out for a preseason (game). Not too many people are watching film. Not too many people are going back years and years and trying to see, ‘OK, how did he call this game?’ Nobody really does that in the preseason. It’s more of a physical thing to go out there – of course you want to make your hits, play disciplined football. I feel it’s more so for guys who don’t have any league film or need film to get on different rosters. I don’t think the preseason is for guys to go out and play high-level football. That’s not what the preseason is for. So it’s easy to blame it on the preseason, but at the end of the day, Week 1 is Week 1.”
Johnson believes the Bears will get on the “same page” this week and bounce back with a much better performance when they visit the Buccaneers on Sunday.
“The biggest week for improvement is Week 2, from Week 1 to Week 2,” Johnson said. “Some teams come out hot, some teams don’t.”