Despite being in the thick of the NFC playoff race with four games remaining, the Bears aren't thinking long term. Instead, they're focused solely on Sunday's home contest against the Browns.
“I don’t think anybody in this locker room is going to take this team lightly … We have to be playing our best ball this time of year, and it starts this week against Cleveland.” Kevin Byard III
They'll enter that matchup with a 9-4 record, a half-game behind first-place Green Bay (9-3-1) in the NFC North following last Sunday's 28-21 loss at Lambeau Field.
"We have goals, and we know what's out in front of us," said coach Ben Johnson, whose team is 9-2 since an 0-2 start. "It's just that awareness that every game matters. This week you go from an emotional rivalry game like we just played, this week is equally important. We need this win. We desperately need this win."
Although the Browns (3-10) are sandwiched on the Bears' schedule between their two games with the Packers, veteran safety Kevin Byard III isn't worried about a letdown.
"I don't think anybody in this locker room is going to take this team lightly," Byard said. "Some people would call this a classic trap game or whatever it may be. I don't really believe in trap games in the league. Every single week you have to bring your best ball regardless of records. This is the National Football League and every team and everybody's playing for something regardless of what the record is. We have to be playing our best ball this time of year, and it starts this week against Cleveland."
Throughout his first season as coach, Johnson's message to players has been to concentrate only on the task at hand and go 1-0 each week. The Bears have responded by following their Week 2 loss in Detroit with a four-game winning streak and their Week 8 defeat in Baltimore with a five-game winning streak.
Byard credits Johnson for "resetting the room, resetting the team, resetting our mindsets."
"Nobody wants to lose games," Byard said. "Nobody wants to mess up. But he helps us within the Monday meeting making sure we're understanding where we fell short in the game, because when you lose, at times, even for yourself, you feel like the sky is falling. When you win, there's always mistakes. But when you lose, it feels like all those mistakes are even more magnified.
"He compresses everything to say, 'Hey, these are the true reasons why we lost, these are things that we did well, these are things we need to correct going forward.' He just helps us reset everything and move on. At the end of the day, that game was what it was. Now we've got to focus on the Cleveland Browns and try to go get a win at home."
That focus this week includes getting off to a faster start on offense and not allowing so many explosive plays and third-down conversions on defense.
Last Sunday in Green Bay, the Bears punted on their first three possessions, picking up only one first down, and were limited to 71 yards in the first half. However, they scored on their first three drives of the second half to erase a 14-3 halftime deficit and knot the game 21-21.
After not completing his first five pass attempts against the Packers, Williams revealed Wednesday that one of his goals is to start faster Sunday.
"I keep using these analogies," he said, "but it's like sometimes you're just seeing the first basket go in and getting your first completion and just kind of seeing the pass caught, whatever pass it is, whether it's a deep shot, intermediate, short, whatever. Whatever it is, just finding that first completion and getting it into your receiver's hands or the tight ends and letting them go to work."
Defensively, the Bears will look to eliminate big plays like the touchdown passes of 45, 41 and 23 yards they permitted in Green Bay.
"That is one thing as far as on the back end we've got to tighten up with just the execution of different coverages, making sure we are on top of that," Byard said.
The veteran safety also stressed the importance of putting opponents in predictable passing situations by stopping the run. Last weekend, the Packers converted 8 of 12 third-down plays, going 7 of 7 on third-and-3 or less and 1 of 5 on third-and-10 or more.
"Seven of those third downs were three or less, so that means that they were really good on first and second downs," Byard said. "We have to be better on early downs to be able to get [offenses] into third-and-long because we're really good on third-and-long."
