Chicago Bears interim head coach Thomas Brown, tight end Cole Kmet and safety Jonathan Owens met with reporters over video conference calls Monday and Tuesday to recap the team’s 38-13 loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
The Bears have an extra day of preparation this week as they get ready for the “Monday Night Football” game against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 15.
Here are three things we learned from Brown and his players.
1. Tight end Cole Kmet said he has been fighting a ‘mental battle’ to grind through this season.
Kmet has seen his share of tough times during his five Bears seasons under three head coaches. That included a 10-game losing skid in the 2022 season and now a seven-game skid this year.
He said it has been tough from a mental standpoint to focus on trying to improve individually while also dealing with all that has unfolded this season.
“This process, it’s been tough,” Kmet said. “It takes a toll on you mentally and you definitely question things about yourself. You’ve got to fight those things. But it’s a hard deal, for sure. I just have to keep the type of mindset that this type of adversity will only make me stronger going forward.”
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Kmet said he spoke with his father Frank recently about how to keep the proper perspective in such a dark moment. Frank, a former Purdue player, reminded him to appreciate what he has.
“He was saying he’d have given anything to go back and just to play one more game, to be in the shape that I’m in right now and to go out and play football,” Kmet said. “I think that’s kind of the perspective that I want to have going forward for these last four (games). Just enjoy being out there with the guys, put some really good stuff out on tape and just enjoy each other’s company while we go do it.”
Kmet has 42 catches for 448 yards and three touchdowns this season. He wasn’t targeted Sunday against the 49ers, except on a two-point conversion pass that he dropped. On the drop, he said he needed to catch the ball with his hands rather than letting it go into his body. He has a career-high 84% catch rate this season.
As for the lack of targets, he said at this point in the season he is simply trying to do his best at what is called.
“I’m a guy who wants to make plays with the ball in my hands,” he said. “But if that’s not my role for a certain play or a game or a series or whatever it is, I’m just going to go out there and do my job to the best of my ability.”
2. Interim coach Thomas Brown said Sunday’s defensive problems started with communication issues.
The 49ers totaled 38 points, 452 yards and nine plays of 20 or more yards on Sunday. Brown started his breakdown of the problems by pointing to communication.
“We had too many issues, busts on the back end when it comes to coverage wise,” Brown said. “It’s got to be more tied into detail with that, which we’ll do a better job of that going forward. We gave up way too many explosives, especially early in the game, that gave their play caller, Kyle Shanahan, the opportunity to dictate the flow of the game and call what he wants to call. We’ve got to do a better job of trying to take away strengths and put guys in third-and-long scenarios.”
Brown said he also talked with defensive coordinator Eric Washington about how to generate more pass rush — including finding the right personnel groupings and keeping players fresh — after the Bears had just one sack of 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy.
Safety Jonathan Owens said he thought the communication problems were less about the Bears playing under a new defensive play caller after Matt Eberflus was fired and more about the problems the 49ers offense presents.
“A big part of their game plan is a bunch of presnap movement,” Owens said. “You get guys moving laterally and you just try to catch guys’ eyes for a split second and get a gap or get a pass, so that’s what I attribute it to.”
3. Brown said he believes ‘in the people’ with the Bears — and that’s why he thinks the team can persevere over the last four games.
After multiple close losses in a row, the blowout at the hands of the 49ers brought up questions about whether the Bears have the motivation to finish out the season with the proper effort. Brown said he does not believe his players will quit and said the Bears’ current circumstances won’t affect their aggressive approach.
“It’s all about the guys that we have in the locker room, the coaches that we have, and understanding our mentality and our approach going forward,” Brown said. “We don’t have cowards in the locker room, we don’t have cowards on our coaching staff. So regardless of circumstance, we will come to battle every single day. We will not eschew or relieve ourselves of responsibility of doing our jobs to the best of our ability and we’ll continue to try to find ways to line up a better result.”
Owens said there’s “too much love in the locker room” for the players to give up.
“Everybody is so close, man,” Owens said. “You are out there playing for your brother, playing for pride regardless of the situation, the scoreboard, our record. No one is going out there to lay an egg or you’re (not) going into a game not trying to play as hard because there is still a standard that we’re all trying to uphold.
“And just with the leaders and the vets that you have on the team, like there are guys that you don’t want to let down. Like I couldn’t see myself taking plays off and then KB (Kevin Byard) is out there playing hard. Just because (there are) guys that you look up to, your coworkers. So that’s the thing: Too much love in the locker room for us to even have a doubt of guys going to start splitting or pointing fingers.”
