Bears News: Swift reacts to blowout loss to Lions

Ariana Pensy · Correspondent · 2 hours ago

CHICAGO - In what could have been a revenge game for running back D’Andre Swift going against his former team, the Detroit Lions had all the fun as they defeated the Bears 52-21 on Sunday.

Part of where things started to go downhill for Chicago was when Swift fumbled the ball at Detroit’s 32-yard line and the Lions subsequently recovered it.

While the Lions' offense was unable to score on the following drive, it marked a change in momentum, as the Bears followed that with a turnover on downs, and quarterback Caleb Williams threw an interception.

“Early on, I felt like it was going to be one of those games where as though we (were) going to be real efficient running the ball early on. The game kind of got out of hand. So, (that) had to dictate playcalling at that point,” Swift said. “If it’s a shootout, we need to be right with that shooting out on offense as well. So, the penalties and things like that, they got to stop and it’s everybody. It’s a collective effort.”

In the first two games of the season, Chicago has scored a touchdown on their opening drive. While they have struggled after that, Swift finds it encouraging that the Bears are able to put up points on the first drive.

It shows this offense is able to drive down the field, but they have to do it consistently.

“That’s the encouraging part that’s good to see. But, we got to sustain that throughout the fourth quarter. You can’t just be the first drive and then we stall out for however many after that,” Swift said. “We got to kind of build off of that momentum and just every possession after that, just keep rolling. That just (comes) with playing clean football … It ain’t just one person. It’s 11 people out there on that field. 11 people got a job to do.”

On an offense that has lacked consistency, one player has been consistent through the first two weeks - wide receiver Rome Odunze. Odunze has 20 targets, 13 receptions, 165 receiving yards and three touchdowns. He leads the Bears in all of those categories and is tied for first in the NFL through the first two weeks in receiving touchdowns.

Last season as a rookie, Odunze finished the year with 101 targets, 54 receptions, 734 receiving yards, and three touchdowns. He has already matched the number of touchdowns he had last year and is definitely on track to have more receiving yards.

Compared to last year, Swift has seen an increase in confidence from Odunz,e and you can see that on the field.

“A big jump,” Swift said. “You can tell he’s playing with a lot of confidence, just playing fast, knows his assignments, the type of guy you want on your offense, a playmaker, as well as everybody else in that room.”

Last season, Chicago had a difficult loss that derailed their season. The head coach lost control of the locker room and would ultimately lose his job. That is because he lost the locker room. However, history is not going to repeat itself with head coach Ben Johnson.

He is on top of things, showing his team he has confidence in them and creating a different mentality in the locker room than was present last year.

“He’s been doing everything. There’s nothing more he can do or he can say. We need to follow his lead and as players, go out there and execute and play clean ball,” Swift said. “We haven’t played a complete game yet. So, I would love to see what that looked like.”