NFC Notes: Bears, Panthers, Saints

Bears

Bears HC Matt Eberflus believes RG Teven Jenkins and RT Darnell Wright mesh really well together on the right side. 

“Having those guys next to each other is really cool because those guys can work together, they both have a lot in their bodies in terms of power and functionality at those positions, and you certainly saw that (Sunday),” Eberflus said, via Kevin Fishbain of The Athletic. 

When asked about returning to left guard, Jenkins responded he just wants to play “freely” and be more intuitive. 

“Just keep on playing freely. For me, not being in my head and being able to be out there, trying to make it the most comfortable I can,” said Jenkins. 

As for the Bears ranking second in the league in false starts, Eberflus said they need to improve their technique and also clean up their issues with committing holds.  

“We’ve got to do a better job,” Eberflus said. “There’s too many holdings, too many false starts. Some of them, you agree to disagree with, the holdings. I think we did a really good job of finishing guys in the run game and I think we got called for a couple of those. We’ll see where it is. But we’re always going to ask our guys to finish. We just have to be good with our technique if we are finishing guys at the very end. We can kind of clean that up a little bit. But definitely the false starts, we got to make sure we take care of that going into the second half of the season.”

Panthers

• Panthers HC Frank Reich doesn’t want to “point the finger” at play-calling regarding the team’s recent offensive struggles: “As the head coach I’ve gotta look at everything. I do understand, though, as a longtime play-caller, that when things aren’t going well it’s really, really easy to point the finger at play-calling. So I don’t want to overreact to that,” via Joe Person.
• Panthers LB Deion Jones was fined $6,472 for unnecessary roughness last week.

Saints

• Ian Rapoport reports that Saints CB Marshon Lattimore is believed to have suffered a sprained ankle and will undergo an MRI on Monday to determine the severity.