Bears
The Bears got the win on Sunday, but QB Justin Fields didn’t hold back when it came to assessing his performance.
“Straight up, I just played — I don’t want to say the A-word, but I played like trash,” Fields said via Courtney Cronin of ESPN. “Really just got to be better.”
“I’m going to go see the film tonight. I played terrible,” he added. “See what I could have done better and get better.”
Meanwhile, HC Matt Eberflus stressed that it’s a collective effort.
“I think when you are working with a young quarterback in a new offense, I think the people around him have to be solid,” Eberflus said. “So that’s important for us, meaning that the protection has to be good, the run game has to be good, the defense has to be really good and special teams, we’ve got to be awesome.
“What you do is you support that quarterback while he’s growing. And while he’s going through this, and there’s going to be good and there’s going to be things that he has to improve on, but that’s on the whole football team. The whole football team is like that.”
Lions
Lions HC Dan Campbell took the blame for Detroit’s 28-24 loss, as his decision to kick the field goal at the end of the game backfired after K Austin Seibert missed the 54-yard try and gave the Vikings great field position for what proved to be their game-winning drive.
“I frickin’ regret my decision there at the end. Should have gone for it on fourth down. I told the team that. I should have gone for it,” Campbell said via (Kevin Seifert)
The decision was extra galling for Campbell because the Lions were 4-6 on fourth down conversion attempts after a missed field goal in the first quarter sparked a more aggressive philosophy. The Lions have shown they’re a much better team this season, they just need to tighten a few more things up.
“It’s one play here, one play there,” Campbell said. “One more conversion, we get one more stop. Just out of the number of plays that are in there, you just say, ‘All we’ve got to do is do one of these different.’ Look, we had our chances. We played some pretty good football for a while. It came in spurts. I told the team, man, when the downs come, we’ve got to handle them with composure. When the ups come, we’ve got to capitalize on them.
“I told them this should sting. … We’ve got to learn from the plays that bit us in the ass. … There will be a lot of criticism placed on a number of guys — myself including the players.”
- Campbell told reporters he trusts K Austin Seibert enough not to make a change this week: “I’d be willing to give him another go.” (Dave Birkett)
- Campbell said RB D’Andre Swift could possibly miss the next two weeks while his shoulder heals and return after the team’s bye week. (Adam Schefter)
Packers
- NFL Media’s Tom Pelissero says the Packers are optimistic CB Jaire Alexander‘s groin injury isn’t too serious and won’t keep him out long. They’re doing more tests to confirm.
- Packers LB De’Vondre Campbell downplayed the importance of beating a marquee team in their conference: “We don’t need to play the Bucs to get no confidence. We know how good we can be.” (Ryan Wood)
Vikings
- Vikings RB Dalvin Cook is expected to wear a brace and play in the team’s Week 4 game on Sunday. (PFT)
- Vikings first-round S Lewis Cine is still focusing on adjusting to the NFL and knows his role may remain limited. He played limited snaps behind S Josh Metellus despite the team being without veteran S Harrison Smith for Week 3. (Andrew Krammer)
- Vikings HC Kevin O’Connell said Smith has cleared the concussion protocol and will play in London for Week 4. (Chris Tomasson)
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