Bears
Bears HC Ben Johnson gave Packers HC Matt LaFleur a quick handshake after a huge fourth-quarter comeback win over their division rivals and later showed his disdain for the Packers in the locker room after the victory.
“There was probably a little bit more noise coming out of their building up north to start the week, which we heard loud and clear, players and coaches alike,” Johnson said. “This one meant something to us.”
Lions
Lions DL Tyleik Williams reflected on his rookie year after being a first-round pick, saying he’s received a lot of guidance from his teammates on how to be a successful professional.
“Over the year, the guys around me just gave me advice on certain things. How to play certain things and how to carry yourself and I think I’ve just been taking it all in and I’ve been playing better,” Williams said, via Tim Twentyman of the team’s site.
Williams wants to win his rushes at a higher rate next season.
“For me, just more pressure on the quarterback,” Williams said. “I won some rushes, but I’m not winning them at the rate I want to win them at.”
Lions DL Roy Lopez thinks Williams is a “special talent” with his combination of size and athletic ability.
“He’s a special talent,” Lopez said. “You don’t see somebody that size that athletic, that’s for sure. He’s going to be very, very, very, very fun to watch. He knows he’s good and that’s something that’s special. Confidence in a young player goes a long way and seriously, I can’t wait to see him grow. I’ll be a fan of his for sure.”
Packers
Packers HC Matt LaFleur told reporters that he will have the late-game breakdown against the Bears on his mind for quite some time.
“We’ve got to look at it. We’ve got to talk. There are a lot of pieces,” LaFleur said, via NFL.com. “All you’re trying to do in the moment is, when mistakes are made, you’re correcting them. There’s not long discussions on the sideline. It’s just you correct the mistakes, and you try to keep it moving. And I felt like just our team got a little bit disheveled in the second half.”
“We’ve just got to do a better job of keeping our composure as a football team and going out there and doing the fundamental things that we practice all the time,” LaFleur continued. “I think when you get into these types of big games, when you don’t execute simple fundamentals, it comes back to bite you. That’s exactly what happened.”
“It’s going to take a lot of work. A lot of work,” LaFleur concluded. “And we’re not where we want to be. I know we fought through a lot of adversity this year. Unfortunately, we didn’t do enough to overcome that adversity. That’s all of us collectively. We’ve got to do more. We’ve got to be better. Because it’s never an excuse. I know we lost some key players, but you’ve got to find a way to overcome that, because I think we do have a lot of talent on our team. It’s just disappointing.”
Despite blowing a 21-6 lead in the loss, Packers QB Jordan Love doesn’t want the team to move on from LaFleur.
“We had a game where we couldn’t finish it and let a team come back and beat us,” Love said. “So it’s very disappointing to end the season on a note like that. So, yeah, everybody is very disappointed. I’m very disappointed, and that’s it. I definitely think Matt should be the head coach. I’ve got a lot of love for Matt, and I think he does a good job.”
“We had a play called to be able to take a shot to the end zone,” Love told reporters. “And then, depending on the coverage they were playing, how soft they were, trying to pick up an easy couple yards to the sidelines, that’s what we went to. When I fumbled the snap, couldn’t get that, it kind of turned into last-second Hail Mary.”
“It’s disappointing,” Packers K Brandon McManus said of his missed kicks. “My role on the team is to make kicks and these guys pour in thousands of plays over the course of the season and I leave seven points on the board today. Like I said, it’s the most disappointing part of my career right now.”
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