RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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The Chicago Bears had their fair share of struggles in the Week 2 preseason loss to the Cincinnati Bengals last Saturday, especially on the defensive end where they struggled throughout the game.
While Chicago's offense put up numbers close to Cincinnati's offense -- outside of points -- their defense struggled mightily, allowing 346 total, 282 of which were through the air between Josh Johnson and Sean Clifford, who both had passing touchdowns.
Chicago's secondary is a big question coming into the regular season, especially with the injuries to safety Coby Bryant and cornerbacks Kyler Gordon and Tyrique Stevenson, and the unit struggled this past Saturday against Cincinnati. After the game, top cornerback Jaylon Johnson got brutally honest said no one on defense played well, including the starters that were out on the field.
"Not good enough, even the first group," Johnson said, via Devan Kaney of FOX Chicago . "We didn't get off [the field] on third down, we allowed them to drive the ball on us. We did a good job as far as the first team not letting them get in [the end zone] but not to our standards. We have to get off on third down, and just overall take some of the big plays off, we had some blown coverages that we have to clean up. We just have to be on one accord."
There is still plenty to work on for the Bears defense, especially as they work around the injuries that are hampering them in the secondary, and they've got one more preseason game to get it right. The pending health of Gordon and Stevenson will be big for the secondary, which will be without Bryant for most of the regular season, giving defensive coordinator Dennis Allen more to work on with who he has available with him.
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This article originally appeared on Bears Wire: Jaylon Johnson kept it real about Bears' performance vs. Bengals
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