Chicago Bears press conference: John Fox speaks

Chicago Bears head coach John Fox spoke with the media after the loss against the Green Bay Packers. Here are his thoughts after his team starts the season 0-1.

Opening Statement:

"Only one player left the game with an injury and did not return, and that was Cornelius Washington. He had a right quad strain. Eddie Royal went through the concussion protocol, and he did return to the game."

On the play selection of 4 passing plays at the goal line:

"I thought we had a great plan against what they did defensively. I thought our offensive coaches did a tremendous job. Maybe other than a couple of red area stops that I thought were pretty much the difference in the game, in comparison. Without looking at the tape and evaluating the execution, Green Bay is a pretty good football team. We were going to have to be near-flawless to beat them, and we didn't quite reach that. But I think there were a lot of positive things that
we'll be able to build on as a football team moving forward as we get ready for Arizona."

On whether he would have liked to see Matt Forte get the ball at the goal line:

"Well, I think hindsight is always 20/20. Would I have liked to have scored a touchdown regardless of how we did it? Yes. But it didn't come to fruition."

On the play of the offensive line:

"I thought Jay did a real good job. His pocket awareness - he had a couple of scrambles in there that I think were heads-up plays. He stepped up into the pocket. Without watching the tape and individually evaluating every guy, especially from where I stand on the o-line, it's not the best seat in the house. But I don't think protection was the reason we lost."

On what he saw during the interception:

"You know, it happens. It's part of the game. I don't know what his exact quarterback rating and statistics are, but I saw it being a great play by #52 (Clay Matthews.) Without seeing it on tape, it would be hard for me to really talk about. But I thought Jay's performance was good today. But against this football team, we weren't quite as good as we needed to be."

On the balance between making progress versus not winning the game:

"You're only in this game to win. There's no consolation prize and no second place. So, you're never happy [with a loss.] But you know, this is a process, and this is the first time that myself and this staff have watched this team play a real game. Hopefully we'll learn from it and get better from it."

On the play of Aaron Rodgers:

"He's a great player. We're both looking forward to competing against each other for some time to come. I have great respect for him, and great respect for that organization. I'm looking forward to it, and I think he is too."

On whether the decision to go 4th and 2 at the goal line was in order to instill confidence and aggression in the team:

"At that point in the game, you have to be fairly aggressive. It had to work that way. We didn't get any points, and I realize that. But we did get real good field position. We had to get a stop defensively. All this stuff is great after the fact, but you have to have those things happen. I would do the same thing again, if that's what you're asking me. I'm not really sure."

On whether he is into moral victories:

"No. That's 0-1. But we have 15 more, which is the good news."

On whether the play of the defensive backs was a result of what Rodgers was doing to them or just how things went for the Bears:

"You know, it's really hard to pin this loss on one person or somebody or some unit. I'm not really big into that anyway. Like I said at the beginning, we didn't play as good as we needed to play to beat that football team today. I don't know how else to say it."

On his evaluation of the pass-rush:

"Just like I just said - it wasn't good enough against that team today. Without watching the tape and seeing every single detail of every single player, that guy wearing #12 (Aaron Rodgers) is pretty good at that, as far as avoiding the rush, stepping up into the b-gap, stepping up into the rush and making things happen. We have to get better at it, just like I would say about every position on our football team."

On the efforts of Forte:

"Yeah, I thought we would have success running the ball. This is our fifth game to look at live, by our football team. I expected that. He is a heck of a player, and he is a heck of a player in all parts of his job as well."

On whether he got fight, toughness and the right attitude from the team:

"Yeah, I mean, there's always flashes. You know, like in a prize fight, it's like saying you feel good getting hit in the mouth. It doesn't feel good. So there is a reaction when you get punched in the mouth. You know, it's how long you let that reaction take over. I thought our team competed. What I meant by that is that we got hit in the mouth a few times and we came back."