Bears wide receiver Darnell Mooney was unable to play late in the loss to the Buccaneers on Sunday after he aggravated a knee injury from Week 1.
“It’s just a little bruised from last game,” Mooney said Monday at Halas Hall. “Knocked knees with the nickel [cornerback] on one of the routes and kind of just wouldn’t go down.”
He got a knot at the top of his kneecap, which made it hard for him to bend his knee.
“A nagging bruise, but I’ll be fine,” he said. “I’ll be fine for this week [against the Chiefs], for sure.”
Mooney played 28% of the Bears’ offensive snaps against Tampa Bay and wasn’t targeted. He caught four passes for a team-high 53 yards and a touchdown in Week 1, his first game back since suffering a season-ending ankle injury last year.
The Bears are also receiving good feedback about safety Eddie Jackson, who left the game with an injury to his left foot, which suffered a season-ending Lisfranc injury last year. Coach Matt Eberflus made it sound like a short-term injury.
“I’m not sure where that’s going to trend for this coming week,” he said, “but I can say that it’s positive.”
Still running the defense
Eberflus continued to act as the Bears’ defensive coordinator Monday, running meetings while Alan Williams remains out because of personal reasons.
Linebacker Jack Sanborn said that Eberflus’ personality came out when he called defensive plays for the first time with the Bears on Sunday.
“Definitely aggressive and knows what he wants,” he said. “Knows what [he wants] on certain plays, certain down and distances, situational ball. Can definitely trust him to put us in exactly the position that he wants us to be in.”
The Bears just have to make tackles. They pressured Baker Mayfield 17 times but didn’t sack him. It was tied for the sixth-most pressures without a sack since the start of last season, according to NFL Next Gen Stats.
“You’ve got to get him around the waist,” he said. “So we were just too high.”
This and that
Eberflus didn’t accept that the Bears might have an issue with morale entering the game Sunday against the Chiefs, saying that “we are steadfast, we are straightforward and we are all in this together.”
† Eberflus praised linebacker Dylan Cole for helping on Rasheem Green’s blocked field goal. Lined up to Green’s left, Cole knocked offensive tackle Justin Skule to the ground, allowing Green to slip through the line with his hands up.
The Bears signed Cole with the intent of him becoming a special-teams stalwart. He missed most of training camp and Week 1 with a hamstring injury.
† After playing four snaps at wide receiver in Week 1, Trent Taylor was on the field for 23 with Mooney hurt. Rookie Tyler Scott played only 12.
† With running back D’Onta Foreman inactive, Khalil Herbert was on the field for 60% of the snaps, Roschon Johnson for 42%.
