LAKE FOREST, Ill. -- Bears head coach Matt Eberflus saw it on the tape. He couldn't miss it. He also was well aware that everyone else had seen the film of wide receiver Chase Claypool's lackadaisical effort in the Bears' Week 1 letdown against the Green Bay Packers.
Eberflus said he addressed the matter with Claypool immediately after the game.
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"Yeah, we already visited about that," Eberflus said Wednesday about Claypool. "I think it was maybe Sunday after the game or Monday it was, but, yeah, again, you all saw the plays that … and again, the perimeter blocking needed to improve for all of us. And we're gonna get that and work hard to get that done.
"I would just say everything comes down to technique. It’s about technique, and it’s really about, when you’re blocking the perimeter like that, you have to have good technique. He’s displayed good technique in practice on that. That’s why we had him in those positions. But perimeter blocking’s all about technique. It’s all about your angles. Your intensity, for sure. It’s always about that. It doesn’t matter if you’re push-cracking on a linebacker or cracking down on somebody inside. That’s what it’s always about."
Wide receiver Equanimeous St. Brown was inactive for the loss to the Packers. St. Brown is widely viewed as a great run-blocking wide receiver. With Claypool giving minimal effort in areas the Bears need 100 percent, there could be a possibility that St. Brown is up on Sunday when the Bears travel to Tampa Bay to face the Bucs and that Claypool is inactive.
"We’re looking at all possibilities right now," Eberflus said. "I’m not going to talk about who’s going to be up or down for the game right now, for obvious reasons. We’re looking at all things to make our team better — Who’s going to be up and who’s going to be down in terms of the active roster."
BEARS ANALYSIS
Quarterback Justin Fields has been a vocal supporter of Claypool throughout the offseason. The fourth-year wide receiver had a good camp when he was healthy, and Fields praised him for his hard work in the offseason.
"Just keep going at it. I think the biggest thing is just having that same mentality that he did in camp," Fields said of trying to get Claypool back on track. "Work hard every day and just keep going. Of course, he probably didn’t have the game he wanted to have, probably wanted to have more catches. We all probably didn’t have the game that we wanted to have. Just keep working, keep getting better, and I think that’s the theme of this week. The theme of today is work towards 1-0 on Sunday. Just get ready to play."
Claypool's performance and effort were some of the major red flags from a Week 1 flop filled with them. The Bears have to find a way to get Claypool to lock back in this week. If they don't, their offense will have a hard time getting out of neutral.