ChicagoBears.com takes you inside the locker room with quotes from Bears players following Monday's loss against the Saints at Soldier Field.
Jeremiah Ratliff, NT
On the Bears' play:
"Obviously, we didn't play well enough to win. I really don't know. I'm at a loss of words to be completely honest with you. I'm not going to sit up here and b.s. you and give you some crazy speech. I don't got it for you. As far as I'm concerned, my level of play, heart, will, that's not going to stop. That's never going to stop, just cause that's who I am. Who we are. [We] just got to keep moving forward."
*On distractions affecting the team: *
"I honestly can't tell you. I just focus on my job. That's my game. I thought we were [focused]. Looking at what we did, we did some good things. Defensively, we gotta work on coverage. Get the quarterback on the ground when we had the opportunities. Play better. Period."
Roberto Garza, C/G
View photos from the game as the Bears take on the Saints at Soldier Field.
*On the Bears' play offensively: *
"We never got going offensively. Too many three and outs. When you don't protect your quarterback, you make it tough to stay on the field."
*On it being the most frustrating season of his career: *
"No question about it. Gotta focus on Detroit. We still have two games to go. Try to go out there and get us a win." *On there being miscommunication on offense: *
"No. They had a plan. We had ours and we just didn't execute it."
Jonathan Bostic, LB
*On the play of Drew Brees: *
"Obviously, you have to tip your hat to them. They made more plays than we did today. We made too many mistakes. We gave them too many big plays and those big plays turned into points for them. We didn't give our offense enough short fields or give them enough three-and-outs for them to be able to get some momentum to flip back around and be able to use that."
*On the injuries of the linebacking corps: *
"We're not going to use that as an excuse. I'll just tell you that we need to play better. We've got to get off the field on third downs and we have to give the ball back to the offense. Really, there's no way around it, we have to play better." *On whether losing gets tougher every week: *
"Obviously it's going to be tough, but every game is going to be tough. Every game in the NFL is going to be a dog fight no matter who you're playing. For us, nothing is going to change. We need to get better. And, like I said, we can't keep making these mistakes over and over again.""
Jordan Mills, T
*On why the offense is so out of sync: *
"We just have to be more consistent. That's it. When we have a bad play, we have to move on and make a good play and just keep drives going and keep our defense off the field. We just have to be more consistent."
*On whether the Saints defensive line did anything they weren't expecting: *
"No, we just need to be more consistent and stay on guys and keep Jay (Cutler) clean and, if we do that, we'll be fine." *On whether the (Aaron) Kromer situation had any affect on what you did tonight: *
"No. Not at all. People make mistakes. We're not perfect. That had nothing to do with our focus this week. He apologized for it and we moved on for it. He was sincere about it. But, coach Kromer cares about all of us and he knows we're not perfect and we know that he's not perfect. None of that affected us. We just need to be more consistent."
Jared Allen, DE
*On whether or not guys are on the same page: *
"We got to get better. I mean, we're running the same plays. We've got to get people on the same page so we don't give up so many points."
*On whether there is time to make some progress with what is left of the season: *
"I hope so. That's what we get paid to do. So, you got to go out and play. I mean, every time you step on the field, you got to try and be the best and try to win. So, we need to figure out a way to get better." *On how to explain the compounding struggles: *
"We need to watch film for inconsistencies. This league is about winning. That's all there is to it. So we've got to get better and figure out ways to win." *On how everything about this year has sat with him given his own expectations when he signed to play here: *
"Well, it's not good. It wasn't what I expected. You know, I didn't see it coming at all, but that's why the NFL is so great. You've got to play the games. Like I said, each week you need to focus on that week..I just focus on what I can do better to help our team win and go from there."