ChicagoBears.com takes you inside the locker room with quotes from Bears players following Sunday's loss to the Dolphins at Soldier Field.
Shea McClellin, LB
On the play of Ryan Tannehill:
"I think we got after him early, but he definitely did a great job passing and running the ball too. We just didn't execute."
On whether he slipped on the first touchdown:
"Yes, I just slipped. That was unfortunate. That just happens sometimes."
Jared Allen, DE
On why he wasn't out there more in the third quarter:
"I don't know. You'll have to talk to Coach (Tucker) about it."
On what specifically Ryan Tannehill did well today:
"They ran the ball well. I thought that when we got them into third downs, we were alright. Jay (Ratliff) had a hell of a game. You have to control down and distance and get takeaways."
On the play of Jay Ratliff
"It's amazing, man. Jay is a heck of a player. That's one of the reasons I came to play with a guy like that. He's a beast. He's a force."
**Brandon Marshall, WR
*
*On the play of the offense:
"We make the same mistakes. Same mistakes. Same mistakes. We've got to protect the football. We've got to execute the game plan. We've got to adjust when things don't go as we saw on film. We've got Alshon Jeffery, Martellus Bennett, Kyle Long..We've got a stud offensive line. I mean, we've got a great, great group of guys, and this is unacceptable. What did we put up? 14 points? That's unacceptable. That's unacceptable."
On taking the frustration and using it in a positive way:
"We've been playing football all of our lives. So, that's the amazing thing about football. It is a volatile sport, and you have the ability when you get frustrated to go on out there and take it out on the field. So, that's all that you can do-whether it's in practice or in the game. You have to be able to play with an edge on your shoulder, and it has to mean something to you. The Chicago Bears should not be 3-4 right now. It's absolutely unacceptable, and it starts with the offensive side of the ball."
On whether the confidence is still there:
"I don't know. My confidence is there. Alshon Jeffery's confidence is there. Martellus Bennett's confidence is there. Yeah, it's there..Jay's a gunslinger. Jay's our guy. Jay's our leader..Listen, we have to do a better job. This is unacceptable. It's unacceptable. Unacceptable. We could be anywhere else. Anywhere else. I'm not going to name any other ball clubs, but this is a special organization. This is a special city. You've got to love what you do. You've got to love playing for this ball club. You've got to leave it all on the field..We've got a great group of guys. It's the tightest locker room I've ever been a part of. Tightest, tightest, tightest..We're 3-4 and it's unacceptable. It's unacceptable. 3-4 is unacceptable. Want me to say it again? 3-4 is unacceptable. You don't get it tomorrow in this league. We're halfway through the season. We're halfway through the season. It's time. It's time."
Jeremiah Ratliff, DT
On whether he is shocked at the result:
"Am I disappointed? Yeah, absolutely. Disappointed and I'm pretty sure everyone in the locker room is. This is a time when we all have to look at ourselves individually - like real self-checking and look at ourselves as a team and decide where we're going to be and work towards that and be consistent at it and go at it. Period. No more talk. Just do it. That's it."
On their struggles at home:
"Yes, it would be nice to get a win for the home crowd. It would be. It would be. But, in the grand scheme of things, we need wins to get to where we want to be."
On him being vocal today:
"I don't care if the ball is hitting my gap or anything. If you're running the ball on this defense with the talent we have..I don't feel they should be running the ball. I mean, yeah, I got a little frustrated just trying to rally the guys, but we just need to go back and work and get this thing fixed."
Kyle Long, G
On the team:
"We were known last year as an offensive team, and I feel like this year we have the right guys in place to have an offensive and defensive team, and right now, we can't seem to click on the same day. Obviously, playing at home has been an issue for us. It's really disappointing, but we get an opportunity to go on the road to New England next week and play in Foxborough, so that will be cool."
*On whether it takes someone laying down the hammer to get the team going: *
"Yeah, I don't know if somebody blowing up would be the best thing. It's obviously a really tough spot that we're in right now. We can't seem to get the formula right at home, which is a spot where you should be more comfortable playing football, but let's just hope that we can continue this road trend in Foxborough next week."
Matt Forte, RB
On whether he is surprised at their record at home:
"Yeah, I'm surprised. Road games are the hardest ones to win. Apparently, we switched the way that is this year. We've been struggling at home, and we have to do something to fix it. We'll have to go back to the drawing board this week at practice and not think about how we're 0-3 at home but continue to look forward to working on the things that are making us lose these games. Every time we're losing these games, we're shooting ourselves in the foot."
