Bears Receiver Defended After Two Numbskull Plays Against Falcons

Wide receiver Jahdae Walker's energy often fuels special teams and also helped the Bears offense in the past when he did get a few passing game reps.

He's testing the patience of coaches, though, when he has a Sunday like he had against the Falcons. Fortunately for Walker, the play of Bears special teams overall on Sunday was so good it overshadowed some of his foul-ups, but not entirely. They took the ball away twice on teams, which often changes the flow of games.

One troubling mistake came when he head-butted Falcons wide receiver Chris Blair in a dead-ball situation following a kickoff in full view of the officials. Not only did the penalty cost the Bears 15 yards of field position, but it caused his ejection from the game. There was no arguing about the call as it was blatant and appeared unprovoked.

After the game, Bears coach Ben Johnson noted how much the mistakes bothered Walker, and special teams coordinator Richard Hightower seconded this after film review on Monday.

“With a player like Jahdae, I can just tell you when I got to the locker room, because obviously he had to go to the locker room (ejected), he was damn near in tears," Hightower said. "He was very remorseful because he knew what he did affected the team and it hurt the team.

"But what I will say is that Jahdae plays with a tremendous amount of passion, and I'm not going to coach the passion out of him. We want the passion, we just want it in between the whistles."

Daniel Hardy had just made tackle at the 19 on kick coverage to back up the Falcons offense and the flag put them at the 34, instead.

"He's very remorseful for that, and that's not in his personality," Hightower said. "He does not want to hurt the team. We have just got to be better going forward with that, and he knows he has to be better in that case."

Walker had one penalty on offense last year against Cincinnati that nullified a 32-yard gain. He has three already this year, including one other costly mistake in Sunday's game. That was when he crashed into the plant leg of Falcons punter Jake Bailey. The 15-yard penalty prevented the Bears from taking possession of the ball on the punt, but their defense held up to the pressure following the gaffe.

"That one's a technique issue," Hightower said. "On that particular play, he didn't use the technique that we would like to see him use. You never really want to leave your feet there. You want to stay a sprinter so that you gain momentum, and you want to shoot your hands low and late at the block point.

"If I shoot my hands too early, then I slow down and I'm further away from the punter. I want to stay a sprinter and shoot my hands low and late, and I don't want to leave my feet. The reason why is, when you leave your feet and you lose control of your body, then usually you can run into the plant leg, and what happens is what you guys saw happen there. The difference in running into the kicker and roughing the kicker is also something that you got to take into account because it's fourth-and-11 there."

The minor penalty wouldn't have resulted in a first down.

"So, 15-yard penalty; but credit to the defense," Hightower said. "They stood up, no-blink mentality, and they had his back. They had Jahdae’s back there.”

Now it's Walker who has to pay back some of this support with big plays on special teams or offense rather than making silly mistakes.

Walker can look forward to Saturday when the league announces its fines. He can make it up to teammates for the yardage cost on two 15-yard penalties with his play, but the ultimate cost for the head butt and ejection seems likely to come out of his wallet.