Bears coach Ben Johnson calls penalties ‘egregious’ but defends concussion-causing hit vs. Packers

Coach Ben Johnson bemoaned the Bears’ four 15-yard penalties in Saturday’s rivalry game against the Packers, calling all but the hit that concussed quarterback Jordan Love inexcusable.

Linebacker D’Marco Jackson was flagged for unnecessary roughness on the opening kickoff return. Defensive end Austin Booker roughed the passer three plays later, and again in the second quarter when he struck Love’s helmet with the crown of his. The knocked Love out for the game. Johnson defended the sack, saying that Booker didn’t hit him with his helmet on purpose.

Safety Jaquan Brisker was flagged for unnecessary roughness in the fourth quarter when he hit a sliding Malik Willis with his forearm.

“You get in these big games and you can get a little bit emotional because it’s a division rival and you want to make an impact,” Johnson said. “We don’t want to shy away from that. We want to play aggressive and we want to be a very physical team, but at the same time we can’t hurt the team and that happened a number of times. It’s not OK. Those 15-yard penalties, they really add up.”

He said Love being concussed was “not what anybody wants,” but defended Booker’s hit, for which the defensive end could still face a fine.

“That one is a more difficult one to coach just from a technique perspective, just because we’re trying to go after the quarterback and it’s a bang-bang play like that,” he said. “All the other 15-yarders, as far as I’m concerned, those are all preventable and at times egregious. We can’t do that.”

The Bears were flagged 10 times for a whopping 105 yards. The Packers had only four for 40.