Rookie Shemar Turner out for season as Bears deal with mounting injuries

Ariana Pensy · Correspondent · 4 hours ago

CHICAGO - As a perfectionist, head coach Ben Johnson does not like the errors he is seeing from the Bears.

Their lack of execution and numerous penalties have hurt them throughout the season. While Chicago has gotten away with it over the past few games, it could not overcome these self-inflicted mistakes against the Baltimore Ravens.

“We got to play a cleaner game, complement each other better. We had good field position on offense a number of times and we simply didn’t score enough points. We have to eliminate the penalties. We’re shooting ourselves in the foot way too much and we got to be more efficient in the red zone as well on offense,” Johnson said. “I thought defensively, we came out and we played well for the first (three) and a half quarters and then that end there, we gave up two touchdowns to finish the game and allowed 30 points when all was said and done. So, it’s really not that far off than how we’ve played the previous four games and yet we won because we had those takeaways and so, this week, we didn’t get the takeaways and when you play ugly football like that, it’s a lot more difficult to win the ball game. So, we’re on a mission here this week to get this all cleared up and I have complete confidence that we’ll do that.”

Injuries were already a problem for the Bears going into this game and things got worse after the loss to the Ravens. Defensive end Dominique Robinson is going to miss a few weeks with a high ankle injury, wide receiver Luther Burden III is in concussion protocol and receiver Olamide Zaccheaus is day-to-day.

However, perhaps the most devastating injury coming from this game is to rookie defensive lineman Shemar Turner, who will miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL.

Turner will finish the season having played in five games and recorded two tackles for loss.

“He was a guy that we were really excited to finally get out on the field because, obviously, we had high hopes for him, acquiring him with such a high draft pick and I thought that when we made that transition to defensive end, it certainly coincided with our ability to stop the run at a higher clip and so, we thought he was part of the solution there for us. I think he looked somewhat natural to play that spot for a guy that hadn’t done a ton of it,” Johnson said. “So, we were really excited to see what this next half of the season was going to look like as he continued to develop in that role. So, it’s a shame that we’re going to miss out on him. He has a physical presence and demeanor about him that you really appreciate. He plays the game the way we want … He loves football and I know he’ll attack this rehab the right way.”

Chicago will face a high-powered offense in their next game when they play the Cincinnati Bengals on Sun, Nov 2 (Noon / CBS).

The Bears will have to clean up their issues on offense with inconsistency and settling for field goals instead of touchdowns, because that will not work against the Bengals with Joe Flacco at quarterback.

“We’re moving the ball. We’re not scoring points as often as we’d like to. So, I kind of felt it since the start of the season is when we get the first first down, we’re able to move the ball really at will, if you will,” Johnson said. “We’re just not resulting in the points. Our red zone percentage is down. We need to score more touchdowns when we get down there and (we) had two more three-and-outs here this week that, once again, if we get the first first down, we’re in good shape.”