Anyone who has covered Kevin Byard for most of his career, or even since he arrived in Chicago, knows he is a consummate professional. The safety carries himself with confidence and class in interviews, never saying anything that might be considered inflammatory. He is focused on motivating teammates and being a leader. However, it appears Byard couldn’t resist making some of his inner thoughts known after the Bears took down the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday to reach 8-3.
While the Steelers did put up 28 points, Chicago’s defense came away unimpressed with their entire offensive operation. It was laughable to Byard and others how easy they were to predict.
“We knew what kind of game this was going to be,” free safety Kevin Byard III said. “It was, ‘Mason, let’s not have our offense mess it up.’ They wanted to let their defense eat and keep the game close toward the end. It was a lot of screen game and dink and dunks and just running the ball.
“Once we kind of figured that out, we were just loading the box. We knew they were going to run the ball. We still could have been a lot better. We just knew he wasn’t going to take too many shots, and the few times he did, it was on the outside. They were not going to throw the ball across the middle.”
Byard basically called them conservative and predictable. Those are considered a death sentence in today’s NFL. Perhaps the Steelers are lucky the Bears’ defense was so banged up. There is a strong probability that Chicago would’ve won by multiple touchdowns otherwise.
Kevin Byard isn’t wrong.
This isn’t new information. The Steelers have been accused of being way too conservative and predictable on both sides of the ball for years. It is why head coach Mike Tomlin is under more pressure than ever by fans to get fired. They feel he has kept the organization in a perpetual state of mediocrity due to his unwillingness to evolve with the times. Meanwhile, the Bears, once considered among the most backwards franchises in the NFL, have suddenly entered the modern age under Ben Johnson and Dennis Allen.
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After going against the creative and diverse offense every day in practice for months, it’s no wonder Kevin Byard seemed so disgusted by what he saw on Sunday. He couldn’t have crafted a better game plan for the Bears to stymie if he tried. His only regret was probably not getting a chance to pick off Mason Rudolph himself.
