Eddie Jackson didn’t bother denying it.
“Yeah, of course we still remember that,” the Chicago Bears All-Pro safety said after his team’s 20-9 win over the Las Vegas Raiders on October 10.
The thing he and his teammates haven’t forgotten? The shade thrown by now ex-Raiders head coach Jon Gruden the last time these two teams met back in early October of 2019. The Raiders and the Bears met in London, and Las Vegas handed Chicago a 24-21 loss. After that game, Gruden appeared to mock the Bears’ Club Dub postgame celebration in the Raiders locker room saying: “I don’t have a disco, but let’s all start dancing!”
Jackson and his fellow Bears teammates who played in that game put that image of Gruden mocking them on file — and they clapped back both on the field and off.
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Jackson: A Lot of Things Were Said By Gruden
The Bears defense didn’t manage to get a sack or a tackle for loss in that October 2019 loss to the Raiders, but the Bears sacked Raiders QB Derek Carr three times, and they also had four QB hits and 19 pressures in the Week 5 victory on Sunday.
“Just going out there, every game you want to win every one,” Jackson said. “But this was special, especially (considering the loss) two years ago. It was a lot of things said from Gruden so it was just fuel to the fire. So going into next week we just knew we needed these back-to-back wins.”
What other comments from Gruden is Jackson referring to? He didn’t get specific.
“He said some other things, but that’s for the locker room.”
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Khalil Mack Had His Revenge Game
While Gruden and the Raiders celebrated just over two years ago in London, it was the Bears dancing in Club Dub this time around — and the celebration was fast and furious.
“Man, my blood is still going,” running back Damien Williams said about the team’s postgame celebration. “I feel like I did more in the locker room (just now) than I did on the field, just all that dancing we were doing.”
One of the happier players in Chicago’s locker room was surely former Raider Khalil Mack, who was traded to Chicago in a blockbuster deal in 2018. The first time Mack played against his former team, he barely registered on the stat sheet, netting a fumble recovery and a QB hit.
This time around, though, the All-Pro linebacker had eight total tackles (seven solo, one for loss), a sack and a QB hit. He also stopped Carr behind the line of scrimmage on a failed two-point conversion.
“Oh man, it was amazing,” Jackson said about Mack’s performance, adding: “He made them regret everything. Made them regret not wanting to keep him. You know, Mack’s our leader. He’s had games like this. We fuel off that. Just to see come back here and dominate, it’s a great feeling.”
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Bears’ Eddie Jackson Claps Back at Jon Gruden