Bears safeties coach Sean Desai habitually and repeatedly implores his players to go after every loose ball in practice. It’s a common tack for any defensive coach to instill a takeaway mentality. But Desai is a particular stickler — he still bears the scar from a hard lesson he learned as a first-year NFL quality-control coach with the Bears in 2013.
With the NFC North title and a playoff berth on the line in the final game of the regular season, the Bears suffered a heartbreaking 33-28 loss to the Packers when Aaron Rodgers took advantage of a miscommunication between Bears safety Chris Conte and cornerback Zack Bowman to throw a 48-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Randall Cobb on fourth-and-eight with 38 seconds left.