Bears wide receiver DJ Moore defended himself amid criticism he quit on his quarterback and his team Sunday. Moore left the field as Caleb Williams still was scrambling against the Cardinals during a first quarter play.
Moore offered an explanation Wednesday.
“Tweaked the ankle,” Moore said, via Mark Potash of the Chicago Sun-Times. “I was coming back [toward the quarterback], because I’d seen Caleb was scrambling. My ankle went in and out. I couldn’t stop, so my momentum took me out of bounds and then I just walked off.”
Moore was limping as he sat down on the bench as the play continued, watching as Williams threw incomplete to Keenan Allen. But Moore returned to the field for the next play, ran a downfield route and played 73 of the Bears’ 74 offensive plays.
“The initial roll of the ankle was hurting bad, so that’s why I hobbled off and sat down,” Moore said. “I came back in [the next play] and was kind of like . . . reindeer-ing — whatever it’s called — down the middle of the field. But I didn’t stop playing the game. I didn’t not go back in the game.”
Moore wasn’t fazed by criticism and questions about whether he was dogging it.
“The noise — I hear it, seen it. Really don’t care. It is what it is,” Moore said. “They could take it how they want to. They [did] without even knowing what happened mid-play. Can’t stop y’all from doing what y’all want to do.”
Moore has not found the connection with Williams that he had with Fields.
He has 37 receptions for 374 yards and three touchdowns in eight games this season. He had 44 receptions for 691 yards and five touchdowns through eight games last season.
