Up until Monday night, Morris Claiborne hadn’t really had his “Welcome to the NFL” moment. But early in the third quarter, Bears’ receiver Devin Hester burned the rookie badly on a hitch and go, catching a 34-yard pass from Jay Cutler and sliding into the end zone for the first passing touchdown of the season allowed by the Dallas defense.
The replays seemed to drive the point home: “Welcome to the NFL, Mo Claiborne.”
On the whole, and (admittedly) based on the eye test, Claiborne wasn’t bad on Monday night. But the touchdown pass left the LSU product shaking his head following the 34-18 loss.
“I played horrible,” Claiborne said, per the Dallas Morning News. “Any time you give up something like that, on top of that, it’s something you’ve been working on everyday in practice, you go out and give it up. It’s hard.”
Hester’s touchdown made it 17-7; by the time the quarter was over, the game was more or less out of reach for Dallas at 24-10.
“I got to make that play,” Claiborne said. “I got to be on top of that route. I got to go up and get that ball. That’s my ball. But I left it out there and they scored a touchdown. I learned from it and put it behind me. I’m going to try my best to not let it happen again.”
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