Walker ejection, penalties mar otherwise big day for Bears’ special teams

The Bears special teams unit came up with some big plays during a 31-23 win against the Atlanta Falcons — but there are at least a couple they’d like back.

Jahdae Walker was ejected after a fourth-quarter kickoff for headbutting Chris Blair. In the third quarter, Walker was penalized 15 yards for roughing the kicker after crashing into Falcons punter Jake Bailey.

Those were two of the Bears’ 12 penalties for 133 yards on the afternoon.

“They said he used his head,” coach Ben Johnson said of Walker’s ejection. “I didn’t see that myself, so we’ll see everything on tape and what we need to clean up.

“We had some penalty issues early in the season. Last few weeks, we cleaned those up significantly, and this one is just back up again. Once again, I’m not going to let one poor game of that define (us). We have to see a streak of that before we do anything rash.”

Walker, 24, is known for his exuberant touchdown dances, encouraging teammates to celebrate and laying some hard hits on special teams.

“You don’t want to take the fire out of the guy, but there are some limits and you’ve got to toe the line,” Veteran special teamer Josh Blackwell said. “Coach Johnson talks about that, kind of toeing the line but not crossing the line. We’ll talk about it (with him), clean it up, but you never want to take the fire out of a guy.”

Blackwell was responsible for one of the highlight plays on a banner day for special teams.

In the second quarter, he recovered rookie Zachariah Branch’s muffed punt return and set up the Bears at the Falcons 10-yard line. D’Andre Swift scored on a 2-yard run three plays later for a 21-7 lead.

On a third-quarter kickoff return, Zavier Scott forced Branch to fumble, and Nick McCloud recovered it at the Falcons 31. The Bears converted that turnover into a 31-7 lead on Cairo Santos’ 50-yard field goal.

“I think we take pride in changing the game and helping both phases on offense and defense for field position,” Blackwell said. “But to have that play (his muffed-punt recovery) to help us go up two scores is huge. We definitely take pride in that. Glad I can do it.”