Chicago Bears guard Kyle Long understood the heat his team was taking last week from fans and the media in the wake of it losing its third consecutive game.

So while the club’s victory over the Minnesota Vikings provided a brief respite, Long knows the Bears still have more to do.

“We’ve had to circle the wagons just because we’re taking fire from everywhere,” Long said Tuesday during the “Carmen & Jurko Show” on ESPN 1000. “When you string together a few losses in that fashion, people want answers. People want change. What we need to realize is the only change that needs to happen is we need to change our attitude, and we need to figure out how to quit making mistakes and start playing to a higher level.”

Although the Bears captured a much-needed win, it didn’t come without the club starting slow and making mistakes along the way. Chicago’s opening drive lasted 10 plays but was bogged down by penalties for illegal formation (Martellus Bennett), false start (Long) and unsportsmanlike conduct (Jay Cutler) as the possession ended at Minnesota’s 29 with Robbie Gould missing a 47-yard field goal wide right.

Interestingly, the Bears didn’t commit a penalty on their second possession, which Cutler capped with a 27-yard touchdown pass to Alshon Jeffery.

“I think the biggest thing to the penalties is it’s something we were able to correct and get out of that business very early,” Bears coach Marc Trestman said on Monday. “But it certainly slowed us down. It slowed us down on both sides of the ball early on, getting off the field defensively and staying on the field and continuing drives offensively. It’s not what we want. It’s not acceptable to us. But at the same time, I appreciated the fact that our team was able to clean that up and move forward. We were pretty clean the rest of the way.”

The Bears finished the game with seven penalties for 60 yards. They’ve committed five penalties or more in all but one game this season.

The last time the Bears played a home game, fans at Soldier Field booed the team coming off the field down 14-0 to the Miami Dolphins, resulting in Long criticizing the fans after the 27-14 loss. Long expected a similar reaction from the fans against the Vikings, but understood why this time.

“Rightfully so, I was expecting to be met with some adversity when things would not go our way because throughout the course of a game, there’s ebb and flow. Things go well. Things go not so well,” Long said. “We were greeted with a few boos, and that’s understandable. That’s the kind of football we’ve put out for Bears fans in recent memory. But we’re trying to change that course and try to have them singing a different tune next time around.”

The next opportunity for that takes place Sunday at Soldier Field with the team hosting the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, led by former Bears coach Lovie Smith.