Speaker 1: Cutover met Dj Moore enzode touchdown, touchdown Bear. I am
Speaker 1: Jeff Jonihan Witz is.
Speaker 2: On, Donnie go up? What was like playing for Coachy Boddom.
Speaker 1: I don't want to answer any questions like that pressure
Speaker 1: coming is a big trouble.
Speaker 2: Donnie Goos Montes sweat Now.
Speaker 1: Bears et Cetera brought to you by Geico with the
Speaker 1: voices of the Bears Jeff Joniac and Tom Thayer. Well,
Speaker 1: we witness one of the best passing days in Bear's
Speaker 1: history by a rookie quarterback. Caleb Williams certainly the most
Speaker 1: yards thrown by a Bears rookie, with three hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty three is two thirteen of the first half of
Speaker 1: the Boston Indianapolis for the most by a Bears rookie
Speaker 1: quarterback since at least nineteen seventy eight. The benefactors of
Speaker 1: a thirty three for fifty two passing performance were fellow
Speaker 1: rookie wide receiver Roma Dunze, Tita En Cole Comet, and
Speaker 1: wide receiver Dj Moore, with Super Bowl winning Bears guard
Speaker 1: Tom Thayer. I'm Jeff, Joniack Welcome. In episode ninety six,
Speaker 1: The Bears et Cetera, podcast were brought to you by
Speaker 1: Geico Tom never thought I'd see the day dropping a
Speaker 1: throw nearly sixty times, but you know.
Speaker 3: Hey, in this podcast dedicated to Alex Brown.
Speaker 1: Oh you always got somebody. I like it. I want
Speaker 1: to get into the triple digits. We got to get creative, right.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: The thing about I like most about the passing of
Speaker 4: Caleb on Sunday was the new candidates And when you
Speaker 4: look at how Roman Dude was targeted, how many targets
Speaker 4: Cole Camet received, those are the types of guys that
Speaker 4: we've been looking for to get involved in the passing
Speaker 4: game since the beginning of training camp, beginning of the
Speaker 4: regular season. And I think the more use they get,
Speaker 4: the more unsuspecting the defense is going to become. Because
Speaker 4: when you have DJ Moore and you have Keenan Allen,
Speaker 4: and you have Gerald Everett, and you have DeAndre Swift
Speaker 4: and ro Sean and all the crew, everybody that can
Speaker 4: catch a pass, I think that gives a ver of
Speaker 4: weapons in a variety of ways that Shane Waldrin can
Speaker 4: call passing plays.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Cole Comett spoke today about that very topic. A
Speaker 1: lot of newness on the offense it'll grow, and he
Speaker 1: thinks they're close. He thinks they're close, And after getting
Speaker 1: involved to eleven targets and ten catches, I understand what
Speaker 1: he's saying. Pick up six first downs in that progress.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't like it was a blowout time either,
Speaker 1: and a defense playing not to allow you to do
Speaker 1: anything big. There's still a one score game, right.
Speaker 4: You know? The thing about it is you look at
Speaker 4: some of the catches by Rome, they were incredibly long
Speaker 4: distance track balls in difficult coverage scenarios that he was
Speaker 4: able to make and.
Speaker 3: Secure the catch.
Speaker 4: And then some of the catches by cole Comet, they
Speaker 4: were physical conclusions to making the catch and then being
Speaker 4: able to stay on your feet and get a couple
Speaker 4: extra yards out of it to get beyond the first
Speaker 4: down marker. So it wasn't like it was just a
Speaker 4: pitch and catch type game for these guys. There was
Speaker 4: significant kept meaning to each of their catches.
Speaker 1: And while the Bears did cobble together what twenty eight runs,
Speaker 1: the production was a little meager at two point three
Speaker 1: at Carrie what can be fixed here?
Speaker 4: Again dedication to the point of attack, making sure the
Speaker 4: offensive line are all on the same page. I think
Speaker 4: the next two weeks, when they have the opportunity to
Speaker 4: use a volume snap count by Caleb Williams, I would
Speaker 4: suspect and I would hope that the run game would
Speaker 4: be a little bit more organized and it was more
Speaker 4: of a point of attack success and getting to the
Speaker 4: getting the running backs into a position where they have
Speaker 4: yards before contact and yards after contact. And again, just
Speaker 4: to be you know, to repeat myself, I'm not looking
Speaker 4: for unrealistic results. I'm looking for four yards to carry
Speaker 4: and if you give me anything more than that, I
Speaker 4: consider that gravy. But if you can have a thirty
Speaker 4: performance running back performance, you're talking about a lot of yards,
Speaker 4: you know, and how much it helps your time of possession,
Speaker 4: your field position, You're scoring opportunity. So I'm excited to
Speaker 4: see what happens the next two weeks.
Speaker 1: Tastes like Miller Time. Go to Miller lite dot com
Speaker 1: slash bears pod to find delivery options near you. Celebrate responsibly.
Speaker 1: Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Ninety six calories and three
Speaker 1: point two carbs per twelve ounces. Jeff Joniyak and Tom
Speaker 1: Thayer here and had a chance, as we do each
Speaker 1: Monday during the season. Our status at hallis with Bears
Speaker 1: head coach Mattyberflus. Hey, thanks Matt, thanks for joining us.
Speaker 3: Once again.
Speaker 1: This is an off the wall question, but I know
Speaker 1: you using this word temperature. You like guys temperature on
Speaker 1: game day and practice week, and we know your your
Speaker 1: temperature is high at all times. After a game winner lose,
Speaker 1: do you crash?
Speaker 5: I wouldn't use the word crash. I would say that
Speaker 5: once I hit the rack, I do go to sleep
Speaker 5: for fast. But there's a lot of a lot of
Speaker 5: things that you have to do during the course of
Speaker 5: a game, and you know it's exciting and you have
Speaker 5: to be at that level to be able to operate
Speaker 5: the right way. But again, it's it's all part of
Speaker 5: being in ball.
Speaker 1: I don't know how you sleep, because how do you
Speaker 1: turn your brain off thinking about again good or bad?
Speaker 1: Like your mind must always be working twenty four to seven.
Speaker 3: We work, you know, I do, not we?
Speaker 4: You?
Speaker 5: Yeah, well, I say we because I go home and
Speaker 5: with my family, Okay, you know, so that's part of
Speaker 5: the we part.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 5: So that really helps me to be able to disconnect
Speaker 5: before I go to sleep, and then I'll usually get
Speaker 5: up early on Monday morning. I was up super early
Speaker 5: this morning, obviously, about three point thirty, so I woke
Speaker 5: up and got going about four o'clock, so it was
Speaker 5: it was a good start. So I got a lot
Speaker 5: of work done this morning and got ready for the
Speaker 5: guys to come in.
Speaker 1: And when you look at tape and you're looking at
Speaker 1: it with a very critical eye, do you how do
Speaker 1: you manage your own frustration when things that you think
Speaker 1: are going to work don't work?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean you always look at it one play
Speaker 5: at a time, right, So you look at one play
Speaker 5: and you see what was positive. Execution was good on
Speaker 5: that particular play, the reasons why this guy's making a
Speaker 5: particular block and this guy's making a cut, or the
Speaker 5: protection was solid, and you know Caleb delivered the ball,
Speaker 5: you know, to Rome or whoever that is. That's all positive.
Speaker 5: And then you look at the breakdowns. You know, what
Speaker 5: were the breakdowns when things didn't go well? You know,
Speaker 5: in every game, there's always those situations where there's positive
Speaker 5: plays and plays you need to correct. And then what
Speaker 5: was the correction? Was it an individual technique? Was it
Speaker 5: a scheme thing that we could do better as coaches?
Speaker 5: So there's always you always working that these we put
Speaker 5: up guys in the position to make plays, and so
Speaker 5: those are always things you're looking at as a coach.
Speaker 1: Every play can't work. So in some plays if you
Speaker 1: go back to the well and I'm not saying that's
Speaker 1: happened here this season, art or do you toss the
Speaker 1: play like guys, this display is just not working well.
Speaker 5: I think you have to play off the plays you've
Speaker 5: seen you put on tape. You know, That's that's an
Speaker 5: important thing you do offense, defense and special teams, is
Speaker 5: that you're always playing off of that or you're going
Speaker 5: to unscouted looks. You know, you're going to something that
Speaker 5: is not even close to what you've been doing in
Speaker 5: terms of how.
Speaker 2: It looks now.
Speaker 5: It's certainly always going to be something we have conceptually
Speaker 5: that we've drilled during training camp. We have on our
Speaker 5: menu board that it's something you can put in that
Speaker 5: just looks different to the opponent.
Speaker 1: As for the game, and you you've mentioned it more
Speaker 1: than once, the missed opportunities is a frustration in that fact,
Speaker 1: the Colts kept giving you opportunities to take control of
Speaker 1: the game and just couldn't quite do it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, the first quarter really was just you know,
Speaker 5: we missed the field goal in the first one, we
Speaker 5: had the sack fumble, which the officials said it wasn't
Speaker 5: a sack phone, So we missed an opportunity there, you know,
Speaker 5: and then really just ended uh you know, zero zero
Speaker 5: in the first Then the second quarter, you know, obviously
Speaker 5: you know, we give up you know, interception for interception,
Speaker 5: and then we end up uh you know, they get
Speaker 5: a touchout off off of the one and then uh
Speaker 5: you know the goal line, you know, the four players
Speaker 5: in the goal line there, we missed an opportunity there
Speaker 5: as well.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 5: Then we do a good job stopping them on d
Speaker 5: and then we get a hail Mary and we have
Speaker 5: another opportunity there to you know, get you know, steal
Speaker 5: one there. It's really good catch by DJ. Just got
Speaker 5: to you know, somehow putch it in there, and and
Speaker 5: that's the way it went. And then the third quarter,
Speaker 5: you know, it's when we had the it would come out.
Speaker 5: We get the takeaway right away, get the field goal
Speaker 5: from that. Again, you know, we're hunting touchdowns there, you know,
Speaker 5: so we got to do a good job of sudden change.
Speaker 5: Let's get that touchdown. We stole an opportunity there, stole
Speaker 5: to possession, and then it was the special teams, right,
Speaker 5: We had the special teams, you know, we had the
Speaker 5: rough and the punter that was the big one. We
Speaker 5: had another opportunity there, and then we end up you know,
Speaker 5: throwing an interception right after that, and then we stopped
Speaker 5: them on d right to give it back to the
Speaker 5: O and then we end up jumping off sides, you know,
Speaker 5: on the put return, and then we got to respond.
Speaker 5: You know, it's a sudden change for the D. We
Speaker 5: got to respond there. They got a couple of big
Speaker 5: plays there with JT, and we got to do a
Speaker 5: better job cuping the ball and tackling with him a
Speaker 5: very good player, but we got to do a great
Speaker 5: job of that, you.
Speaker 3: Know, and j T.
Speaker 1: Everybody is Jonathan Taylor. That's from two days with the COLT.
Speaker 1: You got young game and the initials j T.
Speaker 5: And then then really in the fourth quarter, the big
Speaker 5: play there was you know, offense had a couple of
Speaker 5: really good drives, defense made some really good stops and
Speaker 5: we just had the sack fumble, you know, and that
Speaker 5: was on the sixteen yard line, and we got to
Speaker 5: do better job on d rising up, but we can't
Speaker 5: give the ball away like that in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 5: So and that was the ballgame, and our guys fought
Speaker 5: all the way to the end. You know, we had
Speaker 5: some really good drives there in terms of two minute operations.
Speaker 5: That was really good to see from offense and Caleb
Speaker 5: and the group and you know, and then at the
Speaker 5: end there, you know, I thought we managed the game
Speaker 5: well at the end, you know, get using that to
Speaker 5: the two minute warning to really utilize some time uh there,
Speaker 5: and then we had our time out. We just got
Speaker 5: to do a good job on d in four minute
Speaker 5: there to get the ball back.
Speaker 1: For our Oh what you just explained is this, every
Speaker 1: snap does matter. You don't know when it's gonna matter.
Speaker 1: And as Caleb said at the podium, it's on the details,
Speaker 1: and the details are so precise. I mean, you could
Speaker 1: have had a completely different story.
Speaker 5: No doubt, no doubt. And it's all about taking care
Speaker 5: of It's all about the ball first. I know that's
Speaker 5: elementary to football, but it truly is that. You know,
Speaker 5: and then really you know, you know, working your your
Speaker 5: run game average has got to be right because that
Speaker 5: puts you in front of the ledger you know your
Speaker 5: margins are better, and then really it's just about you know,
Speaker 5: the explosive place. You know, you eliminate the explosives and
Speaker 5: get them. And if you're always on the plus side
Speaker 5: of that, if you're on the plus side of all
Speaker 5: the three of those things, you're going to be in
Speaker 5: good shape.
Speaker 1: Three hundred and sixty three yards passing most mandy quarterback
Speaker 1: in the league this season a couple of games left
Speaker 1: here on Monday night, But dropping to throw nearly sixty
Speaker 1: times that comes with some peril. Also, you don't necessarily
Speaker 1: want to do that unless is this what you envision
Speaker 1: what this team is going to be more of a
Speaker 1: passing first type of team in the end. Is that
Speaker 1: going to be the identity of the Chicago Bears.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I would say that. I don't see it that way.
Speaker 5: I see it more like the opportunities were there. We
Speaker 5: had a two minute drive at the end of the half.
Speaker 5: We had those two big two minute drives, you know,
Speaker 5: at the end of the game. So I really think
Speaker 5: those passing numbers are a little up because of that.
Speaker 5: And if it was a normal game, you know, when
Speaker 5: we were ahead in that situation, I think it would
Speaker 5: be more balanced like we want it to.
Speaker 1: Be and pre snap post snap, Caleb uh, definite growth.
Speaker 1: I would say, right, you can see it, the confidence
Speaker 1: at the line of scrimmage, making his checks, clocks winding down.
Speaker 1: How would you assess all of that.
Speaker 5: Well, there's two things going on there. You know, there's
Speaker 5: two weeks in a row. He had to headle the noise,
Speaker 5: you know, so he's handling the noise way better. And
Speaker 5: the second performance in there, you know, and you know
Speaker 5: that stadium is allowed stadium, and so he did a
Speaker 5: really good job with that. In terms of the pre
Speaker 5: snap operating in that environment. You know, the offensive line
Speaker 5: did a much better job with the silent count because
Speaker 5: they're work on that too, and so there's a lot
Speaker 5: of positives there. Then post snap, you know, just going
Speaker 5: through his reads and and getting the ball out on time.
Speaker 5: You know, it was really good. You know, again, there's
Speaker 5: there's certain things that he's going to learn from, you know,
Speaker 5: in regards to post snap, but again, for the most part,
Speaker 5: it was it was a level up and getting better.
Speaker 1: Have you, in your opinion and your experience, have you
Speaker 1: entrusted maybe a lot more for a rookie quarterback than
Speaker 1: the normal rookie quarterback just because of his football IQ.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, you know, you know, we trust k Lob
Speaker 5: and you know, he's done a really good job of
Speaker 5: working through the work week, you know, in terms of
Speaker 5: his prep, in terms of his practice, you know, in
Speaker 5: terms of his forty eight hour prep. And that's only
Speaker 5: going to get better. You know, he's he's starting to
Speaker 5: learn you know, everybody's skill sets, you know, as as
Speaker 5: we get through this and every week we got you know,
Speaker 5: different adjustments for the routes and different things based on
Speaker 5: the coverages that we're getting. And he's doing a really
Speaker 5: good job of communicating with the skill and I think
Speaker 5: you can start to see that. Really proud of him,
Speaker 5: the way he really utilized the layups, so to speak,
Speaker 5: with getting the ball to coal and getting the ball
Speaker 5: to you know, all the running backs you know, in
Speaker 5: the in the short part of the field and intermediate area.
Speaker 5: And I think that's really good for him, and that's
Speaker 5: why he saw all those yards. You know. Plus we
Speaker 5: were in a two minute mode for the fourth quarter,
Speaker 5: and that's going to continue to grow.
Speaker 1: A week ago, I threw some numbers and I don't
Speaker 1: remember him now, but I think it was four of
Speaker 1: eleven in play action first two weeks of the season.
Speaker 1: But yesterday on our Game Night Live show, I broke
Speaker 1: down all those clean pockets with play action, and play
Speaker 1: action was working. So the amount of runs certainly impact that.
Speaker 1: Doesn't that make a huge difference open up the offense?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 5: It does?
Speaker 3: It does?
Speaker 5: You know the run It all starts with the run game.
Speaker 5: You got to be able to effectively run the ball
Speaker 5: and be committed to it, and then that's going to
Speaker 5: open up a lot of things, a lot of windows
Speaker 5: in other areas of the field. And we believe in that,
Speaker 5: you know, we we we trusted that. We know that's true,
Speaker 5: and we have to keep working.
Speaker 1: That so that that four play driving from the four
Speaker 1: just the average person believes going sideways to get a
Speaker 1: yard is maybe not the plan, but teams do it.
Speaker 1: Atlanta did it last night too. I think it was
Speaker 1: how what do you explain? How do you explain that one?
Speaker 5: I guess yeah, I mean we you know, we went direct,
Speaker 5: uh straight ahead, you know for three straight plays and
Speaker 5: uh again, the execution has got to be there and
Speaker 5: we should be able to get that on third down,
Speaker 5: and we were hopeful that we were going to get it.
Speaker 5: And then the fourth down plays again was a play
Speaker 5: at the line of scrimmage that could be inside or
Speaker 5: outside based on what we saw, and Cable was up
Speaker 5: against the clock a little bit, and you know, went
Speaker 5: with the one, and again we got to do a
Speaker 5: better job executing even in that play as a whole.
Speaker 1: Group, Rosehawan Johnson, I think he had sixty plus yards
Speaker 1: from scrimmage, battering around just like you did last year.
Speaker 1: Do you think he's in perfect place right now to
Speaker 1: start earning more snaps?
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, you know, I feel really good about
Speaker 5: a running group. You know, I think the running backs
Speaker 5: are all three different and different skill sets and I
Speaker 5: think we need to utilize those guys for their skill sets.
Speaker 5: And and again Rosean had a really good day yesterday
Speaker 5: in terms of getting downhill of really going forward, you know,
Speaker 5: you know, making contact at three and then getting five,
Speaker 5: making contact at four and getting six and seven. So
Speaker 5: that was that was really good to see. And also
Speaker 5: in the passing game, you know, him splitting two, catching
Speaker 5: the ball and the checked down area, getting his shoulders
Speaker 5: north and splitting two. And I think he's going to
Speaker 5: continue to do that, you know, And Swift made some
Speaker 5: place too in the passing game as well. So it's
Speaker 5: it's important to be able to utilize all three of
Speaker 5: those guys.
Speaker 1: Back to the Montes sweatsack a big quarterback like that
Speaker 1: in the force fumble. When they say, I mean, I
Speaker 1: know it's subjective, but we got push pushes and we've
Speaker 1: got all these things going on in the league. What's
Speaker 1: the difference.
Speaker 5: Well, when they deem it that forward progress is stopped
Speaker 5: and that's that's not reviewable in terms of that means
Speaker 5: it's down, you know. So that's what they said, and
Speaker 5: that's what they did. And again I'm sure they looked
Speaker 5: at it, you know in New York too, and and
Speaker 5: that was the decision they made. But again, I'm just
Speaker 5: really proud of that play in terms of how we
Speaker 5: did push the pocket get to the quarterback and we
Speaker 5: utilized our technique in terms of stripping the ball. And
Speaker 5: I think that the recovery was great too. So those
Speaker 5: guys did a really good job on that play. Again,
Speaker 5: put them behind the sticks. Again, we wish we would
Speaker 5: have had the ball. There could have been a big
Speaker 5: difference in the game, but we end up, you know,
Speaker 5: stopping the screen. You know, DT did a wonderful job
Speaker 5: of coming out on the next play, you know, redirect
Speaker 5: to the screen and making a really nice play on
Speaker 5: that and then we force him to pump.
Speaker 3: All right.
Speaker 1: Lastly, the Rams coming in. Sean McVay. Always got to
Speaker 1: be ready for that guy.
Speaker 5: Yeah, there's a big you know, a big victory you know,
Speaker 5: on Sunday, and they can't come back victory. So it's
Speaker 5: again a big challenge, you know obviously scheme wise, and
Speaker 5: you know, going against those players, and they got a
Speaker 5: lot of good players and it's gonna be a big
Speaker 5: challenge for us.
Speaker 1: All Right, we'll talk to you about that game later
Speaker 1: in the week.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Matt, Thank you.
Speaker 1: Kay tell me any thoughts on his perspectives.
Speaker 4: You know, mascot a lot on his plate when you're
Speaker 4: thinking about paying attention to every single phase of football offense, defense,
Speaker 4: special teams. And then he says he watches it slowly,
Speaker 4: one play at a time. That's a lot of investment
Speaker 4: in time of trying to look at all the elements
Speaker 4: of an offense, a defensive play, a special teams play,
Speaker 4: and how you can become more successful, what corrections you
Speaker 4: need to make, how to increase some of the fundamentals
Speaker 4: and the technical teachings that you need to incorporate during
Speaker 4: the week. And you know, I think that's the endless
Speaker 4: job of a head coach in the NFL, and it's
Speaker 4: something that you have to do every day, no matter
Speaker 4: if you win the game or you lose the game.
Speaker 4: But when I said bringing this team home, bringing this
Speaker 4: defense home, I expect big things out of them, because
Speaker 4: it's not going to say, Okay, let's just bury our
Speaker 4: head in the sand and forget about making improvements and
Speaker 4: just show up here next Sunday. No, it's getting on
Speaker 4: the practice field starting Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Make
Speaker 4: those improvements that you need to make, allow Caleb to
Speaker 4: continue to show the growth that he's been showing, and
Speaker 4: get out there against the Rams and please your home crowd.
Speaker 1: Now, let's talk about the defense. The defense took the
Speaker 1: ball away again, taking advantage of that inaccuracy that Anthony
Speaker 1: Richardson is dealing with right now, living up to his
Speaker 1: own expectations. Jalen Johnson Tremaine Edmunds that interception in the
Speaker 1: red zone end zone rather in the red zone that
Speaker 1: throw it at a scoring drive took points off the board.
Speaker 1: For the Colts. The Bears are the most interceptions in
Speaker 1: the NFL since last season. Edmunds is with Fred Horner
Speaker 1: with five over the last year, plus number one in
Speaker 1: the NFL. And you had Montese Sweat on a sack
Speaker 1: should have been a force fumble as well, as we
Speaker 1: discussed with Matt Eberflus. He's not going to say it,
Speaker 1: but I can say you can say it. I mean,
Speaker 1: because here's the thing. If if Richardson would have completed
Speaker 1: the pass in that same situation, would they have given
Speaker 1: him the completion. You better believe they would be giving
Speaker 1: him the completion, so you better give him the strip sack, or.
Speaker 4: If he would have intercepted the ball when you're not
Speaker 4: in control the football, once it leaves your hands, when
Speaker 4: you're swatting it with the right hand of Montese Sweat,
Speaker 4: then you know that ball is in the air and
Speaker 4: it's in play. So I wish that play would accounted.
Speaker 4: But you know, if you take the Bears first team
Speaker 4: defense that starts the game and you put them on
Speaker 4: the field, and they're one of the best defenses in
Speaker 4: the league, they can be super challenging at home. On
Speaker 4: the road, they can be in control of the pass
Speaker 4: rush out front, and they get profits out of the
Speaker 4: second and third level. But what I like about this
Speaker 4: football team, it's developing significant depth. And when you look
Speaker 4: at you know, you get Chris Williams that had to
Speaker 4: come in the game. You had to put DeMarcus Walker
Speaker 4: at tackle when Andrew Billings went out. Gavon Dexter is
Speaker 4: playing a high brand of football. Jack Sanborn's coming in
Speaker 4: as the third linebacker and making plays all around the field.
Speaker 4: Jalen Jones had to come in when Tyreek Stevenson had
Speaker 4: to go out, but then Tyrek Stevenson comes right back
Speaker 4: in the game. So there's a wide variety of defenses
Speaker 4: you can play when you're developing this kind of depth,
Speaker 4: and you never know what kind of defensive line is
Speaker 4: going to line up because you can put Booker in
Speaker 4: there at one defensive end and sweat, and then you
Speaker 4: can have other defensive end type players on the inside.
Speaker 4: And you know, we haven't seen Daniel Hardy get enough
Speaker 4: snaps he had at defensive end, and he's another guy
Speaker 4: that could come in there and contribute. So as this
Speaker 4: season winds it on, my expectations for the defense continues
Speaker 4: to rise, as do my expectations for Caleb Williams continue
Speaker 4: to ride.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about expectations, because I think there's a certain
Speaker 1: a certain segment of Bear fandom that believed it was
Speaker 1: going to be instant soup. You know, put some water
Speaker 1: in it and boom, you've got chicken soup. It's it's
Speaker 1: not that simple. I think we all agree there was
Speaker 1: going to be some lows and there's going to be
Speaker 1: some highs, and that will likely continue. Now if you
Speaker 1: can get to a certain level and still be above
Speaker 1: water so you can put your finishing gear in. When
Speaker 1: things start going in the right direction more often than not,
Speaker 1: then you've got a playoff team. But until those progressions come,
Speaker 1: until some things get ironed out and everybody's on the
Speaker 1: same page and you win some games, I understand the frustration,
Speaker 1: but this was not going to be simple.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 3: You know a word that you and I talked about
Speaker 3: last night.
Speaker 4: I heard you and Matt talk about it today, and
Speaker 4: we've even talked a little bit about today.
Speaker 3: Is the word identity. Yeah.
Speaker 4: And I think when you're thinking about the Chicago Bears
Speaker 4: in this offense, where it's going, I think in the
Speaker 4: history of the Chicago Bears, the run game is always
Speaker 4: going to play an important role in the success of
Speaker 4: the Chicago Bears and how it influences what the offense
Speaker 4: can do.
Speaker 3: But when you look at this.
Speaker 4: Development of Caleb Williams and the type of receivers they
Speaker 4: have here, I think the pass game will complement the
Speaker 4: run game, and to me, I kind of am throwing
Speaker 4: it out there that maybe the new identity of the
Speaker 4: Chicago Bears for the time being and moving forward will
Speaker 4: be the passing game.
Speaker 3: It's not like you're going to ignore the running game.
Speaker 4: But when you look at the type of weapons they have,
Speaker 4: from the backfield to the wide receiver position to the
Speaker 4: tight end, it's not a shame to be an effective
Speaker 4: passing game because we've seen it around the league in
Speaker 4: the last twelve to fifteen years. How important throwing the
Speaker 4: ball well is the teams that have playoff success.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I mean there is a belief in the
Speaker 1: building that you know, you do throw to score and
Speaker 1: you run to win, and I adopt that same thinking.
Speaker 1: That's my that's my wheelhouse as a football fan.
Speaker 3: I agree with it. I agree with you one hundred
Speaker 3: percent and I always will.
Speaker 4: However, when you talk about a rookie quarterback throwing the
Speaker 4: ball fifty two times.
Speaker 3: That's a lot. Yeah, that's a lot of faith in
Speaker 3: the coaches.
Speaker 4: I believe that Caleb Williams can can do it under
Speaker 4: that environment.
Speaker 1: How often are you gonna have eighty some offensive snaps?
Speaker 1: Not often a lot, but it's not gonna happen that way.
Speaker 3: What is it? What has it been like fifty three, seventy?
Speaker 1: Yeah, but eighty four, I mean that may I think
Speaker 1: it was the eleventh most snaps by a Bears offense
Speaker 1: since you know, nineteen seventy or something like that, So
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's not often you're gonna get that
Speaker 1: many snaps. The Colts are just victimizing themselves in some
Speaker 1: weird way in the first three weeks of the season,
Speaker 1: with a time of possession is so warped in favor
Speaker 1: of the opposing offenses.
Speaker 4: You know, if you have faith in your defense, though,
Speaker 4: you're gonna be given that opportunity with turnovers, with sacks,
Speaker 4: with third down ending drives, with punts, and every everything
Speaker 4: else that goes along with giving your offense more opportunities
Speaker 4: of possession. Even in the eighties when the Bears I
Speaker 4: think had seventy eighty five season when the Bears had
Speaker 4: seventy two sacks and the amount of turnovers.
Speaker 3: The only reason that we didn't have those.
Speaker 4: Number because we ran the ball, we ate up the clock,
Speaker 4: and we had time of possession. So it's just the
Speaker 4: what is the DNA of your football team and to me,
Speaker 4: the modern day DNA of the Bears because we might
Speaker 4: need to check it every two year.
Speaker 1: Did you guys lead the league in time of possession?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 1: During that time we'll have.
Speaker 3: The league in time of possession scoring.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but not just eighty five though. Was there a
Speaker 1: stretch where you guys were just owning the clock? Well,
Speaker 1: kept their defense quite fresh to just you know, pin
Speaker 1: their ears back and go. Plus you guys had leads.
Speaker 1: You know, it's a crazy thing. I forgot to bring
Speaker 1: this up with Matt. I'll have to go back and
Speaker 1: circle back when we do our pregame interview with him
Speaker 1: before Sunday. But I don't think it's an oddity. I mean,
Speaker 1: it happened, but I don't know how it would make
Speaker 1: a difference in him, if at all. But Caleb's only
Speaker 1: thrown two passes with the lead so far this season,
Speaker 1: so working from behind, which you know they've been behind
Speaker 1: the chains a lot. They were again yesterday a time
Speaker 1: or two. And that idea of turning first downs into
Speaker 1: first downs or you know, what your yards to gain
Speaker 1: on second down is is as important as yards to
Speaker 1: gain on third down, to be honest with you, it
Speaker 1: changes the playbook.
Speaker 4: Well, you know, going into the game yes Orday, I
Speaker 4: think the Bears thirty three plays they were behind the
Speaker 4: chains on second and third down, and you got to
Speaker 4: think there's probably fifty first downs in there with the
Speaker 4: whatever one hundred and something plays total of the Bears had.
Speaker 4: So you know, you're really fighting an uphill battle when
Speaker 4: you're talking about that second long and third and long,
Speaker 4: because then you give that certain attack advantage to the
Speaker 4: defense and it's a more difficult style of offensive football.
Speaker 1: Good news, Chicago United Airlines is getting brand new planes
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Speaker 1: else stick out to you about the game yesterday before
Speaker 1: we skip forward anything. If you watch the tape.
Speaker 3: You know it's still searching for answers in the running game.
Speaker 4: And you know you did talk to madd Eberflus about
Speaker 4: some of the plays called near or the goal line
Speaker 4: and that, and if you're going to relive that whole
Speaker 4: scenario again, and what type of structure changes would you
Speaker 4: want to make to give you an offense a better
Speaker 4: chance of.
Speaker 3: Getting into the end zone.
Speaker 4: And I think that's something that needs to be explored,
Speaker 4: whether it's Caleb Williams under center and having a different
Speaker 4: intersection point between he and the running back. You know,
Speaker 4: put him up under center so you have a less
Speaker 4: room to get across the goal line for the quarterback
Speaker 4: in the running game. You know, that'll be interesting to
Speaker 4: see how it is going forward. And you know, like
Speaker 4: I said, I like the development of depth on the
Speaker 4: defensive side of the ball.
Speaker 3: And if you can play a fresher brand of football.
Speaker 4: On the defensive side, you may give your offense one
Speaker 4: or two extra possessions that they desperately need.
Speaker 1: From your knowledge of how this is applied, the difference
Speaker 1: between a shotgun inside the five versus under center, you know,
Speaker 1: there's you know, run pass options. Obviously at the line
Speaker 1: of scrimmage, you can check to a pass you can
Speaker 1: check to a run. There's benefits in a shotgun, but
Speaker 1: there's also great benefits in just grinding it out from
Speaker 1: under center, and you know, surging off the ball, where
Speaker 1: do you like, what do you prefer?
Speaker 4: Obviously, first and foremost, all my offensive linemen are going
Speaker 4: to be in a three point stance. I don't feel
Speaker 4: I can get the inertia off the line of scrimmage
Speaker 4: and have the physical element attached to short yardage and
Speaker 4: goal line offense. If your offensive line isn't a two
Speaker 4: point stance. To me, I wouldn't allow that to happen.
Speaker 4: Number two, it's the visualization of the play itself. When
Speaker 4: you shotgun snap in a goal line situation, that element
Speaker 4: of time and when we talk about the element and
Speaker 4: the increments of time and an NFL play one second
Speaker 4: to one and a half seconds, that can mean the
Speaker 4: difference between success and failure. And so when you shotgun snap,
Speaker 4: you have a lot more eyes watching the flight of
Speaker 4: the football and then for that next step, you know
Speaker 4: exactly where the quarterback is going and what's going to
Speaker 4: happen at that intersection. When you're deceptive and you take
Speaker 4: a snap from underneath center, you think of all the
Speaker 4: deception that can go on there.
Speaker 3: Why do they run those.
Speaker 4: Wide receiver sweeps where they turn out and they hand
Speaker 4: it to them immediately then act like they pitch it
Speaker 4: to the outside deception. When you give a play action
Speaker 4: and you have that intersection point that comes at at
Speaker 4: a high rate of speed, it creates hesitation in the
Speaker 4: second level because they don't know what to commit to,
Speaker 4: and then that's a separation for the offensive line to
Speaker 4: have more successful blocking time. And it's just you know,
Speaker 4: the element of deception that close to the goal line,
Speaker 4: when whatever advantage you can give your offense, you gotta
Speaker 4: you have to work that business accordingly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm also big on this too. As long as
Speaker 1: you're you know, on sync, you get to the line
Speaker 1: of scrims, you're going inner center and you go there's
Speaker 1: no there, no hesit. You know in that situation, goal line,
Speaker 1: don't be having a don't be letting the clock tick down,
Speaker 1: Go just go? Is that smart or is that silly
Speaker 1: on my part?
Speaker 3: No, you're one hundred percent right.
Speaker 4: But you know something that what you brought up to
Speaker 4: Matty Eberflus in your interview with him, and you were
Speaker 4: talking about the success of play action pass in the
Speaker 4: middle of the field, and a lot of those Roma
Speaker 4: Dunes was the recipient.
Speaker 1: Of gol Comet too.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Okay, in the in the field of play, shotgun,
Speaker 4: when you have that interception intersection of that fake handoff
Speaker 4: point or the quarterback retreating out and making a fake handoff,
Speaker 4: now you're creating hesitation from the safety to the two linebackers.
Speaker 4: And if you have that instance of a defensive player
Speaker 4: stopping their feet plays one and you saw it a
Speaker 4: couple times by Rome, you saw it by Cole, and
Speaker 4: you see it by DJ all the time. So I'm
Speaker 4: not saying ignore shotgun. I'm just saying, when i get
Speaker 4: to short yardage goal line, I'm putting an extra lignement,
Speaker 4: I'm putting in tight ends, I'm coming out of an
Speaker 4: eye formation. I'm doing everything in my power to be powerful.
Speaker 4: Because one thing that I was kind of disappointed in
Speaker 4: a little bit is they had mismatches at the point
Speaker 4: of attack or near the point of attack or at
Speaker 4: the line of scrimmage that the difficulty and increase the
Speaker 4: difficulty for Bears to be successful.
Speaker 1: Eventually, we assume the growth will occur or this team
Speaker 1: will be able to put points on the board. But
Speaker 1: right now, every point it matters, So you got to
Speaker 1: get the points while you can, and that'll help everything,
Speaker 1: it really will. It'll build confidence. Field goals, yeah, all of.
Speaker 3: It, Yeah, all of it.
Speaker 4: The difficulty of kicking a fifty six yard field goal
Speaker 4: in the first series. If you do miss it, then
Speaker 4: you're giving thell in great field position to your opponent
Speaker 4: at midfield. If you make it, you're up three to
Speaker 4: nothing and you're kicking, and you're giving your defense more
Speaker 4: of a tackable field position. To take advantage of some
Speaker 4: of the inexperiences of Anthony.
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Speaker 1: at Steinhoffels dot com. The La Rams and Sean McVay
Speaker 1: come to town. I appreciate his knowledge as a coach,
Speaker 1: his experience, his intensity, his steel trap of a mind.
Speaker 1: He has everything in there football wise that you would
Speaker 1: respect and appreciate for a coach of his magnitude of
Speaker 1: Super Bowl winning coach. And he was at the podium
Speaker 1: yesterday recap and a win over the forty nine ers
Speaker 1: at so far and upset, even though the forty nine
Speaker 1: ers were down a bunch of bodies sore are the Rams,
Speaker 1: and he kept using the word gritty. He used that
Speaker 1: word to describe his entire team and specifically the play
Speaker 1: of his quarterback, Matthew Stafford, the play of his young defense,
Speaker 1: his play of a young punt returner who had never
Speaker 1: touched the ball in the NFL until a big return
Speaker 1: set up a play scoring situation late in the game.
Speaker 1: I love his intensity and so you can't assume anything
Speaker 1: but getting the very best from the La Rams Sunday
Speaker 1: with a gritty attitude on the road in Chicago.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but you know what you do.
Speaker 4: You got to punch him right in the face the
Speaker 4: first opportunity you get. And if the Bears defense, if
Speaker 4: the Bears win or lose the coin toss and their
Speaker 4: defense is on the field first, then you got to attack.
Speaker 4: You got to say, Okay, this quarter back lacks mobility.
Speaker 4: They have some deficiencies on the offensive line. How am
Speaker 4: I gonna put my defenders in the best possible position
Speaker 4: to get in the attack mode. I Am not gonna
Speaker 4: sit back and see what they want to do. Early
Speaker 4: in that game. I'm gonna take advantage of the support
Speaker 4: of the loudest fans in an outdoor stadium in the NFL.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna let them support my defense, and I'm gonna
Speaker 4: come at you. And then as soon as one of
Speaker 4: my or two of my pass rushers get tired, I'm
Speaker 4: gonna use my depth and I'm gonna keep coming at
Speaker 4: you and keep coming at you.
Speaker 3: So you can compliment yourself.
Speaker 4: As being a gritty team, but I want to compliment
Speaker 4: myself as being a tough team that takes advantage of
Speaker 4: top talent on defense against a tough opponent.
Speaker 1: Now the thing too, you don't want to You don't
Speaker 1: want to get the crowd tough on you as a
Speaker 1: as a home team either, because one and two and
Speaker 1: if it doesn't look good out of the gate, you
Speaker 1: know what it's gonna sound like.
Speaker 3: I agree.
Speaker 4: Just think what it's gonna sound like if the Bears
Speaker 4: come up with a sack in the first series, take
Speaker 4: them out of to get the ball back for the
Speaker 4: Bears offense, and I think the Bear's crowd initially are
Speaker 4: they gonna be supportive and they know that Caleb's.
Speaker 3: Going through growing pains.
Speaker 4: Listen, I think if they ignore the fact that this
Speaker 4: is still a young man playing the most difficult position
Speaker 4: in professional sports, that's a little naive. So be supportive
Speaker 4: and understand what they're going through, because I think the
Speaker 4: defense is gonna give you a full sixty minute effort.
Speaker 1: I also think it's gonna be helpful to play back
Speaker 1: to back home games. I mean, I mean, listen, you
Speaker 1: and I are even tired of the plane right now
Speaker 1: and our travels planes, trains, automobiles and lower Whacker drive.
Speaker 1: That's an inside joke that we can't talk about right now,
Speaker 1: but yeah, we we it's been it's been exhausting, honestly,
Speaker 1: and I'm not playing five out of seven games preseason included,
Speaker 1: plus a week in Canton. Basically that's a lot.
Speaker 3: And you know, you think of Matt talking.
Speaker 4: You got up at three o'clock in the morning, you
Speaker 4: get right back to work, and luckily it was a short,
Speaker 4: you know, forty minute flight from Indianapolis home. But like
Speaker 4: you said, it never stops weighing on your mind, whether
Speaker 4: it's you and I trying to do our job, and
Speaker 4: as much we continuously think about everything that goes on,
Speaker 4: a player does the same thing. If you got if
Speaker 4: you play in eighty four plays and you have two
Speaker 4: bad plays, you don't think about the eighty two good
Speaker 4: ones you had. You think about the two bad ones
Speaker 4: you had all night, and they can keep you up
Speaker 4: at nights. Well, yeah, it's a nasty monster.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Those plays cost you a game.
Speaker 4: They cost you a game, they talk cost you your job,
Speaker 4: They cost you getting criticized in front of your peers
Speaker 4: when you're watching it on tape. There's just a lot
Speaker 4: of elements to being a professional athlete.
Speaker 3: That is the underbelly, busy.
Speaker 1: Heart, Seltz their flavors for every vibe, celebraty, responsibily, most
Speaker 1: in course Beverage Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. All right, so a
Speaker 1: quick look at the Rams. The Rams defense that they've
Speaker 1: been drafting, Well, they've had opportunity to draft because of
Speaker 1: their success. They had appeal back the salaries. Aaron Donald retired,
Speaker 1: but their defensive line is young. But they're pretty good
Speaker 1: time watching Jared Verse, He's got my attention. He's playing
Speaker 1: with power, speed, and he's playing all over the place
Speaker 1: and making a real dent into well he did against
Speaker 1: the forty nine ers. I haven't gone back any further
Speaker 1: than that yet, but Jared Verse, their top pick. He's
Speaker 1: the real deal.
Speaker 3: Number eight.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have to block him.
Speaker 3: What did you hire him to do?
Speaker 1: Yeah, rush the passer, that's right.
Speaker 4: So you're not teaching him the intricacies of an interior
Speaker 4: position where he's got so much on his shoulders that
Speaker 4: he's still trying to learn.
Speaker 3: It's second, long, third, and long.
Speaker 4: Use your explosiveness, your pass rushing arsenal, and try to
Speaker 4: get to the quarterback. So what again, it's just like
Speaker 4: a couple of weeks ago. Don't allow them to do
Speaker 4: what they want to do. You're going to have to
Speaker 4: have some big bodies on him, get the tight end position,
Speaker 4: get the offensive tackle position, and creates stalemates at the
Speaker 4: line of scrimmage.
Speaker 1: And Byron Young, another young player and a guy I
Speaker 1: loved at the Senior Bowl. Braden Fisk, he's just lunch bucket.
Speaker 1: He'll be coming home. Basically, he's from Michigan City, Indiana,
Speaker 1: so this is his country and he's gonna he's gonna
Speaker 1: bring full effort indeed, and then the Rams offense other
Speaker 1: than the obvious, you got a veteran quarterback who's seen everything.
Speaker 1: Nothing's gonna surprise him, and he's a guy that can
Speaker 1: cause a lot of pain if he gets in rhythm.
Speaker 1: That's the one thing about Matthew Stafford, a rhythm quarterback
Speaker 1: to a t that's that defines rhythm quarterback. So it's
Speaker 1: going to have to be a disruptive day up front
Speaker 1: against an offensive line that's pretty banged up. What else
Speaker 1: do you see offensively?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 4: The thing about it is everybody knew what Cooper cup
Speaker 4: was capable of. We are introduced to Puka Nakua and
Speaker 4: what he did as a rookie. And so it's kind
Speaker 4: of a next man up mentality for the receiver position
Speaker 4: at the Rams because the quarterback position, the quarterback can
Speaker 4: put you in a position to succeed. You don't necessarily
Speaker 4: need all these reps with them because the quarterback is
Speaker 4: going to understand the protection, he's going to understand the
Speaker 4: timing of the play, and he has accuracy. But I
Speaker 4: do think he has mobility limitations. Oh yeah, And I
Speaker 4: think if the Bears can put him in an uncomfortable
Speaker 4: throwing foundation, maybe changes arm angles. That's when you know,
Speaker 4: you can take a little bit of fire out of
Speaker 4: a quarterback like that. But hey, there's you know, there's
Speaker 4: no denying it. He's a good quarterback and he's been
Speaker 4: able to develop some good receivers.
Speaker 1: There good running back in Kyron Williams three touchdowns yesterday
Speaker 1: to two at well at receiver, had some big plays
Speaker 1: and also threw a pass. And there's a young man
Speaker 1: Jordan Whittington is a wide receiver number eighty eight that
Speaker 1: has burst onto the scene for them, obviously with injury situation.
Speaker 4: So uh yeah, Dury's next man up, especially at the
Speaker 4: receiver position.
Speaker 1: A lot going on there. They also played a lot
Speaker 1: of one back, two tight end against a forty nine
Speaker 1: er team that wants to sit and nickel most of
Speaker 1: the time, and the Bears like to do that too.
Speaker 1: But I'll tell you, man, Jack Sanborn, I can't, I
Speaker 1: cannot speak enough about this player. He gets limited reps
Speaker 1: in defense, he plays in special teams, he's blocks on punts,
Speaker 1: he blocks on field goal. You know, does a little
Speaker 1: bit of everything. But he does a little bit of
Speaker 1: everything well really well.
Speaker 4: Well, you know, kind of shows you that the draft
Speaker 4: is not a perfect science. Yeah, because here's a guy
Speaker 4: you got teaching. That's an understatement. You've got Jack Sanborn. There,
Speaker 4: you get guys that are free agents go undrafted. In
Speaker 4: my gosh, there are nothing but model citizens in great
Speaker 4: football players, and you want them on your team and
Speaker 4: you want them to be part of your locker room.
Speaker 4: And every single time you give him that chance to
Speaker 4: show up, they show out big.
Speaker 1: All Right, We're brought to you by a PNC official
Speaker 1: Bank of the Bears, Episode ninety six, So the Bears,
Speaker 1: et cetera podcast brought to you by Geico in the Books,
Speaker 1: special thanks to head coach Matt Deberflusi each weekend for time,
Speaker 1: I'm Jeff. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 3: Everybody.
Speaker 1: Please subscribe now on the Chicago Bears official app, Apple, Spotify, YouTube,
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Speaker 2: Bear down, everybody.
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