Speaker 1: Welcome into the Bears Coaching Show with head coach Mett Naggie,
Speaker 1: brought to you by Whipplely CPAs and consultants. Jeff Joniac
Speaker 1: with you until eight o'clock tonight here on news Radio
Speaker 1: one oh five nine WBBM. Coach Naggie with us until
Speaker 1: the bottom of the hour, and then we joined by
Speaker 1: offensive coordinator Bill Laser. Matt Good Evening Week ten in
Speaker 1: the NFL. It was a high scoring affair, several teams
Speaker 1: eclipsing the forty plus point mark, including New England, Dallas,
Speaker 1: Kansas City, and your Bears are hibernating getting some rest.
Speaker 1: How did it all go and how did it go
Speaker 1: for you? Yeah? Thanks Jeff? You know what it was.
Speaker 1: It was good for for all of us to get
Speaker 1: away for a couple of days and now we're back
Speaker 1: at it, and you know how to howd a good
Speaker 1: day of practice with the guys get them back into
Speaker 1: you know, because they get away and it's good to
Speaker 1: kind of um get their get their juices going again,
Speaker 1: get their bodies going again with practice and their energy.
Speaker 1: And it was good. So now they'll have off tomorrow,
Speaker 1: get back out and start a normal week on Wednesday.
Speaker 1: So the time spent obviously is good for guys to
Speaker 1: get their R and R but also to heal up
Speaker 1: a little bit. So what's the latest. I know you
Speaker 1: touchdown at this morning with the media, But on guys
Speaker 1: that missed the Steelers game three starters, you know, we
Speaker 1: forget that Khalil mac and Eddie Jackson, alec Ogletree, how
Speaker 1: are they? And then uh, we understand Tevin Jenkins and
Speaker 1: Deon Bush window to possibly return at this twenty one
Speaker 1: day clock gets underway. Now yeah, no, I mean it's uh,
Speaker 1: you know with Khalil and Ogletree and Eddie Jackson. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, obviously we would have loved to be able
Speaker 1: to have them against Pittsburgh, and we did him. But
Speaker 1: those guys are on their own individually working through their
Speaker 1: own their own injuries, and you know, sometimes it can
Speaker 1: be frustrating, and they all are such competitors and want
Speaker 1: to get back out there and want to be there
Speaker 1: to fight with their team. And so we'll monitor that
Speaker 1: all week long, and again Drey has done a great
Speaker 1: job of our trainer of keeping those guys going. And
Speaker 1: then the good news is being able to start the
Speaker 1: twenty one day practice period with Tevin Jenkins and Deon Bush.
Speaker 1: So we're slowly getting um those guys back, which is
Speaker 1: important too because you know it's a it's a long
Speaker 1: year and this by hit at the right time and
Speaker 1: these guys are trying to get back here for this
Speaker 1: second part of the season. Yeah, a lot of questions
Speaker 1: about Jenkins from the media this morning because he is
Speaker 1: an interesting figure right now. High draft pick and not
Speaker 1: able to see him in pads. Really, you don't really
Speaker 1: know a lot about him in terms of getting on
Speaker 1: the field. You know who he is as a guy,
Speaker 1: and you've seen him rehab and get ready and get
Speaker 1: through that back surgery, But what do you know about
Speaker 1: Tevin Jenkins right now? We got to be able to
Speaker 1: see where he's at and how he can play. I mean,
Speaker 1: he hasn't had pads on in a long time. So
Speaker 1: that's a part of it, right just putting the pads
Speaker 1: on and then going out there. And then the other
Speaker 1: part of it two Jeff is being able to communicate
Speaker 1: with those guys when you're out there, whether it's pass protection,
Speaker 1: whether it's a run block, and then just going through
Speaker 1: your day to day, week by week stuff. Now, he's
Speaker 1: been really great in high spirits this whole time. But
Speaker 1: that's what we got to see before you even start
Speaker 1: to say, okay, well he should be at this spot
Speaker 1: or that spot. We got to see where he's at individually,
Speaker 1: and then we can make a decision off of that.
Speaker 1: It's a sport that can leave you behind in a
Speaker 1: big hurry because focus is only on the now, and
Speaker 1: it's on the guys that are ready to go. We
Speaker 1: all know that watching the game and being in this
Speaker 1: sport for so long. So a young guy like that
Speaker 1: who has high expectations for himself, the team invested a
Speaker 1: high draft pick in him, showing respect for what his
Speaker 1: traits are and his talents. How do you monitor his
Speaker 1: mindset and where he's at about this and so that
Speaker 1: he doesn't overdo it to try and get ready, or
Speaker 1: you know, any any number of things. What he must
Speaker 1: be thinking about, what his teammates think about him. All
Speaker 1: that is a part of this evaluation. I think that's real.
Speaker 1: And you know, I know when you get when you're
Speaker 1: hurting like he was in the preseason, and you want
Speaker 1: to figure out why and you want to be able
Speaker 1: to play better, and you know you're not one hundred percent,
Speaker 1: And now you go and you get fixed and you
Speaker 1: come back, there's always going to be a sense of
Speaker 1: urgency to be able to show improve to everybody why
Speaker 1: they made the right decision. That's our job as coaches
Speaker 1: is to make sure that he understands what we knew
Speaker 1: that but we got to do it the right way
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be a day by day thing for him.
Speaker 1: Um and and then just each day get a little
Speaker 1: bit better. And then and you look at a guy
Speaker 1: like Larry Boorham, right, you know, he had a couple
Speaker 1: of injuries here there, but he's back and now he
Speaker 1: put together two really good games and that that's growth
Speaker 1: as a rookie. So we always often talk about Justin
Speaker 1: and him being as a rookie, but we have some
Speaker 1: other rookies too, and um, so we'll just continue to
Speaker 1: monitor all of that, all right. So self scouting is
Speaker 1: a term we here often once the bye week hits,
Speaker 1: but you know it's a it's a day to day
Speaker 1: you're always self scouting, right, But the things you did
Speaker 1: are you able to reveal some progress and growth that
Speaker 1: you feel you can really hit the ground running with
Speaker 1: for the final eight games. Probably the biggest thing Jeff
Speaker 1: with the self scout for us is more so of
Speaker 1: specific plays and concepts. And I'm speaking on offense that
Speaker 1: we are starting to notice and realize that we like, um,
Speaker 1: you know, Justin's throw on them, well, Justin's reading them. Well,
Speaker 1: whatever that is progression wise, our guys are feeling the
Speaker 1: same way with the identity. And so you see that,
Speaker 1: you understand that there's other parts where you say, okay, listen,
Speaker 1: we got to get a lot better at whether whether
Speaker 1: it's you know, a third down and third down in distance,
Speaker 1: or whether it's a red zone down and distance. We
Speaker 1: got to be able to get better in these situations.
Speaker 1: And if we do that, it might only be sometimes
Speaker 1: two or three plays that we did not convert that
Speaker 1: would have taken us from say the mid twenties in
Speaker 1: rankings in the NFL to the upper you know or
Speaker 1: lower teams, you know, by just converting one or two more,
Speaker 1: that's how close it is. So that's the stuff that
Speaker 1: we know we can get better. And then obviously the
Speaker 1: big pictures we want to be able to score more points. Well,
Speaker 1: running the football is no you know what you can
Speaker 1: end your hat on that one. I mean, that has
Speaker 1: been something from day one how has that come to be?
Speaker 1: I mean, you're averaging almost thirty carries a game. That's
Speaker 1: right up there among the league's best. I think it's
Speaker 1: two hundred and sixty six rushing attempts and two hundred
Speaker 1: and seventy past attempts this season. So I don't know
Speaker 1: if you envisioned it that to be the case regardless
Speaker 1: of record. But what do you think about all that
Speaker 1: math and about the running game being something you know
Speaker 1: you can do when you need to do it. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: if you if we go back when we think about
Speaker 1: the last couple of years here and that that's been
Speaker 1: something that you know, we've we've discussed that, Hey, we
Speaker 1: got to get better in the run game. You know,
Speaker 1: I think we have this year And you just said it,
Speaker 1: you mentioned it. And so when when you hang your
Speaker 1: hat on that and you run the football and you
Speaker 1: get better at it, um, you know, like you said,
Speaker 1: there's some balance there. Past pass game attempts are very
Speaker 1: similar to rush game. Well, it's gonna take away a
Speaker 1: little bit of your pass game if you're running the ball.
Speaker 1: More So, what we want to do is is that
Speaker 1: little bit of pass game that's being taken away, we
Speaker 1: need to be better with the pass game to make
Speaker 1: up for it. And now you've become a good offense
Speaker 1: where you're running the ball well, you're throwing the ball well.
Speaker 1: You form points for us bringing in Justin as a
Speaker 1: rookie and having him start where he did during the
Speaker 1: beginning of the season and to where he's at right now.
Speaker 1: It's a focus of ours to continue to feel like
Speaker 1: we're getting better and better where now you're really getting
Speaker 1: good by the end of the year, which is where
Speaker 1: you want to get good. You don't want to go
Speaker 1: the other way. And that's the excitement for us is
Speaker 1: understanding that. Listen, we got a rookie quarterback to scrow
Speaker 1: and every day every week, and our offense is going
Speaker 1: to slowly getting better and better. With an identity match
Speaker 1: it up with the defense of special teams, we could
Speaker 1: get hot at the right time. Welcome back to the
Speaker 1: Bears Coaching Show. It is brought to you by a
Speaker 1: Whipplee CPAs and Consultant's a proud partner of the Chicago Bears.
Speaker 1: Learn more at whipleet dot com. Bears head coach Mattneggie
Speaker 1: with Bill Lazier to join the program at the bottom
Speaker 1: of the hour. So when we went to the break,
Speaker 1: we're just talking about justin fields, the passing game and
Speaker 1: his growth. I mean, that's second half in Pittsburgh. I
Speaker 1: know it's ancient history now, but that for me as
Speaker 1: a fan and as a broadcaster and as the play
Speaker 1: by play guys, a platform moment for another piece of
Speaker 1: the floor and climbing up those steps because of the environment,
Speaker 1: because of the moment, and frankly five yards away from
Speaker 1: a game winning field goal on the road and a
Speaker 1: walkoff went into the bye week. Honestly, I mean that's
Speaker 1: is that where your excitement maybe begins for sure, And
Speaker 1: you know two weeks ago and I guess forty nine
Speaker 1: is fourth and one. What a huge moment at home
Speaker 1: to be able to make a play with his legs
Speaker 1: and and and score score that touchdown. To me, that
Speaker 1: was a moment too to everybody at home to see
Speaker 1: that and feel that. But then in now, in a
Speaker 1: like the environment you talked about against the team that
Speaker 1: hasn't lost in thirty years on Monday Night football, when
Speaker 1: I looked at him and just saw the confidence that
Speaker 1: he had on the sideline before that drive, I knew
Speaker 1: we were going to score and and you don't really
Speaker 1: know what until you do it. But then he did it,
Speaker 1: and that is a platform moment. That's what we want
Speaker 1: to grow from and he wants to grow from. And uh,
Speaker 1: you know that's that's the excitement that we all have
Speaker 1: right now. So there some moments now that other other
Speaker 1: guys are growing with him. So I the first guy
Speaker 1: I think of, Well, you know, it's Darnel money for sure,
Speaker 1: but Cole commet so I believe twenty nine targets over
Speaker 1: the last five games. He had thirteen first downs in
Speaker 1: those games early in the area out of three first
Speaker 1: down game and then three weeks in our own no
Speaker 1: first downs because it wasn't getting the ball much. But
Speaker 1: you know, he was hurting to say, the fields miked
Speaker 1: up after the game. Let's build on this, bro, So
Speaker 1: let's let's do that. We can do this. How significant, Yes,
Speaker 1: you got the running game, you got leaders, but you're
Speaker 1: tight end, You're young tight end with your young quarterback
Speaker 1: and young backfield. How significant is that for those two
Speaker 1: guys to bond in that sense? It's huge? And you
Speaker 1: know from meeting me, from the first day that we met,
Speaker 1: where I stand and what I believe in with tight ends.
Speaker 1: And you know, for us to be able to get
Speaker 1: Cole Commet, who's again, we got to remember this, this
Speaker 1: is a second year tight end. I could get fun
Speaker 1: examples of really good tight ends in this league that
Speaker 1: you know, did not have the numbers or the progression
Speaker 1: that cold Comet's having right now and became really good
Speaker 1: players early on in their career. And that's where he's at.
Speaker 1: So when you when you throw a rookie quarterback into
Speaker 1: the mix as well, and you throw the timing into it,
Speaker 1: when you see those two start to build that relationship,
Speaker 1: like he said, let's build on this brouh, that's what
Speaker 1: you want, and so you start having more and more connections.
Speaker 1: A tight end can be a quarterback's best friend for
Speaker 1: many different reasons. And um, you're starting to see that
Speaker 1: the targets go up. You talked about Mooney, you know,
Speaker 1: you talk about a rob, you talk about you know,
Speaker 1: Marquis good and had a big catch, our running back room,
Speaker 1: our other tight ends. I mean, it's we want to
Speaker 1: keep growing with all that, but that that relationship between
Speaker 1: cold Comet and Justin is only going to get stronger.
Speaker 1: All right, let's touch defensively. You know the run game,
Speaker 1: And you made a great point. You know, you guys
Speaker 1: were doing a nice job defending it. San Francisco game.
Speaker 1: They did some different things on the edges and and
Speaker 1: and got you. They got you on the big chunks.
Speaker 1: But are you relatively comfortable with where that's going? Eddie
Speaker 1: Goldman had himself a good game watching that again on tape.
Speaker 1: Is that okay? Are you still confident in the run defense?
Speaker 1: I am? I absolutely am, and I think going into
Speaker 1: this the defensive line was definitely and is one of
Speaker 1: our greatest strengths on defense, depth wise and everything. And
Speaker 1: Coach Frump does a great job of those guys. Those
Speaker 1: guys play hard, and you just mentioned it with Eddie Goldman.
Speaker 1: Eddie Goldman had the best game of a Bear this year.
Speaker 1: He is getting better, you see it on tape. We're
Speaker 1: gonna need that because teams are going to continue to
Speaker 1: run the ball. We're getting later and later in the
Speaker 1: season and weather starts to change and teams know they've
Speaker 1: got to run it. So we know that we gotta
Speaker 1: stop it. And if you don't stop it, they're gonna
Speaker 1: keep running. So that's that's an emphasis for us. And
Speaker 1: I have ultimate belief in our guys. So on Our
Speaker 1: Bears a Game Night live show last night, we had
Speaker 1: to come up with a player of the first half
Speaker 1: of the season. Tom went with David Montgomery for reasons
Speaker 1: other than yes, he missed him game, but reasons other
Speaker 1: than just his induction is just what he means and
Speaker 1: his fight and his grit. And I could have easily
Speaker 1: gone with Roquan Smith, for example, but I went with
Speaker 1: Robert Quinn because he's a different player. We've seen him burst,
Speaker 1: have the explosion, make up ground quickly closed the distance,
Speaker 1: six and a half sacks. He's getting explosive plays in there.
Speaker 1: Would that be fair as well for Robert Quinn. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: And you know, you look at guys like Khalil Mack,
Speaker 1: who unfortunately with the injury hasn't had the production of
Speaker 1: numbers because of not being out there recently, but he
Speaker 1: was off to a hot start too. You can never
Speaker 1: go wrong with Roquan Smith. Roquan Smith's plays some of
Speaker 1: the best football that I've ever seen a middle linebacker
Speaker 1: played a long long time. So that's that's the easy one.
Speaker 1: But with Robert Quinn and what he does, unfortunately, you
Speaker 1: know he had to miss them one week with the
Speaker 1: being in the COVID protocol and stuff. But he's he
Speaker 1: practices hard, he plays hard. He's reminded everybody how good
Speaker 1: of a player he is. Offense has got to know
Speaker 1: at six and a half sack, So you're you're absolutely
Speaker 1: right picking him. Download the Chicago Bears app to play
Speaker 1: our new predictor game, A Risk It brought to you.
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Speaker 1: and fifty dollars in free bets and a custom Bears jersey.
Speaker 1: Matt Naggie with us our final segment with head Coach.
Speaker 1: We're just starting to scratch a service on a real
Speaker 1: quiet Smith. So I think he's playing faster than he
Speaker 1: ever has in his time here. He gets it, He
Speaker 1: triggers quickly, and he's a marauder out there. Tell us
Speaker 1: more about what you see. The one thing Jeff that
Speaker 1: I see starts on Wednesday, goes to Thursday, Friday, Saturday,
Speaker 1: and then finishes on Sunday. Every single rep he is
Speaker 1: in there practicing his tailoff. And you know, I always
Speaker 1: look out and every time in practice, if there's a
Speaker 1: ten play period, he's there for play one through ten
Speaker 1: in practice. That's rare. And so sometimes we have to
Speaker 1: be able to just pull him out and save some
Speaker 1: of his legs and make sure we're keeping an eye
Speaker 1: on apple Key doesn't want to come out. He practices
Speaker 1: how he plays, and he plays how he practices. Um.
Speaker 1: This guy is extremely motivated. He's a football player high
Speaker 1: i Q. He's a missile on the field. UM. And
Speaker 1: he's out to show everybody, um why he is the
Speaker 1: best middle linebacker in the NFL. And we're lucky to
Speaker 1: have him. So, you know, I'm looking forward to the
Speaker 1: rest of this year. Has he always been that way?
Speaker 1: He has? He has, and I think but what happens
Speaker 1: is just like justin as a quarterback, as a rookie,
Speaker 1: when you start playing more, more and more plays throughout
Speaker 1: the season and now here he is in his uh,
Speaker 1: you know, his fourth year, the game slows down. You
Speaker 1: have keys, you have tendencies, you know how to study tape.
Speaker 1: So when you're out there on Sunday, man, you're just
Speaker 1: flying around, you know. And that's what he's doing right now,
Speaker 1: and you're starting to see it. And now it's it's
Speaker 1: only going to get better. That takeaway bucket getting little
Speaker 1: lonely in it. Yeah, it is you're right, and you know,
Speaker 1: and we talk about it, We bring it up, we
Speaker 1: talk about it in practice, you practice it. Um, you
Speaker 1: want to be able to get to that point in
Speaker 1: the game where you can get some turnovers, and that
Speaker 1: is something that usually comes in EBB and flows with
Speaker 1: with how that happens, and so hopefully we'll start to
Speaker 1: see that turn What I don't want to get into
Speaker 1: with that, Jeff, is something where where you start pressing
Speaker 1: right and you're trying to you can't. It'll they'll come.
Speaker 1: They'll come when they come, as long as you talk
Speaker 1: about it, you teach it and and you just take
Speaker 1: it into the game and they'll they'll come up and
Speaker 1: it'll flip the field for the offense and we'll get
Speaker 1: more more scores as well. Yeah, pressing would lead to
Speaker 1: miss tackles and uh, you know, taking some chances you
Speaker 1: don't want to take all. Right, before we get into
Speaker 1: the Baltimore Ravens, Um, we got to talk about Clyde
Speaker 1: Emrick because Clyde Emerick will be later rest this week.
Speaker 1: H meant a lot to me. I'll probably get choked
Speaker 1: up talking about him, but you know, when you think
Speaker 1: about it, he has had an impact on every coach
Speaker 1: from George hallis to you in the history of the
Speaker 1: Chicago Bears from nineteen sixty three when he was first
Speaker 1: introduced to him, in nineteen seventy one when he became
Speaker 1: the head strength and conditioning coach, the first of it's
Speaker 1: kind of the National Football League. What did you learn
Speaker 1: from him? Well, you're right, it's it's a what a
Speaker 1: what an emotional time and just what what a great
Speaker 1: man that you saw around the building all the time,
Speaker 1: always had a smile on his face. The relationships that
Speaker 1: he built with with so many people in the support
Speaker 1: staff that he used to work with, and and um,
Speaker 1: I mean for somebody to be ninety years old like
Speaker 1: he was and be able to be around the building
Speaker 1: and have so much love for his Chicago Bears is special.
Speaker 1: And anybody that you talk to, it doesn't matter whether
Speaker 1: you're in this building or you're outside or on the telephone,
Speaker 1: they all have nothing but positive things to say. And
Speaker 1: how much he impacted them. And obviously to have a nickname,
Speaker 1: the legend, that's pretty special. So um, we all love
Speaker 1: him to death. We prayers, you know, thoughts and prayers
Speaker 1: with his family, and uh, boy, it's it's it's it's
Speaker 1: hard to replace him, for sure. Question about it, all right,
Speaker 1: John Harbaum, Baltimore Ravens. First thing you think of, much
Speaker 1: like the rest of the AFC North, physical toughness, great
Speaker 1: special teams, run the ball. And then you got, oh,
Speaker 1: by the way, a very gifted quarterback, elite athleticism, and
Speaker 1: Lamar Jackson. What are we what are we looking at
Speaker 1: here on Sunday? Yeah, well, first of all, get ready
Speaker 1: to play sixty tough minutes maybe more right. They've had
Speaker 1: some overtime games, three of them, yeah, three exactly three
Speaker 1: of them. So you got to be able to out
Speaker 1: physical a physical football team. This is probably one that's gonna,
Speaker 1: you know, be something where all week long. The emphasis
Speaker 1: of understanding that not just physically but mentally. When you
Speaker 1: have an unbelievable player that touches the football every play
Speaker 1: like Lamar Jackson, that can beat you with his legs
Speaker 1: and his arms. Uh, Schematically, they do a great job
Speaker 1: on offense defensively, have a ton of respect for Wink Martindale.
Speaker 1: He throws a lot of different stuff at you. Special
Speaker 1: teams as coach hardball's thing, and so there's a reason
Speaker 1: why they win a lot and they're consistent doing it,
Speaker 1: so this is this is another one of those fifth fights.
Speaker 1: This is it and we wouldn't want it any other way.
Speaker 1: It's going to challenge us and we just got to
Speaker 1: continue to play together. Miami did a heck of a
Speaker 1: thing against Lamar Jackson. I mean it was at two
Speaker 1: level defense and they loaded up the line and had
Speaker 1: a little picket fence back there and they didn't allow
Speaker 1: them many escape routes. So there are things in there
Speaker 1: that you can use. Well, you know, anytime that you
Speaker 1: see a team have success, you're always going to see, Okay,
Speaker 1: what's the why, and then you got to see how
Speaker 1: it fits with who, what your scheme is, you know,
Speaker 1: and defensively, and then what we want to do. So Sean,
Speaker 1: I'm sure we'll be looking at a lot of different
Speaker 1: things to be able to slow them down and stop
Speaker 1: them and then but our biggest thing is because they're
Speaker 1: such a good football team, is getting back to those
Speaker 1: three phases. But in the end, you know, we lost
Speaker 1: four four games in a row and it's time that
Speaker 1: we that we win against a really good football team
Speaker 1: and that that's going to be the automate focus and
Speaker 1: we gotta be we gotta be strong across the border.
Speaker 1: All right, Matco luck with your preparation this week. We'll
Speaker 1: see soon, all right, Jeffs thanks for as pears head
Speaker 1: coach Mattney coming up neck Bill Laser joins the program.
Speaker 1: The Bears match up with the Ravens, brought to you
Speaker 1: by a signet the official partner of the Bears. Salute
Speaker 1: the service initiatives. Back on the Bears Coaches Show, now
Speaker 1: joined by a Bears offensive coordinator, Bill Laser. Bill, thanks
Speaker 1: for joining us. Do you enjoy your time last week? Yeah?
Speaker 1: It was. The bike usually comes at a good time.
Speaker 1: So regrouped, ready to roll, all right. So as you
Speaker 1: thought about it, As you think about it, now, what
Speaker 1: did you learn about yourself here in the first nine
Speaker 1: games of the year, especially as a play caller. Well,
Speaker 1: I think I think we just uh, we just have
Speaker 1: to keep focused on our number one jobs. Just four
Speaker 1: enough points to wind, you know, and you never know
Speaker 1: going into the game. You have great plans, but you
Speaker 1: also have a big call sheet because games can go
Speaker 1: in a lot of directions. Um, I think I think
Speaker 1: as we look at it, you know, we're we're we
Speaker 1: feel good about some of the run game production that
Speaker 1: we've had. We also have to have to be real
Speaker 1: honest looking in the mirror that uh in some of
Speaker 1: the games, the run game product has been good, but
Speaker 1: it hasn't It hasn't given us enough points to win
Speaker 1: the games. And we again, in the end, that's the key.
Speaker 1: So we just have to keep getting better. We got
Speaker 1: to keep the run game production going. I think it's
Speaker 1: slowed down a little bit some of the stuff in
Speaker 1: the last couple of games, and I think the quarterback
Speaker 1: run has helped add to those add to that number.
Speaker 1: So anyway, we just have to keep rolling. And you know,
Speaker 1: we've been talking about just continuing to get that pass
Speaker 1: game production to rise to to kind of match what
Speaker 1: we're doing in the run game. I think that that'll
Speaker 1: be key for us. Well, what happened in the second half,
Speaker 1: particularly of that game against Pittsburgh, in the moment in
Speaker 1: the crowd, and I brought this up with Matt earlier
Speaker 1: in the show, just God, it gives you so much
Speaker 1: excitement because you know you're you're you're basically five yards
Speaker 1: away from walking off that field a winner, and Justin
Speaker 1: Field has led to the most impressive scoring drive to
Speaker 1: get there. If that would have turned out that way. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think again, you know, the key is winning, and
Speaker 1: we didn't get it done. But if you, if you're
Speaker 1: real honest and look at some of the things that
Speaker 1: justin did that the pass off, stay in the in
Speaker 1: the second half, you have to feel like we made
Speaker 1: some progress. And so we've got to We've had time
Speaker 1: to look at it. We just have to build on it.
Speaker 1: And let's let's start uh at the beginning of the
Speaker 1: game and not have to come back right and then
Speaker 1: in the next the next handful of games. Do you
Speaker 1: do you pour over your decisions like I would be
Speaker 1: in that situation, because that's the kind of guy. Or
Speaker 1: are you an easy guy to turn the page as
Speaker 1: a coach? Well, I think I think they're out. There
Speaker 1: aren't many games that you can come out of and say, gosh,
Speaker 1: this this is the one I didn't like, or this call.
Speaker 1: So I think they're always a handful of calls you
Speaker 1: come out of the game and you just try to
Speaker 1: learn from them, I think more than anything else. You know,
Speaker 1: and as long as you as long as you take
Speaker 1: that mindset, because if you let it each up, well
Speaker 1: you're always going to live that way because it's you
Speaker 1: can't call the perfect game, so you just you just
Speaker 1: learn from learn from what happens, and move to the
Speaker 1: next one. Have you ever let it eat you up?
Speaker 1: And then you learned how not to? I think thinking, uh,
Speaker 1: let's see, this was sixth grade. We were we had
Speaker 1: the lead, okay, and we had the ball backed up
Speaker 1: inside our own five and it was fourth dound. It
Speaker 1: was a tight game in the fourth quarter. And during
Speaker 1: the time out, and went to the sideline and the
Speaker 1: coaches had called display where I was in a fake
Speaker 1: into line and I was a quarterback and I was
Speaker 1: going to keep it like on a naked bootleg, and
Speaker 1: I said, why not take the safety, and they kind
Speaker 1: of gave me, no, no, just shut up, shut up,
Speaker 1: this is what we're gonna do. And so of course
Speaker 1: I got tackled it like the three yard line, and
Speaker 1: then they scored a touchdown and beat us. And I
Speaker 1: just remember afterwards, you know, crying in the shower, just
Speaker 1: I should have just taken the safety. I knew better,
Speaker 1: you know, I knew better. So yeah, it's gotten me sometimes.
Speaker 1: That's that's sixth grade and it's still lingers. I love it.
Speaker 1: That's that's a football guy right there. Attending Sunday's game,
Speaker 1: be sure to stop by the Middle Light Ultimate Tailgate,
Speaker 1: located at the Field Museum for food, games, music, and more,
Speaker 1: free to Bears fans of all wee use. The Ultimate
Speaker 1: tail Gate opens at ten am through one hour post game.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Bears Coaching Show with Bears offensive
Speaker 1: coordinator Bill Laser Justin Fields. You have this elite athlete
Speaker 1: at quarterback. He's young, he's a first round pick. You're
Speaker 1: helping Molden develop this guy on the fly, and the
Speaker 1: responsibility of that but also to the rest of the
Speaker 1: team is also foremost. But that's the most important, most
Speaker 1: important part in sports, right that quarterback position. Do you
Speaker 1: feel all of that every day every week about developing
Speaker 1: and helping this guy get to where he needs to be? Oh,
Speaker 1: I think we just we just feel the fact that
Speaker 1: we've got to win games, and because he's at the
Speaker 1: quarterback spot, where he is in his development is critical
Speaker 1: and how we can win the games, you know. So
Speaker 1: that's that's really what we focus on right now. We're
Speaker 1: just focus on beating the Ravens. And you look at
Speaker 1: the last few games and say, hey, this is where
Speaker 1: Justin is and how can we use that to beat them?
Speaker 1: And that's that's that's it. I mean, that's that's our job.
Speaker 1: How many times have we heard this? Two quarterbacks help
Speaker 1: raise all boats? Is that happening here? Because Cole Commet
Speaker 1: getting more active in the passing game, Alan Robinson last week.
Speaker 1: We have all these weapons, are they Do you feel
Speaker 1: that everything's starting to climb? I know they still haven't
Speaker 1: enough points being scored. You're not winning right this moment,
Speaker 1: but do you feel positive? Well? I think I think
Speaker 1: you got to be realistic, right, we've got a winning
Speaker 1: streak started. I think we know that when the past
Speaker 1: production is in coming that all those pass catchers that
Speaker 1: you're missed that you're mentioning, they're not getting the ball,
Speaker 1: you know. And so I think as coaches, we feel
Speaker 1: all the guys you mentioned, you know, they all want
Speaker 1: to help contribute to winning, and they can in the
Speaker 1: run game that they're blocking, but they also want to
Speaker 1: be able to contribute as far as getting the ball,
Speaker 1: and we want to get in the ball. So I
Speaker 1: think the responsibility we feel is making sure everyone has
Speaker 1: a chance to help win the game and take advantage
Speaker 1: of those matchups. So that's you know, that's part of
Speaker 1: what we're going through right now is making sure we're
Speaker 1: giving those guys opportunities with football. What is the offensive
Speaker 1: line allowing you to do right now? And how do
Speaker 1: you think they've progressed over the course of the season.
Speaker 1: And a little shout out to Jason Peters coming in here,
Speaker 1: you know, thrown in there and at his age and
Speaker 1: experience level, really play well and have that conditioning that
Speaker 1: he did not have in the off season. Well, to me,
Speaker 1: in this league, I think it goes under undernoticed how
Speaker 1: important the line is really. I mean, they don't get
Speaker 1: the publicity. But when they're playing well, you can run
Speaker 1: for first dounds and you can get the ball to
Speaker 1: your receivers because the quarterback has time. And really, those
Speaker 1: to me the keys. You know, you look at the
Speaker 1: Baltimore Ravens and some of the blitz looks that they
Speaker 1: like to bring. I mean, if if we come out
Speaker 1: of this game happy with our production, it will be
Speaker 1: because we've protected the quarterback. I mean that to me
Speaker 1: really is critical. Now. Part of that is being able
Speaker 1: to run it effectively. That helps keep them off balance
Speaker 1: a little bit. If they know your phone that you play,
Speaker 1: you know how they're going to play. So I think
Speaker 1: the way the line plays in everyone else that helps
Speaker 1: and pass protection, it's can be really big this week
Speaker 1: because because of the scheme that we're facing, there was
Speaker 1: a lot of discussion. Obviously, you're adding a bunch of
Speaker 1: burners to the roster, speed at the receiver position, out
Speaker 1: of the backfield, and with Justin now playing quarterback. Have
Speaker 1: you benefited from it enough to your satisfaction or as
Speaker 1: it tilted the field the way you maybe maybe hoped
Speaker 1: it intended to. Well, I think overall we would all
Speaker 1: say that when your past production is so poor that
Speaker 1: you're not getting the ball to those guys enough, and
Speaker 1: we feel like there's way more production there. I think
Speaker 1: one of the things that you look at this pass
Speaker 1: game was our yards per per catch and how that
Speaker 1: really that number really jumped up for us. You know,
Speaker 1: the whole yards per attempt in the past game numbers,
Speaker 1: I think is a real telling number. It's something we've
Speaker 1: struggled with other than in two games this year, and
Speaker 1: so we'd like to build off of those chunk plays
Speaker 1: that we're able to get to those speed ays you mentioned,
Speaker 1: you know, and for fans, you don't get into all
Speaker 1: of that. They just like watching the game and they
Speaker 1: you know, the yards per passed absolutely relates to winning,
Speaker 1: and explain why. Well, whether whether you're a team that
Speaker 1: chooses to throw it forty five times or twenty eight
Speaker 1: times in the game. You know what it does is
Speaker 1: it just measures when you do throw it, you know
Speaker 1: how how effective are you being? And you know it
Speaker 1: takes I think a lot of other factors get taken
Speaker 1: into account, the completion percentage and then where you're throwing
Speaker 1: it down the field. And we know there have been
Speaker 1: times when our targets have been a little bit limited
Speaker 1: as far as spread in the field, and so we're
Speaker 1: trying to do a great job of being aggressive and
Speaker 1: spreading the whole feed yield. And I think as we
Speaker 1: did that a little bit better in this last game,
Speaker 1: it showed up in the production our past Catcher's guy.
Speaker 1: If you combine all the all the math on the
Speaker 1: running backs Damien and Herbert and Montgomery and Justin, you
Speaker 1: put together an eleven hundred plush yard back with eight
Speaker 1: touchdowns and a really good average yards per carry, good
Speaker 1: stuff on first down, and we'd be talking about a guy.
Speaker 1: If that was one back, we'd be talking about him
Speaker 1: as an MVP candidate in the league. Right, So you're
Speaker 1: getting great stuff out of the run game, Montgomery back,
Speaker 1: that effects obviously touches for Herbert. Do you feel you
Speaker 1: could use both in a manner based on matchups that
Speaker 1: that reflect a way to take advantage of them? I
Speaker 1: think so. I think if you're if you're talking about
Speaker 1: individual statistics, the number one way for guys to get
Speaker 1: good individual statistics is to get the lead in the game.
Speaker 1: Time now to look ahead. Brought to you by Bette Rivers,
Speaker 1: the official sports book partner of the Bears. The Ravens
Speaker 1: head to Soldier Field on Sunday after being stumbed by
Speaker 1: the Dolphins twenty two ten last Thursday night. A streak
Speaker 1: of fifty one regular season games with at least fourteen points,
Speaker 1: the second longest streak in NFL history, behind a sixty
Speaker 1: three game run by New England from two thousand and
Speaker 1: nine to two thirteen, came to an end back with
Speaker 1: Bill Laser. That's a bunch of interesting math. Every week
Speaker 1: the league comes out with a bunch of interesting stuff
Speaker 1: that you probably don't pay any attention to. Right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: there isn't when you spend all your time trying to
Speaker 1: make first downs and touchdowns. There isn't time to read
Speaker 1: all that stuff. But the thing you know going in
Speaker 1: is that they that they have some elague players on
Speaker 1: offense that they've they've been very good at scoring points. Again,
Speaker 1: we're focusing on what we have to do to their
Speaker 1: defense to move the ball. But we know what we
Speaker 1: know what kind of what kind of team they have,
Speaker 1: what their record is, you know what their average is,
Speaker 1: and it's our job to be ready for however the
Speaker 1: game goes. And your familiarity, certainly from a from a
Speaker 1: Bengals perspective when you were there, you know what that
Speaker 1: whole division is about, and it is about toughness and
Speaker 1: physicality and pressure in the quarter back. Right Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean this this defense tries what wants to be known
Speaker 1: for for blitz and uh, they'll they'll kind of live
Speaker 1: a little bit in the feast for famine world, and
Speaker 1: they certainly will put the pressure on you to have
Speaker 1: to make the play. They're going to make you prove
Speaker 1: that you can make the play against the blitz and
Speaker 1: pressure situations. That's that's since this coordinator took over, that's
Speaker 1: kind of how how he's operated. Uh, you can tell
Speaker 1: their guys tend to take pride in it and enjoy it.
Speaker 1: They're not afraid to leave DB's on an island out
Speaker 1: there and say, okay, let's let's see if you can
Speaker 1: make the throws. Um. You know, when you look at
Speaker 1: them week to week or some weeks they play a
Speaker 1: lot of man. Some other weeks they decide to play
Speaker 1: some home. So they're they're in their coaches meetings right
Speaker 1: now just like we are. They're deciding how they're going
Speaker 1: to play us. But we know, we know there'll be
Speaker 1: plenty of blitz calls on that on that call sheet
Speaker 1: on game day for him if he chooses to use them.
Speaker 1: All right. Lastly, are there things that Lamar Jackson does
Speaker 1: that Justin you would like Justin to watch and see
Speaker 1: how he attacks? Oh? I don't know. You know, I
Speaker 1: don't know about that. I guess you don't have to
Speaker 1: ask Justin how if he studied them or not. I
Speaker 1: think I just think to me, Justin especially recently has
Speaker 1: shown uh the ability to be an NFL quarterback and
Speaker 1: his ability to play from the pocket, to use play action,
Speaker 1: to throw on time. You know, like we talked about
Speaker 1: this week, he really was able to spread the ball
Speaker 1: across the whole field, and then with his ability to run,
Speaker 1: he also was able to do some things from the
Speaker 1: backfield from the shotgun where he either pulled the ball
Speaker 1: or made decisions to give the ball in some of
Speaker 1: the read game that I thought, you know, was really
Speaker 1: good and put pressure on the defense. So to me,
Speaker 1: all those things are going to keep developing for him,
Speaker 1: you know, and week to weeks to be a little
Speaker 1: bit different. Challenges guys will will they'll be challenging and
Speaker 1: his ability to defeat the blitz and that will be
Speaker 1: the number one thing both and how we protect it
Speaker 1: and then how he handles it. So it'll be interesting
Speaker 1: to see. All right, Bill, good luck with your preparation
Speaker 1: this week. We'll talk to you down the road. Thanks, Jeff,
Speaker 1: appreciate it as Bears offensive coordinator, Bill Laser. Okay, that's
Speaker 1: gonna wrap up tonight's program. Thanks to our producers Andy Gersher,
Speaker 1: Keith Johnson, Katie Tuber, Jordan Trento, and Dan Barelli. Bears
Speaker 1: Ravens Sunday, nine am. The pregame Newing the kickoff from
Speaker 1: Soldier Field. That's going to do it for me. I'm
Speaker 1: Jeff Joniak, thanks for listening to everybody. This has been
Speaker 1: the Bears Coaches Show on news Radio one oh five
Speaker 1: nine WDBBM. Good night, everybody,