Speaker 1: Welcome into another edition of the Bears Coaching Show with
Speaker 1: Bears head coach Manneggie, brought to you by Whippley CPAs
Speaker 1: and consultant Jeff Jonik. With you here until eight o'clock
Speaker 1: tonight on News Radio one h five nine WBBM. Coach
Speaker 1: Nage here until the bottom of the hour, and then
Speaker 1: we turn it over to Special Teams coordinator Chris Tabor.
Speaker 1: We're wrapping up the loss to the Arizona Cardinals that
Speaker 1: sold your field. I hate even saying that because they
Speaker 1: add up and it cannot be fun. It can't be
Speaker 1: fun for anybody. And you know, I guess the big
Speaker 1: question is how does the losing, How is it affecting
Speaker 1: you you personally? And then how do you see it
Speaker 1: affecting your team? Well, I think the biggest thing, you know, Jeff,
Speaker 1: is that you know, for all of us and the players,
Speaker 1: the coaches, everybody, all of us involved in this is
Speaker 1: is uh. You know, you put a lot of time
Speaker 1: and effort into trying to do everything you can on
Speaker 1: that on in those three hours, you know, to come
Speaker 1: out with to win, and you know when you reflect
Speaker 1: back at the game, and I think it's obvious state
Speaker 1: and the obvious that you know, the turnovers out, you know,
Speaker 1: hurt us in that game, so you give a short
Speaker 1: field to the defense and in the end you end
Speaker 1: up losing. You know, you lose a really good football team.
Speaker 1: And all right, so you have the locker room and
Speaker 1: you got to make sure guys understand the whys, and
Speaker 1: then you come in this morning and guys watch tape
Speaker 1: and coaches watch tape, and you got to be able
Speaker 1: to look at solutions. And the biggest thing that we
Speaker 1: can do is just try to figure out how to
Speaker 1: get better, to keep fighting, keep practicing, and then have
Speaker 1: to go out there and minimize those mistakes and play
Speaker 1: better to be able to be the team like Green
Speaker 1: Bay on the road. It's it's a bit of a
Speaker 1: maze when you think about it. I'm sure for a
Speaker 1: head coach, right because you know what works. You know,
Speaker 1: if it's executed, it's going to work. But then you
Speaker 1: got the other side of the ball doing what they do,
Speaker 1: and then you feel good about your plan every week,
Speaker 1: and then it still doesn't result in the outcome you
Speaker 1: look for, so you keep getting stopped by that maze.
Speaker 1: If you think about it, that has to be one
Speaker 1: of the most underrated aspects of being a head coach
Speaker 1: when you're not successful. Yeah, no, no, I would agree
Speaker 1: with that. I think you know, you look back at
Speaker 1: that game yesterday and you know, you come out and
Speaker 1: it's you. You get to football, and you get to
Speaker 1: a third down and you know, we got man coverage
Speaker 1: and everything's there. And you know, again, Andy has been
Speaker 1: absolutely phenomenal this entire time. Uh, just with accuracy and
Speaker 1: just putting us in good situations last a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks and just coming in with no reps against Detroit,
Speaker 1: and you know, he's played a lot of games, You've
Speaker 1: seen a lot of different coverages, and it was definitely
Speaker 1: a little slick in that first quarter, and I think
Speaker 1: the ball just got away from him a little bit
Speaker 1: and it went hid behind the team and unfortunately, right
Speaker 1: into the hands of their defender. And so three plays
Speaker 1: in you have an interception and great field position for
Speaker 1: the best offense in the NFL. And that's how it starts,
Speaker 1: you know. And then and then you hold them and
Speaker 1: you get to the fourth and two and now they
Speaker 1: make a hell of a throw, a hell of a
Speaker 1: catch and they score a touchdown. And so now that's
Speaker 1: not how you want to start. So now you got
Speaker 1: to recover from that. And now you go down the
Speaker 1: field and whatever plays in the twelve plays, and now
Speaker 1: you have another pick and it's returned sixty yards down
Speaker 1: to inside you know, the twenty yard line, and now
Speaker 1: they score again, and so before you know it, it's
Speaker 1: fourteen to nothing. And it's just like you said, like
Speaker 1: against great teams the Buccaneers game Tampa back, same thing happened. Turnovers,
Speaker 1: short field touchdowns. You cannot do that against these great teams.
Speaker 1: You really can't do it at all. But against these teams,
Speaker 1: they will make you peck. And so now we are
Speaker 1: in recovery mode and we try to keep it, you know,
Speaker 1: to a little closer and and it just ended up
Speaker 1: in the end getting us. And it's like following the
Speaker 1: bouncing ball. It's not bouncing your way, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: there's deflections, there's tip passes, there's catch Cole Commet could
Speaker 1: have made Rold hit the ground boom pops in the
Speaker 1: hands of Buddha Baker as you just outlined, Do you
Speaker 1: feel that you just throw your hands up sometimes? Yeah, No,
Speaker 1: you're right, I mean you definitely when the ball isn't
Speaker 1: bouncing your way, it's just like, geez, you know, this
Speaker 1: is just absolutely crazy. But at the same point in time,
Speaker 1: when you know you have guys that care, that are
Speaker 1: playing hard. I mean, just go and look at that
Speaker 1: goal line standard that our defense had when they had
Speaker 1: the ball inside the two yard line and we held
Speaker 1: them to a field goal on a sudden change. You know,
Speaker 1: like that to me, right there shows on that third
Speaker 1: and goal they ended up losing a few yards that
Speaker 1: the guys are really really you know, doing everything they can,
Speaker 1: even with the ball bounce in a certain way to
Speaker 1: keep the game to where we have a chance to win.
Speaker 1: And yesterday I think, you know, Jeff, we always talk
Speaker 1: about complimentary football. Well, yesterday was an interception that led
Speaker 1: to a touchdown, another interception that led to another touchdown,
Speaker 1: and then the defense gets a three and out and
Speaker 1: the offense goes three and out. The defense gets to
Speaker 1: three and out, the offense goes three and out. There
Speaker 1: was no consistency to complimentary football, and that's what we're
Speaker 1: striving for. So as a coach, when you look at
Speaker 1: that and you see that, you want to do everything
Speaker 1: you can to put them in great situations, but be
Speaker 1: able to teach them you know, you know, how did
Speaker 1: that happen? And that's that's where we're at. And now
Speaker 1: in the NFL you got to reset really quickly, and
Speaker 1: you got to look at the tape and you got
Speaker 1: to get back at it. And now here we are
Speaker 1: getting ready for green back. That's the perplexing part of
Speaker 1: it for people, i'd imagine, because they want to hear
Speaker 1: answers to solutions and for solutions, but the problem is
Speaker 1: that there's only one answer. The answer is, just like
Speaker 1: you said, you got to roll up your sleeves and
Speaker 1: go back to work, no matter where you're at, no
Speaker 1: matter what the season is looking like, no matter what's ahead.
Speaker 1: And that answer is sometimes hard to digest. But what
Speaker 1: else are you supposed to do? Yeah? No, that's all
Speaker 1: you can do. And then then there's the dynamic of
Speaker 1: making sure that the players understand that too. Is um
Speaker 1: is how important it is for them that they you know,
Speaker 1: they come out and they put together a great mindset
Speaker 1: of practice, great practice reps, and then they come out
Speaker 1: and they get to do it again. We're all very
Speaker 1: fortunate that we're in this profession to be able to
Speaker 1: play a great, great game, coach a great game, and
Speaker 1: and and you know, so I think it's important that
Speaker 1: they know that, our guys know that, our coaches know it,
Speaker 1: and and now, um, we just gotta we gotta keep fighting. Man.
Speaker 1: I know it sounds monotonous, but it's real and that's
Speaker 1: all we can do. Okay's the thing. You did. Move
Speaker 1: the ball. You got a lot of first downs and
Speaker 1: fishing in the red zone on the clock. We talked
Speaker 1: about this in the postgame interview. Ran a lot of
Speaker 1: place four fourth down conversions, a two point conversion, ten
Speaker 1: of nine on third and fourth down combined. You take
Speaker 1: all of that to have just those four plays taken
Speaker 1: out of the out of the equation, because yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: that's that's it. That's that's basically yesterday's game in a
Speaker 1: nutshell is that. And you know, you go ahead and
Speaker 1: you have you have a plan, and you put it
Speaker 1: together and the guys execute it. But in the end, turnovers,
Speaker 1: I mean, that's one of the biggest stats is that
Speaker 1: takeaway turnover margin in the NFL. If you get takeaways
Speaker 1: and you don't give the ball up, you'll win a
Speaker 1: lot of games. And you know, we we gotta start
Speaker 1: getting more takeaways on defense, and we got to start
Speaker 1: protect a more on offense. How he is Andy Dalton's
Speaker 1: non throwing hand apparently injured on a tackle. Yeah, he
Speaker 1: injured on the on the tackle on the second interception.
Speaker 1: And so we're we're getting to look at this morning
Speaker 1: and now these guys are working through it and continue
Speaker 1: to just kind of see like where he's at and
Speaker 1: how that goes. But I think he's tough now, you know,
Speaker 1: for him to be able to play through that's that's
Speaker 1: never fun when you hurt your hand, whether it's your
Speaker 1: non throwing hand or you're throwing hand. And will continue
Speaker 1: to just kind of keep an eye on it throughout
Speaker 1: the weeks. And here's a snap on the end around
Speaker 1: from Montgomery, a flip back that Dalton breaks the tackle
Speaker 1: of the police clicker. He got granted sort of the
Speaker 1: forty yard line to the thirty had brought down from
Speaker 1: behind by Simon and to pick up a thirty three
Speaker 1: how a first down throw by Andy Dalton and Jakine Grant.
Speaker 1: Come back to the Bears Coaching Show brought to you
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Speaker 1: Chicago Bears. Learn more at whippleet dot Com just heard
Speaker 1: the gadget play. That was the wildcat, a fly sweet
Speaker 1: to Andy Dalton to throw over the top in a
Speaker 1: very difficulty with a guy in his face and ducking
Speaker 1: out of that tackle. Break that one down, will you.
Speaker 1: It was the same play that we ran in the
Speaker 1: Saints in the playoff game last year, and so the
Speaker 1: difference was we had Andy had to go ahead and
Speaker 1: make a guy miss. A guy made a good play
Speaker 1: in the backfield, and Andy did a wonderful job of
Speaker 1: making the guy miss and still reset and throwing accurate
Speaker 1: ball down the sidelines to g tem Grant. So you know,
Speaker 1: Mooney was number one in the progression and maybe if
Speaker 1: he had time he would have give him to the shop,
Speaker 1: but he basically reset to his number two, which was
Speaker 1: Kim And I thought it was a really a great
Speaker 1: job by by Andy. And this guy's all right. No
Speaker 1: other major injuries yesterday of concern, it appears, but justin
Speaker 1: fields I'm going discussion and you mentioned this morning Payne
Speaker 1: tolerance will be the key on his availability. There's no
Speaker 1: way to determine that at this point. Yeah, there's not
Speaker 1: other than you know, taking some bags and maybe you know,
Speaker 1: you know, with the bags and hitting them a little bit.
Speaker 1: But he's tough and and we just got to listen
Speaker 1: to our trainers and to him and see where he's
Speaker 1: at for this week. But uh, you knows, he's Like
Speaker 1: I said this morning, everything that we'll do will be
Speaker 1: out of pure safety for him and then make the
Speaker 1: best decision for the team. There's a bunch of guys
Speaker 1: that are out, you know, Damian Williams, a Mark, He's
Speaker 1: good Win a Key, Mario Edwards. These are there any
Speaker 1: potentials of return? I hope so I think, you know,
Speaker 1: to each our own, but I do feel like where
Speaker 1: those guys are at that some of those guys will
Speaker 1: have a good chance at being back. You know, we'll
Speaker 1: always we'll get together, whether it's later on tonight or
Speaker 1: whether it's tomorrow. And we continue to talk through each
Speaker 1: day literally with these guys, and they're all changing, they're
Speaker 1: all a little bit different, and it gives us an
Speaker 1: idea game plan wise as to who we're going to
Speaker 1: have and not have. But every one of those guys
Speaker 1: is fighting like hell to get back. Well, when a
Speaker 1: guy like kind of Murray's on the field, you want
Speaker 1: a guy like real Quant Smith on the field. So
Speaker 1: he could not have been a hundred percent. There's no way.
Speaker 1: But this guy's got an attitude right now of of
Speaker 1: dominance and leadership. And I think about that third and
Speaker 1: seven or he took off off the edge and here
Speaker 1: comes ro Quon. He beat him, He beat him there,
Speaker 1: forced him to a out of bounds two yards. You
Speaker 1: have a first down. Talk about that play and what
Speaker 1: Roquan at less than one hundred percent what he gave
Speaker 1: effort effort wise on that play. You know we're in
Speaker 1: man coverage on that play, and Kyler is always going
Speaker 1: to be a threat to use his legs if it's
Speaker 1: not there, And yeah, that's what he did. You know,
Speaker 1: he got outside into pocket, and I thought Roquan showed
Speaker 1: his ability to be able to use a great angle
Speaker 1: to make him go out of bounds. And there's some
Speaker 1: linebackers you're going to run away from. Roquon's not one,
Speaker 1: even coming off of a hamstring. So the other part
Speaker 1: of that too, The first part of your question is
Speaker 1: I think that speaks to who Roquan is as a
Speaker 1: person and as a leader of this defense. Is him
Speaker 1: being able to do everything he can to get backed
Speaker 1: u and be there first guys, was pretty cool. Overall
Speaker 1: the defense. Now, last four opponents, they've given up two
Speaker 1: eighty two ninety nine, two thirty nine, two fifty seven.
Speaker 1: I think you would take that very much. Now, it's
Speaker 1: not all about yards. Obviously, there were some things that
Speaker 1: still need to be corrected and so forth tackling wise.
Speaker 1: But what did you think of how they played kind
Speaker 1: of murray yesterday given the fact that they were putting
Speaker 1: some really difficult situations five times in plus territory and
Speaker 1: the Arizona Cardinals enjoyed a forty nine yard starting for
Speaker 1: their possessions their own forty nine for their game. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: they were. You know when you look at it, Um,
Speaker 1: there was ten total series that that our defense ended
Speaker 1: up having, and um, you know, four in the first half,
Speaker 1: plus the fifth one was at the end of the half,
Speaker 1: and then four at the end of the game or
Speaker 1: the second half with one and in the four minute mode.
Speaker 1: And um, when you look at those eight possessions, I'm
Speaker 1: talking about four of them, Like you said, we're off
Speaker 1: a sudden change, and um, it's it's not easy. You know,
Speaker 1: the ones that that they had the ball in minus territory. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, we held them to a field goal a
Speaker 1: touchdown in two punts. So at the same point in time,
Speaker 1: you know, Sean would tell you, hey, that third possession,
Speaker 1: we gave up a touchdown on a seven play drive,
Speaker 1: the ball starting at the minus twenty six. But they
Speaker 1: played hard situation. I talked about the one in the
Speaker 1: goal line. They fought hard there. The biggest thing, probably, Jeff,
Speaker 1: is you look at some of the third downs and
Speaker 1: fourth downs is them, you know, executing whether it's a touchdown,
Speaker 1: whether it's a big rong, whether it's a scramble. And
Speaker 1: I know that's an emphasis that we want to continue
Speaker 1: to improve on. I want to talk about David Montgomery,
Speaker 1: first of all his day and then what he had
Speaker 1: to say after the game. I want to read a
Speaker 1: quote to you. But first of all, just he was
Speaker 1: a decisive and thunderous back there. Yeah, he had his mindset.
Speaker 1: He's like that every game and not every game that
Speaker 1: you get opportunities that it goes your way like that.
Speaker 1: But I thought you really felt the persistence of him
Speaker 1: running hard, vertically, breaking tackles. And then in the past
Speaker 1: game too, you know, catch a ball in the flat
Speaker 1: straight arm or guy get vertical, get extra yard yards
Speaker 1: after contact. That's who he is. Doesn't shock me. He's
Speaker 1: like that way in practice, and he's been that way
Speaker 1: ever since he's been here. Half a handoff off the
Speaker 1: right saxomatic to the forty five of the turners for
Speaker 1: the forty still rolling. It's the thirty. David Montgomery, not
Speaker 1: to be denied. I had a big first half of
Speaker 1: the Bears download the Chicago Bears have to play our
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Speaker 1: in free bets and a customed Bears Jersey. Just heard
Speaker 1: a big run of twenty four yards by David Montgomery
Speaker 1: out of the break. We're talking about David's performance, but
Speaker 1: I want to talk about what he said at the
Speaker 1: podium yesterday for eight minutes. I don't know if you
Speaker 1: watch it, I don't know if you read any of
Speaker 1: the quotes, but I'm going to kind of summarize what
Speaker 1: he said, and basically, it's about the dream of getting here,
Speaker 1: always wanting to be a professional athlete in this game.
Speaker 1: He goes, I'm here, and as you learn when you
Speaker 1: get to the NFL, it's all predicated off wins and losses.
Speaker 1: But in the midst of it, you tend to forget
Speaker 1: why you do what you do, You forget who you
Speaker 1: do it. For a lot of times, you got to
Speaker 1: take a step back and understand that I was a
Speaker 1: little kid playing this game. I started playing this game,
Speaker 1: and you get to get back to the basics of
Speaker 1: just having fun with regardless of how it looks, even
Speaker 1: when it's darker, as dark as it may seem, you
Speaker 1: still got to understand that it's still a game. But
Speaker 1: in addition to that, he says, I can look at
Speaker 1: basically look in the eyes and these players. Nobody's going
Speaker 1: to give up, and he's not gonna let him. Can
Speaker 1: that attitude that he has, and I know you know
Speaker 1: him so well that you know his attitude, can it
Speaker 1: rub off everyone in that locker room? Could Rokuan's attitude
Speaker 1: rub off on everyone in the locker room even in
Speaker 1: these dark times with five to go, there's no doubt
Speaker 1: about it. And as a coach, when you hear those
Speaker 1: words and when you know how real and authentic they are,
Speaker 1: makes you proud because you know this is He's family
Speaker 1: and no matter what the record is, no matter where
Speaker 1: you're at no matter how hard things get. I think
Speaker 1: it speaks volumes to who we have in this building.
Speaker 1: And guys like him, they really when you know that,
Speaker 1: they fight and they don't care about what's going on.
Speaker 1: They control with taking control and they give it everything
Speaker 1: they got. That's who he is and you'll never be
Speaker 1: able to take that away from him. And championship teams
Speaker 1: when you have that, when you have David Montgomery's, you
Speaker 1: win a lot of games, You win a lot of
Speaker 1: Super Bowls, and whatever sport it is, you win because
Speaker 1: they fight and they never quit. And I think you
Speaker 1: guys probably saw a piece of who he is yesterday
Speaker 1: in a tough loss. But at the same point in time,
Speaker 1: that's not going to affect how he practices. It's not
Speaker 1: going to change whether we win five in a row
Speaker 1: or lose five in a row. He is who he
Speaker 1: is and as a coach, that's all you can ask for,
Speaker 1: and you appreciate that. And you know there's gonna be
Speaker 1: a ton of questions obviously in these final weeks about
Speaker 1: you know, how do you play guys? Do you want
Speaker 1: to exhaust your roster just to see what you got?
Speaker 1: You know, it's always this tug of war when when
Speaker 1: things aren't going well about those types of questions, how
Speaker 1: do you approach this, you know, even like with the
Speaker 1: Tevin Jenkins questions this morning about you know, working him
Speaker 1: into the mix somehow, some way got his feet what
Speaker 1: yesterday on special teams? How do you approach that with
Speaker 1: your guys, because again you have a lot of people
Speaker 1: to answer to, including yourself. Sure, No, I mean the
Speaker 1: easy way to think of it is you need to
Speaker 1: do whatever you can do to win. I mean, no
Speaker 1: matter what the situation is in any year, it's your
Speaker 1: job when you go out there on Sunday or whatever
Speaker 1: day it is, is to win. And you just keep
Speaker 1: it super simple. And so you understand the questions and
Speaker 1: you understand every scenario that's asked. But at the same
Speaker 1: point in time, we all need to do what's best
Speaker 1: for this team to win and for these players, coaches,
Speaker 1: everybody else to win each week. And so every scenario
Speaker 1: is a little bit different. And Tevin has done a
Speaker 1: great job at doing what he can do and we'll
Speaker 1: continue to work through that. And I know it's brought
Speaker 1: up also about justin if he does get down the
Speaker 1: field here and maybe even on Sunday night. What are
Speaker 1: your expectations based on what's happened here with those couple
Speaker 1: of games when he started to really get it a
Speaker 1: little bit for you. Yeah, yeah, there's excitement because you
Speaker 1: really felt where he was going. You felt his growth,
Speaker 1: you felt him getting better situation when you felt him
Speaker 1: getting better confidence wise, you felt him getting better in practice.
Speaker 1: So we'll see where he's at health wise, and if
Speaker 1: he is able to go, Like I said, you know,
Speaker 1: he's the starter. When he's healthy, they'll be the starter.
Speaker 1: So we gotta figure out where that's at. And then
Speaker 1: as as as coaches, regardless of who the quarterback is,
Speaker 1: we got to decide how the game plan goes. And uh,
Speaker 1: you know it's a common opponent that we know, big
Speaker 1: rivalry here with with Green Bay and um, you know,
Speaker 1: so we'll make sure that we're doing everything we can
Speaker 1: to put ourselves in the best position possible. Any team
Speaker 1: plays the Packers, how do you stop Aaron Rodgers? It's
Speaker 1: the unending question with a great quarterback, a future Hall
Speaker 1: of Famer. Do you come up with new ideas or
Speaker 1: just keep pounding the rock? What do you do? Yeah? No,
Speaker 1: I mean that's a that's definitely the million dollar question
Speaker 1: for every defensive coordinator, offensive coordinator, head coach, special teams.
Speaker 1: You know, when you're talking about one of the greatest
Speaker 1: quarterbacks to ever play the game, Um, you know you
Speaker 1: can understand that you and we have to be really
Speaker 1: really good in a lot of different phases whatever that is.
Speaker 1: It's just like yesterday, when you play a great offense,
Speaker 1: you got to be sharp. And so we can't beat ourselves.
Speaker 1: We got to make sure that we play good football
Speaker 1: where Chris, we don't turn the ball over, because one
Speaker 1: thing we do know about Aaron Rodgers is he's is
Speaker 1: not turning football over. So we gotta we gotta make
Speaker 1: sure that that turnover battle, uh, that we keep it
Speaker 1: even or win it. Uh. And and know that we'll
Speaker 1: put together a plan to do everything we can for that.
Speaker 1: And right now, be willing to tackle aj Dillon because
Speaker 1: he's getting the ball in two hundred forty seven pound
Speaker 1: he's a big man and you know, down downhill runner
Speaker 1: and they know that, and I don't think they care that.
Speaker 1: You know, it's a matter of stopping him. And he's
Speaker 1: from the waist down, you know, his he is his
Speaker 1: he's got tree trunk legs and he's he's something else,
Speaker 1: so we gotta be able to be good there too.
Speaker 1: All right, man, good luck with their preparation. We will
Speaker 1: talk to you soon. Thanks Jeff. See you come watch
Speaker 1: the Bears game at Real Time Sports at Elk Grove
Speaker 1: Village on Sunday night of this week's official Miller Lank
Speaker 1: Chicago Bears Watch Party. Visit Chicago Bears dot com slash
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Speaker 1: the Bears Coaches Show here on WBBM. It's brought to
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Speaker 1: Chris Tabor. Chris, thanks for joining the program. Let's start
Speaker 1: with the conditions. Yesterday. We were eyeballing we always do
Speaker 1: time and I sitting up there in the booth looking
Speaker 1: pregame at the opposing kickers, and we felt Matt Prater
Speaker 1: was a little perplexed at times because it was windy
Speaker 1: one minute and not the next. You know everything you've experienced, well,
Speaker 1: how would you rate the conditions yesterday from the playing
Speaker 1: surface to the wind conditions over the course of the
Speaker 1: game and how it affected things are not? Well, I'll
Speaker 1: tell you what to be honest with you, the playing
Speaker 1: surface was excellent. They had they had rested after the
Speaker 1: Baltimore game and in the middle there, you know, the
Speaker 1: middle out to the hash out to the numbers, it
Speaker 1: was the turf was tight. It was good. It was
Speaker 1: it was good playing conditions. But the wind that was
Speaker 1: tough yesterday. The one thing about it, it it was consistent
Speaker 1: with regards to going towards their bench, but I kind
Speaker 1: of felt like it kind of fluctuated a little bit
Speaker 1: whether it was going to ours tunnel or to the
Speaker 1: other end zone there. So it did present some problems
Speaker 1: and Prayter were you know, he kind of visited with
Speaker 1: us in pre game there. He was trying to figure
Speaker 1: it out. Obviously, we don't give him any answers. I
Speaker 1: just tell him good luck. But you know, Cairo had
Speaker 1: a great warm up and you know we didn't you know,
Speaker 1: we scored a lot of touchdowns there and we didn't
Speaker 1: get no field goals. So but he struck the ball
Speaker 1: real well pre game, so it felt confident about him,
Speaker 1: uh hitting there. We went down on Friday and so
Speaker 1: we were able to experience the turf and all those things.
Speaker 1: But on Friday that it was very calm in the stadium. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's interesting because some people wrapped down the turf assuming
Speaker 1: it was bad just from the purchase where they right from.
Speaker 1: But because it was brown down the middle, you think
Speaker 1: it oh boy, you know, but it's good to hear
Speaker 1: that that was not the case. No, it really, it
Speaker 1: really was good. And uh it actually seemed like it
Speaker 1: was cut lower than what it usually is, and uh
Speaker 1: it was nice. I thought. I thought the playing conditions
Speaker 1: the field were good. All right, So Killotle Hilbert back
Speaker 1: there on I kick returned plate to his average, you know,
Speaker 1: in a couple of returns he had, and then keeping
Speaker 1: Jachim on pont Ratona, he had one. The thinking behind
Speaker 1: that just because more involvement in the offense with Grant Ort.
Speaker 1: Just need to see the rookie do his thing. No,
Speaker 1: I think I think that, Uh, I think that I
Speaker 1: have two good kick returners. I really do. I you know,
Speaker 1: I know Jachim is you know, wherever he's at in
Speaker 1: the league, he's up there. And before Herbs before you know,
Speaker 1: became the more of a feature back. You know, he
Speaker 1: was a top five guy, and uh, he just he
Speaker 1: runs hard, He does a good job. He hasn't. He
Speaker 1: has the natural vision that you see on offense. And
Speaker 1: then the other thing about him is is as a
Speaker 1: kick returner, when he gets hit, the yaks that he
Speaker 1: has after that, he might he might get hit at
Speaker 1: the twenty two, but he's gonna finish at the thirty.
Speaker 1: And I just think he's he's doing a nice job,
Speaker 1: and he's getting more confident and he loves it. He actually, uh,
Speaker 1: we were in a meeting when he was the feature
Speaker 1: back there and I had he sits next to me
Speaker 1: in a team meeting and I said, hey, I said,
Speaker 1: you haven't done anything wrong, but you're just gonna get
Speaker 1: more carries back there. So, uh, you know, no kick
Speaker 1: returns this week. And he looked at me. No kick returns.
Speaker 1: He he was, I can still do that, And I said, well, kid,
Speaker 1: I said, this is kind of how the NFL works, okay,
Speaker 1: and we'll just kind of keep going through it. But
Speaker 1: don't worry. You're still going to practice it. You're still
Speaker 1: gonna get reps at it. You're still gonna be every
Speaker 1: meeting because there's gonna come a point in time where
Speaker 1: you're gonna be doing it again. And and it's rearing
Speaker 1: its head right now. Has he been asking since then
Speaker 1: for more opportunity? Oh, he always wants to play. Yeah
Speaker 1: I will. I will say that attitude. You want that attitude? No, no,
Speaker 1: I do. And he'll even say that in the cover phases.
Speaker 1: Also he'll if I think that, you know, you know,
Speaker 1: Dave's playing and Herbs is at the number two spot
Speaker 1: there and just kind of watching as the game's going.
Speaker 1: I mean, I I'll sometimes feel a tug on my
Speaker 1: shirt say coach, I'm I can go, just put put
Speaker 1: me in. So I really, I really do appreciate that
Speaker 1: about him because that's a it's a player that didn't
Speaker 1: play a lot of special teams in college. And I
Speaker 1: mean he's running down on kickoff, he plays on the punts,
Speaker 1: you know obviously the kick return, and he plays on
Speaker 1: part he's he's a four faced player that we've just
Speaker 1: kind of see grown. You know, he's grew from training
Speaker 1: camp to where he's at now. So hopefully we just
Speaker 1: kind of keep him on that upward trajectory. Back at
Speaker 1: the Bears Coaches Show with Bears Special teams coordinator Chris
Speaker 1: taber So, like single game Bears tickets are available, Cheer
Speaker 1: out of the Monsters in the midway live at Soldier
Speaker 1: Field this season. Visit Chicago Bears dot com slash tickets
Speaker 1: for more information. Chris, let's talk about the kickers yesterday,
Speaker 1: Patrick O'Donnell two for forty five and a half, one
Speaker 1: inside the twenty and along of fifty three. Again not
Speaker 1: a lot of action, but again, yeah, he's had I
Speaker 1: think what twenty two I want to say, punts with
Speaker 1: zero return yards this year, something like that. And that's
Speaker 1: been in his wheelhouse over the years. He's had some
Speaker 1: really good years in that kind and you'd love to
Speaker 1: see that. No, I do, because you know, I know
Speaker 1: that we're not we're where we want to be at
Speaker 1: this time with regards to return yardage against US and
Speaker 1: and I think I said it probably a few weeks ago,
Speaker 1: maybe at the eight game mark. You know, we're just
Speaker 1: trying to chip away at that, and we're starting to
Speaker 1: do that the last few weeks of keeping guys in
Speaker 1: single digits, and uh, that's that's a testament to Pat,
Speaker 1: that's a testament to the gunners and the and the
Speaker 1: obviously the inside corps getting down there. But no past
Speaker 1: doing a nice job. And yesterday wasn't easy, wasn't an
Speaker 1: easy day just with regards to you know, as simple
Speaker 1: as you know, people say, well, the drop, you know,
Speaker 1: and the wind's blowing right to left or left or
Speaker 1: right whichever where you're going, and it's pushing it, and
Speaker 1: you could you know, you could shank one off the
Speaker 1: side of your foot and those type of things. So, uh,
Speaker 1: Fortunately he's a guy that's been here a long time
Speaker 1: and understands how Soldier field plays and and has some
Speaker 1: tools in his in his bag that he can go
Speaker 1: to and says, Okay, hey, this is how it's how
Speaker 1: the winds playing today. This is what I need to hit.
Speaker 1: This is how we can still be effective of eliminating
Speaker 1: the returner. Because obviously that kid the more key. He's
Speaker 1: explosive player, you know, and uh, you know, I'm glad
Speaker 1: that he only had whatever one return for no yard,
Speaker 1: so we'll always take that. It's Rondelle More, the rookie
Speaker 1: out of Purdue, YEP, exciting player. Indeed, I did have
Speaker 1: a couple of kick returns overall on coverage your you
Speaker 1: guys yesterday. Caleb Johnson, Joel Yea Booney Way already burns.
Speaker 1: Christian Jones credited with tackles I'm sure, you you look
Speaker 1: at that a little differently sometimes when you watch the tape.
Speaker 1: But how did that all turn out yesterday? No, I
Speaker 1: thought they did a nice job. I think the thing
Speaker 1: that sets us up, you know, right out of the
Speaker 1: gate obviously, is on our kickoff coverage. You know, Cairo
Speaker 1: does a nice job of moving the football and the
Speaker 1: thing that I loved about him yesterday, everything's blowing towards
Speaker 1: their sideline. But I think it was right there and
Speaker 1: I can't remember the end of the third quarter. Quarter. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was excellent, and we kicked out. We kicked opposite
Speaker 1: of what the win was doing because we out like
Speaker 1: that he could do that, and I think that's you know,
Speaker 1: that's it helps us because we go down to Soldier
Speaker 1: Field and everything tells you should go over there, but
Speaker 1: he goes coach, I can play it the way it's
Speaker 1: blown right now, I can play it and put it
Speaker 1: over there, and we said, all right, let's play it.
Speaker 1: Let's go. And it turned out great for us because
Speaker 1: they had a counter return on us that they were
Speaker 1: going to try to hit and we actually ended up
Speaker 1: kicking it to where they wanted to go. So everything
Speaker 1: worked out in our favor on that, So that was good.
Speaker 1: But it's nice to be able to have guys be
Speaker 1: able to kick the ball like that and then the
Speaker 1: coverage guy's understanding that they have a lot of faith
Speaker 1: of where he's going to put the football and kind
Speaker 1: of shrink the field and give us a chance to
Speaker 1: kind of corral a really good player and not let
Speaker 1: him play out in open space. Is Caleb we now
Speaker 1: put him in the category because he was from a
Speaker 1: small school, obviously a lot to learn. Is he a
Speaker 1: rising player? I think that his arrow is definitely up,
Speaker 1: And I think it's been up every you know, every
Speaker 1: game he's got, he's gotten better. The thing that I
Speaker 1: love about the kid is, well, you know, we're gonna
Speaker 1: stay after practice and we're going to focus on one
Speaker 1: thing to try to get a little bit better at.
Speaker 1: And I always say, that's just put an extra You're you're, you're,
Speaker 1: you're putting money in the bank. And I said, we're
Speaker 1: gonna have to pull some of that out later on
Speaker 1: game day. I said, but at least we're making deposits
Speaker 1: during the week and just kind of building confidence in
Speaker 1: the techniques that we're that we're teaching. But he's been
Speaker 1: he's been a player that if he makes a mistake,
Speaker 1: he's really good at correcting it and not making the
Speaker 1: same mistake twice. And I always tell young players, if
Speaker 1: you can be that player, uh, you can play a
Speaker 1: lot faster and a lot longer in this league. Keep
Speaker 1: making the same mistakes over and over again, then people
Speaker 1: are going to ask you to go maybe try your
Speaker 1: skill set it with another team. You've had a rotation
Speaker 1: of captains since you know, that's what Matt chooses won
Speaker 1: from each phase of the team. So are there any
Speaker 1: new leaders emerging, uh, you know that can compare favorably
Speaker 1: to what we've had over the years. And a guy
Speaker 1: like Sherrick mcmanuson and some other guys that have come
Speaker 1: through here under your watch. Oh yeah, DHC is uh
Speaker 1: And I always said that's a that's a gift. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a give but but you know, I mean, um,
Speaker 1: you know we have we have other guys in there,
Speaker 1: uh you know iggy Uh guys, there's uh Christian Jones
Speaker 1: as has been a guy that's that steps right, just
Speaker 1: does his job and places physical and does all the
Speaker 1: things that we asked him to do. Um. The thing
Speaker 1: that I like about our room uh and being People
Speaker 1: don't see it. But when when we meet, uh, guys,
Speaker 1: they hold they hold each other accountable, and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: we we didn't feel like that. We played very well
Speaker 1: in the kick return game in Detroit. We we had
Speaker 1: some mental airs, stuff that self inflicted stuff that we
Speaker 1: did to ourselves, and we went into this game saying,
Speaker 1: you know what, let's clean that stuff up. This is
Speaker 1: a good cover team, but they're you know, they're not
Speaker 1: getting us inside the twenty, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And when we take our shot on goal, get our return,
Speaker 1: let's deliver them to the twenty and then from there
Speaker 1: we're going to start working. And I thought the guy,
Speaker 1: I thought, we took a step in the right direction.
Speaker 1: We're not where we need to be, and then, you know,
Speaker 1: but hopefully we can grow on that effort into this
Speaker 1: Green Bay game. Final moments with Bear Special Teams coordinator
Speaker 1: Chris Tabor here on the Bears Coaches Show, and we'll
Speaker 1: look ahead of the Green Bay Packers in a moment
Speaker 1: a couple of quick things. Cairo Santos on the on
Speaker 1: side kick track, I said, it looked like a Sausa
Speaker 1: dancer out there, going back and forth trying to get
Speaker 1: some movement, you know, with with with their return team
Speaker 1: showing one way and then you know what we try
Speaker 1: to say, kind of pull the string on them a
Speaker 1: little bit and so that hopefully when the ball gets down,
Speaker 1: you're just trying to create a little bit more space.
Speaker 1: Still tough play to recover, I think I saw last
Speaker 1: night on Sunday Night Football, although I did see, I
Speaker 1: think the percentage might be up to about eleven percent,
Speaker 1: which in the past is really about on par you know,
Speaker 1: it's about it's usually about twelve percent, I think is
Speaker 1: where the league would try to to see it go too,
Speaker 1: So they are getting closer to that. But still a
Speaker 1: tough play. But yes, it was. It was the salsa
Speaker 1: wide left. Maybe that's the name of the play. I
Speaker 1: don't know any reason in your opinion that no punt
Speaker 1: return touchdowns in the National Football League this season. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go probably quirk. I will also say this, I
Speaker 1: think the punters are becoming very skilled at what they do,
Speaker 1: you know, with regards to placement and hang time, and
Speaker 1: then the resources that you have out at gunner, you know,
Speaker 1: and what are you gonna do on on that? So
Speaker 1: I think there's a lot of factors. But yeah, that
Speaker 1: does shock me. I mean, there's already been a few
Speaker 1: kick return touchdowns. The kid from Minnesota already has two.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about him at a later date. I don't
Speaker 1: want to talk about him right now. He's a really
Speaker 1: good players from your all. He's an Iowa States, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: but he's good, yes, good player. But no, that's interesting.
Speaker 1: I realize that Brian Johnson has been on and off
Speaker 1: our practice squad. Kicks the game winner in Washington yesterday.
Speaker 1: You gotta feel good for He's a good kicker, right. Oh,
Speaker 1: I was fired I was fired up for him. Actually,
Speaker 1: it shot him a text after I saw the highlights
Speaker 1: and just tell him we're proud of him. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, but this is what we always say. If
Speaker 1: you're not going to make our team, we want you
Speaker 1: to make somebody else's team. And he texts back, He's said, Coach,
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. You always told me to hit those
Speaker 1: I just can't make them. If it's a team called
Speaker 1: the Bears, I can't make them. And I said, you're right.
Speaker 1: So no, he's a real proud for him. Hopefully he
Speaker 1: can just kind of keep that going, which I believe
Speaker 1: deep down in my hearty camp and ye pineto back
Speaker 1: in the league with the New York Jets as of today.
Speaker 1: Now it's time to look ahead, brought to you by
Speaker 1: Bette Rivers, the official sports book partner of the Bears.
Speaker 1: So what are we looking at with the Green Bay
Speaker 1: Packers as you get ready to go up to lambeau
Speaker 1: Field for yet another primetime matchup ten times in eleven
Speaker 1: years with those guys in their kicking operation and return game. Well,
Speaker 1: obviously they have Mason Crosby who's been obviously one of
Speaker 1: consummate pros in this league, and I know he's They've
Speaker 1: had some misses due to some other things not his fault,
Speaker 1: but they'll you know, they're they're good cover team. They've
Speaker 1: improved since we've played them. But you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: it is it's a rivalry game and that's Uh, this
Speaker 1: is a big game for us, you know, and in
Speaker 1: our world special teams, we need to play well. And
Speaker 1: we're still we're still always chasing what I always call
Speaker 1: the perfect game. And it's it's fun to chase that
Speaker 1: because if you're chasing it, then you're working to get better.
Speaker 1: And that's what we'll kind of keep keep doing here
Speaker 1: as we prepare for these guys. But we gotta we'll
Speaker 1: have our work cutout for us. All right, Well, good luck,
Speaker 1: we have preparation. Chris, appreciate the time as always, Thank you,
Speaker 1: take care and that's gonna do it. For tonight's show,
Speaker 1: I want to thank our producers Keith Johnson, Katie Tuber,
Speaker 1: Dan BURRELLI, and for head coach Matt Naggie and Coach Tabor.
Speaker 1: I'm Jeff Joniak. Will bring you the Bears and Packers
Speaker 1: from lambeau Field. Four o'clock, the pregame show, seven twenty
Speaker 1: the kickoff from lambeau Field. This is News Radio one
Speaker 1: h five nine WBBM. Good night, everybody,