Right justin middle of the field forty five to fifteen.
Bring Russ in front of all leaving lions in his way.
I am Jeff joni yack litz.
Is on, Donny go up?
What was like playing for Coachy boddom Ah.
I don't want to answer any questions like that.
Sixty one yards?
What's Sunday stroll for?
Justin field?
Ye Bears et cetera with the voices of the Chicago Bears Jeff Joniac streak stopping, nail nibbling win by the Bears on the road in prime time. It was far from a masterpiece, but deeply compelling, as the Bears upset the Vikings twelve to ten without scoring a touchdown, Cairo Santos bouncing back from an early misfire to boot four field goals, including the game winner with ten seconds to go in Minnesota with Super Bowl winning Bear guard Tom Thayer.
I'm Jeff joniak and this is Bears et cetera, Episode number thirty seven, Bears three and one primetime this season, four and eight overall, and now have reached the week thirteen by five games to go big time, all of them outdoors and the elements, including three at Soldier Field, including Week fourteen and noon start with the Detroit Lions, and whoever you want to slice it. After an own
four start, the Bears are four and four. They found a way to get five hundred in the last eight games and five games to go, and you never know what's going to happen.
Yeah, I guess now.
I mean, they're still playing with attitude, they're still playing with hustle, they're still playing with fight till the end of the game, and they're making significant improvement in certain areas that gives you really a positive thinking about the future. So I'm happy what I've seen, and I'm kind of glad the season's unfolding where and when it is, because
they played a difficult game in Detroit. They played a difficult game, and talking about the atmosphere in Minnesota, now they have a couple of games on the at home in the cold, and you're going to learn a lot about guys in that role as well. And then you close out the season against the Green Bay Packers from a team that you played the first week of the season, and so I think you're gonna learn a lot about your football team.
No question, and no matter how it unfolded big time. Justin Fields lost two fumbles in the fourth quarter, but resiliently fought back to put that out of his mind make the biggest play summer, saying the biggest play in his career a thirty six yard strike to DJ Moore, who took advantage of the coverage that the longest play of the game on that dagger route and set up
Santos for the thirty yard field goal for the win. So, after going twelve for twelve to start the day and moving the football again but not abble to put in the end zone, it's still managing to get the win. I granted you should when you take the ballaway four times, but I got to give Justin credit there. He stepped up and zipped that throw, And in fact, there were two throws on that drive, the sixteen yarder, and he was a little bit Hoho Dini all day.
Yeah.
So the end result and that throw to Dj Moore, it leaves a really good feeling.
About what Justin's capable.
But unfortunately, as a player, as a coach, as a broadcaster, and as an evaluator, you don't only get a chance to watch one play.
You have to watch the whole game.
So there there are different plays within that game that I'm sure Justin would like to have back, or you know, running backs would like to make a different decision. Offensive linemen would like to understand their blocking responsibility according to the play. But that's the great thing about football. You go back and you study your past performance and you see how you can be better your next performance.
Good news, Chicago United Airlines is getting brand new planes with all the bells and whistles like Bluetooth connectivity screens at every seat in room for everyone's roderbag United prior to fly the Chicago Bears and you too, all right, Tom, According to ESPN's stats info for Courtney Cronin our good friend from ESPN one thousand does a great job writing
about the Bears, does so in a fair way. Fields blitzed on fifty two percent of his dropbacks, and again it was a horizontal, horizontal plan thirteen screens that led to his lowest air yards per attempt and air yards per completion of his career, just two point four and one point nine in the completion, only three or five passes ten plus air yards in the game. So you could see the chart, you could see where Djmore ran
his routes. There's one particular one just standing out there thirty six yards away middle of the field on that throw that set up the field goal. But let's take this in two parts, because you watch the tape very very closely, and you do so with a very keen insight. So how did the entire pass protection plan work against a fifty two percent blitz rate? That's one part? And part b what did you think of a perimeter plan to fight that blitz?
Okay, so let me make one thing my feeling about that.
So if you have a perimeter plan of attack against the blitzing football team, I wish they could count in lateral air yards. That is significant, how quickly the ball has to get out of your hand, how the placement has to be perfect, and you have to have good exterior blocks in order to get anything out of them. So I think it would be you'd have a difference of opinion if you could have a staff that counted lateral.
Yards as well as downfield yards.
To me, when you talk about the blitzing of Brian Floores, the defensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings, I.
Think unless they got just got.
Beat by a better defensive effort than the blocking effort. I think the Bears did a really nice job. I think if you could take out the mental airs that showed up a couple times in pass protection, I still think the Bears did a really nice job. Is an offensive line or running backs ever going to have a perfect performance and that many pass blocking responsibilities? Know however, they one way more than they lost, and it's evident in what they were able to accomplish at the end
of the day. So whether you want to talk about a rookie like Darnell Right or if you want to talk about Roshawn Johnson, both of these guys are improving at a super high rate. Did they make a couple of mistakes in the game, Yeah, but listen and in my ninth year as an offensive line veteran, I made mistakes. So again it's about you know, your next performance being evaluated from your past performance.
First time Bears won a game without scoring a touchdown since nineteen ninety three, you still were trying to figure out if you were in that game six nothing went over Atlanta? Were you in Miami already?
I was in Miami, so yeah I was. You know, I'm always a Bears fan, but at that point I.
Was, I mean, there is a ton these days, and I think it's hard. I'm not listen. It is what it is. We love this game, and the more interest in this game worldwide, the better for all of us who have dedicated our entire life professionally to this sport. And you know no more than anybody else in this world lifetime, since you were a youth football player now an analyst. The statistical analysis out there, with everything from next Gen Stats to Pro Football Focus to other things
that are popping up, is just insane. And so it does create some narratives though, and it's unescapable. But the Next Gen Stats is an NFL fact and funded stat service. I don't know who's doing it. I don't know what, but we should ask them. We should submit this fair question. Do the lateral yards? Because it and what? Because it is something that I never gave thought to that you just brought to my attention. And because you're a C student, you're more of an idea man than a than a
than a scholar. Big time, you're onto something.
Well, no, listen to man at the podium, and the question was asked about the game plan going into it, and they talked about the lateral passing game and how
much it benefits the Bears offense against this type of attack. Listen, I think it's a reasonable stat that you should keep because when you're talking about Justin standing on the left, hash In throwing a pass laterally in an instant's notice to the right sideline, that's thirty five yards of Kerry and then DJ Moore gets a catch, gets a block by e Q Saint Brown, and then turns it into a twelve yard game. I think there is some significant
backing and I think it's complementary to the offense. It's complementary to the speed at of the play and the decision and the precision accuracy of a pass that difficult for quarterbacks. I just think they deserve more credit than what the ball only traveled two yards, you know, per a temp that's not the case.
Yeah, Well, a lot of folks looked at this and if you love offense and you want to see an aerial show that adn't think much of the game. It's a It's a low scoring, no touchdown game for the Bears a week down a win. There was still drama to it. It was still important. It was a road win in the NFC North for the first time for Matt Eberfluss in his administration, and for Justin Fields to beat a Viking team that at the moment is still in the playoff on is a summer seventh seed, the
final seed in the NFC for the wild card. So there's a lot of you got to you gotta look at it that way. He can't just look at everything through a straw. You gotta look at the bigger picture.
Just one point about that, because you have to also look at the other side of the ball. Because I think the Bears did a really nice job of being deceptive at the line of scrimmage themselves, and then they created some unescapable pockets for dobs that resulted in interceptions. So, you know, you talk about the elusiveness of a guy like Justin and his athleticism and how he uses it, and then and you look at what the Bears have been able to do with a good group of defensive
linemen that are creating unescapable pockets. Now, if you have to throw the ball as much as three quarters of a second early, it results in the tip ball off the fingertips of a receiver that results in the interception. So you got off to look at it from both sides of the game plan.
Yeah, we'll dig deeper into that after we get a look at the status at hattis from Bears head coach Matt Eberfluss. Take a chance download the Bette Rivers app today. Here's my conversation with the Bears head coach. All right, Matt, thanks for joining us once again. Congratulations sound the win. Played really hard again. All the analysts around lead keep talking about how hard the Bears play and eventually, you know, keep pounding that rock, it's going to break, and it
certainly did. Hanging in there and I know you finished. That was the big theme, and everybody on the team in that locker room going to get a painted ball with finish on it. No greater word than finish. Giving out hard.
It's been right, yeah, and you know, obviously great to get the division win, and you know, it's always you know, fun coaching off a win. And certainly there's a lot of things we can learn from that tape as well. But the situational football was good. You know, we won the third down battle and you know, obviously the fourth downs also and that's a big part of it. And then we won a two minute you know at the end of the game, you know, so the conpmentary football,
and again we had adversity in there. You know, we had a couple of fumbles at the end, you know, and we had to do a good job of stopping them on defense you know, the ford and make them punt, you know, and in that situation to create that two minute, and the guys did a great job of that. What a great play by TJ, you know on that third down play to force that fourth and ten. Great play and then uh, they punt and then we get two
minutes with no timeouts. You know, I thought we utilize our timeouts to just to maximize our.
Time in there.
And again we're very comfortable working at two minutes, you know, because we do a lot in practice with no timeouts.
And the guys did a good job of operating, and then obviously the big strike to DJ to put us in position, and then we did a good job of you know, milking it down with a couple of nils there and the Vikings, you know, use their timeouts, and then you know, once we scored the field goal, they had five seconds to go, and we had another situational defense that we had to put out there, and the guys did a nice job operating.
So there's always reactions over reactions and maybe overstatements and things when something like this happened. So some are writing and saying, that's the biggest throw in Justin Field's career, the thirty six yard strike the DJ Moore after coming back from two fumbles. I don't know if you frame stuff like that way. I know you're looking very much through a straw at the season instead a big picture. But could that be from your experience?
Well, I just know this, that's so great resolve.
Yeah, you know by him, you know, when you have two fumbles at the end of the game like that, to be able to reset your focus and reset your mind to the task at hand and then go operate. You know, didn't take a sack, you know, found the open receivers scrambled when you know he should have scrambled, and then hit the open DJ for the big strike to put us in the winning position. And that to me is growth and that's what that's how I look at it.
You're a defensive guy, do you have respect for the pressure packages that Brian Flores puts together. Do you think it's right up there among the best in the league and their creativity and constant pressure because he was justin was pulling Houdini X last night.
For sure, yeah he did.
And he did a really good job of evading most of those for the most part. And again they got us in a in a couple at the end. But for sure, you know, the pressure and again that's that's something that you know, was made famous by Buddy Ryan here at the Bears, you know, when we won the Super Bowl here and uh, you know a lot of those same elements.
Are there is some Bear defense in there, yeah, a little bit.
Yeah there is, but there's there's you know, multiple fronts in there. But the coverages are different, you know, and I think that we, you know, we can take advantage of some of those pockets that are.
Open there, which leads me to that my next question. Because so much attention to the perimeter to try and mute that rush, and that is a great idea, but over the course of the game, how much patience is required by you, even as the head coach, not just the defensive coordinator here too, Now to have that patience to write it out and knowing your defense was really shutting them down over the course of the entire game.
Yeah, I mean you could certainly feel that was the type of game it was going to be. You know, we anticipated it could be like that, you know, so we were set. Our mindset was, you know, obviously an attack, you know, because their offense did a really good job in the first two series. Right we go fourteen plays, ten plays, we come out of half and go another ten and we finished the game with another ten play drive.
So you know, our idea is attack to attack, and one of those ways to attack is on the perimeter and to spit the ball when they give you those pressure looks, to get it on the edge, and we had some very successful play He's doing that, and you know, certainly and they're going to get some of their plays. You know, they reacted to some of them, either from inside out or doing a good job in the perimeter to stop those plays, and that's certainly all part of it.
But that's certainly one of the answers you do for the pressure.
DJ Moore, we heard what you said about him, and I can't stop talking about him. When he gets the ball in his hands. You really are counting out a positive play. And even if it's covered, he's gonna wrestle it out. He's gonna suddenly break away from attack. He just refuses to quit. He freezes to go down. And right now with Justin, Justin hasn't played the whole season, but they're the number one duo and quarterback rating with receiver quarterback in the NFL. What is that saying about
just that relationship right now? And it's his go to I mean, yes, Comet's getting a lot of targets.
You got.
The running game is still solid. He can beat you with you with his legs as well, but that has proved to be very vague.
Yeah, I certainly felt that from the on set. Yeah, you know, when DJ came here, there was an immediate chemistry with those guys, and you know, you can certainly feel that now, you know, and.
Then you know, we get you know, put the ball in.
The hands of the players, right you know, so DJ is one of our better players, and you know, at the end of the game, we put it in his hands and that's an important part of that. And really throughout the whole course of the game, you saw the targets and the amount of yards and now he has a thousand thousand yards for the season, you know, seventy catches and.
And certainly that's a that's a bright spot and we have to keep that going.
All right, There's so many little things. Unfortunately we're not gonna have time to get them all. But I just felt this game just there's a lot more to the story than just the twelve ten finish. And that's what made it compelling for me. Let's start with Roshawn Johnson. So, ro Sean got I think fifty two snaps in the game by ground and by air. I've got some good balls. But you know, the pass pro there was one snap I can't remember which one now, he basically took down
two Vikings on the on the blitz. Now, nothing was perfect, obviously, but what he did yesterday, how valuable was it? Just that whatever little amount it was in terms of total yards, the past protection, the catches to help justin out.
Yeah, he did a really good job. You know.
Again, he's you know, has a couple of things he's got to clean up, just like the rest of us. But uh, you know, overall, you could you could feel his energy. You could feel him in protection. You could feel him, you know, you know, reading the runs the right way, you know, and the toss play stretching him out to the numbers and then cutting him up and running him the correct way.
You know. So that's certainly a big bright spot for him, you know.
And then you know, finding himself, you know, in the scramble drill, finding himself open in.
A couple unique situations. And Klil did too.
You know, Clil had that one nice one on the side on our sideline as well. But those guys got to continue to do that. I think Justin's growing that way in terms of, you know, keeping his eyes on the field. I think he had three h three really big chunks in those scramble situations, and he could hit Mooney on the side on the other one, you know, So that was just a little bit high on that one. But that was another big opportunity for us.
I'm gonna stick with the rookie theme. Terrell Smith comes in legion tackles. All eight were solos, and I would have loved to see if he had been able to stay healthy in training camp and not have the mono, because you don't know where he'd be right now. I mean maybe you do. I mean, but is that arrow definitely pointing up Cressman.
Yeah, him and Tyreek Uh. You know, Ryan Poles in his group did an awesome job of you know, evaluating those guys, you know, with the evaluations of the coaching staff and all of us on the same page to be able to get those big corners that are are good tacklers, but they can play against bigger body guys. And that's that's important in this league because you know when you play that you know the go ball or the or the slant ball, that the length matters.
You know it does.
And even in tackling, tackling, you know in the perimeter, length matters because you're able to wrap up, you're able to be strong, and you're to be long, you know, when you're setting the edge out there in the run game.
So you know that that's a big part of who we are.
We like long defensive backs and those guys fit right under our mode.
Javon Dexter hits the quarterback gets a flag for it. What else is he supposed to do at his length and size? Can he turned down? So he doesn't the only.
Thing that they said there is just you just got to brace, you gotta you can't, you know, your body weight can't go on the quarterback, and he has to do and we coach the guys to do that, to make sure that they brace, you know, on the ground and don't put their weight on the quarterback.
And this is the way the rules are, and it's for a good reason.
You know.
We want to be able to keep the quarterbacks in the game. They're a big part of our game, you know, and so we got to do it, right.
Is he rising every day?
Yeah, he is.
His pressure rates up, He's doing a really good job of keeping his pads down, his takeoff, his get off is really good, and his approach, you know, to the quarterback is getting better and better. So we just got to keep building upon that. And Pickens is doing it good job too, you know, those all those young tackles are in there doing the next job. And our two vets are doing a solid job in there as well.
Montes sweat again, he's eating up grass so quickly when he breaks free of his block, and he's ragged on quarterbacks. I mean, this guy something else and everybody, it's really helping you across the board.
There, Tes is a beast in there now. He's certainly one of the better pass rushers in the league for sure, and you know, his pressure rate would show that, sacks would show that, and you know, we're just going to keep getting more and more production at him. We're going to set him up the best we can for one on ones and he will take advantage of those.
I just can't get over, you know, we I think we talked about this last week, but I can't get it out of my head. It just impresses me because you don't think much about that forty time, but it does factor with this guy.
It is.
I mean, he's explosive to the quarterback.
Yeah, What's what's really cool about him is that the effort in which he plays. I think he was at seventy one percent yesterday.
Thirty nine out of the fifty five.
Yep.
I mean he's been in the majority of our third downs the entire season. I think it's fifty one out of fifty six. I believe that is. So we're excited about where he is and the production that he's bringing. And what's more impressive is that how he plays the run. You know, as all the pressures that he gives and creates for everybody else.
He also plays the.
Run really well, so he's an all round defensive end and we're certainly excited.
To have him number one rushing defense in the NFL through thirteen weeks. I guess with the bye week, you'll find out in week fourteen. But that is not an insignificant jump from ware you worse season ago. What do you attributed to?
Yeah, the guys are really doing a good job, you know, just playing together, you know, and when run defense is all about being where you're supposed to be, you know, and playing with good technique and good pad level, and guys understand where they fit in the run scheme. And again, we have to do a better job. Yesterday it was good, but it was up to our standard in terms of the run average. But we got to continue to improve
on that. And uh, you know, and the coaches have done a really good job of coaching.
That technique and getting the guys in the right position.
So it's really all of us, you know, the coaches and the players together, you know, making an emphasis of it, you know, and I think you know the players that we acquired, you know, again pointing.
Back to the to the scouting staff is that. You know, Billings is a big part of that. You know, Walker is a big part of that.
You know, Uh, j Clean and Germaine, all those.
Guys, you know, the inside backers, they're all part of it, you know. So it's personnel, it's scheme, it's you know, and it's guys coaching and you know and playing it.
You got a feeding frenzy right now in the takeaway department. Jalen Johnson another big game. Three pass breakups, so he had a direct hand in his own interception and another one and then Robby could have had another pick six. I just remember when Lovey and those guys, they they had a plan and those guys couldn't wait to start blocking for him. So get to the numbers, run the sideline right.
Yep, exactly.
We you know, we had a good setup for him right there, and we'll continue to improve on that and we'll show him the tape and we'll.
Continue to practice it.
You know.
And the big thing for Jalen is that man, you know, he's he's you know, really sticky. You know, he's got great feet and he's able to stay with receivers in the intermediate and the deep pass and uh, he's always in position, you know, and we're just gonna have to work continue to work with him and coach hok and and put him in position to.
Make those plays.
And he will because he's going to be in position to make him and we're excited about his opportunity coming up.
They get over exuberant. They got the ball and now I don't know, I'm not a player.
So well.
He also he also had like you said, he had a deflection that know, TJ got the interception from too, so he's playing.
Well, let's talk Cairo Santos. He said he he felt so much confidence from you that the fifty five yard he said he could have kicked sixty. He claims he told you sixty at the end of the game too, if you needed because of the initial myths that you did not waiver. How important is that head coach player relationship that you always talk about position coach high Tower all that, because it seems to really resonate with Cairo.
Yeah, that's the whole relationship, you know, side of it.
And we have relationships with every one of our players, and I think that's a really key component to having a good football team that can have resolve that can go through adversity, that can respond in a positive way.
And it all starts there, you know.
So it's my belief in him and his belief in me and our relationship that we have together. So it was pretty easy because we have that solid foundation.
All right, You split your last eight, you go into the bye a week pretty darn dog gone healthy for a late season. You have five outdoor games in the elements, three at home. What's your vision here for the final five and getting through it all?
Yeah, you know, certainly please with the health of our football team. You know, the performing staff has done a really good job. The strength staff has done a good job of keeping those guys you know, where they need to be. And you know, our practices have been good, They've been energized. You know, we're excited about these last five.
Games and and and that they are outside.
You know, this is Chicago Bear football to us, and we're excited about the opportunity. I talked to the players yesterday about I want them to think about the opportunity and the plays that are gonna make, you know, come going forward into these last five games and rest recovery is a big part of this by week to get their mind, their body, and their spirit in the right spot when they come back in on Monday.
All right, appreciate your time as always, have a great bye week, all right, thank you.
All right.
So he heads into the bye week feeling very optimistic Tom about the health of his football team number one, and just their their determination and how hard they're they're playing on game day, Opposing coaches are seeing it, analysts are seeing it. The Bears are playing hard. Whatever the results are. Sometimes they're not in your favor, but they are playing hard and they're and they're in games. And so they managed to find a way to win a road game in Minnesota, and not a simple task. All right,
let's go back to the defense. I want to go back to what you were talking about about the line of scrimmage. The Montese sweat factor is significant. Let's be on. It's making everybody else better on that defensive line and for that matter of the whole defense. The balls coming out quicker, Like you said, I thought it was kind of strange watching the pastor or not in the pocket there. They weren't deep drops, they were short drops, and the
pocket it was really shrinking. The vice scripts were there and it was like he was oblivious to it. And he's like, I don't know how he even escaped a ten sac day because that could have happened to him. What was your vantage point? What's your view of how he dealt with the Bear's pass rush, and what did you think of the job Travis Smith did for the simple things of even just putting a cockway on the same side with Sweat and let those guys work their magic.
DeMarcus Walker having three hits on the quarterback Givon Dexter again adding to his pressures that guy is on the move, he is coming. I just liked the creativity that Sweat now has multiplied for this defensive staff to come up with plans.
First of all, I would rather talk about defensive coordinator Matty Eberflus because he's got a lot on his plate. And if you look at the different the variation of defensive fronts, the way they use, the variety of players when you filter and Kyler Gordon and Jakwan Brisker, you look at TJ. Edwards and Jack Sanborn and Tremaine Edmunds, how they can line up at the line of scrimmage. And now they have to be accounted for as pass rushers,
not linebackers. But then they can drop instantly and get into a coverage responsibility that maybe the quarterback is not aware of where they're going to be. And now you talk about Travis Smith and the defensive line and the way he used a variety of lineups, and you talked about the short drop of Joshua Dobbs, but it was crunch time, so they said, Okay, we're not going to let Joshua Dobbs get out of this pocket. We're going to have a good outside, contained rush that's going to
be included in pressure. And then the different alignments they were able to use on the interior, whether you want to use strength of Andrew Billings, if you want to use the length of Jervon Dexter, if you want to use the get off of Zach Pickens, or however you want to use that type of assist the talent.
I think the Bears did a really nice job of.
Being able to use multiple players in different unexpected areas.
And then you make the offense think, and I think.
That slows down the overall process of the offensive line. And a newly brought in quarterback like Dobbs, even though he's got a minimum amount of experience with the Vikings.
Like I touched on with coach Flus, it is a magnificent jump from being the worst to the best run defense in a calendar a year here from a season ago. And that's where they're at right now. He wasn't thrilled with the run defense overall yesterday, a little bit too much there at times with Alexander Madison, but still the end result is their number one rush defense in the NFL if you're just in the yards, but I am. I mean especially against the run. And the team that
ran the ball more yesterday successfully won the game. Nineteen and three. Now last twenty two games, the team that ran ballmore won the game. And you know what, it's funny because I think you're looking ahead to Detroit and you're thinking the same thing. Whoever runs the ball better, Mike win that game.
Yeah?
I agree, and I but I think you know one thing I always you know me, Jeff, You're the real weather man.
You're the meteorologist.
I'm just a weather predictor of in terms of football, And when I think of Detroit playing, even though they're from Michigan playing outside rarely because they play in the Dome, then they play.
In Minnesota in the conference and all that.
So I think there's a lot that is challenging to a team that doesn't.
Play outside regularly.
And when you talk about the physical nature of a sustained running game, you gotta be able to be comfortable playing in those cold temperatures. And so we'll see how it all factors out, because the Bears haven't played in really any cold weather yet this season.
We're brought to you by PNC Official Bank of the Bears. Jeff and Tom here every Tuesday and Thursday on the Bears et cetera podcast, and we will bring you another one coming up on Thursday. Tom and I on bye week will be joined by a former Bears quarterback and our good friend, Eric Kramer has written a new book. We'll get into that on Thursday. He'll be our guest, so join us then. And of course every Tuesday we have Matt Eberflus, the head coach. We just heard from
him much more time ago. All Right, I got a lot of little pockets of stuff after watching the tape of this game, gravon dexter. I want to get into it again. I know they're taught a certain way to hit the quarterback, but man, he's six six. He gets there in a big hurr and he hits the quarterback. He gets the flag for it is there, and we touched on it with Fluce. You just can't lay your weight on him. But it is what it is. It's
the rule. But I like the way he did it anyway I take the fut I want him to be aggressive and nasty up there. I do that defensive tackle position, push in the pocket at his size and length and his strength, and another year in the weight room before he gets in the year two. I'm very excited about him.
Me too, you know, in my past experience playing against guys like that, so I practice against Steve McMichael all the time. But then you got Dan Hampton at the other defensive tackle position. You're talking about six ' to two against six ' six. So it's kind of similar to the interior talent with the Bears are featuring right now.
So when you get a guy like Javon Dexter, he makes you play a different type of game than a shorter defensive lineman does because you have to get to him quick and you got to try to get your hands to him. If you look at one of his pass rushers that he makes contact with the offensive lineman because he's using his length. Now he immediately puts the offensive lineman in a retreat position because he's using his strength more than the offensive lineman being able to use
his striking ability. So you just think about the differences and the talents that they have inside. And the more Snapster Von Dexter gets, the more he becomes familiar with using his structure, and I think that's probably his biggest asset, along with his athleticism, his intelligence and the way he's developing. But he's starting to learn how to use his tools.
We've talked about edge rusher's. We over time have talked about how they run the hoop and the guys that can you know, bend so low like Dwight Freeney or Von Miller or how Khalil Mack does the power moves and you respect that the ankle flexion to make that turn. Not everybody can do it. They just can't. There's a small percentage of humans that can do that. But Montese
Wett is built differently. He's long like Dexter, but am I at my mind to be so crazy, over the top in love with the idea that if you don't sustain a block on that dude within two steps, he is going to be on your quarterback like a lion on the on the serengetti, and he is going to hurt your quarterback. He's rag dolling these guys. He did last week, he did it this week. I'm really those two steps. Once he's free, he's on you right well, who's running away from that?
That's part of that hoop drill though, that you talk about that they use at the combine, They use it in training camp. That's what they want you to do, is they want you to get low and come around the corner and then get off of that in a straight line. And that's where Montese sweat. He wins the play is he's able to display that bend ability come around a corner and then when he's got the opportunity to run a straight line.
Oh you're god.
No, there's really no offensive tackles that can catch him in a retreat position. And there's you know, there's a couple of quarterbacks that can run away from him, but he much pretty much can go toe to toe with.
Any of them.
It's really impressive. That's been one of the highlights here since his arrival for me watching him back to the rookies, Terrell Smith, feisty little bugger man. I like the way he played eight solo tackles and it's not too big for him. I know you. Brad Biggs and his ten Things for the Chicago Tribune does a great job. Wrote on a quote from John Holk back when this was during training camp, and unfortunately missed some time in training camp.
But what's the first word that pops in your head about this rookie from the University of Minnesota, And as he paused for a long while, he said, reliable. And that's a lot to say for a rookie you haven't even seen playing in an NFL game yet, just from practices, and he's proven to be that when he's gotten on the field. What are your thought on how he played yesterday?
You know, So the foundation of evaluation Ryan Poles and his staff, one of the most difficult positions, do identify that they truly have NFL cal talent.
So that's where it begins.
But as soon as he came into the OTAs and got into training camp, they identified him of it not being too big for him to having the ability to cover NFL caliber receivers. And I was really excited what I saw yesterday because you know, you've been on this kid since he's been around here, and you really don't know what he's capable of doing until you put him
in the best of circumstances. And when you talk about indoor football and that stadium against a really good receiver, that's when you really get to judge what this guy can be and what you hope him to be. And Terrell Smith did a great job. He's not afraid to tackle. He's a physical football player, and I think the Bears and Ryan Poles and his staff should be really excited about the evaluation process and how he's proving them right.
Right and with the excellence that we've seen. Again, he's had his ups and downs, obviously, but Tyreek Stevenson as well, by the way, flues at the podium saying that he thinks they'll be back before the end of the season, but they got to see how he comes out of it. With a foot injury at practice just the other day. Bears fans, you can be there for live NFL action
all season long. As the official ticket marketplace of the Bears in the NFL, Ticketmaster has a wide selection of tickets available for every game, so find tickets today at ticketmaster dot com. Slash Bears Jeff and Tom here on the Bears Etc. Podcast. Justin Fields this is the part we didn't talk about. Yes, he was Houdini, but he had twelve runs for fifty nine yards and along of fourteen now with four hundred rushing yards, leading the Bears
in this running back by committee approach. Here this season at the running back position, playing just short of the full schedule, missing four games, so the runs were still there. He still took advantage of some not as many design runs. Again, would you like to see a combination of what you've seen the last two weeks carry into the next five weeks.
Yeah, but I would also I think Justin probably left about forty to fifty yards on the field. There was a couple of times that he tried to extend the pocket so long that he ended up throwing the ball out of bounds or not having an opportunity to escape. If he would recognize and see immediate positive running yards ahead of him where he could get out of bounds or get down safely. I think you could take any fifty nine yard performance and turn it into a triple
digit performance easily if he wanted to. However, in the development of the quarterback position, I like his patients. I like his willingness to understand where the line of scrimmage is in trying to find a receiver for a bigger play.
Cairo Santos Tom nine excuse me, ten of his last eleven from fifty plus dating the last season, six for six this season, and here's this quote after the game, missing wide right from forty eight on his first kick of the day, No problem, go out there and hit the fifty five yard er, matching his career high. Quote. I love this coach for allowing me to do that.
The belief in him and he felt empowered, and that's a significant thing for a kicker, and they got to feel like they have the trust of their coach to go out there and do it.
It is.
But the one thing that I'm a little apprehensive about as the remainder of the season, He's never going to have perfect kicking conditions because of the temperature, and it affects every kicker in the NFL.
I'm not saying this is exclusive to Cairo.
I just think that when you get into the wind of the winter and you get into the temperatures, you get the hard footballs and everything, it changes what your distance comfort is. So I'm really interested to see how Cairo closes out this season with the type of kicks.
Hopefully he'll be able to make tom.
I know it's not been an easy ride, and there's no linear way to finish a season. You never know what's going to happen. You look what happened with the Lions last year. They started so poorly and they finished winning six of their final eight games. It's been a bounce that they've taken into the next year with a
coach that has has everybody's attention up there. But you know, twelve ten then it doesn't sound great, then look great at all times, but you still squeeze out a win, and when you clear through the clouds, do you feel a little bit better about especially because of how hard and how opportunistic the defense has been. These eight takeaways in the last two games, I mean that's significant. The negative part of it is, out of those eight takeaways,
you've only gotten thirteen points. Your three turnovers offensively has led to fourteen points for the opposition. So if they can just find a way to start taking advantage more of their opportunities, would you feel a little more optimistic about what's going on?
Oh yeah, yeah, you know, take advantage of the turnovers. Have the Bears defense be more stingy in the red zone. But I don't care what the score was as long as they beat a divisional opponent on the road, because they should have beaten Detroit, a divisional opponent on the road. And Jeff, how do you win the division? You got
to win division road games. And if you can prove to yourself if you can close out the season and go in there and perform at the opponent stadiums and win these games, you're going to go into the offseason thinking that you should be the division favorite going into next year. So, you know, whatever the score is, you look at all the storylines around the NFL how Pittsburgh hasn't won the numbers battles, but they're you know, they have a winning record and some of the other teams
around the league. So I'm more encouraged about the win and where the Bears are going than discouraged.
Yeah, Like we said, if.
You're a player watching a tape, or if you're a coaching staff trying to make better decisions red zone and scoring opportunity for your offense.
Yeah, no style points necessary. You don't apologize for wins. None of that matters for sure. Visy Heart Seltzer, the Official Heart Seltzer or the Chicago Bears Remaining Moments with Tom Thayer Jeff Jonik here on the Bears et cetera podcast. We certainly appreciate you guys joining us over the course of this season so far. We're not going to abandon
you during the bye. We could be back on Thursday with more, all right, Tom, former Bears, Devin Hester, Julius Peppers, Jared Allen, you know, not here that long more of a Minnesota Viking, Kansas City chief. But twenty five modern era make it twenty four modern era semi finalists for
the Pro Football of Fame class At twenty four. We certainly expected Devin to be in there and Peppers, but the interesting it's an interesting list, and you know it's not going to be a simple task again for Devon uh To to get in there, even though everybody believes
he should and will at some point. But some of the others on that list, Dwight Freeney, Antonio Gates, James Harrison, Rodney Harrison, a Chicago guy, Tory Holt, Andre Johnson, Robert Mathis, Pep Steve Smith Senior, Fred Taylor, hinz Ward, Reggie, Wayne Patrick, Willis, Darren Woodson, the former Cowboy. I mean, it's a it's a pretty significant list.
I don't consider Julius Peppers or Jared Allen or guys at Fern here and had a cup of coffee, and they're not going to wear the bear's hat when they go into the Hall of Fame.
How about Mary and Catholic ser Rodney Harrison.
I'm not so sure he deserves it. I will.
I like him, I like the way he plays, the way he played, but in that class on that list, I looked at it today. I admire a lot of those guys. But I'm pulling for Denver, all right, Denver.
I'm pulling for.
Devin because he's he's got a special, you know, craft that he perfected, and I think he deserves it.
It's deserving in every way, shape and form. To just use a cliche, but I certainly hope it happens. It's going to happen eventually, I hope. I certainly hope it happens for him. After spending time with them in Orlando and week two three against Tampa, that was a wonderful experience and I got to feel his passion for this and his desire to get there. And it'll be an amazing feeling if he does.
For you, and I is the fact that we interviewed Dan Fouts a couple of weeks ago, who is a Hall of Fame voter, and he has his attention as a player who.
Deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. And I think that's important as well.
One per Steinhoffels is an employee owned furniture at Mattress Store. So visit any of their for Chicago Land locations in Vernon, Crystal Lake, Downers Grove, and Harvard Heights, or shop online at Steinhoffels dot com. Hey, it's the holiday season, Tom, you know he can run over to Steinhoffles buy me a couch for Christmas. Maybe I'll get you a dresser or something. I don't know, maybe you need something over there.
Well, you get me a couch this past year, So Baby, I should repay, get my brothers, pickup.
Truck and haul on over to your house.
That's what brothers do, right, That's what brothers do. All right, Tom, We're celebrating a win into the bye week. You can't get any better than that, for sure. Check us out on the various platforms. We'll be doing Bears Game Night Live on Sunday Night on Fox. Will check us out for that. We'll have a recap of all this as well Bears, etc. On Thursday again with Eric Kramer, the former Bears quarterback and a really compelling book that he has written about his journey not just in football, but
off the field and his battles as well. For Tom Day Rhyme Jeff Joniak Our next podcast Thursday. Check us out and thanks for listening. Everyone. Please subscribe now to the Chicago Bears official app, Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever get your podcasts. Bear down, everybody, MHM.