Right justin middle of the field forty five fifteen, bring Russ in front of them, leaving Lions in his way.
I am Jeff joni Acklitz.
Is not done us.
What was like playing for coach Bogdom.
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. The Bears have won two in a row, three of four and five of nine, and they've stoked thoughts of a late season playoff run after knocking off the visiting Detroit Lions at Soldier Fields Sunday twenty eight thirteen in the final with Super Bowl winning Bears guard Tom Thayre. I'm Jeff Joniak and this is Bears et Cetera episode number forty one. We discussed and sit down with Bears head coach Mattyberflus for our weekly chat in
a little while. But Big Tom, the feelings are different. They're different up at Hallis Hall today. I listened to some of the press conferences, not only coach Eberfluss and then having a chance to talk to him, but Lucas Patrick's perspective from a veteran coming over from Green Bay two years into this the long road to get here.
Also Jiakwan Brisker, who is emblematic of what growth looks like and what starting from scratch looks like and getting guys with his mentality to become immediate impact players and leaders, and you see the growth and it all came to fruition yesterday with a seventeen tackle game.
Yeah.
You know, the neatest thing about the game is we can talk about individual great efforts like Toakwan Brisker, DJ Moore, Cole Kamd or Justin Jones, those types of efforts. Well, you know, Jeff, after watching the game live and then going back to watching again on video, it's the best team efforted game by every segment that I've seen around here in quite a while.
And it was a complete group effort.
Although I mentioned the individual outstanding efforts, I think it's more important when you play great as a team.
Rather than us just.
Highlighting great individual efforts that don't factor and wins. This kind of compute this computer to everything that we want to see going forward.
Can you be specific?
I mean watching the tape as well, just the the individual blocking efforts that we're done in every phase of the offensive side, the special teams impact the punt return game, the blocking and the punt return the you know, that's the tough you're talking about, the gang tackling, the awareness of everybody on defense at layers.
It's exactly. It's you know, you go back and you look at the reason.
The Bears defense played so well against the run, that kind of gained momentum throughout the game and really was a force in the second half. Go back and look at some of these plays. How many guys are in ont of the tackle. I mean, there's a fourth and one that stops the drive that Jack Sandborn makes initially an unbelievable tackle after deflecting a block of a tight end and a pulling offensive lineman. But then you got Tyreek Stevenson on the spot, he got Montes Sweat involved,
he got Tremaine Edmonds right there. It's just those multiple layered efforts of everybody giving such a high percentage of just desire and willingness. And it's that one play stands out, But there's ten or twelve plays versus the run game that, like I said, it's the best combined effort that I've seen.
Just the shutdown of you know, Sam Laporta and also i'man Ross Saint Brown less than fifty yards and receiving on five catches fifteen targets combined. It's because they were surrounded. At me, there were so many people involved in defending those two players. I could see why that quarterback Jared Goff had some difficulty. And then on top of it, you know, whether it's the pressure, accombination of the weather, the glove you talk about, but the ball wasn't coming
out of his hands. Well, I mean I don't think he trusted his throes.
Yes, I don't think he had time to trust himself. Because if you look at Montese Wepon, you look at you Econ Gakway, you look at Justin Jones, you look at your Von Dexter, you look at the blitzes of Brisker or Tremaine Admins or TJ.
Edwards, there are just so many multiple.
Levers level levels of pressure coming at the quarterback. He doesn't have the luxury of time. So now you're trying to speed up the thinking process in your head and maybe you don't have to get your arm at the right angle. You don't have a chance to release the ball perfectly. You're trying to avoid contact with the helmet
of an incoming defender because they're giving up pressure. So you have to take all these little increments of time into account when you talk about a defense being able to create create, create deficiencies in specific timing.
We're brought to you by PNC Official Bank of the Bears. This is the Bears, et cetera podcast with Tom Thayer. We'll get to coach Eberflucent just a moment. Go right to the two guys that just mentioned, and they are bringing up some of the same things you brought up, but that it started a long time ago and it's been building to this. First of all, they're healthy, they're together, they're starting to get that chemistry. Brisker touched on that,
and then Lucas Patrick. You know, he was the winning program with a winning quarterback and a Hall of Fame quarterback, so they got used to it up there in Green Bay. But he felt the impact in the room was really starting to become a big deal about the cross pollination of offense and defensive players hanging out and you know that better than anybody from your eighty five stretch and all the way into the nineties, what close that team was?
Is that important to note right here at this point with four games to go in the season and winning five of nine.
You know, I can't state how important that is. I think every team I played on I liked, enjoyed the company of every guy I played with offense, defense, from defensive backs to and kickers, and I enjoyed the friendships and the camaraderie that you are able to develop because when you had something that carried from the cafeteria to the weight room, to the meeting room, walking onto the practice field, walking off the practice field at training camp,
you have to enjoy the people that you're working with, and it creates a more positive working atmosphere, and it creates a lot more underbelly of encouragement.
And I think when you look.
At some of these veterans that have been around other teams, they have an understanding what it takes to get to that level that you need to be considered a competitive, you know, a competitive champion.
All right.
So what I referred to Lucas Patrick, the Bears starting center on the team growth this locker room.
This is probably the best week I've seen this locker room in a long time. You could just you could just tell that there was a confidence, like a calling confidence. The other cool part is there's a lot of crow across the locker room talk. I know y'all are in there a lot. See how it's kind of O and D split, But it's just fun.
We're walking around.
You can see guys mingling, and his team's pretty close right now. You know, kind of build build over the season and relationships build. But it's credit to the importance Fluis has put on that since since the spring. Kind of all we put into that, I think we're seeing a lot of that come to fruition now.
And that's exactly what you're pointing out here. And this is also how he's felt about the turnaround. It's it's not about him, it's about everybody else. But he's had, you know, a star cross time here with injuries and moving in and out of the lineup. But it's a nice stretch here as the starting center, I.
Think, I think and taking more gratification and the guys around me seventy six couldn't be doing better than he is now. What he's I guess what everyone sees his tape, but y'all should see what he's doing in the locker room, what he's doing, communicating, what he's doing off the field.
I mean, it's the growth from him him has been impressive, and then you know, getting to mix in with seventy and his leadership role is improving, and you know, getting Nate back from the injury that he had and him finally settling in and really kind of settling down Darnell and letting Darnell be Darnell Becauseate Nate's a veteran and just doing amazing with that and getting of course to
work with one such a dynamic player. I mean, we saw that kind of backed up clip where he got us completely Scott free out of there, of course protected and watching to go play. Like I don't take as much gratification, I guess from my success or playing or it's about the team, it's about the sea, it's about this city, like you know, it's this place deserves deserves. I think what's coming to us. We've put the work in.
There's a lot of good people here, a lot of good people, and they've been nothing but good to me and kind to me. Since I've got here, So.
You know, and you know, you have to admire what Lucas has gone through because there's a psychological aspect to his game. When you're in and out of the lineup and you take over for a guy like Cody Whitehair, who has tremendous respect in the locker room, but you're also expected to come in and do the job that you were brought in to do. And Chris Morgan, the offensive line coach, he definitely hasn't had an easy job
since he's been here. But when you can get a stabilizing force, you can get a veteran that has experiences of success and the way that you can relate that message to some of the younger guys and how they need to work in order they get better individually, and how if they get better individually, it affects the rest of the lineman up front, including the tight end.
I let me get to Brisker in his work at the podium, because you know, the guy has a lot of fun playing the game, but it's raw. It's raw enthusiasm and love of the game, and we know he studies the game. It's important to him and it always has been. And the way he explained it at the podium on Monday really gets you to understand why he is how he is.
Let's take a listen.
Just you know, a couple of weeks, maybe before the Vikings game or during the Vikings game, I just told myself I want to be able to take over a game and show.
That I can.
And yesterday wasn't my perfect game. No, I still had a drop interception. I probably could have had another interception later in the game that ended off and I feel like when I beat the running back, I probably could have been quicker to get that strip sacked, but Jalen ended up getting an interception anyway. So I feel like I'm just getting there, but I'm not where I want to be because I know I could take over a game how I want. I want to take over, and
that's not a complete game for me. So that's not it. That's not that's not it.
It was a little frustrating for you earlier in the season because you weren't maybe taking as big as steps as.
You wanted, or uh, frustrating just because we didn't have an identity as a defense and just the certain scheme that we went from last year to this year, we were just trying to still find ourselves. Obviously we went from two different dcs, but so it was kind of you know, frustrating how I was playing and how my body was reacting and things like that. But now I'm getting back into swing of things. I feeling like more of myself and then I'm definitely picking out the right time.
So Tom, he's had some issues with injuries here this year, all the way back to training camp, and so you know, one more cut before I get your comments on it, because he's now feeling really good and it's showing in his play. He's all over the field. He's all over the field, and he's bringing the physicality to the game.
It's a portant just because you know, we came in and you know, they they wanted us to turn it around, and I'm one of those guys that they brought in, you know, very early to do that, Me and Caler to start off with the new coaches staff. So, you know, just coming in and just focusing on changing this thing around,
changing the secondary, you know, changing the whole team. You know, it's always been poor to me, especially the lead, and getting my foot in the door was very important and show who I am as a player, who I am as a leader, and who I am on and off the field was always important to me and to get this this Chicago thing into a winning direction.
So Tom like his arrow is rising, that arrow is pointed straight up in the air, aline with Kyler Gordon and a bunch of other defensive players, veterans and or young second year first year players.
But you know, Jeff, it's the journey on how you got here.
Why were you evaluated by the staffs and the scouting departments thinking, Okay.
I got an eye on this guy. He's on my radar.
Let's watch him a little bit and see what he we think he can develop into. How many levels can he play on the defense, what can his contributions be, and what's his attitude like? And when you start investigating all that information, also you set your sights on saying, listen, man, we need this guy in our organization.
We need him on our team. And then when you.
Talk about the positive influences some of the veterans that have been around, you have to have that same influence of some of the new guys coming aboard, because they're important to these young guys that are coming into the locker room, whether they just have been drafted or they're free agents that are coming in as young people. Because you need a positive working atmosphere that filters from the experienced veterans down to the guys that have been around for a year or two.
Miller Lite, the official beer of the Chicago Bears, tastes like Miller Time Chicago. Here's the status that had us with Bears head coach Mattieberflution in his weekly Monday visit. All right, welcome back, Big Matt. That was scintillating yesterday. I want to thank you because you and your guys just brought a motion. The building came to life. The touchdown throw by Justin to DJ just kind of brought the house down. On the defense, it felt like, I
feel like the Monsters of the Midway. Man, How did that feel to you from your perspective on the sideline?
That was good because of the We were able to seize momentum, and that's a big part of it. You know, you you're playing good fundamentals and good technique, but there's points in the game where you seize momentum and you know, we hard counted there and got them to jump and you know certainly got the you know, great pass and you know in great catch by DJ, and that was
a momentum, uh, you know, clincher right there. And then you know they fumbled two plays later and you know TJ's just the heads up play and and you know jumped on the ball and again we got momentum there again. So and then you got to finish it. You know, it's always about you know, winning the ball, which we did. We were plus three yesterday. And also it's about finishing the fourth quarter. We were nine to zero in the fourth quarter yesterday. So that to me is is what
it's all about. But it takes plays. You have to make plays down it's down the stretch. It takes what it takes, you know. So when our defense was out there playing the two minute, you know, we had to stop them on four downs. You know, I think we did that twice. I believe maybe three times.
Well they were one of five on fourth.
Right, and then one of them was a turnover. We got to main. Tremaine's interception was another one. But you have to make those plays. And then to seal the deal, you got to come back on offense and you got to get a first out and the guys did that. I think in two plays they got a first down then wenealed it out for victory. But it's about finishing really.
And field position changed dramatically also in the second half for you guys, and that's an ode to complimentary football.
Yeah, yeah, no question. On the In the first part, it seemed like we were playing on alongside a lot of times our offense had to go you know, ninety yards or we were back on the minus field a lot. But the second half, and that's really attributed to a couple of things. Our defense going three and out. I believe we went three in a row, and on the short on when they were on a long field. And then our punt return did a heck of a job. Our punt return team in the heck of a job
of putting it back to midfield. So that was a big part of it too.
You know, you talk about this in other weeks, but I always feel a loud defense is a good defense. And your defense is roaring right now. The attitudes, the confidence from from Brisker, obviously he's the guy that gets everybody moving to mind twice sets addition to Kyler Gordon to t everybody's feeling it, and now it feels like a knitted together, do you get that sense?
Yeah, the guys are a tight group, you know, they always have been. But since the you know, the consistency of the lineup, you know, with getting everybody back, you know, I think it was really, you know, right after the Denver game. I believe it was where we started to get guys back, and not fully really until a little bit after that. So I really feel that the consistency with the group and those guys being able to play off each other. You know, our system is a system
that that's been in place for a long time. You know. It started way back, you know, with the Steelers of the seventies, you know, and then it went you know through the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Right then it came to Chicago the first time, right and then we had it in Dallas, and had it in Indianapolis, and now it's
back in Chicago again. So the system has a history to it, and away we play and how we go about our business and how we practice and and those guys are really starting to buy into that and understand what the system's about.
See.
I love that.
I love that because people like to take systems and say, yeah, well they're out of out of bowl and offenses are different now and and hey everything goes in a dip, right, But you said the magic word yesterday. Proof, it's proof, right this proof guys are leading the league and takeaways the last how many weeks? Uh, And it's it's like the ball just doesn't happen to be bouncing that way. I know people like to dig into that a little bit, says it's a little luck involved, but you.
Got to be in the right place at the right time.
How else can you explain Jalen Johnson who's could have had six interceptions this year and Brisker knocked one away that could have been a seven. You know what I mean?
Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
It's really about two things. You know, all my mentors would say this is that it's about rush and cover. Cover and rush, so they go hand in hand. So in order to uh get the sacks or the strip socks, you got to have great coverage because it takes you know, a tick. You know, the pass rushers don't get home, you know, you know, just clean all the time. Right, there's going to be a guy blocking them and it takes them just another second half a second to get home.
So the coverage has got to be tight and it's got to be good. So our back end has been doing a great job with that in terms of the skies, in terms of you know, getting them to hold it an extra second. We got a couple of sacks because of that, you know, And then the rush has always got to be there, you know, when you could rush with four, you know, and cover with seven, that obviously you can do more with your coverages. And that's what
we've been able to do as of late. And it's not to say that we don't butz we still but you know, quite you know, quite often. But I think it's important that that we tie it in together to the front and of the back end.
All right.
So if you have dexter and i'd have to go back, you probably know I don't dexter sweat and blitzing Tremaine at six six sixty six, six ' five, all that coming at a quarterback. Keep blitzing them. I mean, man that that like he's got the wing. The wing, I mean, doesn't that cloud vision significantly?
It sure does, it sure does. And those guys we got a lot of good blitzers, you know. You know, Kyler's a really good butzer. You know, Uh Briskers are really good from the second level. And both our inside backers can pressure, you know. So it's good to be able to have all those guys that could really come from the edges, you know, along with your d line, because it gives you some variants and give you some variety of what you can do.
You know, at this point now, because everybody's healthy and everybody's feeling it on defense and we'll get to the offense. I'm not going to ignore that. But as a play caller now and just put the head coach aside for a second, do you feel now like you got stuff at your disposal like you can you can draw on a lot of things.
Yeah, I mean I do feel that, But I also know this is week to week league, you know. I know that we got a big challenge ahead of us with the Cleveland Browns, and they got a really good, you know, diverse skill set, and it's gonna be it's gonna be a big challenge for us to defend them.
I guess I am past the twenty four hour rule, so I should shut it down on to Troit.
Now we got my hour late. I didn't follow the rule.
Just it's postgame, so you got till three.
Yeah, yeah, okay, okay.
Fields handled the blitz well yesterday again one hundred and twenty two yards. The passes were on heart. He threw some really really some beauties. You know, uh, some are not going to you know, every quarterback has some that don't land. But just overall and just his running ability, he just felt you could feel his confidence yesterday again, right.
Yeah, no doubt, no doubt. And I thought the olone did a nice job protecting for the most part all day yesterday, as did the backs. You know, we always can clean clean it up some, but did a really nice job and situational football of you know, in third down, red zone of making it happen, you know, so you know, if he able, he's able to extend the plays. You saw that third down in the red zone when he scored a touchdown when he ran. And also you know he evaded the rush in the first half on some
third downs to really create the first down. So that was always good to see. And he's doing a great job in normal situations and first and second down of giving the ball to the skill and letting them run with it. And that's that's what he did a good job of. And obviously a quarterbacks number one job was to protect the football, and we had zero zero turn offs yesterday.
Yeah, huge, huge.
Darnell right, Pro Football Focus said, forty past blocking snaps, one hit, no no sacks against a really good pass rusher. So again, more evidence the growth is going in the right direction.
Yeah, he did.
He did some really good things yesterday, you know, in the run game and the pass game, you know, in the protection. And he's continuing to grow.
All right, Let's take a look at the Browns then, because they're number one right now. You know, the cumulative things change obviously in chunks, just like your team is getting a lot of ink about your defense over this last nine games. But number one overall, number one on third down, number one against the pam a lot of number ones, Miles Garrett gets all the attention. Are they much more than that defensively?
Yeah?
This is a high energy group. You know, they play a similar style of ours. You know, it's a four to three group and they play a lot of different coverages, you know, and Schwartze, he does an excellent job, you know, coordinating that defense. And you know he's he's been a good coordinator, you know, for a long time. So it's a big challenge for our offense.
He's still doing the wide nine. Oh yeah, yeah, what's the challenge of that for offense?
Yeah, it's just about being able to, you know, really capture the edges. You know, you'll be how do you protect the edges and how do you capture the edges in the run game. And that's that's the big part of it.
All right.
When you see a story like Joe Flacco who today says, hey, I just love football. I want to keep playing. He's playing for his kids now five He's got five kids age five to eleven. So it's exciting for him to have them see his da, their dad play meaningful football in December for a new team that has on their fourth quarterback. How do you look at that at thirty eight year old Joe fo.
Yeah, I think it's I think it's pretty cool. It's what the NFL is all about, you know. So you know, we got big dog here, so you know, Mercedes and he's thirty eight, right, he got you know, they got great wisdom. They've seen a lot of football. They've seen a lot of coverages. You know, he's you know, he's seen a lot of things and a lot of different pressures and all that. So it's going to be important that we're on top of our game, and that's the most important.
I always are quite sorry about that. I didn't mean Steban. I always a quite the north divisions in both guys, they're they're very similar in terms of you think of physicality, you think of teams that like to run the ball, you think of rust Belt, you know, great football fan base, and you're an Ohio guy. That stadium is a tough place to play for the visiting appen Yeah.
You know, you know, I've worked there a long time ago for a couple of years, and no doubt it's a it's a the fans will be, you know, rowdy, and it's it's it's really a cool place to play.
And a chance to again knack off right now at number five seed in the AFC.
Good luck. We did prepped this week, all right?
Thanks?
All right, we got into Cleveland a little bit. We'll touch on that later in the program, but you could just see it on his FaceTime. You weren't here to see it, but you could. I mean, he is as dialed in right now. He knows something's bruin. And I know it's late in the season and there's been a lot of pain along the way, but for me, better late than never.
That's the thing about it, you know, Jeff. We often talk about, oh, it's a seventeen game stretch. They're in it for a marathon. It's not a sprint. There's so many more games ahead of them. And when you talk about cutting coming down to the tail end of the season, and you talk about your team when they're really developing, playing the best and starting to really perform on the field that you've always expected of them, it makes you
excited to get back to work, you know. And he talked about the twenty four hour rule that's almost expired. But then you look forward to going back into that room with your assistant coaches and start studying tape with your opponent. And then you think about where Matt started the season and where he's at now and the influence that he's had on the defense because he's become the
defensive coordinator. How as exciting as that for him, when you see this group of guys that they've brought together, and they've been able to bring in a guy like Montese Sweat, who I'm not saying that he's individually responsible for making this whole team better, but you know, Matt realizes how important his role is on this team and in the locker room.
So I'm excited for him, but it kind of makes me excited too.
So you have to get ready for next week's Cleveland game because as well as we've seen him play throughout the season, and as well as they played against Detroit, who's considered a playoff team, I'm excited to see.
How they bring their defense on the road.
And you always say defense and running games travel, well, yeah.
They sure do.
You know the other thing, meaningful games in December are so important for a franchise because you know, even Montes what intimated what's going on in Washington felt like guys were just playing out the string and we've seen that here.
You don't want that in your building at any level. Do you do not want that in your building?
This will lay groundwork for the future if they can finish this season strong, no matter how many wins they may or may not get. And I'll tell you. It's a great feeling. Like you said, you can't wait then to get to the next game. And I think the
players probably feel that too. I mean, they've experienced unmatched success over the last two years by going five and four here and so that winning is contagious and being in games and boy, they're going to bemoan some of those losses, the ones that got away.
The ones that got away. There's nothing you can do about it. And Matt always says, you always have to be looking forward. The thing that I'm really happy about for the remainder of the season is there is no negative conversation infiltrating the press conferences are the locker room about draft choice positioning, because everything is going to work how it will work out, and I think that you have to keep your foot on the gas pedal and not worrying about what could possibly happen and how you
could affect your draft position. And I think that really puts a more positive atmosphere in the locker room about where they need to go and where they could possibly end up at the end of the year. So that's one of the things I'm really grateful for that they don't have to worry about that message being asked and really undermine the positive atmosphere that they have right now.
Bears fans, you can be there for live NFL action all season long. Is the official ticket marketplace with the Bears in the NFL. Ticketmaster has a wide selection of tickets available for every every game. Buying tickets today at
ticketmaster dot com. Slash Bears Jeff and Tom and the Bears et cetera podcast got to talk about that keep playing the game that turned the momentum in the right direction for the Bears in an eighteen to nothing second half, and that was the fourth and thirteen, the hard count and the drawing of the off sides. It was detailed here in this press conference on Monday from Lucaspatrick.
I think Justin's done a great job handling it. This is an intricate cadence, and I'd probably say we might have one of the tougher silent cadences across the league.
We do.
We do a lot of stuff, and we put a lot on him with run checks, past checks and understanding how his his motion timing effects a snap cadence he wants to use. So he kind of pulled it all together in that moment, So credit to him. And even this week, you know, we were talking how I think came up to him and I thought cadence was going to be huge this week back at home, you know, I think we what did three or four four on the road in a while, so teams had a while
to study our cadence. There's a lot of self scout on our side, but there's opponent scout with TV copies and how big the league is now, there's microphones everywhere. So it's a credit to him for honing in on a situation and not just taking information that was in the play, but information from a few weeks and executing them pletely.
Didn't happen though, unless you snapped the ball.
So can you kind of explain what you have to go.
Through process wise in terms of whether you're deciding to snap the ball or not.
I mean you obviously have to make sure they're outside. Yeah, it's it's definitely a fun plays of center.
I gotta be honest, like when when a certain situation comes up and we get to play call, I actually get pretty excited for it because it's a I don't know if you can see it. I was pretty elated on that. But yeah, you got to be locked in. You got to know, you got to know that they're clearly off sides because they can step across and go back and then if I rip it, it would be a false start. There's just there's a lot of nuances to that, a lot of practice that goes into it.
Like fortunately on the on the scout team this week, some were not planned and then some gets you'll just mix it up and you know, we could have a play that's you know, a goal line play and snap it and so it's it's something that we do train.
But yeah, in that moment, you got to be locked in.
And it's weird, like your peripherals get better because you're so like paying attention to it and kind of keeping you know, one eye this way, one eye that way.
Heart start pumping a lot more when you see the guy actually cross the line.
No, I mean, uh, fortunately, I've had quite a few reps of free plays both practice games, so it's not something new to me.
And you know, credit to everyone there.
I mean, it was it was a well executed play and it was it was good to get that one there and just really swing the momentum.
All right, So you heard it a lot to break down there.
One that he said, the cadences in this offense are complicated, and the silent counts are complicated. They're going to go into Cleveland probably with a silent count. Just explain all of the significance of what Lucas kind of put all together there and how that play is something we see from betteran quarterbacks all the time and it usually means good things.
Well, first of all, the more of a voice flection that a quarterback can use throughout his cadence means the better he's starting to understand the terminology and the offense now as he's able to use a.
Hard count where he can throw his voice up and down.
That can make a defensive lineman that wants to get off the ball so quickly it can make him jumpy and get into that neutral zone.
So I think it's such an asset to have.
And if you look at around the NFL over the course of years, from Boomer Aside and to Steve de Berg to guys like Aaron Rodgers now justin fields, the more that you can make that unpredictable snapcount be a factor on the line of scrimmage, especially at home the more that you can get one or two of those again, and now if you can get one or two of those a game, and then you can turn it into an active play like Justin.
Did you see the results of it and how important it was.
So now they're going to be preaching, Okay, you got to watch this count at home.
It's you know, it's really difficult to kind of get a tempo on.
So now defensive linemen are a little less jumpy at the line of scrimmage, so they're getting off the ball a little bit slower, and it's allowed the offensive lineman to get in a more successful position. So there's a lot of tentacles too as snapcount like that and how it can help the offensive line. It can create big plays for the offense at some of the most important times in the game and on every third down home.
Yeah, I think we can all agree that when Justin gets some success running the football, it energizes him and makes him play better, and it kind of lingers throughout the course of a game. And you go to the last seventeen games that he started, he's got over three thousand passing yards, twenty five touchdowns, eleven interceptions, none in his last ninety three attempts and twelve hundred and thirty seven rushing yards and eight touchdowns. That's one full season
in today's NFL dating back to last year. Those are good numbers. But the runs yesterday, it just kind of energized him and he didn't take well. He did take some big hits. We're gonna get into that too, but on the plays that were successful, he did not take any big hits, and it just energizes his game. Is he finding the right balance? Is Luke Getze finding the right balance? The game was not without errors in the target and accuracy of some of his throws, but big plays they were there.
You know what you have to impress me most about Justin's escapability, yes, man, especially on that third and eighth went for nineteen yards. Is he's finding escape routes through the center of the defense. They all don't have to be to the outside. They don't have to try to get to the edge and then turn it off field.
If he sees an opening in the middle of the defensive line, that filters through the second level and onto the third and you get him a little space between he and that second level and third level defenders then.
Justin has the advantage.
And so that's the most encouraging thing to me about yesterday's escapability by Justin is a couple of them, and the most and the best ones were through the center of the defense.
Just like last year. Those were explosive.
Well, you know, you just imagine DJ Moore's touchdown run, which I was really surprised that that was the first touchdown run of his career. But you know, a major part of that influence was Justin Fields lined up at kind of in a wide receiver position to the far left, and as he ran back towards the center of the field, they were thinking, Okay, here's a trick play. DJ Moore is going to flip it back to Justin. Then he's going to try to throw a downfield. So now they
become susceptible to fooling themselves. And as DJ Moore kept it and got around the corner, he turned it into a touchdown. And it's because of the influencing ability of Justin's athleticism they're created that outside running lane for DJ.
Good news Chicago United Airlines is getting brand new planes with all the bells and whistles like Bluetooth conductivity screens at every scene in room for Everyone's roller Bag United, Proud to Fly, the Chicago Bears and you too. All right, let's take a look at some of the hits that Justin is taking as a running quarterback.
Jakwan Brisker was asked about it.
He feels a certain way about what the opposition is doing to fields.
If it was us, they'll be throwing it. It won't even be a reaction, They'll just throw it. So I think they should just treat him fair. He is a quarterback, and I know he's two thirty and he's running a four to three, but it doesn't really matter. He's still
a quarterback and we have to protect them. And it's disappointing, obviously the other teams being told to do dirty stuff after the play hit him like this a certain way, it's obviously being told just by the way they've been treating him, just like a couple of weeks, a lot of shots to the head, and it's it's very disappointed seeing a guy like that get hit and take hits like that, and one of those hits, you know, you know, God forbid, you know, it could be something very bad.
So that I think the league need to get on that and notice that it's bad.
But the common thought the locker room that it's sort of systematic that I think you just said that they're coaching these guys to hit the fields hard or late.
Or at the echo.
Yeah, you just tell like just from the other teams, like we don't we like, you know, coach Flulsen, he doesn't tell to do anything like that. But you could just tell, like just the way like they just you know, hit him after their play. They just try to, Like you just tell how they're just trying to tug and you know, try to do whatever they can to get him out of the game.
And it's obvious.
It's obvious Autumn hit shots yesterday, Autumn lay hits, trying to mess with his hands and things like that is obvious. So Lee just has to protect the quarterback and we're going to protect orders at all time.
So all right, Tom, you're you've been outspoken on this topic when it comes to players. Doesn't matter if it's quarterback or any other player taking hits before they get out of bounds or in the field of play good and bat and I think you've been pretty on point about it. Do you think the Lions over did it yesterday and the referee should have thrown some flags. Ibra Flu said it was worse than Week eleven against Detroit versus Week fourteen. What's your thought.
I think Justin's the most disrespected a quarterback running quarterback in the league by the officials.
He never gets any hits. He did. Yeah, it did.
Happen in the first Detroit game. It happened this week in the game. And you know, Jeff, they only have to give Justin a call one time early in the game. That's gonna stop it for the rest of the game because the defense is going to attack Justin as much as they can until they get a call against him, and for him not to get more calls. And I'm not asking for a sympathy call. I'm asking for an infraction call. And I see it whether you know, there's
times also that I stick up for the opponent. When Justin is still in bounds and a defender hits them and hits them, you know, it's a hard hit to get him out of bounds.
You know, that's the legal part of the game as well.
However, when Justin takes multiple bodies jumping on him or hitting in the upper body when he's sliding feet first and giving himself up.
Where is that call?
When is Justin start going to start getting the respect he deserves Like a lot of other quarterbacks do around the league, And you see these other quarterbacks pop up to their feet and start complaining to the official.
Justin never does that.
He just pops up to his feet and gets back to the huddle. So I think eventually, if the NFL, I mean, if Matt or the Bears can bring it to the attention of the officials, maybe they'll start recognizing it a little bit more and understanding, Look, this is a dynamic athlete playing quarterback, and if he does run and he gives himself up, we have to give him the respect he deserves.
Yeah. I think it's ridiculous that we're even having this delineation between right and wrong. It should be consistently called.
That's it.
I mean, the call is the call. It doesn't matter if Justin's a unique athlete. It's the call. That's the call. I mean, quarterback, you are supposed to be protected.
Right, Well, you know one thing about it, Jeff, until a quarterback, you know plays you know, a double digit to a whole season worth of games. They kind of don't. They're not familiar with the type of game he plays. Justin's been playing enough games now and you read about the rushing stats that he's accomplished since he's been around.
They know what he's capable of doing.
So when you get ready to you know, you come out of your officials locker room, you got to know what type of quarterback you are officiating. And like I said, it's about respect and he's at the point where he deserves it.
Tom They remained pretty healthy and got Kaway came down with an ankle eq Saint Brown's going to be week to week with a peck injury. But I mean, you can't ask for a better healthy roster right now. This is outstanding that gives a lot of options to iber Fluss as a defensive play caller as I mentioned him in our interview, but also from an offensive standpoint. Just keep that offensive line healthy, man for the rest of
the year. Knock on wood, keep it going in the right direction because as they get ready to take on the Cleveland Browns, Dewan Jones, their big right tackle rookie at Ohio State who has had a fantastic year. He's out for the year, needs knee surgery. They have two healthy guys on the offensive line, and they are the number five seed in the AFC, and that changes things. That puts a lot of pressure on Joe Flacco, the thirty eight year old quarterback. We'll dip into that. But
aren't you feeling the same way. I mean, the healthy you are in December, the stronger you are in December, no.
Doubt about it.
When you look at the weather report, it's going to be fifty three and sunny. So you look at this group of Bears athletes and they have a chance to come out there, and I hope it's good field conditions. They get a chance to get loose and they get to play up to the level of athleticism they're capable of.
But when you talk about the health status of the Bears, and you think of what the Bears have gone through throughout the season, whether it's Kyler Gordon, Jakwan Brisker, Tremaine Edmonds, the offensive line, as you mentioned, the running back position, they are just un fortunate justin yeah, yeah, justin themselves. So I do believe that all the counterparts that factor
in a healthy roster. Are doing their due diligence. From the Jimmy, Arthur and Pierre in the weight room, to the hydration staff, to the dietitians, to all the training staff, to everything that matters. They're doing a great job of keeping this group of guys, you know, in the best health position they can be in at this part of the season.
For all your journeys ahead, go with a partner who's been on your team from the beginning, the one members and communities have trusted for over eighty five years. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, always standing by you, with you, for you.
Through it all.
All right, Cleveland, They knock off Jacksonville with a banged up Trevor Lawrence in Joe Flacco at age thirty eight, throws three touchdown passes. He did fumble and he did throw a pick. He's having a great time. He wants to keep playing as long as that body allows him to. It's a love of the game thing. Quite the interesting
story here brewing for Cleveland. He's already got the attention of his teammates and the head coach now has made him the starting quarterback period for the rest of this season, one in which They've won four games with four different quarterbacks, the first time since nineteen fifty in the NFL. So, Kevin Stefanski, you've done a nice job overall. How do you look at this team and this visit by the Bears will break it down in depth on Thursday.
I think it's very Joshua dob esque where you come in, you're flying by the seat of your pants. You get the team in a winning position, everybody's anointing you as a quarterback of the future, and then the next thing you know, your benched and they bring in Minnesota, brings
in somebody else and no offense with Joe Flacco. I think when you come by and you're basically a hired gun and you're kind of playing reactionary football according to the information that you're saying, but you're also being coached into the speaker your helmet of where you know quarterback passing awareness.
From the play that's being called. So I think there's a lot.
Of elements that help and inexperienced quarterback in the system, But then you also have to rely on the experiences that you've already lived through as an active NFL quarterback.
So to me put as much pressure.
On as you possibly can see if you can affect his throwing fundamentals, can you get inside of his circle to keep him from you know, having perfect fundamental throwing windows and you know, make him look like a thirty eight year old quarterback that maybe you can get him exhausted from running away from pressure.
Crazy thing.
They threw him forty five times forty five Wow?
Right, I don't know.
I mean, is that the fastest way to success? Do you have no faith in your running game? Do you have no faith in your offensive line?
Do you think that.
Putting him on a three step drop he can get the ball out of his hands before pressure can get to him.
So there's a lot of.
Different elements that I think that we're going to have to pay attention to when we get a chance to look at some of the some of the tape of him playing quarterback.
Well, they do like to run the ball over there in Cleveland too, and they've had a bunch of injuries at that. But it's something the Bears have to lock down. They gave up a little bit in that first half against Detroit, which is also a good rushing team, and got better in the second half.
Really, it was.
One big run Jamiir Gibbs thirty six. You got one hundred and four yards the rest of the day, but you can't take away that play. That's the way it will.
They got a solid offensive line in Detroit though, so yeah, I mean it was a battle up front. It wasn't like they got, you know, five guys out up there that can't block.
They got five guys up there.
And I know they have an injury to Frank Ragdow, but however, they have a good quality offensive line.
All right, we've been teasing it. It's not something that's funny. Certainly. The first pro start of Justin Fields in Cleveland turned into a nightmare. He was sacked for more yards than he threw, and Miles Garrett had four and a half sacks and six hits.
What's the best way to block this guy?
First of all, you're gonna have to have the proper direction of protection. You're gonna have to use multiple guys, whether it's Cole Comet, Robert Tanya and Marcedes Lewis, Rochawn Johnson, Kyrie blasting game just to give a little bit of backside help to whatever offensive lineman is assigned to him. You have to give him all the respect in the world.
He'll play on each side of the ball. If he feels that they have design protection to come at him every time, he'll wait until you break the huddle and he'll go to the other side and see if he can insure himself a one on one. And then you're gonna have to have a variation of silent snapcounts. The worst thing they did to Justin the first time around is they were super consistent in the tempo of their silent count and that turned out to be the most dangerous thing that you can do to a young, first
time starting quarterback. And then you have to allow Justin to run the ball. And you know, you saw what they did when they played against Max Crosby in the Raiders game, and they kind of designed plays and protections and routes that took him out of the play. And I think that you can do those same types of things with this offense.
Number one defense in the NFL, third in yards per play. Also they are number one on third down first downs allowed per game, also third in the NFL, and kick return average. Some of the things defending the kick return, I should say so some of the things that are really good at the Cleveland defense. Offensively, as you might expect with four different quarterbacks. The numbers ten towards the bottom of the league versus the top of the league,
including thirtieth in third down efficiency. So this is an opportunity again for the Bears defense to lay the hammer down on this Cleveland offense and for the Bears to get creative and aggressive against a very physical Cleveland defense. We're brought to you by PNC Official Bank of the Bears. Anyway, you gotta be thrilled about the Bears right now, Big Tom and DJ Moore, I hope you can embrace this.
I don't know if you will or not. After the game, DJ Moore's quote was simple, our plan is to win out.
Do you want to hear that? Yeah, exactly, of.
Course I do.
I mean, I don't think anybody should stand in front of the podium and say, oh, I'll be happy if we win you three out of.
Four or we win a cup. No way, man.
This is a team that should have their sites said on getting into the playoffs, however possible.
And I thought at the beginning of the season, before the season.
Ever started, that the Bear's sole goal should be able to win the division and get into the playoffs, and I think it's awesome that they've been able to work through some difficult times and have the possibility of that in their sights.
That's going to wrap us up for our podcast today.
We'll be back with you on Thursday with an in depth preview of the Browns along with some guests along the way. For time there, I'm Jeff Joniac and for head coach Matt Ibraflus.
Thanks for listening.
Please subscribe now in the Chicago Bears official Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your pie cats.
Bear Down, everybody, h