Coaches Show: Nagy, Fangio on defensive performance

a great evening. Everybody. Welcome into fancy studios at Hallis Hall as the Bears Coaches Show rolls on here as we head into a week to out of the season. Head Coach Matt Naggie with you until eight o'clock tonight, will be joined by a defensive coordinator, Vic Fan Joe as well. Good to have you, Coach forty one nine. Certainly feels good, looks, good smiles all around. Huh. That was fun. No, that was a fun game and just

awesome for the guys that come out and play. And we had a great week of practice and translated to the game, and you know, that's a that's a game that we understood going into a hostile environment, tough crowd and a team that was a little bit wounded, and you just never know. And so our guys came out and credit to them for playing hard and fast and physical and got some turnovers on defense, some touchdowns and

came out with the win. Yeah. I want to go back to that practice comment, and you brought it up earlier today with the media. You said it was the best of the year potentially practice. What about it? What makes practice during a week of prep special? And then you know it because sometimes I've heard THEMN coaches and they doesn't really translate. Why do you think this this

particular week. Well, it's crisp, you know, and the guys when they're when they're practicing right now, what's happening is you start to lose some repsum just to help save on the wear and tear these guys bodies physically, and so you're looking for great quality mental reps and when they're out there, it's not making mistakes, it's it's still

playing fast in practice. And so when you play fast in practice and you try to simulate the game tempo, and then you don't make mistakes or or mental errors on any side of the ball. Uh, and it's sharp, it's crisp. You know, the periods go fast because there's less mistakes, there's less repeated plays, and um, that's what we had this past week. You could see it. I thought our coaches really coached their tails off. You could

you could do. There was just a sense of a lot of focus, and we talked about it each day and even up until our walk through on Saturday, where that's really completely a mental day, and our guys were sharp. And so we were four for four this week, and um, you don't always have that, unfortunately, but we we had it this week and I had a good feeling going into it. What's the best way then to carry that momentum into another week of doing the same thing. Is

it possible? Is it something? Now that this is the new the new ceiling for practice, you end up wanting to make this uh be completely normal. This is the norm, and our guys are learning that. Everybody here is learning that. And so that's my job as the head coach to to keep my thumb down on that and make sure that we all understand that we need to be completely dialed in. We need to be focused on all the details and not get complacent, which we've talked about all

year long. And and um, that's that's where we're at. So it's not hard, especially coming into a division game, coming back home. Um, and and that's all we're focused on right now is the Detroit Lions. How'd you do it for yourself? You're putting the thumb on everybody else. How do you do Matt Naggy, Well, it's it's not hard because I understand, you know, I realize the importance of where we're at right now. I know everybody's looking for me with my direction and my leadership. That's why

I'm here. And uh, and I've learned from one of the best in the league and coach Reads. So h just going through these long seasons. Um, you know, we just finished got through our our our eighth game and for us now to be where we're at now it's the second half of the season. But a Saturday, you know, stay within the the this this start of the third third quarter for us, and it happens to be at home and we're looking forward to it. If you had to deal with this defense yourself, how would you do it?

Because they really played hard yesterday. Just going over it again, just everybody, like you said earlier today, flying around, the effort, insight in the trenches, the dbs on it. Everything was really really something defensively, it was it was everywhere. And that's what I appreciate so much from these guys, and and our our offense and our special teams feed off of that um. The defense feeds off of it from

each other. You know, if the defensive linemen are getting pressure on the quarterback um, then it buys the dbs some time to be able to you know, close on any any separation at the wide receivers create and ad vice versa. If if the dbs are locking down the wide receivers, then it gives the d lineman more time to get to the quarterback. And then at the second tier you have the linebackers and they're flying around horizontal from sideline to sideline. I thought you saw that all

day yesterday. And then you get down in the trenches and our guys just made a nice, tough, tough couple of hits there, a tough couple tackles on their running backs and just you felt it in the game. You watch it on video. You see it on tape, and it all stuck out offensively, you know, not many snaps obviously that that's fine. And when you got forty one on the board, and you know, that's that's great. In this league right now, it appears you're gonna need to

score points. I mean to be one of those teams. And you guys are right now, last four games, the scoring average way up. You're fifth in the league as it is. I think that for fans is what's coming back to me is most exciting is that you guys are scoring almost thirty points a game and you're not even there yet. Yeah, right, you're right. And yesterday was a yesterday. It was a strange game on the offensive side of the ball, just with only having forty six plays.

The first half was somewhat normal. When you have two defensive touchdowns within one quarter, your plays are going to be limited. And then when you have a lead like we had in the third quarter, they they they took some time off the clock on the first drive. They went down and kicked a field goal, and we came right back and had a long pass interference call on their defense, and then we ended up getting a field goal.

So two possessions went by there and um, it was it was you know, one field goal for another and you stretched out, you know, eight minutes on the clock in that quarter and before you know it's a fourth quarter in your in four minute mode. So it was a strange day, um for the offense. But that's how it goes, and and and again. All as we care about is that score and being able to put up forty one points on the road, um is great to have.

And uh and it's a credit tall the guys. You saved some thirty plays that you never touched your books, so you can roll it after something else. You know. You know that at one point in the game, you had four running backs in and they call it time out and Tom Thair literally blurted out, oh, like something bad, because we wanted we wanted to see what was next.

You know. That's the thing about you. I'm sure your guys feel the same way when they get thrown in there with Eddie Jackson in the slot that one time, and just these little things that really gets your attention and cause another team to prepare for it. But can you can you appreciate that though? From yeah, I do,

I think it's great. We have a we have a bunch of great talented athletes on our team, and we're gonna use everybody and and and again that's that's part of why we do what we do is to have fun. And I'm a big believer in that. And the guys like it. And and uh, if you can create an advantage somehow, whether it's through personnels or formations or play concepts,

and let's do it. And um, you know, we we try to mix our personnel's up a little bit, and we might be a little bit unconventional, um, which is okay because that stresses the defense. And and we just try to use it. Guys start coming to your door, our hand in. Man, they're already starry. You know they are. I know they are. They have to be, that's for sure.

Our first segment in the books with head coach Matteggie for the five and three Bears hitting the midpoint in terms of the actual sixteen game season with Detroit coming in on Sundays, Let's step away now the Bears Coaches Show with head coach Matt Maggie and w bbm's Jeff Joniac continues, he's got it back to his left three receivers to the right. He takes the snap coming to their side of hold, handing us upthing out of the flex of Leonard Floyd. Fuck hands out touchdown Bears number

two today their Robbaball. The celebration begins in the end zone. Bears sixtend their lead touch twenty to nothing here in Buffalo, and it would grow larger. The Bears finish off the Bill's forty one nine to pick six by Leonard Floyd, the first of his NFL career. Welcome Back to the Bears Coaches Show, brought to you by Whippley Financial Advisors, a proud partner of the Chicago Bears. And he almost was relieved the way he flung that football into the stands.

He can't he can't fall them, right, you know, Leonard was happy. No, you can't. And it was a great play, you know, first of all getting the tip ball up in the air and then Leonard to be there in position to catch it and then take those long strides into the end zone and then he, like you said, he flung it into the end into the stands and and uh, I'm you know, I'm sure it felt really good. Yeah, he was auditioning you know, for an offensive spot. You know,

showed good hands, good good instincts to run with the ball. No, he I thought he played well. I thought he was close on a number of things. He got a tip pass, he sniffed out a screen. I mean he did some good things. Oh he did a lot of good things. And that that's the thing that you know, It's one thing to to get sacks. It's another thing to affect a passer. But this kid is just playing with a

very high motor every single play. He had a play where he made a tackle and he just collapsed the pocket and came down on the back and it was just it might have been one of the best plays of the game and it's probably may go unnoticed. But he's making a lot of great plays right now. And as is that whole defense. I mean, you go around and I went around this morning and just tried to, uh, you know, pin it down as to who really stepped

up and was it one guy And it wasn't. I mean, it was literally everybody from the defensive line to the linebackers, to the dbs to the coaches. It was just fun, really fun effort. You could see it was faffort all the way through the game, to the end of the game, to the very last play with the stack. I mean, honestly, Aaron Lynch. And let's talk about Eddie Goldman too. You brought him up today. He had four tackles last week against the Jets, and that's the part of the game.

You really got to watch the tape and slow it down to see exactly what he was doing in there. But he was. He was using his leverage and getting making plays. He made a lot of great plays. And when you're into trenches in there, there's a lot of big bodies and a lot of people that you can't see. But when you actually sit down and you break down the tape, you realize how great of a game that he played. I mean a lot of double teams. He's in there with six hundred pounds going after him, and

um so he's making great plays. And I just I really was. I thought that was really neat at how hard he played, and as is all the other guys too. And you know, you could say what you want to buy, opponents and how you evaluate things. People write about it all the time, but you know, what you play, who you play, he doesn't matter. You got to respect every single opponent, and your your guys definitely did that. Yeah,

without a doubt. You have to. And the parody in this league is just way too, way too common, and um, you know, there's no reason for any letdown or for us, and we're not good enough of a team to do that. That's not I mean, we we're trying to create our own identity right now and every game is is just so important and so for our guys that come out here and be focused and from start to finish what

we needed. I'm glad you use that word identity again because you had talked to us many times early in the season about, you know, hoping around mid season to have your identity to chiseled out. So is the statue done on what the identity is? Are you still chipping away at the block of granted? And what's your opinion about it all? Yeah, so we're still chipping away. We're not there yet, but we're getting close. And what I

like is that we're we're figuring out ways. We've been in different styles of games with big leads, we've played from behind, we've played close ones in the third and fourth quarter. But the good thing is that throughout at all. I think the biggest separation towards the end of a game would have been the Patriots game when we were down fourteen points in the fourth quarter. But for the most part, our guys are learning how to play these

four quarters, and defensively, our guys are flying around. Offensively, we're still working on some things, but I really like the growth of our offense individually, where we're getting our

timings getting better. Our offensive line is doing a good job of protecting from Mitch, and in special teams, I thought it might have been one of their best games of the year yesterday with with Cody kicking two field goals and five extra points, and then with Pat having some great punts, and then guys our gunners running downfield and creating great field position. Yeah, and always, and I gave Pat Scales a little shout out he had his

first special teams tackle. Ye, so long snappers getting a tackle. That's always good. Everybody's playing, everybody's playing hard. Really, I gotta again commend the coaching staff because, and Tom talks about it all the time, there's never been a moment, whether it be a practice we saw in training camp or a situation where you had to get somebody ready to fill in and play because of injury or performance or whatnot. That these guys aren't. They are ready to go.

They know exactly what is being asked of them. You guys, as coaches, are doing an unbelievable job of preparing for preparing these guys. You talk about your staff, but even today, the defensive assistance and offensive assistants. We're able to talk to the media today and just hearing the exuberance by which they feel about these guys, about teaching these guys they're genuinely excited about. Now. Winning certainly helps, but I think it's just in their DNA this collection of coaches.

Would you say that's accurate for sure? No, we have a We have great, great, great coaches on this staff that work really well together. They all care about each other. There's zero egos. And I think that's the part that is so big in this league is when you have guys that truly love what they're doing. They love trying to teach, to teach their players everything they possibly can

to help them get better. They try to really bring out all their strengths, try to fix their weaknesses player wise, and then you know the part that goes on notice is the relationships that are built with these coaches, as in nights like tonight when there's meetings going on and trying to figure out what's the best way to attack an opponent, the communication, the collaboration with each other, and then on game day just motivating your players and being

there for each other. And that's that's why in the end when we celebrate after these games, there's just so much effort that goes into it for the players and the coaches, and when you do it, you do it all together. Mattneggie and the Bears Coaches Show coming up at the bottom of the hour. Vic Fangio, the defensive coordinator, will join the program as well, and the Chicago Bears Network presents Inside the Bears, brought to you by Verizon.

Anthony Adams and Lawrence Creeden cover the world of Bears football on and off the field, every Sunday night, eleven o five pm on Fox thirty two Chicago, or watch anytime at Chicago Bears dot Com or on the Bears Official Act. The Bears Coaches Show with head coach Medneggie and this Hour featuring defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, frought to you by Whippley, CBA's and Consultants and sponsored by Athletico

Physical Therapy, Verizon and Miller Lite. Once again the Voice of the Bears w BBMS Jeff Joni at play fake Peterman gonna throw Peter Men taps the ball working over at what an interception by Kyle Fuller. He snagged it, stays out of street. He's got a little bit of an escort as he winds his way to the twenty eight yard line up Buffalo Man, oh Man, Kyle Fuller, it appeared to me caught the nose of the football

that interception. That was a heck of a player. Yes, it was Vic Fangio joining us here on the Bears Coaches Show. You break it down for us a little more than I described it, because I thought it was an outstanding, outstanding pluck out of the air. It was he had tight coverage on his guy. The guy ran an end route, which is always hard to cover in certain coverages. That he was tight enough and we had decent rush and he plucked it out of the air.

You know, again, a lot of times interceptions it can be tips or something. But he's had a couple here of late that have been really nice place. Yeah, and our share of ricochets and you know, with the tight coverage. And he played really wonderful yesterday, obviously getting in a lot of attention for his performance, involved in all three of the interceptions. And it's just his physicality. It's it's there.

It's always been there, as a matter of fact. But his confidence level seems to be very high, and the respect of his teammates is also equally. He's high. Well, anytime you can experience success, that goes a long way, and you know, improving your own confidence and attitude and the attitude of others also, so you know, you can talk all you want, but eventually you got to do it on the field, and he's been doing that of late, and it sounds to me he's just from reading about

his teammates talking about him, other defensive backs. He's he's become a guy that takes guys to the side, talks to them a lot, doesn't do it in front of a lot of people. His demeanor is very serious, business like and quiet. On the quieter side. Is that something that he that you urged him to do or is

he doing all this stuff organically? Now? I think he's doing it mostly on his own and with good intentions, and the more you can have with that, And again, I don't think he felt comfortable doing that prior to now, or you know, maybe towards the end of the last year when he started experience some good success. So success has a lot of things that fall off of that that help, and that's one of it. It It bears fruit,

bears fruit bears fruit. He's you know, and your relationship with him has grown equally, you know, it's it's it's been a unique relationship with him, has in it. Well, yeah, he's been here since we've been here, or I've been here, i should say, and it's been a good relationship. You know. The year he sat wasn't able to play because of his injury, you know, it was a tough year for everybody, and but I like the way he's come back from that, and you know, and he's just picked up where he

left off last year and had a nice season. How would you describe your defense right now? The way it's playing. Well, the last couple of weeks, I've been obviously better than the two weeks prior to that. We've done a pretty good job overall of not giving up the big play. We've done a nice job of playing the run. Both of these last two teams that we played ran the ball well. That was part of the offense that they

were doing very good. And we've been able to control the running game without having the work extra hard to do it. Our guys up front, to Keim and Eddie, the inside backers, the outside backers, you know, the guys that are rolling in and out there have done a nice job. Everybody's getting a chance, man, everybody's doing something well. The Bears Coaches Show with defensive coordinator bet Bengio and w bbm's Jeff Joniac continue, Bears are blitzings. Peterman is

throwing the protection holes he throws. I can test it. Are you hooked up? And it accepted? Amos up with it? Amos hit from behind Bears football at the thirty eight yard line up buffatall there for the deflection. Adrian Amos with the swife his second You're here pick first of

this season on the tip by Kyle Fuller. All right, so it all adds up right now, Bear, And I know Vic Fangio does not want to hear all the math, but it's my obligation right to say number one in the NFL and points off takeaways two in total takeaways two and turnover margin two interceptions tie for second, and forced fumbles. But this is the point I want to make, is that the number of guys that are touching the ball in these cases, so ten players with the fourteen pack,

that's significant, isn't it. I think so. I kind of noticed that today at some point, and we've had a lot of guys get them, which is good. I think they all feel like they can. You know, once you get one, then you know you can get two. You get to you know you can get your third, and I think it can become a little bit contagious. Twelve with at least a full sack. Isaiahraman got his first yesterday. Is that also significant? I think so. I think it's a reflection of you know, playing a lot of guys

like you alluded to earlier. Also, you know, different guys are rushing at different times and so they're getting their opportunities, and you know it adds up. What do you think about? Well, now what you think? But you were needing to use different personnel this week so you get outside linebacker depth is always something you wanted, any position actually, but you got Kylie Fitz in there, you got Isaihavon rushing the passer because you never know what's coming next. Is that

valuable to you? And to see even those guys come in the fourth quarter, I know the game was decided, but just to get them out there and see Iggy get a tackle for loss sack at the end of the game there for Roy Rob. I mean, those things do they matter? I think so. You know, if you'd ask the players, they definitely would say it does. And I think any real game action you can get, even though it was in the situation that it was in yesterday, can only help you when you are called to action

and when the game's not decided. So every rep is valuable. We had to talk to some of the assistant coaches today up here at Hollis Hall, and I was talking with Glen Pire's about linebacker playing. We're blowing up Danny, Trevathan and Roquan and he says, well, we still need consistency. And Coach Nagy said that he felt it was their best game of the year as a duo, a twenty five tackles and whatnot. They were flying all over the field.

But I appreciate the fact that you know your assistance and you guys look at things a little differently than we do. We don't get caught We get caught up and what happens, but you get caught up in the big picture, right, Yes, I mean, and I agree with Glenn's assessment there. I mean, ro Quan and Danny both did a lot of good things yesterday and have been doing a lot of good things throughout the season, but there's still plays that they can play better and be

even a more significant player for us moving forward. You know, you know, we've missed a couple of tackles here and there, a little late and coverage here and there, and those plays can start to add up, and you know, when we head into the second half of the season, we

need to eliminate those plays. Aside from that, Danny helping Roquan and Roquan being the player that you saw in tape coming out of colleges that at all coming in fruition in terms of his explosion, his ability to go sideline to sideline is tackling ability when it's right in front of him, and just to there's not a lot of yards after There was not a lot of yards after contact yesterday from your entire defense, they're just whacking people now. Roquan's definitely got all the ability that we

thought he had prior to us drafting him. I still think he's suffering a little bit from not being in training camp, and even when he did come to training camp, he only had a day and a half of practice with the hamstring injury that he got. So he's playing very well for us, but he can play better. Where does it show up in terms of that well in coverage? You know, his own drops, you know, understanding the route

pickups and man coverage and those things. Let's go back to the secondary, because everybody's been together now, so as you get to the midpoint of another season here, that experience and continuity, is it now really starting to pay off? I think so anytime you you know most we had these guys last year and now they've played another half

a season together. You know, that's two training camps besides half a game, full season and a half, and they get to know each other and play off each other, communicate easier, have confidence each other, can communicate without being verbal, you know, just by looking at each other and you know, make a signal or a look. So all of those little things at up. Is this defense reminding you of any you've coached. And I don't like to go don't like to do that. No, I don't like to compare.

That's fair. They are making their own mark though they're getting a lot of attention out there. Good, they deserve it. Hopefully, going into the second half of the season, they'll continue that and hopefully they'll bear the fruit of their labor. But Bears Coaches Show with Head coach Mett Maggie continues exclusively on the Home of the Bears News Radio seven eighty and one oh five point nine FM w BBM.

Back of the Bears Coaches Show brought to you by a Whippley Financial Advisors, a proud partner of the Chicago Bears. And join me timp There and Luke Adellas for Bears Game Night Live, brought to you by IGS Energy, will recap every Bears game Sunday night, SAI ten thirty five pm on Fox thirty two Chicago. Our remaining moments with defensive coordinator Vick Fangio. Again, thank you for your time.

As always, Before the game yesterday and this has been talked about in the league, but I just went back myself. But the league scoring average going into yesterday was twenty four points a game, as the most in NFL history. You gotta go back to nineteen forty eight. You know, things are way different than then. Is that forced you in any way to look at football differently from a

defensive perspective. Just with the amount of points being scored even yesterday, several teams including US scoring forty points or more and big numbers thirty five, thirty eight, thirty nine point games. Well, the game has changed offensively, and that's you know, that's driven everything. So as a defense we have to adjust to it. You know, the biggest change is teams are playing with three wide receivers on the

field a lot more than they used to. So the game has spread out a lot more than it used to be on more plays than it used to be. Teams are throwing the ball deeper more times than they used to with the game with the field being spread

out as much as it is. If teams try and do a little too much on defense, and you know, one little error here or there, or avoid a zone here or there, you know, there's just more people out there in space to make you pay for and I think part of the points being up, I think you would also find the amount of big plays is up. You know. Consequently too, I think there are more defensive touchdowns being scored somewhat. That's factoring into that, you know,

with the more wide open play that you're seeing. But it's a little bit of everything. You know. The talent level on the offensive side of the ball has really escalated in the last few years and makes it tougher to play defense. Defensive penalties too. I mean, he could literally stand back there, throw it up and you may get a penalty out of it. Off the time. Yeah, they've you know, the tie like in baseball, say goes to the runner, any doubt goes to the offense in football.

So um, you know that you have to fight that battle too. All right, Lions up? What do you think did you wit? Lions up? What do you think they they've got? You know, Stafford, we all know him here. You know, he's been their quarterback for a while now. He's one of the best quarterbacks in the league. Great arm talent, strength, arm strength, accuracy, release, mobile in the pocket.

You know, they've beaten. The three of the teams that they've beaten this year are the three teams that we've lost to, so that, you know, kind of tells you what kind of talent and capabilities they have. So it will be a tough divisional test, always is with him at quarterback in the Lions, so hopefully we'll be up to our best. Good luck in your preparation. Thank you so much, Vic Fangio, Bears defensive coordinator. Have a good night, everybody.