Coaches Show: Nagy, Tabor talk Saints

were out there running around. It was refreshing, and so I think we were able to all get refreshed and ready to reload. What'd you do well? I was. I was able to do that reflecting reload and do a little bit hang out with the kids, which was great. You know, it's good to be a dad and let them um see you at dinner and let them see as some of their sporting events, but at the same time stay focused here at the task at hand, which

is getting ready for the Saints. Yeah. You don't get you know, in the coaching industry, you don't get see your kids every day play sports. So I know they're playing. What did you get to see you over the week. Yeah. So I was able to see a football game yesterday, which was nice over at Lake Forest High School, and um and uh and now I got to see a basketball game in the evening, so I was able to check it out. And um, you know that that's what

it's all about. That's that's being able to sit there and just take it all in, not say a word and just watch it all happen. Is it goes quick? Yeah? Yeah? How about when they come home a little bit. Yeah, we we hang out. We we we play catch in the in the front yard, and then we watch we watch a little football too while we're while we're at the house. Yeah. What I meant was, do you give them a little advice after the fact? Do you let

their coaches do? Oh? I got you. No, there, I'll give them some You know what, though, Jeff, it's more about, um, you know, how they handle themselves in certain situations. It's not so much ex's and those. It's more about how do you handle this when something bad happens? And how do you share respect when you're playing the game. Yeah, and I'm sure it's not easy when you're the head coach of the bears of sons, Right, Yeah, they might tell you they listen word to their mom than they

do me. All right, in terms of let's get the day of the news out of the way first, and it's it's always about injuries coming out of a bye week. Who's coming back, who's not, what's the situation? And Kyle Long going at injury reserve, um with the hip injury and it is a season ender, so there will be

no chance for a return. How you put that one in a in perspective, Yeah, it's it's always tough when you have those decisions to make and you see where guys are at and you have these these injuries that go on. But um, it is what it is. And we we we really appreciate Kyle and what he's given to us, and uh, it's a it's a part of

the business. But he's he's done a m you know, he's worked really hard for us and um, you know what, he wants us to move forward and keep keep pushing ahead, and uh for him, we you know, we definitely wish him the best to year. And body's been through a lot, hasn't it. Hey has it has He's a he's a big guy. And he's been playing in this league for a while at a position that you know, you're you're you're banging bodies there for for a lot of a lot of plays and you know, back to back sessions.

So but he'll be okay. He's a great guy, he's been good to us, and um, you know, we'll see where it goes. And everybody wants to know where you're at on Mitchell Trubisky. Yeah, same thing. You know, he was able to get out there today at practice and throw the ball around, and that's a step in the right direction. I think, uh, you know, we'll give him you know, tomorrow the players will have off, come back in all Wednesday and and and see how things go

for him. But we're staying cautiously optimistic Kiem Hicks. Obviously you're you're still learning some information about that and and gauging that situation. But to any update and Akeem, yeah, no updates yet. You know, next twenty four to forty eight hours, I think we'll know more exactly decisions that we make, but um, no updates as of right now. But you're getting some of the guys back healthy, so Bala and Nichols, that would be a big return in the event that Keem's going to be out for a

considerable monitor. Sure, yeah, that was an unfortunate situation for Balah, but um, he's taken some time. Now he's back, he has has that that cast and and so we're we're hoping that you know him out here at practice that he's able to run around pretty good and see what happens. How had he been playing for you really fancy? He's

doing a lot of good things. Uh, it's neat watching him grow and Akeem's being his mentor you know, in the last year and a half that that's been pretty cool to see is how they interact with each other, how how how much he wants to learn from a guy like a team, and um, he's really improving. You know, you can never have enough speed on on an offense or a defense. But getting potentially Taylor Gabriel back this week, what would that do to infuse something in the offense.

It's just the confidence that the players have in him, our quarterbacks that they have in him. And uh, he has experience, he brings some leadership. Uh, and he really works well together with with Alan Robinson when they're in a hold of together knowing where to line up, where to go, and how to do things. As you looked at things in this self scouting aspect, would you learn Well, there's always a lot of things to learn, and you're always very critical um of where you're at. I know

that for us really into three phases right now. Defensively, we're we we're playing well, We're we're limiting teams point wise, that the past game against Oakland really wasn't us, and we know what we'll improve from that. Special teams has been doing great with field position, uh, you know, Eddie Fannia has been doing a really good job kicking field goals for us. But and then offensively, we understand that we want to improve in the one game and there's

other other elements too. But the great thing, Jeff, is that we have a lot of really good guys on this team that understand that and they want to correct themselves. They want to get better, and they want to they want to do everything they can to do it. You know, in this situation with the offense struggling in the first five, you're still winning, you still get a winning record, You're still in the thick of things in the NFC. In

a long season you have to go. But I think the images that you go back to, you know, to the drawing board or something. Is that the case, Well, you're always doing that. Um. The one thing that can happen is sometimes you end up going five and oh instead of three and two, and there's there's similar problems, you know, issues, and they don't get corrected or they

don't get looked at per se. So this gives us a chance at this point in time during the season to be able to really take some time and step back and see where we're at and try to figure things out. That's what we're That's all we can do is try and it is as long as we're trusting each other and putting in the work to do that and working together, then you that the there's you know, improvement.

You know, you're a super positive guy. You're going to take that stance all the way through your coaching career and your day to day living, no matter what it is. But as you went back through the tape and saw some like the runs in particular, that there's not a lot going on there is that there's how do you handle your own aggravation and frustration with it not popping.

Just knowing that you know, we're all competitors. We as coaches um used to all play the game, and so you're you're competitive, and that's a challenge you have it you have something that's struggling. That's why you're here is to try to fix things. So it'd be really easy if everything was was roses and simple and you just keep doing your thing every day and there's no changes. But and we want to eventually get to that point.

But there's there's always something and so that always something right now happens to be in an area on offense that we know we can get better at and we're gonna do everything we can to do it. Has it slowed a little bit what you want the offense to be at this point though, in terms of adding things, um, well, for no, I mean for us, you know, identity wise, again, we know where we're at, we know what we can do better and as coaches, we just got to do it.

Sunday's game against the New Orleans Saints. He is brought to you by Hall of Fame partner Advocate Healthcare, the official healthcare partner of the Chicago Bears. With head coach Matt Neeggie coming along our special teams coordinator Chris Tabor at the bottom of the hour as the Bears get

ready for a five and one Saints team. Let's look at you know at this point, you know your job in addition to making things seeing in the offensive aspect of what you put together, but you're putting out fires. That's your job in essence as as a head coach of this football team. Do you feel like there's been a lot more fires this year? Yeah, there there has been, but that I'm okay with that. That's that's a part

of every year. These are the ones that you talk about writing a book, you know, and these are these are all these chapters of this book that you remember and believe it or not, these are the ones that when you have fires to put out, you you remember them. And it just it's kind of like being calloused it mentally or physically, whatever it is. For us as coaches, it's more mental and so how do you come up

with solutions? And that's what it's all about. And there's times where you are calloused or you are mentally challenged, and but our guys have I have no doubt my mind of who our team is and who we believe in and I'm I'm really excited for the future here. Yes, And you know, you know these guys in a different way than any of us do. But I think the impression you've left upon us over the year plus here is this a team that has a lot of heart.

And that's the part that does manifest itself typically in a very positive way. There was a lot of teams in that Oakland game, the way things were going, when it's seventeen to nothing, there's a lot of and I'm not saying by any means that this as a consolation prize, but what I am saying is being real here. There's a lot of teams that would have folded up shop and they would end up losing thirty four to nothing.

And the one thing that I'll always look for the positives even when there is a loss, and what is it? And our guys never did that. They gave us a chance. Our whole team, offense, defense and special teams gave us a chance to win an NFL football game in the fourth quarter with five minutes to go, and so we didn't do it. Now we learn from that and we use that. How do we finish and so you take that and you use that for down the road. There's a lot of other teams right now that maybe you

aren't going through that. So that's making us a better team, believe it or not. At three and two. Uh So, how are we going to spend that into helping us down the road? Uh? To make this final push? When they hit the field to day, what kind of team did you see out there? Say that? When when they hit the practice field today, what would you Yeah? They were,

they were they energized, you know, they were refreshed. The players were, um, just it was a it was like a you know, we go right from we skipped a fall here right, there's no fall. We go right from this really hot to really gold. So there was some wind, it was chili. The guys had the hoodies out, they had the sweatpants. Um, the music was going. There was a nice crispness to it. I mean it was it

was good. I mean, guys were they're ready. I mean, we'll we'll we know that, we'll give them off tomorrow, come back in on Wednesday, put a good week of practice together and see what happens. You know, you said this more than once and I'm paraphrasing I have an exact quote what we say. But you feel you know how to fix things that you are a fixer. Um,

where's that born from? Is that just you being an ex quarterback and always being in command and being in control of a situation, the balls in your hand, you can dictate the outcome of everything. I mean, how do

you Where does that come from? Yeah, there's a some of it is always being associated in athletics and being in competitions where you've got to be competitive and so usually I mean in sports in general, there's a lot more negatives and losses that occur for us to learn from and uh, that that you got to use in the in the right way. And so that's what we talked about going into this year. Right, everything that happened last year with the Eagles game, and how do we

fix that? How do we correct that? Um, how do we use that as a team? And so it's more about mental toughness. It's about Um, every every player on this team handles certain situations, you know, differently, So how how am I able to and how our coaches able to to help them adjust to bad things that happen. That's a part of it that comes with this with this business. So I don't know, I've just always kind of been that way. Um, you got to try to stay positive and and just believe that that no one

can hold you down. What did you instruct your coaches to do this week in the bye week and then moving forward here to make sure things stand the right track. So we were we were in last week on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then once Wednesday came around and they got out of the office, I just get away, Go spend time with your family. We need it everybody here.

It's important that we have a long stretch here with a lot of hours coming up in front of us, to make sure that we're actually as coaches, UM, getting stronger mentally and you know, physically throughout the rest of the season. But get away, come on back, and then when you come back, let's go. Man, it's time to it's time to rock and roll. And so that's where we're at right now. Let's look at some things that that did go very well in the first five games.

Alan Robinson right now, he's at the highest catch rate of his career. He's at seventy three percent of his catches, which he's never had he I think he's had one year with just over sixty but and seventy one percent of his catches have gone for first downs. What's that saying about his adaptation to this system, this offense and his health. So it doesn't surprise me number one with him just because he's such a such a guy that

he's such a reliable player in person. So when you do that in practice, when you do it in a classroom, it you know, it goes on to the football field and you see that there's production right now from him. Uh, and we we need that. You know, he's a he's a guy that is making plays. When the ball is in his area, he's coming down with it. And as a wide receiver, it really doesn't matter who's covering you. Um,

he's a he's in a good place. So that's that's Uh, he's so far after five games, he's doing a heck of a job. And you automatically think of him as an outside threat, right, but he really he can own that middle of the field very well. He seems to do a ton of damage in there. Well, he's smart, he understands coverages. So if you're gonna play his zone, he's gonna know where to sit, he's gonna know how to turn your leverage wives, turn inside, turn outside, and

then he's making plays after the catch. Let's talk a little defense because they've made I mean the three red zone takeaways in five. Yeah, it's a lot like and that's just stiffening not break in at the key moment. You're you know, teams have had the ball, especially in the second half where they're driving, so you know, there's more an opportunity to create mistakes, which is one of the strengths of this unit. Do anything. Yeah, they're being opportunistic.

You love that when they're in the in the red zone, teams are getting ready to score. And I just go back to to the punch at shirt. But Man has had at the one at the one yard line going in against Oakland, and those are those are game changers, and you want to be able to take advantage of our defense doing that right now, the aspect of being on the field goal there's a lot of ten play drives this year for some reason. Um, and is this what team want to do just to mute the pass rush?

Is that really what's you know doing? The quick get rid of the ball, take a few yards here and there and just try and eat that eat that field up. Yeah, every team kind of has their own plans that they're going to go into it based off of who they are as as an offense and then what they want to do to our defense and in some of that too. There's been a couple of games this year where fourth downs have gotten us you know, where it extends drives

in time and possession. Um. So you know, I know that coach Pagano and his guys will be hammering that through and trying to Hey, when we get a team to fourth down, let's finish them. You know, let's put them away. Let's talk special teams, because that's been a great source of comfort, I guess right now, right, it's been. It's been really good. Yeah, it's especially when we've had the struggles that we've had on offense, fuel position and

protecting the football. So when you when you're able to flip the field, have have you know, a really good punt team, uh that can cover and keep the field flipped. And then you have a defense that's plan as well as they are. Uh. It's really right now, It's it worked out well, um, just because they're doing that. Now, offensively, you get things going and you score some touchdowns, you don't need your punt team as much. You need to go out there and you got your your your your

kickoff teams and your extra point teams. So that's the automate goal. But overall that the special teams is playing really well and coach Tabor is doing a great job. Cordell Patterson, is there more that can be done with him? Because he's got this knack of get when the train geep gets going, man, he's tough to bring down. Yeah. No, And I think with the weather. As a weather changes, the ball gets a little harder, the ball doesn't travel

as farther. On kickoffs, you'll see you'll see more opportunities, and with more opportunities comes the ability to have some successful plays and and hopefully you'll see that with him. Tell us about JP Holtz now that you've got to know him here for several weeks. Yeah, seems got a really edge edge to him. He does. He's a he's a he edge. He's a great way to put it. You know, he's tough. Uh, he's he He's always looking for contact. Give it to me anyway I can get it.

I want to go in there, and I'm not. He's not afraid to sacrifice his body and he does the dirty work. But yet you see too, he's making some nice catches too, so teams can't just they understand it. We're able to throw the ball with him as well, So that's been a nice addition to our offense. It's interesting because again, the records the same as it was after five last last year. Eagles also want three and three. You guys met in the playoffs obviously, so people are thinking, Okay,

you know it could be a replica. It could, but well, how do you tell your players what this rest of the season could be like given that what they did last year ripping off that great run there. I mean, it could take on many different shapes. Oh yeah, it's still it's still early, and you know that's that's that's why we as coaches and myself, you can never you

can't listen to the noise, good or bad. You know, you've heard us say it a million times, the the um you know, the horse you know, the ear muffs and the horse blinders. I mean all that right there, We say it, and we gotta you gotta believe it. You cannot get into that. It's something that, Um, when you're doing well, you can't and when you're when you're struggling. But the fact of the matter is is I keep

saying it. We're three and two, it's early on, there's eleven games to go, and we can only worry about this week. Yeah. I like what you had to say at your news conference earlier today because I look at some of the prominent playoff teams that go every year and you know, I mean end of November is when they really start to feel like, okay, we gotta kick it in gear here, and this is when we play our best football. So that's a long time from now. It is. There's a lot of and it's it's the

instant gratification world. And you've heard us, You've heard me say that. But you can never panic. You gotta stay the course. Um, there's peaks and valleys throughout every season. There's a lot of teams right now that are going through some crazy situations as a team across the league, good end bad. So you know, as we talked about this morning with our team, is how do we handle

our situation. Let's not worry about any other teams let's let's worry about where we're at and how we practice this week, and then what do we do at home Soldier Field with our crazy fans cheering us on against a five and one team in New Orleans Saints, and with a head coach that Sean Payton prominent Obviously that mind of his is always working. What do you think of his style and his schemes and his approach to football. Yeah,

I have a lot of respect for him. Uh, you know, we we we got to play a couple of rounds in Tahoe together this summer, so I got to see what kind of golfer he was. Um but good? Bad? Yeah, yeah, No, he's he's uh, he's he's good, and he's he does a lot of good things. I think he's one of the best scheming coaches in the NFL. He knows how to use his personnel. His record shows that, uh, he's done a fabulous job with Drew Brezose guys working together

where they're at. And then of course what he's done with his guys Kimara and Michael Thomas on offense, and that he has the defense playing really scrappy. So it'll be a big challenge he got a hot quarterback. Yeah, four o right now, you know, and he's a he's a playmaker. He's somebody that I know, Sean trust and

he they're they're uh, they're they're able to. I mean, shoot, when you can win four games in a in the NFL with your backup quarterback, you're dealing with something right, and that's like that goes a lot of credit to those coaches. Have a good week. Thank you, Jeff. That's Matt Naggie joined Bears Care and Advocate healthcare and raising funds for programs supporting Chicago area breast cancer patients and their families. Purchase your real Bears fans wear pink shirt

at Chicago bears dot com slash pink. Back on the program, Bears Coach a show with you until eight o'clock tonight. We're joined by Special Teams Coordinator Chris Tabor. Good to see you. Hey, how are we doing good? Good? Good? Did you uh have a little fun in addition to work? Yeah, no, it was. It was kind of a good to get away a little bit and recharge and refocus and now we're back at it and ready to go. So how's

how's tabs recharge? Probably watch more football. I did watch a lot of football, I did, but I got a chance to watch my girls play soccer, so that was it was a lot of fun. One's in planning at the collegiate level, right, yes, one's playing uh here collegiately at the Lake Forrest, and the other one plays on a local club, so I don't get to watch them play a lot. So it was a it was a big thrill for me and be able to do that, and it was it was good. And from my experience

and I'm sure yours. No matter if you're a coach or in my case abroad, no game is more tense and gives you more nuts than seeing your kids play. Oh question, it is. It is fun. It is. It's fun to watch him and uh, you know, I just wanted to have fun and have a little success. Why they're doing it all right? So you are tasked also like everybody else on the coaching staff, to do a little self scouting. What you would you learn about your unit.

We got a lot of room for improvement. Uh you know, obviously our kickoff coverage has not been what it needs to be and that's been a very disappointing area that that we got to get rectified and got to do a bad job coaching it and uh and we got to do a beare job of executing it. So because this this week's challenge with the Saints is, I mean, they're excellent and they got a dynamic returner, so we got to get these these things fixed quickly and uh,

get playing better ball in the coverage area. Yeah, you you jump the gun on me. Dionta Harris. I've saving him for last in our saying he can't him. He is very special. He's dynamic, he can from zero to sixty quickly. He can make you miss. He's not a real big guy. He reminds me a little bit of a Tarik Cohen, but he is. He is dangerous with football. Already has a touchdown on the year, probably should have had another one, but he actually just kind of tripped

himself up because he was going so fast. To be honest with you, but he has our attention, as does their whole unit. I mean they're they're good all the way around. Punter, kicker, I mean the whole nine yards cover guys. So this will be a tough one. Not to make excuses or give you an opportunity to but the kickoff coverage, since there's not a lot of returns, do guys get lulled into okay, well they're not going to return. They were just you know, going down there

and doing a sprint. I mean, I know that sounds bad, but I mean, could that be part of it? There's not an edge to it yet. I don't know. I have a tough time looking at like that. I mean, the other day in Oakland, I thought that we had him himmed up pretty good. And those are really self inflicted mistakes. So those are the good news on that. That's those are easy corrections. But anytime you do stuff like that, the opponent says, well, let's let's test them

and see if they've fixed it yet. And we got to put on tape that we've that we have fixed it. So us it's still an attitude play. But but we gotta we gotta come through in that area. Everybody keeps asking me, Okay, so the Bears have solved their kicking issue, and I say, well, everything's for now because the season hasn't even really started yet. Because that season you have to deal with the turn of the calendar and and the autumn wind and whatever else is coming right, I mean,

there's still a lot of boxes to check off. Am I proud of them, I sure am and and and with Scales and and Patio, they've done a great job bringing him along and the operation of it. But uh, we are far from from over. But I do think this. I think that we have a player that has the right mentality. I love his work ethic, I love how he attacks things, and he's you know, I can only ask him to be good each time he goes out and then at the end we'll look at the whole,

the whole picture. So he's he's done well so far. And uh, but I but I also think that he is that type of player and he can do that. So I'm excited for him. How big is it that he's fought through this pain in his knee? I think it's I think it's been big. That's that's important, right, No, it is, uh you know because obviously this is I think really the first discomfort that he's had, uh as

as a kicker. I mean, people don't realize this is really, technically, if you want to call it, his third year playing football. So and yes, in the in the in the whole deal two years at Florida, goes to Oakland and really obviously doesn't play, and then this year, So I mean we're still in some uncharted territory. But I think that's also a good thing too, because you can mold him the way you want to, because there's really he's still a piece of clay and that's what I get so

excited about him though. Welcome back to the Bears Coaches Show here at PANC Studios at HALLI Saw. We're brought to you by a Whippley Cepas and consultants Jeff Joniac and Chris Tabor, Bears Special Teams coordinator. We touched on the excellence so far that the first five games of Eddie Pineto. But Patrick O'Donnell has stepped up in a new different way with the kickoffs with Eddie working through his niece Ornis, And how is that done and has

it affected him at any way, shape or former. Maybe it's helped him in some weird way by staying so active during games. Well, I've been real pleased with it with Patio. I mean, he's I mean, we always say it, he is a pros pro to come in and say yes, you know what coach, I can kick off and not a problem and not miss a beat. And even the kickoff that they were when he kicked off from the twenty the other day, I mean he put the ball outside the numbers and essentially cut the field down to

one third and did a beautiful job with that. I mean he's he's playing well, and he's using some different kicks, and I'm excited about about that, and I think as the weather changes, uh, those things will come into play

for him even more. When you say using different kicks as the punter as the punter using okay, so I mean how many kicks are well, I mean we know the usual the taildown spiral, yeah, but but you know the rugby style showing one way and and and bringing it back the other way and making the returner chase the ball as opposed to him waiting on the ball. I think those are all things that can help your coverage units. And uh, it gives a little unpredictability for

pat you know. I mean I can show this way. Soldier fields already tough to to punt, kick and catch in. Um, now you add those elements to it. I mean it's a it's a good deal. It's it's we're not there yet. But if you think of about a Sam Cook in Baltimore who's extended his career just based on all the different clubs that he has in his bag, it makes it tough to to return the ball against. What's the biggest fear a punt returner has with an opposing punter, meaning,

is it hang time? Is it because you're you know, you're that ball is not coming out of the air and you know that the troops are coming, or I mean, what is it in your from your experience, I think there's there's a lot of things. I mean, if you have two good gunners outside and the punter is able to put it over in a location to where those guys can get there and pin him in, that's that's

always tough on guys. Uh. If if you don't know exactly where he's going and now I'm chasing it and now those guys are in play even faster though, that's that's tough on punters. Uh. And then just you know, is he hitting a regular punt or is he hitting an end over end or is he hitting a knuckleball? I mean, what what what? What's coming out is kind of like a little like a baseball hit or you know what I mean, is he is he coming fastball? Here is he coming curve? Or you know, I mean,

is it change up? What? What? What is the deal? Tries just try to get him on their heels a little bit to give yourself time to get down there. And do you feel Tarik Cohen handles all of those different balls? He's a good ball reader. He does, he does. He does a nice job. If one thing about Tarik that I can I can say you always say the ball chases you. You never chase the ball. And what I mean by that, obviously, is that you're in good position to catch it and then then you can go

to work from there. And that's what he did the other day in Oakland. I mean, he set himself perfectly. He was waiting for the ball and then the balls in his hands and then you know, obviously has great ability. He can get around the corner and go and Buddy's helped him out quite a bit. Seventy one yards in that one. You sharek with a big block in that one. I think that the guys did a great job. And we watched it and I said, you know, really, I said, the good news is is that we had a big

return set us up. That's what we're supposed to do. The other thing is that you just elevated your standard with regards to when you hit Paul's on the tape and the coverage is still thirty yards from the ball. Everyone is on their guy in good position, no stupid penalties, and that was That's big for us to teach off of, but also to emphasize, you did it once it's in there, we can do it again because you've showed me that that you can do that. So that's why I'm excited

about the guys. They're they're getting to that. He wants the ball in his hands. He knows he's got these special gears and movements. How big was that just for the mind of Terry Cohen to finally cut loose with something big, but because he hasn't had many of those opportunities yet on offense this year, well, I thought, I mean, obviously it was big. It helped us. We needed that, um,

but that that that's our job. But we also kind of said throughout this first part of the season, there were times and other games, um where we thought we had legitimate chances and something broke down. This was the case where nothing broke down and good things happen. So I felt good about from the standpoint of we were beginning to fix things and we still have a long way to go, but you know we're going to need that,

especially as the weather changes. Here. As regardless penalties, you made the mention here we had no I don't even know if you said this, but dumb penalties or whatever, m is it almost unavoided bowl to to not have special teams penalties in this day and age of what they're calling there is what we what we talk about is it's a little bit like being a basketball player. Are they are they calling hand checking today or are

they not? For me? That's not fair enough. But but you but I think you always have to remember it's a human game. Yeah, and if they're calling it tighter, well then you need to play. We need to adjust to that. I mean, we can't say, well they're calling it tight and I'm still gonna play reckless and then we get penalties. You have to adapt or die, is kind of our our motto. You know, we said the

dinosaurs couldn't figure it out and they became extinct. You know what I mean, so you need to adapt as the game goes along, and that's what we're trying to do with with you know, with the calls back of the Bears coach you show here at Pancy Studios at Hallosaw. One more segment to go with Chris Tabor for a few minutes before we hear from head coach Matt Naggie.

Let's talk Cordarrell Patterson. I got a tugg A war going on my broadcast partner Town there because you know, I say, hey, we have this battle during the broadcast because sometimes he's a little iffy about him taking it out nine and a half yards out of the ends or whatever. I go, he's got the green light? Does he have the green light at any deep as you can get? It's okay? Yeah, I mean there's a lot

of things that go into that decision. But I like our guy that we have back there, and you know, knock on wood, we haven't haven't been tackled inside the twenty yet. And I would tell Tom as if you want to have an opportunity to establish good field position or you have an opportunity to score, the only way to do that is to bring it out. Now, we can keep it in there and have zero chance, that's one hundred zero chance of setting field position or even

attempting to score. But you know you have to you have to be smart. You don't want to be reckless. But at the same time, obviously we're returning the ball because they just scored. Yeah, and we might. Our job is to change momentum and and and be able to do that. And the guy that we have, I mean, he's a he's a special player and uh, you know, if the balls in his hands, let's let's give hi an opportunity. Is there times you just say, okay, no matter what we're taking into twenty five? Is that is

that something that you have to do too? Oh? Yeah, No, you have you have to be able to do that. I like I say, we want to be aggressive, but not reckless and uh ensure and when you bring the ball out there's there's chances that you might get tackled inside the twenty. Yeah, but I will say this, I feel good about our guy getting it between at worst

the twenty and twenty five. All right, let's go back to the Saints and tell us what their special teams units are all about, Because they have an outstanding as you say operation with their their putterer and their place kicker. Well that's his outstanding. Yeah. No, they're specialists, are I mean, they're they're tops in the league. Yeah. The returners is a special kid from Assumption College there and he's he's dynamic.

But they're cover players. Um, they got some. They got some crafty veterans led by Craig Robertson, who I know well he played for me in Cleveland and he's a really really good special teams player. But they and they're and they're well coached. So this will to date, this will be our toughest challenge going in. But we're excited about that and to see where see where we're at it. Also, and does a Sean Payton coach team keep you on edge a little bit with the whole threat of what

is up as sleeve? Oh? Sure, I mean, I mean you have Tyson Hill, the third string quarterback, who's the personal protector that's run multiple fakes and you know, I mean and he was a big, tough, physical guy. I mean there's personnel alone, they create some some matchup problems. All right, Big Chris. As we wrap up with you, Gibson's restaurant group wants to thank you for joining us on today's Bears Coaches Show. Here's a gift guard to enjoy a meal at any of their Chicagoland locations. Have

a great work Week'll get him on Sunday. That'll do it for tonight's show for Bears head coach Matt Eneggie and Special Teams coordinator Chris Tabor, our producer Dan Brelli and Jordan tread Up, Andy Gersher and Keith Johnson. I'm Jeff Joniak Bear Saints pregame at noon kickoff at three twenty five. Thanks for listening, everybody. This is News Radio seven eighty and one on five point nine FM w BBM. Goodnight,