Eberflus details victory over the Patriots

many people. But I gotta say this was such a well prepared and confident football team. I noticed it during the week in the locker room. I could see it on guys faces, namely justin fields. And you went into a difficult venue because the record for Bill Belichick since two thousand at home including the playoffs was one fifty and thirty five. That's his thirty sixth. But that's incredibly difficult to win in that joint. It doesn't matter who's

playing when, So how good is it feel? Well? You know, Coach Belichick's obviously a great coach, and it is a tough place to play. The fans that are really good and they know when to do their thing and cheer and make it hard for that for the offense for sure.

But I thought our guys did a nice job of coming out last week during the mini buy and with partnering with their coaches and the players and coming up with ways we can improve, you know, individually technique fundamentals, and then how we can improve and enhance our players inside of our scheme and come up with a real good plan. And then we worked the plan. You know,

we did it during the course of the week. We lengthened individual period so the guys had more time to work that plan, took it into the team periods, and then we took it to the game. So it's really about focus and attention to detail with the coaches setting up that plan and then the players executing that plan. So they did a night's job. Have you noticed a difference in their attention to detail players from the beginning when you first met with them to where they're at now.

Because you keep hammering this point home. You you answer every question you know that is your answer. There's no there's no grey area here. But do you have you felt it and seen it yourself. Yeah, I think that's more of a natural thing. I think the guys have been focused. I think they have paid attention, and I

think it's more time on task. You know, when you do something over and over and it's repetitioned concepts that we do over and over again, it might look different, it might change it up a little bit, but the concepts are there and we can continue to coach it over and over again and we make it better based on what the skill set of that player is. I think it's us just knowing the players a little bit better, but the player has been been great all the way through.

It's interesting also because I've met many coaches, not just in this building, but now there are some are concerned about fresh messaging to keep the guys attentive. Is your messaging doesn't need to be fresh? There is one message. Yeah, I would just say it's simple. You know, winning football is winning football. It really comes down to a few things. You know, it comes down to a few things, and all the old time coaches have said it all the

way through. You know, it's about blocking and tackling and not making mistakes, and that's really what we're all about, you know, we want to make sure that we're doing that, but you have to see it on the practice field first. You can talk about it, but it's just words until they can, you know, put him into action on the practice field. And we have to be mindful of that his coaches to make sure we're watching the tape, you know, with a critical eye, getting the feedback to the players

so they can improve. You are uniquely tethered to the history of the game. You say it all the time. I think you have a great deal of respect for things that happen in the game. Hey, we don't do

that here that that's not respecting the game. So when Bill Belichick and I know you're gonna keep it private, but I know you alluded to it in the press conference, and you know, when Bill Belichick embraces you and you guys have a long chat and he's suggesting that you're doing this the right way, it's affirmation a little bit right because he's a legendary coach and no matter what people have opinions about that, how he's gone about it has been nothing but success. How does that make you

feel as a first time head? Well, as I said before, coach Belichick has always done things the right way in terms of winning football. You know, he understands how to play complimentary football. His defensive units has always been stellar. His offensive system has really looked at and really enhanced the skill level of his players, and he's played to that. And so when you get a compliment like that from coach Belichick, who's a Hall of Famer, um, it's it's

it's pretty cool, you know. And uh and special teams I mean and special teams units are how he's good too, Yeah, no doubt. And he really all he really said was, hey, uh, he was complimentary of us, of our style and the way we're going about our business and what we're building here with the Bears. So, um, it was it was. It was a good moment. One brick at a time, right, one brick at a time, paving that road. That's what you got to do. All right, Let's talk about the

offensive game plan. Luke getsy quarterback draw quarterback power, Uh, you know, countertrait with the two. I mean, I loved it. Just it was you never knew it was coming next from a broadcaster or a fan point of view. So I can imagine how the defense fell for New England. Yeah, so, uh, you know, Luke got with the staff, you know, with Simo and the rest of the staff there and kind of came up with some creative ways to use Justin.

You know, he's one of our better players on the field. Um, he's one of our faster players on the field, So how can we utilize him? You know, uh inside, you know, run and inside and running outside and then creating his heat. He's always going to create some scramble situations during the course of the day. But I thought the guys did a great job with that during the minute. But I've come up with some creative ways to keep the ball in the hands of our of our athlete and our quarterback.

It's always interesting to me to look back at some of the quotes from the opposing players after a game and with the with the trip back last night, had a chance to read some of it. But one really stuck out was Matthew Judano I have respect for as a player. Uh, we had no answer for Justin And that's the greatest compliment right there. No matter what you're devising, they had no answer. They didn't they didn't they didn't get it done from their perspective. Justin also exuded that

last night the poison the confidence. I mean, guys were rushing at him when he was on the move and he was still, He's looking and he was not threatened by those potential hits and he didn't take many hits. Yeah, not bad ones couple. I would say that, you know what, you know, I think coach gets He said it before, and I think it's true. It's just really about experience.

You know, he has to have experience in that pocket presence and that comes with the experience of in the games, you know, because in practice obviously we can't you know, he's not getting hit and we're not going to touch him in practice. But he really gets that through game experience and you can just see him getting better and better every week. There's so much to break down. With a big win like this, we're not going to have time.

But the point also is there's still things to fix on every single play, little nuances that ye're going to dive into. I'm sure. Yeah, we went through all the tape and I had the meeting with the coordinators this morning what we need to improve on, So we got to really implement those things through our study of the tape with the players, and it's going to be shorter this week, so we got to make some cut ups for each guy so he can improve and they really

move forward to Dallas. There's a lot of talk about the middle eight, certainly from Bill Belichick, I know, Green Bay, I'm sure all coaches, but it's the final four minutes, so the first half, first four minutes of the second half, you guys own that was that the turning point? Yeah, I thought it was. I thought we did a good

job in that middle eight. And you know, it's always about you know, setting that up, you know, So it's it's we talk about it a lot, we practice it, and it's important that we're executing during those times and thirteen points there to end the first half a touchdown to two field goals and then come out strong to finish the job. It's going twenty three unanswered in the thirty three to fourteen went over the Patriots in New England. Next up a trip to a big D to take

on the Dallas Cowboys. Montgomery now slides out to the right side, number empty spread. They pick it. The Jones keeper fields cuts inside, look it for the goal line into the end zone for the touchdown. Talk to the left side of the line. Bears are on the board. What's six more? Three? Art keeper Justin Fields, Welcome back to the Bears Coaching Show with Mattyberflus. The touchdown run by Justin Fields his second touchdown. I think he now has twenty five rushing first downs. That is third in

the league. Daniel Jones up at the Giants and then Lamar Jackson and Justin in our postgame show, suggested that, Yeah, he looked at some Baltimore tape some ideas. I know, they gave trouble for the Patriots early in the season, so hey, why not. There's only a handful of great running quarterbacks in this league. But that's a lot of first downs already for a Justin Fields. Yeah. I think it goes back to the offensive staff, you know, and

then Justin buying into it. You know. I really think they do a good job of looking at the scheme and during the mini buy and really enhancing his skill and you know, and what can he do well? I mean, obviously he's very fast, he's very elusive, and he creates another dimension for the defense to be able to handle. You couldn't ask any better a third down eleven of eighteen, eleven of eighteen, but sixty one percent ledging out to

the top I guess of the season. Time of possession thirty seven minutes plus, So you only had twenty six total conversions in the first six games to get eleven. That laid right into your plans too, to just kind of possess the ball as much as possible, and you scored the ball. Yeah, yeah, So really we talked about, you know, during this you know time of really focusing on situationational football, how can we improve on third down?

And third down is an important down, you know obviously when you're when you're moving the ball on first and second down, but then when you get to those critical third downs, in those drives, you have to convert. And we did a nice job with that the other day, and we did it by a couple of different ways, by just simple execution, but also by an untimed type of situation where he dropped back and he took off on the third and sixteen. There's a lot of them

in there. There's probably three or four of them that he converted with his legs just breaking the pocket down and then taking off, and then also finding some guys open, you know, down the field, which is great to see because he's keeping his eyes down the field for that

pass option as well. What's the CounterPunch now, because now that you have some design runs for him, that as a new element of course, and a lot of confidence with him doing that, and maybe they already have our team is maybe going to go to a spy a little bit and then what do you how does that open things up for everybody else? Yeah, I mean, you

know the spy, you know that's more for passing. You know, you have to really account for him in the running game first, you know, normal downs on first and second down, and then that other thing will happen on the passing down second, longer, third, and longer where they're gonna try to do that. But you're always gonna do that with those guys. You know, either you're gonna either create some type of rush that does that or you'll actually end up get pulling a guy out of there and spying

them for him. But the guy has to be good enough to do it too. All right, let's talk. Defense continues to shine in the second half. We touchdown on the postgame show with you shut them out on less than a hundred yards overall, four takeaways. The three picks are huge and in seven games, only thirty four points allowed in the second half the season. What is the secret sauce here? Yeah, I would we know. We've really been focusing on our run defense. That's been a big

focal point. We've added additional walkthroughs for that. That's been important. We've slowed those drills down to make sure the guys understand exactly where they fit, so we'll fit the run and then we'll make sure they're doing a good job. We back it up, rewind it, you know, in a walkthrough setting to make sure the guys know exactly where they are. And they guys have done a good job with that. They've done a decent job with that. Again,

we're not where we need to be. Yesterday was a decent day at three point seven per rush, which is nice, but again we have to continue to build on that. Special teams outstanding. You kept a dangerous returner and Marcus Jones under apps seven total returns punt and kickoff. Not a lot of damage done there. You had Dante Petties that took advantage of a line drive punt just hit the gas and go Sterling Weatherford rookie. People don't know

a thing about him. A couple of special teams tackles and a hillacious hit got me out of my well. I stand anyway when I do the game, but I had me going crazy there at the end of the game. Josh Blackwell trusted Abner, Jack Samborne, dhc All would tackles Santos four or four field goals eleven for eleven for the season, could you ask? I mean, wow, Other than taking the ball away on special teams, it's pretty much a home run day. Yeah, and we've done that in

the past. Yeah, taking the ball away, So you know ht you know, Carlos Polk have done a nice job with those guys. It's a young crew. You know. We have a lot of guys that are young. I think in some of those kicking teams we have eight rook he's on the field at one time. Um, and they've just bought into how we're doing things, you know, really the hits principle, the hustle, the intensity of those guys and the way they execute um. You know, and they're

being smart too. Not a lot of penalties on special teams, you know, we've had a chance to take the ball away to on our cover teams a couple of times, so they've bought in all the way and we're continuing to work on those guys because they are young. They need a lot of fundamental and technique work, um you know, on all phases, and those guys are doing a good job with that. Essentially though, you're grooming these guys. Yeah, that's the proving ground. Yeah, it is, it is, and

it takes it takes you know, speed and athleticism. You know. It's this where you know where you know, Poles and his staff come into play, bringing those guys in that have that speed and athleticism to do the cover teams and also have the anchor to be able to protect on those protection teams. So um my, hats off to them as well. But it's it's a work in progress and they're getting better every week and we're excited where they're going. Guy, can't forget Trenton Gill has had a

really good year as well, top ten at times. I think he's top twelve right now in net and gross punting's he's put some great balls out there for you. No, he has, he has and he's been he's been solid. He does a lot of other things for us. You know, he's the holder, and yeah, he's done a great job with that putting the ball down there for Cairo. So it's been really nice. If he spread this time, I back a pair of receivers left, spread out, three to

the right. Patriots show blitz. They got a picket fence behind him. Quick throw screen Herbert to catch twenty. There he goes dead. Nobody's gonna touch him. Hands up, touchdown, touchdown, Bears and Fields was whaxed by a couple of the Patriots on a beautiful executed pass Fields. The Herbert and the Bears are back in front. Welcome back to the Bears Coaches Show with Matt Eberflus. Great seats available to see here. Chicago Bears this season at Soldier Field. Get

your tickets at Chicago Bears dot com slash tickets. Khalil Herbert's first career receiving touchdown. It was a beauty. We tucked him after the game. He was laughing because there was a similar play that didn't connect. Same play, but little butt some great EQUIMENTI of Saint Brown, a Black Braxton Jones and just north and south like he is apt to do, and didn't even get touched. But if Justin doesn't drop his arm angle, you know, that pass could get bad or whatever. So that was also some

heady worked there by Justin right on that plane. Yeah, so you know, Justin took the snap and they went to thirty immediately and the window wasn't there, you know, so he had to double clutch it, changed the arm angle and then throw it, you know, into the second window. And that was an amazing play by him because it took toughness to be so took a pop. He took a pop when he did to hesitate because he had to hesitate because the window wasn't there, just his arm

angle through it. And then obviously the blocking on the perimeter was excellent. The offensive line, the receivers all the way down blocked it, you know, and then Herbert just took it north and south, got his pads down and did a nice job. All right. So three two hundred plus yard games now this season, two forty three yesterday and forty five rushes five point four simply outstanding. I

went through the league. At this point. Right now, there are sixteen ball carriers averaging north of five yards of carry six or at six point zero including Khalil Herbert. There is a I believe an uptick of rushing in this league. We're the number one rushing team in the league. Your Chicago Bears are the number one rushing team in the league right now, fifth in average. Most ever buy a Bears team is five point two. You're at that right now. There's a lot of great things going on.

What's with the running game in the league, and specifically this is something that you guys feel you do better than anything right now. Yeah, I think when you have one two punch at running back, that's the number one thing you have. An offensive line coach in an offensive system that's committed to the running game, has a variation of runs inside outside poles, zone, outside zone, all those

things that we do. It creates a situation for you know, a lot of defenses, you know, so you have to you have to cover a lot of things, not just people, but scheme. And then you add the element of the quarterback in there where he can take off and creates those runs and the untimed downs. And then also you know on the now we have the quarterback type of runs that we put in there, and how much we use those, I don't know. You know, we'll use We'll

use some of them with Sprinkleman there. Again, it's all based on who we're playing and what we're gonna do and how we're gonna do things for that particularly week to win the game. But when you have that that commitment by the offensive staff and us as Bears in general, that that's something that's important to us and the three guys that can do it, the two runners and the quarterback. Um,

that's special for those guys. To mention your fly sweeps that you throw in there with Valis Eclamania Saint Brown, I mean you could do and and uh, you know, I love Karrie blasting game. He gets minimal snaps, but you had him doing a wham blocks off that that was explosive to me. But he hasn't touched the bar

yet too, and I'm sure it's in there somewhere. Yeah, I mean, you know, to be to be good at running the football, it is the offensive line, no doubt, is the runners, But like you said, it's the guys on the perimeter. It's Curry, it's the receiver. Q Eq's really mooney, it's it's all those guys. It's pet Us. All those guys are the tight ends. Um, you know, Cole, everybody, westco all those guys, Griff, they're all doing a great

job of sustaining. But second effort down the field is what creates those bigger type runs and that's what we're guys are executing one. All right, now, it's time to look ahead. Brought to you by Bette Rivers, the official sports book partner with the Bears. Next up the five and two Cowboys. They've won five of six. They beat the Lions on Sunday. Their defense is is very good, the number two scoring defense in the league, and they

lead the league in sex take it from there. Yeah, so they have a lot of good players, you know, on defense, and they got a good scheme. You know, they got they got two defensive ends, Michael Parsons. You know, they got the big number ninety there who we had when I was in Dallas. Um. Their linebackers are solid, really good in the back end, you know. So they create some problems and it really starts up front for them.

They've they've really done a good job really limiting the explosive play's limiting the scoring opportunities for offenses, and then the offense with a two pronged rushing attack and a very good receiver out of the backfield as well, and Pollard Ezekiel and Dak Prescott's back Ceedee Lamb tight ends. They got they got a lot to throw, they really do, and they really do a good job protecting the quarterback. You know, they do a nice job with their protections.

They've limited the number of sacks they've had um, but they really rely on their running game. They do a nice job with the two headed you know, two headed guys there with with Poward and Ezekiel Um. And again they do a really good job of their receivers blocking of the perimeter. So it's gonna be a tough task for us. Good luck with your preparation, all right, Thank you, Mattie Reflus. Coming up next, we're joined by Jeff King, co player personnel director of the Chicago Bears. Back to throw,

Mack Jones. Here comes a little pressure throws down the field table scared out of the air park arskir one interception, what up high one hanger? I believe Tommy had sucked it into a belly and Jaquan Brisker in every game this season has made a pick play on defense. Welcome back to the Bears Coaches Show. Joining us right now is the co player Personnel director of the Bears. My good friend, Jeff King. How you doing. What's up, Jeff?

How are we doing doing? Great? Congratulations? Yeah? When Tuesday? Yes, when too? It's right. Victory Tuesday, baby, victory Tuesday. Coach has to get ready for the Cowboys on a short week, so as we did with Trey Cozio a couple of weeks ago. Have you win right here? We just heard the tremendous interception by rookie safety Jiquan Brisker. I don't know how he leap tall buildings with a single leap in one hand. Did that? Bad boy? But he's made

a play in every game. Yeah, you know he's he's growing, right, and that's what you want to see from those guys. Him and Kyler both you know back there in the secondary, both are growing each week. And he made a great read. You know, it's kind of a double seam and you

know he was splitting two. I think he described it that way too, and the post game and played it right and went up and high pointed, mean, you see those guys warm up every every day in practice of high point in the football and it was text books. Oh really, so something that they work on specifically. Yeah, just like a receiver would just right, a receiver would. I mean the defense is built off of takeaways and you know those guys work on it daily and he

reaped the fruits of his labor. Yeah, it's kind of cool to see Kyler get one there at the end to just these little successes build greater confidence with these guys, don't there. And we're a young team, you know, I mean we're seven games in and you know, these guys are getting a little bit better every week. I think you see that on offense, defense and special teams, and you know you go down the like Sterling Weatherford who

had some tackles on special teams yesterday. You know, all these guys are getting a little bit better every week, and you know that's what we have to do. I mean it. So I just went over that with coach, with the special teams unit, all the rookies making tackles, it's seven or eight guys on coverage, and that's that makes you a super strong team. If those guys start to get their development there. Yeah, and that's where some of those guys get their start, right Like it starts

on special teams. They get a little confident, they get a little uh, you know, development and speed of the game, and then all of a sudden, now they're showing up on defense too. So, um, you know that it's exciting to see those guys take a step and excited to see the offense come to life, you know, get some points on the board, possessed the ball, ran the heck out of the ball again, and Justin Fields we touched

on it in some detail about the design runs. He seemed to really enjoy that, and it just he played a lot of confident, don't you think. Yeah, And you know, all credit to the players obviously, but I thought Luke Getsy had a heck of a game, like, you know, calling the plays and you know, they kept them off balanced for most of the night. And then Justin had you know obviously you know, his special plays with you know, with the ball in his hands and even as a

passer too. So I think it was a collective effort coaches and players, scheme and guys making plays, and um, you know, it was a good night to finally light up the scoreboard a little bit. Your job is to keep an eye on what's out there at any moment, emergency lists and whatnot, but free agency and just player personnel in general. So the little victories of Okay, Nikkil Harry comes aboard hadn't been able to play because if injury gets out of the field, bloom a fourteen yard er.

I mean that alone probably sent him sky high and excited because he's he's really been wanting to get out there. Uh, and then we can go down the list. I had a conversation last week with armand Watch for the first time. You know, a guy that you know was kind of surprised he was leaving the Vikings comes here and now he worked his way into a starting role. All these types of players with a team that's still young. Building

these pieces is part of your puzzle, isn't it. Yeah, And it's part of like opportunity for those guys you know, armand and you know nikkiel finally getting you know, after getting over the ankle injury and now getting a chance to get a you know, consistent role for him on offense. And then you go down to you know, justin Jones being a full time starter for the first time, and you know, his his ability to kind of rek havoc

in a game. You know, it doesn't always show up on the stat sheet, but like he was active all all night last night, you know, and morrow the same thing. You know, a guy gets his chance. So all those guys that maybe have been part time players or you know that that are able to step in and have a full time role, and then they're no different than some of these young guys can They're gonna gain confidence and just keep getting growing and getting better too. Harry

stays out there to the left side numbers. Beyond the numbers, Baylas Jones junior slotted left shotgun snap keeper Fields up the middle. When he goes down to the ten yard line, by design, Justin Fields picks up eight and they got the Patriots on their heels falling. All Bears fans get the Ultimate VIP fan package with Chicago Bears VIP. Secure a game ticket and appearance from Bears legends and more by visiting Chicago Bears vip dot com. Here with Jeff King,

Bears coplayer personnel director, doing a great job. He's been here a while. That was one of the design runs we talked about. I think, you know, there's all these different stat companies are doing stuff. I think next Gen Stats at twelve for sixty four on design runs for Justin fields. It's somewhere in there for sure. And it's

the variety that I enjoyed, the types of runs. And he even seeing the old countertrait that they're pulling the right tackle Larry Borman pulling the right guard Devin Jenkins.

The clear outs pay a lot of good things. Alluding to what you said just a moment ago in the first segment with you about the game plan by Luke KETSI, yeah, and I think that when you have a quarterback at Justin skill set right like, you know, when you have to account for him as a runner, you get an extra guy, you gain an extra guy and at the point of attack as a blocker. So um, you know, I thought it was a great job by Luke. Um, you know. And and you know, I think Justin kind

of got his guy. His juice is flowing too. I think that helped, you know, get him settled in, get his you know, get some plays under his belt and some success and then you know that kind of you know, filtered through the rest of the night, you know. So, um, you know I thought it was a good job by all those guys. All right, so you've been here a while, this is not your first rodeo with the Bears. Retained

promoted by Ryan Poles said you had an eye for talent. Uh. That's the best compliment you could give to somebody in your role, isn't it? Eye for talent? Yeah, saw value in players. I mean, these are big quotes. I mean, that's an important piece to this. Sure. Um, you know I had a lot of conversations mentors. You know, my

time as a player certainly helps. Um. You know I talk about with young scouts all the time about developing the rolodex, and um, even though I wasn't a scout, you know, for nine years, all I did was watch other players, right, So, UM, I kind of knew what made them successful, what you know, what didn't make them successful? And Um, obviously when you transition to the personnel world, it's a little different. Um, but the basis of like how you watch tape and how you evaluate guys and

what makes what makes them successful kind of stays the same. So, UM, I was lucky to have a decent career and lucky to have a lot of good relationships to tough football, you know, through that career as well. So um definitely helps me on this this end as well, being humble,

being humbled the big guys being humble. One hundred and eight games in the NFL, that's uh, that's that's not not everybody gets that opportunity, obviously, but eighty four starts, one hundred and fifty six catches, twelve touchdowns, and you had a game in two thousand and seven against the Colts targeted fourteen times, ten catches, eighty two yards all crere highs. What why that game? Because there was not

another double digit It was a matchup. It was a matchup. Well, they were playing a lot of zone but now we kind of got into a little bit of no huddle on on the they were just check cover too, and we kind of just milked it down down the field

a little bit. And I know you've there've been stories done about you, but you alluded to the people that have been had impressions on you that you were able to visit with as a player, and you know, you go to guys like Trent Kirshner or Seattle's VBP, Joe Shane, the Giants, gent Ryan Cowden down in Tennessee. Uh, you take the time to vision. Did you know you were going to do this? Um? Early on? It was probably in Carolina when I was with most of those guys there.

They were all on staff. Um. You know, when I first got there. Joe was the national guy that was drafted, and Christ Kirschner was a pro scout and Colden was an area guy. So um. And you know, Marty did a great job of you Marty Herny. Yeah, you had always around the scouts and having conversations, and they were very open to have those conversations with you and just talk football, you know, talk players, talk building teams. And you know, the other fortunate part there too was I

was drafted into a really veteran team. You know, Dan Hitting was the OC which has been around a long time. You know, Jake Delone, Chris Winky, Chris Mayingham, you know obviously the other great you know, there were a lot

of great players on those teams. So being around all those guys when I was young was helpful, you know, because they they were willing to talk what they saw, what made them successful, what what made them good pros, you know, because if you go to a young team, like you don't have those same conversations with other players all the time. So, um, I was really lucky for

that stamp. And you should have to develop your own philosophy, right because you could take everybody, but you you got to you gotta come up with your style and and substance in terms of being an evaluator. And I think too when you know, I wasn't a star player or anything like that. When you're a role player, right, like, you have to understand, like what's my value and how you maximize it? You have to buy into that, um, you know, because we all can't be star players in

this lay. That's just not how it works. So, you know, carving out a niche, like you have to understand who you are as a player and then work to maximize that. I was lucky to get into a organization that kind of fostered that worked out of two in the gun trips to the right snap flexa is on pockets tight Bailey, Sandy intercepted Kind down the right side to Tony, then shut out a ball Kyler Gordon with his first NFL interception, hopefully one m anymore things are falling into hands. I'm

an aggressive Bears defense tonight. Terrific interception by Kyler Gordon as the Bears rookie's heard from loud and proud in yesterday's win over the New England Patriots last night. Now it's Ounds of the Dallas Cowboys. You're on Bears Coaches Show, Jeff King, whole player, personnel director of the Bears, our guests. Let's talk more about Kyler man. It's never been too big for him, from the time he walked into this building. What he's learning, how he's his approach and man, he

is eager, hungry, and dialed in right now. Yeah, and it's been a baptism by fire a little bit too right, Like, Yeah, in the nickel position in the NFL is not easy. You know, you gotta play the run, you gotta play the pass, you gotta you know, be at the point of attack, and a lot of bang bang situations. And I think the last couple of weeks he's been really close. I think he started to tackle really well in the

New York game. Um, and that's carried over throughout the next couple of weeks, and then he's been really close to getting a peat. I n t he the tip. The first tip versus Thornton, he almost picked, uh, and then he ends up getting the pick later on. So you know, he's just gonna keep getting better. You know, he's made up of the right stuff. He practices hard, you see it. So it was good to see him finally get his hands on the ball. If it was

anybody else again Stike on Thornton, he probably would have scored. Yeah, yeah, yeah, caught him from behind. But he's got some juice to him. I got some wheels, you know. I did discuss this with general manager Ryan Poles before the game. The coaches did there at a self scout analysis, uh, and Ryan dipped in with a coordinator. You guys also did your own correct as as a personnel department, would you learn well?

I just think that when you when you sit back and you look at, um, how guys are being played, how much they're being played, how much you can get other guys involved, spread it around. Um, you know, just this the fact that using Justin's legs as a weapon. You know, that's one thing, you know, simple thing that hey like you know you have an athletic quarterback, you want them to develop as a as a passer, absolutely, but you know, you can use his athleticism as a weapon, um,

you know. And I think that we came out and did that, and you know that's going to lead to more success for him, right you know, because now guys are our teams are going to have to devote more people to the box and so he's gonna get one more one on one throws. Um. So I think just taking you know, a holistic approach and finding and putting guys where they can succeed and have a lot of success.

I think, you know, having those conversations, not daily, but pretty consistently, I think that you know, over time, I think that you'll you'll be able to put guys in the right spots and have him produced. We're inching towards the end of October, and usually the ground game really starts to crank up when the weather turns right. But in my off base on this, the Bears alone are three two hundred plush yard rushing games already. But there's a lot of good rushing offenses right now. Is this

trend is the sign of the times? You have eyes on the entire thirty one other teams as well. So what are you seeing and is that my imagination? Yeah, I think today as it stands, where the leading rushing team number one in the league, the league. Um, you know, I think the in vogue way of playing defense right now is too shell make make teams go the long way. Well, if teams don't have the patience and they start getting greedy,

and then that's when the picks come. But you know, if you can sit there and be patient, grind it out in the run game, and then you know, have sustained drives like now you're able to pile up yards and sort of like how it played out last night, you're able to stay on the field, which gives you more opportunities to score. Um. So I think what you're starting to see as teams starting to to vote to the run game a little bit more because the pass

game and the explosives aren't there right now. So a little bit of it the trends and then you know, a lot of the two is you know, preseason, the offseason, like it takes a while for the passing game to heat up for a lot of these teams and offenses right now. And that's just the way, is what It is interesting look for sure. When it's time to tackle some top ranked values, just head out over to your local jewel Osco for a league leading lineup that's perfect

for every second of the game day action. Here with Jeff King. So not only did you play college football Virginia Tech, you also played basketball. Understand you're a big fan of basketball growing up. I see the highlights of you played Duke against JJ Reddick and the fellas. You pulled the upset sixty seven sixty five. Seth Greenberg's your head coach, just some great names of the past. But you hit a nineteen footer, you were audition, you were rebounding.

It was that your best game ever. So I we Yeah, my two best games in my career were against Duke. Ironically, um now, the backstory, like JJ Reddick and I went to rival high schools. Okay, he's a year behind me in school, but um so he beat me in UH in two state championship games. So your blood was up for that one. But if we split, we split in UH in college. So I'll take the I'll take the wins at the higher level. And then and playing for Frank Biemer, the legendary coach what was it like would

you learn from him? And you know, twenty seven straight Bowl games before he retired, and such an emphasis on special teams, that is that tethered into your professional life now as you look at players. Yeah, and coach was unique, um in a lot of ways because he demanded a lot, but he was also fair um and he was he was he was. He always had his pulse on special team. So whether you were a starter, um, you know, first year or fourth year, you knew that you were going

to be on special team. So he called punt pride, he called punt returned pride and joy. So he it was a staple of the program. I mean I remember, Um, when Dwayne Brown was still playing, he just switched over to tackle, but uh, Coach wouldn't take him off punt. So he's running down on punt with knee braces on number seventy six on because you know, he trusted him to be on punt. Um. And that's just how coach was.

But um, but yeah, coach was. He was awesome. Like he was a local guy, went you know, his alma mater, like he heat breathed asleep Virginia tech Um. And so that made it easy for all of us to to buy in and be be you know, up in present. Every time he was called upon us to you know, to take that nice step. Well, we've had a lot of great influences and lucky to have you here in Chicago. Thank you, Thank you for your time. That's gonna wrap

us up for tonight's show. Got to thank our producers Keith Johnson, Andy gersher Dan Billy and Jordan Tredo for head coach Matt Eberflus and co player personnel director Jeff King. I'm Jeff Joni. Each week eight kicks off at Arlington, Texas Bears Cowboys pregame at nine, kick off at noon. That'll do it for us. Thank you for listening, everybody. This is News Radio one oh five nine w BBUM. Good night, everybody,