Cut open that DJ Moore ensode touchdown, touchdown Paars.
I am Jeff joniha whitz is.
On Donnie go up.
What was like playing for coach Bogdom. I don't want to answer any questions like that pressure coming is a big trouble.
Dotie go motes Sweat.
Now. Bears, et cetera, brought to you by Geico, with the voices of the Bears Jeff Joniac and Tom Thayer. Surviving the uncertainty of a season opener is on the to do list of every NFL team, and the Bears did just that in comeback fashion, turning a seventeen point deficit into a twenty four to seventeen win over the Tennessee Titans at Soldier Field on Sunday with Super Bowl winning Bears guard Tom Thayer. I'm Jeff Jonahac, and welcome to episode ninety two of the Bears et cetera podcast
that is brought to you by Geico. Total team win, Big Tom, and I gotta say highlighted by that suffocating second half defense with the game changing special teams plays and an offense that scuffled, but they finished and they didn't turned the ball.
You know you got to be really be impressive with what you saw out of the defense, because a lot of us were thinking, are they going to be able to pick up where they left off last year? And they did that and more. They had some new pieces in place that really helped the rotation of the defensive line. The defensive backs played as well as we thought they could, and the linebackers were as impressive as they left off.
So there's a lot of super encouraging things there. And then Coach High Tower, the special teams coordinator, had his guys ready to play. They made super impactful plays. They created field position that I think as the season winds on, they'll be able to capitalize on it. And then when you take a look at the offense, there's some really correctable issues that can be done immediately, but it is going to take reps, it's going to take time, and
it's going to take some practice efforts. So many there's a lot of encouraging things out there, and there's a lot of correctable things out there coming up a moment.
We'll hear from head coach Matty Refluce like we will each and every Monday right here from hallis Hall. The seventeen point comeback, by the way, ties for the fourth largest in Bear's history and ties for the second largest at home two thousand and one against the forty nine ers. So that's the courtesy of Doug Colletti, the Doug Colleti
math Tom. We always have a little Doug Colletti math are for eight and famous statistician and director of research tastes like middle time, celebrate responsibly Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Ninety six calories and three point two carbs per twelve ounces. And by the way, congratulations on the great job you did at halftime. That was a great ceremony. You nailed it.
Nice speech about Steve McMichael. The presentation of the Hall of Fame rings that all the Hall of Famers get in the home stadiums during the year that they are inducted into the Hall of Fame. The enshrinement of course back in August, and that'll happen again in October for Devin Hester. But it had to be a great moment for you because of your relationship and what that brother of yours means to you.
See McMichael.
Yeah, you know it was awesome.
I got a really nice appreciation message last night in the middle of the night from his wife, Misty, and I appreciate that because she knows how much Steve means to me as a football player, as a person in my life and my and our after life together. He's like a brother to me, and so I would do anything for Steve. And listen, speaking in front of that
many people is not putting in my comfort zone. However, when I have given the opportunity to speak on behalf of Steve McMichael, I would do it anywhere, anytime.
Well, you did a great job. All of it was great, and so was the second half the Bears defense.
Let's dig in a little deeper.
You mentioned picking up where they left off, and they have and the three takeaways also picking up where they left off last year. They have really put together a stretch and it has led to, you know, dating back to last year, eight wins in the last fourteen games. So eight and six was a whole lot better than starting zero four last year. And so they're off to a good start. They got a Rody in Houston to deal with and a whole bunch of offensive weapons, but
digging in. Matt Eberflus is doing a great job calling the plays, pressure when necessary, deploying Brisker, deploying Gordon on a blitz Brisker at ten tackles. You saw what TJ. Edwards did, limiting everything after the catch and everything after the run, and then just getting a variety of players having a say in the outcome of that game. We can go up and down the line of scrimmage and some underrated aspects including DeMarcus Walker who hit the quarterback four times.
Yeah.
Well, you know, thank goodness for the fans support because the building has backend ownership of the Chicago Bears, and with that supportive of a crowd, with that type of.
Defense, you can win a lot of games with that.
And every single member of the defensive line had an impact in this game, whether it's on special teams or in regular defense. We wanted to see the maturation process of Jervon Dexter, and I think the second or third play of the game he made a play, had a
couple of other big plays in the game. So it's super impressive that they've been able to put together an efficient and effective rotation on the defensive line because there's nothing as demoralizing to an offensive line with a solid rotation of fresh defensive linemen that can play in your home city as well as they did, but go on the road and play equally as well.
All right, we got a lot more to discuss, but let's pick it up right here with the head coach, Matt Eberflus today and had us haul. All right, Matt, welcome back to our podcast, The Bears, a set of a podcast. We're already up to ninety two episodes of this, so this one celebrates a nice win Week one against Tennessee Titans.
Congratulations.
First of all, thank you, thanks for having me on.
Oh as always, we'll be here every week of the season, finding a way to win, obviously despite adversity, and which you mentioned even before the game, you got to overcome adversity as a bigger win in my book, because you guys finished and it's a good platform to work from.
Is this how you look at this?
Yeah, no doubt. You know, we always look at performance. You know, you know right now after the game, you can't control the score. The score is what it is, and we look at performance, and that's about partnering up with your position, coach, and what you did well, you know, keep doing those sypes of things, and then really about
what you can improve on. There's every performance you can you can get better, and it's our time now for reinvestment, going into this week and growing and improving on our fundamentals and improving as a football team.
You mentioned after the game the look in the eye of the players at halftime. Was there something said by players that also peaud your curiosity in terms of any individual if you care to say, like what happened in there at halftime?
No, it wasn't really an individual. I would just say that it was just the whole collective group, you know, in terms of looking at each other and say, hey, we can get this done. We believe in each other, we know how hard we've worked during training camp and since April, and just that belief that we're able to get it done.
And I was listening to some analysts just looking at the league overall former players saying hey, there's alway an overreaction or week one win or lose. Right, there's so much to work out. Players are playing the most snaps they've played the entire offseason. It's a process all of this. You got to figure out who you are as a player, first of all. With your team, because every team's new
every year and just where everything fits. Is this a proper way to look at the lens of a Week one in the NFL?
Yeah, I think it is. And obviously coming out with a victory is good, yes, because you want to start fast and you want to do that and you're really just evaluate and you're winning formula you know, for success, and that changes a little bit every single week, but it's all rooted in fundamentals and then where can you improve And I think that's for offense, for defense, for kicking.
You know, there's a lot of improvement that we can have from week one to week two, and we're excited about getting going on this week.
All right, into the nitty gritty of the game.
I'm looking at this and I don't know how you feel about key series. For me, it is in ninth possession offensively at your eleven you get two first downs on a six play drive to the Tennessee forty three, but your punt and pin the Titans at the eighteen yard lines and I got a long field to work with and sixty something seconds left in the game. That was an important offensive series and very.
You know, it started with DJ you know, DJ, They threw it out to him and he obviously made a nice move and had that explosive to get it off. I believe it was the ten yard line, I believe, and really good to be able to flip the field there. Obviously, you know we have a punter that can do that and you know, make him go the long hard way, and offense did a really nice job there.
Special teams was truly special. It was we can go down the list, but I'm fine to this player just getting to know him a little bit. Daniel Hardy. He played twenty four special teams snap. He got a snap on defense as well, got to tackle. But the black punt maybe you could say is the turning point in the game.
Yeah, And I'm very happy for him because of the kind of guy he is and the work ethic he has. He's our he's our kind of guy in terms of that he bleeds the hits principal and so excited for him to be able to go out there and perform the way he did in terms of his effort, his intensity and production. And it was good to see.
Let's coach your point on how you block a punt.
Well, his getof was outstanding, you know, and he's really strong at the point. You know, he was able to turn the shoulders of the protector and then be able to bend in there to the to the block point. And he did a really good job reaching out and putting his hand on the football, you know. And then Jo did a wonderful job with scooping and scoring. He
worked on that obviously. You see the practices. We work on that fundamental skill every single day and doing it with full speed, you know, and then bursting for three hard steps and the guys did that and that's not a surprise when it happens in the game. You've already done it game speed, and it was a really good recovery.
Yeah.
I spoke to him after the game and he mentioned that very fact. We do this every single day, but that ball does bounce funny sometimes, so you know, I can't minimize the skill and the concentration. And just scooped that. He didn't even know he had a touchdown. He's like, this is too easy. He just scooped it, scored and that's it. He's looking around making sure. And conversely, on Tyreek's pick six, he said he blacked out, meaning he
didn't hear anything. He just it's just like everything went quiet, Yeah, which is weird because everything was not quiet.
Well, I think that's when you get into the flow of the game and he's was hyper focused on that particular play and he was just in the zone there. And Tybrek's got great hands and he's a really good corner for us, and we're excited about the rest of the year for him.
By the way, on Owen's Tom made a great you know, a great call. There's a gold medal play, you know, in honor of his missus, Simon bile So, gold medal play by a gold medal player. DeAndre Carter got experience, there's a lot of trust there. His day overall, very impressive, sixty seven yard count kickoff, returning twelve point an punts.
Yeah, and again that goes to all the guys that are blocking for him too. You know, there's a lot of good guys out there in terms of the effort, second effort technique, you know, sealing off blocks, double team blocks, working to the second level, you know, and freeing them, freeing them up. But you know, DC is a really
good player though. I mean, he's got he's got quickness, he's got you know, burst, cut ability, burst, he's got all those, and he was able to take those part returns and and that one particular kick return to make something happen.
Yeah.
Now, a series of threes, three field goals, Cairo Sandos third place in Bear's history. Now with fourteen career fifty pluses, three inside the twenties for Tory Taylor, and a three tackle day for Jalen Jones.
That's pretty good. Yeah, all three of those guys played well. And of course we know who Cairo is because he's done it for us for a long time. And then you know Tory coming in new on the scene. We've all watched him in practice and he performed well too.
Ferocious second half defensively.
I'm not minimizing what they did in the first half either, but they just really were on it.
I look at TJ.
Edwards, nothing after the catch, nothing after contact, just drilling guys down to the ground. He appeared to be very swift to the ball on every single one of those tackles. Fifteen over I think ten solos. What'd you think of that second half defensive performance?
They were fiery.
Yeah, to go to the first half, you know, we really we had three three and outs, you know in the first half, which is which is good. You know, we had a couple of drives there, the one big drive we gave up because of that third and fifteen. You know, we just got to do a better job of matching up those routes. Ridley did a really nice job of kind of tucking behind one of our defenders there so we could have gotten out of there. And then we also had another drive where we had a
penalty on a four point play. It was a third and five or whatever it was, and we ended up jumping off side. So some of those were solf inflicted and we got to clean those things up. And then moving on to the second half. I love the way the guys responded, you know, coming out in the second half, the way they tackled, the way they kept leverage, the way they hustled. And again it's never good enough, but it was it was. It was pretty good yesterday in terms of taking the ball away when.
We needed to, yep.
And some of the hidden pressures, like people are not talking about as much, but DeMarcus Walker, including the last play that Jaylen intercepted, he had four hits on the quarterback ten ten overall, and we got to talk about Darryl Taylor too.
Yeah, no doubt, no doubt. We had fourteen hits on the quarterback.
He missed four, but official stats said ten. Yeah, coach, you say fourteen, I'm going with you.
There you go. But yeah, it was it was good. You know those guys you know, applied some pressure there. And we're always working for e goos one with those with the four man rush and rush and cover was applied yesterday. We just got to keep working on it.
All right.
Can you talk about how a guy can come in here in this scheme, uh and just play a lot of snaps and get eight tackles and two sacks and play some good football. On Taylor, he said he just loves the fit. He just go forward, go get the quarterback. And maybe he didn't have to do that in that manner at Seattle, I'm not quite sure.
Yeah, he does a really good job with his energy, his effort, his attention to detail, his focus. Uh. He fits right in with us because of the way he plays. He loves football and he he's uh just one hundred miles an hour all the time, which is great. We always can work with that. We'll get that guy in the right direction as we did this week and going forward, he's gonna have a big year for us.
Hard to win a game without an offensive touchdown, but it's a team game, all three phases, and uh, it was a team game.
Uh.
With that being said, Uh, we are close in your opinion on some big plays in the passing game.
Yeah, we were. We were. I mean know, we had Keenan opened on that on that double move, very good. Our sideline there, I thought that was really good. We had DC on a mes zero pressure. I thought we could have really dumped it in there, you know, uh, you know, just dropped it right in there. So there was a couple of plays that we had missed opportunities on. But again, that all always comes down to the rhythm of timing, you know, continuity with the receivers and and
us just having more time on task. And we're gonna do that.
Yeah, and all things that you we were going to expect from a young quarterback, especially one being a rookie quarterback to face with the speed of the game when a regular season hit.
Yeah, and again he's gonna keep getting better, you know. The things he did well was protect the football, and that was good. He was good in the pocket, his operation was good. His disposition in terms of his demeanor, his body language, everything through all that adversity was great. He responded well, came out there in that two point play, had a really good execution on that was a really good play call by Shane. You know. So there's a lot of positives that take There was a lot of
rhythm and timing throws that were right on point. So there's a lot of positives that take away from it, and there's also things that hey, we can get better at. Yeah, you know, it's week one and we're going to go to week two and just keep on reinvesting in growing and improving every single week.
And I looked at those thirteen third down opportunity there was a lot of third and threes, third and four third, you know, shorts, there were some big ones two third in the country mile. But I go back, and I know you and I have talked about this, I believe, but one hundred and ninety nine passing attempts at USC on third and fourth down his final two years, zero interceptions. So again, zero interceptions, Like you said, protecting the football and third down, cause that can get a little wacky,
and third down that that's huge right there. How is his Monday morning demeanor after this?
It was good.
It was good.
Same as he had last yesterday on the podium. It was good. We had a nice meeting with him today this morning and it was good. He was good. We just talked about what we could do better and what we learned and moving on to the next week.
All right, The next week is a primetime matchup, certainly not going to be too big for a Caleb Lims. He's been in the prime time his whole life. Forget about just the USC and Oklahoma days. Really good football team, you know, we met them in Canton. Obviously there's no scouting going on, but you get a little familiarity with the roster at a minimum, all the way back to that point in August. Is that helpful in anyway? Because this is a really good football team, a lot of talent.
It's a playoff team, you know, and they did a nice job in the first game of the year. Very explosive offense, got a real similar defense the way the way we operate in terms of the structure, so it'll be very familiar to him. To Caleb because it's it's very similar. But they got you know, good addressers, good inside pressure players. They got a nice secondary so and then their complement on offenses, they got a nice skill set.
You know, their skill sets are really good. Acquired a couple of good players and it's going to be a big challenge for a whole football team.
Run stuffing always important. Joe mixonhead himself a big day. We know what he can do, so I'm sure that's going to be job one during that right to rush the passer, no doubt. All right, mat congratulations talking next week, Jeria Prepp, yep, all right, he corrected me. As you heard, Tommy fourteen hits on the quarterback. The final stats said ten.
He's gonna take every one of those quarterback hits, especially when you're talking about a second year quarterback like Will Levis where pressure really did affect him in twenty twenty three and until further notice. You know, those are the kind of punishment you got to provide on a quarterback.
Make sure you're cloud in his windows, cloud in his ability to escape the pocket and force him into these errors where he's feeling the pressure and like he did when he just threw that, butll he was just trying to throw the ball away and he was going down to the ground and Tyreek Stevens in there for the pick six. But those are those are plays he'll learn
from as a quarterback. But you want to force these second your young quarterbacks who don't have a lot of starts bankrolled into making these kind of errors.
Well, even experienced quarterbacks. You want to be able to provide unpredictable pressure because even though you go to the line of scrimmage as an opponent and you have your direction of your protection called and you know exactly who you want to protect against, the Bears have a wide variety of weapons that they can bring from a lot of different directions that sometimes they are unpredictable, and then that interferes with the timing of the play and then
all of a sudden, the win of the play is on behalf of the defense. So I like what the group of athletes are able to do here. And the worst thing as an ex offensive player is when you have a superstar in your defense and you know who exactly who you have to stop. But now you've got a variety of guys and the Bears there are eleven guys here that can put pressure on a quarterback at any time because they all have that type of versatility built into them.
All right, are you surprised by the immediate impact of Darryl Taylor at all?
No, I'm not, because you have to look at the other pieces that are in place on the defensive line and at the linebacker position, and then Kyler Gordon and Jakwan Brisker and such. So if everybody is influenced by making sure that you block Montest Sweat and you direct your protection towards him, that means somewhere along the line, somebody's going to.
Get a one on one no matter what.
And if you're the backside defensive end and you're getting that one on one and you win as immediately as he did throughout the course of the game yesterday. Now you're talking about the offensive coordinator trying to devise a new scheme of where to slide the pressure to, and then all of a sudden, then you look and you go, oh, you got Montes Sweat on the other side of the line of scrimmage.
And then you got.
DeMarcus Walker, and you got Darnell Taylor. You got all these guys switched on the opposite side of the field. So that's what I'm talking about, is the unpredictable pressure are because you have a group of athletes that are so well balanced that they can play out of a right handed stance as well as a left handed stand.
Do you think they did a nice job of changing the pictures for Will Levis back there and taking away his deep ball game. I mean there was one, but you know, given what he did last year, he put up the ball quite a bit on deep routes. Granted, John Jay Hopkins probably wasn't one hundred percent ready to play. He just was out there. He really didn't get factored into the game at all, and not because the Bears
are taking him away, I don't believe. But you know, Calvin Ridley can make some noise obviously, and Tyler Boyd out of the slot is awful, dangerous, But I think they kind of clouded the pictures for him a little bit.
You're exactly right.
They clouded the picture for them because as he breaks the huddle and he knows the plays he called in the huddle, he goes to the line of scrimmage and maybe you have TJ. Edwards and Tremaine Edmonds up at the line of scrimmage. They have no intentions on rushing, but they got to be accounted for because where they're lined up before the snap of the ball and as soon as they drop back into their past coverage lanes. Plus you have the complimentary of the other defensive backs.
Now the quarterback is in a thinking position as he's dropping back, and when you think your b and so that's the one thing about the uniqueness of the Bears and the athleticism they have from the edges to the inside that they can put a variety of fronts up there that would you say, the cloudsier of cloud.
Change the pictures, change the picture, you know, change the picture. By the way three of fourteen on third down defensively by the Bears limiting the Titans, so didn't stack up a bunch of other plays because for a while there they had the time of possession advantage. Tennessee quite a bit a good running game, Tony Pollard early in the game of the Bears adjusted significantly in the second half, and the game is all about adjustments and adaptation as well.
We're brought to you by PNC Official Bank of the Bears. Let's dig into special teams. There's so much here because and I talked with coach about everybody from the three inside, the twenty punts, the Jalen Jones on the tackles, to Cairo hitting all three of his to a new long snapper. You know, that's an introduction to think it's Scott Daily.
Ten kickoffs combined in the game, just three touchbacks. So you know, let's get into that because thirty four percent up until the Monday night game, thirty four percent of the kickoffs will returned, up from twenty percent a year ago. In Week one one for a touchdown. In Week one
only four for a touchdown all of twenty three. So I don't know how many teams are going to embrace this, but the Bears and Titans did, and when the Titans' perspective, it led to a turnover and Julius Chestnut recovering the Bayless Jones muff. So this is you know, we talked about this. There's gonna be some really big players. They're
going to have an impact on the game. It's going to change tempo, momentum, field position, and I just hope that teams don't settle for that touchback and get the ball out the thirty yard line and be good with it, because there are built in there's built ten big moments awaiting either team in one of these kickoffs.
Well, I mean, if you're just willing to awar your opponent every single series that you're kicking off of them a free first down, now you're changing the influence of field position. And when you have a punter, say like Tory Taylor, that if you start at the thirty yard line and say you only get seven or eight yards out of a drive and then he's banging the ball from field position, that can reverse it. So I still like the fact that you're going to create more kickoff returns.
I like the design of some of the returns by coach High Tower and Week one of the NFL. So then that's just going to increase the exploratory surgery of all these special teams coaches because they're not only going to look at their own or their opponent, they're going to look at them right down the line of every
team in the league. If they say, wow, this is interesting, I'm gonna experiment with this because listen, offensive football is a copycat league, and so is the design of the new kickoff return.
Your a little line about Jonathan Owens and I just saw him before we started the podcast. Here all smiles on his face about the scoop and score for the touchdown of the block by Daniel Hardy, Golden medal worthy. That was a great line by you. He's the professional football player, so Mombios is the superstar gymnast and multi talented gold medal winner.
Thrilled.
I think she was screaming at the top of her lungs when that husband of hers ran it into the end zone.
That was a great play.
Hey, she was screaming no louder than me because I was equally as excited when I saw that, because it's just not a play that comes up very often. And then you think of the combination of names. They weren't on the Bears last year, and here you got Daniel Hardy and then you got Jonathan Owens. You're talking about two newbies that have been brought aboard that. Wow, what the heck is going on here?
Yeah?
Good, good, good guys that really play hard. That's one thing we saw in preseason as well. When Jonathan Owens gets a chance to get on the field at safety, he'll punch you, he will hit you. He leaves a mark, and he's gonna do that his chances. I mean, you know, this is not an injury free league here. So if you have to come in for a series of player or a game when Jonathan Owens gets his opportunity to play, be ready, busy heart Seltzer flavors for every vibe, celebrate responsibly.
Most in Coorse Beverage Company Milwaukee, Wisconsin should also mention DeAndre Carter a new Bear as well. Put together a nice line in punt and kickoff return. All right, let's talk about the offense. I'm going to start from a point of positivity that I mentioned with Coach Flues. The ninth offensive possession of.
The game by the Bears.
It was only six plays, Tommy, but they got the battle of the Tennessee forty three and ate it up almost four minutes and left the Titans sixty five seconds in a long field which resulted in the game ending interception by Jalen Johnson.
And you take the knee.
The rest of the game that includes those two first downs might have made a difference in the outcome because you're talking about field position, you're talking about time on the clock, and I thought that was a very important series right there, given the fact they did not pass the ball to their liking and they did not put a ball on the end zone offensively, that was a big series.
You agree, Oh, listen, there's a lot of plays that go untalked about that are big plays in the game that factor in the outcome. And you talked about you talk about those big plays in those first downs and getting that clock to continue to swine when you work on four minute drills and stuff. But as I was watching the tape, I was looking at the fumble recovery
by Tevin Jenkins. Okay, so a ball gets batted by a defensive back, it gets caught by Roma Dunse, it gets stripped by a Tennessee Titans as Tevin's going downfield to help block if he has to, the ball's on the ground and he recovers it and then they end up getting three points out of that. As you were talking, maybe it was last night about the series that they ended up getting nine points from ye and that's three.
Of the points.
I was just thinking, Okay, the plays that you're just talking about near the end of the game, that play by Tevin Jenkins.
There are big plays that will never.
Get talked about, never get awarded or rewarded, but they factor in a win.
It underscores the hustle aspect of the hits principle, and so that is important to be on this football team.
We had the three series I talked about.
I don't have them memorized at the moment, but one was an eleven play drive, another one was a nine play drive.
It did not net a lot of yards.
There was a one yard net series, but those three series rather led to nine points and you needed those
nine points to win the football game. Caleb had great opportunities, some great throws to DJ Moore, really impressive rip at slant, the big catch on the sidelines when he had to take his helmet off and go into the tent, and some near misses because there were a bunch of third and shorts, third and three, third and fourth, third and five that they decided to throw it downfield as opposed to maybe an intermediate throw and it was just a
little off. So it Actually, while we were doing our game night live show, I think I mentioned I was feeling as we were talking about the game, I was feeling more optimistic about the performance because he didn't turn the ball over. Caleb did not. The offense did not turn the ball over. So that's step one, step two. There are some near misses. Okay, the protection at times it did break down, and there was some big dudes up front that we know about. Jeffrey Simmons we knew about.
Now he learned about dev Andre Sweat. Tough to deal with.
You know.
Another misnomer is just to address it because there the interior defensive linemen of the Tennessee Titans are going to give a lot of football teams a lot of problems.
There are big mutt men.
They compliment each other well, and they're good against the run as good as good against the pass. So the first tip ball that Caleb had so after Coleman Shelton snapped the ball, he got tripped by one of his own offensive linemen. As he was falling backwards. The guy he was blocking luckily put his hands up in the air and tip the ball. And then the second tip ball was the defensive lineman ran a stunt, the offensive
line picked it up perfectly. One of the defensive linemen that got stale made into the line of scrimmage kind of guessed and put his hands up and it resulted.
So it's not like, oh my god.
He's thrown it into the back of the helmets of his own offensive lineman. It's defensive linemen being put in a fortunate position and then they put their hands up in a desperation move and they are able to get their hands to it. So I know that's something that's correctible, but you know it's you know, correctable more by the offensive line than the quarterback.
Well, you know, if you're a good defensive line, you're rushing the quarterback and your stalemate you got to put your hands up.
That's the tout.
So you know, this guy's for six or four across the board, including arden Key also on the edge, rushing off either side. So yeah, they did impress me. That defense did impress me. I think they're gonna be a pretty good defense to deal with. And this they got some names at every level of that defense. The running game longest run late in the game by a Swift with twenty yards, So again, a building block got to get better.
A run of the football.
Yeah, I mean that's a work in progress.
And again, if they would have rushed for two hundred yards, it would have never been a finished product. Every single week you face a different type of talent against a different defense, and you have points of emphasis accordingly, and I think the better understanding that the offensive lineman gets with the rhythm of the cadence. Now this week's going to be a different monster because in Houston, they're not going to be able to hear the snapcomt because the noise will be so deafening.
But again, you.
Don't want to get away from the running game. I think that's always going to be your bread and butter. But after you go in and you watch a tape as a group, as an offensive line or as a running back group, you get a better understanding, a better feel how plays are going to open up, and then how to pre predict where your best chances of success are. So, like I said, any facet that needs improvement, the running game needs improvement, but I think it will with Chris Morgan at the helm.
Blue crushing blue shield of Illinois right here at home, driving access toward healthier communities. Through it all, let's talk about Chris Morgan offensive line at right guard. Nate Davis played eighteen snaps and Baits played thirty eight snaps, so they rotated a bit. I think the first snap was the fourteenth snap of the game for Baits, or thirteenth
or fourteenth snap. They're basically I don't know how to evaluate it other than you know, they're evaluating both guys and see what lands is the better option?
Is this what you're thinking is here?
You know, I would hope they're all being evaluated because no one ever has a job forever, and that's the when you have a group of talent.
That you put out there.
And Chris Morgan does a great job of playing guys in a variety of positions to see when their opportunity comes, who fits best where. And Ryan Bates was brought in here possibly to be the starting center, had an injury hiccup, he kind of was able to get more reps at
right guard when Nate Davis wasn't in the lineup. So I think they're still going through the thinking and the development process because I think like guys like Amagaji, when he gets more practice time, maybe he'll you know, work his way into some opportunities and we'll see how it works up and down the line of scrimmage.
I wanted to talk about the first snap offensive via the game because darneld right lined up on the outside of the left tackle, Braxton Jones, So that was an unbalanced line. What what is the point of that? What is the uh what is the scheme value of that? Especially on the first snap of the game.
Point of attack advantage where you have better blockers next to each other and not necessarily taking anything away from the tight end position, but when you have two big offensive tackles next to each other and you know that's going to be your point of attack, which I think resulting in a six.
Or eight yard six yeard.
Yes, it's just may shifting the defense out of position, creating a stronger to the offense. That's bona fide declaration. Most of the time, where you're gonna run it, you don't have to. But now say they come out in an unbalanced line, the next time they run a play action to the opposite side. So it just provides more preparation for your next opponent, and it creates immediate thinking by the coordinator that's up in the booth looking down
at the scheme. So the defensive coordinator now is starting to say, okay, the next time they're in this defense. Let's go with this type of defensive scheme, you know. And so I liked the variety, and I like the result of the play.
I believe was it the only time they did it yesterday? So a little bait on the fish hook, that's what they leed. They put a little bait bait. This is interesting. Week one gets so much over analysis, but for those who researched these things, the lowest passing yard total in the league in a Week one, not including the Monday night game, ten passing touchdowns way down to thirty three,
and last year I believe it was thirty six. From nineteen to twenty two, twenty nineteen, nineteen to twenty twenty two, the touchdown totals passing touchdowns were in the fifties and sixties. Is there anything you can derive from this trend down in passing yards and passing touchdowns?
Well, I think of look at how many quarterbacks went to new teams. How many quarterbacks are playing for the first time at rookies. How many quarterbacks are in their second year. You know, whether it's Bryce Young or Will
Levis that are their careers are still undetermined. I just don't think you have an extensive amount of quarterbacks that are senior leaders of their squad that are with a new with a head coach that's been around for a while, or coordinator in a system or coordinator so Jim Harball and Justin Herbert or else. You know, you look at Kirk Cousins in Atlanta, you look at Caleb in Chicago, you look at Darnold in Minnesota.
You can go up and down theo.
Go to Pittsburgh with Arthur Smith and it turned out to be justin Field.
Instead of and you know, and then you got you know, tonight, you're gonna have Aaron Rodgers who played four plays for the Jets last year, forty years old, coming off of an achilles and just like Kirk Cousins.
So I mean, yeah, ten new starters at quarterback in week one, correct ten?
And then then if you look at those other teams that don't have the ten new starters, look at the coaching changes that they've had, or do you Deshaun Watson who is coming off of an injury.
So there's a lot of uncertainty.
Steinhoffles is an employee owned furniture and mattress store. Visit any of their for Chicago Land locations in Vernon Hills, Crystal Lake, Downers Grove, and Horward Heights were shot online at Steinhoffels dot Com. Didn't get into injuries, specifically with Mattyberflus at the podium with the media today at househol did send up a flare at Roma Duneesay getting an armor on his knee. I don't know if you noticed
anything in the game where that may have occurred. Something may have occurred with that knee, and it may have been on a blocking play according to Flues.
Yeah, I didn't see a noticeable limp and I didn't have any time during the game that I was overly concerned about his well being. So you know, hopefully it's nothing, but you know, it's better to be, you know, take precautionary measures.
Yeah, I have to check on Keenan Allen as well. He left the game and I don't believe he returned after coming up limping on an end zone throw that did not land. So things to always worry about injury wise each week in the NFL. Right, let's say quick sneak peak at the Houston Texans. They held off the Indianapolis Coats on the road they won on the road twenty nine to twenty seven. We're going to be seeing Anthony Richardson a week after and he had a couple
of big plays, big throws. Alec Pierce, the local product out of Glen Allen one hundred and twenty some yards, including a sixty yard touchdown, and he ran Richardson ran for one.
What.
I don't know if you had any chance to look at Houston yet, what are we seeing on tape?
We know the names.
There's a lot of big names on both sides of the ball.
You know. I looked at him a little bit just to see kind of what they were trying to showcase on the road in Indianapolis. And they still featured the running game, you know, Joe Mixon thirty carries, oh you know, nine yards, three passes caught on, three targets. They have some big time receivers down there. They're coming in with a quarterback the CJ. Stroud that is just oozing with confidence and he's got accuracy.
He's a big guy. Uh the He's got.
An offensive line that played well enough on the road to get those guys a two point win. And then they have a defensive head coach who's got some explosiveness on the edge. And whenever you have edge explosiveness, especially when you're playing at home, you know that you can create a barrier around a young quarterback. That means that he's either got to stay inside the pocket and get the ball out of his hands or else your edge blockers, tackles and tight ends they got to play the game
of their life without ever hearing the snapcount. So there's kind of a double edged sword there with outside rushers that are that's what they're known for by offensive tackles who are not going to be able to hear the snap count.
Well, Anderson, the rookie of the Year last year from Alabama, and Daniel Hunter, they combined for just three tackles, so I haven't watched it either. I don't know if they kept stayed away from them, doubled them up. I don't know what they did.
Well. A lot of their rushes contain specific to a guy like Anthony Richardson, because if you let him get outside the pocket, he could take at the distance no matter where he is on the field. So when you're specifically telling your great outside rushers upfield and then close in on the pocket, you're really giving that quarterback probably an extra three quarters of a second to a second in order to set your feet and get rid of
the ball. And I just think that's the process because when you're playing on the road, the offensive lineman's getting off the ball before the defensive ends. When you're playing at home, the defensive ends are getting off the ball as at the same rate as your offensive tackle.
Well, i'd imagine.
I mean, they don't want Caleb Williams out of the pocket making his great throws on the run. He did yesterday he made a couple of nice throws on the run.
Again. That's that's his big superpower.
You know, Caleb the You know when you look at what is he new to you know, how can he improve, you know between one week and the next.
And I think you know, when you have time, take your time.
Don't hurry your mechanics because you think that things are coming they are closing too close, so you got to get rid of the ball too soon. And I do think the more reps that he gets at home and at away, he'll be able to get a little bit more relaxed. And I think that's when you're gonna see the best out of Caleb.
Good new Chicago United Airlines getting brand new planes with all the bells and whistles, like Bluetooth connectivity screens at every seed in room for everyone's roller back United Proud to fly the Chicago Bears and you too. I was thatch of a weekend in Chicago for Bears fans. He had alumni weekend, a lot of old faces coming into town and reminiscing not only Saturday night at the dinner, but also on the sidelines before the game. And then it all results in a big victory for the Bears.
I say big because everyone is and you're bank rolling the future. That's what you're doing by getting these tough, tough wins. And now you hit the road to take on Houston. That AFC South is a pretty pretty tough that AFC South is going to be, is it? Wait till the end of the year and see that is
a tough division. That's a tough division of the Bears got three of those games in the first three weeks of the season, so it's going to be interesting and we'll recap what that might look like as far as the Bears in Houston on Thursday and our next podcast, I hope to have some guests of interest for you as well, and of course Bears Weekly on Thursday night.
Jim Miller will join us on Bears Weekly this week.
All right, plenty of talk about from Sunday, so I think we'll have that much to talk about leading up to this week's game.
Absolutely, all right, that's going to do it. We thank you for listening and we'll talk to you coming up later this week. For Tom there and for coach eber Blues, I'm Jeff Joniac. Bear down, everybody,