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Bears et Cetera brought to you by Geico with the voices of the Bears Jeff Joniac and Tom Thayer. Well, we witness one of the best passing days in Bear's history by a rookie quarterback. Caleb Williams certainly the most yards thrown by a Bears rookie, with three hundred and sixty three is two thirteen of the first half of the Boston Indianapolis for the most by a Bears rookie
quarterback since at least nineteen seventy eight. The benefactors of a thirty three for fifty two passing performance were fellow rookie wide receiver Roma Dunze, Tita En Cole Comet, and wide receiver Dj Moore, with Super Bowl winning Bears guard Tom Thayer. I'm Jeff, Joniack Welcome. In episode ninety six, The Bears et Cetera, podcast were brought to you by Geico Tom never thought I'd see the day dropping a throw nearly sixty times, but you know.
Hey, in this podcast dedicated to Alex Brown.
Oh you always got somebody. I like it. I want to get into the triple digits. We got to get creative, right.
You know.
The thing about I like most about the passing of Caleb on Sunday was the new candidates And when you look at how Roman Dude was targeted, how many targets Cole Camet received, those are the types of guys that we've been looking for to get involved in the passing game since the beginning of training camp, beginning of the regular season. And I think the more use they get,
the more unsuspecting the defense is going to become. Because when you have DJ Moore and you have Keenan Allen, and you have Gerald Everett, and you have DeAndre Swift and ro Sean and all the crew, everybody that can catch a pass, I think that gives a ver of weapons in a variety of ways that Shane Waldrin can call passing plays.
Yeah, Cole Comett spoke today about that very topic. A lot of newness on the offense it'll grow, and he thinks they're close. He thinks they're close, And after getting involved to eleven targets and ten catches, I understand what he's saying. Pick up six first downs in that progress. And it wasn't like it was a blowout time either, and a defense playing not to allow you to do anything big. There's still a one score game, right.
You know? The thing about it is you look at some of the catches by Rome, they were incredibly long distance track balls in difficult coverage scenarios that he was able to make and.
Secure the catch.
And then some of the catches by cole Comet, they were physical conclusions to making the catch and then being able to stay on your feet and get a couple extra yards out of it to get beyond the first down marker. So it wasn't like it was just a pitch and catch type game for these guys. There was significant kept meaning to each of their catches.
And while the Bears did cobble together what twenty eight runs, the production was a little meager at two point three at Carrie what can be fixed here?
Again dedication to the point of attack, making sure the offensive line are all on the same page. I think the next two weeks, when they have the opportunity to use a volume snap count by Caleb Williams, I would suspect and I would hope that the run game would be a little bit more organized and it was more of a point of attack success and getting to the getting the running backs into a position where they have
yards before contact and yards after contact. And again, just to be you know, to repeat myself, I'm not looking for unrealistic results. I'm looking for four yards to carry and if you give me anything more than that, I consider that gravy. But if you can have a thirty performance running back performance, you're talking about a lot of yards, you know, and how much it helps your time of possession,
your field position, You're scoring opportunity. So I'm excited to see what happens the next two weeks.
Tastes like Miller Time. Go to Miller lite dot com slash bears pod to find delivery options near you. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Ninety six calories and three point two carbs per twelve ounces. Jeff Joniyak and Tom Thayer here and had a chance, as we do each Monday during the season. Our status at hallis with Bears head coach Mattyberflus. Hey, thanks Matt, thanks for joining us.
Once again.
This is an off the wall question, but I know you using this word temperature. You like guys temperature on game day and practice week, and we know your your temperature is high at all times. After a game winner lose, do you crash?
I wouldn't use the word crash. I would say that once I hit the rack, I do go to sleep for fast. But there's a lot of a lot of things that you have to do during the course of a game, and you know it's exciting and you have to be at that level to be able to operate the right way. But again, it's it's all part of being in ball.
I don't know how you sleep, because how do you turn your brain off thinking about again good or bad? Like your mind must always be working twenty four to seven.
We work, you know, I do, not we?
You?
Yeah, well, I say we because I go home and with my family, Okay, you know, so that's part of the we part.
You know.
So that really helps me to be able to disconnect before I go to sleep, and then I'll usually get up early on Monday morning. I was up super early this morning, obviously, about three point thirty, so I woke up and got going about four o'clock, so it was it was a good start. So I got a lot of work done this morning and got ready for the guys to come in.
And when you look at tape and you're looking at it with a very critical eye, do you how do you manage your own frustration when things that you think are going to work don't work?
Yeah, I mean you always look at it one play at a time, right, So you look at one play and you see what was positive. Execution was good on that particular play, the reasons why this guy's making a particular block and this guy's making a cut, or the protection was solid, and you know Caleb delivered the ball, you know, to Rome or whoever that is. That's all positive. And then you look at the breakdowns. You know, what
were the breakdowns when things didn't go well? You know, in every game, there's always those situations where there's positive plays and plays you need to correct. And then what was the correction? Was it an individual technique? Was it a scheme thing that we could do better as coaches? So there's always you always working that these we put up guys in the position to make plays, and so those are always things you're looking at as a coach.
Every play can't work. So in some plays if you go back to the well and I'm not saying that's happened here this season, art or do you toss the play like guys, this display is just not working well.
I think you have to play off the plays you've seen you put on tape. You know, That's that's an important thing you do offense, defense and special teams, is that you're always playing off of that or you're going to unscouted looks. You know, you're going to something that is not even close to what you've been doing in terms of how.
It looks now.
It's certainly always going to be something we have conceptually that we've drilled during training camp. We have on our menu board that it's something you can put in that just looks different to the opponent.
As for the game, and you you've mentioned it more than once, the missed opportunities is a frustration in that fact, the Colts kept giving you opportunities to take control of the game and just couldn't quite do it.
Yeah, you know, the first quarter really was just you know, we missed the field goal in the first one, we had the sack fumble, which the officials said it wasn't a sack phone, So we missed an opportunity there, you know, and then really just ended uh you know, zero zero in the first Then the second quarter, you know, obviously you know, we give up you know, interception for interception, and then we end up uh you know, they get a touchout off off of the one and then uh
you know the goal line, you know, the four players in the goal line there, we missed an opportunity there as well.
Uh.
Then we do a good job stopping them on d and then we get a hail Mary and we have another opportunity there to you know, get you know, steal one there. It's really good catch by DJ. Just got to you know, somehow putch it in there, and and that's the way it went. And then the third quarter, you know, it's when we had the it would come out. We get the takeaway right away, get the field goal
from that. Again, you know, we're hunting touchdowns there, you know, so we got to do a good job of sudden change. Let's get that touchdown. We stole an opportunity there, stole to possession, and then it was the special teams, right, We had the special teams, you know, we had the
rough and the punter that was the big one. We had another opportunity there, and then we end up you know, throwing an interception right after that, and then we stopped them on d right to give it back to the O and then we end up jumping off sides, you know, on the put return, and then we got to respond. You know, it's a sudden change for the D. We
got to respond there. They got a couple of big plays there with JT, and we got to do a better job cuping the ball and tackling with him a very good player, but we got to do a great job of that, you.
Know, and j T.
Everybody is Jonathan Taylor. That's from two days with the COLT. You got young game and the initials j T.
And then then really in the fourth quarter, the big play there was you know, offense had a couple of really good drives, defense made some really good stops and we just had the sack fumble, you know, and that was on the sixteen yard line, and we got to do better job on d rising up, but we can't give the ball away like that in the fourth quarter. So and that was the ballgame, and our guys fought
all the way to the end. You know, we had some really good drives there in terms of two minute operations. That was really good to see from offense and Caleb and the group and you know, and then at the end there, you know, I thought we managed the game well at the end, you know, get using that to the two minute warning to really utilize some time uh there, and then we had our time out. We just got to do a good job on d in four minute there to get the ball back.
For our Oh what you just explained is this, every snap does matter. You don't know when it's gonna matter. And as Caleb said at the podium, it's on the details, and the details are so precise. I mean, you could have had a completely different story.
No doubt, no doubt. And it's all about taking care of It's all about the ball first. I know that's elementary to football, but it truly is that. You know, and then really you know, you know, working your your run game average has got to be right because that puts you in front of the ledger you know your margins are better, and then really it's just about you know, the explosive place. You know, you eliminate the explosives and
get them. And if you're always on the plus side of that, if you're on the plus side of all the three of those things, you're going to be in good shape.
Three hundred and sixty three yards passing most mandy quarterback in the league this season a couple of games left here on Monday night, But dropping to throw nearly sixty times that comes with some peril. Also, you don't necessarily want to do that unless is this what you envision what this team is going to be more of a passing first type of team in the end. Is that going to be the identity of the Chicago Bears.
Yeah, I would say that. I don't see it that way. I see it more like the opportunities were there. We had a two minute drive at the end of the half. We had those two big two minute drives, you know, at the end of the game. So I really think those passing numbers are a little up because of that. And if it was a normal game, you know, when we were ahead in that situation, I think it would be more balanced like we want it to.
Be and pre snap post snap, Caleb uh, definite growth. I would say, right, you can see it, the confidence at the line of scrimmage, making his checks, clocks winding down. How would you assess all of that.
Well, there's two things going on there. You know, there's two weeks in a row. He had to headle the noise, you know, so he's handling the noise way better. And the second performance in there, you know, and you know that stadium is allowed stadium, and so he did a really good job with that. In terms of the pre snap operating in that environment. You know, the offensive line did a much better job with the silent count because they're work on that too, and so there's a lot
of positives there. Then post snap, you know, just going through his reads and and getting the ball out on time. You know, it was really good. You know, again, there's there's certain things that he's going to learn from, you know, in regards to post snap, but again, for the most part, it was it was a level up and getting better.
Have you, in your opinion and your experience, have you entrusted maybe a lot more for a rookie quarterback than the normal rookie quarterback just because of his football IQ.
Yeah, yeah, you know, you know, we trust k Lob and you know, he's done a really good job of working through the work week, you know, in terms of his prep, in terms of his practice, you know, in terms of his forty eight hour prep. And that's only going to get better. You know, he's he's starting to learn you know, everybody's skill sets, you know, as as we get through this and every week we got you know, different adjustments for the routes and different things based on
the coverages that we're getting. And he's doing a really good job of communicating with the skill and I think you can start to see that. Really proud of him, the way he really utilized the layups, so to speak, with getting the ball to coal and getting the ball to you know, all the running backs you know, in the in the short part of the field and intermediate area. And I think that's really good for him, and that's
why he saw all those yards. You know. Plus we were in a two minute mode for the fourth quarter, and that's going to continue to grow.
A week ago, I threw some numbers and I don't remember him now, but I think it was four of eleven in play action first two weeks of the season. But yesterday on our Game Night Live show, I broke down all those clean pockets with play action, and play action was working. So the amount of runs certainly impact that. Doesn't that make a huge difference open up the offense?
Yeah?
It does?
It does?
You know the run It all starts with the run game. You got to be able to effectively run the ball and be committed to it, and then that's going to open up a lot of things, a lot of windows in other areas of the field. And we believe in that, you know, we we we trusted that. We know that's true, and we have to keep working.
That so that that four play driving from the four just the average person believes going sideways to get a yard is maybe not the plan, but teams do it. Atlanta did it last night too. I think it was how what do you explain? How do you explain that one?
I guess yeah, I mean we you know, we went direct, uh straight ahead, you know for three straight plays and uh again, the execution has got to be there and we should be able to get that on third down, and we were hopeful that we were going to get it.
And then the fourth down plays again was a play at the line of scrimmage that could be inside or outside based on what we saw, and Cable was up against the clock a little bit, and you know, went with the one, and again we got to do a better job executing even in that play as a whole.
Group, Rosehawan Johnson, I think he had sixty plus yards from scrimmage, battering around just like you did last year. Do you think he's in perfect place right now to start earning more snaps?
Yeah, you know, you know, I feel really good about a running group. You know, I think the running backs are all three different and different skill sets and I think we need to utilize those guys for their skill sets. And and again Rosean had a really good day yesterday in terms of getting downhill of really going forward, you know, you know, making contact at three and then getting five, making contact at four and getting six and seven. So
that was that was really good to see. And also in the passing game, you know, him splitting two, catching the ball and the checked down area, getting his shoulders north and splitting two. And I think he's going to continue to do that, you know, And Swift made some place too in the passing game as well. So it's it's important to be able to utilize all three of those guys.
Back to the Montes sweatsack a big quarterback like that in the force fumble. When they say, I mean, I know it's subjective, but we got push pushes and we've got all these things going on in the league. What's the difference.
Well, when they deem it that forward progress is stopped and that's that's not reviewable in terms of that means it's down, you know. So that's what they said, and that's what they did. And again I'm sure they looked at it, you know in New York too, and and that was the decision they made. But again, I'm just really proud of that play in terms of how we did push the pocket get to the quarterback and we utilized our technique in terms of stripping the ball. And
I think that the recovery was great too. So those guys did a really good job on that play. Again, put them behind the sticks. Again, we wish we would have had the ball. There could have been a big difference in the game, but we end up, you know, stopping the screen. You know, DT did a wonderful job of coming out on the next play, you know, redirect to the screen and making a really nice play on that and then we force him to pump.
All right.
Lastly, the Rams coming in. Sean McVay. Always got to be ready for that guy.
Yeah, there's a big you know, a big victory you know, on Sunday, and they can't come back victory. So it's again a big challenge, you know obviously scheme wise, and you know, going against those players, and they got a lot of good players and it's gonna be a big challenge for us.
All Right, we'll talk to you about that game later in the week.
Thank you, Matt, Thank you.
Kay tell me any thoughts on his perspectives.
You know, mascot a lot on his plate when you're thinking about paying attention to every single phase of football offense, defense, special teams. And then he says he watches it slowly,
one play at a time. That's a lot of investment in time of trying to look at all the elements of an offense, a defensive play, a special teams play, and how you can become more successful, what corrections you need to make, how to increase some of the fundamentals and the technical teachings that you need to incorporate during
the week. And you know, I think that's the endless job of a head coach in the NFL, and it's something that you have to do every day, no matter if you win the game or you lose the game. But when I said bringing this team home, bringing this defense home, I expect big things out of them, because it's not going to say, Okay, let's just bury our head in the sand and forget about making improvements and just show up here next Sunday. No, it's getting on
the practice field starting Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Make those improvements that you need to make, allow Caleb to continue to show the growth that he's been showing, and get out there against the Rams and please your home crowd.
Now, let's talk about the defense. The defense took the ball away again, taking advantage of that inaccuracy that Anthony Richardson is dealing with right now, living up to his own expectations. Jalen Johnson Tremaine Edmunds that interception in the red zone end zone rather in the red zone that throw it at a scoring drive took points off the board. For the Colts. The Bears are the most interceptions in
the NFL since last season. Edmunds is with Fred Horner with five over the last year, plus number one in the NFL. And you had Montese Sweat on a sack should have been a force fumble as well, as we discussed with Matt Eberflus. He's not going to say it, but I can say you can say it. I mean, because here's the thing. If if Richardson would have completed the pass in that same situation, would they have given
him the completion. You better believe they would be giving him the completion, so you better give him the strip sack, or.
If he would have intercepted the ball when you're not in control the football, once it leaves your hands, when you're swatting it with the right hand of Montese Sweat, then you know that ball is in the air and it's in play. So I wish that play would accounted. But you know, if you take the Bears first team defense that starts the game and you put them on the field, and they're one of the best defenses in
the league, they can be super challenging at home. On the road, they can be in control of the pass rush out front, and they get profits out of the second and third level. But what I like about this football team, it's developing significant depth. And when you look at you know, you get Chris Williams that had to come in the game. You had to put DeMarcus Walker at tackle when Andrew Billings went out. Gavon Dexter is
playing a high brand of football. Jack Sanborn's coming in as the third linebacker and making plays all around the field. Jalen Jones had to come in when Tyreek Stevenson had to go out, but then Tyrek Stevenson comes right back
in the game. So there's a wide variety of defenses you can play when you're developing this kind of depth, and you never know what kind of defensive line is going to line up because you can put Booker in there at one defensive end and sweat, and then you can have other defensive end type players on the inside. And you know, we haven't seen Daniel Hardy get enough snaps he had at defensive end, and he's another guy
that could come in there and contribute. So as this season winds it on, my expectations for the defense continues to rise, as do my expectations for Caleb Williams continue to ride.
Let's talk about expectations, because I think there's a certain a certain segment of Bear fandom that believed it was going to be instant soup. You know, put some water in it and boom, you've got chicken soup. It's it's not that simple. I think we all agree there was going to be some lows and there's going to be some highs, and that will likely continue. Now if you can get to a certain level and still be above
water so you can put your finishing gear in. When things start going in the right direction more often than not, then you've got a playoff team. But until those progressions come, until some things get ironed out and everybody's on the same page and you win some games, I understand the frustration, but this was not going to be simple.
No.
You know a word that you and I talked about last night.
I heard you and Matt talk about it today, and we've even talked a little bit about today.
Is the word identity. Yeah.
And I think when you're thinking about the Chicago Bears in this offense, where it's going, I think in the history of the Chicago Bears, the run game is always going to play an important role in the success of the Chicago Bears and how it influences what the offense can do.
But when you look at this.
Development of Caleb Williams and the type of receivers they have here, I think the pass game will complement the run game, and to me, I kind of am throwing it out there that maybe the new identity of the Chicago Bears for the time being and moving forward will be the passing game.
It's not like you're going to ignore the running game.
But when you look at the type of weapons they have, from the backfield to the wide receiver position to the tight end, it's not a shame to be an effective passing game because we've seen it around the league in the last twelve to fifteen years. How important throwing the ball well is the teams that have playoff success.
Yeah, well, I mean there is a belief in the building that you know, you do throw to score and you run to win, and I adopt that same thinking. That's my that's my wheelhouse as a football fan.
I agree with it. I agree with you one hundred percent and I always will.
However, when you talk about a rookie quarterback throwing the ball fifty two times.
That's a lot. Yeah, that's a lot of faith in the coaches.
I believe that Caleb Williams can can do it under that environment.
How often are you gonna have eighty some offensive snaps? Not often a lot, but it's not gonna happen that way.
What is it? What has it been like fifty three, seventy?
Yeah, but eighty four, I mean that may I think it was the eleventh most snaps by a Bears offense since you know, nineteen seventy or something like that, So you know, it's it's not often you're gonna get that many snaps. The Colts are just victimizing themselves in some weird way in the first three weeks of the season, with a time of possession is so warped in favor of the opposing offenses.
You know, if you have faith in your defense, though, you're gonna be given that opportunity with turnovers, with sacks, with third down ending drives, with punts, and every everything else that goes along with giving your offense more opportunities of possession. Even in the eighties when the Bears I think had seventy eighty five season when the Bears had seventy two sacks and the amount of turnovers.
The only reason that we didn't have those.
Number because we ran the ball, we ate up the clock, and we had time of possession. So it's just the what is the DNA of your football team and to me, the modern day DNA of the Bears because we might need to check it every two year.
Did you guys lead the league in time of possession?
Yes?
During that time we'll have.
The league in time of possession scoring.
Yeah, but not just eighty five though. Was there a stretch where you guys were just owning the clock? Well, kept their defense quite fresh to just you know, pin their ears back and go. Plus you guys had leads. You know, it's a crazy thing. I forgot to bring this up with Matt. I'll have to go back and circle back when we do our pregame interview with him before Sunday. But I don't think it's an oddity. I mean, it happened, but I don't know how it would make
a difference in him, if at all. But Caleb's only thrown two passes with the lead so far this season, so working from behind, which you know they've been behind the chains a lot. They were again yesterday a time or two. And that idea of turning first downs into first downs or you know, what your yards to gain on second down is is as important as yards to gain on third down, to be honest with you, it changes the playbook.
Well, you know, going into the game yes Orday, I think the Bears thirty three plays they were behind the chains on second and third down, and you got to think there's probably fifty first downs in there with the whatever one hundred and something plays total of the Bears had.
So you know, you're really fighting an uphill battle when you're talking about that second long and third and long, because then you give that certain attack advantage to the defense and it's a more difficult style of offensive football.
Good news, Chicago United Airlines is getting brand new planes with all the bells and whistles, like Bluetooth connectivity screens at every seat and room for everyone's roller bag. United Proud to fly the Chicago Bears, and you too, anything else stick out to you about the game yesterday before we skip forward anything. If you watch the tape.
You know it's still searching for answers in the running game.
And you know you did talk to madd Eberflus about some of the plays called near or the goal line and that, and if you're going to relive that whole scenario again, and what type of structure changes would you want to make to give you an offense a better chance of.
Getting into the end zone.
And I think that's something that needs to be explored, whether it's Caleb Williams under center and having a different intersection point between he and the running back. You know, put him up under center so you have a less room to get across the goal line for the quarterback in the running game. You know, that'll be interesting to see how it is going forward. And you know, like I said, I like the development of depth on the defensive side of the ball.
And if you can play a fresher brand of football.
On the defensive side, you may give your offense one or two extra possessions that they desperately need.
From your knowledge of how this is applied, the difference between a shotgun inside the five versus under center, you know, there's you know, run pass options. Obviously at the line of scrimmage, you can check to a pass you can check to a run. There's benefits in a shotgun, but there's also great benefits in just grinding it out from under center, and you know, surging off the ball, where do you like, what do you prefer?
Obviously, first and foremost, all my offensive linemen are going to be in a three point stance. I don't feel I can get the inertia off the line of scrimmage and have the physical element attached to short yardage and goal line offense. If your offensive line isn't a two point stance. To me, I wouldn't allow that to happen.
Number two, it's the visualization of the play itself. When you shotgun snap in a goal line situation, that element of time and when we talk about the element and the increments of time and an NFL play one second to one and a half seconds, that can mean the difference between success and failure. And so when you shotgun snap, you have a lot more eyes watching the flight of the football and then for that next step, you know exactly where the quarterback is going and what's going to
happen at that intersection. When you're deceptive and you take a snap from underneath center, you think of all the deception that can go on there.
Why do they run those.
Wide receiver sweeps where they turn out and they hand it to them immediately then act like they pitch it to the outside deception. When you give a play action and you have that intersection point that comes at at a high rate of speed, it creates hesitation in the second level because they don't know what to commit to, and then that's a separation for the offensive line to
have more successful blocking time. And it's just you know, the element of deception that close to the goal line, when whatever advantage you can give your offense, you gotta you have to work that business accordingly.
Yeah, I'm also big on this too. As long as you're you know, on sync, you get to the line of scrims, you're going inner center and you go there's no there, no hesit. You know in that situation, goal line, don't be having a don't be letting the clock tick down, Go just go? Is that smart or is that silly on my part?
No, you're one hundred percent right.
But you know something that what you brought up to Matty Eberflus in your interview with him, and you were talking about the success of play action pass in the middle of the field, and a lot of those Roma Dunes was the recipient.
Of gol Comet too.
Yeah, Okay, in the in the field of play, shotgun, when you have that interception intersection of that fake handoff point or the quarterback retreating out and making a fake handoff, now you're creating hesitation from the safety to the two linebackers. And if you have that instance of a defensive player stopping their feet plays one and you saw it a couple times by Rome, you saw it by Cole, and you see it by DJ all the time. So I'm
not saying ignore shotgun. I'm just saying, when i get to short yardage goal line, I'm putting an extra lignement, I'm putting in tight ends, I'm coming out of an eye formation. I'm doing everything in my power to be powerful. Because one thing that I was kind of disappointed in a little bit is they had mismatches at the point of attack or near the point of attack or at the line of scrimmage that the difficulty and increase the difficulty for Bears to be successful.
Eventually, we assume the growth will occur or this team will be able to put points on the board. But right now, every point it matters, So you got to get the points while you can, and that'll help everything, it really will. It'll build confidence. Field goals, yeah, all of.
It, Yeah, all of it.
The difficulty of kicking a fifty six yard field goal in the first series. If you do miss it, then you're giving thell in great field position to your opponent at midfield. If you make it, you're up three to nothing and you're kicking, and you're giving your defense more of a tackable field position. To take advantage of some of the inexperiences of Anthony.
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He has everything in there football wise that you would respect and appreciate for a coach of his magnitude of Super Bowl winning coach. And he was at the podium yesterday recap and a win over the forty nine ers at so far and upset, even though the forty nine ers were down a bunch of bodies sore are the Rams,
and he kept using the word gritty. He used that word to describe his entire team and specifically the play of his quarterback, Matthew Stafford, the play of his young defense, his play of a young punt returner who had never touched the ball in the NFL until a big return set up a play scoring situation late in the game. I love his intensity and so you can't assume anything but getting the very best from the La Rams Sunday with a gritty attitude on the road in Chicago.
Yeah, but you know what you do.
You got to punch him right in the face the first opportunity you get. And if the Bears defense, if the Bears win or lose the coin toss and their defense is on the field first, then you got to attack. You got to say, Okay, this quarter back lacks mobility. They have some deficiencies on the offensive line. How am I gonna put my defenders in the best possible position to get in the attack mode. I Am not gonna sit back and see what they want to do. Early
in that game. I'm gonna take advantage of the support of the loudest fans in an outdoor stadium in the NFL. I'm gonna let them support my defense, and I'm gonna come at you. And then as soon as one of my or two of my pass rushers get tired, I'm gonna use my depth and I'm gonna keep coming at you and keep coming at you.
So you can compliment yourself.
As being a gritty team, but I want to compliment myself as being a tough team that takes advantage of top talent on defense against a tough opponent.
Now the thing too, you don't want to You don't want to get the crowd tough on you as a as a home team either, because one and two and if it doesn't look good out of the gate, you know what it's gonna sound like.
I agree.
Just think what it's gonna sound like if the Bears come up with a sack in the first series, take them out of to get the ball back for the Bears offense, and I think the Bear's crowd initially are they gonna be supportive and they know that Caleb's.
Going through growing pains.
Listen, I think if they ignore the fact that this is still a young man playing the most difficult position in professional sports, that's a little naive. So be supportive and understand what they're going through, because I think the defense is gonna give you a full sixty minute effort.
I also think it's gonna be helpful to play back to back home games. I mean, I mean, listen, you and I are even tired of the plane right now and our travels planes, trains, automobiles and lower Whacker drive. That's an inside joke that we can't talk about right now, but yeah, we we it's been it's been exhausting, honestly, and I'm not playing five out of seven games preseason included, plus a week in Canton. Basically that's a lot.
And you know, you think of Matt talking.
You got up at three o'clock in the morning, you get right back to work, and luckily it was a short, you know, forty minute flight from Indianapolis home. But like you said, it never stops weighing on your mind, whether it's you and I trying to do our job, and as much we continuously think about everything that goes on, a player does the same thing. If you got if you play in eighty four plays and you have two bad plays, you don't think about the eighty two good
ones you had. You think about the two bad ones you had all night, and they can keep you up at nights. Well, yeah, it's a nasty monster.
Yeah.
Those plays cost you a game.
They cost you a game, they talk cost you your job, They cost you getting criticized in front of your peers when you're watching it on tape. There's just a lot of elements to being a professional athlete.
That is the underbelly, busy.
Heart, Seltz their flavors for every vibe, celebraty, responsibily, most in course Beverage Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. All right, so a quick look at the Rams. The Rams defense that they've been drafting, Well, they've had opportunity to draft because of their success. They had appeal back the salaries. Aaron Donald retired, but their defensive line is young. But they're pretty good
time watching Jared Verse, He's got my attention. He's playing with power, speed, and he's playing all over the place and making a real dent into well he did against the forty nine ers. I haven't gone back any further than that yet, but Jared Verse, their top pick. He's the real deal.
Number eight.
You're gonna have to block him.
What did you hire him to do?
Yeah, rush the passer, that's right.
So you're not teaching him the intricacies of an interior position where he's got so much on his shoulders that he's still trying to learn.
It's second, long, third, and long.
Use your explosiveness, your pass rushing arsenal, and try to get to the quarterback. So what again, it's just like a couple of weeks ago. Don't allow them to do what they want to do. You're going to have to have some big bodies on him, get the tight end position, get the offensive tackle position, and creates stalemates at the line of scrimmage.
And Byron Young, another young player and a guy I loved at the Senior Bowl. Braden Fisk, he's just lunch bucket. He'll be coming home. Basically, he's from Michigan City, Indiana, so this is his country and he's gonna he's gonna bring full effort indeed, and then the Rams offense other than the obvious, you got a veteran quarterback who's seen everything. Nothing's gonna surprise him, and he's a guy that can cause a lot of pain if he gets in rhythm.
That's the one thing about Matthew Stafford, a rhythm quarterback to a t that's that defines rhythm quarterback. So it's going to have to be a disruptive day up front against an offensive line that's pretty banged up. What else do you see offensively?
You know?
The thing about it is everybody knew what Cooper cup was capable of. We are introduced to Puka Nakua and what he did as a rookie. And so it's kind of a next man up mentality for the receiver position at the Rams because the quarterback position, the quarterback can put you in a position to succeed. You don't necessarily need all these reps with them because the quarterback is going to understand the protection, he's going to understand the timing of the play, and he has accuracy. But I
do think he has mobility limitations. Oh yeah, And I think if the Bears can put him in an uncomfortable throwing foundation, maybe changes arm angles. That's when you know, you can take a little bit of fire out of a quarterback like that. But hey, there's you know, there's no denying it. He's a good quarterback and he's been able to develop some good receivers.
There good running back in Kyron Williams three touchdowns yesterday to two at well at receiver, had some big plays and also threw a pass. And there's a young man Jordan Whittington is a wide receiver number eighty eight that has burst onto the scene for them, obviously with injury situation.
So uh yeah, Dury's next man up, especially at the receiver position.
A lot going on there. They also played a lot of one back, two tight end against a forty nine er team that wants to sit and nickel most of the time, and the Bears like to do that too. But I'll tell you, man, Jack Sanborn, I can't, I cannot speak enough about this player. He gets limited reps in defense, he plays in special teams, he's blocks on punts, he blocks on field goal. You know, does a little bit of everything. But he does a little bit of everything well really well.
Well, you know, kind of shows you that the draft is not a perfect science. Yeah, because here's a guy you got teaching. That's an understatement. You've got Jack Sanborn. There, you get guys that are free agents go undrafted. In my gosh, there are nothing but model citizens in great football players, and you want them on your team and you want them to be part of your locker room. And every single time you give him that chance to show up, they show out big.
All Right, We're brought to you by a PNC official Bank of the Bears, Episode ninety six, So the Bears, et cetera podcast brought to you by Geico in the Books, special thanks to head coach Matt Deberflusi each weekend for time, I'm Jeff. Thanks for listening.
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