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Feels kind of strange. You know, we're used to these short weeks. We've had plenty of Thursday nighters. In fact, a year ago Week six against the same Washington club came into Soldier Field one and four, one of the four worst teams in the NFL at that point in the season, and Washington comes in and gets a win. They won seven out of the last twelve games, finished eight and nine, and given the performance on Sunday against Denver and the near miss and the pain of losing
that game. Tom Thayer Jeff Joniac, I don't know by you. I'm I'm way moved down.
I am.
It's weird.
It's only two.
I've been diving in deep into Washington. We leave tomorrow, and hey, let's play another one and get that bad taste out of the mouth. How you doing tonight?
Yeah, you know.
I mean it's equally as busy for us as it is the players. They're more on their feet and they're more learning a new game plan. But we have a lot of obligation obligations that usually we have a little time to fulfill, but now we have no time and we still have to fulfill those same obligations.
But you know what, the one thing that.
You know, I wish it wasn't a Thursday night game because I wish the Bears had more to take away from this tape on the things they did good, the things that they can build upon, the things that they could use in this week's game plan. I think there are some things you could use, but you would like to have a little bit of time to study, think about them, go over them, you know, rehash them over in your mind and on tape, But you don't have
that luxury. But I still think they learned a lot about themselves of things they can use moving forward.
It's interesting because the defensive coaches met with the media here today up at Hallis Hall, where I'm situated right now, and I was talking to Travis Smith and we're talking about and we'll hear some of it loafs and and near misses on sacks so far the season, and he thought I was just talking about this week's guy. I said, no for the because they haven't even gone through the full grading of that tape because there is no time.
So it is a real it's real. I mean, you lived it in your career on short weeks, so it's on to something else. So you know, you saw a lot on tape that was good and today Justin Fields did as well, and a tip that he feels now is maybe the tip of the iceberg of confidence growing for the offense.
I think so, I think that is a case.
You know, like I said before, I think we took a step in the right direction as an offense. We know we still have some things to work on, but I think, like I said before, we kind of took a step in finding and you know, who we are as an offense, our identity and you know, just just really just just going out there and playing football. So I think everybody definitely, you know, took a step and
it's more confident going into this week. But to be honest, you know, we always go in the games confident, but we got some guys down on defense right now, so we know we got to help out our defense by scoring points, you know, keeping our defense off of the field and you know, you know, just setting them up for a great field position when we don't score and stuff like that. So, you know, I think the biggest team, the biggest thing for our team is you know, playing
complimentary football. You know, all three phases. Offense scoring points, you know, defense, getting takeaways, and of course winning on special teams. So you know, I know that's our sole job as an offense is just to you know, help out the other two phases.
Well, you know, interestingly, going back, you know you saw a lot of man coverage against the Bears in this game. They switched his zone, and I'm assuming Ron rivera plenty of all the above, and so how he attacks this now? Moving forward after having his first three hundred yard game, and how are you our receiver hunter of our running back Bears ran the ball well one hundred and seventy seven yards. What are some of the more detailed things
that you liked offensively? The play designed by Lugetzi, the calls, how they were stacked, and how it all worked.
You know, I like them using a flea flicker. I think it catches teams off guard and off balance. I like the quick pitch to Khalil Herbert when they were blitzing from the opposite side and opened up a clear running lane. I liked the job that the offensive line did up front to open up opportunities for Khalil Herbert and Rashawn Johnson to be able to hit the hole in full stride, which their momentum power carry them to
the third level and beyond. What I liked most about the game was the arm confidence that Justin had in himself, because you know, when you look at some of those passes that Justin threw in the game.
It's not people convincing him to do it.
It's the coach calling the play and then Justin convincing himself that he has the talent to get the job done. And I think he personally took a step forward. And you know, when you talk about the identity of the Bears and whatever you want to say, their identity is running the ball. And that's the way that you get the whole ball rolling downhill if you run the ball effectively. With Khalil Herbert and Roseean and whomever else is at
the running back position. Then all of a sudden, it opens deceptive opportunities at the line of scrimmage, which includes play action pass. If you run the ball successfully on first and second down, it opens up your options so much wider on third down, and the ability to use all the receivers instead of just focusing on one.
That's Dj Moore.
So I just think that it's really opened the opportunity for this offense to grow in that you know that very high. You know that the style of level where you don't want to do it incrementally, you want to take major steps instantly.
Were able to watch the Giants last night, Yeah, in Seattle, so you know, without the threat of Saquon Barkley in the run game, it was t off time.
So you and more to it.
I mean, that's a whole different type of style whatever. But you got to have that play action, You got to have that ability that Justin needs for sure.
Yeah, and you know, you got to play smart football. You can't have these repeated mistakes made, whether there are penalties on defense or penalties on offense, because you see how destructive they are when you Justin says complimentary football.
Complimentary football is playing smart football as well. So when you have a running game that you can travel with and use the power of the offensive line, when you have the athleticism of Justin, if you can go there and just play a smart brand of football in we don't make mistakes that sets you back in the course of a drive that's almost impossible to recover from. So I think that's a big part of the Bears offense and defensive football going.
Forward for me this game and every game moving forward defensively. On third down, also, we forget about Justin for just a second of the offense, but third down has got to get better. This third and six plus issue that's been going on. That's because it's a domino. I think you'd agree. You're not getting off the field. That effects field position for the offense, It affects time of possession
in the game. It gives the team that you're facing a better chance of scoring touchdowns and field goals because they keep moving closer to the goal line. And I think that's a part of the complimentary football is this issue right now, and there's no team worse in the league right now on third down and long than the Bears defense.
Right, you know, one of the biggest things that really give your opponent a big boost is when you go out there and you convert a third down, because that gets your sideline going, It gets the defense. You know, your opponent's defense excited because now they're cheering from the
sideline and they're refreshing themselves. And so if the Bears defense can make some plays on third downs, and it's not just making plays, it's creating turnovers, it's getting big hits, it's force and fumbles, it's leaving a mark on the opponent where you're kind of taking a little bit of a sting out of them, because the initial hit is the hit that's getting these guys stop. And then when you have hits that include a group effort, you know, you got to take a toll on your opponent.
All Right, Coming up tonight, we've got former Washington quarterback, the Super Bowl winner, Doug Williams, a good friend of Tom Ferry. He'll be coming up here in a couple of segments. We've got our executive producer of the Bears Radio Network, Eric Ostrowski, Jay Kan'tu, Kendrick Smith, and our espin studios helping us out as always, Dan Brilly and
Jordan Treadup. When we come back, we'll hear from other coaches today, Luke Getzi, Travis Smith, We'll hear from Tremaine Edmonds, all bits and pieces of this quick week as they get ready to meet Washington. Thanks for listening, everybody. This is the ESPN Chicago and the Bears Radio Network.
Is Bears Weekly with a voice of the Bears for twenty three years, Jeff Joni on the Bears Radio Network.
This segment of Bears Weekly is brought to you by IGS Energy, Jeff Jonniyak and Tom Fair. Good to have you along on Bears Weekly tonight as we get ready to head to Washington tomorrow. Bears will practice tomorrow, have open locker room, so we'll hear from more players. News of the day. Tommy a new safety aboard and he's a vetman. He a lot of experience poached off to Baltimore Ravens practice squad. He's thirty two years old. He's dear Ron Harmon. You know him all those years in
New England playing for Bill Belichick. That guy's a ballhawk. Twenty three career interceptions. Then to Detroit Atlanta in twenty one. So John Hoape knows him. They call him the Closer in New England because that was his nickname, and he and John developed a nice relationships, so that, no doubt helped get him here. He was a Vegas last year. He's played a lot of football, Tom, but he's a real smart guy, and I think that secondary, as young as it is, and all the injury concerns, every little
bit helps right now. And I don't know what his status will be, but he's on the roster right now. Yeah, you know, as.
Quickly as you can learn the assignments and what they're being taught here. The quicker that you can get on the field and help contribute. But you know, just a little sneak preview of the Bears game day Live that we'll be doing from the sidelines in Washington, Jakwan Brisker is my player to watch because, you know, Jeff, even though they're bringing a new safety aboard and there's.
Been a lot of shuffling on the defensive.
Backs, I kind of need more out of Jaquan Brisker because he was the type of guy that was going to come in here and I thought that he would have a physical presence each and every game. I thought that he would figure in some of the reluctancy to catch the ball in the in the backfield because of the way Jakuwan Brisker could play, and I thought he would offer a little bit more add or near the line of scrimmage. So I think this is the perfect
coming out party for Jaquan Brisker. He had a huge game in New England last year they went and played in New England, So just a little sneak preview. Even though they're bringing in a thirty two year at safety to come and contribute, which I want him to contribute. I want to see more out of this young player, Jaquan Brisker.
Do you notice anything different on how he's being aligned and used?
Well, I just think that you have to be cautious because you're not getting that immediate pressure on the quarterback by the four man rush or even if you include another rusher there, and then you got to make sure that you keep him in the deepest of the deepest or in an area that he can provide, you know, extra help in the defensive backfield. So I think it's just a product of not getting pushed with four that you have to be more protective in the back end.
All right, let's go back to the offense. Luke Getzi on the offensive improvement in Denver at the podium today, the Bears offensive coordinator.
Well, I think, you know, as you look at the way that that game played, you know, when we had seventy eight snaps instead of fifty snaps that we've had each of the Cup first couple of weeks, So that part of it, you know, just showing that where a lot of we were able to play kind of the go into the game plan and play the way we wanted to play, and we were able to run the ball. You know, we would have we talked about explosives last week.
We were lacking that we were able to go get those in the run game, and anytime you're able to do that, that's going to open up other things for yourself. And so, you know, just to it was an opportunity for us to go out and we executed a little bit better in each area and we were able to create more explosives and that you know always leads to more points.
How do you evaluate what how do you discern how much of that is progress us and how much that is facing the worst defense.
In the league.
Well, everybody in this league is really, really good, So I wouldn't take that for anything as far as who you're playing against. That from that extent, every challenge is different as well. Right, we go up against a team this week that is loaded and you know, as good of a front five as there is in this league, and so it's a different type of challenge, but one we can build on, you know, as we continue to go through the season.
I'm glad he answered it that way because even looking at Washington, their defensive statistics are not sparkling, but we know what the players look like. I mean, we you separate the stats from the actual talent, and this game it may be the best front four you're going to play all season. That front four is dangerous and they may not be playing to their level of acceptance for Coach Rivera, But I mean this is and the secondary can make place too. This This is going to be a handful.
Yeah it is.
But you know, I think Washington, the defensive coordinator and their team meetings, they're saying, hey, we just saw a performance on an offense that ran seventy eight plays like Luke gets, he said, there's a lot more versatility in the offense. Listen, you better have complete awareness for a
guy like Dj Moore. And so there's compliments that the defensive coordinator has got to give the Chicago Bears offense after what they saw out of Denver, and no matter who they played, like Luke said, because whether you want to believe it or not, Justin is still and a really explosive player that could go off at a moment's notice.
And if you get defensive linemen on Washington or that fronts that's a little exposed, is a little bit too much space, so they get a little fatigue, and then that's when you can use, you know, all facets of this offense and continue to attack with the plays looked like that he called this week.
Well, you know, we like the movement, we like the boots. Obviously one of the bootlegs was the worst play of the game, right the fumble in the sack That has to be avoided in the future. But is this a challenge against this team now moving forward? As Luke outlined today, the.
Challenge every week when when you have a guy like we have and everybody's planning for it. Uh and then now you put the level of talent that these guys have, it's it's pretty incredible. I mean, the two interior guys play the game as good as anybody in this league, being able to diagnose what's going on, you know, get two hands on an offensive line and see what's happening
in the backfield and then react. So it's a challenge, it's something that we have to do a really good job of trying to be creative to find ways to get you know, every aspect of our of our game going.
So you gotta still use that. You got to still motion them to use naked do that type of thing against this Washington team.
Even more so, if he's talking about the two interior defensive tackles that are as good as you can get, you're not gonna beat your head into a brick.
Wall and get nothing out of it and go three in punt.
But I tell you what, the thing that demoralizes a good defensive line the most is a cornerback that you can't catch on the outside of the pocket. So now they're fighting against an offensive lineman trying to get free of their pass rush and all of a sudden, justin or you know, any of the guys, even quick passes the cole using Robert Tanyan more, use the backs as pass.
Catchers out of the backfield.
If you start exploiting that edge of the Washington Redskins defense, and now you're putting ball carriers in front of defensive backs instead of trying to get them a running start, agets the talented defensive tackle. I mean, that's you know, plan a number one in the history of the league of playing great interior defensive linemen.
This is Bears Weekly on ESPN Chicago Jeff Joniyak and Tom Fair. The potential for Tevin Jenkins to return. He is full practice right now. I don't know if he's gonna play or not. Gets you on that potential, yeah.
Fortunately, you know he's not one of the new guys, right there's a lot of new guys, and it'll be hard for one of those guys to do that. But he's not one of the new guys, so that that should comfort him a little bit more. You know, we we got some good work.
In through camp.
You know, him on the left side, so we're excited to see if we go, We'll see how far he can go. We get a chance to let him do a little bit today. I know it's walk through only, but we'll see how the next day or two goes, and then we'll just take it from there.
Do you have a legitimate chance? Does he have a legitimate chance to go on Thursday?
I would assume he has a legitimate chance. So, but like I said, it's going to take another day or two to make sure that we all everybody.
Feels good with it.
How you feel about it.
I mean, he's in uniform, he's in full pads.
If he is just put enough on display in his rehab with the trainers and all the other.
Guys that have a hand in that, and then yeah, he's gonna be there and ready to contribute if you need him. You know, at the beginning of the year, the biggest thing I hoped for was a drama this year by Tevin Jenkins.
And then you go and you have that type of injury in the Indianapolis training camp portion of the season, and all of a sudden, now he's not there at all. So, you know, Tevin is still highly regarded in terms of what he could do develop into as an offensive gard in this league. But he's also the same guy that has to prove it for what is their thirteen games left in the season.
He needs to do it for when they insert him in the lineup.
He needs to finish the season in that position in a stance out of the blue tent in helping your offensive line develop, grow and get that chemistry that we've been talking about.
No better guy to teach him than you. What was that Week four, nineteen eighty five at Minnesota? You get inserted into the lineup and never left Week three.
First start was Week four against the Washington oh at.
The time, Redskins. Okay, I didn't realize that part of it. That was your first start. Okay, I thought, I thought you started the Minnesota game.
No, that was a game.
In the first quarter, Kurt Becker was in and I went into the game, and that was the game. McMahon came in and through all the the touchdown passes.
We all remember that one, the great blitz pick up by Walder.
Remember that that listen that was a play that it was so back then. Depending upon where the blitzer came from. If they lined up inside the heels of the defensive lineman, he's my responsibility. If he comes from depth, he's Walter's responsibility, so he was coming up, going back, and so.
Yeah, no, no, no, keep going.
I was in my stance, Jeff, and it was almost like it was a ten minute stance because I'm in my stance and I'm going, God, I hope Walter and I are on the same page.
I hope we're thinking right. I hope we do.
And all of a sudden, I block my defensive lineman and I see the periphial vision.
The blitz comes to the inside of me, and then I.
Hear the reaction because McMahon threw the touchdown pass. But I think they were equally reacting to how physical the hit was by Walter Payton on the blitz pickup.
And so with the idea that once you got there, you did everything in your power never to leave.
That was my goal.
My goal is when the opportunity was presented to me, that I would never come off the field again.
All Right, we're gonna take a break. Coming up next, we'll we'll be joined an interview we did on Monday, So there's a lot of talk about Sunday, both from a Washington perspective against Philadelphia and other things in the NFL. From the Great Doug Williams, a two time Super Bowl
winning quarterback MVP for Washington. We break things down about his club because he's still a special advisor there in DC with the Commanders, and some really good stories about coaching, his rise through the ranks and his relationship with Tom Beck to the United States Football League, the original version. It's all coming up next here on Bears Weekly on esp and Chicago and the Bears Radio Network is.
Bears Weekly with a Voice of the Bears for twenty three years Jeff Jonyik on the Bears Radio Network.
Want VIP access to every Bears home game, exclusive seeding, sundline credentials and more now available to get the ultimate VIP fan package this season by visiting Chicago Bears vip dot com. I just went on line to watch that Blitz pickup. I would that was insane. That was insane, and that we were just talking about before the break of you just joining us Bears Weekly Jeff and Tom with you getting ready to fly to I guess Baltimore and then the head over to landover Maryland. We're actually
staying I think in Maryland. So anyway, the fact is that must have made you sweat a little bit you know on that blitz pickup.
Listen, Jim McMahon didn't start that game. He had just talked himself back in the game because we were losing. If Walter and I would have been on separate pages and we would have let that blitzer free, he would have hit and possibly re injured McMahon. So there was a lot of things that are going through your mind. And that's what I always talk about, the increments of time. That seemed like there was ten minutes of information that went through my mind within fifteen seconds.
And remind me to bring this up when we hear from Travis Smith, the Bear's defensive line coach, just about everything that goes into one rush. He was going through it today. My mind was spinning, and you can't think if you fake your beat, that's right. I can tell you this though I know this, this is knowledge. Doug Williams a great guy. Doug Williams kind enough to join us from Washington for our podcast Bears, Etc. Can catch that Tuesdays and Thursdays each week. We interviewed him on Monday.
Tom set it up good friend from his USFL days, where you're talking about a guy who from Zachary Louisiana outside Baton Rouge. I believe to Grambling in the mid seventies, high draft pick, first round pick of Tampa Bay Arizona ran to Washington, two time Super Bowl winner, one of the greatest players in Washington history. But that's just scratching the surface of a man with a long resume and
a deep love of the game of football. Some of our interview here now with this current senior advisor in Washington with the Commanders, Tom takes it away with Doug Williams.
How was the influence of a defensive minded head coach in Washington because you look at guys like Jonathan Allen and your defense as a whole, I think it's a solid defense. How is the transition with Ron ben from new ownership to the head coach position that he's held down for a while now, Well, I.
Think Ron got here. This is a fourth he had three years ago. You know, it was with the old ownership and he knew defensively, we had some people already in place, and then they brought in Chase Young with everybody expecting, you know, his defense to really jail. You know, you got a full first round pick across the front line, and to me, that's almost unheard of.
So you expect this team to jail.
And I think Ron being a defensive coordinating Jack del Rio working with you, I think at the end of the day, you know, the other day might not been as good as they would have liked for it. That being, but this defense has been playing pretty good. If you're a quarterback on the other team, it's one thing you know about this defense that they gonna get out of you.
And you know, I like what they're doing. And if they can keep doing and everything come together and put this offense together, which played well yesterday, I think eventually, you know, we'll be happy.
What's going on?
What should we know about your starting quarterback?
And you know what, you know, we drafted him last year in the fifth round. You're talking about a kid that a lot of people had him in the first round and then he went and fell to us in the fifth round. I watched him last year in training camp and I just like the marxty. If this kid got quarterback boxing, and that's what I call it, yet great arm. And if you watched him yesterday at all, you realize that he's smart. He run when he has to and he could run. He can escape the pressure.
But sometime you know, he might hold on to the ball.
You just think.
But the way he played yesterday, he played well enough to win. And that's why I look at him, and the more he played, you know, I was just his fifth, fifth thought of his whole life. This is the second year, and the way he played yesterday, I can't see nothing but him getting better down the road.
You know, it seems like every time, every week there's the coaches that have questionable calls and challenges. Yesterday, Matty Iberflu's going forward on fourth and one rather than kicking the field goal, Ron Rivera kicking the extra point instead of going for two.
You've been a head coach?
How challenging is that instant no matter what level you're coaching.
But the thought process of that decision?
You know, the thing about that, whatever decision you make doing that game, if it doesn't work, if you think about it the next day, you would have made another call.
You've been right.
You don't have that time to think about it. And when you make that call, let me say that you do what you think is right for the team. You know, no matter what it is, I don't think no coach gonna make a call expecting for it not to be the right call. When they make that call, you know, like coach GiB used to always say, it's a good feeling. I think when they make that call, they feel like that it's gonna work. So it's hard to argue with the coach, you know. I mean as a coach in college,
I made some bad calls at time. To this day, I said, here and think about Alabama State on fourth down, we got to win and and and not call a safe punt. We wouldn't fake that pun on I think about that now, and that's been over ten years ago.
I still look at that game.
And realized that I probably made a mistake by not calling time out and tell them the special team don't rush the punt and just set back for safe.
You know, I got I got to give this a compliment to you, Doug, because not only did you have a great playing career and won Super Bowls, you love the sports so much. You got into coaching and you started at the high school level. I believe your first college job was at of all places, Navy, as a running back coach.
I was running back coach at Navy yeah, Navy Academy.
Yeah, so okay, he's a running back coach. And then you start working your way up the ladder going into the college game. Then you transition out of that back into the NFL as an administrator, as a personnel man, and your current role still in this sport. You didn't ask for anything special. You gotta work your way up.
I mean, my oldest brother was a high school basketball coach and the principal, and you know, I just wanted to be involved. And when I went to high school. You know if the greatest thrill in my life was when I went back to my own high school coaching on Doug william Field and we had the first undefeated season in school history. And then we went to playoffs and we got a chance to win two big games and bring Peyton Manning to Doug william Field, and we
end up being Peyton Manning in the playoffs. We both was undefeated. You know, there was number two in the state, were number six in the state, and we brought them to our field. They had archer Man, and they had Eli Man, and they had every coach in the STC on Doug Williams Field. That was a great feeling. And you know it was a small school behind the pine, that's what we call our field, and we end up winning that game.
Man.
And now you know, when I go home and see some of the guys that play for me, you know, the most fulfilling time I ever had. But when I see them with their family, and the one thing that always remembers the fact that they beat Paid Manning. You know, you're talking about one of the greatest quarterbacks all time. They beat Paid Manning. You know that made they watched Peyton man and play in Pro because why they realized
they beat it. And that was a good feeling to see a team you got fifteen, sixteen seventeen year old kids, you know, strolling across the field a rainy night when the end of season undefeated. Man, that's that's a great feeling. I know the Super Bowl is something you can't take away, but to watch young people do what they did that night, that was a good feeling for me.
Doug.
I don't want to leave you without asking you this question, because in nineteen eighty five we were fifteen and one, we went on the Super Bowl. The next two years after that we were fourteen and two and thirteen and three in the regular season. The pregame preparation for the Washington when.
They came in to play the Bears.
Was there a realization that you guys had a good game plan together?
Or does Joe Gibbs talk about preparation and then going out and play and like, what was your guy's frame of mind when you came to Soldier Field, Because you know, frankly, it was some of the most disappointing.
Losses of my career.
But I always think about the preparation of Washington when they came in here.
Well, you know, we always prepared the same way. You know, Joe Gibbs never had a game plan. I can tell this secret now, you know, don't you know he never uses the same game plan three games before he threw it out to win. They thoughts else, And you know, we went in on the on the Tuesday, We off on the Tuesday, went on the Wednesday, got a board full of plays, went over the plays, went out to walk through, come back in, take some plays out throughout
the practice. The next day he paired down and you know, he picked things that he felt like gonna work against the people that he played against. We knew from a defensive standpoint that Chicago at that time had the best defense, to be honest with you, in the league. And the other party thing that played the equation in this game was the weather. You know, remember it was thirteen below that day, and you know, the night before the game,
Coach Dill told him this this joke. But Deon Tavern when he was with St. Louis Continers, you know, they was talking about how cold it was, and then coach Coach Gibbs told him a story about Eskimos on the working on the on the Alaskan pipeline. You know, you had the Mariners who couldn't who couldn't come out there and finished because of the bill of cold. But they got Alaskans out there that can go out there and
work for eight hours and hours. And then he said, Deon Tarott acted him, Hey, coach, what if tomorrow when we play were playing against the Eskimos.
Because I told you so.
You know, the mental part of it was was the fact that we got three hours, three hours of this bad weather, cold weather to go against one of the best defense in the league, and we was fortunate enough to pull it out. I mean, we was down fourteen nothing and you know Ricket Sanders and Clint Deal you had two you know made it fourteen seventeen. Y'all was leading seventeen fourteen and mess around and punted to uh to Darren Green that he in the back.
We end up went fourteen.
Man.
That's that was.
That was historical. And I remember walking off the field and Walter Payton, I know we'll forget, you know. He walked up to me and he said, hey, man, yay, if I can't go, I want you to go. And that was the last time Walterton played. Man, that was a good fielding.
He's a good man.
What I love is you guys have such a clear recall of what happened, like the exact I mean, you don't forget those signature moments in your careers, right like you don't. Doug. Tom could not wait to talk to you today.
Seriously, that's my man.
I'm telling you, man, I'm still thinking about Arizona now, man, Coach Frank could's blessing soul.
Man. Let me tell me a story about give me one story from each of you from the USFL.
I remember Doug pulling up.
I think it was a two to eighty sl d Soel Mercedes and man, you could hear it coming for blocks and agree to me, I thought it was big time because I was just a punk kid growing up starting my football career and all my desires was to be in in the NFL and make it work for me. But just had so much admiration for Doug and it it grew every day. So but I always remember the two eighty s. It was, yes, I remember, you know.
My time was that, you know, the respect of Frank cush You know, people always talked about Frank Cushion his college. We had Nick Kid Lathen with us and you know, talk about how Frank Grabb people held it. But you know what I respect by Frank Cusz was on Mondays, the whole team had to run two miles.
Oh my.
And the thing about that he didn't make the team run, he led the team.
Yeah.
And that was a good part about Frank cush I feel like, here's a man who wants this player to do certain things, but at the same time he did the same thing and he led it and when he was waiting on you when you finished, and that's who he was. And I enjoyed my time in Arizona.
Yesterday at the Denver game, I ran into Mike Westoff, who was our offensive line coach, who was historically a lifer in the football business, and he was talking about how, you know, Frank Cush, you know, is perceived differently, but Mike Westoff always had a great deal of respect for him in that type of way.
Can you imagine if you went to a team meeting today and told the fellows, Hey, every Tuesday, we're going to run two miles before we start the work week. They would be looking at you like where the cameras because that's not going to happen, let alone doing the one tens that Tommy had to do after double days with Ditka at practice training camp.
You talking about two miles, You know, we can't even get two days after you.
All right, we're gonna wrap it up with this. Doug. We respect you so much in your view of the game from when you started playing where we're at right now, and you've been a part of the whole process, really the evolution of the NFL. What is your opinion of the state of the game right now and where it's headed.
You know, I know there's a lot of things that have changed from the physical part of it. You know, just watching some of the pillars that are called on big hits and stuff like that. You know, back in the day that was that was part of the game. And then as a quarterback, you know that two step rule didn't didn't matter to me and the other quarterback back in the day. I think they change it for the good of the game, because you know, today this
game is all about the quarterback. If the quarterback is healthy and he's a good quarterback, you wanted to play. And I think they're trying to make it as safe as they possibly can. Some people think they're making it two ain't touch game. A lot of teams don't tackle as much in practice and training camp, and they say that's probably the reason why.
But at the end of the day, I think it's still a game.
Well, watching the game last night against Kent sit In in the New York Jets, man, I saw the just defense, uh played out of the out of their mind. That was great because they had the quarterback frustrated. They didn't know what to do, and it's good to see that, you know, But it's bad to see Aaron Rodgers looking at that game. You wonder what he would be with New York if he was playing today, you know, And
I think that's that's the worst thing. The guys that probably should be playing at not playing, but to give people an opportunity to play this game.
I was just a portion of a long conversation with Doug Williams time and that leads us right into you know, Pete Carroll today upset over that tackle on the Showdelines of Geno. Smith called it a drop hip tackle, and he says he wants it out of the game. He doesn't care about the penalty. He goes, quote, we just got to get that out of ball. It's so dangerous. So and it was Listen, Isaiah Simmons, in the.
Instance of time, Jeff, you don't have a chance to adjust your body. Weiter, you're just thinking about stopping whomever the ball carrier is. It would be like saying the safety that just came back played nine plays, went to tackle the quarterback and got hit in the head by the leg of the quarterback and got knocked out.
And listen, you can't control that either.
If you only gave a tackling target of maybe ten inches on the human body, you're you're gonna ruin football. It's just the unfortunate side of some of the uncontrollable.
All right, Tom, we got to take a break. When we come back, we'll continue to break down Bears and Commanders. It'll be coming up on Thursday night right here on ESPN one thousand. In the Bears Radio.
Networks, Bears Weekly with the voice of the Bears for twenty three years, Jeff Junior on the Bears Radio Network.
This segment of Bears Weekly brought to you by CDW. If people will get it, Jeff in toime with you as we get you set for Bears and Commanders. Travis Smith, the defensive line coach, meeting the media today as the defensive coaches and offensive coaches alternate every other week. Pass rush the topic. Tom only two sacks so far this season.
I think when you look at this where you're looking to have more success and more production right here, the first thing you want to do is look at are we doing the basics correctly? Are we making sure with the guys that are in there, whether it is hey, whether it's we're looking all eight guys are going to rush.
And even I told you Billings, who will be in certain situations or we're looking in pass our situations, and he's one of those guys that you look at, Hey, if you look at quarterback pressure, he might be the highest one in the room as the three hundred and thirty forty poun on the pus knows.
And that just shows you.
It doesn't exactly have to do with who the man is or what the number on his chest is. It has to do with the way they play. He's a great example of that. It's the way and the disposition he plays with that he's able to affect the quarterback the way he does. And so when I say that, though, we got to look at Hey, are we getting off on the ball? Our eyes on the right thing? Are we reacting to play action sets the way we are doing and do? What are we doing from a rush
effort standpoint? Are all four guys relentlessly trying to get to the X? If that stuff's all great, okay, then what can we do to improve that part? What can we do to make sure that we are finishing better on the quarterback? What can we do to make sure that Hey, from our rush plan this week is he's another mobile guy that can move around and get out of the pocket. Is there something we got to do to make sure that we can use some of our guys' abilities to the best of the ability. But we got
to make sure we're handling. Are we aligned right? Are we getting off on the ball, are we beating those guys to a spot? And are we forcing the old line to set the way we want to set. There's a lot of problems too. You see that all of a sudden, you got guys says, how's it gonna set me?
It's too late? By the balls out?
You quantified and miss sacks?
How many?
There's too many? Too many right now? I got on my board. I don't want to say there's too many right now? And it's and it's written on the board and big letters.
You ever go in there. You got the amount of sacks, you got the missed ops and uh.
What is it?
We got missed ops? Uh hits and sacks and the missed.
Ops where there we put up there exactly how many that should have been had? It's far too big right now, you say, now it's too many.
What defines a pass rush low for you being from snapping to finish shoving trucks?
So you think about that being down the middle, pad level is too high, looking for the ball, not getting off from the ball, uh, not.
Second effort, so any of those things.
But usually we talk about finish every down unblocked, Finish every down un blocking, and pass rush too. So if you finish right here and I'm head up on you and I'm looking for the quarterback, but I'm not playing with the extension, I'm not moving my feet, I'm not working to an edge, that's a pass rush loaf in our mind.
And how's that level of going.
I think if you look at effort from the standpoint in the game, that we haven't fully fully fully graded just because a short week.
Just look for the season right now, I think it's good. It's not great. It's not great. It needs to improve.
So you think about one play takes you know, less than five seconds to complete unless somebody goes and makes a big play. All of that on the defensive line of scrimmage, all that an offensive lineman has to do. It's just not just you know, putting your feet in the ground, put your dirt, a hand in the dirt, and go rush. This knowledge that has to have taken root and what the alignment is and what you're looking at, my goodness, So.
You know, Jeff, you know, don't think you're unfair because you need to ask for a lot. The average football play last four seconds. In the totality of an entire game, there's eleven minutes of action. So when you talk about loafs are not productive plays, or how you have to focus your attention, you look at two plays from this
past week's game. DeMarcus Walker tackle for loss, great angle of attack, put the offensive lineman in an unblockable position, then reacted off of him and made a tackle for a loss. Then they got Andrew Billings where they're trying to screen to the left hand side. He immediately through his process of rush, he reads this that the offensive lineman has released him too easily, and he takes off on a sharp lateral angle and Russell Wilson has to
turf the football. So every single play is different, but every single play their defensive line is capable of making a play if they do their job according to plan. So we're not asking for an unrealistic amount of effort. You're asking for four seconds of play of action.
Great stuff from Travis Smith. Coming back, we'll hear from John Hope. That's Tom Thayer. I'm Jeff Joniyak. This is Bears Weekly on ESPN Chicago and the Bears Radio Network.
Weekly with the voice of the Bears for twenty three years, Jeff Jonyak on the Bears Radio Network.
And the segment of Bears Weekly brought to you by Athletical Physical Therapy. Visit athletical dot com to request it in clinic or virtual deployment and start feeling better tomorrow. Final moments with Tom the Jeff Joniyak One more interview chunk of John Hope, Bears secondary coach, also the past game coordinator, talking about the rookies. They're thrown in there, right, you got Jalen Johnson could return this week, but Tyreek Stevenson, Terrell Smith, the rookies, how they fared so far?
Oh, there's no question for you know, It's like anything.
You want to be a good writer, right, You want to play a good football player, play football, You want to play golf, be a good golfer.
Play golf.
So the more reps they get, they'll improve, They'll keep getting better. Every play is a valuable play and it's experienced. You know, you look at some of those guys that you guys have been around and covered. Can you imagine the number of practice reps and game reps a guy like Brian irlacker log and all his years, Charles, all those guys. So as long as you know and these guys are, they're they're conscientious, they're they they want to
do it the right way. You know, they love the game of football, and they every rep you've got to maximize and it just becomes okay, that's an experience. All right, this is gonna be another Every play is going to be a new experience for him. But the more they play, the better they'll get because they'll start recognizing things faster.
What have you learned about about them?
Uh, they like to play, They're they're uh, they look like it's not too big for them.
You know what I'm saying.
They're pretty composed and they have a lot of confidence in themselves, and we have a lot of confidence in them.
And you know, I was, uh, you know, I thought they they held up good.
You know, they went in there with the right mindset and uh, you know, obviously the end result wasn't what we wanted. But as long as they keep improving, you know, that's going to be a big thing for them.
And they got a good receiving cord to deal with. And now, what's your thought on the quarterback of Washington right now, Big Sam Big tom Oh?
I think he's a I was waiting for John Holk answer.
You know what, Sam ow you know you got a minute. You got a minute.
Like Doug Williams said, you know, he's a guy that has a lot of college experience. He wasn't drafted to the mid round, So that kind of always forces those types of guys to put in that little extra effort because they're never gonna get that. We used to have a reference to first rounders. We used to call him a specially they were in a special club. As a fifth rounder, you're not gonna be a part of that special club, so you're gonna have to work every day to impress.
All right, Well, it should be fun heading to uh take down to count commanders. See Ron Rivera, the expert, your bear teammate now running the show over there. In his fourth year, Cole Comet gets to see his uncle, Jeff Scanina, the defensive line coach in Washington, and it is a good one that's gonna do it for us. We want to thank Washington great quarterback, Doug Williams, Eric Ostrowski, can't do Charlie Bevans, Dan brilliant, Jordan Truleiper Tom There,
I'm Jeff Joniac. Thank you very much for listening. We'll talk to you on the radio on Thursday night. Chris Black, Adam Abdalo take you tonight, right down the wire. That'll do it for Bears Weekly on esp and Chicago and The Bears Radio Network.
Thank you for listening to the Chicago Bears Network presentation The Bears Weekly, hosted by the Mayra, Bearsville, Jeff Juniac and Surfmaster Tom Thayer. Podcasts are available on the Chicago Bears Official Bears Weekly has been brought to you by Apple Podcasts, Ben Rivers, I, Genius Energy, and Miller Lite