Recapping a Bears victory in Washington | Bears, etc. Podcast

Right justin middle of the field forty five to fifteen, bring Russ in front of them, leaving Lions in this way.

I am Jeff joniyacklitz Is on Dot go up. What was like playing for Coachy Boddom.

I don't want to answer any questions like that. Sixty one yards?

What's Sunday stroll for?

Justin field?

Bears, et cetera. With the voices of the Chicago Bears Jeff.

Jonyac Hey, maybe they wanted for fifty one.

The late Dick budkis from above watching the Bears take out the Washington Commanders forty to twenty. Welcome into our Bears, et cetera. Podcasts wrapping things up after the first victory of the season, snapping a fourteen game losing streak. We're brought to you by Miller Lite, the official beer the Chicago Bears tastes like Miller Time Chicago with Tom Thayer, the Super Bowl winning beart guard. I'm Jeff Joniac. First of all, think about New England on the road, the

Yeah they did, you know. I'm proud of the guys because they showed a lot of resiliency. They never listened to the outside noise that can really be a factor in this modern day world of social media and opinions. And these guys obviously went and prepared mentally as well as they could in a short week, because you really don't get a chance to prepare physically. But these guys came out of the box fast. They had a great

There's a tremendous start by offense coordinator Lukeetzi dialing up some big throws deep up by Justin Fields first to Darnell Mooney to start things off. It didn't connect, but he certainly connected repeatedly with DJ Moore. A record setting day career high two hundred thirty yards cards on eight receptions for DJ Moore and two touchdowns.

Four on the day.

Back to back weeks with four touchdown passes and right now Justin Fields leads the NFL in touchdown.

Passes, right. You know, it's amazing because I think everybody got an indicator. And Luke said it two weeks ago that Justin was starting to get it and that he was becoming more familiar with the playbook, he was getting a better understanding of timing. We always knew Justin was an accurate passer, and he's got long ball accuracy in him as well, and I think you'll see him capitalize it more as the year goes on. But it is

At the end of the night, I got to talk about the offensive line to make those plays happen. And then we'll dive into DJ and how unbelievable of an athlete he is at the receiver position. You didn't know what was going to happened when things started going injury wise. Okay, so you started with Larry Borum at left tackle for Braxton Jones. You started Cody white Hair at left guard, Lucas Patrick at center, right guard is Nate Davis.

Right tackle Darnell Wright. You knew that Tevin.

Jenkins was coming back and going to rotate in with not the center position, with Cody moveing to center, but with Cody, so he comes in on what the third or second series of the game, third series of the game, and then Lucas Patrick suffer's a concussion.

And listen, I wasn't a big fan of Tevin Jenkins playing tonight. I thought he had needed a little bit of physical wrap up time after his injury to make sure that everything was set and ready to go. But you didn't have that luxury. You had a hiccup, an injury with Lucas Patrick having a protocol for the concussion, and then Cody did a great job of moving over and commanding the center position, and then Tevin was in

And I did speak to Tevin after the game for Marquee and their postgame show, and he goes, yeah, he goes, I was a little surprised at how this all turned out. Obviously, you don't know what you're gonna need with your dress. You got to play, but he did. He weathered it and he was happy about it and happy to get a win. Number one. Also, the pocket was clean.

Yeah pocket.

So for these big plays, the DJ Moore, he had most of the big.

Plays in the game.

And they always list the top ten biggest plays of the game and he had, I believe five of them himself. And of course that's justin making it happen. But the fifty eight yard or in the first quarter, a fifty six yard touchdown on the throw left pushed out of bounds the Washington thirty for thirty nine yards in the first quarter. He also had a thirty two yard connection

Like at the end of the game.

That was a gutsy throw by Justin Fields, and he took it to the house and that ended the night.

But so, yeah, you got to say all those complimentary things about DJ Moore because he has an incredible hand eye coordination. He can catch it in a small space and he can catch it with a distraction in his vision. But to me, it's about Justin making those throws, because we've been begging Justin to make those kind of small window opportunity throws and then put the onus on the receiver to go up and make a big catch for him.

A Bears jumped to a twenty seven to three lead.

Then coming out of the locker room at halftime, Washington came in strong. They had a seventy five yard drive to start the third quarter. They put up eleven points in that third quarter with a two point conversion on a touchdown, but the Bears finished with thirteen points in the fourth quarter to get that forty to twenty lead, but it was close to being a seven point game. Joey Slide missed a field goal and there was plenty

Listen Eric b Enemy, the former offensive coach for the Kansas City Chief who is now the offensive coordinatoror at Washington Redskins. He went to the old Kansas City plan, where we're going to exclusive throw the ball and if we get a run it's going to be because of a scramble of a quarterback. But the Washington did well. But then when the Bears needed to come up and make some plays, when they had to get some sacks in really an important time in the game, they were

All Right, there were a bunch of other injuries to the running game, so Khalil Herbert left the game, Travis Homer left the game. Roshawn Johnson left the game with a concussion. So left their guy a blasting game who we very much respect at the full back position. He didn't get a lot of He doesn't get a lot of snaps throughout the course of the season, coming into the game, just three rushing attempts in his career and

Yeah, but you know, before he had to become the ball carrier for the Bears, he was really doing a nice job blocking and leading Khalil Herbert through some wellied, well designed holes up through the center of the defense that got him up to the second level. But when he was called on an emergency scenario, he came through for the Bears, and I think that shows one of

We're brought to you by a PNC Bank, Official Bank of the Chicago Bears. So I mentioned, and we're going to get to the defense in a moment here. They did have five sacks. They put pressure on a very tough quarterback, you know I mentioned, and you agree. I think that he reminds you of Baker Mayfield a little bit. He's gutsy, he kind of gets he's not that tough, so he kind of gets swallowing up in the pocket, but he hangs tough.

He does. And you know, like we saw Baker a couple of weeks ago in Tampa Bay and he really showed a solid knowledge of his offense by getting rid of the ball as he was falling to the ground. And Sam Howell has that same type of fight in him. If you want to get him to the ground, you have to get him to the ground. It's not something like he's going to trip, stumble and fall. And you saw there's multiple times where more than one guy had

Balance was Keith thirty two runs called by Luke Gatzi, thirty two pass plays, nine rushing first downs, nine passing first downs.

How about that for a game plan?

Well, it came to work out that way. I don't think he go with the intentions of saying, okay, check one one run, one pass. No, it's kind of the way the game worked itself out. But you know the nice thing about Luke is he never neglected either portion of the game. Even when they had a big lead, they still through the ball. And then when they were trying to keep the lead and kind of challenge the

Let's talk defense, because you can look at it and say, okay, they gave up a lot of yards. The Bears had four in their fifty one yards. They had three eighty eight. They had actually more, as it turned out, offensive plays than the Bears. The Commanders with sixty six. They had time of possession pretty much even thirty seven completions on the day for their quarterback Sam Howell, but the turnovers a couple of big ones. Greg Stroman junior, a former

Also.

We think Taderik Stevenson is going to be a player for a long time.

Physicality.

Terrell Smith is no slouch either, and he had to leave the game briefly as well. But these are two rookies starting at corner, and the receivers were quiet, especially Terry McLaurin.

We kept waiting for him to go off.

It never happened, no, And you know I was in there, going, boy, they're gonna set up Terike Stevenson. They're gonna try a double move. When they did try a double move, the receiver ran right into Tarik Stevens Stevenson and it wasn't a penalty. So they did a nice job. I think they complimented the pass rush well, and you know, you got to kind of see that evolution of young defensive backs because you know, we were introduced to it last year when a lot of defensive backs had to play

Brisker did play.

We didn't know for sure that was gonna happen, but they did this, you know, without Jalen Johnson. They did it with Kyler Gordon still mending from his broken hand. Eddie Jackson did not play. So this is a this is a mix of different varieties and experience level. And Matt Matt Eberflu said before the game, Yeah, it is a challenge. It is a challenge to make it all fit together like a puzzle. But it managed to work just well enough to stop Washington.

Matta complimented him equally as well after the game. Because every single coach had to make some type of adjustment. Luke and calling the plays because of the running back position. Chris Morgan changes on the offensive line and understood how he was going to rotate these guys. You have to look at the receiver position after a couple of them went down. Same thing on defense, changes all over the play.

We touched on the two rookie corners.

Let's talk on Javon Dexter because he had three pressures in the game. I think he had a run stop as well. His birthday last night, so that was big for him to and you know, I interviewed him as well, and man, he's big.

He's a big dude.

And you know that's a topic now how much development can he make every single game? And that's gonna be something to watch here along with Zach Pickens.

Well, we talked about during the broadcast. One thing that impressed me is I was sitting on the Bears bench pregame and watching him go through warm ups with the defensive line coach and the assistant defensive line coach, and they were kind of calling out assignments during the course of his warm up and he was adjusting to every single one of them. Is how does he use his frame, how does he use his length? How does he fill the void? Or fill the gap according to his responsibility.

We talk about situation of football and we said, hey, third down's got to get better. Well, it did get better on the offensive side of the ball. Defensive side of the ball. Again, they were throwing every down, so they had you know, fifty conversion six of twelve, but it wasn't a game changer. I talked about that being an impact on where the Bears start field position, for example, if you're not getting guys off the field. The Bears

Well, you know when Jason McKee entered and interviewed Matt Iberflus coming out of the locker room. You know, you kind of listen to his voice and you say, Okay, is the apprehensive Is he nervous? I think he was excited for the opportunity to get out and start the second half. But you always have concerns because of what happened last week. But I think Matt did a nice job of keeping as de defense actively involved in the game, and then the offense did a nice job of complimenting

Yeah, Washington punted twice and the Bears punted three times on the day that said Bear scored on the first five possessions. That means that they were in the red zone. Five consecutive drives. They only managed to score three touchdowns out of the five, but I'll take that as they continue to grow their offense.

How about this three games in counting with no kickoff returns.

It's a source sub ject because I wrote it down on the plane time.

I wrote it down playing in the game.

Fourteen combined kickoffs, fourteen touchbacks, and with all kidding aside, this is consecutive weeks, and okay, you're trying to figure out what Veylas Jones is, right, He's not even He's just standing there and I know it's strategy and everybody's doing it. Everybody's doing it, and forget about that fair catch rule. They're just kicking it. They're not coming out, they're not putting their guy back in the end zone

Well, I was on kickoff return in our reach turns always had a little bit more freedom, Whereas if you have a bona fide Devin Hester type guy, you're going to give him a little bit more freedom to back up in the end zone. So maybe it's time to take Veayalis Jones and give him five running back plays a game if you're not going to play him at wide receiver because the competition is stiff. I want to see Vayalis put the ball in his hands because he

Good new Chicago United Airlines is getting brand new planes with other bells and whistles like Bluetooth connectivity screens at every seat in room for everyone's ruler bag. United proud to fly the Chicago Bears and you too, all right, a couple of the notes before we get into Dick budgets and wrap this up. First forty point games since the forty one to seventeen win at Jacksonville December twenty seventh, twenty twenty justin fields the last two first halves against

Halfs Yeah, impressive. And again, you know how I felt about him throwing that hail Mary pass in the last play of the first half last week. I don't think they should have done it. They should have thrown an easy completion or taken a knee, and then he would have been up twenty four out of twenty four in that game because he came out in the second half and completed his first five.

Or six, all right.

And then the other aspect I wanted to bring up statistically is where did it go here? In his first twenty plays to kit the ball, rolling eight of twelve, one hundred and forty five yards, a touchdown, a sack, and seven first downs. Bring it up because they always have a first fifteen. So if you if you're starting strong with your first fifteen to twenty and you're getting a couple of scores on the board, what does that do for the rest of the game plan and the defense?

Well, in that first fifteen they do a lot of exploratory stuff. You run a certain set, you run a certain route, you run a certain type of play because you want to get an indicator of how the defense is going to handle that, and that helps you call plays later in the game. So I think it's super beneficial when you talk about seven first downs and all the types of the yardages that they can get. I think they can learn more about what's valuable to them

Take a chance download the Bette Rivers app today and visy Heart Seltzer, the official Heart Seltzer or the Chicago Bears all right fifty one. We both had plenty of interactions with Dick Butkus. He died of the age of eighty overnight and new spread throughout the day into the stadium. We're walking to do our television show, Bears Game Day Live on Fox, and you hear Bears fans just find out from their phones and you.

Could hear him yelling to each other in the stadium. It was eerie. You know.

It's way different than what the other remarkable game was when we were doing the preseason game when Andrew Luck retired and with all this murmuring going on and booing, and you know he wasn't coming back, he was leaving the Colts. But this is a passing of a legend. But to hear it rumor Mill kicking up through the stands, I heard it. I don't know if you heard it. It was eerie. But I just interviewed him three weeks ago.

But you know, the one thing that amazes me about Dick Buckets as a young man and as an older gentleman that he came on to be is he's super antagonistic as a player, he will go up and tell the center about how much he's going to beat him up. Throughout the day, he throws running backs around like they're wet wet T shirts. He physically hits tight ends across the middle. People remember playing against him and for years

That just breathes football.

Yeah, but Gus, And I'm telling you, the thing I always got a kick out of was when Rocky named his dog Buckus and I and I asked him about the whole story. It's just super funny that Sylvester Sloan did it out of respect. He never told Buckets until Bucket saw the movie.

You know, it really bugged him that people thought he was absent altely, like he was a dirty player.

He says, I was not a dirty player.

I played within the rules that were set back then, and people feared me absolutely. But he goes, you know, I played hard. I played hard and physical, and I'm a nice guy. I'm not this older that's you know, unapproachable. And yes he was gruff. He was gruff, but my gosh, he was hilarious and an actor, you know, part comedian when you get right down to it.

And philanthropic.

I mean he had a lot of connections to a lot of different things and living out there. But how about a sixty year marriage and Helen his wife, of condolences to him, to her and their family.

Yeah, but you know, George Hallis would not you let you play dirty. He's not the founder of the National Football League and he's going to come in and allow his players to go out and purposely hurt other players on other teams, because that's totally against everything they stand for. And it's the same kind of passion that Mike Ditka had for the game. He was not going to let any of the guys he coached go out and purposely hurt people. George Hallis wouldn't either, and Dick Bucket wouldn't

Well, I tell you what, I'm glad I had the opportunity. I talked to him more than once. I did a four hour interview with him in a downtown Chicago hotel years ago, from birth to where he was. Then I remember he was sitting there and I thought, oh my gosh, he is he okay with us doing this in depth?

He loved it.

We talked for four hours about football and life and it was amazing. And then, you know, just last week. So I'm honored to have done it. Hate that he has gone, but he was, you know, here for alumni weekend and a lot of people got to see him one last time.

Listen, that dude will never be forgotten. No, that's the thing about Dick Buckets is it's sad as passing eighty years old. He's been blessed because he's loved football so much and he's always been able to stay up part of the game of football and be a major influence.

People forget, you know, if you're not aware of this, he was in the booth, he was Tommy when Tommy was playing in the eighty five Super Bowl.

That was your broadcast crew.

That's Wwayne Larirvie hub Arcish and Dick Buckis right, Jim Hart, Jim Hart and Dick.

And Hubb was a part of the pregame in post game.

Yeah, and he would come and sit in the locker room, That's what I'm saying.

You know, during the Super Bowl year.

The whole time he was a broadcaster, it wasn't uncommon for the guys to come and sit in the locker room, and maybe he would sit down next to a player and have a conversation. He would spend time in Dick's office. But it's just seeing Dick Buckets walking your freaking locker room. It's hard to put into words how you wanted to impress him. Man. You wanted Dick Buckets to think that

He told a funny story, and we're gonna wrap this up, but the center for the Detroit Lions, ed Flanagan. He got on his nerves late in a game. The game was over and Buck's kept on hitting him and and kicking the ball away and they just wanted to end the game and just just to rattle his cage or he goes into the end zone, he catches a touchdown, and he just flashes the ball on the face of the defender and the guy, you know, bangs it out. Like you say, he's an antagony. You got a lot of you too.

You know, Buckets. Buckets had five interceptions of his rookie year. And when you think of that, that's something that's a career or a year for a cornerback, not less, not necessarily a middle linebacker. So obviously the dude was a good athlete and could catch balls out of the air from short distances.

I did ask him about that. How did he get so many?

He goes, you know, I was reading the eyes of the quarterback and I would just slide to where his eyes were taking me right, and I had great instincts to swipe the football. So you know, and and and you know, many people thought he was going to be.

A great center. He was going to be a great center.

Yeah. I think in college he played center for a good portion of time.

Richard Marvin gis some of his nicknames.

I wonder if anybody called him Marvin just to get under.

I'm sure they did. I'm sure they did. But at six three two forty five. He was also carrying around names like I'm sure these are from players or whatever, the Animal, the Enforcer, the Maestro of Mayhem, or the Robot of destruction.

But a career that spanned.

One hundred and nineteen games, twenty two interceptions, and he played every snap with the Chicago Bears when they were fourteen game seasons. His last season was nineteen seventy three, a Hall of Famer and a great loss to NFL.

It's just a it's a great win to be able to enjoy this little time you have off and it kind of reinvigorates this guys, these guys when they get back to work that they're going to be excited about studying the tape of the game and then prepare for another divisional opponent and try to, you know, realistically, try to get back in this division race. And it's not

Five games in now your goal is get back to five hundred, and that's set a new foundation. But that you know, that'll be eight weeks into the season before you can even have a shot at getting back to five hundred.

There's been one team in the history of the league owned for San Diego Chargers in nineteen ninety two to still make the playoffs. So it's been done before. It's not impossible.

It One more thing before we wrap up the podcast, Bears general manager Ryan Poles put a bow on the Chase Claypool matter finding a trade partner in Miami, sending the veteran receiver and a seventh round pick in twenty twenty five to the Dolphins for a sixth round pick

Bear down, everybody,