Cut open man, DJ Moore, end zone touchdown, touchdown Bears.
I am Jeff, Joni yack Litz is on.
Donnie got what was like playing for Coachy Good?
I don't want to answer any questions like that pressure coming is a big trouble.
Donnie goes Mottest sweat.
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Bears et Cetera brought to you by Geico with the voices of the Bears Jeff Joniac and Tom Thayer. Final home game for twenty twenty four ends and a six y three loss to Seattle. One week to go and it's off to Green Bay we go with Super Bowl winning Bears Guard Town Theayer. I'm Jeff Jonia. Welcome to episode one twenty three of the Bears et Cetera podcast. We're brought to you by Geico. Coming up some postgame thoughts from head coach Thomas Brown and quarterback Kato Williams.
Tom Hard Doing digests what is now ballooned into a ten game losing streak. Hard for everyone involved, with a
frustration level that has no definition. Right there again on Thursday Night, Game on the line, ball in the hands of the offense, seeking field goal range to four sot or get a game winning touchdown, and it all fizzled after a venturing into Seattle territory, a night with thirteen combined punts, no touchdowns, and just nine points on a game again, there to be one despite the ineffectiveness overall of the offense and a really superb effort at least
in terms of their aggressiveness, physicality and stinginess on the defensive side of the ball.
Yeah, it's super frustrating.
I don't think anybody who left that locker room last night feeling good about what happened, whether you're a fan, or you're a player or a coach, no matter what your involvement is with the Chicago Bears. But I will say this, going forward, you have one more game left
on the docket. I am not going to necessarily forget what happened last night, but I'm not going to dwell on it because I want to go out on a high note, whether I'm a coach, a player, whatever my role is with the Chicago Bears, and I want to be prepared against the Green Bay Packers to go out
there and put a performance unlike any others. And you have a full week of preparation, you have time to recover, you have the ability to be ready for an emotional game that they're going to have a lot at stake, So get ready and start preparing for the Green Bay Packers today. And that's in terms of rest and recovery. And then when you get back into the meeting room and on the practice field, do everything within your power to make sure that you're prepared for next Sunday.
All right.
This game was something of a statistical oddity, only the third time in the Super Bowl era that the Bears allowed six points or few in a game and lost. Just an incredible circumstance that continues to haunt this team is the lack of a quick start and the inability to finish time. And that book ends are there important.
Everything that happens in the middle is important too. But starting fast and finishing strong is an old adage that needs to take roots somehow with this Bear's team moving forward.
Yeah, I don't know.
Is it getting a more competitive and more competent first fifteen plays? We often hear about every single team in the National Football League history where they start out with the script of the first fifteen plays, and if it takes you trying to get the quarterback involved and where his confidence is at the highest, What plays does he like the most, what protections does he have the most trust in, and what patterns does he have the most
faith in? And then what running plays suit the Bears talent the best in terms of running back and offensive line. So you have to take a lot of those elements into consideration to make sure that when you go through that first quarter, first quarter and a half of football, some way, shape or form, it results in points.
Right, just twenty first quarter points for the Bears this season and nothing on the opening drive.
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Head to your local jewelasco until February tenth, and donate one of your new or gently coach to the thirty sixth annual Chicago Bears Coach Drive and help keep Chicagoans warm this winner. Let's listen in to both Thomas Brown and Caleb Williams and maxcerpts from their postgame news conference at sold Your Field on Thursday night.
My acts that all three phases play their best together at one time, and I thought special teams played the swimming well. I thought defense played their butts off the entire night, and the offense was not good enough. Which starts with me as far as the game plan that I had coming into this game, having those guys ready to go.
We had plenty of opportunities to win it.
You know, had an unfortunate car early on it took away one of the touchdowns, but still had plenty of chances to take it at bats And that's extremely frustrating, disappointing, which is one hundred percent on me. And so We'll have a couple of days off, have a regroup, and then have one more crack at it.
I'm swearing your kick lines on that last.
Drive thirty four to thirty seven year old line, so some more close to it. When you guys get first, what you would you like to see after those next four players? And did you have anything up for potential running that? Yeah, I mean just be able to execute.
Obviously were zero in this out, so there's not many other than running a quarterback like design quarterback runs great answers versus zero coverage. Just make sure we you know, got in the spot where it was felt like a legitimate chance to go make a field go at that point.
Obviously towards at the end of the game, had a chance to try to go protect it by some time and have a shot down the middle of the field of DJ ball kind of got tipped I believe, or cap got hit, our arm got hit releasing it, so that didn't work out. But like I said, overall, it wasn't good enough as far as the game plan I had for these guys, and also didn't have officer ready to go.
What happened with the operation with the two timeouts.
On the raft, Yeah, I mean just being able to have a cleaner communication, get down in the huddle, start the ball faster, so didn't want to waste players. You have a time out from a layer game standpoint, so that was the whole reason for burning time out.
What was a confusion on the first time on the not knowing whether you're gonna play their.
Goal for what was a confusing row. I'll just changed my mind.
I think of being able to have us tour as a weapon, and uh we still had I think it was two sixteen and the clock still that all three time outs plus a two minute warning. So the way our defense have been playing all day, possibly have a chance to go flip the field and force the three and out, get a shorter feel and having like a last in the game drive. So that was my thought processing in over the course of that change my mind, we said let's go for it now, and so sent off with aggress.
What made you change your mind? I just want to be more aggressive?
Yeah, final play there? What are you hoping to get there and not knowing they're bringing the house.
What are your answers?
Yeah, my answer is, uh, where I tried to throw it is to DJ knowing they're bringing the house.
Uh.
We put as many guys as we could to block, and uh, they just had one more guide to the back and you know, tried to uh, you know, fade away and throw the DJ on the runway one of our fastest guys, you know, our fastest guy, and you know missed, got hit or you know, however it happened.
And yeah, what is your did you see on the final drive as far as uh, lack of emergency and clock management management?
Yeah, I haven't been able to obviously digest at all, so I can't really give you a full answer.
I think.
I think, you know, I think we simply didn't execute. I think obviously, you know, there's times where you can have a better call, want a better call, things like that, But you know, we didn't execute. I didn't execute on many different occasions this game, and you know, it's frustrating,
but I gotta find a way. You know, I think today was was one of those games that you know, I think we played on two sides of the ball today pretty well, special teams and uh defense, and then you know, offense, we.
Didn't play well.
There was miscues, there was stupid sacks that I was taking, you know, losing ten fourteen yards, which is frustrating. But you know, I will say that, uh I put I will definitely take the you know, the heat for this one, just because some situations that I that I put us in. You know, I like I said that that sack that I took that I didn't need to take, which put us you know, we were an empty and I brought
a guy from the boundary. Uh I just throw it over the guy's head, and you you know, you're still plan Obviously you don't want to you want to get a positive play there, but in that sense, it's a positive play.
So I gotta be better.
Frustration level with this game. You looked understandably very angry after the way that it ended.
Yeah, I was. I was frustrated, still frustrated.
I'm gonna probably be frustrated until tomorrow, you know, after I get you know, a good chance to watch it and things like that.
So yeah, I mean, I didn't play well enough.
I didn't I didn't do I didn't help put the team in a in a good position to win, a better posi position to win.
And you know, that's what it is.
Set on the Amazon pregame interview, we saw that you didn't meet the expectations this season of winning and up playing your best.
Yeah, what do you mean particularly about your performance?
Yeah, just just being able to from start to finish,
be able to be consistent throughout the whole season. Obviously, you know, you know, their their job over there on the defense side is to be able to provide you know that that inconsistency and things like that, but find ways to just be consistent play play, you know, good football, consistent football when the balls in my hand and and and you know, from all the alerts and things like that, and then you know, I think obviously in the expectation
of of winning, that will always be my expectation is to win as many games as we have, you know, obviously, that's not not always the the case, but that will always be my goal, you know, whenever I'm on the field or you know, preparing throughout the week and things like that.
There's the term execution is has repeatedly come up, and yes, there was a lack of execution, and Caleb took a lot of responsibility, took some responsibility for some of those seven sacks, some off target throws. Thomas Brown took his own responsibility. You had opportunities defensively that could have changed the game. Obviously, we thought we had a sixty two yard fumble return by Cayler Gordon heads up that he went all the way to the end zone. They say
he was touched down. He also said a referee said he didn't watch the play. Tremaine Edmonds is going to be not able to sleep for a couple nights. That interception of the red zone should have been a takeaway and not three points. It could have made a difference in the game in this real weird, low scoring game.
Yeah, I think it's just whenever you look at the end result of a football game, I think there's a lot of frustration that comes from everybody when you lose the game.
In the immediacy of.
Answering questions completely when you haven't seen the film yet. I think it's super hard for a quarterback, a head coach, or a position player. So I think you just have to listen to the tone of their voice and the way they answer questions.
And these guys are professionals.
Man, this is not a way they wanted to leave that locker room on Thursday night. So will I give them a little bit of time and I'll see the next time they revisit the podium, and if you want to reask some of those questions, maybe you'll get a complete answer. Because the frustration is in the voice of Thomas Brown and the frustration is in the voice of Caleb Williams. And I think anybody that you talk to privately and inside that locker room is feeling the same way.
There's nobody walking out of that locker room feeling good about what happened. So that's why I think about what you're going to do moving forward, in what you can do to finish this thing.
Bears.
Fan Steinhoffels is a proud partner of the Chicago Bears. This Bear season, Steinhoffels is partnering with Special Spaces Illinois to create dream bedrooms for children battling cancer. For every false start caused by the Bears defense during a home game, Steinhoffls donates one thousand dollars to Special Spaces Illinois shopping storing online at Steinhoffel's dot com.
A couple of big plays.
Let's break him down, Tommy, because you watch the tape about two and a half before the half, they had that thirteen play sixty seven yard drive the screen to Swift for twenty four. That was a nice play the screen game at its moments, third and seven for DJ Moore for eighteen on a screen on a third and nine, that bouncing shotgun snap that Caleb picked up and hit Keenan Allen for sixteen. The seventeen yard touchdown Aroma Dunese that were wiped out.
By the Jake kerhan Hold.
I mean were there were a bunch fourth and three late in the game from their own thirty four Caleb retreating Yeah, I think three or four guys chasing him down hit More for fourteen. Kind of a back foot heave throw turns into a fourth down conversion of DJ so. But that all amounted to one hundred and seventy nine yards of offense three point one yards per play against that Seattle defense. And when you take the sacks into account of negative pass plays just two point two yards
per pass attempt. It's not gonna catch you a lot of points.
Yeah, you know, you can say talk about all those pauses of the plays and when you talk about the overall performance of the game, when you talk about that amount of sacks and negates everything that you talk about the good. However, I will say this, Caleb Williams could be the best screen thrower the lateral passes in football.
The guy is unbelievable.
His accuracy, his immediacy of the completion, putting the ball carrier in a positive position to be able to convert it into yards. I've been impressed with that all year. When you talk about the pass to Keenan Allen, when they had the ball that was rolling on the ground, he picked it up and he kept his focus downfield. Those are the types of building blocks that you can surround Caleb with and building this offense off of those things that he does so well time and time again.
Coming into the game.
One of the top yardage totals in the screen game this year for Caleb Williams, so something to build on because that is a deadly play when hits, and it does take the starts out of a pass rush. Let's look, he went his first twenty seven throws without an interception, so he winds up with three fifty three without one, a franchise record, a Bears rookie record for the longest stretch by any quarterback in a single season in NFL history.
Of course, on the blitz by Kobe Bryant, on that blitz at the end of the game with nine guys on line of scrimmage that was intercepted. Riek wooing with the interception and the game, but you got to give him his props on that one. Top five now in team history and single season passing yards. I know it off falls short of the win column, but these are things that you notate and you take a good look at.
Yeah, but you know, listen, at the end of every season, it's always about the next season. And I think one of the building blocks of a football team is the importance in the role of a quarterback. And we can listen, we can go through the history of the NFL and we can talk about Hall of Fame quarterbacks that had a rough start team wide. And you know that's thing about Caleb what I see the exciting things about him.
I just I can't believe how tough of a guy is from some of the hits that he's taken this year, the way he scrambled out of pressure and in the in the pocket, and the way he's you know, had a ball maybe fall on the ground, but pick it up without hesitation and throw the ball.
So all those types of things that we've seen.
Out of other other quarterbacks in the history of the league to what we know that Caleb is going.
To offer in the future.
Yeah, I mean, he's just got to grind through it.
Yeah.
And you know, I keep thinking about Troy Aikman. He had that eleven game losing streak. There's there's others, there's a list.
I mean, yeah, that's what I'm saying. You got the Troy Aikman, you got Peyton Manning throwing twenty seven interceptions. You got a lot of these guys throughout the history of their career that they suffered through that first year. But it also gave the organization an understanding of what they needed to the pieces they needed to put in place to build around Caleb.
Time for our Geico gives you more football staut of the week. The Bears allowed the fewest points at a game for the season and the fewest since twenty twenty one.
They allowed week three excuse me allowed three in Week seventeen.
It was also a second half shoutout for the second time since Week one against Tennessee, and the defense held opponents without a touchdown of the first half for a fourth time and again mentioned the still stingy red zone defense third best in red zone touchdown efficiency in the NFL.
Should have had a sixth takeaway.
I'm going to get to the defensive line because some of the guys that have been you know, Byron Coward to start at seven straight games, big sack in the second quarter in his fiftieth NFL game, Darryl Taylor had a strip sack. Who batted down the ball at the Lion of scream Jacob Martin at the Lion of screaman so you know, everybody had a hand into something there. Montes Sweat got another sack. So there's some good things done by the defense. TJ Edwards got to talk about
him too. TJ team high six tackles now won twenty five. Second Bear linebacker to reach that and back to back season since the turn of the century, and that would be Rero qwand Smith in twenty twenty one.
And remarkably, Tom remarkably.
Just the fourth Bears player in history with multiple one hundred and twenty five tackle seasons.
Think about the great defenses. That's that's kind of crazy.
Yeah, I mean, it tells you how competitive TJ is and what a force he is at linebacker, and how he accepts his role and he's able to convert it into tackles. He's you know, you're playing in front of a defensive line that's had a lot of rotational pieces in the middle. So rather than formulating and understand a plan of attack working with the same defensive tackles like a lot of great linebackers have, you know, TJ is a guy that's probably worked with eight different interior packages
from the just the defensive tackle position alone. And any anybody knows that a linebacker that has that amount of tackles, a lot of it is a result because.
Of the play in front of you.
So those guys up in front that you talked about, there was a solid rotation of them all.
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Let's touch on special teams that got a thumbs up from the head coach Thomas Brown.
They did do some good things.
Let me start with Tyler Scott. Tyler Scott in the kick return game showing an aggressive burst, but that you know, downfield tackle on Jalen Darden that brought the house down. That was a big stick by him as a gunner, and that's a position he has dabbled in but has not been consistently a part of this season because of the logitam at receiver. But I thought that was a good good way to put something on tape for Titer Scott.
Right.
You know, listen, there's a lot of guys that could have folded their tent when they haven't been on the active list for a lot of games this year. Then all of a sudden, you see Tyler Scott, who's a wide receiver. Now he's being offered the opportunity to be a tackler. And then he's able to escape the guys that are trying to block him as a flyer on the punt team, get in the open field and make a super important tackle that put off the opponent's offense
behind the eight ball with their starting field position. So I kind of applaud Tyler Scott for not being frustrated for not being included, but when he is included to make some plays.
Sam of Dominique Robinson.
You know guys that don't get a lot of snaps making the most of the minimal opportunities.
Tory Taylor, I know you're gonna get all crazy onm me, but no, no, no no.
I listened five punchs in Sad of the twenty five punchs in Sada, the twenty ti for second most by any Bears punter in a single game since at least nineteen ninety one. He is now fourth inside the twenty this season, and he blasted the Bears rookie record away. He's got thirty two now for the season. Is he's excellent?
He's excellent?
Well, no, he came.
He came out of a really inept offense his senior year in college, and now he's got an understanding of what's required of him on the NFL level. And just because Tory is a good punter in college, it doesn't mean he understands all the details of the job coming into the NFL. Now he understands the snapping, the timing, the pressures, the variations.
Of fronts that he's going to see.
And I think that he's just scratching the surface of what he's gonna what altimately he's going to be throughout his career.
Blue crossing Blue Shield of Illinois right here at home, driving access toward healthier communities through it all. And then lastly, Cairo Santos, who's been an ultimate consistent weapon for the Bears. They tried to get him his field goal arranged last
night to try to get the tie. Didn't work out, but five hundred and forty five points, fifth most by any player in team history, passing the Hall of Fame kicker George Blanda, and the eighty fourth consecutive game with the point that second most, trailing Robbie Gold's team record at one fifty two. So some really good things from Cairo over the course of his Bears career. Got to give him a heads up on that no doubt.
You know, those kickers come into some difficult situations when they come aboard a team and they're trying to impress some coach enough that they realize that they have the ability to be the kicker for their team. And when he goes out and does that and performs under some really difficult circumstances. I employed plod Cairo for what he's done.
And Mike McDonald with the head coach, the youngest head coach in the NFL right now at thirty six. On that final play he blitz Kobe Bryant, that version of the blitz with nine up front. They just put it in two weeks ago, and the guys are waiting waiting see when it was going to run.
I appreciate when coaches do that.
He also gave Caleb a lot of praise, and he clearly made some phenomenal plays under duress, and he's been under dress all season long. The sack total of seven, obviously that's not all on the offensive line. You know that some of that's on the quarterback as well, but it's happened four times now. That's tie with Jim Harbov with the second most and Bears history in a game Bobby Douglas five times, sacks seven times or more in
a game. Hopefully that could end quickly because that has to for operational reasons.
Listen, I've been a part of that same thing against the Minnesota Vikings in Minnesota, so I know what a game like that is to live through. And that's why I was saying, I think you got to set your sights and your determination on being the best possibly prepared football team you can next Sunday and go out there and give a performance on.
A high note. Whether you're a guy on a one year contract or in the guy.
In the midst of an early career, I think you want to start the off season with some confidence.
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 to Chicago, Bears, and you too. Let's look at the NFC North the Packers at Minnesota three twenty five on Sunday, Detroit at San Francisco on Monday Night football. You got Minnesota and Detroit with thirteen wins. Packers sitting there already eleven, then Week nineteen Packers Bears.
We don't know what it's going to be Saturday or Sunday. I'm hoping for a Sunday at noon and then Vikings at Lions. So it's coming down to the wire with everybody in the toughest division in football, and that division is going.
To remain tough moving forward.
So there's a lot in place with the three other teams, and they've they've got stability, they've got quarterbacks, they've got time on task without a lot of turnovers. So it's going to be interesting to see moving forward time. I don't know what your thoughts are on all this.
Oh you know what, listen man, I'm all for the schedule makers.
I know the difficulty of making sure they get all these games lined up and everything, but they have a bunch of divisional games at the end of the season. I think no matter if you're a football fan from Chicago or California, I think it's a little it's fun for everybody.
And a shout out to the fans for showing up. They had.
They really came out strong all season long. Last couple of years been wanting to cut it loose. They've been Hey, they voiced their opinion, right. They in good times and bad, and they're a loyal fan base and we love them.
I love the support of these fans because I'm as much of a Bears fan as i am anything else involving the Chicago Bears. And you know, I just live to see those seats get filled and the people shouting and share when they get a big play, and you know, it's just exciting to see them show up.
That's gonna wrap up Bears, et cetera, Episode one twenty three. For Tom There, I'm Jeff Joniac.
Thanks for listening. Everyone, Please hit that subscribe button now.
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We'll talk to you next week to breeve you the packers. For Tom There, I'm Jeff Joningac Bear Down,