We started breaking down Week eight in the NFL. It's the Bears and Cowboys in Dallas Sunday at noon, good evening, everybody. We talked about it right here on Bears All Access, brought to you by IGS Energy. Happy Friday. When the broadcast partner Tom Thayre from news Radio one oh five nine w BBM, the Super Bowl winning Bear going down to Dallas. I know you got fond memories of Dallas over the course of your career. Give me one that
really sticks out. Really one is the point of emphasis that Mike Dicta made about the respect he had for Tom Landry, and that was a coach a couple decades ago. However, he said that everything from the way we stood for the national anthem to the effort that we gave in the game, he wanted us to pay attention to details. That eighty five year we went there for the third third preseason game I think it was, and it broke out into such a massive fight that guys were ejected
by the third player of the game. But then we went down there during the regular season and we beat him forty four to nothing, and it was a humiliating loss for Dallas, and I think personally, Dicta felt a little empathy for Tom Landry because he was his mentor along with George Hallis. But you know, all due respect for the Dallas Cowboys at that time, I want the Bears to go down and have the same performance that
we did and surprised a lot of people. Yeah, we're I was hoping you were going to say that game, because I do recall it. It was November seventeenth of eighty five, and you guys went to eleven to know you clinched the NFC Central that's what it was called back then, and the Bear snapped a six game losing
streak against mister Landry and the Cowboys. So I think that probably was as important to win as any for you guys to propel yourselves to a championship in so many ways, going into that environment with the old Dallas Cowboys stadium that still had tons of respect around the league, the type of atmosphere that the Dallas Cowboys, Tony our set and that whole crew put on the field weekend
and week out. But as a offensive line, and the way we ran the ball for Walter Payton, and the way the defense took care of the end of their end of the bargain and the way they what they did to quarterbacks. It was a great plane ride home. I will tell you that I hope the Bears could have one as well. Coming up of the show, rookie cornerback Kyler Gordon joins us for a couple of segments. We got to thank our producers, Dan Burrelli and Jordan
trut Up in the folks here at the score. All right, So Matt Iberflus kind of set the tone of the week a couple of days ago when he got to the podium. And how to deal with losing is one thing, and they did overcome a three game losing streak by beating the Patriots on Monday night, but on a short week. Now, forget about that, and now how to deal with success. You know, when you have success, you have to handle that a certain way. You know when you have adversity,
you have to handle that a certain way. And I think when you become a mature competitor, you have the ability to handle him almost one and the same. So certainly when you win, you know, there's all this other stuff going on, but there's distractions in that. When you win, there's a there's a lot of so called hype for you know, a victory or two victories or three victories, wherever that might be. When you're in the middle of a season, I think that you have to keep everything perspective.
How do you feel about that statement right there? I mean, it's a super young team. They probably giddy his heck about winning in New England to beat Bill Belichick and the Patriots. But I see what he's doing. I see he's trying to just stay level headed, keep everybody level headed. You know. It's kind of funny because the phraseology is different from Matt Eberflus, from Mike Ditka, but the message
is the same. Make sure you're aware of all the compliments you're getting after a big win like last Monday night, because the same people that are complimenting you to your face they want to stab you in the back when things go wrong. So I just think it's same message, different time in era, how it's delivered. How did you view how they played after watching it over and over again the tape and especially on the offensive side of the ball. We're going to give props to the defense
as well, because their second half performances are stacking. Now we've got eight examples of some really good defense. You take away that Minnesota final drive. They haven't given up many points and that is critical in the second half. Put all that in a bull shake it up, and where we had almost at the midpoint of the season.
From your perspective on the developments of the offense, the coaches and how they're teaching the fundamentals and techniques and how it's relating to performance in the end for both sides of the ball. You know, the fundamental and technique is a continuous process that goes every single day in practice that they reconfirmed what they're trying to teach these
players to go out and just play naturally. To me, the thing that was one of the most encouraging things in the game is you can watch the emergence of the relationship between Luke Gatsy and what Justin Fields does well.
If you go and you just look at the third and the fourth play of the game, where the first two passes they threw back to back, In just didn't have to stand in the pocket because he was moving around, and then you look at the path that the defenders had to take the play three, he moved over to his right instead of linebackers and DB's rushing they had to move latterly Play four, when he rolled out to it was left to hit eq Saint Brown. There was
no rushers in his space. So the importance of the fast start, the importance of the first fifteen, I think the Bears, the coaches, everybody put it on display what they can be early in games. Gets He was asked this week what was most satisfying about to win over the Patriots. It was more about the way the way that we did it, more than necessarily, you know, getting thirty three points or whatever. I thought. You know, it was probably the most physical game that these guys, our
guys played. You know, we had guys getting go down kind of in and out of the game, and so other guys had to step in and a bunch of different reps and there was no blink and the guys were prepared to play. So I thought that was really a really cool part about that whole day was the play style, the physicality of it. And then when you need a guys a step in and play, they were rid of rock and roll, and that physicality did show
up on tape. I mean, there were some really powerful hits in that game, including special teams, and near the end of the game, Sterling Weatherford, you run for another two hundred plus yards. You know, that's a mentality of physical approach to that. The plays by the safeties, the plays by Roal Kuan Smith, the guy's up front tip and passes. I mean, you had everything going on from a physical point of view. You left it. You left a statement. You left a statement in that game. You know.
To me, everybody when they talk about the physical portion of the game, and they usually reserve that for the offensive line, the tight ends, for the defensive line, for the linebackers, Jeff, When you have the physical style of running that Dave Montgomery and Khalil Herbert and Ebner, how they all run with the ball in their hands, how they bounce off the initial hit, how they get three
extra yards after the first collision. When you talk about the physicalness of a football team, and you could include the running back man, that does a lot for your reputation going forward. Because there's four guys in the back of the defense. They don't want to tackle Dave Montgomery Clil Herbert one on one. They want that to be a group effort. You gotta throw in blasting games. Yeah, yeah, you gotta throw in eck when many a Saint Brown bocking. I mean, it's you know, it's it's fun to watch,
you know. We love the running games, So I blasting game, blasting game. Jeff, you put a sixty number on him, you put an eighty number on him, You have keep his thirty number. He's always going to bring an element of physicality to this team, all right, So forgetsy, what's the next challenge for the offense? Yeah, I mean, I think it's just staying within who we are, what we do. Guys have a lot of reps and believe in things conceptually, and we got to keep continuing to maneuver that through.
That's what this league is. I think it's teams that do too much. It's hard to be good at it, and guys like you know, teams that are really really good, they usually do what they do pretty well and then just make it look a little different to the defense, or defense makes it look a little a little different
to the offense. So kind of the same thing. And that's you know, that's the challenge of every coach across the league is the fun ways to do what your guys do well, without letting it be so obvious or predictable. I like that idea of lower volume time in terms of place too. I mean that's music to our ears. Everything at aso side of the ball is repetitiously perfected. And that's exactly what Luke said at the beginning of
that statement. This is a team that needs reps. They need reps on the practice field that carry over to the game field. All right, So now the Dallas Cowboys a lot to break down here. Let's start doing it offensively, not unlike the Bears. They've have two running backs and Ezekiel Elliott and I'm not sure what his status will be, but also Tony Pollard outstanding with his hands as well as his legs, are running game behind a solid offensive line.
The Bears and Cowboys the only two teams in the league with two backs time with over four hundred yards from scrimmage. Oh and by the way, Justin Fields is almost there as well, running the football and almost four hundred yards from scrimmage. So it's a unique couple of backfields here, dual backs, but they want similar things and they're going to try to control the clock. They use that running game to their advantage to set up the
passing game. And then of course you got to talk about the defense, and that's where I'm gonna bringing Cole Commet the Bears tight end on number eleven. Michael Parsons, you gotta find him, that's for sure. Yeah, well it's gonna be all eleven. I think, you know between receivers who if they got chip help tight ends and they got chip help backs and protection and no where he's at all times, you know. So I think we've got
a good plan coming up. But again, he's a special player and you know he's gonna get a shot to but we got we gotta handle off for sure on the injury report with a shoulder to flare it up later in the week. But number eleven pops up on tape repeatedly. He's got eight sacks, and he's got confidence that he can outrun just about everybody, including justin fields. Don't let him outrun yet, you got to attack him, yea.
The worst thing that you can do to the best player on the field is give him an opportunity to chase unblocked, because he will make plays all over the field, up and down in the width of the field. But again. You continuously take cold combat, take Griffin, take every one of the offensive tackles, and you and blasting game for that matter, and you run the ball repeatedly at Micah Parsons. He's gonna have to get out on the defensive before
you allow him to make those tackles. They got other guys to Lawrence is outstanding, and so is Dorrence Armstrong, very very good player. He had a couple of blocks field goals and he's showing up on tape as well. It's gonna be a big test. They do not allow a lot of points. They are number one in many categories, even the nuanced ones that reflect a defense that's playing
some very good football for dan Quinn. We'll break that down and more on Dak Prescott and the Boys as we get ready to go down to Dallas tomorrow afternoon and then play at a good old fashioned noons start against the Cowboys. We'll have the coverage at nine am on WBBM, with a kickoff at noon coming up next. Kyler Gordon joins us here on Chicago Sports Radio six
seventy the Score. Welcome back to Bears All Access. It's brought to you by IGS Energy, choose clean energy for your home at IGS dot com, because every good choice adds up to a better world. With Tom Thayer, I'm Jeff jonahac pleased to be joined by rookie corner Kyler Gordon about the midpoint of a season. Thanks for taking the time. I know things are busy and there's a lot going on, obviously getting ready on a short week
taking out the Dallas Cowboys. How you feeling, first of all at this point, feeling good, just getting our recovery, get my recovery, and uh just getting ready get shopped up for next weekend. Yeah, you're getting used to these short weeks. You didn't really do that in the college game too much? Yeah, not at all. Uh yeah the first one, I kind of recognize how it was going to be. But I'm ready and kim with a good
planing routine just to get myself, my body, my mind right. Hey, Kyler, I wish I would have known this the other day, but I went to Notre Dame. Did you really as a cornerback, as a top athlete, did you really consider going to Notre Dame? I was like super close to going to Notre Dame. I was in love with it. My parents were in love with that. I was just
like I'm telling you, it was very close. You know, you think from that time, that decision you made to go to Washington, and then you think of what you went through last year. Does last year at this time you're getting ready to play a college game. Does last year at this time seem a long time ago? Yes, Like, I honestly feels like I was just in college playing at a out of college night. So honestly doesn't seem
like that long ago. Yeah, it seems recently. Honestly. You know, when you take everything into consideration, you talk about your individual improvement as a player, you talk about the talent that you're facing and you're succeeding against. You think about the big stage of Monday night football. Is all that hard to take in that so much has happened in such a short period time, Because you finish your college season, you get ready for the Combine, and now you're on
center stage. You're starting in one of the most high profile positions in the NFL. Yeah, Honestly, going through all that short amount of time and stuff like that, honestly, just trying to find the best ways and using my resources to find the best way for me to probably prepare myself for that position and being on that stage
and being able to execute. And yeah, I just really just find it, like I said, like the best ways I can get myself going and knowing how I can prepare myself and you know, just being detailed and intentional with how I want to go and set up things for myself so I can perform how I know I can. Kyler Gordon, our guest here on Bears All Access on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy The Score, Tom Fair, Jeff Jowning gap with you. The trick of this is is
that you're doing something that's really difficult. You're playing inside Nickel. We talk about it a lot. It gets a lot of praise and for good reason. And you know, when we met Buster Screen, he was a veteran here a few years ago, smaller body type and really was a rugged player and just learned. He really taught me a lot about what goes into Nickel and I didn't really realize it. And now, I mean, it's a starting job, let's just call what it is. But you're also learning outside.
You've got special teams meeting coming up here soon. I mean there's a lot on the plate, but they wouldn't give you all that if they didn't think you could handle it correct. Yeah, So is that a compliment that you take seriously? Yeah, most definitely. Um, you know, them knowing and believing in me that I can handle this job and how much they're gonna throw on my plate, and knowing that I'm an keep ausking for more and keep wanting to improve and giving them one hundred percent.
You know, they believe in me and I believe in them, so you know it goes hand to hand, and I'm gonna give them one hundred percent and go all out at it. And I know I can and I know I hold myself to high standing. I know what I can do. And uh yeah, you know you learned a little about business right away, don't you. I mean when I first started in the radio long time ago, I had an internship at a station and I was showing
up at three o'clock in the morning. And I showed up the middle of my internship and everybody was crying and people were getting their resumes or what happened, Well, they changed formats of the radio station, and I like, wow, that just happened, right and then the next day everybody's gone. You know, you have one of your captains get traded to the Philadelphia Eagles this week and Robert Quinn a lot of respect for him in the locker room. How do you process that as a first time NFL player,
a rookie halfway through a season. Yeah, honestly, I've never i haven't got a lot of experiences where I've got to see that. So I just kind of seeing the
way the NFL works and how the business are. But you know, having a leader like him being able to take you know, the things whatever we can't say for him as as a rookie and the other guys you know, we talk about, you know, the small things that we see, uh, you know, coming from a veteran and how they you know, they go about this game and how you know, what prepares them and what gets them in the mode or you know, different things that both benefit them and help
them play better during game time. So just all those little things, you know, Thankful what I got to see and stuff like that, and the type of leader he was. Yeah, you know, Kyler, through my experience as a player, I know what it's like to play full NFL season but just backtracking a little bit. In two twenty you play one hundred and thirty four snaps. Two thy twenty one
you play seven hundred and ninety seven snaps. Did that seem like a big increase to you at the time because I had just taken consideration the length of an NFL season, Not asking you about that, but just back in your experience about that huge amount of reps that you took on in twenty twenty one. No, I wouldn't say it seemed like a lot. Um. I mean, I'm glad it was a lot. Honestly. I was disappointed that twenty twenty season was short, um, But when I finally
got that full season, um, it didn't feel like a lot. Now. I was really just looking forward to every week, Honestly. I was looking up your combine numbers and then said, you did twenty reps with two twenty five. Dude, that's that's good. Um. So is that something like you work for just training for that amount of reps? Or and do you think he could do it today? That was my goal was to get over twenty something, way over twenty. I think I put it out like twenty five, but
ended up only gets twenty. But yeah, it was definitely something I worked worked towards a lot during my combine process and uh, you know, working on my form in different ways to just increase my strength and a lot of those different things, uh, with different things are going on in the testing for my combine that I was working on. But yeah, that's one thing that stands out.
That's a heck of a job too, because I know how much work goes into being able to gain that amount of reps in just the stamina to be able to do it. So good job. Man tells me a lot about your weight room. Ask him how many he did? Hey, what did you get? I mean I was heavy. I did forty one, but I was happy. So yeah, but you know it's awesome because of Lineman. It's you know, you're when you're a guy that's two hundred and eighty five pounds going in there, you should be you should
do that many. Yeah, I feel you. That's town there. I can't feel you. I can maybe do one if I was lucky on a good day. Jeff Joni actim there and counter Gordon our guest, what a tremends just response by the defense Monday Night, The play of the entire team, the most complete game of the year so far, every phase contributed in, almost every single player contributed. How
do you feel about it looking back? I feel really good about what we put on tape and just knowing that that's something we can do game in and game out, and just you know, he'll keep holding that standard, all the guys holding each other accountable, just to go out there and do our job and execute. And I know that's something we can can do repeated Lyue and the interception. You got one, yeah, you know Brian Urlacker every time and somebody got a pick here, we got one, he
screamed out. That was the thing. We got one. So you got one, we got one, you got we got one. We got one here. And I know you wanted to score. But Thorte a little bit. He's got some wheels on him. He cut you from behind. Alan Williams was talking about it this week. That's the only the finish, right, So you're gonna be thinking about that field ghost came out of nowhere. Get on your back. I knew immediately because my legs a little dead from the no huddle, but
I knew. I was like, I got the fourth two deal on my back, got run. Yeah, But getting the first though, is that's that's the one now, right that everybody's got to get that off their back a littizabit. So do you feel you're going to uh take advantage of every opportunity? And uh, you know, bouncing balls, the guys are tipping balls of the line of scrimmage. This team rallies to the ball, so the ball is going to be there for the taking. Is that pretty much
the message from above? Ye? And being all the stars over the middle, you know, all we've got to be ready for those and the tips and overthrows, like we said, we got to get those, and uh, you're just ready for everything that comes to us. Already equal last year's interception total Tommy eight a year ago, and you guys have done it in just seven games. So more to come, More to come as well. With Kyler Gordon our guest
here on Bears All Access, let's take a break. We'll have another segment with a young cornerback after this on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy The Score. This segment of Bears All Access is brought to you by Athletical Physical Therapy. Visit athletical dot com. To request an employment in clinic or virtually and start feeling better tomorrow. Jeff Joniak and Tom there with Kyler Gordon our guest here on Chicago
Sports Radio six seventy the score Timmy. Right before the commercial, Kyler Jeff was talking about your interception and so you gotta be honest with us. We got a big audience out here. The adhesiveness of the gloves today, does it Does it allow you to think about making harder catches? Because that was a great, you know job of tipping that cape, getting control and then taking it in a good direction. But when you think about the ball flying through the air and you think of why what the
gloves can do, does it challenge you to make harder catches? Um? Personally, I would say, honestly, I don't think about, you know, the gloves and what they can do. I just think about my own ability and it's the best way for me to catch this ball. Um. I would definitely say that the gloves do have a little bit of a stick to them that you feel more comfortable making a
harder catch. Yeah, Um, But really just putting yourself, for myself in the best position to make that catch, whether it has to be the one hand, two hands, or any anyway I could tip it to myself. It definitely is a little bit of a stick to it. So now when you're in the modern operation of NFL football, you have so many tools of improvement, from the jugs machine to practice to the video and everything you have
a chance to watch. When you're studying an opponent, I'd say you open up the season, you got receivers like Deebo Samuel and stuff, and then you get ready to play a quarterback like Aaron Rodgers in a week two. Where where does your vision go while you're studying your opponent. Does it go quarterback to route or does it go
exclusively route of the receiver? For me so far has really been offense offense to the receiver to quarterback, really trying to figure out, you know what, you know, what does the offensive coordinator trying to do, because everybody, everybody got to do the whole team, the offense has to do. Whatever the offensive coordinator is trying to get. Introduce I really trying to figure out his concept, where he liked his philosophy. All that um then stemming on the receivers.
You know who I'm guarding who's going to be in that position to make those certain plays. And then going back to the quarterback and be like, Okay, this is these arrest targets what he likes to do. So UM really chilling from there from the offense coordinated receivers a quarterback is what I've been doing so far. You know, when you play a slot, you play corner, you play slot.
As slot, you're gonna tackle running backs, You're gonna tackle tight ends, you're gonna tackle wide receivers, a little bit of everything. So two weeks ago, you make a big tackle against the tight end, you stop him on second down, and then that you guys get off the field on third down. When you're tackling a bigger guy that you know, maybe a little slower than you do, you have more confidence because you could probably get into more in a
better tackling position, at a better tackling position. When you're tackling a bigger guy, I'm not as worried about the cutback or him joking. You know, I know I can get there with speed and just shoot at the outside leg or wherever I'm aiming at. Um. Yeah, like I said, I'm not really worried about you know their change in
direction or what's gonna get me on? No, I can fly and just long stride through the through the quad and just wrap up all right, one of those guys, you know, well, you have a lot of guys for Dallas this week. Obviously Ceedee Lamb is working all out out of the slot, but he winds up all over the place. But a guy with a great deal of confidence. So what you're scotting report on number eighty eight. We
got our we got our whole little deal. Can't give it all away, but we got our whole little deal for for their for their offense, and uh we got we got our stuff planning from you know, he's a good player, a good athlete, and uh yeah, we got we got a little game plan. Yeah, and I'll tell you the running backs in this game is fantastic. Only two teams in the league with two backs each with over four hundred yards from scrimmage. And then oh, by the way, we got a QB one that's approaching four
hundred yards from scrimmage just with his legs. So it's really a battle with running backs here. Ezekiel Elliott and also Tony Polter's an outstanding receiver as well. Um, how do you feel about their running games? Yeah, just recognizing
you know, who does what, you know, what they're good at. Um, you know they're two different type of backs and knowing what they're what they like to do with the offense, how the offense likes to use them, and um, yeah, just the best way for us to go up in a first That all right, last two questions because we gotta let you go. You gotta head to a meeting. Uh. Dak Prescott thoughts deck as the starting quarterback. Um, yeah,
I mean he's gonna be out here. Um. You know, we got our own little Scott Reports, So you know, I'm still going through my studies of him, going through what he does and how he is and uh, what he likes and uh, you know, we're gonna have a game plan. From Great Northwest is where you're from, and now you're in the Great Midwest. You sense the difference in uh not only geography but the people. Oh yeah, almost definitely. Yeah, there's a there's a difference for sure.
What do you feel, how do you feel? Um over here, it feels pretty welcoming. I guess I would say it's a there's a lot of nice people out here. It's it's easy to talk to people. Everyone's pretty cool. You know. I do get a little sense of uh, you know, Pheel of Washington. As far as like the nature out here in the in the north part of Chicago, and I like it a lot. Made me feel a little bit at home. Um, yeah, that's all. That's just no ocean. You got the big lake. Tim. Tim takes his paddle
board out there on Lake Michigan. So if you like doing that, he'll come up. All right, Tommy, we gotta let him go. He's got to go to a meeting. Appreciate all the time, and good luck on Sunday in Dallas. Sorry, thank you. Kyler Gordon our guest here on Cago Sports Radio six seventy the Score. We'll take a break. We'll be joined by the voice of the Dallas Cowboys, Brad Sham after this break on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy
the Score calling. All Bears fans get the Ultimate VIP fan package with Chicago Bears VIP Secure a game ticket, had appearance from Bears legends and more by visiting Chicago Bears vip dot Com. Jeff Joniac Tom Tharre will be along in a while, as you break down Bears Cowboys Sunday nine amr pregame coverage on WBBM the kickoff at noon.
Speaking of legends, I'm sitting with one via zoom with my good friend, the legendary Bradsham, longtime voice of the Dallas Cowboys, I believe since nineteen seventy six, and he's seen a lot, He's done a lot, and he's at the top of his game here in twenty twenty two with a very good football team. You got here. It's fun to watch. First of all, drop that legend stuff. Secondly, tellfare that I'm taking it personally. Decided to snub us on this segment right right, You know they're there, They're
fun to watch, and they're still work in progress. I don't know what they'll be. I mean, I don't. I feel kind of silly talking to you about works in progress.
But defensively, they were so vastly improved last year, which they would almost have to be because they were historically bad in the COVID year in twenty twenty and so they've taken another step and they seemed to have drafted well the last couple of years, and the coaches, particularly Dan Quinn on defense, have done a great job of figuring out how to use guys, and I think that they're not where they're going to be. And offensively, they're
definitely not where they're going to be. And it's a little different for this team to have a completely defensive identity and have the offense be viewed as a huge question mark. But that's where we are. It's better than it was when the offense I'm talking about it was when the season started. That was to be expected and I don't believe it's as good as it's going to be by the end of the season. If it'll be good enough, we'll find out. And let's take a look
at you guys a little more in depth. Obviously the defense with a lot of names. Um note Michael Parsons first and foremost. Um, I here start hearing LT comparisons lines up every you know, Is that fair? Well, I mean he's not there yet, but I mean he's awful good. He's awful good. But he was awful good at Penn State. He just didn't who wasn't there very long? Yeah, and
um you started here in that last year. Um, he's a little different kind of player than LT, and Dan Quinn has been very good for him, being being willing to use him in ways that they didn't calculate. He's been very good about taking coaching and expanding his role and he see he's now what's possible. I don't know who the you hesitate to say Lawrence Taylor. By the way, there's another example. A lot of people you say LT. People think you're talking about Ladani and Tomlins running back.
I know the original LT was Lawrence Taylor. And as Quinn pointed out last year, Quinn grew up in New Jersey a big Giants fan, the LT teams were the ones that he watched, and he pointed out correctly that you know, you always knew where Lawrence Taylor was. He was the right outside linebacker in a three to four. Now, it didn't mean you could stop him, but you knew where he was. And the beauty of what they're doing with Parsons is that you don't know where he is
until it's too late. He's got insane speed for his size, but he also has some things that you can't teach instincts. He made two plays last week which we've seen him make before, where he basically started to rush. He began his rush screens and realized three steps into an all out rush that the play was behind him, and he stopped and turned around, recognized it, and ran it down and one of them probably saved the game. So he's an unusual He's an unusual player. Now, let's flippited Dak,
Dak Prescott healthy got the rustoff last week? What's the status Ezekiel and how would that impact things? Well, first, I mean, are you sure that Dak got all the rustoff last week? I mean, he really think about it. I mean, he was pretty average and the only game he played in this year was about three quarters of the opener and he was pretty bad in that game. And he didn't play in the pre season, so you got to go back to the end of last year.
I don't know that the rust is knocked off, and his receiving corps is not what it was last year. So he's going to be better this week than he was last week. But I think it'll be a few weeks before we see the rust completely off. If I had to guess, if you put a gun to my head, I'd be surprised if Elliott played in this game. Only because they've got to buy next week and so. And
they have a pretty good backup in Tony Pollard. And they've got a kid from Florida practice squad running back who a lot of us thought was going to make the team, League Davis, and he's I think he's pretty good. So now Elliott is a warrior. He will not come out. He probably needed to be not playing Last year when he had a torn PCL, which is not Pacific Coast League, he wouldn't come out and it cost him. That injury
costs him a lot of explosiveness. He's still as good a blocking running back as there might be in the league, and he's extremely smart. But he also might be smart enough to realize that this is only the We're not yet at the halfway point of the season. So they won't practice today. They have a recovery program they do on Friday. He hasn't practiced the last two days. If I had to guess, I would guess they would tell us that after the Saturday practice that he's not going
to play. I would expect that he'll be ruled listed as doubtful today. That's a guest, and then then he's essentially got three weeks to rehabilitate the injury till after the buy, so you know, we'll see their receivers are getting a little better. I think they've got some tight end depth, although the number one tight end is also
limping around on a torn pcl Dalton Schultz. But they've got two big ten tight ends rookies Ferguson from from Wisconsin and Hendershot from Indiana, and I think those are going to be good players down the road. So the key is I think for them that they they have to be able to run the ball, and I think they need to get out in front. I'm you know who didn't watch the game Monday night and not come away impressed. And you can almost see Fields, I think
growing from week to week. And I think he's an underrated passer and I'm not sure the team is built to come from two touchdowns behind the Bears. So I think for Dallas a fast start is really important and to do that, they might have to open it up a little bit more than they have been. So that's the chess game. That's what's fun about watching the games. How you touchdown the offense and fields. How about defensively, anything stick out that gets your attention that maybe. I
mean they shut people down in the second half. The adjustments have been working. They don't give up much. I think they drafted well. You know, I understand fifty eighth's not happy with his contract, but he'd looked good in a lot of uniforms. He's a really good football player. And the two defensive backs they drafted this year, I think they're really really good players, and so I think that they are just they're young and growing. But I know Matt Eberflus. I don't know him intimately, but I
was around him long enough, you know. In fact, Prescott said yesterday, when he puts the tape up of the Bears, he can see the influence of how Eberflus. And they might have only been together for a year, but you can see the influence of how Flus wants his players to play aggressive around the ball all the time. It's a style that's that's very evident when it's being done right, and sometimes the whole can be greater than the sum
of the parts. I think that's a little bit true of what's going on in Dallas, and I certainly think that that is true of almost any Eberflus defense when they're playing it the way he wants. So you've got to have you've got to have great individual players, a few of them, but and he's got He's got some. But he's also a really good coach. And I think as a team, they're starting to play well and they're not going they're going to be a nightmare for everybody
they play. And the teams that are the teams that are going to be able to breathe a little easier in the fourth quarter is are the teams that are able to make the Bears play offensively differently than they want to play. But that game Monday night will go a long way. They now know they can do it. And I know New England's not what they were a few years ago and all the rest of that, But I know the Cowboys went to New England last year. They had never won in that stadium, and they needed
a play at the end. Was right about the mid year, and Prescott would not getting hurt on the winning play and we're not sure how much it affected him the rest of the year calf injury, but he they won on a touchdown pass at the end of the game and it was a notable celebration, and it said to them, we can do that. We can go on the road, we can go to New England and we can beat the Patriots. Now the Bears have done that, and as long as Belichick is there, yeah, then that's gonna be
tough place to play. It's gonna be the thing, right, that's gonna be a thing that's gonna stand the Bears in good stead for a while. All Right, last thing, I'll let you go appreciate the time. As always, your team has been built through the draft. They're thirty nine players homegrown, plus some undrafted free agents added to the mix. The Bears are I'm barking on that same journey. That's the plan. It's gonna take some time, obviously to do that. The positives of that in the era of free agency.
To me, that's the way to do it is to build through the draft. Is there enough patience for that? Most of your listeners may not know that I'm a Chicagoan. I've been a Bears fan since I listened to the championship game win over the Giants on the radio in my grandmother's kitchen. I mean, I go back, I go back to Bill Wade and Larry Morris and Johnny Morris
and Bill George. So I've got a little sense of Bears history, Bears fans and I believe Cowboys fans have in common a noted impatience the key and what you just said, in my opinion, is one hundred percent right. It's the way to go. You need to spend some money, and then when you do it, you have to be smart because those contracts come up in three years. You know they're gonna this is a year two for Michael Parsons.
I think it's year three for cdee Lamb. They're gonna have to pay those guys, just like they had to pay Prescott. You know, if Justin Fields turns into what the Bears hope he is, they're gonna have to pay him. And that's what's going on with Roquan Smith right now. So patience is a difficult thing to come by in the Twitter age. Fans don't want to hear it that like Cowboy fan can he. I saw on Twitter this morning the Eagles are talking to the Saints. They're trying
to get Alvin Kamara. This place will go much if the Eagles get Alvin Kamara because the Cowboys aren't spending that money. They're not. You look at the Rams, right they went short term big money. Three years from now, the Rams may be standing on a street corner jiggling a cup for a contribution of the quarter, but nobody cares about that. Right now is what they see. I really believe, and I'm just talking about the Bears now. I know, Matt Eberflus. I look at the young players
the Bears have. I see the way they drafted. They weren't going to win a Super Bowl with Robert Quinn, but that fourth round pick might turn out to be an outstanding player. And Bears fans are tired of hearing be patient. I get it, but listen to Jeff Joniako telling you the truth. It's really the only way that
makes sense. You have to throw in some stuff if they get if they move and they get the stadium, something splashy will happen because the front office will understand that you have to do something besides just put a building up. But you have to be smart about how you do it. I believe the Bears are on the track of doing it the smart right way. They've got they need offensive linemen, but look at fields. Look at
his competitiveness, look at his physical ability. I see a guy who can win if he has the pieces around him. But you don't just this is coming from a die hard Cup fan. Yep, no, you don't just wave him. As Bill Parcels used to say, you cannot go down to the Texico and dial up one eight hundred defensive end. It just doesn't happen. Be patient, because good things are gonna come, Brad. Great stuff is always. I could talk to you for hours. We'll see you Sunday. Meet to
see you Sunday. Take care. Brad Sham, Voice of the Dallas Cowboys, back with Tom Thayre. In a final segment after this on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy the score. Great seats available to see her Chicago Bears this season
at Soldier Field. Get your tickets at Chicago Bears dot Com, slash tickets, and this segment of Bears All Access is brought to you by CDW people who get it with Tom Fair, Johnny ac Overall, Alan Williams on how to deal with a player like Dak Prescott who's had a couple of four thousand yard passing seasons nearly a five thousand yard passing season a couple of years ago. But
it's still not about Dak Prescott. Is still about how we execute our defense, how we run, how we hit, how we hustle, the intensity of how we get to the football taking the football away. You know, whether it's Dak or anyone else, we try to look at it as a nameless, faceless opponent, and it's about the Chicago Bears defense and playing complimentary football, and which they did very well against New England. Toime, that was the first time Prescott had played by the way in forty two days.
Did he look rusty to you on tape? Pretty easy. Just the knowledge of the system and his work there with Kellen Moore makes it an easy transition to get the rushed off. You know, timing is so specific to a cornerback, especially in the passing game. Yeah, he did look a little rusty, but he's got a little different
you know. He can target so many from people and I think as you described the formations during the Dallas game, it's going to be interesting for the description of the position of the wide receivers because when you think of Jalen Johnson, you think of ken Bill, Bill Doer you think that Kyler Gordon, where those receivers line up, is going to play an important role on how they play defense.
And Dalton Schultz a player to watch as well, caught all five of his targets against Detroit and then third string rookie Peyton Hendershott caught a touchdown pass in the game as well. But the impressive part of this, oh whole thing to Mattieberflus is the running game. You do a good job protecting the quarterback. You know, they do a nice joba with their protections. They've limited the number of sacks they've had, but they really rely on their running game. They do a nice job with the two
headed two headed guys there with Poward and Ezekiel. And again they do a really good job of their receivers blocking of the perimeter. So it's gonna be a tough task force. What do you think of that offensive line? There's a domeer on there, well decorated on it, right guard number seventy Zach Martin. Yeah, you know they have a good, solid offensive line. They still are missing a couple of key pieces that really could turn that offensive
line into the next level. How the Bears are able to use the mobility of a guy like Justin Fields. Dallas can do the same thing, and I'm sure week two of his comeback from the thumb surgery, I don't ever expect that he'll be in less condition because he's an athlete that works hard. So the Bears defensive front is going to have to be able to slow down the pat rushing game as well as rushed the passer.
At the same time, Robert Quinn traded to Philadelphia this week of reverberations in the locker room, a lot of respect for him from the young guys, including Dominique Robinson, but now an opportunity for him and Travis Gibson and some others. It's a big opportunity. It's been like this since since college almost It's the next man up, so you never know when your opportunity is going to come. We've got some shoes of field, but I think that the higher ups they feel comfortable with us, you know,
taken over, so we got put on. Oh yeah, the higher ups being Ryan Poles and the coaching staff. Robinson again didn't let that go unnoticed. Yeah, I mean it's a confidence booster. My confidence in build and ever since I got here though, So you know, I came in rookie. During the rookie stuff, kind of a little nervous, But once I've seen it, I could play and play with some of these guys, I was okay. And then as the weeks keep going on, our confidence continues to build.
So he's gonna keep trying to stack and you know best. He's raw and untapped. Man, he's got so much potential. Well, it's like Luke as he talking about the offense that you need reps. This is a young man that needs a lot of reps. He needs to be able to visualize the difference between run and pass. He needs to understand the balance of the stances of the guys he's playing against. He's got to be able to read the
down and distance, what hashmark they're starting on. There's so much pre snap information that has to run through your head. All those parts of learning football are equally as equally as important is anytime he comes out of his stance. So how do you defend this team? Because they do have a lot of weapons, and they have a veteran quarterback, but they haven't put up a lot of point even with Cooper Rush doing so well, and they won five
games overall this season. The numbers offensively are not staggering. It's the defense that has set the table for them. You got you gotta keep back inside the pockets. Yeah, you got to try to close and condense the area to make him really uncomfortable. Be careful of his follow through motion so it doesn't hit the helmet of one of his offensive linemen. So if you can keep him inside that pocket, ask him to throw the ball a little bit earlier. Then you're talking about playing into the
hands of the defensive players. And he's the type of guy that wants to sit back, locate target and then throw. Yeah, fourteen and fourteen on passes of ten or fewer air yards in his return and also on play action eleven of twelve one twenty one yards in a touchdown. There goes the running game setting it up for you exactly. And again, it's it's almost a mirror image of each other because those are probably stats that you could read about justin the running game is going to help you
with your passing game, And it's the same thing in Dallas. However, I just think when you're coming off of that thumb injury and you want to close that pocket down, and you want to put make sure that Dak is throwing with bodies around him. Maybe you change his arm level, his arm angle, the release of the football a little bit more to help you defensively. All right, let's go back to how to attack that defense and now with more design runs that were unveiled in New England for
quarterback Justin Fields. You know what that means for Michael Parsons, what that means for Dallas. Was watching the Thursday night game and how Baltimore used Lamar Jackson, and of course, you know, Justin admitted that they stole a few plays from from Baltimore using the same kind of philosophies that the Ravens do. Boy, they they really tired out the defense of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and then just hammered them. You know that that was the planned the whole game.
And you know, can the Bears do something like that. They have the same elements taken place from Baltimore. It means Baltimore took place from somebody else, and somebody else and so on down the line. Again, from my own experience as a player, when I go and watch the development of a guy like John Elway. That's the same
thing they did with John Elway. They had quarterback sweeps, they had quarterback roll pullouts, they had a quarterback that was moving all over the field to tire out one of the best defenses I saw in the history of the NFL, and that was the Bears defense. So I think, whether you're talking about Lamar Jackson or Justin Fields, every one of these guys have the leg power, the arm, talent, the mental part of the football game to really use
their versatility as a threatening asset to guys like Michael Parsons. Interesting, Luke Getsy, you know, I was asked about these design runs and a new page in the playbook, so to speak, but he said it wasn't as different as people think. I mean, we've been doing it all year. I think what the what we do with our entire offense is we try to get, you know, get the premier play
against the defense. And so, you know, they presented some cool opportunities for us that we were able to kind of get better angles and stuff with a quarterback run
this this past week. So we wanted to make sure we took advantage of it, and it didn't hurt that we had an extra day as far as like necessarily creating a new offense, and then no, we didn't do anything differently that from that perspective, and we went about it the way we kind of always do in our game plan part of it and what you know, what gives us the best opportunity and what gives all eleven
guys the best opportunity to succeed. And now from Matt Eberflew Sound the Bears Coaches Show Monday night on WBBM, will this be the norm with fields? How much we use those? I don't know, you know, we use, We'll use some of them, will sprinkle them in there. Again, it's all based on who we're playing and what we're going to do and how we're going to do things
for that particularly week to win the game. But when you have that that commitment by the offensive staff and us as Bears in general, that that's something that's important to us and the three guys that can do it, the two runners in the quarterback, that's special for those guys. And as a defensive mind, he knows how tough that
is to defend. You know, Jeff, it's all about using them when you need them because you go over and we sit there every day at training camp, and you see him practice all these plays and you go, wow, it's gonna be interesting when you see it. And then you never see it, and then all of a sudden, an opportunity presents itself to go, hey, let's go back in the archives what we are doing at training camp.
I'm gonna show you guys some examples of this play that will work perfectly in the environment or the personnel we're playing against. Then you pull it out and you used it. And so Luke Kets He's probably got five hundred plays in his back pocket that he could call at any moment. However you don't. You're not gonna call him unless you need him. And they fit your game plan as it moved you in any way that they
are the number one rushing team in the NFL. Oh, it warms my heart as much as I admire with Chris Morgan been able to do since he started to developing an offensive line that was going to be able to compete against the past, compete against the run, and be as good as they have bet And then you have immediate changes, whether it's Cody getting injured, Lucas Patrick getting injured. Not known who you're going to start at the offensive tackle position, how Tevin Jenkins is going to
fit in. But I really admire how the desire of the running back position matches the intensity of the offensive line because it's gotta be a one two punch. The running backs are not going to do it on their own, and the offensive line is not going to be able to have this type of running game if they don't all work together from the start of the week of practice until the final whistle blows. All right, Tom, that's gonna do it for us. We'll talk to Ian Dallas
on the radio. Buddy. I want to thank everybody for listening tonight and our producers Dan Ba really, Jordan trud Up and the folks at the Score. Thanks to Kyder Gordon as well. Appreciate you listening tonight. For Tom There, I'm Jeff Joniac. This has been Bears All Access. Hown't yougo? Sports Radio six seventy the Score. Good night, everybody,