Kap & J. Hood
9/9 8 AM: Matt Eberflus
(air whooshing) - Matt Eber Flus. - Eber Flus. - Hey, cool chop the Chicago Bears. - It was really good. I mean, there was a lot of good situations that we had. - Breaking down the Bears and the latest updates. All season games. - You know, there's some really good players on both sides. Can that person function with that match? - Matt Eber Flus. - With Kevin Jaywood on ESPN Chicago. - It's the Captain Jaywood Morning Show on ESPN 1000 and streaming on the ESPN Chicago app. - And Coach Eber Flus is on the Hotline. - That beat the car, it's tire not a Hotline. (air whooshing) - Rattle, rattle, thunder, batter, boom, boom, boom, boom. (air whooshing) - Don't worry, call the car, it's name. - Good morning, Coach, how are you? (audience clapping) - Coach, congratulations on the victory. Hey, after reviewing the film, Captain Abbott talked about all morning. After reviewing the film, what was your overall view of Sunday's game? - I thought it was a good test of resiliency. I thought the guys did a really good job of coming back in the second half, holding together and executing better and doing the things necessary to win the football game. I think it was a great lesson for our football team. - Coach, when you watched the film last night and you knew it half time, we're gonna make a couple defensive adjustments and they did not cross the 50 in the second half. They did not score a point in the second half. Your defense forces three big turnovers in the fourth quarter, a strip sack and recovery at two interceptions, one that goes to the house. What adjustments did you guys make defensively to put that type of heat on Will Levis? - Yeah, the adjustments we made were just a person foremost playing with better fundamentals. And that sounds easy, but yeah, certainly we made some different calls and did some different things to put us in and some advantageous positions, but it's really about the guys focusing on running our defense the right way. And they did some really good things. We had three, three and outs in the first half. We know we give that long third and long third and 15 that kept that long drive alive. Got them down in the red zone in the one area there and then had a penalty. So we had some things that we had some self-inflicted wounds there in the first half a little bit, but we also played some good football. We had three, three and outs and then second half they came back and did a nice job of just doing basic football well. And our guys are ball hawks and they do a good job with that. - Kevin Byard talked in the locker room, Flus, and said, we are changing the culture here. He was addressing the entire team, the coaching staff. I saw Ryan Polls back there and Kevin Warren. It was super cool, but he talked about changing the culture and he said, there's gonna be days offense, it's gonna carry us. There's gonna be days like today where the defense carries us. Can you just take us inside that room and what that vibe was like when Byard was speaking? - Yeah, Kevin's talking about our whole mantra of being one. So B1 means that we're one Chicago football team. We're not offense, we're not defense, we're not special teams, we're the Chicago Bears. So it doesn't really matter what side you are, what position you play, we're all pulling on the same rope. And that's what he was referring to. - You know, Kev, we were talking about running the football. We just thought that with a Ricky quarterback in Caleb Williams, running the football was paramount. Coach, what did you think of the running game as far as what you guys want to accomplish? Because we thought that would be your game plan coming in, getting Caleb comfortable, setting up the run to eventually get the pass down the field. - Yeah, I thought when you look at the tape, we had some really good efficient runs. You know, if you look at the runs, we had some, you know, six or seven yards. I thought when we had the game and we were trying to waste some time at the end, what we did at the end of the game, we also had some good efficient runs there too. So again, you just gotta avoid the negative plays. And that's why the numbers are as good as you'd like it to be. But again, I thought we did some good things there. - You know what, and we talked about earlier, Kev, Tennessee, the same thing, right? You got Will Levis as a young quarterback. They ran the football. They stayed wedded to the run until they finally broke through a veteran like Pollard. But again, you got two young quarterbacks who want them to get comfortable. And both teams ran the football pretty well, I thought, right? - Yeah, I thought they did. And then I was seeing the second half. We did a really good job of stuffing out the run. I think they had, you know, point eight yards or whatever that might be. But it was a good test for our defense. - Coach, hoodie and I were talking about Caleb Williams. Look, rookie quarterbacks, we asked regular employees in the world. They started in entry level positions. We asked 22 year old quarterbacks. Hey man, a lot is expected. We're putting the whole city on your shoulders. What is it like dealing with him after the game? I thought he was great in his interview with Christina Pink. And in the podium where he said, I got to be better and I will be better. What is that discussion like with him? - It's really just that. He's got a positive upbeat attitude, but he's also understanding that he's got to improve and get better every single week. And as I said in the post game at the podium, you know, we have to play well around them. And we got to continue to do that. Meaning the protection's got to be good. The receivers got to do a great job of running catch. You know, and a defense has to play ball. And special teams, you know, special teams made a lot of nice plays yesterday and packed all plays in the game. And so that was good to see as well. - Mattie Riflous is the head coach for the Chicago Bears. He joins us, Cap and Jay Hood on the radio home of the Chicago Bears, ESPN 1000. You know, we love Cap as we love the unsung hero. We can go through the depth chart. Coach, every morning we've got the depth chart open. That's it, it's going to be a change. It's just right there. It's one of our tabs in our computer. - Always. - So you see an unsung hero like Taylor coming through, right? He's new to the football team. We know about the defense, you know, backwards and forward. But when you get a guy like Taylor coming in there and what he was able to do to help the football team, that, I'm sure that that was a lift to the team. - Yeah, we were excited to do a two sacks and a fours fumble which turns into a big turnover at the Titan 31. - Pretty good. - Yeah, yeah, really good by him. He's got great energy and excellent impactful plays that he had in the game. You know, he just got here. So, you know, we're working hard with him to delay. Coaches are working hard in terms of alignment, the assignment. And he's getting that done. And what a positive attitude he has. And I would also say, Hardy, Hardy did a great job in the game of special teams, had the block punt, had a really nice tackle on one of the cover teams. So I thought he had a role in the actual game as well. - Coach, what was it like at halftime? Because, you know, the fans are not happy as you're leaving the field. And, you know, the announcers are like, "Wow, the Chicago doesn't look very good." What was it like in the room at halftime? - Yeah, at halftime, the guys were upbeat, you know, and that's what KV was referring to at the end of the game. We were just, you know, we just looked at each other and said, "Hey, we got this." You know, there's a couple of plays there, here and there that happened. You know, we had the valus punt, the moth, and the defense responded well on that kickoff return and holding those guys to a field goal. And so I thought overall it was really positive in there, just correct the mistakes. Understand we got this and the guys went out and executed. - I'm gonna ask you about Caleb Williams, quarterback for the Chicago Bears. You got a chance to go through the tape again. What stood out most about Caleb, the good and the questionable to you? - Yeah, I thought I was, like I said, afterward it was a good operation. You know, I know we had a delay and I call it time, but that's, you know, pretty decent for the first time out and operation was pretty good. And then really just him, you know, he made some really good throws, had some really good, you know, spot on throws in terms of rhythm and timing. You know, and some of the other things, he just got to clean up. You know, he was off on a couple and he knows that and he's got to start from the ground up and just got to work this for a while. - You can see the glimpses though, Cap, right? I mean, there's some elite throws there and it's just like, you know, moving forward, it's only gonna get better. - Yeah, like the one, it was a dime he hit Keenan Allen, who's a six-time pro baller, but he's a human being. It happens, he dropped it. That was a dime right there. - Yeah, like I said, he had some really good passes. You know, he was calm, cool and collected the whole time. So his demeanor and his disposition was really good and that helped him and I'll talk about, like we talked about it after the game. He'll come in here in about 45 minutes and meet with me, we'll go over the tape and discuss that. - Coach, I got to ask you about Vailus Jones. You ran him a couple times. I think 11 yards on two carries and he caught a pass, but he did fumble a kick and you guys did not go back to him. Your thoughts on Vailus moving forward. - Yeah, I thought his response was really good in terms of him coming back in there, like you said, and being productive for us on offense. And to me, that shows his character and again, we'll evaluate where he is in terms of the kick return game as we discussed this throughout the day and moving forward. How's the injury report? - I mean, look, I haven't really, I've gotten a preliminary, it looks okay, looks decent, but again, I'll get more of an in-depth report. Once the players report, they're starting to report now and I'll get an in-depth report after that's finalized. - Simo, Chris Borg and your old line coach did use a rotation at Wright Guard and Ryan Bates got the lion's share. I think 38 snaps to 18 for Nate Davis. Can you take us through that evaluation after watching the tape? - Yeah, the guys are really rotating there in practice. And they both haven't been injured throughout training camp. We thought that was the best way really to get the guys to play at a maximum in terms of their effort, in terms of their technique fundamentals because they both were out there in training camp to maximize that position. And then going forward, we're gonna look at the tape and see where it is and go from there in terms of rotation or who's in and who's out, who's starting. - Okay, we know that you're only Houston next. So what are you eating in Houston? Like that's, they got great barbecue in Texas, but what are you going after? You've been there before. - Oh yeah, I used to recruit down there when I was back at Mizzouc. So, you know, back in the day, we used to get a lot of players down from Houston away. So yeah, barbecue is unbelievable down there. So I won't have any this time, it's a business trip, but I'm sure they will win. - What did we have last night then? You had to have something good. Well, last night afterwards? - Yeah. - Yeah, I had pizza. It was good. I splurged. - All right, you're such a Chicago guy now, you were flus. I mean, this is what happened here. You're digging right in the peaches. It's like the rest of us eating pizza after the game. We all did that. (laughing) - No, why not? - Man, have a good week of practice and now we'll be looking forward to talking to you next Monday after a hopefully Sunday night football win. - All right, thanks for having me on guys. Appreciate it. - All right, we'll see ya.