Kap & J. Hood
9/16 9 AM: Matt Eberflus
Matt Eber Flus. Eber Flus. Hey, Coach of 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. All season. You know, there's some really good players on both sides. Can that person function with that? Matt Eber Flus. With Captain Jayburn on ESPN Chicago. It's a Captain Jayburn Morning Show on ESPN 1000 and streaming on the ESPN Chicago app. After every Bears game we hear from the head coach, Matt Eber Flus. And he joins us on the Hotline. The car is tired, not a hotline. Rattle, rattle, thunder, batter, boom, boom, boom. Don't worry, call the car next night. Good morning, Coach. How are you? Good. Well, thanks for having me on, guys. Absolutely. After reviewing the film last night in this morning, were your overall thoughts on the Bears' performance? Yeah. You know, I took to the team last night and I said that, you know, it's how we respond to these adversities that matter because, you know, in the NFL, it's always going to come down to two minutes. We gave ourselves a chance to win that game at the very end. And we just didn't get it done in that particular night, but I was proud of the guys the way they responded to the adversity in the game and did a nice job of playing complimentary football in terms of setting up the offense in terms of, you know, doing a good job with that and in the kicking game. So, I just think that, you know, we're going to look at this today and get better from it and go forward to Indianapolis. So, I thought, Coach, that as Tullen Hoodie, the defensive effort was just magnificent. And I know Kyler wanted you guys to challenge on the pick six that he got up and ran in. And when you looked at it, it did hit the ground, but I get the passion and it's a game-changing play. Can you take us through the process of how you determine challenging? Is it someone upstairs in your ear? Is it multiple people? Because the first one, I didn't think you had a chance to win. The second one, I understood the gravity of the situation. Right, we've been really good with that. And the process is, I do have somebody upstairs. And, you know, we're always looking at that. And we've been really good at challenges since I've been here. And last night, we just were unfortunate. We missed on two of them. But again, going forward, those were two situations. One was a third down, you know, a third down and longer. And we thought it was a critical time. We didn't get a great look at it upstairs. So I decided to throw it there. And again, it didn't go our way that time. And then you're exactly right with that game-changing play. Again, we didn't get a great look early enough. Look for it, so we ended up challenging that. But it was a turnover that would have been a huge play for our football team. And Ky almost had that one. Yeah, I guess that varies, doesn't it? Coach, from Stadium Stadium, at home, we're saying, hey, maybe you should challenge it. Maybe you shouldn't challenge it. But I think it's Stadium Stadium. It does matter, right? It's a difference as far as the look that you can get on the monitor. No problem. Yeah, yeah. You're a decorate. That's exactly right. That's the issue sometimes. But again, you got to go if you've got some times. And again, like I said, we've been very good at that since we've been here. Coach, there is no offensive line tree where you can go out. No, I need a right guard and pluck one. So how do you fix? Because the offensive line just had a really, really rough night. I know last week you're dealing with pressure from up the middle. These edge guys on a silent count, it's really tough. How do you fix it? Yeah, I just think it's time on task and keep working on it. Because, you know, you need to use silent count. And it's important that we do that and we're all on the same page. You know, because it can be used as a weapon. You can get guys to jump off sides. You can do a really good job with that in that noise. Because, you know, the defense is also dealing with the noise. So you got to make sure that you have a really coordinated effort there. And we definitely have to get better at that for sure. Yeah, Coach, Cap and I earlier this morning was talking about the defense, the blitz, the ability to get after Caleb Williams. Would you think of the Texans and what they were able to do? Did you expect as much pressure as often as they did against Caleb in the offense? Yeah, that's something that that system has done for a while. You know, even when Dameka was back in San Francisco, they've always ran those five-man pressures and, you know, into Swiss games inside with playing that man-free coverage behind it. So, you know, again, we just got to be able to do a good job of getting open, you know, for the coverage and then making sure we're keeping that pocket firm for him to be able to make those decisions. Matt, if you were sitting down just waiting to get your coffee and some fan came up to you and you're -- what do you do? I'm a football coach. Oh, what would you -- and they asked you this question. What is the identity of your team on offense? How would you answer that? Like, what you want it to be and what it is now? Yeah, the identity of our team, you know, really is about -- not just the offense, is about being tough-minded, resilient, effort-based football team, you know, that believes in taking care of the football and getting after the football and playing complimentary football. So, again, we have a new offense that's been through two games. This is week two. We won the first game. We were in the second game and had a chance to win it at the end. And so, we have to really understand where we are right now. So, we're in the process of doing it and we're going to get that done. And it's going to be getting better every single week. And I believe that this week got better. And, you know, I thought Kayla played better. I thought the offense in general played better. We had a nice two-minute drive to finish the half. We had a two-minute drive at the end to put ourselves in filborens to kick it. And then we had another drive at the end. Again, we end up taking that big sack and that's what really ended up killing us at the end. But, again, putting ourselves in a position to win. And we just got to keep doing right and keep doing right longer. And good things are going to happen. Mattie, we've produced the head coach for the Bears. He joins us on the home of the Bears. ESPN 1000 on the cap and Jhood Morning Show. Last week, we talked about the game against the Titans. And you said that you liked some of the efforts for the running game. Thought that there were some good runs here or there. This game here on Sunday night against Houston. A 71 yards on 22 carries. Cap and I, we've talked about it. We feel like that for a young rookie quarterback in the offensive line is trying to get things together that running the football is still paramount. You say a complimentary football. Do you expect to run the football even more so moving forward here just to keep Kayla up in the offensive line comfortable? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. The numbers that we're used to, we've had big numbers here running the football. And it's important that this is the 2024 Bears. And this identity for us is going to be unique and different than the other teams. But we've got to make sure that we establish the run game. That's paramount. And that's in any football team is going to say that. But we've got to get that done because you're exactly right when you say that. That's going to be something that we can lean on as a football team to be able to run the ball. I've always said, you know, you run the ball, you know, to win the game, right? You pass the score points, but you got to run the ball at some point, right? Early in the game, you know, dominate the front, right? And then late in the game to win it. Flus hoodie and I have always subscribed to this Tom Brady theory that we had, we played a cut from him where he said if the ball is not out of my hands in 2.5, maybe 2.75, anything beyond that is usually on me, not the O line. Caleb Williams average pass last night, according to the NFL stats, 2.59 seconds, six fastest in the league this week. In your opinion was the pressure that was dialed up at all his fault or more. Maybe the scheme, maybe the play calling, maybe the O line, but not him. No, but that number, I wanted to say that that number does tell you that he's getting the ball out. Yes, he's gotten better. You could feel that last night. I thought the timing was better in terms of that. I thought he distributed the ball to the skill better in terms of, you know, the number of targets that Cole had and DJ and Rome and all those things. You know, we missed, and we just missed on a couple. You know, I thought we did a really good job of playing together and I have great confidence in the football team and trust in our leadership, you know, in the coaches and the locker room, you know, so I feel really good about where we are. But back to your question, I would just say, yeah, I thought that he got the ball out faster. And I said it last night at the press conference, you know, the protection thing is that everybody think. It's not just Caleb, it's the offensive line, it's a tight end, the backs. Everybody has a hand in protection, including the quarterback. So it's a group thing and we just got to make sure we get a little bit better at that this week. Coach, what's the latest on the injuries, including with Ken Allen, we saw him on TV a lot. Being a cap, you saw him on the sidelines coaching up players. That's a veteran. You love a veteran being able to communicate while the coaches doing their thing. What's the latest on Ken Allen and some of the others that are banged up? Yeah, so you guys know that Ken is dealing with his foot, you know, so we'll see where it is. You know, he's had a couple of days of rest. We'll see him today when they come back in and we got back in late. Guys didn't get back to house hall till about four o'clock. So it was late last night and then we'll see him later today and see what it is. And then we had Zach Pickens also, you know, he left the game and didn't return. And I'll see where he's at dealing with a groin issue. So we'll see where he is. And you felt, oh, Rome was in that. I was surprised he played. What a warrior. And he played basically every snap last night. The last play that you had before they took their kneel down. Was that a back shoulder throw that Rome didn't come back to the bar? Was that just a miscommunication? Yeah, that's just execution. That's just execution on the play. And we just got to do a better job with that one. But again, that's the guy you want to throw to. It's either Henry DJ for sure on the field. We have both those guys on the field there. And again, we just got to execute better in that fourth down play. All right, coach, we wish you the best for this week. Any thoughts going back to Indianapolis? That's your last stop before year. No, it's just that it's out there and the fans get that place rolling pretty good. So we're going to have a big challenge ahead of us. And again, it'll be good for us because we just came out of a louder environment. And so we got to go back to another one and execute. All right. Have a good week. Okay.