Kap & J. Hood
9/23 8 AM: Matt Eberflus
It's a Captain Jay good morning show on ESPN 1000 and streaming on the ESPN Chicago app. Watch our show on YouTube as well. Go to youtube.com make sure you check in to the ESPN Chicago and hit that subscribe button. Time to talk to the coach, Betty Replus and he's on the hotline. Karak's tiring on a hotline. Rattle, rattle, thunder, batter, boom, boom, boom. Don't worry, call the Karak Snake. Good morning coach, how are you? Do it well. Coach, give us your overall thoughts in the game. You've got a chance to review the film. What stood out most? Just watching it a second time, yeah, you look at the tape, you know, obviously you go through the missed opportunities that we had, you know, so really the things we've got to clean up and we're looking at those and but there's also some things there that we did really well. I thought the ball distribution on offense was better. The explosive plays was better. We got more first downs. The third and fourth down percentage was good. You know, the past pro was improved need to get better there. We were more committed to the run game. I thought that was well defensively. Again, I thought we played well and defense took them all away and did some really good things on third down as well. The QBR was that was good and I thought we reacted really well and sudden change. So those are all the positives and then things going forward we need to work on is obviously eliminate, you know, the turnovers on offense, you know, the SAC fumble obviously was a big play, you know, still establishing our run game and our identity there. I think it needs to be improved and defensively, you know, we have to eliminate some of those explosives. I think that's why they scored those touchdowns when they did and then at the end of the game our four minute defense has got to be better. We got to give the ball back to our offense at the end of it. But we had some missed opportunities, you know, on the goal line, as you guys know, the fourth place inside the form ran, you know, three plays in there and then we ran the option play at the end. And I think that's, you know, get like a go back to what I said yesterday that, you know, we have options there. The quarterback has options. We didn't execute the best way we wanted to there. And, you know, so that was unfortunate. And then, you know, really the opportunity at the end, you know, again, like I said, the defense has got to get the ball back for the O to be able to get that late touchdown so we can win that football game. Coach, I got to ask you about the third down call inside the four because last year I was listening, you were on with Waddell and Sylvie and they asked you about blocking a big with a small and you said, no, that's a mistake and that shouldn't happen. I just watched the tape about 15 times. I'm sure you've watched the 1500. You guys are asking DeAndre Carter to block 94 Taekwon Lewis, he's outweighed by a hundred pounds. He got engulfed and actually tackled him into Kaleel Herbert. Is that a mistake there or was that something that Shane drew up that way? Yeah, we just need to be better there for sure. You know, we've got to be better there. You know, as coaches, we've got to be better on offense there for sure. But again, we're going to get that, turn a plunge that in there and again, we've got to be better with the match up there. We agree with you on our last couple of appearances that you've had here talking about running the football. It is true that the Bears got to be able to run the football, establish the run, keep the offensive line, you know, intact and it makes Kaleel comfortable. Do you think that you're getting enough from the running game coach? Because we talked about it, you know, Swift is struggling, you know, but but at the same time, 28 carries for a 63 yards. I know you want more from that from the running game. Yeah, so I think the run game is everybody. We know that. You know, it's the blockers up front, it's the blockers on the perimeter and it's also we believe in all of our backs. I think we all they all have a unique skill set and I think, you know, you know, we have to use all three of those guys to their skill sets and going forward, we got to do a better job there. But again, we got to still establish our identity and establish the run game because it does help our quarterback. It does help the run action pass that does help our movement passes. It does help the screen game. So again, we're going to need that later in the year to lean on that and we need to just keep developing and get it better. Rosha Johnson look good. It looks like his legs are fresh. He did. So that as hoodie was just asking you about the run game, Matt, in terms of the fourth down play call and again, I didn't. I wasn't a DC or I didn't play in the NFL, but I've watched a billion games. It looked to me, tell me if I'm wrong, that when Caleb came to the line of scrimmage on fourth down, he should probably, was that a check with me? That he should have checked out of that went. That ain't the front we thought they were going to run like they did two weeks ago. That either take a time out because you had them or run it to the other side. It looked like he misdiagnosed the front. Is that accurate? Well, it's like I said before, you know, it comes down to execution. It comes down to the execution of the play. And again, we have options on the play and we went with the play that was originally called there. So it comes down to execution, you know, that's all it is. Matti Reflus is the head coach for the Bears. He joins us, Captain Jay Hood on ESPN 1000 and streaming on the SP in Chicago app coach. When you work with young players, especially rookies like Caleb Williams or any other rookies in your career. How much is it? Is trying to accentuate the positives and hide the negatives as well as far as Caleb. Just trying to get comfortable with the offense, autobling, being able to run with the football. Is it about what makes him comfortable or is it about the play call? Well, I think it's both. I think it's both. I mean, you obviously have to honor the play calls that we put in there because that's how you operate on offense, but also it's given the quarterback to have some freedom there as well. You see something to be able to either individually signal to a receiver or check the entire play. That's all part of offensive football. But again, like you said, there is a lot of positive positive out there in terms of the offensive play in terms of, like I said, explosives, first downs, you know, ball distribution, our situational football third and fourth down was way better. So again, there's a lot of positives to take away from this game. Again, the result was it isn't what we wanted, but there's a lot of positivity that we're going to build upon from this performance. So, Woody and I were having this discussion. I got two things here. One, can Caleb in that situation, whether it's the fourth down play or the third down play where he sees, uh oh, here comes 94 DeAndre is not going to be able to block him. Does he have the autonomy to either eight audible out of the play or I'm taking the time out? This is not going to be good. Can he do that? Well, you know, like I said, we have, we have options on that particular play, you know, some work with first option and we have options there. And again, we didn't execute the best way we wanted to. Okay. Yeah. The other thing is. That's what we're talking about. We're just trying to figure out, like for Caleb, for any rookie, how comfortable are you in the offense? You could say, you know what, I see something different. Let's do, you know, maybe go to plan B or plan. Sure. You're a rookie pitcher is going to follow with the catch. Right. Okay. My other question is coach, I'm watching the game and you've got two fingers up to go for two. Maybe one of your assistants standing over your left shoulder, he's got one finger up. There's eight minutes to go in the game and then you have to burn a timeout on a two point conversion. Can you take us through that situation? How that happened? Because you needed that timeout late. Yeah. So like I said, last night is exactly what I'm going to say now is what it is, is that we got to be better there. The communication has got to be better. We have to be better from the upstairs down to the bottom and communicate with everybody. And it's got to be better there. So again, that's one of the coaches that doesn't do it to players. And we have to do a better job. You always say that you want to do what's best for the Chicago Bears as far as putting the best players out there, putting the position to win. So starting the game, Nate Davis was on the bench and then he was pressed in the service. What in what into that change to put Nate Davis on the sideline and then being pressed in the service late in the first quarter? Yeah. So Nate Davis on Wednesday had a growing issue and had during practice. And then Matt stepped in, Matt Pryor stepped in. And again, he didn't get full reps in the whole week in terms of Nate didn't. And that was in there. So we went with Matt Pryor. How do you think Pryor did? I thought he did solid. I thought he did solid. I thought, you know, there's a couple of players that, you know, he wished he had back. But for the most part, I thought his run blocking was good. Past Pro was solid. You know, he had to one miss at the end there. But I thought for overall it was pretty solid. Coach, do you feel like and everyone has talked about, if your players have talked about what an elite defensive play caller that you are, but does it take away? Jimmy Johnson was talking and said, yeah, I never wanted to call the plays or call the defenses once I became a head coach because I got to be focused on things. If I'm thinking about my defense against Anthony Richardson, I might miss something I want to see offensively. Has that ever been a concern for yours that, yeah, I like calling the defenses, but it is distracting at times. Oh, no, it is not, it is not, it's, I have a great, great defensive staff. Like I said, you know, they do a great job with the adjustments when I'm on the offensive side managing the game and they do a great job. Give me all the information we need in terms of calling it for the next series. I give them things to look at when I'm on the offensive side. I'm going to come back to them, they have the answers for it and they've been outstanding that way. Coach, what's the latest on Ken and Allen as we watch these games, we just know on third down if killed needs a safety valve, it would be him for the first down. He's made his living on third down play. So I was, what's the latest on Keenan? Yeah. So our players are coming back in today and I'll get the latest on everybody here shortly. You know, they come in and they're about an hour and we'll see everybody then and we'll see where it is in terms of injury, in terms of guys, you know, and back in the building, what they can do this week and we'll find that out for the training staff. Any other, any injuries that you knew of coming out of last night? Just Terrell Smith, Smitty, that's all we had was, he was beat out for the game and it's, I think it's in the lower body hip or hip flexure. Okay. Lastly, you know, about the defense, you know, you talked about late in the game, trying to get the ball back to the offense. So, so, Kathy, the whole thing was, you know, they have a two headed, two, two guys that can run the football well. It's Richardson at the quarterback position and Taylor, right? And so I think that the Bears account themselves pretty well defensively. You know that you, those two guys can run the football, but the passing game pretty much taken out of the equation, right? Yeah. You guys did a good job against Anthony Richards, except for a busted play that, I think Jaylen said that was on him. Oh, you tell what the pass? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's really fast player. He gets over the top on a bunch of people, and again, we just got to execute the techniques better there. But overall, I thought we did a good job in the passing game. Like I said, we got to do a better job with the run average against those guys. And you know, we'll be committed to doing that. All right, coach. Have a good week. Okay.