The Chicago Bears Podcast
Jayden Daniels Outshines Caleb Williams: What's Going Wrong? w/Courtney Cronin
The Chicago Bears Podcast with Pat The Designer and ESPN’s Courtney Cronin, brought to you by The Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana! Pat and Courtney kick things off by breaking down how impressive Commanders' Jayden Daniels has looked and compare his performance to Caleb Williams. They dive into the different situations surrounding both QBs and why Daniels has found early success. Courtney doesn't hold back as she shares what she doesn’t like about how the Bears are handling Caleb. Next, they dive into the bad personnel decisions by the Bears and how that’s affecting the team. Courtney also breaks down her latest piece on the Bears' play-calling—is it time to change the process? Don't miss this in-depth discussion! #ChicagoBears #CalebWilliams #JaydenDaniels #BearsOffense #CourtneyCronin #BearsPersonnel #NFL #BearDown #BearsPodcast #PatTheDesigner #HardRockCasino #BearsBreakdown
- Broadcast on:
- 24 Sep 2024
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- other
bet on bears fans another edition of Chicago bears podcast coming your way path the designer Courtney Cronin back at it again continuing to break down an interesting loss as we get ready to look ahead but you got to look back first and see what the heck is going on especially with the play calling here in Chicago Courtney put out a very interesting article and I think it brings to the forefront some really good questions that we got to discuss on today's episode also you can't help but peek at what the other rookies are doing and when you see the performance from Jayden Daniels last night Courtney you got to feel a little bit of like all right Caleb didn't do that bad but like that's that was a good performance for sure I mean three games and we're not making any declarations least I'm not like we were talking about the Sun around the horn bit today and the question was is he a superstar already I'm like guys it's three games in was that an impressive performance that we saw last night absolutely and to do it and make the Bengals defense look I mean everybody respects Luan Arumo like as a defensive coordinator now I think that you probably have some questions about just like how badly they got beat up but Jayden Daniels did that to an experienced defense not great not great not a great look what so ever for Cincinnati but for Washington you're feeling really confident that this is the reason why we didn't make calls or like accept calls for the number two overall pick this is the reason we are confident in taking the rain and you know the reigning Heisman Trophy winner all in all there's a lot to like about both quarterbacks right now it's just that one team is two and one and one is one and two and you know one looks considerably like it's in a worse spot right now offensively than the other yeah and I think that's that's a great place to start with this right because there's a lot of Bears fans out here who I have seen and I saw it as the game was going on just why is Jayden Daniels look he's so much better than Caleb Williams and I almost want to stop you in your tracks there because I don't know if I can co-sign the he looks so much better I do think that he's getting an offense that is tailored to his skill set that he's calling that he's played a phenomenal game like you said versus a Bengals defense that you can't sit there and just turn your nose up back but I don't know if I'd say that there you know top three in the NFL top five in the NFL but still a rookie dealing with that situation but when I left that game I could see clear cut differences and where I feel Caleb Williams this is a quarterback and where I feel Jayden Daniels this is a quarterback and what I commend the commanders one is they have made it as easy as possible for Jayden Daniels to walk in there you look at some of those that's the deep ball to Terry McClure and that he gets out there I mean that's basically a college throw there's no motion there's nothing crazy there straight line speed Terry beat your man Jayden able to throw a deep ball drop it over the top you're right there touchdown right like those are the things that I think they've made it easier for Jayden with and then at the end of the day they're not stifling his athleticism like we've seen here in Chicago yeah I mean the 15 runs from Jayden Daniels that have resulted in a first down it speaks exactly to that and that's the most that we've seen from any quarterback through three games he is an active part of this run game but they also have running backs elsewhere like Brian Robinson last week against the Giants 130 plus yards on the ground that helps your young quarterback and we saw a pretty balanced rushing attack with the quarterback involved last night and about three to four other running backs that Washington felt that they could lean on yeah that doesn't happen here just yet because this is a you know for a number of different reasons and we've heard some of the some of the excuses that the Bears are leaning on as to why they do not think the run game is getting going but what does it all start with the offensive line and Washington had a major question mark going into the season about what this unit was going to look like would they be able to protect Jayden Daniels I mean I know that all summer when I was on first take and get up and all these shows we were that's all we talked about like the situation that Caleb was walking into everybody seemingly like forgetting about the offensive line there but for some reason they wanted to talk about Washington's like it was just this atrocity and they made a lot of different moves they signed a new center they used a third round draft pick um I believe it was on their you know on their right tackle um you know that's uh excuse me their left tackle and Brandon Coleman and they've made moves moving personnel around and they're scheming to scheming away from like the weaknesses of this unit they're getting run support they're getting their running backs helping in protection too Bears don't have that right now with their offensive line and with the run game to be able to help Caleb Williams so to me that was one of the first things I noticed upon watching this game last night of how effectively they were allowing Jayden Daniels to operate because it wasn't all on him he wasn't throwing 52 times because they had no run game he was able to have a much more I guess like the word would be measured statline is 21 at 23 like and they that's not measured Courtney that that's that's slinging that pill god the way that he threw that ball uh to Terri McLaurin for the you not go ahead or the game clinching touchdown more or less but the fourth down throws the third down plays where they're saying hey Jayden responsibilities on you here in these situations we trust you we have the confidence in you go make a play but they also have better support around him not in terms necessarily of the skill player nobody's doubting what the Bears have at receiver but when when the offensive line is helping him out as much as they are that's the reason when he's under pressure he's nearly perfect and from a clean pocket his throws so far we've seen look better from where then from where Caleb Williams is right now no 100 percent the one thing that I will say though that I that you notice in that game that is very different that in my mind Caleb has operated well at and is kind of picked up one now his offensive line is not giving him any grace when he's out there though uh but is you really didn't see Jayden making a lot of checks you didn't see Jayden changing a lot of plays you didn't see Jayden walking up to the line and calling out who who's the mic who's the will right you didn't see him doing a ton of the pre-snap stuff again they're making it as easy as possible for him but when I see Caleb Williams already doing that in week three a week where he did have his best offensive output while yes there were still some struggles I feel confident about that because it tells me that he's already at a point where I can understand what I'm seeing defensively maybe I'm a little too aggressive in some moments then I shouldn't be and that's what leads to somebody's interceptions but I can see what the defense is trying to set up for me and I just think that he's there he's to a point now where it feels like he just has to kind of get the happy feet out of there he has to figure out okay how the heck do I get survived behind this offensive line which is going to be as tough as thing all season but he's not confused at what he's seeing on the other side it doesn't seem like the bears are dumbing it down for him no and they said from the very beginning they weren't going to hold anything back from him now is that the right approach we talked about this with Matt Eberfluce yesterday and the right before that fourth down play at the goal line it did sound he didn't say like definitively but it did sound like Caleb Williams had the option to call a time out there now we know that should have come from the sideline when they're seeing the look there and when they have people in the booth talking to people on the headset down on the field they should have done that now is that that's on coaching I wouldn't put that more on the quarterback but there are certain things where I appreciate them understanding Caleb's football intelligence and not trying to take away from him or not trying to limit him in moments but you got to help your quarterback out on the flip side of that with what we saw from Jane Daniels that before that fourth down throw the nine-yarder that he had to zacker it's that then like kept that drive going so they were able to score that 27-yard touchdown it looked like he was telling Dan Quinn no we want to go for it we want to go for it I want to go for it and the confidence that they have in their rookie quarterback is evident from the very beginning now not every rookie quarterback is going to have that I would imagine if the bears were operating the same way they would feel the same way as Washington does about Caleb Williams that they do about Jane Daniels it's just that the offense has been so stagnant in being able to string together what is a very explosive passing attack in Washington their second and EPA per play through the first three weeks of season bears are 28 like there's a big difference that I think can it boil down to play calling and play calling alone no of course not we know there's so much more that goes into that personnel being a big part of that but you just don't have the same sort of questions around this offense and I know Cam Taylor Britt wants to call it a college offense so be it it worked it worked against your defense and it made it made Washington look really good the receivers were getting 4.1 yards of separation per target that's insane if the bears could do that can Caleb Williams make those throws I'm sure he can but can he have some more clean pockets to make them from and like you said like calm down his feet a little bit that probably goes hand in hand to having a more productive offense than what the bears have currently yeah and I mean listen to me it comes down to that there's one problem that the bears have and and if you left that game and feel like it's Caleb Williams you don't have eyeballs like I'm sorry like it's Caleb will you like that you said what it's some people actually feel like that oh for those people are those the Justin Fields peoples I don't even know those people people are saying oh they shouldn't have traded Justin after three weeks mm-hmm I'm not gonna lie to you Courtney I think it's extended I mean you get back to back weeks of multiple interceptions there are some people that just feel that it should come down to the quarterback no matter what those people in general have been the Caleb Williams people that were like get the get Justin Fields out of here and now all of a sudden Caleb Williams isn't fixing the offensive line problems like everyone expected him to that's crazy to see but what I will say is I didn't leave that Colts game going Caleb Williams is the problem Caleb Williams isn't able to move the ball down the field he's not able to process what he's seeing and I think that there's a the Jayden Daniels the Caleb Williams conversation will always be there because they're one and two but it is more of an apples the oranges conversation to me because I don't think that they're similar quarterbacks in the sense of where they're at right now I think the fact that and when you watch the all 22 the fact that Caleb Williams was able to throw 363 yards yes do I like that he dropped back 52 times I don't but I also have to say well the Colts are putting eight in the box almost every time basically daring you to throw the ball you being able to be successful at that is impressive from a rookie quarterback standpoint 213 yards in the first half I don't take the yards away from the DJ more pass because if he makes it an inch it's three touchdowns two interceptions and yeah I mean so I don't take the yards away and then you see in the second half now he knows what's coming and he gets even better especially in that fourth quarter where he throws two touchdowns and he was he was 14 for 18 hundred 22 yards with a 131 pass rating I feel like the development of Caleb is still happening even in what based on yesterday I got to say is a worst situation offensive line wise than what Washington had and I didn't know if we felt we were going to be in this position coming into the season well Jayden Daniels is still developing too I think that what we have to like people want to overreact to this because they see one person doing really well and one person not and this is all stemming from the fact that we had CJ Stroud throw all of our expectations for rookie quarterbacks out the window last year and that dynamic between number one Bryce Young and number two CJ Stroud and just how how one was up here and one was way the hell down here at the end of the season I think that some Bears fans are afraid of history repeating itself now I think there's some recency bias in there and the simple fact is like CJ Stroud's the anomaly not the not the like norm however there are I there's so much of this that brings into account the play calling aspect and what Cliff Kingsbury is doing right now in being able to scheme Jayden Daniels like scheme him in a way where he's taking the load off of his shoulders that's not happening the same way in Chicago you don't have the questions of personnel usage issues and the head coach saying we want to get targets to our best skill and you know shouting out when that actually happens like that doesn't happen in Washington that hasn't been happening that's happening in Chicago because there's some strange usage for you know why Roshan Johnson wasn't on the field for the goal line series like there's too much being sorted out from like the administrative standpoint of getting your offense on the field and getting it in a place where it feels like it can produce points and yards yeah there's way more of that here than there is in Washington and you know just gonna say it the Bears had a chance that they really wanted to hire Cliff Kingsbury they could have they had him in the building they had him here to pick his brain about Caleb Williams instead they let him go he ends up signing a contract to be the offensive coordinator in Washington I'm sure he provided some really great stuff and intel on Caleb Williams but you could have paired him back up with the guy who was he wasn't his OC at USC he was like the offensive assistant he was in the booth he wasn't in that like coaching I'm in the quarterback's ear you know even though they didn't wear heads they didn't wear heads that's last year it wasn't that but you could have had him if you really felt Cliff Kingsbury who I think it's a ton of unfair flak like look how good Kyler Murray's rookie season was despite the fact that team was five and ten and one or whatever the heck it was like there's a lot to like about the way that he has helped quarterbacks who are of this ilk reach their potential especially in their rookie seasons now you know they have to live with it if Shane Waldron if we look at this at the end of the season and Jane Daniels and goes and wins offensive rookie of the year and Caleb's numbers are you know mediocre then then you're probably pointing at the offensive coordinator first and foremost and saying well that was a mistake I mean it's still still early but I think there are a lot of things that you don't like about what you're seeing them ask Caleb to do offensively and really asking him not to do based on the deficiencies of personnel elsewhere and what they're not accomplishing to help him and I think that's what's tough about this to me right when I look at Cliff Kingsbury of course Clint Cooby X name has been brought up a ton with what he's been able to do or what he was able to do week too yeah week three looked very different I don't know people's I don't know people saw those Lucas Patrick PFF numbers by the way but they're human again I don't know if you guys noticed that or not but uh the thing for me is I'm looking at all the situations that those coaches are coaching in versus here and even with Shane Waldron now listen I again I think a short yardage plays I think they're asinine I think running speed option on the goal line is is grade school at best like let the college play even in college I don't know if I've seen speed option on the goal line Courtney that's that was very spent I don't know if Liberty's running speed option on the goal line but at the end of the day I also look at all the plays and I'm going through and I'm looking at the amount of plays that Caleb has to throw on and I'm watching Braxton Jones basically get pushed back like he's in Michael Jackson Moonwalker I'm watching Coleman Shelton just get flipped over any any time he engages with somebody I'm watching Kevin Jenkins trip over his own two feet I'm what I mean like Matt I don't know if people thought that Matt Pryor was gonna be a fix he's not ladies and gentlemen he's just large he takes up a little space over there like you're in a position right now where if you're Shane Waldron one you can't run the things that you want to run because of the offensive protection and two you're getting killed for having Caleb drop back 52 times which I I do think is a lot but you're also basically going I have to take what this defense is giving me the Colts were selling out all day it's not just Shane going I want to drop back and do this 52 times I think that there is some we want to run the football but when you haven't an ability on the offensive line I have a tough time just putting all the blame on Shane Waldron I do blame him for the gold line stand that is a problem because those were points that could have put you not with your back up against the wall at the end of that game well and the simple fact is I know that they're going to keep saying it's not a talent issue that they have well of course it is of course it is absolutely a talent issue they take a look and I know that so much attention has gone on to the fourth you know the four plays that they ran inside the Colts four-year line and rightfully so because it's a microcosm of their problems that they have through the first three games but you know when you I think so much of the it's hand in hand but I think more of it honestly at this point is on the play caller given just some of the matchups that he has drawn I mean you think about that third and one like the personal issues are why you have DeAndre Carter like head up with Taekwan Lewis can we not like I mean that's that's so atrocious that of course they're going to blow that up of course it's going to look terrible but you know that's not to say that on the fourth down when they don't set the edge on the left side and it's Braxton Jones and Kevin Jenkins on their backs looking up the field at you know the play where DeAndre Swift is trying to trying to make something out of nothing and then 12-yard loss this is what you this is what you did like this is what you this is the offensive line your fielding because you chose to not really make any significant upgrades right Washington did and I wanted to bring this back up because I think that I want to make sure I'm getting all of the the pieces correct here of like how the you know the wall that they're trying to build in front of in front of Jane Daniels so like what they did they knew like with that you know one of their draft picks they were going to use to go get somebody to protect the you know to protect the blind side of the quarterbacks they got Tyler Bodie Ash who's the who was the center in Dallas they signed him they signed Nick Allegretti who was with the Chiefs last year he's now playing on the left side he's a guard you know the cut Charles Leno would have been a long time staple in Washington they end up saying okay this is not working we're going to move on I mean Bears fans obviously know the same thing there they have Brandon Coleman with a third round pick at left tackle um you know they've they've invested here in a way that I think the Bears are going to have to eventually if they want to be able to protect Caleb Williams now that's kind of a hard pill to swallow when I say that on September 24th and you realize that there's months left of this season and if these if these issues don't get fixed until the offseason how does Caleb play how is his help how does he you know as he's starting to see ghosts out there is he you don't want to break your quarterback in the process but I I think so much of this has been a miscalculation on certain positions namely that offensive line and maybe even you know I do think that with the running game it will get worked out eventually there's personal usage questions that I have over that like most people do but this is if this is as good as it's going to get with your offensive line then it's going to be a rough season but there's no there's no way around that unless you can start seeing you know people moving around which I think is going to have to happen when they get guys coming off IR whether it's Larry Borham whether it's Ryan Bates like they've got to figure out a better combination than this because this is not sustainable this is where I really want to see and this week is going to be very telling with the Rams coming up you okay Ryan Polzer you or I'm sorry I came at he refused are you the defensive coordinator of this team or are you the head coach but there's because there's no way that you watch the impact that Rochon Johnson had while he was out there and the impact that DeAndre Swift had while he was out there and said yeah both of these guys are giving equal impact Rochon for to his credit and I get it it's first a much worse run defense but like he was still getting hits in the backfield and he was able to push the pocket he was able to to be an extra blocker out there he was more useful out there as a runner in the run game than what you saw from anybody else on limited attempts and for almost four yards per carry is impressive behind this this offensive line with how these guys are getting hit so quickly I also think that you know if you're if you're not taking more of a hands-on approach in the personnel and we heard flus talking you you mentioned it in your article about how he's you know how he met with Shane Waldron 6 30 in the morning to go over the plays I mean like are we heading towards a flus and this is the big question I have going in the next week that is taking more of the hands-on approach with everything on this team and not just the defense because we saw with Lou Getsi he was very hands-off and the offense just didn't work yeah and I think like there have been some hints some messages like thrown out in through the media the way that flus is using it like to express how he feels about a certain situation or maybe a certain player we've seen it throughout training camp we saw it even like you know when he's complimenting Roshan Johnson like to me that's a shot at Shane Waldron as to why was Roshan Johnson not on the field at all on that goal line series why had he just converted a fourth and one for you at the five yet you're not using him down there after you used him on third downs pretty two previous third downs both of which you know he ran the ball one of which he converted for first down like it just doesn't make sense so I think some of that is flus positioning how he feels how he wants the offense and what he wants it to look like it's you know for for Shane Waldron he's got to take all of that into account and start putting players in the best situations whether you know based on down at distances like DeAndre Swift and I don't think that option play would work on anybody let's just call him what it is that's a stupid play it should have been thrown out I mean you heard Tiki Barber say on the broadcast that like oh he immediately is like I hate the play call because you once Caleb gets pressured he's out of the play it's not an option play anymore like taking away so like you had no choice but to flip the ball to DeAndre Swift who hasn't shown you anything so why has the guy who's not shown you anything getting on the field in these critical got to have it situations and you're relying on him based on what to go and produce like instead of riding the hot hand who at that point yeah I think he had like six carries for 18 yards in in the first half he's doing better than anybody else that was out there so why is that not being taken into consideration in these critical situations where you could have had a tie ball game going in a halftime I just some of that's not justifiable so to to answer your question whether Maddie Bufluis has to start helping out more of the offense or at least giving his input I think you'll start to see if things change and things shift a little bit where the influence is coming from it's still too early to tell because we've seen a three game sample size of this but now that they have legitimate problems that they can identify on enough of a sample size if they don't fix that then then that's then that's the fault of all the coaches but that's that to me is a coaching malpractice if they can't go through that and say okay well this hasn't worked let's try it this way because you you can't expect to like have you know you can't expect to have it look like this and at yield wins like this is the point of your schedule where you need to be racking up as many wins as you can it's you know Washington comes or they go to Washington in a couple of weeks they've got the Patriots coming here in a couple weeks the Rams are I understand they came back from a 14 point deficit but they're still banged up you've got Carolina who's a new quarterback but still they're Carolina like there's just all of these opportunities and a crappy Jacksonville team at that that you play in London a Jacksonville team that had like three points for the entire first half more it's so bad you have to wait these games you're giving away the gift that was given to you weeks one through ten with a manageable schedule if you don't come away from this slate with at least five wins was was last night the night where the rest of the world realized what I've been realizing for two years the Trevor Lawrence is not that good of a quarter but I'm just so tired of the fact that he gets such a long leash and I get it most quarterbacks were drafted number one overall do call me one contract like yeah I didn't get yeah it's that they pick up the fifth year option and then they give him two hundred seventy five million dollars and Doug Peterson has the audacity to say yeah I don't know right you know and all changes are on the table more or less are you kidding me that's cap you're gonna like venture two one hundred seventy five million dollar quarterback for Mac Jones mm-hmm call me when that happens I'll see I listen there's I have a better likelihood of becoming president the cycle than that happens but it's just it's so embarrassing how how we do this though and you know I hope you know you you hope as a bears fan that Caleb doesn't fall into that same sort of trap we label these guys generational talent based on what we saw in college and they get to the NFL you can give him a pass for his first year because that urban Meyer team that was three and fourteen was god awful yeah but he's had a fifty something he's a fifty three fifty four game sample size we've we know who you are after three three years and three games into this season we know who you are but like we keep trying to hold out hope this guy is not Daniel Jones when his numbers are telling us he's Daniel oh his numbers are absolutely telling you he's Daniel Jones and listen it it was I don't know maybe it's because we're here in Chicago where we're so quick to flip the switch here in Chicago we we expect you to do something continuously if you're really good at it but I mean let's be real he had a Ryan Fitzpatrick run at the end of what 2022 21 22 and made the playoffs and they won that game because the other team's deficiencies yeah came back in a playoff game that he threw four interceptions in to put them down 28 to 30 like I don't know I'm I'm just glad the rest of the world is made it to where I've been for two seasons it is what it is uh but here's here's the one thing I will say about getting back to the Bears here and about Maddie reflux you know I I the question on him is and nobody's questioning is he a good DC you can see it the defense is humming these guys are are a phenomenal defense dare I say he has put together a a Super Bowl caliber defense if he can keep everything on track and get a little bit of offense out of these guys uh but this coming week and in the the following weeks right I really wonder how much say so he has because we know how the politics of football can play into things we know the fact that Ryan polls it doesn't want the fact that he spent eight million dollars when a guy not being utilized even though he is literally the worst comma running back comma in the NFL and that is not even an exaggeration he's three games in he's making 11 thousand dollars per yard he's rushed like that is not that is not a good sentiment for you to keep going yeah this guy's the answer we're gonna start him you should be heading into week four with Roshan as your best option because Roshan looked like your best option and you are searching everywhere for answers as far as the offensive line I don't think you can fix that this season but there are small things that you can fix that can make that easier for Kayla Williams and I think anything that makes Kayla Williams life easier right uh Mati Buflu should be in favor of and these decisions should be quick decisions yeah they should and it the hard thing is with DeAndre Swift it's like all right we'll have you exhausted all options with him if you used him enough as a pass catching back that maybe that could be his best option like to keep him on the field and justify what you're paying and you know if the answer to that is no then you keep trying to figure out ways to get him involved and maybe they're trying to up the screen usage for him getting him out on more pass plays and then using Roshan Johnson on third downs like I they threw a lot on for on third down in the first half which was just a little curious because it felt like this was a manageable game where you should have been you know you should have been giving the you know the cult to test the run defense but that's just I think just the straight up numbers you should like this a team that gave up 500 yards nearly 500 yards in their first two games on the ground and Kayla's passing numbers versus the running attempts were just so out of whack yes I know they were down by two scores at the end of the game they in the most of the second half they had to pass the ball to stay involved or stay you know in striking distance I get that but to me that's just a game plan issue from the very jump and if it's a personnel issue then you've got to not necessarily cut your losses but you have to kind of like swallow your pride and say Roshan's giving us the best chance if it's Khalil Herbert he's giving us the best chance and I don't think that that was the case this past week but DeAndre Swift averaged 1.5 yards per carry they didn't pay him eight million dollars a year to do that like this is even he used to apologize in the defense pad after the game he's saying like I just want to apologize on behalf of you know himself and everything else of how crappy this is gone for them there's no excuse and if his you know if they saw if they saw something to where I mean I know he had a provol season sandwiched in between his best you know last year and then his best season in Detroit a couple years ago if they just miss man if they miscalculated it and said okay well maybe there's you know they can look at it and say okay he's not the running back he once was it's hard to admit that but like if you keep forcing it through and it's not working that's going to cost your team games that they need to win if you're not deploying the right personnel in the run game to be able to take the heat off the quarterback I don't think anybody can tell you that 52 passing attempts from Caleb Williams is sustainable now does that mean that this can't be a pass first offense no it doesn't mean that but you have to get into a rhythm first before you can get there because it becomes the most predictable game when you can expect that he's going to be dropping back all the time to throw the ball I think that Caleb can handle a heavy load better than some other quarterbacks can but he doesn't have any run support right now to lean on so he doesn't have to be doing that on what feels like every other play no 100 percent we got it got to figure it out got to get this run game figured out I think play calling lies in the short yardage moments it flues flip the flip the flip the switch over there to the offensive side and that fourth down again moments to be a head coach right in the in in that red zone situation somebody somebody had to call a timeout I think that is so much of an indictment on and you even heard flus double down yesterday when they're talking about the two-point conversion attempt that they had to call a timeout for he said no like we have to be better there that's on coaches well what's going on in the booth that's not being relayed down at the field or vice versa like also how how do you okay here's how it works so they will usually tell a quarterback the situation right before he goes on the field and just to make you get so locked in as coaches I know that everybody playing armchair quarterback everybody watching the game said you know they're down by five like of course you have to go for two how would they not know that but like sometimes when you're so in the thick of it you at and you only have like you know a certain amount of time to get in and out of the huddle and get in and out of you know out of out of a touchdown your unit back onto the field your two-point unit like I get it like it's not having enough communication is never an excuse but sometimes it happens how it felt like nobody else was aware in that situation is how I felt with what happened on that first in that first half where you know we see Caleb tells everybody that you know he didn't feel he had enough time to change the call well then why is the timeout not coming from the sideline when somebody sees oh we didn't set the left edge you're gonna about to blow through this and in turn Braxton Jones into a turn style and oh wait we don't like this look I know they want to say that they had practiced that play a bunch and that's fine but it was not the right look to run that with considering they were loading overloading to the left side of the offensive line and and they had clear they had clear personnel advantage members advantage it was just that's on coaching that's on that's on your coaches to identify that immediately and say something yeah a hundred percent a so many things in this game were I mean like the timeout calls in general flus gets lucky at the end but let's be real the decision to not go on side kick I was wondering about that I know that you have to declare it I get it like I know it kind of sucks now nobody wants to on side kick because there's no surprise the elements gone yeah but it was so weird to me where it's like after they score wait you're not gonna try for this I don't know if we haven't really got a clear answer on it either which is fine if you got a kicker who can boot it out of the end zone right because then 201 you get the extra timeout you call your timeout you got to stop there on third down you're in a great position they got a punt it you're getting a ball bat yes the clock is the way the defense had been playing too so I I can almost understand it from that point the problem is I watched Cairo Santos missed a 53 yard field goal he ain't got the leg we already know he didn't have the yeah yeah no I mean his career long what was that a 56 yard field goal his career long it was his was it 56 I thought it was 53 that he missed I've got it let me see I think it was it was a 56 yard field goal that was when he missed in the first quarter in his career long was 54 right you know this guy doesn't have the leg to just boot it through the upper right he's not that guy you're taking a chance there it just so happened that they brain farted and the guy was like yeah fair catch where I was like wait a minute you're gonna give them the time out you basically could have lost the game if he just runs it out to 159 and they hit the two-minute warning straight out of the time out like there's a lot of coaching questions out there that have to be addressed especially heading into this next week but to me there's so many that are just all right Maddie Befluse show me you're a head coach now yeah and I I've gotten this question like should Ebert Fluse be feeling his seat's hot no not right now they're three games and they are one and two they're a lot of teams right now that are one and two a lot of teams own three that didn't think they'd be on three but let let's be real about this like if this continues on and we're at the halfway point of the season and it's looking like this is a team that's gonna you know finish either like under the wind total from last year or like that things just don't feel like they're clicking for Caleb Williams then I think it's a fair question at that point about do you have the right head coach in for a rookie quarterback he still has a lot of time to prove it Shane Waldron still has a lot of time to prove that he's the right OC in that situation right now it's not looking good three weeks in but that's a sample size that we're looking at that might change over the first 10 games of the season but Ebert Fluse has an opportunity these next couple games to take control of the issues that he has pointed out are hurting this team right now whether it's miscommunication from the coaching staff which to be fair we didn't see we didn't see that happen in game one saw it happen on the stupidity of challenges which are on him at the end of the day for throwing the flag but we know that it like he can say whatever he wants about his process it wasn't a good one it isn't a good one for those things do you give him some grace from the second one because he because Kyler Gordon said that the ref told um basically if we called it an interception you would have gotten an interception I I guess you do like a little bit but I still even think that that was such an emotional decision because his cornerback's throwing a tantrum on the sideline being like no no I really caught it whereas I don't I mean the first one is completely inexcusable what happened first one was nuts but that but like I don't even want to talk about the challenges I want to talk about like what that led to then like you're still having issues with communication between the coaches week three that's a big problem and this is a chance to kind of write the ship you're going home you're in an environment that is more controlled than being on the road so hopefully those issues aren't a thing but you have an opportunity against a team that's super injured too like they got to start manipulating these teams weaknesses yeah and the weakness right now is that Matthew Stafford for as good as he is the 14 point comeback I get that the this secondary doesn't have to account for Cooper cop does not have to account for Pukanukua that should be advantage bears 10 out of 10 times you got to get these wins that are just stacked up for the taking right now and if they don't then it's going to feel like a lost season yeah I mean listen there's there's a lot of I said I think I said it last week uh Tuesday on the pot like I I really believed that the bears could be four and one by the time they were going to play Jacksonville I thought we were gonna lose listen we could still be four and two I thought we were gonna lose Jacksonville I didn't expect Jacksonville to look that bad like they they don't look like a football team yeah they've got a lot of problems I would say they probably have more problems than the bears do which is a good a good situation for Chicago to be in knowing that you know they still don't know what they have in Caleb Williams they probably they probably won't know but it's time they go to Jacksonville but they can at least know hey this is the way that we should be scheming things for a rookie quarterback to not put him in a crappy situation yeah you you got to have that down and I think you talk about communication issues you know just to finish out here like the communication issues with Caleb and his receivers we're now three weeks into this thing and we've got miscommunications left and right at a certain point you do have to wonder okay is that the coaches we had Lance on Monday he said when you get that many miscommunications you get the DJ more miss right a couple more in that same game there's probably been five throughout the entire first three weeks of the season he said when you get that many as a coach you got to take a step back and say I'm teaching something wrong and again does it go back to coaching maybe but just communication issues again being the theme of the first three weeks of this season it's a big problem and it sometimes feels like a scapegoat but you know whether it was cadence issues pre-snap stuff false starts all of these things that showed up in the pre-season and what didn't show up in the pre-season you didn't really get a feel for your running game truly in pre-season games that stuff carries over unfortunately in Deantre snap Deantre Swift played two snaps in the pre-season yeah there's a reason why he might not be feeling like completely comfortable in this offense yet or like a productive member of it I think there is yeah that definitely could be I brought that up a couple times that that could be something major I think a lot of it when you watch the plays is just you know your center basically being thrown in the hole that you're supposed to be running through but again he's supposed to be an outside zone guy we talk about personnel he's supposed to be this outside zone guy and we're running them power I don't like it yeah we're we're taking Roshan Johnson we're running him outside zone for two plays of the game I'm like what are we doing here is it opposite day like we know what these guys do well it's wish they'd stop running out of the shotgun as much as they are but it's everybody it's everybody around the league it's so I don't I don't understand the trend there and I get it when they get inside the five-yard line that's a trend that's not just Shane Waldron by and large across the league that's something that has happened now for multiple weeks I you know I wrote that in my story when you were taking a look at like the anatomy of these issues like kind of what you've seen from Shane Waldron like this is this is this is the trend in the league like shotgun's most common formation inside the five-yard line since 2021 he's following league average more or less but you've had nine plays now inside the five six of those have been called runs and we can of course like play you know armchair quarterback and like look at you know play the hindsight game all we want co-comette just converted you know or just barely missed a conversion on that pass play that roshan johnson then you know punches through at the on fourth and one like you it was so predictable the wildcat in that situation with kaleel herbert really with kaleel herbert that's my beef that's my beef with it kaleel herbert got you three what could roshan of god why can't you why can't you put kaleb under center and run why can't you sneak him why can't other teams do the tush push I don't get that i i don't know well i mean listen it i don't know the tush push i know that you don't have the offensive line you don't i get that you don't have the offensive line you did but why can't they sneak kaleel williams in other situations on fourth a third and one with with you you they could have been but you're not bringing got you're clearly bringing in guys to block for him why couldn't they have tried that i mean but according it doesn't help as much when you bring in the 184 pound wide receiving though you know what i mean yeah maybe maybe leave him maybe leave diana card in the sideline we thought the best part of the whole play was was him throwing up his hands being like what the hell did you just do to me i laughed so hard when i saw that in real time so i'm like oh man he's pissed you put me in a no win situation i'm gonna let you know it yeah on tv in real time he he got picked up to tackle kaleel herbert like that yeah i'm gonna be upset about that a little bit that was like hip checked me into him it was terrible that was insane let's hope we can get some issues figured out here before we get into this ram's game you guys let us know your thoughts in the comments below what are you thoughts on the offensive play calling do you think matt eberflus needs to take more of a hands-on approach to this team hit that like button subscribe to the page lead a five star view y'all know what to do poor cordonie cronin she would have the designer back at it again y'all stay safe out there chicago bear down one love maybe it gets fixed maybe probably not face (upbeat music)