Chicago Bears coach Matt Eberflus spoke with reporters Monday at Halas Hall to recap his crew’s loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday.
Along with Eberflus declaring quarterback Justin Fields uncertain to play Sunday in opposition to the Las Vegas Raiders due to a thumb damage, listed here are three different issues we discovered.
1. The Bears employed Phil Snow as a senior defensive analyst.
Snow, who has coached in school and the NFL since 1979, will do advance scouting of opponents for the defensive teaching workers. Eberflus stated Snow will current his stories to coaches on Mondays and Tuesdays however won’t coach on sport days.
Snow was the Carolina Panthers defensive coordinator below coach Matt Rhule the final three seasons till the Panthers fired him in October 2022 after Rhule was fired. Snow coached linebackers for the Detroit Lions from 2005-08.
He was a school defensive coordinator most lately at Baylor and in addition at Temple, Eastern Michigan, Washington, UCLA, Arizona State and Boise State.
Eberflus stated he linked with Snow via Rod Marinelli, who’s a mentor to Eberflus, a few years in the past on the NFL scouting mix. He stated Snow has expertise in the same system to Eberflus’ scheme but additionally has a variety of expertise.
“He’s a great person,” Eberflus stated. “He’s very humble. He works well with others. He gives sound advice and he’s done a good job where he’s been in terms of having good defenses.”
Eberflus stated after the Week 5 sport in opposition to the Washington Commanders that he deliberate to rent an analyst to assist his workers. The Bears didn’t rent anybody to exchange defensive coordinator Alan Williams after he resigned in Week 3, nor did they promote a brand new coordinator from inside, opting to have Eberflus take over defensive play calling.
2. Right guard Nate Davis and cornerback Terell Smith will miss a while.
Eberflus stated Davis suffered a excessive ankle sprain on the Bears’ second drive when security Josh Metellus took down Fields as he made a rapid cross to Khari Blasingame. Metellus pushed Fields into Davis’ leg, and Davis needed to be helped off the sector.
The Bears used second-year professional Ja’Tyre Carter instead of Davis. Carter began two video games at proper guard earlier this season as Davis grieved the dying of his mom.
Eberflus dominated out Davis for Sunday, and Smith additionally received’t play as he offers with a case of mononucleosis. Smith missed the Vikings sport, and Eberflus stated he might be out three or 4 weeks.
Smith began two video games instead of Jaylon Johnson, who returned to the lineup in opposition to the Vikings from a hamstring damage.
Eberflus didn’t have an replace on left deal with Braxton Jones, who’s on injured reserve with a neck damage. Jones has missed the requisite 4 video games to be introduced again off IR.
3. Matt Eberflus stated the Bears’ safety points got here right down to ‘executing in the moment.’
The Vikings had 5 sacks — one in all which Fields was damage on — and eight quarterback hits. That strain helped create three Bears turnovers.
“The guys were prepared,” Eberflus stated. “I just think we needed to do a better job of executing in the moment. We knew that they were going to give us a bunch of different looks, and we needed to make the right calls at the line of scrimmage.”
Eberflus defined a few performs, together with the primary of the sport by which D.J. Wonnum got here unblocked off the left edge and sacked Fields. Eberflus stated Fields was presupposed to float to his proper and make a fast throw to Blasingame or DJ Moore, although Danielle Hunter was making an attempt to get previous proper deal with Darnell Wright to Fields’ proper.
Eberflus stated Fields additionally ought to have gotten rid of the ball faster on the play by which he was injured.
Fields’ interception got here with Hunter in his face after working again D’Onta Foreman ended up blocking Hunter one on one whereas Wright was engaged with Metellus on the skin. Fields’ cross floated into the arms of linebacker Jordan Hicks.
“We always want to be able to, for the most part, have our bigs block the bigs and then our backs block the perimeter players,” Eberflus stated. “And that’s what happened on that one.”
The Bears made a swap at middle late within the sport, having Lucas Patrick substitute Cody Whitehair.
Eberflus pointed to Patrick’s expertise at middle as the rationale for the choice. Whitehair, an eight-year NFL veteran, was the Bears beginning middle in previous seasons however had been taking part in left guard this season whereas Teven Jenkins was out.
He moved to middle halfway via the Commanders sport when Patrick went into concussion protocol. Whitehair had some unhealthy snaps Sunday, although Eberflus denied after the sport that performed a component within the swap.
“Lucas came in because we wanted to settle (backup quarterback) Tyson (Bagent) down, and it was good to do that,” Eberflus stated. “I think it really did settle him down a little bit. Again, (Patrick has) more experience.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com