Chicago Bears coach Matt Eberflus, tight finish Cole Kmet and linebacker Tremaine Edmunds met with reporters Monday to recap Sunday’s 20-17 loss to the Cleveland Browns.
Here are three issues we discovered.
1. Matt Eberflus stated there are ‘three or four’ play calls he’d like again each recreation.
One of these Sunday was Joe Flacco’s third-and-15 go to David Njoku on the Browns’ successful field-goal drive late within the fourth quarter.
“That one there, when it doesn’t work in a critical situation,” Eberflus stated. “Of course you’d like to see it work in that situation, but it didn’t.”
Eberflus despatched Edmunds, nickel again Kyler Gordon and security Jaquan Brisker to blitz on the play, and 6-foot-3, 309-pound defensive deal with Justin Jones dropped in protection. Njoku obtained behind Jones, caught the go that Flacco floated to him, broke a deal with by Tyrique Stevenson and obtained to the Bears 19 to arrange Dustin Hopkins’ successful 34-yard subject purpose.
“So that’s a pressure that you have a guy drop under there for the quick throw,” Eberflus stated. “You’re overloading the stress and also you’re anticipating that to get dwelling. (Flacco) retreated again a little bit bit deeper and had an opportunity to drift it excessive.
“Again, that was unfortunate. It’s a play that’s designed to get the ball spit out fast and tackle them and get them to fourth down.”
Edmunds stated the play “hurt.”
“Anytime you are out there on the field and have a chance to close out the game, you want to close it out,” he stated. “But the truth of it is the game didn’t come down to just that play.”
2. Cole Kmet stated Darnell Mooney’s Hail Mary drop is ‘not the play we should be harping on — and we didn’t.’
Mooney had the successful landing catch in his palms in the long run zone as time expired, however the ball bounced away from him and into the arms of security D’Anthony Bell for a game-ending interception as an alternative.
Kmet pointed to the offense’s many different points that he stated ought to be the main focus of the sport assessment.
“I can understand why as a fan you’d be upset because it looked like (Mooney’s catch) was there and all that, but there were plenty of opportunities throughout the game for us to make things happen and we weren’t able to do that,” Kmet stated. “Sure, that’s the play that might have gained it, however you possibly can’t be relying on these performs on the finish of the sport to win the sport.
“Three-and-outs are the things that are more glaring. If we’re able to execute a couple first downs here and there instead of three-and-outs, we win that game with how our defense is playing.”
Kmet stated the Browns protection was aggressive and bodily on the level of assault. He thought the Bears had alternatives however didn’t execute and obtained themselves into too many third-and-longs.
“You go look at the film today, the calls and plays were there,” Kmet stated. “We’ve simply obtained to execute. And we’ve obtained to have the ability to execute when it issues there, to have the ability to (run) off some clock, get some first downs. Even in the event you’re simply getting the ball out to the 50 or their 40 after which punting and pinning, taking part in the field-position recreation, that’s what we’ve obtained to do in these situations.
“It comes down to execution. I didn’t necessarily feel like we were taking it off the gas pedal or anything like that.”
3. Cole Kmet and Tremaine Edmunds imagine the Bears will proceed to play exhausting.
The Bears aren’t formally eradicated from playoff competition, however their chances are high extremely slim. The New York Times’ playoff calculator offers them a 3% chance after dropping to 5-9.
But Kmet and Edmunds stated they don’t suppose gamers will quit with three video games to play. Edmunds stated it’s about every participant discovering his “why.” And Kmet doesn’t suppose that ought to be tough.
“There’s always a lot of stake in every game that you’re playing in, no matter what the ramifications are for the team,” Kmet stated. “I may even return to final yr once we had been out of it a lot sooner than we had been this yr. There’s nonetheless quite a bit to play for for guys by way of placing good things on movie, whether or not that’s being on this group subsequent yr or being on a distinct group the next yr.
“You’re never going to get the short end of the stick from guys in that regard. I’m confident that guys can move on from it like we always have. But it definitely stings for sure.”
Eberflus stated he may put additional time into the one-on-one conversations with gamers he has every week, and he could have his weekly assembly with the management council to fabricate a plan for the week. He thinks the relationships the gamers have with each other will hold issues from falling aside.
“The guys are tight,” Eberflus stated. “We’re just going to keep pulling together. That’s what we’ve been doing all along, and we’re going to keep doing that. It’s going to be evident in our work that we put in for this week, and it will be evident in the play we put in on Sunday.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com