Chicago Bears coach Matt Eberflus met with reporters Tuesday at Halas Hall to recap his workforce’s 12-10 victory over the Minnesota Vikings on “Monday Night Football.”
Bears gamers have a six-day break for the bye week earlier than reporting again to Lake Forest on Monday. As the Bears put together for relaxation and reflection throughout their time without work, listed here are 4 issues we discovered from Eberflus.
1. Matt Eberflus mentioned the Bears are ‘always wanting more chunk (plays)’ when requested how the offensive sport plan unfolded.
The Bears relied totally on the quick, horizontal passing sport to fight the Vikings’ heavy strain. Quarterback Justin Fields, who accomplished 27 of 37 passes for 217 yards with three sacks, no touchdowns, no interceptions and two fumbles, mentioned a giant emphasis in follow from offensive coordinator Luke Getsy in the course of the week was to get the ball out shortly to the surface because the Vikings blitzed.
“They pack the paint,” Eberflus mentioned. “Some of their coverages are three deep they usually’ve acquired two guys within the center. So actually the open spots on numerous these are the perimeter. And you actually can hit some excessive facet pockets on these, which we did with DJ (Moore) a pair occasions.
“Certainly they give those things away. You’ve just got to do a real good job of spitting the ball out there and blocking well on the perimeter, which we did at times. You saw DJ get a couple nice runs there toward our bench.”
The outcome was a passing chart for Fields that was fairly attention-grabbing — or ugly, relying in your opinion.
According to NFL Next Gen Stats, Fields accomplished 14 of 16 passes behind the road of scrimmage, not together with throwaways, and his 2.7 air yards per try have been a profession low.
The Bears had eight passes go for 11 yards or extra, together with the most important downfield cross, a 36-yarder to Moore within the fourth quarter to arrange Cairo Santos’ successful 30-yard subject objective.
Eberflus mentioned there have been alternatives to make extra performs downfield.
“You’re always wanting more chunks,” Eberflus mentioned. “Explosive plays are where it’s at. … When you’re playing a team that pressures that way and they’re vulnerable in the coverage, I believe that we should have more and we’re always looking to get that. Certainly we had some opportunities to hit some more of those and we want to take advantage of those.”
2. Eberflus thought Jaylon Johnson had a chance to do extra along with his interception return.
Johnson grabbed the primary of 4 interceptions of Vikings quarterback Joshua Dobbs and returned it 19 yards, making a minimize from the left sideline to the center of the sector.
But unsolicited, Eberflus supplied that Johnson might have finished extra if he ran up the sideline somewhat than reducing inside. He mentioned Eddie Jackson made a block and Tremaine Edmunds and Jaquan Brisker have been in place to dam on the “wall return” to get Johnson extra yardage.
“Jaylon has just got to take that thing right up the sideline there,” Eberflus mentioned. “You take it up the numbers so you have the ability to bend it and have more space. You’ve got (those) yards from numbers to the sideline to really create more space for yourself.”
The drive that adopted was set again extra when nickel again Kyler Gordon was flagged for taking off his helmet as a result of his face masks was damaged. Officials then modified the penalty to taunting with out clarification. A false begin and a missed Fields cross to Darnell Mooney doomed the sequence, and the Bears punted.
Despite the return misstep, Johnson had a very good sport, together with a deflected cross that T.J. Edwards intercepted. But the Bears’ high cornerback additionally rued dropping what might need been a pick-six later within the second quarter.
“Man, I ain’t going to lie, I don’t know what is going on with my hands,” Johnson mentioned. “I used to think I had pretty good hands, but I’ve got to figure some things out.”
3. Eberflus praised Cairo Santos’ ‘resolve’ after he made the successful subject objective.
Santos’ night time started poorly when he missed a 48-yard field-goal try huge proper. But he rebounded to make subject targets from 25, 39, 55 and 30 yards to account for the entire Bears scoring. His 55-yarder tied a profession lengthy, and the 30-yarder with 10 seconds left gained it.
“You have to trust the work you do, the operation and the line, which I do,” Santos mentioned of bouncing again. “We simply type of stored doing what we do. We didn’t have to alter something.
“The miss is on me, just not finishing the kick, so I was disappointed for sure. It was eating me alive for a while, but I knew I had to stay with it and just do what we do. It was awesome to get the opportunity to bounce back.”
Santos has made 23 of 25 subject targets this 12 months.
4. Fields thanked his teammates for sticking with him after two fourth-quarter fumbles.
The Bears posted a video Tuesday of Eberflus’ postgame victory speech, through which he gave the sport ball to the whole workforce for ending the sport, one week after blowing a 12-point lead in opposition to the Detroit Lions.
As Eberflus was about to wrap up, Fields interjected.
“Let me say something before we end the day,” Fields mentioned. “Those two fumbles, I just wanted to say I appreciate you all for sticking by my side and believing in me. Love all y’all boys.”
Bears gamers cheered.
Fields was referring to his two fourth-quarter fumbles. On the primary, Eberflus mentioned rookie working again Roschon Johnson wanted to be firmer blocking the sting, and Fields wanted to be extra poised along with his demeanor. But Eberflus mentioned Fields no less than had two palms on the ball.
On the second, Eberflus thought Fields made a very good determination to run to the center of the sector however wanted to place his clasp hand on the ball when he approached site visitors.
Fields made up for the errors by main the drive to arrange Santos’ winner, however he nonetheless stopped to acknowledge the errors to his teammates. Eberflus favored the method.
“For him to stand up there and do that in that moment, I think that’s special and it says a lot about his character and about his leadership,” Eberflus mentioned. “It was really neat to see. And the response of the guys was also really cool to see too.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com