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- [00:03]
A
Ted 2:19,219.
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Forward progress, a Chicago Bears podcast with Dan Bernstein and Matt Abeticola on 312Sports.
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A
We are back with you on Forward Progress, a Chicago Bears podcast. Dan Bernstein and Matt Abaticola. And we're figuring out this whole post game rhy. Thanks for joining us late last night. We are gonna continue to do these post game gatherings, these commiseration sessions.
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B
So much fun last night.
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A
So much fun and such a great outpouring between YouTube and Just Audio. 10,000 last night. Yeah.
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B
That was awesome.
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A
10,000. That is fantastic. And we all felt the same way. And as I mentioned on dbu, you just kind of feel that energy coming together. And we're not gonna deal necessarily with our hor feelings. We were all in our feelings last night and it was miserable. It was horrible. And it was that familiar sensation of our exquisite, torturous, kind of bears pain. But now it's on to Detroit.
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B
We got to turn the page, Dan. We watched the film. We got, you know, we need more effort from the guys. And then we're going to turn the.
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A
Page and we're good to go. What was a little scary was seeing the face of Ben Johnson. You know, I said last. What did I say last night? I felt I aged 20 years. Let's keep an eye on young Ben.
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B
Yeah, he's only 39.
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A
Is that he? I thought it was 37.
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B
39.
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A
39. Okay, so let's see what this does to him. I want to see if by the end of the year he's completely bald or he's developing a. Some kind of twitch, all sorts of.
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B
Or just walks up to the podium with a bottle of Jack.
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A
That might happen. They'll end up getting it sponsored.
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B
All right, guys, what do you got for me today?
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A
I don't know. Look at the film or play. Did you notice he already said the guys are playing hard?
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B
Yeah, yeah, he already said playing hard.
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A
His first ever post game as a head coach. He already had to pull the they're playing hard card. That's usually a sign of a guy who's about to get fired. It's not. It's not a lack of effort. It's not for a lack of effort. They're playing hard out there. I've got the guys playing hard. I'm doing my job. I'm motivating them. One game.
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B
One game.
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A
One game.
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B
Minutes after the first game, one game.
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A
Let's hear what he had to say. I think it's just important for the record, Ben Johnson's immediate post Game comments.
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C
Obviously disappointing way to start the season there for us. You know, we just have a 17 to 6 lead and then, and then see it go the way it did there in the fourth quarter. You know, we said going into week one that the team that would make the least number of mistakes would win the game. And unfortunately we were on the wrong side of that. We made too many there late in the game, myself included. There were a number of things that I could have done better, a number of things that that number of guys could have done better. When you look down at the stat sheet and you see 12 penalties, that's got to get cleaned up in a hurry. And yet we've been saying that all training camp as well. So, you know, we'll find a way to get that done. It's going to be a collective effort. No one's pointing fingers. Statistically, I really think the defense did a really good job up until the very end. You know, that fourth quarter things got away from us a little bit, but up until then they kept us in that ball game. Offense was stalling out, some good, some bad. I thought Caleb played well to start the game for the most part, finding completions and getting us moving, you know, we weren't good enough on third down or fourth down as the game went, which we knew that was a good team on those downs. And then of course when you have the penalties and hard to establish the run game quite like we wanted to, it felt like we were behind the sticks most times. So second and long and third and long was where we lived, which was a struggle for us offensively. Guys did play hard, they played with great intensity, great effort and I hate to see that they didn't come out with a W there at the end. But no one's going to feel sorry for us. It's going to be a quick turnaround here to get going for. For next Sunday in Detroit, our first road game. And so we got to turn the page here quickly.
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B
So that's Ben Johnson last night, his opening comments of his post game press conference with the Chicago media.
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A
That's got to get cleaned up in a hurry. You're the coach. I don't like the passive voice there. I got to clean that up in a hurry. That's got to get cleaned up. See, we say that. And also no one's pointing fingers. I am. Matt is. You may not be inside, but the fact that you have to say that it's one game and where the guys are playing hard and no one's pointing fingers that's usually like four game losing streak stuff. We're still united. We all feel we're all pulling on the same end of the rope. Like it's one game.
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B
Yeah, but you know what?
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A
One bad quarter.
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B
But Dan hearing that, it was still very comforting because it just reminded me of past seasons. Yeah, he just brought back all the old coach lingo.
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A
A lot of commenters have made a point, and I've noticed this, too, that people have been reaching out to us via whatever modalities, saying, referencing what Terry Boers used to say about Cubs manager, that no matter who you are, no matter what you've done, the moment you put that blue hat on, you look dumber. And maybe that's changed. I like to think it has over the years, but maybe somehow that's now a Bears thing. Like the moment you stand on the Bears sideline with a headset on, you look dumber.
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B
Maybe it's something at Hallis. Maybe you walk in the building and you get the strangles.
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A
Well, if you. By the way, if you missed it, don't miss today's dbu. It has nothing to do with sports. After you get done listening to this, listen to today's dbu. You will not be disappointed. And it will take your mind off the Bears, because the final act of today's Dan Bernstein Unfiltered will make your day.
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B
Yeah. Does it suck brain cells? I mean, does it make you dumber?
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A
I don't know.
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B
Is that what happens? Is it special headphones? Or maybe it's the stupid pill left behind at the coach's desk.
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A
There's. There is something where it can't just be one game. It can't be one bad quarter and one bad game and that kind of collapse, and all of a sudden no one's pointing fingers. We're not pointing fingers in here. We're. We're. We're together. How does he walk in today? That's what I'm really interested to think. Not what he says to the media, because he'll talk. But when he meets his team today, the whole we believe in the coach thing, and they built up a lot of capital that they burned through last night.
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B
Yeah. Oh, yeah. 100%.
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A
Maybe all of it. Maybe all of their. Their. Their internal political capital of. We know what we're doing. We paid him millions of dollars to come here.
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B
Well, Dan, from a fan base perspective, it's. It's totally used up. It's gone. Like that was your opportunity. It's an island game. It's Monday Night Football. Everyone's watching. It's your opportunity to show. Yeah, not only was I the hot prospect in coaching, but I really am worth it. And your quarterback didn't show it. Your team didn't show it. Your team didn't show it at all that you were the guy that was brought in to fix this organization because. And again, it's one game, they. They could go on and win the next 16 and be 16 and one.
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A
Okay, I'll take the under.
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B
That's 100%, but that's a possibility there, Dan. It's not out of possibility yet, but the fact that it felt so familiar, that it looked so familiar is what's alarming and disappointing.
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A
12 penalties for 127 yards and a misplaced challenge and a lack of understanding.
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B
Loss of timeouts, of how to manage.
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A
The clock at the end of the game.
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B
That was a terrible challenge, Dan. That was an awful challenge.
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A
That. That was a bad challenge. And somehow the inability to understand how you could have had. You could have, based on how everything went down, enough time left at the end of the game to threaten. So I do think we should break down because last night we were uncertain about who actually attempted that kickoff for the Bears.
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B
Yeah. Last night on the post game, I said Taylor only because of the eight. And in Cairo, Santos jersey, I just, I, you know, quickly glanced at it and thought it was. It was 18.
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A
I presumed it was going to be Taylor if in fact it was not an outside kick.
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B
Doesn't he have the leg?
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A
Not only does he have a leg, Richard Hightower mentioned when they drafted him, when they were first getting a look at him. Richard Hightower was asked specifically about him, and the current special teams coordinator said, anybody with a big leg can factor in on kickoffs, whether it's off a tee, whether it's in his hands. This guy can do a lot to affect games with the power of his leg.
- [09:51]
B
And even in the preseason, Tori Taylor talked to the media and said that he's going to be used in a. In a special way in the kicking game, but wouldn't. Wouldn't divulge what that is. You just assume it's on kickoffs when you need to kick the goddamn ball through the end zone.
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A
If not, then, then when, and then why risk it at all? Either onside kick it and that's defensible, or just kick it out of bounds. And that way you get a clock.
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B
Stoppage and you add just five yards. All you're adding is five yards. Right, because it goes from the 35 to the 40, you kick it out.
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A
Of bounds and you add your penalty yardage, of course. But so what?
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B
So what at that point, five yards, but you got the three and out you needed.
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A
So I believe this is Kevin Fishbane who is questioning Ben Johnson about what the process was to do what they did on the final kickoff. On the end of the game, after.
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C
You guys scored the touchdown, what was the conversation about onside versus kicking off?
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B
And then were you hoping that kick was going to go out of the end zone?
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C
Yeah, the intent was for the ball to go out of the end zone.
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A
Was there?
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C
Do you guys consider onside kick?
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B
I mean, how did that.
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C
Yeah, it did. We felt like if we had kicked it out of the end zone and gotten the three and out that we got, we would get the ball back with around 56 seconds.
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A
Plenty of time.
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B
Yeah, plenty of time.
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A
Instead of the nine that they had plenty of time. But why not have your biggest leg kick it if the intent is to kick it out of the end zone?
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B
Yeah. Like that had to have been practiced at Soldier Field. You have to take the location into consideration. You can't just do that up at Hallis Hall. And it had to have been done enough to say, I'm confident that he's going to kick this ball through the back of the end zone. If there was any room and any, any sliver of doubt, Dan, you have to go to Taylor or you have to kick the ball out of bounds. It didn't matter at that point who did it. You had to, you had to know 100%. And you can't say it was the intent to kick it through the back of the end zone. You have to know for sure. That's the difference of those, those moments in a game that you can practice and replicate in practice. You have to know for sure, my guy can do this. My guy can kick a 55 yard field goal. My guy can kick a 60 yard field goal. You have to know for sure those are moments because you don't have many of those in a game where you say, all right, I know we can execute this 100%. If he was uncertain he could kick it through the back of the end zone, he shouldn't have been the one kicking it. Or if neither could do it, then you kick it out of bounds.
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A
With all the energy that we use to focus on that kick line when it comes to field goals and the amount they say, well, why we talk before every game, the guy kicks in both end zones and he gives me the line, I know the line the line is the back of the end zone.
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B
Right.
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A
And you said when you drafted Tori Taylor, you had your special teams coordinator get there to. Absolutely. He's going to factor in and absolutely. This is somebody who's. Whose big leg is going to matter. Well, there was your first shot for it.
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B
Right. And while it is a point to discuss and something that's. That's questionable from the head coach, that's not why they lost this game. They didn't lose this game because they failed to kick the ball out and gave themselves, you know, 56 seconds instead of nine seconds. You failed to win the game because your defense couldn't do anything in the fourth quarter to stop the Vikings run.
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A
They lost the game over. And we knew, we knew this was going to happen over this span of. They were up 17 to 6. It was the last minute of the third quarter and they ended up with. They started out there at the 24 yard line. They get the swing pass to Swift that goes for 12 yards. Called back because of the phantom. Hold on. Right.
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B
Bad call.
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A
Then it's first and 20. And then was one of the terrible overthrows of the night from Caleb Williams when he had Cole Comet wide open. Second and 20 is the intentional grounding when as he's falling down, he can't throw it over the line of scrimmage. And I was also bothered by what Caleb Williams said after that. He said, the lesson there is throw it past the line of scrimmage. No, the lesson there is block that guy. Have a hot read. The lesson is not while falling down, throw it farther.
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B
Right.
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The lesson is make something of it when someone's coming at you.
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B
Yeah. Because that's not a play that you want to duplicate.
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A
And then third, execute better. Right. And we got to execute this bad play better.
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B
Let's run the play where I fall down and then I'll throw it further this time.
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A
Right? That's not the lesson.
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B
Right. That's not the lesson.
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A
Third and 30, third and 30. Then they complete it to Zacchaeus for 12 to set up a perfectly makeable 50 yard field goal that Santos misses.
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B
That looked like one of my drives with that.
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A
Well, you know what? It was only a push fade. You can live with that. That's not a terrible miss. It's not a slice. It's just a push.
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B
Oh, no, but that's how I drive, though. I do that deliberately.
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A
But if you can control it.
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B
Yeah, well, I can't control it. That's just what happens. So now I line up that way.
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A
Well, you Play the fade. That's okay. You can work, you know, just say you're. You're letting the wind hold it up.
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B
Yeah, that's what I say.
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A
Yeah, you're trying to do that. And when he missed that field goal again, 9:34pm look at your text feeds, look around at how many of us, how many of us thought, gulp. Here it goes. And everybody knew it. And that's what happened. But I'm going to stay focused like I was last night. I'm going to stay focused on the interior of the offensive line. Guard, center guard. Joe Tuney, Drew Dahlman, Jonah Jackson. I remember the follow the money. I remember the graphics that came out.
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B
Follow the money.
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A
I remember the excitement showing these guys in their, in their previous jerseys. This is the new Bears middle of the line. This isn't going to be what it was. This isn't Tevin Jenkins, Coleman Shelton, Nate Davis. Because that's what it was. Tevin Jenkins, Coleman, Shelton, Nate Davis, and now it's Joe Tuney, it's Drew Dahlman and it's Jonah Jackson. Well, chew on this for a second. This is from Next Gen stats. Okay. In their Vikings debut or respective debuts, Javon Hargrave and Jonathan Allen generated six pressures each. That's 12 total with Hargrave recording two sacks and two what are referred to as quick pressures under 2.5 seconds. Now you say, oh, well that's because they were single block. No, they were double teamed respectively at rates of 41.9% and 47.1%. So approximately half their snaps they were doubled. Okay, Whose fault is that? All three of the Bears newly acquired interior lineman. This is according to Next gen stats. Remember there were 12 pressures, right?
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B
Yep.
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A
All three of the bears, Joe Tunney, Drew Dahlman and Jonah Jackson yielded at least four pressures to those two or three alone.
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B
Wow.
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A
In their first game after practicing together, those guys aren't hurt. That wasn't some patched together line. That was all training camp. Every moment for veterans that they had there they are at home. Really important. They're not dealing with silent count. They're not trying to time things up with a tap and a head nod and a clap. They're at home. Tuney, Dahlman, Jackson individually yielded at least four pressures to Hargrave and Allen alone.
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B
So let me throw this at you then because something we talked about a lot last night and it was the anticipation of production at the tight end position and we saw last night that they had three receptions combined. That's Cole, Comet, Colson, Loveland for 33 for 43 yards. And the one for, for Comet was late in the game, obviously the 31 yarder. So take that away. And for the entire game up to that point, your tight ends had two catches for 12 yards. Okay. And when Ben Johnson was asked about the lack of production from the tight ends, it was deliberate because he said.
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A
That this wasn't one of those games where we were going to use them.
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B
Anyway because we needed them more for the run, for the run game and for blocking purposes. So let me ask. Wait, wait, hang on. If you deliberately draft Loveland, you have Cole commit, who was extended by the GM to be high, high offensive productive.
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A
Players and commit specifically as an inline old fashioned Y tight end.
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B
And you bring a guy in who utilizes those positions in his offense to a very high level and you have to go into week one saying these two guys will not catch passes. It's deliberate in our game plan to leave them in to help the run game and pass blocking. Then why in God's name did you invest all that money in the offensive line if you still need help from your tight ends? Why?
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A
And I didn't think for the most part the tackles were all that terrible. Darnell. Right. At a couple bad moments, we always know that they're going to be bull rushes that get Braxton Jones. But the interior was worse than the exterior.
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B
No, you're right.
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C
And.
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B
Van Ginkel and who's the other guy?
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A
Granard.
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B
Granard. They had their games. But, but they, they weren't significant, huge factors in what happened. What, what the issue was was more interior. You're not going to go a whole game and keep those two guys out of making plays. You're not. That's just not possible. I thought the tackles didn't play all that bad. But then why is it, are you using your tight ends, which is a high, a high part of his offense, a high percentage of his offense passing down the middle of the field. And, and here's the reason why, Dan. What does he have trouble doing as a quarterback? What? Passes.
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A
Layered passes.
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B
Layered passes. Those middle of the field routes where you have to drop it in the zones. He has a hard time with those. He cannot make those. If, if, if, if he's ineffective at that, then what the hell are we doing with the tight ends?
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A
The whole point of tight ends is to have them in those places and being, and being well and, or being used to force defenders into conflict that make those layers wider.
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B
Wider. Right.
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A
That if he needs to sort of feather throws in there, like shooting at A basket, which he did last night, needed to make the. Make the basket bigger. Yes, make for a bigger basket because it sometimes like there was a throw that late, that Odunze dropped, that was a tough catch into what they call the hole of coverage between corner and safety. It was a perfect throw.
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B
Got his hands on it.
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A
It was tough, it was a tough play. But what is irksome at times about Williams is it's in there, that accuracy we saw. When did he become inaccurate?
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B
I don't know.
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A
There was nothing in the scouting report that suggested this kind of inaccuracy. And we should mention too, I believe was Courtney Cronin who reported that he was on medium to deep balls. Right. The most inaccurate passer in the NFL in week one.
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B
Yeah, he finished that. He finished a league worst 29.4% of off target rate.
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A
When did that happen?
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B
Yeah.
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A
It'S one thing coming out of college is always a big arm quarterback or an athletic quarterback or they say, you know, he can really throw it. He's got the arm talent. He just is too inaccurate. And we've seen rarely somebody will start to polish accuracy at the NFL level. Usually it's something you either have or you don't. I don't remember somebody who is this intensely scouted since high school losing accuracy over time.
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B
Yeah, I was just so disappointed to hear, to hear him say that, that, hey, that wasn't the game plan for these tight ends in week one. They were meant to stay home to help the run game, to help pass blocking. That's, that's not what they're. Yeah, their production was low, but that's, that was our plan for this game. Then why is all the money being spent on the offensive line? Why? Why? And you know, his completions of ten in a row to start the game. Great. How many of those were checkdowns? And when you look at the rest of the game, the missed opportunities that weren't there, the ones he didn't take, or the throws that were bad, how many opportunities were there in those first 10 passes that he just didn't throw or didn't see? Where other quarterbacks are making those plays, other quarterbacks are seeing it. And you said it earlier, Dan, it's about walking up to the line and knowing, all right, this is what the defense is going to give me, this is where I'm going to go with the ball. That's what the great ones do. They know ahead of time what they're going to do by what they see in the defense.
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A
He's still throwing to what he sees.
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B
Yes, he is. And he. And. And even at Dan, at times, he's not even hitting those because it's late.
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A
Because you can't do that in the NFL. That's not NFL football. That's college football. Seeing an open guy and throwing it to him is college football. NFL football is throwing it to where the guy's going to be.
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B
So. And we keep saying not seeing it like he has to. He just doesn't trust to throw it. I don't know what it is. Or does he not think that it's open?
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A
That is. That's part of the targeting system. That is. That's the gestalt of quarterbacking.
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B
You have to throw the ball, and if the receiver's not there to do their job, then it's on them.
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A
You put it this way, and there is a computer in your head. I remember having a conversation years ago at a Super bowl with Phil Sims about this. Who. When. When a camera is not on him. He's one of the best talkers you've ever heard.
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B
Is this a problem when the light goes on?
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A
I'm serious. When he's just casual and you're just talking to him. He did a great job explaining to me. We were just sitting at a table and he did a great job explaining to me what the concept of open is to a certain level of talented passer. And it's what you see as open isn't what that passer sees as open. I've brought this up before. When the number of times you watch a Brett Favre peak Brett Favre throw, and it looks like he's fit it into this tiny little window because two defensive backs cross in an X horizontally diving for the ball, they both nearly tip it. And it's right between the numbers of the receiver. And you say, oh, my God, how did he make that throw to a quarterback like that? It's binary. His targeting computer in his eye picture, whether it's Terminator or the targeting computer in the end of the Predator, the Trench at Star wars, at the end, where it's binary. Open throw, not open, don't throw. And when he saw that guy, something in his brain, knowing his arm and knowing his accuracy, something in that machine knew that he could get it there. And that's where Caleb is still off.
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B
The timing's off.
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A
Yes. At the NFL level, it's not. It's the timing and the judgment. It's the proprioception. It is both physical and mental. It's his understanding of getting to the Point where it's automatic here, here. Open throw. But he doesn't trust what's. What is open to him yet.
- [26:34]
B
So is it a matter? Because, I mean, he has.
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A
Is that coaching?
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B
Is it coaching?
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A
I don't know.
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B
Is it. He's 18 regular season games into his career. Is it. Is it just a matter of. You've gotta. You've gotta throw the ball and if you make a mistake, it's fine. If it gets intercepted, that's part of the game. But you've got to learn to make those throws. What's it come down to? Like, he needs to stop operating in. Everything's broken down, there's chaos. This is where I thrive. And that's what he does well. And we saw it last night, that he can escape the pocket and create with his feet and even create on the run, throwing the ball. We saw it. That beautiful pass to Rome last night in the first quarter, and we saw him use his feet to gain first downs, to get his first rushing touchdown ever on his first opening drive. Touchdown ever.
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A
And that was all scripted. They knew what they were going to see. They knew what they wanted to show. And the reason why our excitement was not unreasonable after that wasn't just because of the stats. They hadn't done this since when. And they hadn't done this since when it was saying, hey, now, Ben Johnson not only got value out of his scripted plays, because sometimes you get value even when that drive goes badly and you come back, you're like, okay, all right, I have data. I'm getting a sample of data that's actionable. But they score and it all went well. And this coach that you paid the gazillion dollars, what is it, 13 million a year or some. What is it, some crazy that he is. It's a lot of money. It's a lot of money that he's. He now has the information that he's really going to carve him up later. And it was the opposite of that.
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B
It was the exact opposite.
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A
That's what's terrifying.
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B
But. But here's the problem, though, with that, Dan. It was also what the Vikings weren't doing. And what they did.
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A
They suckered him.
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B
Brian Flores said, you know what? We're going to rush four. We're going to. We're going to leave the cornerbacks deep. We're going to see what happens. And they got pressure with 4. They got consistent pressure, Dan with 4. It just didn't get the outcomes that they wanted. And then in the second half, when he flipped it and said, all right, we're going to pressure, we're going to blitz, we're going to bring the quarterbacks up, we're going to take away those checkdowns. Let's see what Caleb was, what Caleb Williams can do. And we saw that he couldn't hit an open guy, he couldn't see an open guy, he couldn't complete a pass. And the game changed because Brian Flores said, all right, here we go. Release the hounds.
- [29:03]
A
So how. How does he look at his team today? How do they go through this film and how does he retain their trust? It was so brutal last night that it called so many basic things into question about what their training camp was, about what's been going on, about what's being taught, about what's being game planned. That, and I think you've said it multiple times, as far as we're concerned and fans are concerned, he burned through all of his capital.
- [29:37]
B
It's all gone.
- [29:37]
A
The honeymoon is over again.
- [29:40]
B
It didn't have to be a 63.0win last night. It didn't have to be that. But I think you keep saying it great. It just, it didn't. It shouldn't have looked like a Bears game. And he came in and he bears us with a Bears game.
- [29:57]
A
And how do you convince the players now that everything's still okay, that they can trust you, that you have your. Your arms around all of this? When he said, that's got to get cleared up in a hurry. I don't like the passive voice on that. We I. Yeah, I, We. I. I got to clear that up in a hurry.
- [30:16]
B
It's. It's different, though, Dan. In the locker room, I think the locker room, you know, they still, they all believe in each other. It's one game. They have a different perspective and a view than we do as fans. He burned through all of it with us. I'm sure it's. It's still there with the team and with them. For me, though, it's. It's the players in the back of their mind looking at their quarterback. They know, like, it's. It's 18 regular season games, man. Why. Why am I still running wide open downfield and not getting the ball? Why am I not getting the ball thrown to me when I'm open between a zone and it's three feet over my head?
- [30:50]
A
Or if you're Roma Dunes A, why do I have to wait 3 seconds wide open in a zone?
- [30:57]
B
That zone when.
- [30:58]
A
Come on, man.
- [30:59]
B
Like, dude, that's what I'm getting tired of.
- [31:00]
A
Hello.
- [31:01]
B
And again, this is what, what's familiar about what I saw last night. I watch other NFL games and I see receivers and running backs catching the ball in stride. And yet I see Bears receivers and Bears running backs catching the ball with their back to the end zone, standing still, waiting for the ball. And I saw it last night. When, when can we consistently. And he does it. He hits guys in stride. But when can we consistently see that happening? When. When am I going to watch my team and their offense look like an NFL offense that I watch other games?
- [31:34]
A
When it's always supposed to be this time around, this time around, things will be different. And finally, finally, finally they. They got a new team president. They blow everybody out. They bring in the new coach and a new defensive coordinator, but everything was bad.
- [31:53]
B
It should have looked better last night. It's your second year as a quarterback. You're. You're a, you're offensive coordinator the last three years that average 30 points a game with your personnel. You brought in offensive linemen and paid them a shitload of money. It should have looked better last night. Why didn't it?
- [32:08]
A
And I don't know if there's any changes to be made other than getting your defensive starters back.
- [32:15]
B
Do you.
- [32:15]
A
Is there like a symbolic benching you would do? Is there anybody you'd single out at this point and say after one game, do you have anybody who's good enough to do that's even pushing for that change to be made? And when we talk about these coordinators too, they kept a coordinator. They kept Richard Hightower.
- [32:33]
B
Yes, they did.
- [32:33]
A
Now, if you were to tell me in your home opener, the very first game of the season, that you would have a missed field goal, a blocked punt, issues on your coverage, teams on punt and kickoff, and then some kind of miscommunication, failure to execute. A failure to execute. Well said. That last kickoff. Those number of special teams gaffes are enough to question why they brought back a coordinator.
- [33:09]
B
No, that's. That's a good point. That's something we haven't. We hadn't talked about.
- [33:11]
A
That's all in one game.
- [33:13]
B
Yeah, that's. That's too. Is that too much?
- [33:16]
A
Missed field goal, blocked punt, coverage issues, and a critical kickoff that is not executed. That's all just special teams.
- [33:27]
B
Yeah, that's. That's not good. That's not good at all. And if you remember yesterday on our forward progress, who is the main player on defense I targeted to watch?
- [33:38]
A
The main player on defense you targeted to watch was Montez Sweat and Joe.
- [33:43]
B
Buck Troy Aikman made a point of it because they highlighted themselves in the broadcast the first time they mentioned him. Do you remember when. End of third quarter, 12:18 left in the game. 12:18 left in the game. And they highlighted it for me that it's the first time that they were mentioning Montez Sweat in the game.
- [34:04]
A
On the batted pass. Yeah, right.
- [34:06]
B
12:18 left in the game. That he possibly saved a touchdown. But you're talking the start of the fourth quarter before he was mentioned. And I was curious and excited to see what he was going to do and play like under Dennis Allen, what Dennis Allen was going to do with him. If he's going to move him around, if he's going to stack him on one side, if he was going to give him the freedom to move and roam and be inside, outside. And 12:18 is the first time he's mentioned 12:18 left in the game. 12:18 left in the game.
- [34:38]
A
Let's put it this way, as we're trying to just get a sense of where this stands and what this is. Ben Johnson was really excited to take this job. We know from the zoom, right? I want this job. I want this job. Everything. We talked about, a lot of transparency, and it's been great. His agent, Rick Smith, who's a great agent and a super guy, and he has kind of talked about all this, and it made the Bears look really good. All our old predispositions and our old sense about how the Bears do business, you know, it felt like sunlight and fresh air, and it felt new and it felt different. Everything felt new and different. The way it happened, the decisiveness and how quickly they went out and made their move and got their guy, and here he is, and it just feels now like a massive job for him, that maybe it was all fun. Oh, I'm going to take Caleb Williams, flip a switch, and we're going to get these offensive linemen in here. Hell, we got Montez Sweat, we got Dio Dangbo, and we're all ready to go. This team could be in danger of being really bad, and that's scary to think about.
- [35:55]
B
Yeah, but, Dan, we also talked about the fact that they could have a really good, positive season and still finish fourth in a division.
- [36:00]
A
That's true. But. But his lift, the overall lift, like now, you just dug the hole deeper.
- [36:06]
B
Oh, yeah.
- [36:06]
A
You didn't put off. At the bare minimum, even if you lose the game, if you get beaten, say, all right, you know, we were down three defensive starters, and it's too bad, but we, you saw what this is going to look like. I don't want to be saying that negatively. I don't want to be thinking, you saw what this is going to look like right after that.
- [36:26]
B
If this is what it's going to.
- [36:27]
A
Look like right then, then we're in, we're in deep shit. And his, the overall lift for Ben Johnson here may be way more than he thought it was.
- [36:39]
B
Caleb Williams started 10 for 10 and then went 11 for 25.
- [36:44]
A
Right. Because everything tightened up because the defense had an understanding what was going on.
- [36:48]
B
Because they actually started playing and you.
- [36:50]
A
Notice the way they were reacting to so many of the Bears formations when, you know, Van Ginkel's jumping, knew. They knew immediately they were sniffing stuff out.
- [36:58]
B
He knew that was coming.
- [37:00]
A
And that's supposed to be the opposite of a Ben Johnson offense too.
- [37:03]
B
If that wasn't a low sidearm pass, that's picked off and I think he had two or three last year that's picked off and ran back that pick six.
- [37:09]
A
And that was the problem with Trustman, that was the problem with Negie. That was the issue when, when offenses have been bad. It was, wait a second, they're lining up and we're at home and we know what's coming, you know, and we.
- [37:22]
B
Talked about it yesterday with his playbook and that he said he was going to only run the things that he ran well in practice.
- [37:31]
A
And Williams said some of those deep crosses to the tight ends that he overthrew, they were ripping in practice. Great, great. Keep scoring practice then. Make that count. It's happening again. I don't want to do this again.
- [37:49]
B
No. And dude, Caleb Williams shouldn't be your leading rusher either. He shouldn't be your leading rusher.
- [37:55]
A
No.
- [37:56]
B
Like, yeah, he has the ability, he's fast, he can move with the ball. Got his first rushing touchdown, but I don't ever want to see him on top of the other. But again, something we talked about, the running back room. DeAndre Swift had what, two good runs.
- [38:09]
A
Remember how excited people were about Kyle Menungai? He's, he's, he's fine. Except he's short and slow. Other than that, great. Is it important as a running back to be fast? Well, yes, kinda so. But he's not.
- [38:25]
B
Did DJ Moore have more rushing attempts or more receptions?
- [38:29]
A
Do I get to look? No, I'll say equal.
- [38:32]
B
It was equal. Nicely done.
- [38:34]
A
I didn't look.
- [38:35]
B
He had three receptions and three rushing attempts. Yeah, I don't like it.
- [38:39]
A
Well, if he's, I don't like it.
- [38:41]
B
Well, I don't mind the rushing attempts. They shouldn't be the same number.
- [38:45]
A
No, I also don't want. I don't want them inside. I don't want him running between the tackles. No, I want him with numbers, with an extra hat. In, out, somehow in your outside zone, which is what you brought Drew Dahlman in here to do instead of be a turnstile.
- [39:01]
B
Go back to that stat if you have it. But the, the amount of quick pressures from the Vikings interior defensive line. Those, those, the. The quick pressures under two seconds or two and a half seconds.
- [39:11]
A
What have you said from the NFL and from next gen stats? Javon Hargrave and Jonathan Allen generated six pressures each, with Hargrave also recording two sacks and two quick pressures under two and a half seconds, despite being double teamed at respective rates of 41.9% and 47.1%.
- [39:30]
B
So one of those two plays came in. The play where Caleb Williams. Where there, there was the, the personal foul, the hit to the head, and the same play where DJ Moore died for three minutes and then came right.
- [39:41]
A
Back in the game.
- [39:42]
B
Came back. Right. But he. Dahlman was in. I mean, that's probably less than a second. I mean, it was as if they opened the door and said, please run through. Here's my quarterback.
- [39:50]
A
Like a screen.
- [39:51]
B
Like it.
- [39:52]
A
Like setting up a screen.
- [39:53]
B
It was unbelievable.
- [39:56]
A
You know, I want to.
- [39:57]
B
At least on dbu, I think that was Hargrave.
- [39:59]
A
I think it was at least on dbu at this point, we got to start talking about grandma's dildos and escaped horses. But. And you should check that out if you haven't. But we can't do that here. So all we can do is tell you that tomorrow on forward progress, we're gonna break down everything that the Bears come in and try to say about what they think they saw on film. We're gonna get the latest injury report and react to that and then figure out where they go from here before we decide to get on the same page. They don't, you know, they don't turn the page. They're turning the page. We just need to get on the same page in the run game.
- [40:35]
B
Well, he. He wants to turn the page to look ahead to Detroit, but they need to get on the same page before they turn it. If he turns it prematurely, then we're all screwed.
- [40:42]
A
Right? Because not even the same page.
- [40:44]
B
No one's on the same page to.
- [40:45]
A
Yeah, right. You can be back here. The page is turning. You're over here and there.
- [40:48]
B
So in order get on the same page, then turn the page and we're good to go.
- [40:53]
A
There it is.
- [40:53]
B
And we should get a big Bears victory in Detroit.
- [40:57]
A
All right. Awesome.
- [40:59]
B
That's the plan.
- [41:00]
A
And that is forward progress for this Monday. We'll talk to you tomorrow.
- [41:13]
B
Forward Progress, a Chicago Bears podcast with Dan Bernstein and Matt Abeticola on 312 Sports.