Key comments from his Monday press conference.
It would be hard to find fault in a game in which Chicago did virtually everything right. No turnovers. Keeping the Raiders out of the end one. Khalil Herbert and Damien Williams subbing ably for the injured David Montgomery.
On Khalil Mack: It was a game where we were able to affect them. It all started with ’52’ I mean every single play. Khalil was all over the place. It was really one of those games where you could see that they knew where he was on every play, and he was able to still affect the game. His teammates around him helped him with that part. All in all it was eleven guys on that were just defense flying around against a really good offense with a lot of good skill players.
On the running backs stepping up: It was really impressive. Again, you get these opportunities. You know the run game has to be really important and those guys did that. They stepped up and they did it with help. The offensive lines and tight ends. There were some awesome blocks by the wide outs. When you highlight that to the guys, they see the effort.
Justin getting hit: It’s inevitable in this game, every quarterback gets hit in the pocket. You saw it too, in the drop back game where he was getting hit as well, and there were some flags for that. So let’s minimize that as much as we can. Some of it might be game plan specific. If you have more or less runs in the plan, and how those are called. There are some guys that run more than others. And there are some guys that protect themselves more than others. I think the biggest thing with Justin is that he understands that we want to be smart with that.
Establishing an offensive identity: You adapt to the personnel that you have, and every year could be a little different. What I like is that we have a really good mix right now, within our offense ways to be able to get to things if they shut something down, because we have some multiplicity within the offense. You are always trying to stay one step ahead of the defenses. However that is. It’s all based off of the things that you see that a team is going to come into. When you create an identity and you stick to it. When you know that it’s who you are, you can understand that your going to win and lose and you are doing it with an identity.
The defensive: game plan: Sean Desai was able to see where they (Raiders offense ) were are and predict what the were going to do. That’s a credit to that whole coaching staff. That’s a great offensive scheme, and great players. They do a lot of different things and they got a lot of different weapons. He had a good feel on how he wanted that thing to go. Snd he stuck to it. He stayed patient. He’s done a great job of building that identity on defense.
On Khalil Herbert: He did a great job. When you have eighteen carries, you’re doing something right. I think him and Damien were complimentary to each other. You saw really some good times where he hit that zone and he stuck that right or left foot in the ground, planted it, and he went north and south and got seven, eight yards every time. I like his vision, I like his patience. I also like his toughness. You see when he’s returning kickoffs. He’s smooth and people bounce off him.
On Robert Quinn: I talk about Khalil, and it’s not taking anything away from the rest of those guys. When you have a guy like Robert Quinn that’s playing at a high level, maybe one of the highest levels that he’s played at in his career, playing like that only brings attention to him to help Khalil out. Now you got both of those guys on the edges playing like that. Everybody else, it helps them out. And now they start playing better. It’s a domino effect, and they’re having fun with it now.
On Cairo Santos: With Cairo kicking it and with the guys working together as a unit in general. To be able to block, get the snap, get the hold, et cetera. They’ve done a great job. The confidence is there. It’s nice to have that.
About Justin and Bears- Packers: He’s a competitor. He also comes from a college rivalry as well that’s pretty big. So I think he understands rivalries. Our players that are here understand this rivalry and know it, and he’ll certainly be a part of that.
That’s a good thing, because Green Bay comes to Soldier Field for Sunday’s game at 12 pm Central.