Chicago Bears QB Caleb Williams faces 2023 rookie sensation C.J. Stroud.
Here’s what the coaches and players are saying about opponent Houston.
Defensive Coordinator Eric Washington is asked to name the best thing about Stroud. “Arm talent. Arm talent, he can extend plays when he wants to. He does not necessarily want to run per se, although he’ll do it. He’s hurt some people doing it. But his arm talent, his ability to fit the ball into multiple locations and push the ball down the field with accuracy, it really stands out.”
What do you see from your defense in terms of having the right amount of purpose and urgency to come back without trying to do too much?
“Yeah. I just, the mental toughness was outstanding. I mean, to have that kind of deficit and some of the things that we didn’t do well in the first half, especially in terms of addressing the run and to go in the locker room and there was … we have an expression — don’t blink. There was none of that. I was just so proud of that, the way that we fought and we just kept grinding and grinding and things started to go in our favor and we were opportunistic and took the ball away and were able to help our team win. It says everything about the character of our players since I’ve been coming to this podium.”
Coach Matt Eberflus: On how much of play calling is ‘in the moment’ and how much is ‘pre-calculated’:
“This will be the third time I say it, it’s both. The press conference is going to be call, ‘It’s both’ (laughter). I do believe that it is. You have contingency plans in your game plan. Sometimes it’s based on what you called before and then you could call something that is still on the call sheet that you really like. Then you could see how that team is attacking you with what particular protections, run game that might be the case. You just kind of tactically move your game plan into that best case scenario for you. That’s the way we do it. I’m leaning on (Defensive Coordinator) Eric Washington, I’m leaning on the secondary coaches the whole time. They are coming up with answers when I flip back over to offense, then I come back and they have answers for what’s going on. They do a great job of that. A lot of those guys, like I’ve said have been with me a long time. I lean on those guys a lot.”
On what he learned this week about QB Caleb Williams:
“I thought the response was good. I thought it was quick turning over. I met with him at 9:15 on Monday and he was already in a good space in terms of mind, body and spirt. Moving onto the next week and focusing on getting better, reinvesting in himself, growing and improving. That’s what we need to do every week. Each performance is going to have it’s ups and downs, ins and outs. You have to deal with that as a professional athlete. Then really when you’re the apex of the offense you have to be able to flip it over and have that right light in terms of your energy and positivity and determination to move onto the next game plan. That’s what he did.”
On what ‘he makes’ of the two-high looks from defenses around the NFL:
“That’s been that way for a couple years now. I really believe it’s just trying to eliminate the explosive play. That’s the reason why you do it. That’s why you got to be able to run the football when you got a light box like that. You got to be able to run the ball on that. That’s important that you can get that done to force that guy to come down that safety, to come down, to make that box a little heavy for the run. That’s what it opens up for the all the play action. That’s the name of the game we’re playing.”
Bears rookie WR Rome Odunze: What was Sunday night/Monday morning like? Did the injury come on more and more as time passed? Were you worried?
“I mean, definitely was worried. I’ve never dealt with a knee injury before. There’s lot of tendons in there that you can mess up and people have messed up. Initially was out there on the field, had some soreness after the game and things like that. Soreness continued to build and then that night the soreness was pretty bad. Next morning soreness was pretty bad. At that point it was my mindset that I might have done something wrong to it which led me to get the MRI and get the doctor’s opinion as well as a second opinion to make sure it’s all good, especially because it’s a knee injury. But the soreness has dwindled, continued movement and mobility has continued to grow. I think those things are important.”
