BB: Things today are pretty much the
way I talked about them last night. Obviously, it was a good game to win, a
hard-fought game between two physical, tough football teams. It's good to
come out on top. There are a lot of things that we need to do better and
need work on and all that. I'm sure they feel the same way. The bottom line
is, we were able to come out with a few more points than they did, made a
few more plays at the right time, so now we just have to continue to work to
improve and get better as a football team in every area, and move on to Detroit. On Junior [Seau], I don't really have any more
information than that right now. That's basically where we are.
Q: Did Junior almost exceed
your expectations when you brought him in here, the way he played this year?
BB: He's done a real good for us. I don't really know what the
expectations are. I try not to have too many expectations with players. I'd
rather just coach them and see what they can do. Junior was real
good. Our system, even though he worked a little bit in it at Miami last year, it's a little bit different than anything else he's played in.
That was an adjustment for him. He worked very hard to kind of change his
style of play a little bit to fit what we do. He has a lot of leadership. It
was kind of ironic. Last night before the game, he gave a very emotional
speech to the team before we went out onto the field. That's the kind of guy
he is, very unselfish, team oriented, really works hard at the game – he's
here early, stays late, wants to take every rep in practice. He's was a guy
that I really enjoyed coaching. I just had him a few days at the Pro Bowl in '98, but he's a guy that is fun to coach and really loves football. I
have a lot of respect for him. It's unfortunate that his season ended last
night.
Q: I noticed that Rosey [Colvin] switched from the right
side to the left side.
BB: Well, when Junior went out, Rosey went to the left. Tully [Banta-Cain] went to the right and Mike [Vrabel]
went inside.
Q: Was there a certain thinking of putting Rosey on that side
instead of Tully?
BB: That's the way we've done it all year.
Q: With a decision like that, is a player's comfort level important and a
critical factor when making that switch?
BB: No, not in this case, no. I think that all three guys have played on
all three sides. It's just a question of getting reps and getting
comfortable. It's hard to work all three guys on all three sides. If you
work, basically, Mike on the left and Tully on the right and Rosey flips, then you have one guy flipping it. If you start flipping multiple
guys, then you could flip Tully left and right and keep Rosey and Mike together, but then Mike goes in in nickel. You could do it a couple of
different ways. That's just the way we did it. I don't think there's
anything magical about it. We could've done it differently.
Q: Is it good that Tully can now maybe draw on some of the
experience that he had during training camp working with the first team
quite a bit?
BB: Yes, well Tully has been playing quite a bit for us. He's
played all the way through – from training camp to games, both in regular
and in some nickel situations. He's been on the field quite a bit. We'll see
exactly how those roles work out going forward. He did a good job last night
stepping in there. I think defensively we, again, we had some things that
could've been better, but we played competitively.
Q: How many reps has Vrabel seen inside at practice?
BB: He got quite a bit in training camp. He had several weeks there, a
couple of weeks there before Junior came, and even when Junior did
come and Tedy [Bruschi] was out, Mike was playing the
weak side and Junior was playing the strong side. Then when Tedy came back,
Junior went to the weak side and Tedy flipped back. Tedy came back to the
strong side where he's been playing. We worked it that way in practice too.
I couldn't give you an exact number of plays, but it's quite a few.
Q: So they did practice during the season? He has been taking reps
inside?
BB: Sure. The rotation that we hit last night was exactly the way we've
really been practicing all year since Tedy came back, which was the Jets game, the second game of the year.
Q: When you look at the tape, were some of the turnovers just because of
the way the Bears play?
BB: They made some good plays, but I think we have to make good plays,
too. This isn't the first team that's tried to pull the ball out and it
won't be the last, either. There are a lot of teams that do it and a lot of
teams are good at it. The Bears are probably the best at it. But we're going
to see it every week. We'll probably see a lot more of it now. They'll
probably be excited to play us, get a bunch of fumbles.
Q: Do you feel like you have a pretty good grasp on where your football
team is and what their capabilities are and limits are?
BB: Well, I think we know from a gameplanning standpoint kind of more
than we knew a month ago or two months ago or three months ago. I don't know
if that's any predictor of how anything is going to go. I think it helps you
gameplanning-wise. We've seen players in certain situations and how much we
want to put them in it versus somebody else or maybe we don't want to be in
it at all for whatever the reasons. I think there's a lot of experience
gained from every game every time we go out there and every time the ball is
snapped. I'm not saying that. I don't know exactly what that means other
than from a planning standpoint. I don't think it means that much from a
performance standpoint because I think every week's performance is it's own
week.
Q: Do you feel like your defense has been the most consistent out of the
three units?
BB: I don't know. I think they all have been good at times. They all
could be better. We need to improve in every area. I don't know.
Q: Was there something that you guys saw that caused you to play Asante [Samuel] on the left side yesterday?
BB: No, it just kind of worked out that way. When Ellis [Hobbs]
went out, who had been playing on the left side, then Chad [Scott]
came in and played on the left, we didn't really want to move Asante.
Then, when Asante was out last week, Ellis played on the right side, which
is where he played the majority of training camp. This week, we decided to
leave Ellis on the right side and move Asante back to the left side. We
weren't sure where Chad was, that was kind of the game time decision. We
practiced Chad and Asante on the left side this week and just left Ellis
over there on the right. I think we're just going to have to figure out how
exactly that's going to go, whether it's going to be a week-to-week thing or
whether they're going to stay somewhere or exactly how we're going to do
that. It just kind of worked its way up the last…well, since when Ellis went
out. That's just kind of the way the trail was blazed.
Q: Obviously, Asante had a great performance yesterday. Does that
kind of play into a guy's comfort level? He was saying that he feels like
the left side is his best side.
BB: I thought he played well on the right side earlier in the year, too.
He's made quite a few plays over there. But that's something that, like I
said, we're just going to have to work that out. We'll certainly talk to the
players. We want them to be comfortable and we want good matchups on the
receivers. We need the defense executed to the highest level that we can get
it done. We're all for that goal there, exactly how all of that manifests
itself, we'll just kind of have to wait and see. But I think all of the
players are pretty versatile and they've played on different sides, in the
slot and so forth. I think we have a little bit of flexibility there.
Q: With your numbers a little thinner at linebacker, will you put more on
those guys up front?
BB: I think it takes all 11 people on every play on defense. I think
everybody has to do the best they can and that's what we expect everybody to
do. I don't think you can go into a play or a game saying, 'We're going to
get 100 percent out of you. We only need 80 percent out of you.' You just
don't do it that way.
Q: You play both the 3-4 and the 4-3. Can you see a scenario where you're
playing more 4-3 now going forward?
BB: We make those decisions on a week-to-week basis on what we feel like
is best for that game and gives us the best chance to win.
Q: Are you concerned that your linebacker depth might hurt your rotation
for the 3-4 just because you're down a guy that has played so many snaps?
BB: Mike played there 10 games last year. He played there in
preseason. Mike can play there. I'm not really worried about that.
Q: I meant the group as a whole.
BB: I think that is what a football team is, the guys that need to play
step up and play. That's what they do. I can't tell you how all of that is
going to work out. The guys that we put in there, we expect to play well.
Guys that are in there, I'm sure they expect themselves to play well and
they're prepared to play well.
Q: Are guys like Corey [Mays] and Pierre [Woods]
prepared to take on a more significant role?
BB: I think those guys are getting better. They're young players and
they're a lot better now than when they were 10, 11, 12 weeks ago. There's
no doubt about that. We'll have to see how all of that works. Maybe some
roles may shift around a little bit. Again, a lot of that is just done on a
week-to-week game plan basis anyway. When you lose a player, that might
shift a role or it might be multiple roles. I don't know.
Q: How is Rodney [Harrison's] rehab progressing?
BB: Good. It's getting better everyday. He's doing more today than he did
yesterday. More yesterday than the day before. Hopefully he'll continue to
head in the right direction. As long as a player makes steady progress, then
that's good. Sometimes they do and then sometimes as the injury is healing
and gets stressed and it can't handle it, you have to back it down a little
bit. That's why we never really know what a timeframe is on that, how
quickly things can come around or not come around. We'll just take it
day-to-day. But he's doing fine.
Q: How nice was it to have him on the sideline yesterday?
BB: Good. I wish we had all of our players. It's good to have him.
Q: How much has Richard Seymour been limited by his injury this
year? Do you feel like he's playing at the level that you've come to expect
of him?
BB: I don't know. You'd have to talk to him about the injuries. I don't
know. I'm sure that every player at this point in the year has some bumps
and bruises. I doubt there's anybody in the league that feels fresh as a
daisy here at the end of November that have been playing 10 or 11 games, but
I thought Richard played well last night. I thought he got off on the
ball well, showed some good quickness, made a significant number of plays in
both the running game and the passing game. I thought he used his hands
well. I thought he played a good football game. As did Ty [Warren].
I thought those two guys both really – I mean, it wasn't perfect, there were
certainly things they could have done better. Richard missed a tackle there.
I'm sure he would've like to have made that one, but he hit the quarterback.
Played pretty good in the running game; blocked a field goal – that was a big
play. Ultimately, when you look at the game, you have us blocking a field
goal then you have a 52-yarder at the end of the half. In a close game
that's only decided by a couple points those end up being really big plays.
I don't think you can minimize the importance of that blocked field goal or
[Stephen] Gostkowski's long one before the half for that
matter. I think that Richard did a nice job last night. I thought...pretty
well.
Q: Did you learn a little bit more about Gostkowski last night
making the 52-yarder after missing the first attempt when the Bears called a
timeout?
BB: I'd say I wish he had learned a little bit more. That was about as
close as it could be to making it. It was a good kick. It went through, so
it was good enough. You'd like for those adjustments to be a little more in
the middle of the cut instead of rimming the edge. It was a 52-yard kick, so
those are hard to make in any situation. That was a big kick for us. He's
done a good job for us all year. We have a lot of confidence in him. He's
done well for us – kicking, kickoffs, made a couple of tackles. I thought Kenny [Walter] did a good job, too. All the way around. Both in
the holding aspect of it, which was important – again, when you talk about a
kick that was as close as that one was to the crossbar and the upright, I'm
glad we had an experienced holder in that situation. And that 37, or
whatever it was, that we netted in the punting game against [Devin] Hester and that punt return group, that was good, too. I thought that
Kenny did a real good job of putting the ball up there and forcing those
fair catches and keeping them out of their return game. I thought our
kickers did a good job last night.
Q: Do you think you would've been able to try a 52-yarder on the sandpit
last week?
BB: No. What was the longest field goal we've tried here? It's not just
us. You look at the other kickers and everybody is having trouble making
them from really I'd say 40 is about… you might be able to get it there, but
getting it through, I don't know what the odds are. It's tough. You guys
have seen all the games. It's been [Olindo] Mare, [Adam] Vinatieri, [Rian] Lindell, it's been a lot of other
kickers, too. Maybe at the end of the half you take a shot at it, a
52-yarder, you take a shot at it just because it's the end of the half and
you have nothing to lose. It would be tough sledding.
Q: Would you be in favor of instant replay on pass interference calls?
BB: I'm not even going to get into the officiating. It's not for me to
decide. Right off the top of my head, I'd say that would be another thing
that would probably add another 10 or 15 minutes to the game if you wanted
to do that.
Q: I know that Thanksgiving has kind of served as maybe a turning
point for a lot of teams that wind up being champions. Was there any talk
going into this game about how this was one of the best teams and how you
needed to play?
BB: Well, I think when you come into the last third of the season
roughly, which is Thanksgiving, your games at the end of November and
December, those are critical games for every team, provided that you're in
position for them to count. Some teams are pretty much out of the running at
this point so those games aren't that meaningful in the standings, but for
all of the teams that kind of are in the thick of it here at this point,
regardless of what their record is, then these are the games that are really
going to decide who is standing at the end. Go back to the 2001 season where
we looked at the Breeder's Cup and kind of tried to see who was ahead
as the teams went to the three-quarter pole and headed for home. It really
didn't make much difference. It's the team that crossed the finish line
first. I think there's a lot of truth to that. The games at the end of the
season, at this point every one of them is a big game. There's a lot at
stake. Last night, this week against Detroit, each succeeding week – they're all big.
Q: To this point, has there been an element of team building? I know you
use a lot of different receivers, you had a rotation at linebacker. Is there
an element of building depth and maybe just finding out where each guy is at
as far as his development?
BB: Well, I would say there definitely is. You play 10, 11 games, you see
how to utilize different players on your team and what their strengths are
and how to get the most out of your personnel. Yes, there's no question
that's a part of it. How that plays itself out from week-to-week or certain
matchups in the game, as you come into future opponents, there's no question
that's a big part of it.
Q: How much tougher is it now to play defensive back than when you
entered the league?
BB: There have been a couple of rule changes, but they haven't changed
any rules in the last, I don't know, since they put in the illegal contact
rule and when was that, 10 years ago? I don't know. Whenever it was. I'm
sure that's really been about the same for the last…there haven't been any
changes in the rules in the last 10 years or so, however long it's been.
When I first came into the league, there was no contact zone. You could
actually cut receivers on the line of scrimmage, block them below the waist
and stuff like that, which teams would do when they were backed up by a
safety, almost like a chop-block. There were a lot of different ways in
handling it. Guys that fed up on the line of scrimmage, like the Oakland corners, [Lester] Hayes when he was out there and guys like
that, they were hard to get away from because they could contact the
receiver all the way down the field. Mel Blount, guys like that. I
think it's probably been about the same as what it's been in the last
however many years. It's pretty clear-cut. You can't hit the guy five yards
down field. You have to play the ball when it's in the air.
Q: On the pass interference call yesterday on Artrell Hawkins, he
said he felt like he played it correctly.
BB: Well, I think you have to understand the rule and play the rule, and
play within the rule. If you don't, you can expect to be called. There are
going to be some close calls and they're going to go both ways. That's
football. I think you have to try to play the technique to the best of your
ability within the framework of the rules to minimize the opportunities for
the official to flag you for those penalties. Again, there are a whole
variety of penalties – there's holding, there's illegal contact, there's pass
interference – depending on where it happens,
whether the ball is in the air or not and so forth. It could come in a
variety of infractions there. All that being said, it's the defender's
responsibility to know and understand that and play within it based on the
game situation that presents itself. That's something that when the
officials come here in training camp, it's a big point of emphasis for us,
having them out there on the field explain it to us, watch practices, talk
about what you can do and what you can't do and what they're going to call
and what they're not going to call, all those kinds of things. Every team in
the league deals with that.
Q: Is it tougher the longer the ball is in the air?
BB: The better position you have, then the less chance you have of
creating a penalty. The worse your position, then probably, depending on
where the ball is, the higher chance that you're going to have to somehow
try to fight to regain that position, possibly illegal interfere with the
receiver and there are some close calls where you're playing the ball and
there's contact. We had some of those last night. One on Ellis in the
endzone where the ball was overthrown and there was contact and it looked
like the legs got tangled up, there wasn't a call on that. I think the
officials are interpreting the rule as it's written. Whether we agree with
it or disagree with it doesn't really make any difference. It doesn't matter
how I see it, it's how they see it. I think in terms of coaching it, you
have to try to coach it the way that it's written and the way that you think
it's going to be officiated. That's what's important, understanding how it's
going to be called.
Q: How has Eric Alexander progressed at inside linebacker?
BB: Good. Those guys, other than Junior and Tedy, haven't
gotten a lot of playing time. I think all of our linebackers are making
progress, Eric, Pierre, Corey, some of the younger guys
that played in preseason that really haven't gotten a lot of opportunity to
play since then. I think that Eric has had a really good year for us on
special teams and he's coming along on defense. This is the most playing
time that he's had in the three years that he's been here. He's done well
with it and I think he's improved on a steady basis. He's a smart kid who
works hard and has gotten better.
Q: Can you touch on Detroit a little and what you expect to see
from them?
BB: Mike Martz on offense, it's very diverse. They give you a lot
of diversity, a lot of different personnel groups. They throw the ball down
the field. They've hit 15, 20-yard passes like it's just sitting around
eating potato chips. It doesn't matter. It could be third-and-two,
third-and-17, it doesn't make any difference to them. They run a lot of
gadget plays, screens, empty on the goal line, unbalanced line, a lot of
shifting and motion, a lot of variety of formations. They have a good
running back, a good tight end, a good fullback, good receivers. [Roy] Williams is probably in the top class of receivers this year in the
National Football League. He's big. He's physical. He fast. He has great
hands. He's tough to tackle. [Mike] Furrey has done a good job
for them. They have a very good offensive line, a very experienced offensive
line similar to the Chicago line, guys that have played a lot of
football in this league and played together and they do a good job.
Defensively, it's the Tampa system that Rod [Marinelli]
runs, similar to Indianapolis, a lot of upfield pass rush, one-gap
penetrating team. They have excellent returners. A good kicker. An explosive
football team offensively and a team with a lot of speed on defense similar
to, really, these other NFC teams that we've played, Green Bay,
yesterday with Chicago. Of course Indianapolis, that style of play,
that upfield speed and quickness. A lot of zone coverage, with a mixture of
man, probably leading with zone as opposed to man. They can move the ball.
They can score points.
Q: Now that you've had time to look at the film, what do you think of
your quarterback's shimmy yesterday?
BB: He made a nice move there on [Brian] Urlacher. I think
he had some space to work with and it kind of set him up. I think he caught
Brian a little flatfooted there. But that was a big play. It was a big third
down conversion. As was the third-and-two on the quarterback sneak there
inside, like around the four or five yard line, whatever it was. Those two
running plays by the quarterback were big third down conversions on that
drive. When you call a play, unless it's a designed play, like a quarterback
draw, which is not something that we run a lot of, those kinds of plays you
don't really count on, those scramble plays, whether they're scramble runs
or scramble passes, like the pass to [Benjamin] Watson, where
that wasn't really the route and then you kind of scramble around and toss
it up there to him and hit a big play. Those improvised plays can be
critical plays in the game. It's a testament to the player's ability to take
that unsettled situation and turn it into a positive play. I have a lot of
confidence in Tom running the ball. Nobody is going to ever confuse
him with Michael Vick or Gayle Sayers or anybody. I'm not
saying that, but in terms of his judgment and when to run and kind of when
not to run, I think he makes good decisions in those situations. He makes
good decisions in all situations, but in those situations, it opened up for
him. He had a little space and was able to give Brian probably his best
move, maybe it's his only move.
Q: Urlacher said he felt [Tom] Brady was going to
slide. Is that a tough position for a defensive player to be in because the
quarterbacks are so protected by the rules?
BB: Yes, well if he slides, you have to show the intent to pull off. We
saw one of those plays earlier in the season with Kansas City and Cincinnati where the defender was already committed to the hit and the
quarterback slid late and there was no foul on the play. We all know what
the rule is on that one. But I think it is something defensively that you
kind of have to be aware of – that slide/no slide situation. It can probably
make you think a little bit about how you really want to go tackle a guy
rather than if it was a normal running back or a receiver or something.
Still, it is what it is. Defensively our job, or any defensive player's job,
is to get the guy with the ball and get him down. Whatever you have to do to
do that, with whatever restrictions you have, leading with the head,
spearing, all of those things, you have to do it without doing it illegally.
Q: Is there any specific fundamental thing that is key to a successful
defensive unit?
BB: Yes, that you have a sound play and that everybody carries out their
assignment within that play. Any good offense, if you're not sound somewhere
along the line with those 11 guys, in any good offense, they'll be able to
find that spot whether it's in pass coverage or in the running game. A good
back he'll be able to find that gap if it's not really covered properly. In
the end, like I said, defensive football comes down to tackling the guy with
the ball. Let's not forget that. That's number one, and covering the
receivers in the passing game. Sometimes tackling receivers after they catch
it on short passes. That's the bottom line. In terms of evaluating a
defense, the bottom line is points and then turnovers. If you're doing well
in those two areas, like the Bears are, they don't give up very many
points and they get a bunch of turnovers. They're a pretty good defensive
team.
Q: I think you guys are second to them in terms of points allowed.
BB: That's the way we measure our defense as well, to try to limit the
number of points we give up and therefore our offense doesn't have to score
as many. We haven't scored any on defense this year. The Bears have,
I don't know, probably six touchdowns, whatever it is. We've had a couple of
them run back on us. The bottom line is not only to not give them up, but
then if you can actually score them on defense, then you're really coming
out on the other side of the ledger.
Q: When your team ranks second best in points allowed in the league, is
it feasible to assume that you're generally happy with the way your defense
has performed?
BB: There are things that we have done well defensively. I think we can
be more consistent. Just like last night – we
gave up some long passes, we had a couple of long penalties, our third down
percentage wasn't real good. Some of that is covered up by the fact that we
had real good field position, and we've had good field position all year,
for the most part. For the most part, we've been a good field position team.
We've limited our turnovers offensively. We've done fairly well in punt and
kickoff coverage, although at times we haven't, so I'm not saying that has
been perfect. For the most we've had good field position. We've kept the
offenses on a long field and in some instances early in the season where
they did get the ball on our side of the 50, we actually had some good
defensive series at that point. Like going back to the Buffalo game
and the Miami game. There were some games where we had some bad field
position and we were able to come out of it with no points or hold them to a
field goal or that type of thing. Those particular points in the game, those
are critical situations to play well in. Again, there's a lot of things I
think we can do better and we need to do better as a defense. There are
other things that have been good and statistically there are areas we're
okay in.
Q: How pleased are you with the kickoff return unit, particularly Laurence Maroney's play? It seemed like yesterday when he fumbled the
ball, he still was able to make some things happen.
BB: Well, he's good with the ball in his hands. He's a good runner. I
think he's still learning as a kickoff returner. I think there's a lot of
things that he could do better. He can run it and he can break some tackles
and he has good speed. That's been a fairly productive area on a team
statistically, but again, I think that it could be a lot better. Some of
that is a function of the blocking. Some of it is a function of the running.
Some of it a function of the timing between the two and making the blocks at
the right time when the runner is hitting the crease rather than too early,
or where they could come off too late where the guy takes away part of the
hole, even though it looks like you're going to get a block, but it's kind
of not the right time. There are a lot of things in that area we can do
better, but I think our kickoff return has been, after the first three, four
games of the season, it's become a more productive phase of the game for us.
Although I didn't think it was really particularly good last night. I think
it could be an area where we could create a short field for our offense and
that's a good way to answer, like in Minnesota after they scored,
it's a good way to answer their points and give your offense a chance to
come back and get right back on the board and kind of take away some of that
momentum. So it's a big play the game if you can do it well. |
