Opening Statement: “So, obviously, on to Chicago. It’s a good opponent. They’ve been in the playoffs. It is a playoff team, it’s a veteran team. Defensively, they present issues, particularly with that front, (Bears LB) Roquan (Smith), (Bears S) Eddie (Jackson) back there. They’ve got a number of matchup issues for us that we’ve got to be ready to handle. Offensively, it’s kind of the tale of, ‘Who’s playing a little bit? Who’s that quarterback going to be?’ But we know they’ve got a good receiver, they’ve got a good back. We know they can function offensively. So, that’s what we’re getting ready for.” On if the Bears offense changed when Bears QB Justin Fields became the starter after QB Andy Dalton’s injury: “It’s a little bit different. There is, certainly, a little more under center with Dalton and things of that regard, whereas Fields was more in the gun. But as the game went on, they started putting him under center, moving him a little bit, more boots, things like that try to get him out of the pocket and get him on the move. So, yeah, there are some things that we’ve got to prepare for and that’s alright. We’ll be ready for both.” On if he thinks the Bears will change up their offensive scheme after last Sunday’s game: “I feel like, if anything, they’re going to try to do a little more of what they did in the second half with him. Look, (Bears QB Justin Fields) he had some struggles early, but I would say there were signs of life at the end of that tape when you watch him. Some of things where – now, maybe it wasn’t always the right read, but he’s pulling the trigger, he’s not waiting in the pocket, he’s trying to diagnose quicker, they’re getting him out on the perimeter. And so, there were some things to where, OK – they probably gathered some information on things that can help him. Those are the things we’ve got to be ready for.” On if he has a guess to who is starting at quarterback for the Bears on Sunday: “I think that, certainly, (Justin) Fields is going to play some, but I’m sure it’ll be – if (Andy) Dalton can go, it will be him. And if not, it will be (Bears QB Nick) Foles. I think there will be a lot of, just knowing the background of Foles, it will be a lot more gun run type things, RPOs, which are kind of similar things they were trying to do with Fields. I think Dalton brings a little more variety just on what he’s able to do, but we’ll be prepared for both.” On RB D’Andre Swift’s ability in the pass game and how he can create a mismatch for the Bears linebackers: “Look, he’s a weapon for us, he really is. He’s a dynamic player and I think he’s just, every week, he’s improving and the more that he shows, the more we put on him because look, it’s one thing physically, but also mentally there’s a lot that we’re asking him to do and I thought he handled it pretty well the other day. It wasn’t perfect, but certainly, it was enough to help move the football down the field. He does – now look, (Bears LB) Roquan’s (Smith) pretty dang good, now. He’s one of the best ones in this League. And so, that’s not an easy matchup for us, but we certainly like where Swift’s at.” On playing against the Bears’ linebacker corps: “It’s tough. That’s really the strength of who they are. When you allow them to pin their ears back, I still think (Bears LB Robert) Quinn is one of the best rushers in this league and (Bears LB Khalil) Mack goes without saying, but I think sometimes Quinn gets lost in the fray a little bit because of Mack and you’ve got (Bears DT Akiem) Hicks in the middle, who is a mismatch player. But man, I think he’s – look, we played them I think four times over the last few years when I was in New Orleans. So, we have a pretty good feel – I have – of their personnel. Listen, that’s where they can get you. That’s where they can get you. So, certainly, we don’t want to sit back there in pass downs if we can keep from it on a regular basis.” On creating new ways to get TE T.J. Hockenson targets with defenses doubling him in coverage: “I think that’s on us as a staff. We’ve got to be more creative in the way that we try to get him the ball. We’re going to have to move him a little bit more and shift him and try to hide him if we can, or at least give him some access. And then even after all of that, if they are still willing to do that, the second read has got to be somebody we think can win. He’s got to be able to win for us.” On if he has reevaluated the clock management decisions from last Sunday’s game: “I look at all of them. I have a gentleman here who writes up everything, every decision that I made from fourth downs to time management, to penalties. As a matter of fact, it’s (Director of Football Compliance/Lead Football Counsel) Jon Dykema. And so I’m like, ‘Jon, I mean, what the hell? This week you really got me, didn’t you?’ Where I’m like, ‘Wait a minute, three weeks ago you told me that was the right thing to do.’ I’m just messing around, but it’s good for me to see. So, I do and I go back over that. There again, I come out of this game and I don’t do anything differently. Just from where the flow of the game went, that’s how I felt. I still think it was the right move.” On why he has Director of Football Compliance/Lead Football Counsel Jon Dykema write down the in-game decisions he makes: “I just think it’s good. Look, he’s up in the booth and to have him be able to go – he can hear what we’re saying. He doesn’t necessarily have input per say during the game, but to be able to write everything up and go through the flow of the game and then give me kind of a whole update on it, it helps me for next time. It helps to – ‘Well, maybe we should’ve burned a little more time to try to get to the two-minute to where I’m not having to use a challenge flag. It goes under two minutes and now the challenge is automatic.’ Just little things like that, you don’t burn the timeout. So, I think it helps me” On if Director of Football Compliance/Lead Football Counsel Jon Dykema serves as almost clock management quality control: “Yeah, so I can reevaluate what I did, what I didn’t do, what I can be better at. It does, it helps.” On if there is a specific instance Director of Football Compliance/Lead Football Counsel Jon Dykema gave him opinions over the headset: “Not necessarily. He gives you the odds on things. There was one of them in there, ‘Hey, we jump offsides, maybe you go for it on fourth-and-5.’ And there is an argument for that, but I just felt like we were in a field position battle and there again, you’ve got to go with your gut sometimes and I felt like, ‘Hey, we can pin these guys down here and defense is playing good.’ And I went with it.” On when Director of Football Compliance/Lead Football Counsel Jon Dykema gives him the report on clock management after a game: “Normally, it’s Monday night is when I get that. He does a real good job with it, too. He really does.” On if he brought the idea of having someone evaluate clock management from New Orleans: “No, it’s actually something that they’ve done around here. They had a young man who was here and went to New England and was really good at clock management and all of the different scenarios of the game. And so, I know that Jon had been with him for a long time and done some of that. It was kind of a – it just felt like the right fit and it was something he was all for doing and he’s been really good at it.” On if injuries factor into team morale: “I feel like we’re pretty good injury-wise all in all, but look, I think – look, anytime you lose, it doesn’t feel good, but I do go back to – I feel like we have the right guys on this team, I really do. I think with – I say it again, with what we showed Sunday and what this team was capable of doing, even though we didn’t win, I felt like it really told a lot about who we are and what we’re made up of. And I feel like even today, just watching these guys come in and looking at them in their eyes, they’re ready to go. I think they’re pretty resilient and they understand the fruits of their labor and it showed the other day and I think they’re hungry and ready to go. I think they’re going to be ready to go and that’s all you can ask for is, you just go back to work and you just don’t give in to losses, you don’t go numb to it. You do whatever you have to to get a little bit better and make one more play than the opponent does.” On how he manages teaching young players after penalties or bad plays: “Some of that comes with, man, when you have good vets around, that’s why a guy like (Michael) Brockers is here. I heard Brockers pulled one of our young guys aside and was like, ‘Hey, it happened, you learned from it, and now it doesn’t happen again, right?’ ‘Yup, that’s right. That’s not happening again.’ It was good, but it was to the point, but that’s the key. I think they really – you have to learn from it. We cannot have the same mistake again. And guess what, just because it happened to him, it can’t happen to you. We all have to learn from that, but also, I think there’s even more of a burden on our veterans. You can’t have mistakes from anybody, but I think our veterans have to be that much better to make up from some of these mistakes the young guys make. Like, you’re not allowed to jump offsides when you’re a veteran guy. You’re not allowed to have ill-timed penalties, or MAs, you can’t do it. You’ve got to pull more of your weight possibly, and while they’re continuing to get better because there is stuff all over that tape that’s pretty damn good, too, now. And I go back to this, what I love about Bobby Price and A.J. Parker, they’re pretty stone-faced in the fact that, man, they don’t lose confidence. Now, they may mess something up, but they go right back at it and they don’t look like they’re scared, they don’t play scared and that’s how you keep getting better.” On how RB D’Andre Swift can earn a start: “I mean, that can very easily come this week. I don’t know if I’d read too much into that. I think it was more of, ‘Hey, let’s see where he’s at. He’s still kind of coming off these injuries. We’ve got to use him the right way. Be careful. Let Jamaal (Williams) start. Jamaal’s been here the full time.’ But look, I certainly think you’re going to see a lot more of Swift and he can very easily be out there first play. I think he’s done enough to earn that. If that’s what you’re asking, for sure.” On what it means to a player to earn a start: “I think for some it does. I think for some it does mean something, but I think we try to just – when things like that come up, we just try to address them as, ‘Hey, look man, this doesn’t mean that you’re not our starter or you’re not one our starters.’ You can argue that Jamaal (Williams) and (D’Andre) Swift are both starters for us. You can argue we’re 21-pony and we have two backs, (T.J.) Hockenson, and two receivers and the line and those are our 11. There is an argument for that because we use enough of that as well. But, yeah, I think you just to tell them, ‘Listen, you’ve got a role here, this is what you’re doing, you’re going to get plenty of touches Swift.’ But, I wouldn’t read too much into that, really.” On where building morale starts in the building: “Yeah, look, between my coaching staff and myself, we’re just trying to preach the right things every day. You go back to work. It’s about being resilient. It’s about learning from your errors. It’s about not giving up. It’s all of the things and I think that the veterans that we have here that have been retained or that we have brought in believe the way we believe. They’ve been winners in other programs and they know what it takes and I think while we’re bringing them along, particularly the young guys, I think their voices are beginning to get louder. At some point you want to feel like they’re taking this thing over, and then in time, you get it to where you want it and now as coaches, they’re handling it. The locker room, they handle it. Anybody that comes in, it’s like, ‘No. This is how we do things here.’ It’s not OK to jog to the ball. Its not OK to – they regulate it and that’s eventually what you want, that it’s OK to go all out all of the time and it’s OK to celebrate after you make a play. Like, that’s what you’re trying to build.” On the safety rotation last Sunday: “No, we just felt like when we wanted to get (Dean) Marlowe in there. Marlowe’s done a pretty good job of communication. There were some things that popped up, but he’s a veteran guy for us, he’s pretty steady, we know what he is, but we just felt like it was good to get all three of them in there. And so, we’re going to try to continue to rotate.” LIONS QB JARED GOFF QUOTE SHEET September 29, 2021 On if staying on the field post-practice is about getting on the same page with his wide receivers or if they are working on something specific: “I think that’s kind of typical for anybody. Just continue to work on stuff and get better and I think I’m on a pretty good page with all of the guys now. Obviously, (Trinity Benson) TB and KhaDarel (Hodge) are still two or three weeks into this thing, so, there are some things with them, but no, everyone else is just some work.” On the anticipation and mindset of trying to get the team’s first win: “We’re trying to win every week. Of course, we need to get the first one before we can get the second one. So, this week’s hopefully the week to do it and we’ll be ready to go. We’re an optimistic group. We’re resilient and I don’t think we’re fazed right now by the past. I think we’re ready to go.” On the Bears’ defensive front seven: “Yeah, always good, always good. They’ve always been good since I’ve played them. Since I’ve been in the League, they’ve been tough on defense and do a lot of things. Any time a team’s got (Bears DT) Akiem Hicks and (Bears LB) Khalil Mack over there, they’re going to be an issue. So, we’ll be ready for them.” On conquering the ebbs and flows of the offense if it is not executing in the game: “I don’t know if it’s one thing. I think it’s always a multitude of things. Sometimes it’s penalties, sometimes it’s lack of execution, sometimes the defense is playing well. It’s a multitude of things. Obviously, the good offenses, it doesn’t happen very often. So, we need to limit that and get better.” On how it feels when the offense is executing the game plan: “It feels great, man. That’s the way it’s supposed to go. We hope to get to pretty soon here.” On if confidence builds on itself when the offense is moving the ball: “It’s all momentum, right? It’s part of the game and I think every team has it that way where you start moving the ball, you start throwing completions, you start running the ball efficiently, it kind of builds momentum for the rest of the game and tends to lead to good things.” On how close he feels the offense is to putting together two good halves in a game: “I think we’re really close. It’s a constant, ‘How do we get better today? How do we get better the next day?’ It’s always that way, but you feel close, you always do and we have to do it. We have to put it on the field, we have to do it on game day on Sundays and make it come to life. Yeah, I do feel like we’re close to doing that and putting four quarters together.” On if there are any inconsistencies he has seen on game film from the past two weeks he would like to clean up: “I don’t remember quite the penalties in the second half of Green Bay. Maybe we had a couple, but that was kind of the theme of the first half last week. I can’t point to anything specifically.” On why the quarterback position is harder for a rookie to acclimate himself to in the League: “We do this every year where these kids get drafted in the top 10 and we expect them to be the best player in the League right away. It’s rare, it’s rare. I think you look around the League and, how many guys have done that in the last 20 years? I don’t know, one or two. (Chiefs QB Patrick) Mahomes may have ruined it for all of these guys being as good as he was in year two. But it’s a tough game. It’s a different than in college almost. It’s a different game. It’s tough and I remember my transition was hard and you’re learning a lot, you’re learning on the fly and I remember they always ask you, ‘Are you ready to play? Are you ready to play?’ No, you’re never ready to play as a rookie. You never are until you go out there and do it and you have to experience and you have to go through it and you have to make the mistakes and get better. So, I always laugh at it every year where you’re calling out who’s going to be good and who’s going to be bad after their rookie season. Give them three years, give them four years. See how they pan out and then make your decision. But no, I wish the best for (Bears QB) Justin (Fields). I think he’s a hell of a player.” On if people are losing patience in rookie quarterbacks: “It seems like it and, right or wrong, I think at our position it’s too hard. It’s too hard to expect them to pick it up right away. They need to make those mistakes. They need to go through the trials and tribulations. They need to go make the mistake, watch it, and then not make the mistake again. That’s kind of the way it goes.” On the jump in performance from year one to year two of a rookie quarterback: “That’s usually they say the biggest jump, right, the year one to year two? I’ll say it again, you have to make those mistakes. The mistakes that they’re all making are mistakes that every single one of us has made at one point in our career. We’re probably written off the same way like a lot of them get written. It’s part of the process of becoming an NFL quarterback for sure and kind of learning that sometimes you guys aren’t always right when you say who’s good and bad. I think all of these guys are tremendous and I wish them all of the best.” On the first moment in his career he went into a game comfortable: “I started, I think, what seven games my rookie year? I would say none of them were comfortable. Probably about halfway through that second year where you start to get your feet wet a little bit. I don’t know, call it 15 games, 10 games maybe. 12 starts. Once you get there, then you’re like, ‘OK, I know how this works a little bit.’ And then I look back at myself in that year and I go, ‘I knew nothing,’ right? And that’s kind of the way it goes for your whole life and hopefully I look back at this right now and look at, ‘Oh, what an idiot he was in year six doing that type of stuff.’ That’s just the way it goes.” On if quarterback development stalls when changing teams: “I feel like it builds. It’s consistent. Every year, you just gain more experience.” On if he learned a lot in the games he did not start in his rookie year: “A lot. Yeah, that’s a great question. I always – when I was a rookie, (former Rams Head Coach) Coach (Jeff) Fisher caught a lot of heat for not putting me on the field and I wasn’t ready. No one ever is, right? I look back at those nine games and it’s like, some of the most valuable learning experiences I had with (Browns QB and former Rams QB) Case Keenum as a starter and learning from him, learning from his successes, learning from his mistakes and just the way he treated me, it was an invaluable learning experience and I’m sure (Chiefs QB) Patrick (Mahomes) would say the same thing about (former Chiefs QB) Alex (Smith) and (Packers QB) Aaron (Rodgers) would say the same thing about (former Packers QB) Brett (Favre) sitting behind them. Those guys got that experience of learning that stuff.” On if he thought he was ready to start when he was a backup to former Rams quarterback Case Keenum: “Of course. You always do. You always want to play and you think you’re ready, but again, you never are. You can’t prepare for it until you go through it and play the game. Maybe you sit out for a year or two and then you’re ready. I don’t know, but you need to go through the game. You need to make the experience. You need to throw the bad interceptions. You need to miss the blitz pickups. You need to do all of that stuff and then you’ll be fine.” On not knowing what you do not know: “Correct. Exactly. And they can’t teach you until you go through it yourself.” On WR Amon-Ra St. Brown not receiving as many targets in games: “That’s a good question. I don’t know. We’d love to get him the ball. He’s always in the game plan. He’s always a part of what we want to do. Yeah, just probably a circumstance, not something that is any bit intentional or anything like that. We’re trying to get him the ball as much as we can.” On if WR Amon-Ra St. Brown’s minimal targets is about being a rookie or chemistry: “No, I feel like he’s good. He’s been good since he got here and is ready for those touches I would imagine.” On what he learned from the Ravens defense against TE T.J. Hockenson: “They did some good things to double him and just get him off the ball, get him off of the route he was trying to be on. Maybe there were some situations where I could have gotten him the ball and I didn’t. But they did a good job, man, and we expect the teams to start doing that. I think he had like 16 catches through the first two games. So, that will be what you would expect. So, we’ll see what these guys do this week, but we’ll be ready for it.” |
