Saturday, August 14, 2021
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Matt Nagy
Postgame Press Conference
Bears 20, Miami 13
MATT NAGY: Even the mockery at the end of the second quarter when we were struggling, the applause when we got our first first down, we understand that, we get it but we
just want to thank them. I thought it was awesome. It was pretty cool and you don’t always get that in these preseason games. We need that and we want that. So I’ll start with that.
Big picture, tons of situational things today that we as coaches love because we can teach off that, tons of it, special teams, defense, offense, really start there had at the end of the second quarter with just tin being able to take them down and Steele three points and goes on and on and on. We won the turnover battle.
We protected the ball on offense, we got two takeaways on defense. We want to be tops on the league in that category. Offensive line, zero sacks, got the running game going a little bit. I think that’s been an emphasis from everybody here, wondering what’s going to happen there and I thought they did a great job. It still doesn’t mean anything but at the same point in time it allows us to know they did a great job of not letting those quarterbacks get hit and get the running game going. I thought the penalties, we had a lot of penalties in that first half.
And the discipline stuff where we want to be start in giving first downs or offensively moving backwards; that, we can’t have. We want to make sure these guys learn from that. That’s really probably it. I know you’ve got a lot of questions but the biggest thing for us as coaches and for the guys in there as players is there’s opportunities for competition, it allows us to go through a game situation and do the things that sometimes you forget to do when you don’t have preseason, so the logistics of all that I thought went well and in the end, ultimately you love winning and I’m proud of our guys and now we get right back at it in a couple days.
Q. When things were shaky for Justin right at the beginning what did you tell him and did you like how he responded in the two-minute drill before halftime?
MATT NAGY: Everybody’s excited and juiced up and ready to go. We had a couple runs to get settle in and get the guys going, not just Justin but everybody, we were moving some guys in and out. And that just goes to show that, hey, nothing is always perfect and we came back and then we had the one low snap and we were kind of going backwards and we had some incompletions and it just was
choppy. But that’s a part of it and I thought it was great to see the resiliency of the offense in general of being able to go down there and guys, we haven’t — you mentally practice, the end of the half stuff so far. We haven’t really done it live. To have some of that stuff go on it’s great teaching and in the end getting that field goal, that probably propelled us mentally going into halftime. The
offensive line was doing well. It’s good for him. To answer your question, long-winded story, he did a great job of bouncing back which is what he’s always done.
Q. The last two completions on the drive, what was your take on those?
MATT NAGY: It was smart. We were holding on to the time-outs. Clock was getting down and you get down there and we had seven or eight seconds left that. Stuff, we talk about and teach and show tape of it but we didn’t really practice it a whole lot. So now we get to take it and go and watch it, but it just goes to show, very calm. I thought Justin, I know all these guys did a good job but I thought because he played the most snaps the one thing you felt from Justin that we all took away from down there was he was extremely calm the whole time.
Q. How do you process what he did out there?
MATT NAGY: For sure, if you go back to the start of training camp and as when we drafted Justin and we had Andy in here and we had Nick, I’ve continued to say alls we want to do is we want them to be the best quarterbacks they can be. Don’t worry about tomorrow. Don’t worry about next week, don’t worry about the future. Just worry about today. I thought that Justin did a great job of worrying about today and he played smart football. He made plays, and again like what you just said, it is
preseason, and we all understand that there’s variables involved in all that. But at the same time, if you go back and look, is he doing what you want him to do, absolutely. It’s good because Andy and Nick or on the sideline helping him, Flip helping him on the sideline. And that scramble for the touchdown, you feel the vibe, you feel the energy and it was pretty cool.
Q. What conclusions could you just from the first team offense with Andy, just a couple drives, I guess
that’s what you wanted but what did you think?
MATT NAGY: It was hard because we didn’t have — it was only a few drives and it was three-and-outs, I’ll go back and watch the tape and see some of the wides. But it’s a deal where these guys aren’t going to play very much. Like David, he’s trying to say, give me the ball, give me the ball, he wants 15 carries preseason, and I told him he wasn’t going to be getting many, so he got his two and got out. It’s hard to answer your question because you don’t get in a rhythm, it’s just difficult. It’s more so to tell you the truth that these ones, it’s more so to let them go through pregame, let them get out there and get the feeling what have it’s like to run a few plays and get out. It’s hard to evaluate that.
Q. For a guy like Andy, he’s been through it but the offense as a whole, seems like they need the work. How do you balance that?
MATT NAGY: Yeah, they do, and we have some timing that we’re continuing to work on but again, like A-Rob is not out there. You’ve got Marquise Goodwin is not out there. You have a couple guys on the offensive line that aren’t out there. David comes out after two plays. So it’s not — I guess as we get going here a little bit more, we’ll see more of that to be able to evaluate that. But I think more so than anything, like I said a few days ago, we know what Andy can do when things are completely
normal in a real game. We know what he can do at quarterback. We’ve got to get to the point to see what Justin can do and the only way we can do that by getting him reps in preseason to evaluate.
Q. You understand the excitement. What do you say in terms of Justin being the second-string quarterback and also how do you process balancing that with what you’re planning?
MATT NAGY: No, I think it’s very real, I think that for all of us. Everybody here is super excited about the way that he played today. You know, we all want the same thing. We understand the buzz. We understand the excitement. That’s why we drafted him you know what I mean. That’s why we drafted him. But there is, we want to make sure that we continue to go through this thing and we understand the process and this is one game that he came in here and now the beautiful thing is we get to get more practices in and get to see how he comes back next week, you know, against Buffalo and he’s going to have another chance. And then as we said, all of these guys, Andy included, they are all going to be wanting to come out here and do the best they can did at their position. And when we watch the tape tomorrow, there’s going to be guys that shine and guys that can get better but totally, totally understand all the buzz, all the excitement, and you know, we feel it, too.
Q. What does he have to do to push you the point to say that this isn’t a decision to make between the two quarterbacks?
MATT NAGY: Keep stacking days like he had today and understanding that, again in this whole process and this plan as we go, what’s the ultimate goal for us as an offense? Scoring touchdowns, right. So keep leading the team down, keep getting first downs, keep getting touchdowns. Let us be able to see the whys behind everything, right. Why did that happen. And the more times that you have things happen because of that player, meaning Justin or that player because of Andy or that
player because of Montgomery or whoever, we know that and we see that. It makes it hard on us and we are going to do whatever is best in the end — ultimately in the end we are always going to do what’s best for the Chicago Bears, right. Here we are in week one and I just think we all understand that it was a great first day for Justin at that position. He did awesome. We love that. Now let’s put it together and keep working and improve it and stay consistent with it and let’s take it into the next game when you’re back out there. We understand these other guys that didn’t play very much, they want to play a little bit more next week, too, and do their thing. We are looking for the identity of this
offense and how we can be the best that we can be.
Q. Jason Peters announced that he’s signing with you guys. Where does that put you at with left tackle and does that indicate Teven is not going to be around?
MATT NAGY: It really doesn’t have anything to do with Teven, but it’s about familiarity with a guy that’s played in this league for a long time and he’s very good. We understand that he’s older. We get that. We know that. There’s a history with Juan; Juan worked with him several years ago in Philadelphia and I knew him what I was there. I think in general what it does he knows that for us to bring him in that there’s a great competition for him to come in and just, we’re trying do everything we can to provide protection and great running game and whatever we need to do, I think that’s the beauty of Ryan and these guy, they are looking everywhere at every spot. If that’s going to provide more competition and somebody that played last year and did well when you watched the tape, we like that. I think this that’s important to always check off.
Q. Did you talk to him? Is he going to sign here to be a backup?
MATT NAGY: No. I think he’s coming in here to compete to be the left tackle. So that’s what — it’s open, man. It’s competition. I think he’s going to be competing and understanding it and that’s the beauty is you come on in here and he understands our situation, we understand his situation; let’s go.
Q. Putting these three days together, we didn’t get a chance to talk to you after the practice the other day but did you feel like Justin got better each day? And considering today was live and he can finally be hit, how do you feel like he handled the speed of the game?
MATT NAGY: That’s a really good question. Our whole — we weren’t very good on Wednesday. Forget just Justin. Our offense, we were pretty good for most of the day until two-minute. We came back on Thursday and I thought we our guys stepped up. They competed and they fought. Justin, he grew, too, and he had a pretty good day on Thursday. He had a pretty good day. So you take that now and you say, well, he can’t be hit. There’s a few times in there where we let the whistle go so they can finish the play and he can’t get hit. I was joking with one of the linebackers and said, “Do you think you had him?” And Justin was like, “No, you didn’t.” When we get out in a game live, you see what happens when he gets out in that pocket. It’s a stressor, so those defenses and if they want to drop eight, play 22 — and that goes into the part where we felt a calmness from him when he’s outside the pocket. You saw he wasn’t just going outside the pocket to run for 80 yards. He was smooth with what he was doing with wide receivers on, do I want to throw it or do you want to lead block for me; and when he scored that touchdown, shoulder-to-shoulder that, was pretty good. I think that was
one of his strengths.
Q. Is there anything Justin can do the rest of this preseason to change your plans starting week one?
MATT NAGY: Just worry about tomorrow baby, seriously, and that’s all I want him to do and make it really hard an all of us to understand that we have a really good quarterback right now in Justin fields and we have a really good quarterback in Andy Dalton and a really good quarterback in Nick Foles and that’s all I want them to do, seriously, is keep worrying about tomorrow and create the best
competition and be the best quarterback you can be for the Bears.
Q. When you see him leapfrogging the open field —
MATT NAGY: I know we were joking about it on the sideline. You know, maybe — he probably can do it but right now probably just put the shoulder down and run through them. Just be smart. But you know, he like it is. He thinks he’s an athlete. So we’ve just got to — he does.
Q. When he’s got the pressure coming from the left side, goes into that instead of running away from it. What does that tell you about his presence of mind about seeing where he can go instead of pan I
objecting and taking off the other way?
MATT NAGY: That was a little bit of the calmness that he had and I think that you don’t feel the panic if you got other way, like he’s calm in the pocket and part that have is because he trusts the speed. He’s knows he’s pretty fast out there. If there’s a guy that’s going to come to try to make a play here or there, he understands that outside the edge if there is a guy coming at 45, he can outrun them.
I thought the pocket presence was good and credit to the offensive line, they provided a pocket for him to be able to see downfield. He had that nice deep cross that he dropped. I thought that was a good playaction play that he had. We had some backed up. Situation there his last series. Generally in all, I would say for Justin to have the second team reps, he got a lot of valuable experience situationally and for the first preseason game, to have as much as we had in that first situation, that’s awesome tape work for us. So I’m just proud of all the guys and looking forward to this week.
Andy Dalton
Postgame Press Conference
Q. (Not on feed.)
ANDY DALTON: He’s worked a long time to get to this point. That’s it. Nothing too big.
Q. After 10 years in the league, you don’t necessarily have to work as much in a pre-season game. What did you think in general even for the short time as far as preparation? What did today do for you as a first team offense?
ANDY DALTON: We stalled early. That was tough. Second drive we had up there, we got the first down, had the penalty that kind of set us back. No, it would have been nice to kind of get into a little bit more of a rhythm. But it’s pre-season. Pre-season one. Got a couple more to go. Big thing is to be ready for week one.
Q. Even with your experience, are you hoping to get more time next week? Do you feel like you need more work based on today?
ANDY DALTON: Yeah, that’s the normal progression. Usually the first one you get a couple series, if any at all. You usually play a little bit more in the second one.
Q. There have been a lot of moving parts on the offensive line basically since camp opened. How
much did that play into what happens out there in the first pre-season game? Something you have had to battle with through camp?
ANDY DALTON: There have been a lot of guys that have been put in a lot of different positions because of everything that’s gone up front. But I thought our guys did a great job today, great job in
protection, great job in the run game, giving our guys opportunities to make a couple big plays. We had a couple big chunk runs that were big, explosive plays that helped us win this game.
Yeah, I thought they did a great job.
Justin Fields
Postgame Press Conference
Q. What was the significance of the drive just before halftime?
JUSTIN FIELDS: Yeah, Coach Nagy before that possession, he told me that he was going to try to get us another possession. I think was very important just to get points up on the board and kind of just get some momentum going our way because we knew we were going to get the ball coming out of the second half. It was definitely a big part of the game.
Q. Last two passes of that drive, the one to hardy on the roll-out and the one to Jesse, can you walk us through those two?
JUSTIN FIELDS: We were trying to of course be smart, 2-minute drill we go over in a lot of meetings. Of course getting the ball to the perimeter and getting out-of-bounds to stop the clock and just getting in field goal range. The one that I guess Justin, I was just rolling out and I saw him late last minute and jumped it up to him. The one to Jesse as a check down to get in field goal range and I was trying to of course pay attention to the clock and also throw it to the perimeter so he would have a chance to get out-of-bounds.
Q. What did you see develop on your touchdown run?
JUSTIN FIELDS: Yeah, they were playing man coverage, my man, Jesse, he got tripped up. I was looking to go to him. Of course I know my routes were coming my way back side but I knew they were in man coverage and knew nobody really had me. He went to the left and saw everybody gloved up, everybody covered, so started to run to the end zone and of course it was a touchdown.
Q. What was the feeling?
JUSTIN FIELDS: It was awesome. Definitely a dream come true, first NFL touchdown and have my teammates celebrate, it was a nice moment. All glory to God and hopefully it was the first of many for sure.
Q. On the throwback pass to Jesse, when you first saw it, did you sit there and go, are we sure this is
open?
JUSTIN FIELDS: I mean, of course when a person that is that wide open, you have to make sure nobody is around lingering. Of course it was a great execution by the offensive line on the run and then of course great execution by everybody else on the field. So it was a well drawn-out play by Coach.
Q. What was it like adjusting to the NFL speed?
JUSTIN FIELDS: It was actually kind of slow to me to be honest. I think I was expecting it to be a little bit faster but practicing, game speed, going at it with my teammates every day and of course we have a great defense, so me going against them every day, it definitely slowed the game up a little bit for me. I felt comfortable out there and of course I have room to grow so I’m going to try to get better
each and every day.
Q. Draft fumble it looked like David Montgomery pulled you aside on the sideline. What did that mean to you?
JUSTIN FIELDS: I think he just said, “You’re good.” That fumble wasn’t anything. Of course it was like, what, third and 15 on that or something. As long as they didn’t get the ball back, I think that would have been a big turning point. I’m just glad I got back on the ball. David is a great teammate and great brother. It’s no surprise to see him trying to come for me on the sideline and keep anymore all
up. He’s a great teammate.
Q. Coach Nagy says he wants you to focus on today. How do you separate focusing on today versus the starting job?
JUSTIN FIELDS: I think when you look too far in the future, you start worrying about way too much stuff. You start thinking too much in your head. Alex Smith came and talked to the team and told us just to worry about to today and just to live. That was his main point, just to live, because of course him coming off that injury, you know he was just telling us how grateful he was to get back on the
field and play. He played every game like it was his last game and that’s what I was doing all day.
Today, last night, my mindset was going out there and no matter what happened, just play for today and kind of just try to act like it was my last time on the field and just take every opportunity and make the most of it.
Q. What did you learn from the fumble?
JUSTIN FIELDS: Yeah, so after that, I think I’m going to officially retire the spin move. I don’t see that coming out any time soon. But yeah, I just need to be smarter with ball security, and either slide or get out-of-bounds in that situation.
Q. Coach said you were calm the entire time. What did you do to get past the first couple drives so you could execute?
JUSTIN FIELDS: I just told everybody on the offense, we’re shooting ourselves in the foot. If we just stay on track and stay on schedule and instead of putting ourselves in situations second and 12, second and 13, that’s hard to be successful on offense if you’re in offense and dealing with second and 13, second and 14. If we get a positive play each play we give ourselves a better chance to convert on third downs and stuff like that. I was trying to get the guys to understand that and just play ball and go out there and execute like we do in practice.
Q. Felt like you got deeper in the play clock than you wanted to.
JUSTIN FIELDS: No, I think we definitely have to work on our cadences more, and of course, we have to get better in all subjects. So of course we had a great game today but of course there’s always room to improve. Myself and my teammates, I know we are going to get back to work Monday and just get back at it.
Q. The first drive of the third quarter, you hit Rodney.
JUSTIN FIELDS: You talking about the fade? Yeah, I just thought, man, me and Rodney have had a great connection in training camp and I trust him a lot. Threw it up there and gave him a chance and he made an awesome catch. That was an awesome catch by him and an explosive play for sure.
Q. Was there ever a point there where were jitters or was it just another game?
JUSTIN FIELDS: Surprisingly, no. I was as calm as to be today. I was trying to take it play-by-play and win every play. I think when you focus on the moment, of course, our whole point this week is focus on today, focus on the moment. I was trying to take it play-by-play and that’s what I was telling the O-Line, take every play, play-by-play, don’t worry about the next play. Worry about this play and we’ll
keep stacking like that.
Q. How did you feel about this first NFL experience?
JUSTIN FIELDS: It was awesome. Of course the fans were great and always great seeing support from them. I don’t think you could set up a better day. The weather was great outside and the fans were excited and of course our team was excited and I think our team played well. Of course like I said before, there’s always room to improve so we are going to get back to work.
Q. The Tweet from LeBron?
JUSTIN FIELDS: Yeah, I’ve never met LeBron before but it’s an honor getting a shout-out by him. I think it’s my second thought out from the Clemson game. It’s definitely awesome, a prestigious athlete like that to give me a shout-out. I’ve been a LeBron fan since I was 6 or 7 years old. I had his poster up in my room. It’s definitely awesome. I think the first one was after the Clemson game.
Q. No secret the whole town is rooting for you to get the starting job as soon as possible. How do you manage your relationships with Andy and Nick?
JUSTIN FIELDS: To be honest we are not worried what the outside has to say. We are worried about our team and getting better every day. We are not worried about outside voices, who wants who. Andy and Nick are going to do what’s best for the team and we are all going to do what’s best for the team and keep working and all keep getting better. Of course there’s outside voices but you
can’t pay attention to that because I mean those voices don’t know what’s going on inside the building and of course me, Andy and Nick we all have a great relationship and of course those guys have taught me a lot from up to this point. So I’m going to keep learning from them and keep getting better.
Q. All of your teammates have pointed out your poise, and I see it most outside the pocket. What allows to you be yourself?
JUSTIN FIELDS: I definitely feel good outside of the pock. I feel very comfortable but I mean, it just puts a lot of stress on the defense. Like today I think there was one situation where might have been roll-out or naked play to the right and a defender was on Rodney and he had to come off me late so I dumped it off to him. Puts a lot of pressure on the defense and allows me to really play backyard football with the receivers and scramble, and the more that happens and the more we can get on the same page when I do get out-of-the-pocket, the better we can be and of course I also have to be able to make smart decisions. I can’t always force the ball. Of course sometimes I have to throw the
ball away but yeah, it’s definitely a part of my game where I feel very comfortable at for sure.
Q. In the course of your football life, how much stress have those backyard football situations put on other defenses?
JUSTIN FIELDS: Yeah, especially when a team is playing man on man defense, that’s going to put a lot of stress on because they don’t know whether to come and get me or stay in their man. With zone teams, it’s a little bit different, but man, literally you’re playing backyard football.
Q. Without seeing the film, do you already know what the biggest correction is you’ll have to make based on what you did out there today? Is there a play or something, you just know?
JUSTIN FIELDS: I don’t think there was one major play in the game where I would say I have to get better at. Of course the fumble we have to take care of the ball. I’m just going to watch the film tonight and Coach is going to watch the film and I know he’s going to have a whole list of stuff for me to get better at, and I’m all about getting better. I want to be the best that I can be, so I’m going to do whatever I have to do be that guy.
Q. What energy did you feel building after you get the points on the board at halftime and you come right out and match it with a touchdown to start the third quarter?
JUSTIN FIELDS: Practicing against the Dolphins, of course, Wednesday and Thursday, I knew our offense could put up points on them. So I was just trying to tell those guys, just take it back to practice and just execute. I mean, if we — like I said earlier, if we don’t have any negative plays, I think it was going to make it easier for us to drive on the field. I told those guys, let’s go and drive it on the field to score a touchdown and that’s what we did.
Q. Did you use that red zone drill as a springboard?
JUSTIN FIELDS: I feel like it helped for sure. Just kind of seeing their defense and getting a feel for how their players play and stuff like that. But I mean, me, it’s just like for me, I think every day matters and I’m literally trying to take it day-by-day and literally get better every day, because I know it’s a nonstop grind. And I’m just going to continue to study and continue to work and continue to I guess bring my teammates with me to keep getting better and that way we can be the best team that we can be.
Q. How do you feel physically coming out of the game?
JUSTIN FIELDS: I feel good. What did I get hit, one time? So I feel good. Body is all good.
