Olin Kreutz shares his takeaways from Bears’ 25-24 win over Commanders in Week 6 | Mully & Haugh

Olin Kreutz shares his takeaways from Bears’ 25-24 win over Commanders in Week 6 | Mully & Haugh

Olden, good morning. How are you? Morning, guys. Been good after another Bears win. That’s three in a row. Uh really enjoying this run that they’re on. Yeah, it it’s so much better than what happened last year and you couldn’t help. But consider what happened last year, even if no one wanted to really talk about it. There was this element of uh sort of poetic justice with the Bears and the backup kicker making a field goal after a fumble by the quarterback and they win a game as opposed to what happened a year ago with the foul Mary and then the successive losses that followed. Yeah. And just a real gutsy performances against a really good football team, right? And you’re wondering, I was wondering going into this game, what kind of football team were the Chicago Bears, can they compete on the road versus a playoff contender, which is exactly what they did. Everybody thinks the Washington Commanders are I think they think they’re Super Bowl ready, especially after going out again, all the signings they did in the off season. And I know the takeaways continue, right? Plus 10 in the last three games. But you got to go out there, you got to make the plays to compete against a good football team, which the Commanders are. And I thought they the Bears did an excellent job like you’re talking about after what we watched last year showing that they understand time management. They understand how to win football games, when to make the plays. I thought guys that Caleb from the path, we heard all this stuff coming out of college that he, you know, he played hero ball. He always ran around. He couldn’t play within a system. I thought we watched him last night do a really good job whether uh it was hitting DeAndre Swift on that third and four, right? We don’t what do we always hear? just get the ball in your playmakers hands and let them make plays, guys. If the key is catching that ball uh there in the I think it was the fourth quarter, the drop there down by the Bears end zone. Well, how many yards does Caleb have and then continuing on that last drive, he hits Ken Lovelin on a third and five and then the Bears offensive line takes over the game, runs the ball down and gets the Moody, the game-winning field goal. really fun to watch a young quarterback Caleb Williams makes those those plays from the pocket just get the ball in his playmakers hands. Based on what you saw and how you evaluated it, why do you think the Bears were able to have that success running the football when they needed to get the yards on the ground and move the ball down the field? What happened last night that maybe hadn’t been happening before? I think it started with their by-week corrections, David. I think it started with they went to the by-week. The coaches all got in that office. Coach Roshar, coach Ben Johnson, Dan Roshar, obviously the offensive line coach, Eric Bianne, the running back coach. They all got together and said, “Man, you heard Coach Johnson say after the game, let’s shrink this menu a little bit. Let’s make it a little more simple for the guys so they can really get more reps at the plays they need to run.” And all of a sudden, you seen guys, there weren’t as many mental mistakes this morning when I watched the film. Guys were on the right guys. They were pointing the right linebacker. The combo blocks were so much better in this game than they have been going into this game. By that I mean two offensive linemen working together up to the second level to block the linebacker. They did a really nice job of that taking over the game, moving the down lineman, leaving for the linebacker at the right time. Uh this offensive line played a really really good football game there in in the elements on the road. Silent count, a lot going on. tip of the captain Theo Benedict who played a really good football game does a really good job guys getting to his spot out of pass. By that I mean getting a jump on the canence in silent count is really hard to do. Getting in front of people and he shows you just make the guy beat you in the NFL. It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you compete on every play and do things the right way. And that’s what Theo does. And I understand that was Jacob Jacob Martin he was going against yesterday. and there’s Michael Parsons and there’s Gennard coming and there’s all these good pass rushers coming down the pipe at him. But for that night last night, the Chicago Bears offensive line and DeAndre Swift running with attitude and and also David and Molly the Bears coaches asking guys whether what side of the ball offense or defense asking guys to do what they thought they were very good at doing in the first game. They really took advantage of that by week I thought and really executed their game plan against the Commanders. This segment with Olan Kroots is sponsored by plumbers 911. Plumbing emergency, call the plumbing professionals available 247 at 1833 plum 911. I thought it was fairly extraordinary, Olen, that they managed to make the kind of adjustments they did in an era where where you don’t practice, where you you know, you really get time off for the by-week. It wasn’t like you could go back to basics and have this kind of uh what would you call it? Almost like a uh a boot camp training camp type of situation. So, it was more ethereal of the coaches coming up with ideas and making the players kind of buy into it than it was training them to do that sort of thing. I I just um I didn’t know you could get that kind of stuff done in a by-week. That’s well said, Molly. And I think the first where it starts is actually recognizing what your actual problems are. We’ve seen that around here with the Chicago Bears. You’ve seen coaching staffs and that building in general struggle with, okay, what are our actual problems? Let’s get them fixed, right? Talk about the defense and stopping the run, right? Okay, maybe we shouldn’t have Shamar Turner in there at three technique. Maybe we should move him out to defensive end where I thought he was effective last night against the run. I thought against tight ends and and tackles, he did a really nice job. They moved Jonathan Ford up. We talked about it on this show a couple of weeks ago. I’d go with Jonathan Ford and they moved Javon Dexter to three technique. Now I know Grady Jarus out and has a lot to do with it, but Billings and Jonathan Ford there did a nice job and then recognizing that T putting TJ Edwards at Mike, having him back, having him align guys, having him recognize fronts, put guys in positions that they really need to be in so they’re aligned correctly. And then it just guys, I mean, it just released Tmaine Edmonds, man. And he they use him, they they blitz him, they use him a lot coming after the quarterback. They do a really nice job. Again, when you turn their film on, okay, what does this guy do well? What is X? What is the player we have? What does he do well? Let’s just ask him to do that. And I know that sounds simple to you guys. And it sounds like, man, why doesn’t everybody do it? You’d be amazed how many teams don’t do it. And when you watch the Chicago Bears going into the bye, I got to say, man, the things I thought they need to do to correct what they’re doing, they did almost all of it. And it was really fun to watch them last night get after it, take not stopping the run personal. Uh go after the number one rush team in the NFL and slow them down and I’ll hit them and I’ll play them. And that’s what I think carries forward, guys, is the fact that what I saw on film last night and this morning. Those are things you can carry and say, “Okay, that can actually win.” Because let’s be honest, you’re not going to go plus 10 over three games for the rest of the season, right? You’re not you’re just not going to do it. the the amount of takeaways that they’re getting, even that fumble that Jay Naniel Daniels has, and you have to put him under pressure to make him fumble that ball, but there’s the rain and everything else. But what the Chicago Bears defense did last night, stopping the run, the way they used their personnel, really, really impressive to watch, Molly, and what you’re talking about just they fixed the run game for one game and they fixed the run defense for one game. And that’s all we talked about. That’s all we talked about go before that game versus the Commanders. That’s why they wouldn’t win that game. Well, they shut me up and they went out and won the game. How big was that move to TJ Edwards and how difficult was it for maybe this was the first full game that he played and we’re talking to him at 9:30. So, I’m very curious to see what he says. But what you described is Tummaine Edmonds maybe not having as much to worry about in terms of responsibility or telling other people where to line up or what to call, being able to just use his athleticism and it was reflected in the tackle total. and you don’t need that to look at see how active both those guys were. You know, the Bears play so often with just two linebackers that it’s it seems like it would be easy to have them lined up, but it sounds like there’s more to it than that. And TJ Edwards being back was able to lessen the load for Tummaine Edmonds and even seeing Demarco Jackson and not and then Hippoly being inactive, right, was another move that they made. But to your point, uh, oh, when I watch TJ Edwards play, man, he’s the kind of guy you win football games with, right? He gets guys aligned. He allows guys to make plays. He gives you that little tip you need from the formation, from the front. Watch this read here. Watch the power. This guard right here is a little light. He might be pulling, and it just unlocks guys to play fast, uh, play physical, and get after people. But you need one guy who pro, we talk about quarterbacks processing information from the pocket. You need a guy on defense who processes information from the middle of the defense. And they’re the worst guys, guys. I played center. I I went uh one-on-one with these guys a lot. They’re the worst guys to go against because you line up and you think you’re about to run a play and they say, “Man, watch the power coming right here over the right side.” And they’re right. That play is what you called in the huddle. And it looks to me that’s what TJ Edwards does. And like you said, David, with Germaine Edmmonds, with his blitzing, with what they were doing with him last night, he was playing as fast as I’ve ever seen him play. He was making good tackles, allowed him to use his athletic ability. And think about it. Think about how long people have left him at the mic position, right? The Buffalo Bills traded him when he played Mike. By Mike, I mean the middle of the defense, the guys who makes the plays, the guys when you see the motion goes, when the tight end goes in motion, when they change the fronts, they got to realign the defense and put everybody in spot. Guys, the hardest defense to run the ball on is guys who align correctly every time. And you have to move them out of their spot. and they just fit their run fits and they shut the run down and that’s what you watched uh TJ Edwards provide last night along with Billings along with along with Brisker coming down and hitting people really that stopping that run was a total defensive effort credit Ben Johnson Dennis Allen uh their whole you know Declan Doyle the offers the plan they came up with for one game the plan they came up with to beat that team really really impressive to me how they can fix that as Mully talked about in a by-week where you don’t have a lot of pads, you don’t have a lot of practices, but if you do identify exactly what your problem is, you can get things done. And that’s what Chicago Bears did. Olan, they get the ball on the turnover at the 44 yd line and they proceed to run eight plays. Five of them were were swift carries for 34 yards. And four of those five went over uh to the right side. And you saw uh Darnell Wright blocking on those plays with his with a brace on his elbow and and watching him kind of playing hurt and stepping up and helping uh the running back in that position. Also, DJ Moore was credited for a couple of blocks on those plays. DJ Moore, you know, you talk about Darnell Wright playing in a brace and needing offseason surgery. DJ Moore was hospitalized last night, spent the the night in Washington after I I guess it was a hip injury it looked like. But, you know, to see those two guys doing some blocking while injured at the end of a game had to be pretty inspiring. No doubt. and and you know to start it all off third and five hit coast in Lovelin the first round pick who’s been out for the first down right and then get the ball to DeAndre Swift and the play you’re talking about is called a toss crack right with Darnell Wright extremely athletic for a big man gets out there he’s got the cornerback to look inside he’s leading Swift they toss right again we talked about ask the guys who do what they’re good at DeAndre Swift get him on the edge right give him and tell them I’m going to give you your toss plays man I’m going to get you outside where you like to We’re going to hit you in that that pass in end zone. You’ll beat the guy one-on-one score. But when we give you the ball inside, we want you running downhill and hard. DJ Morman, I hope he’s okay. I heard that after stuff. I hope he feels better because he played a tough game. He was hurt. I think in the first half on a catch or second half, you could tell he was struggling with something. Then hear that he goes to the hospital. Man, we all hope that he is healthy and ready to go cuz he played a tough game. I heard Dustin earlier before I came on. They’re running to the right side. The running back’s averaging seven yard a carry. Dustin thinks the right guard’s playing bad. Very interesting to me to hear that stuff when I before I come on the show. But uh look, they did a good job there at the end of the game. Offensive line, DeAndre Swift, they take over the game, right? They take over the game. Uh they get him out of space just so Dustin understands there. The right guard has the hard block, right? He has to reach the deep tackle. They pull the offensive out to space to block cornerbacks. Um, you know, uh, the Dolman reaches his guys, gets on the linebacker, offensive line, working in sync, man, getting those yards late in the game to put them in a position to kick that winning an easy game-winning field goal, right? One that you you can just, not easy, you got to make it, but put him in his put him in his range. You’re listening to a plumbers’s 911 Football Monday on a Tuesday presented by BC Bank and Great Clips. So Olen, explain to everyone what happened with the Theo Benedict call, the illegal formation, what they can do to prevent that moving forward and how bogus it might have been. Yeah, that’s a good that’s a good word for it. I thought it was a bogus call. Roma Dun on the slot fade, right? What a catch, right? I mean, his body control and turn around catching that ball. I thought it was just a great play all around by Chicago Bears. Obviously tackles try to get a little deeper in their in their alignment, right? They called um you know they called him for being illegal formation. Basically he’s off the ball in a wide receiver and or running back position. Your helmet has to break the the u you know the the backside of the center, the butt of the center. Troy Aman drew the line on his helmet. You could see that it was breaking it that I thought the refs uh you know I’ve we heard all about their their squad going into the game and they kept up their reputation after watching that game. Yeah, they make a ton of calls. Some unnecessary is their rep. Um Olen, I’m I’m curious. I I told this to David. I wanted to ask you about this yesterday, but we didn’t have time. Um, I was watching the uh the Manning cast and they had this uh this was during the by-week and they had this uh this thing where Payton Manning’s in his basement and they had rain going on and they had a center and he was taking snaps from the guy and he told a story about how every Thursday he and Jeff Saturday would work with water. In other words, they’d have the water boy come out and and soak the ball and he would take snaps. And he was saying how uh they did that every Thursday as part of their practice and Saturday would say to him, “Why are we doing this? We play in a dome.” And and Manning said that it was the little things that really mattered. And then he talked about getting into the Super Bowl against you guys and how how the ball was wet and it was a wet day and he never lost a snap and they did not fumble in the game and the Bears fumbled a few times in the course of that game. Um he it was interesting to see the fumble then from uh from J Jaden Daniels and it was interesting that the Bears managed to hang on to the football. Now, Caleb’s from that part of the world. I don’t know if he’s used to that kind of weather, but um he managed to hang on to the ball and they had three turnovers. Uh the Bears had three takeaways including two fumbles, one was punched out, but that slippage of the ball from the quarterback, was that weather related? And how much was Manning right about preparing for that sort of thing? Yeah, he’s he’s 100% right. I had heard the same story, Molly, after the Super Bowl, man. I thought that that is amazing that they worked on that every week, right? And they call it the wet bucket drill for quarterbacks and centers. And honestly, I never even heard of it until Payton Manning mentioned it, right? And those are the kind of guys you go up against and they get ready to win games in certain situations. And those are the things that win football games. And you saw, like you’re saying, Jaden Daniels, uh, when it it was really misty and rainy and I think, uh, they predicted a nor easter and and a weather there and they knew that stuff was coming in. And if you’re preparing for that, you’re ready for it. And he just drops that fumble there. I mean, that snap there on third and one, right? And those are the kind of things that win and lose football games. And that’s what happens when you go against a Hall of Fame quarterback in the Super Bowl. And he is prepared for everything. And like you said, it was a basically a monsoon there for us in the Super Bowl there in Miami. and we and and and we struggled with ball security and holding on to the football and those guys were ready and those are the kind of things that make difference in football games and you learn from it and I too bad we learn too late but the Chicago Bears look like they’re not with the coach they have they look like they’re attacking things going it’d be interesting to see if they were working wet ball drills and and wet bucket drills Chicago Bears because those are the kind of things that we’re talking about that you hear leaking out of Hall nowadays that the Bears are doing like you’re saying in the by-week and getting better at things. Uh you’re they’re saying that the coaches and stuff are predicting their problems that are coming and when you watch the film, you say, “Man, I wonder if they’ll try this to make their team better.” It looks like that’s the stuff they’re doing. And and I wouldn’t be shocked from everything we’re hearing come out of Hall that those are the things that they are working on up there at Hall. Those kind of things like look could be it could be rainy there. Let’s work on a few wet ball drills. To your point, it’ be an interesting question to ask them. Great stuff, Olan. Thank you, buddy. Thanks, Olen. Appreciate mother.

On the Mully & Haugh Show, Score football analyst Olin Kreutz shared his takeaways from the Bears’ 25-24 win against the Commanders on Monday Night Football in Week 6. Kreutz was impressed by how the Bears were the more physical team.

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