Ben Johnson on Preseason Week 2 win | Chicago Bears

Ben Johnson on Preseason Week 2 win | Chicago Bears

All right. Uh, good evening. Good evening. Um, couple things. You know, we had a number of guys that didn’t finish that game there. Uh, Duivere was feeling himself a little bit um, before the game started, so we held him out. Precautionary. We thought he was going to be able to go for us. Henkins didn’t finish. Obviously, Smitty didn’t finish for us. Dom Robinson, Booker, and then, uh, JP Richardson. So, we’ll find out more tomorrow. Obviously, Smitties was the was the most concerning of that bunch that that didn’t look good. So, uh you know, our thoughts and prayers are with him um going forward. But to cap off the week really, I mean, I thought it was outstanding work from the joint practice and then and then the game tonight. Um our guys really really took it to heart. They knew how important this this stretch of the training camp was as a team. uh they they came out and they competed hard on Friday and then then certainly tonight they they came out and and and played their tails off as well. So that was encouraging to see a number of guys showed up for us. I mean I thought all the quarterbacks played extremely well. The entire defense they really set the tone there in the first half and did did an outstanding job for us. Um, so I mean, we we’ll get a little bit more clarity once we watch the tape in terms of who stood out the most, but I think there were a number of really, really good performances there tonight. Um, and then I think that the cool thing that we the plan we had going into the game was to have a couple different guys call the second half of the game. So, Al Harris called the defense in the second half and Declan Doyle called the offense in the second half, which um I thought they they both did a great job. first time in that setting. You know, a lot of thoughts going through their heads. Wish we could get more coaches over the course of uh of training camp in the preseason to get get that exposure and that experience, but year one, that’s probably probably all we’ll do there. But I thought those guys did a did a really good job as well and wanted to give them a shout out. Uh with that being said, I’ll go ahead and open it up. How do you put a a proper frame around that opening drive and what you guys did going down? Yeah. Uh, shoot, if I remember right, uh, didn’t have the best fuel position to get started there. So, I thought those guys did did a really nice job marching it down the field. Uh, Caleb made a couple big time throws in my opinion, uh, to keep that drive going and and some explosive plays there. And so, um, it was good. It was good to see on those two explosive play, but it seemed like perfect combination of play design, but also your players talent coming to coming out. You saw you were able to scheme up Cole, get a one-on-one linebacker. Caleb makes a great throw. You scheme up Oz for some space to run. He gets the ball and does what he does. Is that the perfect marriage of what you’re looking for in terms of creating those? Yeah. Yeah. I I would say it really had nothing to do with scheme. They really all night tonight it had nothing to do with scheme. It was all about our guys and how they how they wanted to play the game. And uh you know, we asked them to to play clean football, which that’s what I was most proud of. I thought our operation from uh break of the huddle to the snap of the ball on offense and our communication on defense was really good and so that was number one. Number two, we want to see these guys play fast and so they had nothing to do with the scheme. It was all about these guys going out playing fast and executing. Caleb talked on the broadcast about how he thought was important for the offense to go out and set the tone. Did you think it was important to see some kind of tangible results, you know, in a preseason game uh from those guys? All all I really care about right now is to see us improve. And so that’s that was really the what we talked about this morning uh when we had our team meeting was offensively. We wanted to play clean football. We wanted to get better in critical downs, which I thought we did. We were much better on third down and fourth down this week than we were last week. And so, um, you know, I know you you see the points and you see the some of those stats and it’s it’s easy to get excited, but, um, we we’re just keeping the main thing the main thing here. We had a good night. Guys played hard and they, uh, they executed a high level. And so, when all three phases are are doing good things like that, then, uh, you know, normally good things happen on the scoreboard. What did you see of Caleb tonight and obviously the last few days in practice that that struck you about his performance? he’s he’s really been locked in. Um, you know, it’s anytime you’re a young player, there’s there’s usually a couple steps forward and one step back and and that’s really been the story of his training camp and and he and I have been really open and honest about that as as we’ve gone through and he’s had some really good practices and he’s had a couple where it’s like it’s not good enough, bud. So, um, I thought really the the three days of practice we had this week and this game were were the most he stacked up good days in a row right now. And so, the the challenges can be to keep pushing in that direction. Talk about with your defense, what kind of disposition are you seeing from the defense, not just tonight, but throughout camp? Yeah, I mean, it’s it’s uh what Dennis has been preaching to those guys from day day one. It’s not what we call, it’s it’s how we play. And I think those guys have really really bought into that mantra. Um there’s an aggression with which we want to play, not just schematically, but I talk about it all the time. These corners are going to come up. They’re going to press. They’re going to be willing tacklers in space. Our linebackers are smart players that are comm communicating. They have good eye discipline. And then up front, these guys are striking blocks in the run game and they’re getting after the passer in the pass game. So when you see it all come together, the fundamentals, the technique, and then really the aggression is the word I like to use to describe it, it’s it’s a good thing. Ben, you talked about want to see some clarity at the left tackle the spot this week. What did you what did you learn during practice, joint practice, and maybe what you can see? I I think this game is going to go a long way. And I I would be remiss to say I could really tell from the sideline view. We’re going to have to look at that tape um to know for sure, but we kind of came into this game saying that this was going to be a big one for for that eval. And when you when you look at that tape, what do you want to see from Braxton that To me, it’s consistency. He’s he’s shown flashes of of his old self and yet there’s still been some some low moments where um I know we’re going to get beat in this league. You you do. you know, when you’re playing tackle against some of these pass rushers in this league, you’re you’re going to lose a rep or two. Uh the biggest thing, well, there’s two things. One is how do you bounce back when that happens and and the other one is we just how do we slow down from losing too fast? You know, we want to if we’re going to lose, we want to lose slow. And so, um we’ll see what it looked like here tonight, but but I I certainly didn’t I felt like we had good protection throughout. Um there were times we were running the ball and you could kind of feel that as you’re calling the game to to stay on schedule there. Um so we’ll see what that looks like. You guys had you guys had Many come out Friday and and uh Kino this first. Is there any concern that either of those are long term? That not long term? No. No. Coach, I’m just trying to get a feel for you in terms of philosophy with some of these game situations. End of the first half, you guys got the ball a couple timeouts. Some things didn’t go right, but you banged the timeout at 58. what was the thinking there and then what you think went wrong that didn’t allow you guys to move it the way you wanted to. Yeah, we had the negative play, right? So, that’s what really threw us off. I thought we were doing a good job moving it on down and uh we had an opportunity. Um there’s probably one thing I would do differently in hindsight and rather than clocking the ball on third down going into fourth down, uh I probably would have gone on the ball with with that much time left. But, uh other other than that, I I thought it was good for our guys to get that experience. and what we’ll go into your calculus about what to do in Kansas City with the starters. We’ll talk about as a staff one more time and and once again we take into account the number of reps they’re having here. Uh I know we’re going to have a good padded practice on Wednesday. We need one more of those and then we’ll kind of see with what we need to see. I thought a big part of what tonight was about was getting our routine down for a home night game which is week one for us. And so, um, I thought I thought our starters did a great job. They understood what the purpose was. They came out and and got the job done, did what they needed to do, and then then we got them out of the game. But, uh, I thought the routine was a big part of it, and and this will be really the first time we’re on the road here in the preseason, so it’s probably good to go through that exercise as well. Thanks, guys. Thank you.

Head coach Ben Johnson addresses the media at Soldier Field following the Chicago Bears second preseason game against the Buffalo Bills.

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