Cubs News: Matt Eberflus on preseason win over Texans |
CANTON, O.H. - Although Chicago’s first preseason game of the season was cut short by weather in the area, they came away with their first victory of the season 21-17 against the Houston Texans. There were a lot of positives to take away from the game.
One that head coach Matt Eberflus mentioned was the substitutions. “The guys, I thought, did well today in terms of the first operation of preseason in terms of the offense, defense, kicking,” Eberflus said. “The one thing in this game … is to have the substitutions right, make sure that we have the guys out there (that) are supposed to be out there, who we’re supposed to see, the number of plays we want to see guys playing. You don’t want to put a certain player in harm’s way for too long.” Even though none of the starters were playing, this game still gave the offensive coaching staff the opportunity to work together during an actual game, something that training camp simply cannot replicable. Typically in the first preseason game, particularly with all the new pieces the Bears have, this will not be a smooth process. However, Eberflus said that they communicated effectively throughout the game. “So, we did a really good job with that, communicating that and then, what I noticed was the offensive staff, being the first time together, was the communication,” Eberflus said. “I thought that was outstanding the whole night, the way they operated when they were not on the field with the players and the way they operated in the halftime was really good, and then during the game when they were on the field and they did a great job communicating, working together and several of those guys have worked together before. But, it’s a new group and I thought they did a really good job with that.” Defensively, the Bears are expected to have one of the best defenses in the league next season. None of their starters played in this game, so it is not a good judge of how the defense will be in the regular season. However, even with the backups, they were able to contain Houston’s offense after giving up a touchdown in each the first and second quarters. “What stood out for me on defense was the sudden change. We had that (muffed) punt and then the ability to go three and out there and then force that missed field goal. I thought that was really good energy and nice job by those guys,” Eberflus said. “We were very vanilla on both sides of the ball today in terms of the play calling, what was available to us. But, we were looking for fundamentals and basics from the whole group, and you saw on defense a little bit, we lost leverage a couple of times and had some missed tackles, which created new first downs for them. We had the big penalty on the first drive, the holding penalty there. That kind of hurt us there too.” Numerous players stood out from this game. Most notable were receiver Collin Johnson and quarterback Brett Rypien. Johnson finished the game with three receptions for 56 yards and two touchdowns. He has never played in a regular-season game with multiple touchdowns, so this was an unprecedented performance for him. Rypien, who was on the roster of three different teams last season, wanted to prove he could still be a valuable asset to an NFL team. He finished this game with 166 passing yards, three passing touchdowns, and a quarterback rating of 148.9. Eberflus, however, did not seem surprised by this performance. “He’s been in this offense. He knows the offense well. He’s heard the verbiage. He understands the concepts and you can see that,” Eberflus said. “He’s definitely understanding the space that needs to be occupied by the receivers and how they get open and you could see that today. He was throwing guys open.” Perhaps the biggest point of concern was the return game. There appeared to be some issues with blocking during the returners. Returner Velus Jones Jr. did not play in this game. However, Eberflus stated with the new kickoff rule, the starting returner position is wide open. “I think it’s wide open right now. I really do … If you’re (at) the back end of the roster at linebacker, at receiver, or whatever those hot spots are, halfback, whatever it might be, the more you can do. So, you got to be able to do a lot. So, those guys, like, if you’re a four-core guy and you’re playing on all special teams and you’re lighting it up, that’s probably a good thing. So, to me, it’s all competition. That’s why we do camp.”
