Cole Kmet on Bears offense: "We still have a lot of work to do" |
CHICAGO - In Chicago’s last game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, tight end Cole Kmet became the second tight end in Chicago Bears history to have at least five games scoring at least two touchdowns. Mike Ditka is the only other tight end in franchise history to accomplish this.
Unlike Ditka, however, he also played as the long snapper, scoring two touchdowns and earning NFC Offensive Player of the Week for his performance. “Pretty cool and obviously a cool award to get regardless, and just kind of makes that day a little more memorable,” Kmet said. “I thought I did alright, considering I’m not actually a long snapper.” In the last few weeks before the bye, the Bears’ offense had been finding its stride, putting up over 30 points in their previous two games. However, the Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars have not had the same success as other NFL teams, such as the Washington Commanders, whom the Bears will play on Sunday, Oct. 27 (3:25 p.m./CBS). “We still have a lot of work to do, I think, in the run game. There’s still things we need to clean up. Pass game wise, there’s still a lot in our protection game, still things that we can get better at and I think you look at the film and there’s actually some big mistakes that we need to correct that we know of and once we go against the better teams in the NFL and we obviously start vying to make a playoff push here as the season continues, we have to get those things dialed in. So, there’s definitely a lot to improve on,” Kmet said. “But, as we keep playing here, we know our schedule is going to get tougher and tougher. The margins are going to continue to get more thin and we definitely got to be on our stuff if we want to come out ahead in those types of games.” Playing the Commanders is not even the most pressing concern for Chicago’s schedule, particularly with Washington’s quarterback, Jayden Daniels, questionable after sustaining a rib injury against the Panthers. The Bears are in the toughest division in the NFL. There are two one-loss and two two-loss teams in their division; sitting with a 4-2 record, Chicago is last after the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers both won on Sunday. The matchup between the Vikings and Lions, in particular, highlighted to Kmet how the Bears want to be and what kind of games they want to play. “I think that we got the guys now on both offense and defense to make up for some of those mistakes, which is really cool to have. But, you don’t want to live in that world consistently and when we go against the Lions, the Packers, the Vikings, they all got equal talent to us and that’s where those margins come in,” Kmet said. “So, we got to be on it and those are the type of games that we want to be playing in and we will be playing in here soon and I think (looking) at that Vikings Lions game, what’s to come for us coming up here shortly.” Kmet believes in the Chicago offense going forward, in part because of the play of rookie quarterback Caleb Williams. The season started rocky for him. However, he had his best performance of the season in London against the Jaguars, throwing four touchdown passes and finishing the game with a completion percentage of 79.3 percent. “(Caleb) looks really good, and he’s super talented and can do a lot of really good things with his legs and with his arm, and I think the things that he does in the pocket as a rookie is really impressive,” Kmet said. “I think those are the things that you look at that you can rely on week-to-week whether that’s the intermediate or short passing game, and I think Caleb’s done a really good job with that … I think Caleb’s just got a knack for playmaking and making plays happen.”
