Cubs News: Brown on facing Flores’ defense: "We’re not going to coach scared" |
CHICAGO - After one game with Thomas Brown as the offensive coordinator, the Bears already looked different last week against the Green Bay Packers despite the loss.
Looking forward to Chicago’s game this Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings (Noon / FOX), he continues to stay focused on distributing the ball and making the defense defend the entire field. “It all starts with how you prepare to me. When you get to game day, you either (have) done enough to give yourself a chance to play well or you didn’t. So, I had a good peace of mind just based on what we did throughout the week, the game plan put together and my goal is always to put us in the best spots for our guys to make plays based on tendencies, based on how we set the game up, based on formation, motion, variations. So, definitely believe in marrying a run and a pass, marrying formations and motions,” Brown said. “From a defensive standpoint, they’re basing a lot of their calls off of obviously, your previous tendencies which I had none before this game here. But also, off just your alignments … Trying to do a really good job of (putting) a seed of doubt in the minds of defenders before the ball (is) snapped to give us an advantage to be able to go play more aggressive. But, the sequence was about obviously attacking the defense, getting our guys involved early in the game. So, we got to spread the wealth around but obviously, make those guys defend every blade of grass when it comes to the vertical passing game to keepers to screens to the run game as well and also ball out plays.” There was a lot of talk after Chicago’s game against Green Bay that Brown simplified the offense for rookie quarterback Caleb Williams to make him more comfortable. Brown said this was not true. Rather, he called the game playing to the strength of the players on the offense as a whole. “It doesn’t matter what I’m comfortable with. I don’t play. So, I can always adapt and adjust. To me, it’s my job as a coordinator to adapt and adjust to our players and what those guys do well,” Brown said. “So, whether it’s Caleb, whether it’s our line, whether it’s our receivers, our tight ends or backs, it’s our job to design a plan to obviously attack the defense, but also favor what we do well.” For this second game as the offensive coordinator in Chicago, Brown will take on another division opponent. The Vikings are notorious for their cover zero coverage and heavy blitzing under defensive coordinator Brian Flores. Brown said Minnesota’s defense has taken on the identity of Flores, but Chicago will not play scared of making mistakes against this sophisticated defense. “I think one of the biggest compliments you can get as a coach is your unit takes on your personality and so, they are aggressive. They are attacking. They are opportunistic,” Brown said. “First and foremost, play with no fear. We’re not going to coach scared, not going to play scared and so, to me that starts first in preparation because fear and faith only exist in the future. So, why fear what hasn’t even happened yet and so, I think about our guys being able to have confidence in the game plan, to build that based on preparation throughout the week and then on game day, let it rip. We don’t fear failure or fear mistakes. You learn from those opportunities and then continue to keep swinging.”
