Cubs News: Eberflus updates injuries, discusses Williams’ improvement |
LONDON, U.K. - For the first time since Matt Eberflus became the head coach of the Chicago Bears, the Bears have won three games in a row after they defeated the Jacksonville Jaguars 35-16 in London. The last time the Bears had a three-game winning streak was in 2020, which was also the last time they went to the playoffs.
Eberflus was pleased with the complementary performance of the offense and defense and with the players who stepped up because of injuries. “I thought (it was) really good complementary football during the course of us taking the ball away on defense and scoring those 14 points off of those takeaways. A couple good two-minute drives there, really good two-minute drive at the half for the offense and then the four-minute at the end of the game to expire it, waste some time there and do a good job with that,” Eberflus said. “The DBs that came in, we had some injuries. The DBs that came in there, (Josh) Blackwell came in in the middle of the game for Kyler (Gordon) and obviously, Jaylon Jones did a nice job. Elijah Hicks did a nice job coming in there and that’s the partnership they have with their coaches. Coaches got them ready to go. We’re always ready to go in terms of the depth part of it and that’s a good job of coaching those guys, really good job of playing.” Gordon popped up on the injury report during the week with a heel injury and was limited on Wednesday. However, he was able to participate in full on Thursday and Friday and was good to go for the game. However, he injured his hamstring, resulting in Blackwell finishing the rest of the game in his place. On the second and last punt of the game for Chicago, long snapper Scott Daly suffered a knee injury. Since he was playing for Patrick Scales, who is out for the season, the Bears went to their emergency long snapper—tight end Cole Kmet. Chicago had prepared for this, as Kmet takes snaps as a long snapper every Thursday. "We practice that every Thursday. He gets the short snaps and long snaps every Thursday. It’s part of our routine that we have because he is the backup. So, he does a good job with those guys. A couple of snaps were high, but he did a good job. Cole had some really nice catches and a couple of touchdowns. First man in the history of ball to get two touchdowns and snap it right afterward, maybe.” “Kyler Gordon’s hamstring. So, he ended up feeling the hamstring right there, one of those plays in the second half … Our long snapper, Scott Daly’s got a knee. So, we’ll see where that is, and we'll get back to Halas Hall tomorrow,” Eberflus said. Rookie quarterback Caleb Williams had a historic day for the Bears. He had four passing touchdowns, becoming the first Bears rookie to accomplish this since Cade McCown in 1999. Furthermore, he became the first player in the league's history to record at least 50 rushing yards and have at least three passing touchdowns in an international game. Eberflus has seen Williams continually take steps forward, although he also says the Heisman winner has continued to improve, grow, and learn how to best operate in the offense. “We feel that he took a step in the right direction. Our football team took a step in the right direction, playing that complementary football and him being able to distribute the ball and operate. We ran some no-huddle and some different things, and (when) he had to operate at the line, he did a nice job today,” Eberflus said. “Just his ability to learn and grow and want to get better. He knows that he’s always working (and) improving and growing. He knows that (this) year is a big year for him to be able to learn the game up here, and he’s always been good enough in terms of the talent and those things. But, he’s learning the game and learning our offense and learning our skill sets that we have and learning new things that they can do … Our guys have wide skill sets. So, we want to utilize those guy’s skill sets to be able to widen that so we can really expand our offense as we go through the year. So, he’s doing a good job with that.” Now, the Bears are going into their bye week. This will allow Gordon and Daly to continue to heal and hopefully be available for Chicago's next game against the Washington Commanders on Sunday, Oct. 27 (Noon / CBS), in a battle of rookie quarterbacks. Jayden Daniels was the No. 2 overall selection and has done well with the Commanders through the first six games, also leading them to a 4-2 record. With how well both Williams and Daniels are playing, this game could be pivotal in deciding the Offensive Rookie of the Year.
