Bears 12, Vikings 10
A. Okay, good evening, everyone. Just in there with the players, obviously very excited about the victory. The way we finished, the last part of it was good, good complementary football. Three-and-out by the defense and then taking it down there on the two-minute drive to set us into field goal range, and then kneeling, kneeling, and then making them use their time-outs and then kicking it for the winner. We utilized that defense. We've used it a bunch of different times, that last-play defense that you have where you're back all the way like that.
The guys did a good job executing that, as well.
Starting off the game, I thought we started off strong in terms of drives, moving the ball down the field. Just didn't capitalize -- obviously missed that long field goal there, but I think it was nine minutes, and Justin started 8 for 8, I believe, which was really good, and then obviously the takeaways by the defense.
We had a punt on the first series and then we intercepted the next two, and that's good focus and concentration by those guys, and we've been working really hard during the course of the week of taking the ball away. That's starting to pay off for us.
I thought the first half -- well, I thought too many penalties put us behind the sticks sometimes with some opportunities. During that time, obviously the Kyler Gordon penalty that we had that we had at midfield backing us up, and then we ended up stalling out on some penalties on offense on that one, so that was probably the most disappointing thing in the first half.
But second half came out. I thought the defense came out ready to play, was a three-and-out, had a couple interceptions right after that, and then the touchdown by them was good execution by them. We've got to do a little bit better job on a couple instances there. Our execution on defense. But overall I thought the defense played stout all day, and it was good.
Most proud of the guys the way they finished, the way we worked on finishing is the result from last week. I think it was really good for the guys to see that going into the bye week.
Going into the bye week pretty healthy, which is good. We'll get the guys off the whole week, and then we'll work and bring them in the following Monday and we'll do a light walk-through there and get them checked up and checked in and all that.
With that, open it up to questions.
Q. The pass by (indiscernible) what was your vantage point?
A. Yeah, you need that. In that moment, you need it. We only really needed 15, 18 yards to make it nice in terms of our kick line there. But obviously when you get that big chunk there, kind of seals the deal there.
DJ runs a beautiful in cut. He's a great route runner. The way he played today, the way he took a lot of those short passes, take them for eight, nine yards at a time, and those aren't easy, and he's a heck of an athlete and a better teammate.
Q. What went into the decision to go for it on 4th and 10 and then not go for it on 4th and 3 at their 7?
A. Yeah, it's where you are in the game. So at the 4th and 10 from the 38 we were outside our kick line there, so you're just ultra aggressive there because you feel good how your defense is playing. If you don't get it, where the ball sits for them. So we felt good there.
Then obviously down there, that's points, and you want to capitalize on points.
As the game went on, obviously the points were at a premium there. You knew it was going to be a low scorer, and field goal meant something in this game.
Q. What are your concerns about the offense overall? 0 for 2 in the red zone --
A. Yeah, obviously we would like to capitalize on those, and that's what momentum is. When you get those takeaways on defense, momentum is created there. The momentum is either finished there by the defense returning it into a scoring zone or scoring themselves, or the offense getting that takeaway and then moving it into a scoring zone.
We have to do a better job of that, and then we have to capitalize on those, and that's going to be a big part of our success going forward.
Q. You always stress takeaways. You had four. How satisfying is that?
A. It's good, and I've been part of some good ones. 30 plus a few times, and defense creates momentum in a lot of different ways, and they do it through 3rd down stops, they do it through big hits, and they do it through taking the ball away. That's what we always preach to the guys, and they did all three things today.
Q. (Indiscernible) on the final after the throw to DJ? What was the conversation upstairs with Richard about the math?
A. Yeah, first you talk about what hash. That's the big part of it. And then they had two, so they're going to burn the two, and then you figure out what the time is after that.
You do your kneeling -- rather than run the ball, you want to kneel it because it's a safer play. No reason to. And then we knew we had 10 seconds after the kick. It was a good operation.
Q. What approach do you take going in (indiscernible)?
A. Just his practice, what he's been doing in practice, and he's obviously having for man out certainly played a big part of that. But again, he put his best foot forward, and that's always an opportunity that guy has when another guy goes down and another guy steps up.
I thought he did a nice job. I thought he did a really good job of working in the open space, and Justin needs to be commended for that because he's worked on that a lot, getting his eyes down the field, and you certainly saw that early in the game with Roschon, seeing that and then making some big chunk yards there. I think that's a really good way to do it because when you've got a quarterback that can run like that, then you can -- obviously you can dent the defense pretty good there on those.
Q. (Indiscernible)?
A. Yeah, I mean, you've got all those guys up and they're all a threat to come. So you have to be mindful of that, and you have to have ways to get the ball into the perimeter or into the second level of the field, and we didn't hit some of those today, but we're certainly looking to get more of those.
Q. Why didn't you pick up the flag on Kyler when (indiscernible)?
A. Yeah, I really didn't get a full explanation on that. I'm curious to see what they do say about that. But clearly his facemask was off, and that all -- when we pleaded our case, it just didn't work out.
Q. How does it feel to get this win? It probably took a little longer than you anticipated, but just a win in the division.
A. Yeah, it's very important. Obviously our goal was to win the division, but more importantly I believe it's the way we finished. I think that's going to be more lasting going into these next ballgames. Like I said, the proof is right there. We've been doing a lot of good things on offense, defense and kicking, and it's good to win a tight one like this.
Where we had some adversity at the end, had to pull through some adversity with those two fumbles, and coming together with the last defensive series and the last offensive two-minute drive.
Q. (Indiscernible).
A. Yeah, I mean, you know what they're going to do. It was run, run, and then they threw the ball to the perimeter and T.J. made a great play. That was just an outstanding play by him, and he's played well all year. But man, he played good tonight, too. He makes a lot of impactful plays. That one stop on the 4th down stop I believe it was on 3rd down stop on their sideline, that was a really good play, too. He just continues to play his tail off.
Q. (Indiscernible) the execution by Koa?
A. Yeah, that was great. That was really good. The execution, the blocking. I think Justin operated there. We got the look we needed, we wanted there. Koa did an awesome job of working himself open into the space.
Q. (Indiscernible).
A. Yeah, no doubt. Then it was 3rd and 21. Then it was 4th and 10.
But good job by the offense on that one.
Q. (Indiscernible).
A. No, I didn't have any thought on that.
Q. Justin has obviously had these challenges in the fourth quarter. What did it mean for the team and for him just to see him make that play?
A. Yeah, I didn't see the second fumble. I know he had two hands on the one, and I think it was just a good play by the defensive end. He was trying to evade and get into the open space, and he had two hands on that one. I didn't see the second one. But it means a lot for him to come back from that and then seal the deal with that great in-cut that he threw to DJ.
Even prior to that, there was a lot of good things, no sacks in that moment, being able to throw the ball away, evade the rush when guys were not open, and again, we'll look at the tape and see how we can get better, as we will all of us. We can get better from this performance. Win or lose, we can always get better, and we want to do that with this one.
Q. What's allowed you guys to have the growth where the defense is?
A. Yeah, it's just coming together. I think we had some injuries early on. That's not acceptable to make an excuse, but we had injuries, and we didn't have the continuity we wanted during training camp because of those injuries, and I think after the third, the fourth game, I think we kind of got healthy, and the guys started playing together, had some continuity there.
You can feel it as the guys, the momentum keeps growing and growing with those guys, and they certainly are exciting to watch.
Q. (Indiscernible) on the 1st down of the game?
A. Good. Yeah, he made good tackles. I thought he was strong. Of course they're going to go at him. He's a rookie and he's a new starter in there, so they certainly did that. Bo Jack did a good job of playing over the top on that one. We pressured on that one, on the first play, and Bo Jack did a good job of seeing that and playing over the top.
Q. (Indiscernible) a lot of the plays being called behind the line of scrimmage or right at the line of scrimmage.
A. On our offense you're saying? Yeah, it's just the pressure, the looks that they give you and the pressure that they give you, six men up, seven men up, they're all threatening right there, and you can decide to do a couple different things. You can spit the ball to the perimeter or you can max it up and have a two-man route and try to see if you can get it done that way.
There's a bunch of different ways you can do it. When you get the ball to DJ on the perimeter, he makes some things happen. I think it's always a good thing.
But we'll look at it. We'll see how we can improve for next time, and we'll see what we can do.
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