Q. One of the things you pointed out following last Sunday's game was that after each of the two turnovers, the Bears took advantage and drove 50 yards and then 54 yards for touchdowns each time. What are reasonable expectations for the defense in those situations, and what makes for good "sudden-change defense?"
A. Smiling in the face of adversity is something that great defenses do, and we challenge our defense to do it routinely. Certainly, we don't want to be in that circumstance a lot. We want to protect and preserve and safeguard the ball, but in those specific instances, a field goal or less is the agenda. That's how you put the fire out. Obviously, we weren't able to do that, and it was a significant component of the game. They were able to put the fire out. We recovered a fumble at midfield, Yahya Black, and that's the series where we had a turnover on downs when we came up short on the tush-push on fourth-and-1, and so they got out of their circumstance. We were unable to get out of ours. And certainly, series and sequences like that are the difference in football games.
Q. I want to ask you about that series after the Yahya Black fumble recovery, It was near midfield, there was a fourth-and-1 from the Bears 30-yard line, and you decided to go for it with a tush-push rather than have Chris Boswell attempt a field goal. Then when you were asked afterward about why you went for it, you said, "Because if you can't make it on fourth-and-1, oftentimes you don't deserve to win." There was a lot of football left at that point. What was your thinking in going for it in that situation?
A. Just trying to maximize the short-field opportunity and really drive a stake in our opponent, and building upon some positive things that transpired via the turnover. Certainly, I felt comfortable with our ability to execute and win that circumstance. Unfortunately, we weren't able to do so.
Q. When it comes to dealing with Chris Boswell inside a stadium, I gotta believe he would never say he couldn't make a kick. But is there some pregame process or communication from him or with him as to what his outer range is that day given the conditions, that might help in your decision-making?
A. We don't have a lot of verbal communication. I keep eyes on him during the pregame process. Generally I understand that unless there are unusual stadium conditions or weather circumstances even prior to getting to the stadium, what makes us comfortable. From a range standpoint. He's pretty weather-proof, surface-proof, environment-proof. He just got such a steely resolve in terms of his approach to what he does that there are fewer variables at play in terms of dealing with him and making decisions than with most of his peers, I'm sure.
Q. How much of a specialists' job – punting, long-snapping, field goal kicking – comes down to mental toughness and dealing with pressure?
A. There's no question. It's a component of what they do. They don't get a lot of swings at it. They spend a lot of time over the course of the game watching. But when called upon, they have to be ready. And they have no control over how frequent and how often or when that happens, but they better be ready. And so certainly it takes a certain mental fortitude and driven personality and a guy who thirsts for those weighty moments to really excel in those roles.
Q. How do you measure those situations with those guys in the scouting process, tryout process? Can you set up situations artificially that simulate the kind of pressure that they might face in a game?
A. Absolutely you can, but it's football-like it's not necessarily football. But you work your tail off to do so. May Day scenarios, for example, is something that's routinely practiced, and particularly in a trial setting, to make them run out onto the field and not have ample time to ready themselves. And oftentimes, when you're working a specialist out, you're working more than one out. And so there's a head-to-head competitive component to the work that speaks to a little bit of the competitive nature, their ability to respond and bounce back and so forth. And so usually when you're working a punter out, a snapper out, or a kicker out, it's at least two guys for that one-on-one, tit-for-tat competition component of the workout.
Q. You have ruled LT Broderick Jones out of today's game, and there have been situations this season when you used more than 1 guy to step in for an injured starter. Is left tackle one of those positions where you can divide the labor up between a couple of guys, or might that compromise the cohesion of the offensive line as a unit?
A. There's certainly a cohesion and rhythm component of it. And so we're going to go with Andrus Peat at left tackle. Calvin Anderson has done an awesome job, and he will continue to do an awesome job as a swing tackle for us. We felt it was important to keep him in that swing role, to make sure that we fortify ourselves at both spots. Andrus Peat has played a lot of football over the course of his career and has been a wire-to-wire starter. We certainly got a lot of ball in front of us, and so we feel really comfortable about that division of labor.
Q. The middle of the field has come to be a consistent topic around the NFL, both defending it on defense and attacking it on offense. From a football 101 perspective, what are the pluses and minuses of attacking the middle of the field on offense, and also the importance of defending it on defense?
A. Short throws from an offensive perspective are some positive components of it. Some negative potential components of it is the traffic, because balls can get tipped up and things of that nature. You're doing that at a little bit more risk than you are on the perimeter, but at the same time, you don't have as much flight time for the ball. And so I think those are kind of the critical variables in terms of the discussion from an offensive perspective, positively and negatively. Certainly, you're put in position to run-after in the middle of the field, but it comes at risk because of the traffic.
Q. So far this season, the running backs you've faced included Jonathan Taylor, Josh Jacobs, D'Andre Swift. How would you describe the challenge posed by Buffalo's James Cook, and is his style similar to any of the guys I mentioned?
A. He's probably more like Swift like than the others, but certainly he has a style all his own. He's an easy mover. He's got great fluidity in his movement. He's got natural body lean. It allows him to play bigger than his measurables. The pile generally falls forward. He packs a punch. I think his punch is underrated, but a component of that punch is his pad level and body lean. He's done a heck of a job for those guys. He's got about 1,100 yards in 11 weeks. I think he's No. 2 in the league. And as you mentioned, we have faced our share of elite runners and run offenses, and certainly this is one of them.
Q. Reggie Gilliam is Buffalo's fullback. So far this season, he has played 24 percent of the team's offensive snaps. Will he lead you to James Cook, and when he's on the field is it usually a running play?
A. He'll lead you to the action, and so will the tight ends. When they get in personnel packages that include him, they're not bashful about their intentions. He does a heck of a job. He's a veteran player out of Toledo and developed there and in Buffalo. Got a lot of respect for what he brings. He doesn't get a lot of touches or statistics, but he's an impact player in terms of what they do.
Q. Josh Allen was the seventh overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, and he was 1 of 4 QB to be picked in the top 10, along with Baker Mayfield No. 1 overall, Sam Darnold No. 3 overall, and Josh Rosen No. 10 overall. Did you have any interactions with Allen during that pre-draft process?
A. I did not. We have a limited number of interactions that we're allotted, and so if we're not in that market, we're not going to waste interview slots. But I was aware of his talent, and we did our research, but we didn't have a lot of formal interaction with him.
Q. When you look at his college statistics and even his early NFL seasons, he was not a high percentage completion guy. Is that an unusual thing for a guy to improve accuracy at that point in his career? And how might that have happened?
A. I don't think it's unusual to improve, but it also can be a component of what they're doing offensively. Oftentimes, a guy will have a unbelievable completion percentage, and he's in an RPO offense, and so 8 to 10 of his completions during the course of a game might be 3 yards or less – bubble screens and things of that nature. I don't know that we all look specifically at completion percentage alone without analyzing the type of throws that are being made in the style of offense being utilized. Generally, guys who are in RPO offenses or rhythm offenses have higher percentages, and guys who are throwing the ball down the grass have lower percentages. And that certainly could have been a function of his story at Wyoming,
Q. Describe the concept of "spying" the QB, and can that work against a player like Josh Allen?
A. Certainly he sees quite a bit of it. You have to support your rush with a guy like Josh Allen, with his level of escapability/mobility and his willingness to do it. Oftentimes people do hover-rushes. They'll rush 3 and the 4th will be a more athletic guy than usual in an effort to work to minimize him. Sometimes you'll rush 4 and have a 5th guy do that. The bottom line is, when you're facing quarterback mobility like Josh Allen, it requires you to go to some schematics in an effort to minimize that. And additional manpower is a major component of it. And not only the additional manpower, but the type of athlete. Josh can break people down, he can make people miss. He can run over people. He's a unique athlete. And so you've got to be thoughtful about who that secondary containment player might be, and the depth at which he plays. Because if you get Josh in vertical space, that's not good either. We certainly have a lot of lot of experience in terms of dealing with quarterback mobility. We've dealt with Josh over the years. We've dealt with Lamar in Baltimore, and generally there's a template to be followed in terms of minimizing their escapability.
Q. How would you compare and contrast Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson – the 32nd overall pick in that 2018 NFL Draft – as mobile/running QBs?
A. I would say they're very similar in their competitive spirit. Their ability to extend plays and create splash plays for their offense, using their legs and their arm is something that they share. I would contrast them in that Josh Allen is a power player. When he gets into the defensive backfield, he will lower his pads and run over defenders. He's a big man, and it's certainly different from Lamar in that aspect, in terms of how some of these plays might finish. Lamar is capable of eluding you and running away from you. You better be thoughtful about how you deal with Josh Allen, because he'll drop his pads on you, as evidenced the last time we played those guys. He had an enormous run on about third-and-7 for a score when they kind of broke the game open. He lowered his pad level on our safety and was able to break that tackle and run an additional 30 yards for a score.
