Previewing Bears-Patriots on Thursday Night Football

A couple days since the Bears won on Sunday. Cassidy, we've had some time to digest things. How are we feeling? What are we thinking? What are we hearing? Well, I think we're feeling good still. And knowing that it's a short week. Obviously, it helps to come off a win as you prepare for the Patriots rather quickly. Coming out of it, a couple injuries to keep an eye on that we learned of. Jonah Jackson is dealing with a hip flexor injury. Jeremy Fowler from ESPN reporting he is week to week. So we'll see if he is able to go through this quick turnaround and play Thursday night. He left the game on Sunday in Atlanta dealing with that hip. And so that's something to keep an eye on. He is the Bears' right guard. That right side of the offensive line is the strength of the O-line. And a lot of times it's Darnell Wright who gets a lot of the praise when it comes to the offensive line and that side in particular. But offensive coordinator Press Taylor was talking yesterday. And he said if you watch the tape, Jonah Jackson is right there with him with a lot of those combo blocks to get that run game going. And so he is kind of the unsung hero of the offensive line in a lot of ways. Definitely the strongest voice in that room as well. This team looks to him a lot. And so we'll keep an eye on Jonah Jackson's status. If he can't go, you're looking at Luke Newman, who slotted into his place on Sunday, or potentially Jordan McFadden. Those are the two backup guards. And Jordan McFadden started the divisional game against the Rams, that left guard, so Joe Tooney could play left tackle. So they trust both those guys, but obviously having your starter in there is always helpful. The other injury we're looking at is Kyle Menungai, who the Bears released their estimated practice report yesterday because they didn't practice, they had the walkthrough, and Kyle Menungai was still on it as a DNP dealing with turf toe. And so we thought that was week to week. Maybe the short turnaround has something to do with the fact that he's now past the two-week timeline. And we'll see how the Bears kind of run this thing because with the short turnaround, you also have a mini bye coming out of it. So they try to use that as giving guys some time to rest and regroup. And so that could potentially be an opportunity for Kyle Montgomery to have extended time to try to get back on the field. And you look at the Bears' run game. Yes, they have DeAndre Swift. Last week they used Roschon Johnson. Ben Johnson has made it clear they believe in running back by committee. They want that one-two punch, and they have full faith in Roschon Johnson, who bounced back and had a really good game outside of the fumble in the fourth quarter. And so we could potentially see that tandem being in the backfield again for the Bears. So with all of this in mind, knowing that we have Patriots on Thursday, is there anything that makes you nervous when it comes to the Patriots? I mean, they have Drake May, the number three overall pick in the same draft class as Caleb Williams. So they went one and they went three. And so those two will always be tied together. Drake May was runner up for MVP last year. The Patriots played in the Super Bowl last year. They are a very well coached team under Mike Vrabel. And so when you look at Drake May, the one thing Dennis Allen said is you want to watch out for the fact that yes, he's a deep ball threat and he can also run with his legs and if you look at his splits between the first three weeks and then the last three weeks it's been a pretty remarkable turnaround he really struggled early on people were wondering if last year was a fluke for Drake May in those MVP conversations but he's thrown three or more touchdowns in every game the last three weeks they got A.J. Brown off IR last week you expect him to have a big workload as they place wide receiver Romeo Dobbs on IR their run game can get going the one thing I would actually watch out for, and this is an opportunity for the Bears defense, is the fact that the Patriots lost three offensive linemen in last week's win against the Jets. They could be playing with their fourth different starting offensive line combination this season on Thursday night, and we know this Bears team is trying to find consistency and getting pressure on quarterbacks. They did it last week by a lot of blitzes from their defensive backs, in particular Kyler Gordon, and so maybe there's another opportunity for some of these DBs to get to Drake May and throw him off, but Drake May is an MVP contender. Caleb Williams coming off of that game looks like he could be one as well. And so you're obviously waiting to see what he looks like in his second game back from the hamstring. How happy are we that Caleb is back? Thrilled. I think we saw him like after the first play of the game, everyone was like a deep exhale, like, oh, everything's all right. It's going to be okay. He is the engine that makes the offense go in a lot of ways. And he's a special player, especially when he completes 30 of 36 passes for 305 yards. It was just the efficiency and the way he played simple and you know took what the game in the defense gave him and if you look at the stats right now league-wide he leads all quarterbacks in completion percentage 72.5 percent if they have 90 or more pass attempts and Ben Johnson notably threw out the 70 percent mark that was what the goal was for Caleb Williams he fell way short of it last year but to see that he just took the check downs, took the simple plays while also hitting some crucial passes across the middle of the field, notably to Rome Odunze. Luther Burden showed that he is grasping this offense and continuing his development and it was a huge positive to see and we'll see what he looks like on Thursday. It's going to be fun to see how this offense continues to grow, especially over the next three games, which are all primetime matchups. You know, there was so much excitement at the start of that game, right? Caleb was crushing it, but the Falcons, interesting fourth quarter ben johnson sat his starters his first team defense maybe a little too soon he described it as threading the needle trying to give him some plays off knowing they had the tight turnaround and then all of a sudden you look up and it's a two two possession game you're like oh boy we got to throw them back in there but we can talk about the impact that Kyler Gordon had with the three sacks two forced fumbles three quarterback hits and playing just 17 defensive snaps and Dennis Allen was talking about him yesterday saying he's twitchy the way he's able to change speed and he feels like you know Kyler Gordon wasn't on tape before now the rest of the league is going to see what he was able to do in his first game this season and say all right we need to stop him but he's always had a knack for getting to the quarterback when his number is called on those nickel blitzes he's second on the team in sacks right now there's a chance that he ends up leading this team in sacks this season um what we're going to see from Kyler Gordon on Thursday Dennis Allen said expect him to be on a snap count again they want to make sure that they are working his way he's working his way back into the game reps and he can stay on the field but Kyler Gordon reminded us why he's one of the best players on this Bears defense he makes such an impact and so you can talk about everything that happened off the field which he didn't really want to get into too much he picked up right where he left off and he's a difference maker and overall before we let you go you know the Bears are now four and two how seriously should we be taking this team I mean I think there was panic after Green Bay because it was Green Bay and the way that they got punched in the face in that game but it's a long season and the NFC North is a gauntlet every team in the NFC North is above 500 the only division in the conference the NFC North is the same on the other side but you have to find ways to win division games and the Bears won't have that opportunity to prove that until they go to Detroit on Thanksgiving and so yes these games matter but you need to focus and be able to dominate in the NFC North and I think that's going to be key but over the next stretch of games and we talked about going into the season that the Bears have the toughest uh division and the toughest schedule in the league you know you have to be able to win these games and going up against a team that played in the Super Bowl last year is one good test going on the road and playing in prime time on Monday Night Football against the defending Super Bowl champs is another good test and so all those are you know points where we can look at and say all right what is this team where is this team we can talk about the defense where i don't think we know if they're good if they're not they're good on third down they're good in the red zone but what are they when you look at them as an entire unit they're all just little points where you can say all right I think if that you know the offense can stay on the field and they can dominate the time of possession that's kind of been their mojo and if they can eliminate the big playmakers on the other side of the ball that's another way they've been able to win some of these games and so yeah the Bears should be taken seriously they're definitely one of the top teams love it love it all right well Bears Patriots Thursday thank you so much