The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are set to play their second NFC North team in a row when they face the Bears on Sunday. And while the Bears had a rough go of things in Week 1 against the Green Bay Packers, nothing is ever certain when it comes to the NFL.
Both offensive coordinator Dave Canales and defensive line coach Kacy Rodgers spoke to media on Thursday, and they both talked about the threats Chicago poses in both their offense and their defensive game. For Canales, he particularly stressed how intense the Bears are in pursuit of the football on defense.
“Really, it’s the effort. You have to be conscious of the ball playing against Coach [Matt] Eberflus and his team,” Canales said. “It jumps out on film how hard they chase everything down. As the running backs are making decisions on runs, they’ve got to secure the ball. Receivers down the field, they’ve got to secure the ball coming out because these guys are all converging.
Photo by Dustin Satloff/Getty Images)
He also spoke on their ability to catch players in the zone, and mentioned that the team is working on drills to combat that aspect of their game heading into Sunday’s matchup.
“Then, they play so much visual zone – a lot of those compression tackles happen so you usually have two guys in the zone and you catch it in between, then the sandwich tackle happens. We drill it a ton, but our guys just taking it to the game and securing it is going to be important.”
Rodgers, on the flip side, said that there are quite a few things Chicago does well on offense. He stressed that while the team is known for running — and that the Bucs are hoping to make the Bears one-dimensional by shutting down that aspect of their game — there’s still quite a bit to be afraid of.
“Now D.J. Moore is hanging out, out there. [Chase] Claypool, he beat us last year in Pittsburgh at the last second,” Rodgers said. “Then you’ve got [Darnell] Mooney who can fly, [Cole] Kmet, and then you’ve got this quarterback. They pose a lot of problems.”
Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
That quarterback is Justin Fields, who last year busted off more than 1,000 yards in the run game. And while he still has a few things to answer for in the passing game, his ability to move out of the pocket is still far too dangerous to be left unchecked.
“It is very scary. We were just looking at the scrambles today and just trying to make it an emphasis,” Rodgers said. “It’s hard because you’ve got to rush him, but then you rush him, and you get out of your lane and now he is taking off. Then if you don’t rush him, you can’t give the receivers that kind of time. It poses so many problems and now you’re playing a chess match – when you rush, when you don’t. It creates a lot of problems for you.”
The Bucs will put their gameplan to the test when they face off against the Bears at Raymond James Stadium on Sunday at 1 p.m. EST.
