JOHN FOX QUOTES 2015 NFL PRESEASON GAME #1 Chicago Bears vs. Miami Dolphins Thursday, August 13, 2015 - Soldier Field - Chicago, IL Opening Statement Injuries to report from the game: Terrance Mitchell went out with the concussion protocol. He was cleared later in the game and we decided not to risk him and also not participating I think it was a surprise to most people was Alshon Jeffery strained a calf in practice the other day at camp before we came down and we held him out so he ll be day-to-day. On what he learned from the game We looked very sloppy particularly early. What I liked is the guys hung in there, they didn t blink they kept fighting. I think what s normal in this league turnover ratio, ball security is critical in the game. I think that s what swung it for us. I think we were probably plus-four with that last pick I think. So that was really the difference in the game. A lot of penalties and things. We still have a whole lot to work on. On the backup running back competition I liked them in practice. I think as a coach you control practice, you make it as physical as you can and try to keep your guys healthy. So this is the first time for us as a coaching staff and them as players with us. You expect some things we had. We had some change issues, a lot of false starts. You play a variety of quarterbacks and that sometimes happens. I think we operated okay but still have a lot of work to do. On Sherrick McManis He s a competitive young guy. He s a guy who made his name in this league as a special teams ace so have a lot of great defensive players in our history. I always like it when a young man competes. He made a nice pass break-up on third down that comes to mind. We ll tell when we watch tape. He s a guy we like that had a good game. On the first team defense s play We misplayed our linebacker alignment that was for plus-27 (yards). We weren t very crisp on third down. There was a couple conversions we had called for a penalty to give them a first down on a third-down situation. So it wasn t as clean as we like but first preseason game with a new staff usually isn t. On the Bears tackling versus Miami I didn t think it was all bad. I ve seen way worse. Again, we re not a well-oiled-machine by any stretch, but It s the first preseason game.
Page 2 of 2 On using the two-point conversion The preseason s a little rough cause you kind of run out of plays. You don t want to show too many of them. The game kind of said that s what we should do, so we did it. Offensively we didn t do a whole lot of game planning for what Miami does and I m sure they didn t do it for us either it s preseason. We ran a lot of tricks down there, we ended up kicking field goals instead of getting touchdowns. That s something we have to clean-up and work on by the season. On Jared Allen playing in pass coverage Playing linebacker you have to do that. Whether it s Jared Allen or any outside linebacker. We ll watch the tape and really dissect it all from a different view. He s done all things, he s a smart guy, he s an athletic guy, we keep him kind of protected so I think, all-in-all, he did pretty good. On the play of Jimmy Clausen You know in the first game typically that s how we roll. First groups about 15 plays and we played 17 I didn t really like how it went that first drive. Once they come out, Jimmy s the backup quarterback at this point. He s a young player, its important he gets reps in the preseason. It s time to hit it.
BEARS PLAYER QUOTES 2015 NFL PRESEASON GAME #1 Chicago Bears vs. Miami Dolphins Thursday, August 13, 2015 - Soldier Field - Chicago, IL Jay Cutler, QB On his impressions of the first preseason game There s good and bad like any other preseason game, especially the first preseason game. We ll take a look at the film on Saturday, make some corrections and move on. On the mental errors and penalties in the first half We had a ton of penalties. A lot of pre-snap penalties, stuff we can clean up. We ll take a look at that, make our drives a little more sustainable. On if there was a lot of game planning for tonight No. We went over some stuff yesterday. We went over some stuff this morning. It was more just kind of running basic plays. We ran a lot of plays I think. We kind of ran out of stuff towards the end there. As we go along, the game-planning will get more intense. On if communication with the receivers will be smoothed out in preseason We had to bump Eddie [Royal] outside with Alshon [Jeffery] being down. He s had a lot of work inside where he s probably more effective. I wanted to go high, but he broke it off left tight. Just some things for us to work on and get better at. On what the rhythm was like and if it was coming along Definitely. With this offense, us being on the ball a lot, it s different for some of these guys. We ve got to get in better shape. We ve got to get moving a little quicker at times, but I thought tonight the offensive line did a good job. There are going to be pluses and minuses when we watch this film. On if it is difficult to gauge the progress of the offense with injuries to key players Yeah, 17 [Alshon Jeffery] was out, 22 [Matt Forte] didn t play today. Kevin [White] is out like you said. We were working with some guys that we didn t expect to be in there for this game. It s part of the business. It s how it goes. Sometimes you re going to lose some guys and some other guys have to step up. We re comfortable with Eddie [Royal]. We re comfortable with Marquess [Wilson] over there. I think Marc [Mariani] did a good job stepping in over there in the slot. Martellus [Bennett] is kind of a constant out there. We ve got enough to work with. We just need to clean up some of the sloppy plays we had.
Page 2 of 2 On the hurry up offense I like it. I like it a lot. It gives us a lot of time on the clock if we want to change a play, want to go to something else, we can. I think it kind of wore the defense out as we progressed throughout the game. The way the game got going there toward the end, I think that was because we ran so many plays and we were so effective. On if any new fears popped up tonight Nothing new. I think those pre-snap penalties are going to be a little alarming when we look at the film. We can correct that pretty quickly. I m sure when we see the film there may be some other stuff that might creep in that we re gonna have to fix, but nothing crazy. We weren t coming off the field saying, we didn t see that coming. Everything that happened was kind of expected and things we can work on. On how much of training camp is establishing a mindset of staying positive That s a good point. It s not always going to go smoothly. It s with a new group, new coaches, new players out there. We re all adjusting to how it will go if we go three-and-out, if we get sacked for a second-and-15. What are we going to do to bounce back? That s part of the growing process we re going through right now. Ok, we went threeand-out, had some penalties, we put together a little bit of a drive, got three (points) on the board. Then the twos came in. They had some setbacks and we were able to bounce back through that. I think that s a good point and something we need to carry over to Indy and get better and better at. On how much he studies the offense from the sideline when he s not in and help Jimmy Clausen I think everyone was kind of excited to see this stuff in motion in real life. Get tackled and everything. Watching Jimmy [Clausen], making sure he s good, then also seeing how these plays are going to work and how they re going to play out and talk with Adam [Gase] about the process. What he likes, what he didn t like in calls. So it was good.
BEARS PLAYER QUOTES 2015 NFL PRESEASON GAME #1 Chicago Bears vs. Miami Dolphins Thursday, August 13, 2015 - Soldier Field - Chicago, IL PAGE 1 OF 2 Jimmy Clausen, QB On developing a confidence while learning a new offense It s tough. The offenses are pretty similar all around the league; it s just different terminology. The coaches do a great job of helping us prepare. Jay (Cutler) has helped me out a lot, as well as David (Fales) and Shane (Carden) just coming together and trying to learn it together because we re all learning it for the first time. It s been a hard time at different times, learning it, but I think we re starting to get the hang of it and starting to roll with it. On the running game It was big. All the running backs did great tonight. Obviously, I can t say too much about it since I haven t watched the tape yet, but I thought they did a great job, as well as the offensive line up front, opening holes for those guys up front. On the receivers he got to work with tonight All the receivers looked good tonight. I was just trying to spread the ball around to different guys. In this offense, anybody can get the ball at any time, and I thought they did a great job of making plays when plays were there. Jermon Bushrod, T On his back I think they were managing it well. I really do. I appreciate the effort that the training staff and coaches put in because if it was up to me, I would like to go every day. To me, that s just how I ve always been. It s about long term, and I have to understand that. They re keeping me to the plan, and it s a good plan. We re just going to keep taking this thing week-by-week and find a way to get better. On being able to take something away from a first preseason game Well, we have to start by looking at the film and seeing where we have to work, especially that first drive. That s definitely not how we wanted to start off our preseason. But, we were able to get up there and speed the tempo up with that second drive. We had some success moving the ball. I think it was more that we killed ourselves than them stopping us. I just think that we get back to the drawing board and fight to be more consistent, fight to be faster, and as the game went on, we got better. Sherrick McManis, CB On his determination to get more playing time on defense I m very determined. I m determined like this every year, honestly. Just to be out there trying to compete, do my special teams thing, and also to show them that I can play corner, or that I can play nickeljust to help the team in any way that I can... It s about getting opportunities and capitalizing on those opportunities. Making plays. Just competing. Just trying to get better.
PAGE 2 OF 2 Jared Allen, LB On the new position You just have to trust the defense. You ve got to trust the keys that you ve got and go and make plays. Football is about process how fast can you process the information so that you can go and apply the football knowledge and football talent to it. So, that s what it comes down to. We ll just keep working on that process. The faster that you can recognize things, the more that you can anticipate. For me, I work on pass rushing stuff because it s a different angle. I was trying to get my pad level down. It s just slightly different things that this whole process through training camp is. It s cool for me this year because preseason has a purpose and a function - not that it didn t before - because it s really a time where I can hone a new craft. It s like my younger days, where you re really trying to use it to polish and understand... It s always good to have stuff on tape so that you can communicate with the guys. So, as soon as everyone s on the same page, it clicks, and you ll see much better performances.
JOE PHILBIN QUOTES 2015 NFL PRESEASON GAME #1 Chicago Bears vs. Miami Dolphins Thursday, August 13, 2015 - Soldier Field - Chicago, IL On initial thoughts after the game I thought we played relatively well in the first half but they [Chicago] certainly deserved to win the game. They played much better than our team in the second half. On their opening offensive drive It was a good drive. They overcame a couple of penalties, I believe, two holding penalties in that opening drive, so I think that was good. We had talked about if we got inside that we would certainly want to see some field goals out of our guys if the situation presented itself, but we had a fourth-and-two, maybe, and we decided that we don t really kick field goals from inside the five for the most part, especially early in the game. On the performance of the starting offensive line and specifically the two guards I thought our protection overall was relatively good in the first half and slipped off in the second half. I thought our team, on both sides of the ball, was really doing some good things at the line of scrimmage in the first half of the game. Again, I think things really flipped in the second half of the game and we have to give Chicago a lot of credit. On first impressions of Ndamukopng Suh I thought our first team defense did a good job and I thought he did some good things there. On the backups and the second half in general [The second and third team s performance] has to be better. I said to the team after the game that it was carrying the ball in the wrong arm at times. That is the first fundamental that we teach if you re a football player with the Miami Dolphins, it s the first thing that we practice every single day. I hope we learn from it. On injuries from tonight s game We need to wait about 24 hours to see exactly where these guys are in the spectrum of health and decide from there.
Page 2 of 2 On special teams I don t know if we kicked all that great today. I don t think our special teams were, overall, as good as I was hoping for. We wanted to get LaMichael [James] some opportunities and see if we could get him the ball. He did some good things, but like I said, overall I was not especially thrilled with our special teams. On the overall depth of the team I need to watch the film and see how they played. Again, I am concerned when they get outscored 24 0 in the second half. We had a lot of penalties and that is not the way that we want to play football, so we have to watch the tape and look a little closer.
DOLPHINS PLAYERS QUOTES 2015 NFL PRESEASON GAME #1 Chicago Bears vs. Miami Dolphins Thursday, August 13, 2015 - Soldier Field - Chicago, IL PAGE 1 OF 2 RYAN TANNEHILL, QB On the first drive It felt great. It felt great to be out on the field competing for the first time. I thought the guys competed well. We overcame some adversity. [We] had two holding penalties, which was tough to overcome. We fought through it and were able to score. On the comfort level with the offensive line They did a great job. They kept a clean pocket. We got the ball out quickly, so we weren t sitting back there too long. They did a great job giving me a pocket. I had time to step up and scramble through for a first down on our first third down play. [I was] really comfortable back there. I thought those guys did a great job. On the timing of the passing game I think the receivers did a great job getting open. The offensive line was protecting me. We were able to get the ball in the right spot at the right time. On building on the early success Any time you come out and have a 17-play scoring drive, it s definitely something you can build on. We look to do that. We re only going to be in the game longer going forward, so we have to be able to carry that consistency throughout a whole game. On what can be taken away from scrimmages with Panthers They are a good defense. They have a lot of good players. They have a lot of Pro Bowl players on defense. [They have] two of the top linebackers in the game. It s going to be tough for us. We re going to have our hands full. Guys are going to compete. It s going to be more game like practices than going against our own guys. They re going to be tough for us, but it s going to be good preparing us for the season. MIKE POUNCEY, C On the opening drive It was a really good first drive. Proud of the way the ones went out and played. We overcame a couple penalties. We did what we wanted to do, go down the field and score a touchdown. On what the first team wanted to achieve We always want to go out there and perform well in the first preseason game. We did that to a certain degree. Obviously, we have to eliminate the penalties. [A] Seventeen play drive on the first drive of the preseason is pretty good.
PAGE 2 OF 2 CAMERON WAKE, DE On the play of the first team defense I obviously haven t seen all the plays, but when you come out with a loss, it s hard to feel good about it. I know it is preseason. People say a lot of different things about that, but they are keeping score at the end of the day you want to win the game. We dropped the ball there. We were down as far as turnovers go. They had a couple long runs. So, it s preseason. We got a lot of work to do. We re going to get back to work Saturday and start working on those things we didn t do so well tonight.