This afternoon the Chicago Bears defeated the Jacksonville Jaguars at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the second of the 2024 NFL London games.
The game brought the Bears’ international record to three wins from four games, having lost to the LA Raiders 24-21 on their previous visit to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in October 2019.
Coach pleased with win
Chicago Bears Head Coach Matt Eberflus said after his side’s 35-16 win over the Jaguars:
“The guys did a really good job the whole week working the plans. The coordinators did a nice job of that as well, getting those plans implements so they did a nice job there.
“In terms of the game evaluation, I thought that was really good complementary football during the course of us taking the ball away on defence and scoring those 14 points off of those takeaways. A couple good two-minute drives there, really good two-minute drive there at the half for the offense, and then a four-minute at the end of the game to expire it, waste some time there, and do a good job with that.”
Making progress
Commenting of the progress his side is currently making, Eberflus admitted:
“You make the progress, and you want it to be linear but it’s not always that way. But we feel that he took a step in the right direction, our football team took a step in the right direction of playing that complementary football, and him being able to distribute the football and operate. We ran some no huddle and different things in there where he had to operate there at the line and did a nice job today.”
Brian Thomas, who had an impressive game in this his rookie season, was mentioned by the Head Coach in his post-game interview.
“He’s a heck of a player, he really is,” Eberflus said. “I watched a lot of tape on him during the Draft process and he’s good. He’s fast. He can get the deep ball, and he’s going to have an outstanding career, you know, for himself and for the Jags. He’s exciting to watch, and you know, in terms of the three catches, you know, that’s NFL ball, right.? That’s the way it goes sometimes.”
Big impact from Swift
The big impact of D’Andre Swift in the game was also referenced by Eberflus, who said:
“The big thing about Swift is get him out in space because then he can be electric. I was really pleased how he ran the ball today. I think it was in the fives, and I think their run average was in the low fours, I believe, so.
“It was good in both regards in terms of the average. But you need some explosives, and you have to limit those on defence, and I thought we did that on both sides of the ball today. Again, that’s the perimeter blocking, the line, finishing, everything that they do and playing the way we play.”
With the Bears now having claimed three wins in-a-row, moving to 4-2 for the season, the Head Coach feels his side is going in the right direction:
“I think we are in a good spot, I really do. I think we have got a lot of improvement to do. But for the first six games, I think we are in a good spot, and we have to get our minds and our bodies and everything right to go on to these next six games starting with the first one.”
