NEWSLETTER
Chicago Bears Interim Head Coach Thomas Brown met with the media on Thursday and immediately announced a slight tweak to the team’s weekly schedule. For the remainder of the season, Wednesdays will be walk-through days to preserve the players’ bodies and freshness down the stretch.
He also delivered some injury notes, which Luis has covered in today’s injury report.
Brown was also asked about something we’ve all wondered about since he was elevated to interim head coach: what’s the difference between calling plays in the press box and down on the sideline?
Thomas Brown Speaks on the Difference Between Calling Plays in the Box and on the Sideline
When asked what adjustments he made from week to week going from the press box down to the sideline as the offensive play-caller, Brown said he didn’t make any adjustments but offered this insight into the difference between the two settings:
“There’s no doubt in my mind that being in the box and the visual of the entire football field is different, for sure. But most of the play calls are built off of down and distance, the hash marks, the floor to gain, and just going through the sequence that I have on my call sheet.”
That pretty much answers the question: There is an obvious advantage to seeing the entire football field from the vantage point provided by calling plays from the press box. Brown said the location doesn’t dictate how he calls plays, but it was clear that there’s an obvious advantage upstairs.
Of course, that’s his personal preference. Plenty of successful offensive play-callers operate successfully on the sideline (Bears Head Coach Candidate Ben Johnson is one of them), but Brown prefers the box. Now, the question is, how much does that affect Brown? The tape will have to speak to that in a few weeks.
More Thomas Brown Press Conference Notes:
- Brown said that the Vikings are fresh on everyone’s mind, with this being the second meeting with Minnesota in less than a month, but noted that they’re still very good, which makes game-planning equally as tricky as the first time they met in November.
- Brown mentioned that the Bears had success late against the Vikings the last time they met, and he’s looking to make some early adjustments, borrowing from some of the things that worked late in the game.
- Brown said that game-planning for Minnesota is about having answers. “[Minnesota] will try to dictate the flow of your offense, and it makes things really hard when it comes to what you call and when you call it … having built-in answers inside of the play [alerts], but also picking and choosing our times to take some shots down the field.”
- I like what I hear when talking about taking shots down the field.
- This is Thomas Brown’s first opportunity to game plan for a team he’s already called plays against this season, so it will be interesting to see how he adjusts his offense from meeting to meeting against a challenging defensive unit.
- Brown was asked what has impressed him the most about Caleb Williams’ interception-less streak: “He’s not playing scared,” Brown said. “He’s ripping some footballs into tight windows, which I think makes it even more impressive; he’s not sitting back there not taking opportunities for chances down the field. We always talk about trying to find ways to be aggressive, but not reckless, there’s a fine difference between the two of them, but I think he’s progressing when it comes to understanding the offense, the operation, but also just letting it rip has been positive for us.”
- ESPN’s Courtney Cronin asked Brown about the increase in pre-snap motion for the Bears offense since he replaced Shane Waldron (a 10 percent increase). Brown said the reason is a philosophical belief that making the defense adjust to varied sets and formations on the fly at the sideline makes their job more difficult and creates more chance of confusion on the defensive side of the ball. It’s such a simple idea that it’s perplexing why his predecessor couldn’t grasp it.
- You can watch Brown’s entire press conference here:
