Bears
The Bears knocked off the Saints in Week 7, behind 222 rushing yards on 40 attempts. Chicago RB D’Andre Swift talked about HC Ben Johnson’s run-heavy offense that makes life easier on all other phases of the game.
“He told us the brand of football we wanted to play,” Swift said, via SI.com’s Albert Breer. “That’s a physical unit that does everything—the run, pass, play-action. Whatever that particular game day requires us to do to come out with the win, we’ll execute that. Situations, weather, can dictate play calls and things like that, but we want to be very balanced in everything to do as far as our identity. And we’ve picked up the run game the last couple weeks.”
- Johnson said CB Tyrique Stevenson (shoulder) and TE Cole Kmet (back) are more day-to-day/week-to-week, but they don’t have long-term concerns. (Scott Bair)
Lions
Lions RB Jahmyr Gibbs went for 218 yards from scrimmage, marking the most by a Lions player in a game since former WR Calvin Johnson had 329 yards in 2013. Detroit HC Dan Campbell thought Gibbs was due for a game like this and feels it will open the floodgates for the rest of the season.
“It’s huge. You felt like this was coming,” Campbell said, via the team’s YouTube. “You felt like this has been building, and as he gets in better shape and starts getting his feet under him, starts getting the feel of it, starts breaking some tackles. Every week’s just gotten closer and closer, and tonight was a night where he busted one of these out of there. There will be no looking back. I think he’s just going to continue to do this.”
Packers
After spending four years as the head coach at Boston College, Packers DC Jeff Hafley reflected on the changes at the college level. He remembered a conversation with WR Zay Flowers where he had to convince him to stay instead of taking more money to go elsewhere.
“It’s devastating,” Hafley said, via Fox Sports’ Greg Auman. “When that keeps happening, over and over again, you pour everything you have into these guys and you’re teaching them and coaching them and you were maybe their only offer, and now they potentially might be leaving for money. They’re not thinking about their degree. They’re not thinking about their education. So instead of coaching, I’m on the phone trying to raise money.”
Hafley admitted he lost his joy for coaching at that point and couldn’t wait to find a job to get back into football again.
“I got to the point where I said, ‘I don’t want to do this.’ I had stopped coaching. I was doing a job that wasn’t what I’d always dreamt to do.”
“I didn’t know what my expectation was, other than I couldn’t wait to get back to coaching football and immersing myself in football again. So far, it’s been a lot of fun. You ask if this is what I expected? Yeah. I love what I’m doing. I love going to work. I love the guys I coach. I love being around the staff. I look forward to it every day.”
- Packers HC Matt LaFleur on DE Lukas Van Ness‘ availability for Week 8: “I’m not overly optimistic but we’ll see.” (Weston Hodkiewicz)
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