Chicago Bears Head Coach Matt Nagy
Conference Call with New Orleans Media
Wednesday, October 16, 2019

There's obviously some great individual players on both sides. What are the challenges as a coach when you're game planning against another team when they're going to throw some double teams at Khalil Mack? How do you prepare for that as a coach? Do you look at what other teams have done? How do you prepare for that?
"It's all a little bit of (the) philosophical values of a coach, whether it is offense or defense, whatever scenario that you're talking about. But that is a part of the coaching world that we have schematically. You figure out, okay, worst case scenario, they are going to do this to this guy. How are we going to figure that out and come up with something to get after? That's to me more of the stuff in the offseason that you figure that stuff out and then you create a little bit of an identity and you roll with it."

How has Ha Ha Clinton Dix fit into your defense so far this year?
"He's fit in really well. Ever since he got here, he realized the type of culture that we have, how we do things, and he's been very receptive to it. He has been playing fast. He's been playing hungry. He's fit in with his teammates and brothers really, really well. He played in college with Eddie Jackson, so back there in the back end, they already had a prior relationship. That's been a really good story for us with him coming on in here, especially from Green Bay, and just the way he's fit and how hard he's played. He's been a phenomenal teammate."

What's one of the things that stands out to you about the depth that the Saints have kind of assembled on their defensive line?
"There's guys coming from everywhere and it doesn't matter who is out there. Obviously, you start off with their front line and they all jump out at you, but Cam Jordan and then Marcus Davenport off the edge, they're playing superfast. You have to know where they're at all times. What they're doing is they are really helping out the backend. They already have a good back end. They have good linebackers. So you put all that together and you have a good defense, and that's what they have done. The attack the quarterback, both in the run and pass game. They play physical, they fly around, they play fast, they play physical, they play aggressive. And that's why they're successful."

Is there anything in particular that stands out about Ryan Ramcyzk to you?
"For me, nothing necessarily other than knowing that he's playing well and I think that I haven't been able to study film on him and just see individually. So I hate to put rush judgment on his play by play. But, I remember him coming out and I just know that he's a really good player."

Obviously, you never want to be a good player, like Akiem Hicks to go down. How are you kind of internally processing that?
"It's an unfortunate situation, but it's a part of football. It's a physical sport and the guys understand that. It gives somebody else an opportunity to step up and show what they can do. Akiem (Hicks), he's around and he's helping guys out. Emotionally he's there and physically he's not, but that's okay. It's going to be our job to understand that and make no excuses and we feel like one of the strengths of our team, not just defense, but our team is that we've got people that care and people that really want to be able to make good plays. And so it's the next man up mentality."

Obviously kind of a similar question, but both you and New Orleans have had to deal with starting quarterback injuries. When that happens, how do you kind of work it to where you're maintaining a level of success and not dropping off even though it's obviously a very important position?
"It's all per coach and team. I think where you're at, every team's a little bit different and then what's the experience of that quarterback that's in there playing as your backup? Number one, you want to make sure that your starter os able to physically get right and stay involved. And then the next job is that you have to keep going. It is a position where if you don't have depth at that position, you can be in trouble and not win games. You've seen the opposite of that there with you guys in New Orleans. You've got Teddy Bridgewater who was a starter and had a successful career who is taking over a team with a Hall of Fame quarterback and been able to help them go 4-0. That's a credit to Coach (Sean) Payton and the offensive staff, and his teammates around him. It's a feel good story and you're happy for Teddy, but on Sunday you want to do everything you can to make sure it goes the other way because he's playing really well right now."

Was this bye week kind of timed well for you guys to get some guys healthy like Mitch (Trubisky)?
"Everything happens for a reason. When you look at the schedule, it comes out, you say, oh man, the bye week is early. Well maybe there's reasons for that. We had a couple of guys banged up. Now we will just get to see. It bought us more time and now we have just got to see day by day where these players are at and if they are able to go or not."

The Saints obviously yesterday found out that their starting nickel, P.J. WIlliams is going to be suspended. We also don't know a whole lot about Alvin Kamara. Does that change how you guys approach anything or is it still just kind of focusing on yourself and kind of go from there?
"No, it doesn't. It really doesn't and that's no matter who we're playing. Obviously, there are some situations where you can do that. The personnel part of it is big, but schematically we've got to worry about what we do and that's the only thing we can really control."

When you're looking at what this defense for New Orleans has kind of been able to accomplish in the last couple of weeks, what's kind of the biggest thing that pops out to you?
"I noticed (they're) really good on third down, I noticed that they give a bunch of different looks, and they have some different packages that they like to run. You can see a defense that is really trusting in their defensive coordinator (Dennis Allen) and what the calls are that are coming in. Anytime you see teams that play well, it always circles back to they're playing fast. This team plays fast on all three levels, defensive line, linebackers and DBs and they're making plays. You see that and then they're going to make us make sure that we're extremely detailed and we need to be pretty prepared because they're really good."