Brown on unifying the team, addressing penalties |
CHICAGO - The past few weeks have been a rollercoaster for Thomas Brown. On Nov. 11, Brown was still the passing game coordinator. When Shane Waldron was fired the following day, Brown was promoted by head coach Matt Eberflus to interim offensive coordinator. When Eberflus was fired on Nov. 29, Brown became the interim head coach.
Eberflus’ historically poor decision-making making, as highlighted on Thanksgiving against the Detroit Lions, was ultimately enough to make him the first head coach to be fired mid-season in franchise history. The six-game losing streak to end his career and how those losses occurred as Chicago lost by three or fewer points in four of those games, created a lot of division in the locker room, which is why it is Brown’s primary goal to unite the team going forward with the rest of the season. “Naturally what happens is when you don’t have success, there’s division (because) there’s outside noise … (I talked about) the importance of controlling your thoughts and having self-talk because it’s easy for doubt to seep in. There’s tons of negativity outside of these walls,” Brown said. “The initial goal is to unify this football team … No more divisions. As far as the outside noise, we ignore it because it doesn’t matter whether it’s positive or negative. What matters is our daily approach, us working together and (executing) when it’s time to go execute.” Another area Brown will be looking to crack down on is penalties. Through 12 games this season, Chicago has 78 penalties, 22 of them in the last three games. The Bears’ penalties have also come at the most inopportune times, taking big plays off the board, such as an illegal use of hands to the face penalty that negated a 13-yard reception that put Chicago at the Detroit 13-yard line on the final drive against the Lions. To Brown, penalties like that come down to being disciplined and focused. “Got to do a better job being a more disciplined football team on and off the football field. Talked about the penalties, (preached) that (all penalties) boil down to a lack of focus. So, one play at a time mentality. After that play’s over with, hit the reset button. Get back on the huddle. Do it again and over and over again,” Brown said. “Post-snap penalties, it’s a lack of attention to detail when it comes to techniques. So, we’re going to do a better job as coaches to coach it the right way, demand it is done the right way, drill it properly and our guys go execute when it’s time to go execute.” With Brown becoming the head coach, there are some other changes. When he was the offensive coordinator, he was upstairs. As a head coach, he will now be on the sideline. Wide receivers coach Chris Beatty is the new interim offensive coordinator. Defensive coordinator Eric Washington will take over play-calling duties defensively, while Brown will continue to call plays on the offensive side of the ball. “I’ll be on the field now. I will still call plays from the field. We have elevated Chris Beatty to the offensive coordinator role. So, he will man that position,” Brown said. “Eric Washington will call our defense, got tremendous trust and faith in him and I am not a micromanager and so (I) obviously will be around to be involved with their game plan. But, I trust those guys 100 percent to do their jobs with excellence and (special teams coordinator Richard Hightower) will still man our special teams.” Brown’s first game as a head coach will be against the San Francisco 49ers this coming Sunday (3:25 p.m. / FOX). San Francisco is dealing with a litany of injuries and coming off a 25-point loss, their third in a row.
