DJ Moore: "We want to put our offensive identity on tape" |
CHICAGO—Wide receiver DJ Moore has played with several different quarterbacks between his time with the Carolina Panthers and now with the Chicago Bears. Playing with rookie quarterback Caleb Williams made Williams the third quarterback Moore has started a game with since coming to the Bears.
While the Bears may not have had the offensive productivity they wanted, Moore said Williams has evaluated what went wrong and is in good spirits going into Chicago’s first primetime game of the season against the Houston Texans this coming Sunday (7:20 p.m. / NBC). “I think he looked over what he didn’t do well and he looked at it, they graded him. He graded himself, and he was good after that. So, he’s in good spirits right now, and we (are) looking to keep it that way,” Moore said. “You got to understand that not everybody coming straight from college understands the NFL-like defenses. It’s way more complex than maybe just having five receivers on the field and spreading the whole field out. But, now, it’s everybody just as fast and can disguise and do different things, and they got to be able to see it as fast as possible within the threshold of the time.” One difference between week one and preparing for the Texans is that rookie receiver Rome Odunze and six-time Pro-Bowler Keenan Allen were not able to practice on Wednesday. Odunze sustained a knee injury; Eberflus said he is day-to-day. For Allen, he went into the season opener against the Tennessee Titans coming off of a heel injury and seemed to aggravate that during the game. Thus in practice, Williams had to practice with different receivers than usual. However, Moore does not believe that will be a challenge for him since all of the receivers worked with Williams during training camp. “It shouldn’t be (a) challenge because we all rotated with him. Everybody in our receiver group (worked with him in) training camp,” Moore said. “So, I think he got a feel for everybody and whoever’s going to be out there with him.” Iron is supposed to sharpen iron, which was part of why Chicago’s offensive performance was so surprising against Tennessee. The Bears have one of the best defenses in the league, so there was an expectation to see the offense coming out swinging. However, Moore pointed out that the offense was used to going against Chicago’s defense, so going against another team actually proved more beneficial. “We (were) going against the defense so long in training camp, we got kind of used to seeing the coverages that they used to, and then when we (got) out there in a real game, live action, we could watch a bunch of film on a team,” Moore said. “So, it was live action, four quarters, and they (were) throwing some stuff at him. So, that was probably a little difficult. But I think he’ll bounce back and have a good game.” Houston has a high-powered offense with quarterback C.J. Stroud and a trio of receivers in Nico Collins, Tank Dell, and Stefon Diggs. Chicago will have to respond with a strong offense of their own; they cannot have another game where the offense does not score a touchdown. That is part of why Moore wants to see the Bears display their offensive identity when they face the Texans. “I think we want to put our offensive identity on tape and have it out,” Moore said. “But, going out there and just playing fast and coming off the ball (is) the best thing that we can do starting this week.”
