Hightower on play of Tory Taylor and DeAndre Carter |
CHICAGO—Special teams are often underappreciated. However, they were critical in keeping the Chicago Bears in the game against the Washington Commanders.
Washington has one of the best punt return units in the NFL, but its returners were held to an average of 14.5 yards per return. “I thought the punt team (did) a phenomenal job in that situation. That backed-up situation is a situation that a lot of teams, quite honestly, just from me coaching different players from around the league, don’t practice enough, and we practice it every week, and it’s a credit to those guys that they went out there and performed,” Hightower said. “I thought the protection unit did a phenomenal job in that football game whether it was backed up or it was in the plus 50 area to pin those guys to give our defense a long field. I felt like the gunners did a great job outside, getting in the face of the returners and we challenged them, as well as the punt unit, to make more impactful plays and the gunners did a phenomenal job with that. Something we wanted to do coming out of the bye.” On the other side of the punting game, Chicago’s rookie punter Tory Taylor had another star performance. Because the Bears’ offense was so ineffective for the majority of the game, Taylor was forced to punt the ball seven times. He averaged 48.7 yards per punt, with his longest punt being 68 yards; five of his punts pinned the Commanders inside the 20-yard line. “I thought Tory punted better in this game than he punted when he won special teams player of the week for the Rams. He had an amazing football game,” Hightower said. “To punt the ball the way he punted it and the situations that he was presented with and how he punted the football was tremendous growth and we just need to get more of that.” Chicago was also better in the kick return game than Washington. DeAndre Carter returned three kickoffs for an average of 28.3 yards, while Washington’s kick returners averaged 23.5 yards per kickoff return. The Commanders were one of the best kickoff units in the league through the first seven games. “Another thing we challenged those guys with was the kickoff coverage coming out of the bye and we wanted to be better in coverage. I thought our coverage units did an amazing job versus the No. 3 kickoff return unit in the National Football League at that time. Ekeler had returned one for a touchdown and had (gotten) called back and then also had another big one against the Cincinnati Bengals. So, we were ready for that situation,” Hightower said. “You can handle that situation one of two ways. You can kick the ball out the back of the endzone totally. That’ll be more time on the clock. Or, you can kick it the way Cairo kicked it with great hang distance and location and in the corner. An unbelievable play by Daniel Hardy to split a double team and another guy almost tried to block him and then he made that play at the 24 and what you won’t see on that play is that Tavarius Moore (?) and Travis Homer are right in position as they were trying to run that ball to the field. So, if Hardy doesn’t make it, we have two other guys that are in position that beat their blocks. So, to contribute in that way meant the world to us right with the game on the line. It’s about making (plays) like Hardy made from a special teams standpoint when the game is on the line.”
