–Sherrick McManis goes from veteran special teams ace to playing a starting role in the nickel defense as the slot corner due to the season-ending injury suffered by nickel back Bryce Callahan.
“That’s a big loss for us,” head coach Matt Nagy said. “But with that said, we’re going to have the complete mentality of it’s the next man up, we’re rolling, Bryce is going to be a part of this thing with us as we go. But there’s no sulking or none of that, man, it’s somebody else’s opportunity and let’s go do this thing.”
Callahan suffered a broken bone in his foot that requires surgery. He made two interceptions this year.
“I wish he didn’t get hurt, but that’s the game sometimes,” McManis said. “So I do my best I can and go out there and have some fun.”
The jump up from a special teams contributor to regular defensive role is a big one, but not one foreign to McManis. He had a big interception in the win earlier this year over Arizona.
“I just feel like the more reps you get, regardless of who you are, the better it is for you,” McManis said.
The chance to play more carries significance for McManis.
“It means a lot,” McManis said. “I’ve got an opportunity. I want to take advantage of, to go out there and help the team get a big win because it’s the next game.”
McManis is the player with the longest Bears tenure, dating back to when he was a special teams contributor for coordinator Dave Toub under Lovie Smith.
“You know and when he’s in there I loved how aggressive he was,” head coach Matt Nagy said. “He’s, again, every player on our defense right now has elevated their game. They’re playing together. They have the trust that if they’re aggressive, they go to make a play, someone’s got their back. And he’s shown that.”
–Callahan could have a future in Chicago after this season even though he is an unrestricted free agent.
“He’s shown me a lot in the fact that, for his stature, the one thing with him, with Bryce, is that he’s a extremely quick, he’s very athletic,” Nagy said. “I guarantee you that he was a really good slot receiver in high school. He’s got great hands, he’s tough, he’s a good kid, I mean he’s very valuable.”
–The trick play calls shown by the Bears throughout the year merely reflect Nagy’s personality and philosophy, if not his background.
“You’ve got to remember now I came from the Arena League,” said Nagy, who was an Arena Football League quarterback. “They call that Iron Man football. Two ways. Right? Now I didn’t do that because I was a quarterback. I couldn’t move on defense. But yeah, people have been doing this for a long time it’s just not everybody does it. And so we do it and we have fun with it.”
Nagy admits he gets the idea for some trick plays by watching defensive players or linemen during warmups or prior to practice as they’re messing around with the football.
“You see these guys so often in practice and there’s so many down times in between periods or during the stretch or after practice, they’re all big kids,” Nagy said. “So they’re all out there and every now and then they’ll do some things, and they want to catch your eye and maybe they do sometimes and that could be a situation. It’s amazing.”
He finds their athletic ability and coaxes it out of them. It’s what he did with tackle Bradley Sowell Sunday night in the win over the Rams with a tackle-eligible play.
“All these guys were all stars on their high school team and they all played both ways growing up,” Nagy said. “So they got it in them. It’s like these pitchers in baseball that can’t hit. They were probably their all-star, the No. 4 hitter cleanup hitter on their high school team most likely. And then they phase away from it because they specialize in something. But they’ve all got it in them. And then they like to tell you their stories about how good they are. They don’t shy away from that.”
–Quarterback Mitchell Trubisky is refusing to use the excuse of rust for his poor game last week when he returned from a shoulder injury. He had a career-high three interceptions.
“I think that’s just making excuses, saying that I could be rusty,” Trubisky said. “Bottom line is I just came out and I didn’t make the throws that I needed to make. I didn’t do my job necessary when my team needed me to do my job. And I know that I can play better.
“So for me this week, it’s just getting back to the basics, having a great week of practice, putting that game behind us.”
Trubisky couldn’t disagree with assessments he appeared overly excited about playing for the first time in a few weeks.
“I think I was rushing my footwork a little bit, antsy to get the ball out, excited to get some completions,” he said. “But I’ve just got to play within myself and this offense, within the timing and get the ball to our playmakers.”
–Cornerback Kyle Fuller is tied for the NFL interception lead with seven, and it all started out poorly enough when he dropped an easy pick-6 late in the game that would have beaten the Packers in the opener.
“It’s always good to see a guy come back, but he hasn’t come back by luck or happenstance,” defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said. “He’s worked hard. He works hard mentally in preparation, on the field and he’s done a good job in preparing and it’s paid off.”
Fuller is often kidded about how much film he watches, and where he’s watching it. He always seems to have an IPad along watching video.
BY THE NUMBERS: 17 — Number of victories by the Packers in 21 games started by Aaron Rodgers against the Bears.
