Chuck Pagano has been around the NFL for a long time as a defensive assistant and head coach. He’s seen plenty of offenses in his time and plenty of different play callers. While he has respect for several, there are few he holds in higher regard than Andy Reid. The two men have locked horns a number of times over the past 20 years. Often with different teams. Each time Pagano’s admiration for the head coach grew.
The Chicago Bears defensive coordinator got up to talk with the media ahead of the teams’ Sunday night showdown with Reid’s Kansas City Chiefs. It might be the biggest challenge of the season for him. Not only do the Chiefs have star power everywhere on offense, Reid himself seems to be at his best calling plays than any other time in his career. Pagano was under no illusions about what’s coming, which may have explained his somewhat gallows humor when asked about it.
“It’s a shame we can’t play with 12 or 13. We’re going to have to do it with 11. So we’ll have our hands full…
…He’s brilliant. He’s very, very unique in the way he sets things up. He has his plays and he’s been running them forever, and ever, and ever but he’s got different bodies, different skillsets he’s using. He dresses them up and moves people around to distract you just enough to, ‘Oh yeah I remember that one.’ So…I forget what we were even talking about.”
One play, in particular, has stuck with him for the past 14 years.
“It was a 3rd and 1 play. They were in, I think, 22 personnel. (Brian) Westbrook was the running back…Every now and then they would put him in the fullback spot and the fullback was in the halfback spot. When they did it they were going to run this little wheel route down the sideline. We caught it, but we caught it too late and we didn’t make the right adjustment. They caught him on the wheel route for about 60 yards.”
Chuck Pagano feels eye discipline will determine the outcome
Indeed Reid has an uncanny knack for designing plays that can confuse and disorient opponents. It’s a big reason his offenses have had sustained success for so many years. Pagano knows this and understands what it will take to at least slow it down. The biggest thing he alluded to was eye discipline. Defenders can easily get distracted by all the motion and movement the Chiefs do before the snap. It will be crucial for them to read their keys and not get sucked up in the mud.
No easy task, especially with the unit so banged up at this stage of the season. The Chiefs have scored less than 23 points in a game just once this season. The Bears have scored more than 23 points just four times in 14 games. This one could get ugly if the defense ends up having a bad day.
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