Breakfast with the Bears was a lot of fun

It took them a while to get warmed up, but then "pow," all at once

Breakfast with the Bears was a lot of fun

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I had the brilliant idea yesterday morning to get up extra early and go get breakfast burritos to bring back to enjoy during the Bears 8:30 a.m. CDT kickoff in London. My wife thought it was a terrible idea and mocked me for it. And then while I was out picking my burrito up, she sent me her Starbucks order to pick up. So apparently, it wasn’t as terrible an idea as she said.

So, stuffed with burrito and hopped up on caffeine I was a somehow both lethargic and too alert when the game started. Just like the Bears.

And, after a few minutes I settled into a comfortable mode just about the time Caleb Williams and the boys did and we all thoroughly enjoyed the Bears thrashing of the Jacksolondonville Jaguars. Over the last two weeks, the Bears have now whupped up on each of the kitty teams that joined the NFL in 1995.

The Bears gained just seven yards on six plays in the first quarter and then proceeded to go: 81 yard touchdown drive, 54 yards drive that ended on an interception in the end zone (which should have been a 95 yard TD drive but Caleb badly missed a wide open DJ Moore in the end zone), 85 yard touchdown drive, 41 yard touchdown drive, 70 yard touchdown drive, 36 yard touchdown drive, missed field goal, kneel downs.

Bears long snapper Scott Daly hurt his knee when the Bears punted late in the first quarter. Why is that a big deal? I mean aren’t all of the centers used to snapping the ball back in the air? (Lucas Patrick never was.) Surely, Coleman Shelton or Doug Kramer could just take over, right? Well, long snapping is different.

In fact, Bill Belichick gave a ten minute answer to a question a few years ago about why long snapping is so specialized, and how it became a specialty in the first place.

It’s worth your time. And it actually explains why somebody like Cole Kmet is the Bears emergency snapper and not just one of the centers.

What Kmet did was pretty impressive. Not only did he have one of the best receiving games of his career with five catches for 70 yards and two touchdowns, one of which required him to carry a Jaguar the last five yards into the end zone, but he was accurate enough on his long snaps that Cairo Santos made all five extra points. Kmet’s snap on Cairo’s 43 yard field goal attempt was high and screwed up the timing which resulted in a low kick that got blocked, even though Cairo nearly still made it. In a way, that snap was illustrative of just how good Cole’s first five snaps were. It would have been very easy for him to cost the Bears an extra point or two or four, but he didn’t.

Cole is probably very relieved that the Bears didn’t need to punt while he was filling in. As Belichick refers to in the video there are protections in place for the long snapper (he’s got his head between his legs when he finishes the snap, so the potential for him to have it permanently inserted into rectum would be a real thing), but those protections are far more effective on kicks than punts. Plus, the punt snap is nearly twice as long as the kick snap, and though your margin for error is greater (you just need to get it close to the punter so he can catch it, and he’s not on a knee like the holder) the danger of firing a punt long snap way over the punter is far greater. Plus, the long snapper tends to get hit a lot harder on the punt snaps, and has a more crucial blocking role.