Dennis Allen - Head Coach, bears Event: Press Conference | Date: 2026-09-17 | Full transcript (primary source).
Dennis Allen, Head Coach of the Bears, addressed the media during a press conference on September 17, 2026, following the team's performance in their season opener. The focus of the discussion centered on the need for improvement and adjustments ahead of their upcoming game against a strong opponent.
Transcript
Unknown: This was saying the overall message kind of compared to when you disappoint your parents after game one for the defense What was your message to the guys? What was your overall analysis of their performance in one well? A number one all right.
Allen: I'm not gonna spend a lot of time talking about you know last week We've we've already gone through that we've made the corrections that we need to make we know that we're in a race to improve this week as Or all the other football teams in National Football League, you know you go out you play week one Sometimes you play great. Sometimes you don't play as well as you want to You got to make the necessary corrections And then we're in a race to improve and be better this week Against a really good opponent.
Unknown: Did you see on tape watching Dylan Feenham? I'm assuming he really made a lot of big plays.
Allen: Yeah, I think you know Dylan played played well last week And he's got to make sure that he's you know staying in his in his playbook and his preparation has to be Elite this week because we got another opponent this week. That's You know another good team.
Unknown: Just keep asking me about last week aren't you Okay did a good job running running with the over out and Stayed in phase and made a really good play.
Unknown: I asked because end of half was obviously a big emphasis We put a lot of our attention on the offense closing it But what's your message to the guys about what it requires to finish haves?
Allen: Yeah, listen same thing. We talked about offensively I mean, you know and half is a big part of the game that we play, you know and and You know a lot of times offenses are trying to get a two-for-one, you know If they get the ball coming back out in the second half you know, it's it's huge for us to you know, be able to get a stop and Know one that we're gonna have to go back out on defense, you know in the second half and defend again. So It's been a big emphasis for us, you know as a football team You know trying to finish out You know into the first half finish out the game.
Unknown: When you talk about the race to improve this week What like specific core things are you talking to them about that are? Not specifically related to trying to stop them?
Allen: Yeah. Well, I think look, I mean the number one is is You know, we got to do a better job executing, you know our job and You know making sure that we're eliminating, you know, the Mental mistakes in terms of just not being exactly where we need to be when we need to be there I think that's I think that's a that's a big focus You know There's there's a lot of areas That we have to improve. I think we got to do a better job controlling the line of scrimmage both in the run game and the pass game and So we're working to try to improve those things this week.
Unknown: What do you see as the strengths of Vikings offense?
Allen: Well, I really think it really starts with a running game, you know You know if you date back all the way back to last season You know, they they've won six in a row And and really it's been a lot about being able to run the ball Effectively and they've done a really good job of that, you know Over the course of the last six games and so I think it starts with that You know, and then obviously, you know in the passing game, they've got a lot of weapons And yet, you know that Justin Jefferson is is a is a outstanding player He's a you know, all-pro Pro Bowl player So we know he's a guy that we have to make sure we understand where he's at, you know at all times.
Unknown: When you have a guy like Justin Jefferson on the other side does it doesn't really even matter?
Allen: Yeah, I mean I think it matters but you know, that's not my concern is defending the Vikings Offense regardless of who they might have it at the quarterback position.
Unknown: And gave Cam Lewis a lot of kudos Just for being ready on a moment's notice that he wasn't planning to start at safety Can you infer can we infer that you were planning to maybe use him more at nickel kind of splitting that for Malik and then my Question would be has Malik shown you enough that he can handle that job and you might not need to have a rotation there?
Allen: Yeah Yeah, I wouldn't infer You know that based on you know, Ben's comments I think the thing for the thing we know about Cam is And one of the big reasons why we went out and got him is because we do feel like he's versatile And can fill a lot of roles And so in this particular game last week, he had to fill in, you know at the safety position We'll see how You know this week plays out, but I do think you know, I think Malik's done a good job You know playing in the nickel. There's still a lot of things for him to learn there was there was things that you know, hopefully from last week that he can learn from and Improving those areas, but I think each and every week he continues to improve.
Unknown: I already get in jail and we're pretty critical of their play this past week. Like what are you two veteran guys? What do you tell them trying to get ready for week two knowing that they had a great training camp It might not have shown up the way they wanted to week one?
Allen: Yeah, I mean Line up again. Let's go week two, you know I mean like we have to be we have to be man enough to Admit and and and see where we fell short Alright, what can we do to improve our performance? What can we do to maybe improve our preparation those types of things? and Then let's focus on Play an outstanding this week Because that one's done, you know, let's move on to this one And let's let's play better as a group.
Unknown: I mean Carson Wentz incredibly different quarterbacks. What's the challenge of preparing?
Allen: Yeah. Well, I think The number one thing we got to defend the the Vikings offense the offensive scheme You know, I've had an opportunity to go against Kevin O'Connell a number of times and and schematically there's similarities within every You know game plan that we've seen and yet there's always a few a few wrinkles that they throw at us You know, I think when you look at the two quarterbacks Probably the biggest difference really is is Kyler's Ability to you know, get out and create with his feet. I think that's a I think that's a big part of What makes him, you know special in terms of the quarterback position? And so I think that that's really the difference between the two quarterbacks in my mind.
Unknown: Mention anybody 2024 Saints scored 93 points in the first two weeks. I know you guys then got whatever else going on but Reference how many points you guys put up right out of the gate just a couple years You never know what could happen.
Allen: Um, I Really hadn't I really hadn't put much much thought into that, you know what I do know is Week one is no indication of week two. I know that you start with a totally new game plan totally new opponent Everything starts over every single week. So whatever happened in the past good or bad doesn't really matter, you know You learn from it and then you have to be able to move on and Start your preparation for the next week.
Unknown: Are you still trying you think you're still trying to figure out a rotation between dio and Austin?
Allen: Yeah, I think that I think that takes place You know early on in the season, you know as you're still trying to figure out exactly who you are What what guys are what what guys can do really really well? How it all gels together as a group. I think that's part of You know early season football.
Unknown: For diet. I mean, it's a diet was first game since I guess lately However, how did you think he performed?
Allen: I I thought he did some good things. I thought he played extremely hard I thought he was effective in a lot of ways and then yet there's things that he has to improve on so He like everybody else we're in a race to improve on those things this week getting ready for Minnesota.
Unknown: That is a bit of an open-ended question on Terry can camp and then again on Sunday He gets banged up he fights to get back on the field gets banged up fights to get back on How have you kind of assessed that part of things where? Kind of have this two-edged sword where where he is getting banged up, but then he's getting back on the field?
Allen: I'm just curious your view of that.
Allen: Yeah, um, I Look at it as part of football and part of how things part of how things go and and You know throughout the course of the season as the season goes on Nobody's gonna be feeling great. Right? I mean, this is a this is a tough violence sport that we play so You know guys have to do a great job of trying to take care of their body and when it comes time to To play they got you know, they got to rise up and go play and so I think that's probably a situation these in.
Unknown: Just more so for you as a coach, how do you go about addressing miss tackles? Is that doing more drill work? Is that focusing and harping in on the fundamentals? How do you go about that?
Allen: Yeah, I think You know a little bit of combination of all those things I think you know, if you go throughout The National Football League in week one the tackling usually is not up to standard You know as as I saw some of these other games throughout the league, you know, you see a lot of miss tackles I think part of that is a product of You know not very much tackling going on in the in the preseason And so you you look at like you do everything else. All right. Why does a miss tackle occur? And and and more often it is a fundamental technique flaw you know guys You know not taking proper angles Guys not doing a good job of coming to balance guys Lunging and leaving their feet instead of running through the tackle. I mean, I think those are things that you see You know early on in the season it I was a little surprised at some of the tackling and that You know that really I thought we were pretty good tackling team throughout the course of the preseason It didn't show up as well as I would have liked to against Carolina, so That's again another one of those things that we're looking to improve.
Unknown: Thanks guys.
Unknown: To face a pride floor as led defense was that perspective?
Allen: That's exactly what it is I mean there's you can you can find a little bit of everything in the defense through years of tape with him Every game that looks like a little bit different Playbook maybe call sheet whatever it is from him going back to not just every single game you watch of his but every time He's face been or when he's faced Caleb like all those they all look a little different. So you're trying to look and see What did they do? Well that they might want to go back to okay, and so you're trying to figure out How can we best utilize our time and practice? How can we have a plan for everything that could possibly come up that's been shown before? You just you have to be extremely extremely thorough You don't want to simplify too much where you pigeonhole yourself because you kind of want enough flexibility where at some point in the game And you kind of get a feel for how the game is being played You have the ability to pivot and kind of go down that way if it's a little bit more man a little bit more Zone a little bit more pressure no pressure five man fronts foreman fronts You just kind of you need to have all that in your arsenal or else you're gonna get stuck here And you showed up without enough ammo. So that's kind of that's the challenge of playing these guys.
Unknown: Make it sound like other teams don't present those same sort of challenges To have that sort of challenge presents you so early on in the season. Is that a good thing bad thing? Like how do you kind of view that?
Allen: Um, I Don't know. I don't know if I view it as good bad It's just it is what it is So it's kind of we're gonna do what we can to put our players in the best position to go out and have success.
Unknown: Around jail and how have you seen his impact come forth for them?
Allen: Yeah, he was somebody that we really noticed, you know I think we played him week 11 week 12 or week 10 something like that last year And he was a guy that had really come on and made an impact and then now you watch Kind of the back half of the season and what he did last week as well with Green Bay and he's a guy that again He get similar to what we're talking about last week He can kind of move up and down the the formation a little bit based on how they what personnel grouping they're in and where he plays But he's a load. He's quick Like a lot of their guys are I mean, there's a lot of team speed and the way they play and the chaos They're able to cause with the movement things like that. He's a guy that's really flashed us going back to last year as well.
Unknown: When he gets fed up in terms of like accuracy completion percentage and precision just when things start happening a lot faster via the blitz if and when it happens like What does he need to be aware of in terms of like?
Allen: I think I mean it really starts with pre snap like pre snap recognition of where Within the play that we're running within the scheme. We're running. What are the answers when things happen fast? And so this goes back to the preparation so far this week His process is very reflective of last week as well where it's it's very similar. You see him very locked in very dialed Obviously, we have a couple more days here of practice and you want that to continue But I think the the time he's putting in you you're confident that he's going to be able to Understand where those answers are where it is within each play And then it's really kids kind of taking a deep breath and realizing I know I'm prepared for this moment And here's the the process for execution. I think that's something that he and JT Case Tyson those guys on the sideline are kind of really trying to work through each and every down.
Unknown: Which of Caleb's plays passes and pressure the most Carolina would you say?
Allen: I'd say the touchdown Nicole I mean just you couldn't have put it in a better spot. It was it was actually really good coverage They ended up picking up the you're kind of the sneaky route through the back door right there pretty well and Devon Lloyd I think picked it up. There's if you don't put that on the outside. Sure. There's no shot at it I think that was that was a great throw that was as good a catch though, too That's tough catch to make you probably lack a lot of vision on the ball right there You just trust them that your hand eye coordination can make the play in the end zone That was impressive by both those guys.
Unknown: You assemble a game plan Every week, what's the line you guys have to walk between Caleb is really a weapon when he's running And maybe faster than he's ever been right you also want to limit the exposure What's the balance there?
Allen: There's all it's a give-and-take and a lot of times it has to do with the system that we're playing against as well, you know We don't run a ton of zone read stuff We've done it here and there but a lot of times it's when we have a really good feel for how the defensive ends Are gonna play and what that looks like if there's schemes where we know it's a quarterback keep no matter what? Again, we're conscious of where the ball is gonna go what that could look like And then he's he's aware of the situation We're putting him there's times where you got to lower your head and get it get a yard for us Whatever it may be and I think he understands those I think there's always gonna be a fine line You're balancing with your quarterback here in the football But it's something we feel like we can utilize in the right pieces. It gives us an advantage.
Unknown: What you need him to do on a sneak?
Allen: I'm gonna just get the first it good. Yes. Yeah, get the first and there's there's a lot more detail to it Depending on who we're playing It really depends on who we're playing and what we're trying to do You know, we talk through all that we go back to the spring we review it what other teams do what we do But then you also got to go against who you're playing against, you know, who are the people? How do they deploy them? What are the contingency plans on things they do? So every week we're gonna look at it and consider it and some weeks It's available to us some weeks. It's not But yeah, there's at the end of the day, we're trying to get a yard or half a yard or a couple inches, whatever maybe.
Unknown: His first year with in this system It was on the coaches to kind of make sure that you guys gave Caleb everything he can to put him in the best position possible How far has that pendulum kind of swung to where now you guys can depend on him To help you guys fix things that pop up at the line scrimmage or maybe even post now?
Allen: I mean still the same thing. We're gonna do everything we can we're gonna spend every ounce of time to give him every single answer But there's a time where the defense has a better call than we do or something breaks down and that's where You just want to understand what that looks like sometimes a person second down early in a game It may be put the ball in the dirt and let's go. Let's get back to the huddle. It may be a time It's third and long. We need to play right here. You have the ability to escape Once I escape is it running is it throwing that's I think that's just something as he grows in confidence in the system and just Confidence and playing quarterback in this league He'll understand when it's time to make those special plays and when it's time to you know, protect the football.
Unknown: Reset the down a little bit process ladies in the greatest version of the Andre What are you seeing from your lens that's positioned him to be ready to hit runs when they're there for him?
Allen: Oh, I think since he's come back in the spring you just saw you've always seen a level of professionalism with him You know, he's done a great job But really the biggest thing is just understanding the intent of every single run I think we talk a lot about the synchronization of blocks and the running backs tracks and where it's going and where we think it'll go and A certain scheme but also a certain scheme against a certain front. That's a big part of it, too And I think those guys have grown and they're understanding that they're trusted that and you know The more and more we can put the time on task and show those guys what it looks like in practice or what it looks Like on tape the better they understand it the better they trust it I think like the game the other night, you know We rip off a couple runs there late too just because over the course of time we're trusting our tracks We're trusting the blocks We're getting a feel for the timing of the the combinations and things throughout the course of the game Then it it was kind of something that that unraveled a little bit for us. They're late.
Unknown: So far early on I mean, you couldn't be happier with the intent they've come to To work this week, you know, it's easy to sit there and say which courses now I'm pretty good I think the guys understand of what's ahead of us and in the NFL how fine that line is, you know A couple broken tackles we end up getting out on some things We had a couple extra possessions on certain things in the first half there So I mean it's a fine line and it worked in our favor scoring points But I think our guys understand that no weak carries over They're not gonna let us bring any of those points from last week to this game So and you just put on the tape and you watch their defense and you understand how quickly they can humble somebody I mean that they they apply a ton of pressure. They're a very good defense They've only gotten better in his time there and it's a division opponent. So we understand how they've played us And we have a lot of respect for this defense So I don't think I think just knowing that and seeing the tape and knowing who we're playing against I think our guys came with the right attitude so far this week again That doesn't give you anything it gives you just an opportunity to have a great opportunity to play well on Sunday So we'll see where that takes us too much.
Unknown: But could you put your finger on what was going on between Caleb and Colson and just you know I know he didn't he didn't come away with the catch anywhere in 33 routes. Was it just that they were taking him away? He wasn't the primary. What what did you say?
Allen: Well, I mean we had plenty of opportunities where he was the primary Um, you know, I think there were two balls thrown his way I think that we had an opportunity to hook up on that we didn't and then there were another Number of other times where the call he was the primary and the ball just didn't find him You know the great thing about Colson is that's not a guy you worry about at all you go back to I think swift he's touched down at the end of the third quarter there and colson puts his man on the ground I mean that that's just something that you know You've gone through three quarters You have no touches so far and you continue to fight and you continue to to help others get in the end zone and You wouldn't have known if he had 10 catches or zero catches at the end of the game the locker room the way he was And he's as excited as he is for the offensive success that day.
Unknown: The last three the last three teams that have rushed for six touchdowns in a game the bearers since did it twice Dan Rochard was the offensive line coach at all What makes him such a good coach what you say?
Allen: Dan's just so detailed and so relentless He's got such a high standard for his group for himself Uh, he holds himself very accountable for you know, the performance of his unit, which is something you really appreciate about a position coach as well He's had tons of success. So he's got experience in all sorts of schemes He's got answers to a lot of different issues that arise and different solutions or possibilities that come up Um, but ultimately he loves sitting there watching tape with his guy I think he's upset when we only have an hour to meet and he wants he wants three four hours So he he is just exhaustive he and both kyle devann as well Just exhaustive in his in his just pursuit to help his guys improve and that's the biggest thing with him that you feel It's really about he took so much pride and you know Seeing darnell succeed and darnell get an extension that you know Dan was just proud of the work that darnell's put in and was able to be rewarded for it. So Um, you know, he's he's fantastic. Can't say enough good things about him.
Unknown: Has azi been able to do anything more in team drills yet has he gotten his work in there? I know Dan said that he's going to be working as well.
Allen: He's getting mixed in here and there and again We're just following the advice of the athlete staff there.
Unknown: Ben was very self-critical after this game saying he didn't feel like he called a particularly good game Good to everybody else. Um, what is that? How does that like land in when you guys have conversations heading into this week and and dial up intensity? Or how does he?
Allen: Um, I don't know that he would dial up the intensity much more. He's always very intense and very locked in Uh, I think he just holds himself to a very high standard So if something you know If we we get out of whack with the call on a play or something like that or it Didn't come off the way he wanted based on whatever happened. He's always going to be critical of that and so That's just something he'll he admits it to the players He admits to the coaching staff if it wasn't exactly the way he wanted and I think that's just That's your leader holding himself to a high standard So everybody else kind of you you want to meet that standard as well. So it's the same for everybody.
Unknown: That's the the 47 yarder to rome There's obviously the play that was called and then the play that it was turned into right How did you evaluate the two different plays there within that one?
Allen: Yeah Trying to think of it specifically going back now Obviously it ends up with a heck of a catch by rome I think going through the process to begin with we You know, I think we liked what we had on versus the defense we got.
