Hoge's Notes: Cutler Says DeAngelo Hall Is 'Another Player'
By Adam Hoge-
HALAS HALL (CBS) -- No one can blame Jay Cutler for not wanting to talk about DeAngelo Hall, the Redskins cornerback who picked him off four times in one game back in 2010.
"Another player, you know," Cutler said when asked Thursday about facing Hall again.
No other thoughts on Hall?
"Nope. So write what you want."
Fair enough. Even Hall seemed to have Cutler's back on the subject when Washington reporters informed him that Cutler called him "another player".
"I don't know what you want Jay to say," Hall said. "'Oh my God, I'm scared of this guy!' I don't know what you want him to say. He's trying to say I'm another guy. Whether he believes that in his heart or not, that's what he has to say. I'm another guy. He's gone against some great corners in this league. I'm not probably the best guy he's ever gone against."
For the record, though, Hall has thoughts on seeing Cutler again.
"I can't go into it thinking, 'This is Jay Cutler,' but for me personally, I feel good about the matchup. I feel good about the things we're trying to do, defensively, scheme-wise."
Of course, Hall is aware that Cutler has a little bit more help this time than he did in 2010. Brandon Marshall, Alshon Jeffery and Martellus Bennett weren't on that team.
"A little bit different personnel they have – a little more weapons – so he probably feels good with his guys. He feels with his guys going up against us, and we feel the same way. We feel like we can make some plays against those guys, so it'll be a tough challenge to us."
Bostic Getting Comfortable
The Bears have been impressed with rookie middle linebacker Jonathan Bostic since the first day he arrived at Halas Hall, and not just because of his physical tools.
"Jon is further along than I was as a rookie," veteran linebacker Lance Briggs said Thursday. "He understands things. He understands all our concepts. Like I said, for him he's going to have to get game experience. There are things that he's still learning how to trust. If I give him a tipoff, it's just like me when I was young and Brian (Urlacher) might give me a tipoff and I might be a step late because I didn't really trust what he was saying, but what he said was right. So for (Bostic), he just has to know that hey, if it's going to be there, if it's a tipoff, they're probably going to run it."
Bostic will make his first NFL start Sunday after D.J. Williams went down with a torn pectoral muscle against the Giants. He's been putting in extra work this week, staying after practice Thursday with linebackers coach Tim Tibesar working on his technique when he shows A gap pressure before either blitzing or dropping back into coverage.
Peppers Day Off Explained
As expected, Julius Peppers' day off Wednesday was nothing more than a veteran's day off. The Bears had an extra practice Monday, so it gave Peppers an opportunity to get an extra break.
"We knew we were going to have four practices this week, so I thought it would be good to have him work just three of them, so he worked significantly on Monday and today," Trestman explained. "As we move through the season -- not just with him but with some of our older players -- just give him an opportunity to take some breaks along the way. It's not something that goes on exclusively here, it goes on throughout the league and just decided yesterday to do that and it was back in it today and worked through the practice."
Trestman said it was his idea, not Peppers', adding: "He wouldn't want to come out of anything if we didn't pull the reins in on him a little bit."
Notables
- Charles Tillman (knee), Stephen Paea (toe), Martellus Bennett (knee) and James Anderson (back) were all limited in practice Thursday. Safeties Anthony Walters (hamstring) and Major Wright (knee) were full participants.
- The Redskins are pretty healthy, with cornerback David Amerson (concussion) being the only player who was limited at all in practice Thursday.
- Martellus Bennett will be showing off some of his creative work at an art showing next week and has a children's book coming out.
"I hope we get some advance copies because there are a lot of guys with some kids," Cutler said.
Adam Hoge covers the Bears for CBSChicago.com and is a frequent contributor to 670 The Score. Follow him on Twitter at @AdamHoge.
