3 things we heard from Chicago Bears coach Matt Eberflus, including disputing a pair of late pass interference decisions

Chicago Bears coach Matt Eberflus spoke to reporters Monday after the 35-32 loss to the Miami Dolphins on Sunday at Soldier Field.

Here are three things we learned from Eberflus and his players.

On the Bears’ second-to-last offensive play, wide receiver Chase Claypool went up to catch a deep shot from quarterback Justin Fields, but Dolphins cornerback Keion Crossen had his arms wrapped around Claypool from behind.

Crossen appeared to pull Claypool down, and after the pass fell incomplete, Claypool raised his arms in disbelief that officials didn’t call pass interference.

Fields said Sunday night he believed it was interference after watching the replay on the video board, and Eberflus agreed.

“The contact was early and all that, but again, that’s their opinion and they … didn’t throw the flag on that one,” Eberflus said. “We thought it should have been a flag. And that’s the way it is.”

The other play in question was a 47-yard pass interference penalty on Bears safety Eddie Jackson in the fourth quarter. Jackson said he was playing the ball the entire time instead of interfering with wide receiver Jaylen Waddle, and Eberflus indicated he didn’t know what Jackson should have done differently.

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“Eddie played that really nice,” Eberflus said. “I can’t really coach him up any better than that because he turned back for the ball. He’s got a right to play the ball and he did play the ball. And it was their opinion that was defensive pass interference and they called it. Again, that’s their opinion.”

Eberflus said the Bears send such questionable calls and non-calls to the league for review along with calls they thought were made correctly.

The Bears used Kmet in a variety of ways. He caught five passes for 41 yards and two touchdowns and had two carries for 9 yards.

“Obviously in the red zone being used like that and being used off of run action, getting handoffs, playing quarterback for a play — yeah, it was definitely unique,” Kmet said. “We’ve been figuring this thing out dating back to OTAs, and we’re still continuing to figure this thing out with everybody involved, figuring our strengths out.

“It was a lot of fun yesterday for the offense, and obviously we’ve got to finish it out there at the end.”

Eberflus said he liked the creativity offensive coordinator Luke Getsy and his coaches displayed on the Bears’ first touchdown drive. Kmet had an 8-yard carry and took a direct snap to convert on third-and-1. Fields capped the drive by hitting Kmet with an 18-yard pass.

“They’re going to keep building upon that,” Eberflus said. “Those things are really good when you can give guys different jet sweeps — you can give one to a certain player and a different player, and that keeps guys off balance. As a defensive guy, you don’t know when the guy goes in motion, is he going to accept the jet sweep or is he simply going to go in motion or is it going to be a jet motion and a handoff?

“Those creative ways are really good at stretching the width of the field, and those things open up things on the inside, too, in the play-action pass game.”

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Kmet said he talked to the other tight ends about how Getsy has a good feel for what to call at different times in a game.

“Sometimes you’re in the huddle, and you’re like, ‘Oh, hell, yeah. That’s a great time to call this,’” Kmet said. “He’s got a great feel for all that, and all the players are really believing in that.

“That confidence has just been building. We’ve had it from the beginning. It’s just continuing to build as the weeks have gone on.”

Claypool had only three practices to get up to speed with the offense after the Bears acquired him from the Pittsburgh Steelers last week, yet the Bears felt comfortable putting him in for 26 snaps Sunday.

He had two catches for 13 yards on six targets, including the play that wasn’t called for pass interference. Now Claypool has a full week to prepare for Sunday’s game against the Detroit Lions at Soldier Field.

“For him to be able to operate in that short amount of time to get those plays down, we had a lot of plays in there for him,” Eberflus said. “He was good. … We’re going to just keep building more and more and more on what he can handle in the game plan. He’s obviously an exciting guy for our future here.”