Words of Wisdom for Kyler Gordon
In this story:
Kyler Gordon's first attempt to stop Aaron Rodgers as a slot cornerback could have gone better.
The rookie second-round pick from Washington was victimized several times by Sammy Watkins, Allen Lazard and Randall Cobb and gave up one touchdown pass from Rodgers to Lazard.
Pro Football Focus tabulates Gordon's passer rating against for two games at 155.8, which is within an eyelash of being as bad as it can get.
"Yeah I just got done talking to him," coach Matt Eberflus said Monday. "And it's everything I say to every young player that I've ever played that's gone through these moments.
"There's going to be ebb and flow over the course of a rookie season and that's the way it is. It doesn't matter if you're dealing with a guy that's rookie of the year or not, there's going to be those things. And what you tell them is hey, take one experience at a time and put it in your file. You have to learn from that. So go back and look at all the plays that you made, all the plays that you want to correct and then put them in a file."
By a file, Eberflus didn't mean the circular file, as in throw it out and forget it. He meant to file it away for future reference.
"And making sure you study those things and visualize those things as you go during the course of this week coming up so you can make those corrections because a good pro doesn't make the same mistake twice," Eberflus said. "They get better and they improve and that's how they become a better pro in Year 4, Year 5 and then become an All-Pro."
The Bears could have initially played Gordon at left cornerback or moved him to right cornerback and played Jaylon Johnson at left cornerback, if they had a more viable option in the slot.
Instead, they have Tavon Young, who was hurt through much of the offseason and training camp, and returning slot cornerback Duke Shelley. They cut Shelley just before the regular season.
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
