Cole Kmet, Bears Gearing Up for Physical Battle

Bears tight end loves to dole out physical punishment and the Saints defense does the same

The Bears playoff game against the New Orleans Saints at the Superdome Sunday is shaping up as a Cole Kmet kind of game.

It's also a Saints defense kind of game.

Kmet has brought a physical brand of football to the tight end position for the Bears that they haven't had in years.

"I think that's part of my game," Kmet said.

He has made a habit of breaking tackles, lowering his shoulder and knocking aside would-be tacklers, stiff-arming them or blocking hard to the whistle's echo.

"It's something I just kind of have fun doing," Kmet said. "When you can do that physically to somebody else it's a little demoralizing to them and maybe to the rest of the other guys on the defense.

"I know it gets our linemen fired up so I love doing it. It's just kind of something, it's always been a part of my game."

It was actually the part of Kmet's game that first appealed to the Bears as they watched video of him at Halas Hall after last season ended.

Kmet made a career-high seven catches for 41 yards against Green Bay and made every Packers tackle a tough one to achieve.

It's a style not always conducive to smart football, though. He lost a fumble fighting for every inch against the Packers and Green Bay scored a touchdown after this. He also has a shoulder injury he's playing through, and playing this style can't help this.

"I'm aware that if I'm going to stay up like that, guys are going to come and punch out the ball," Kmet said. "You kind of got me in a good spot there and it is what it is. But I just gotta do a better job of when I'm spinning out of things, because I tend to do that a lot, is making sure I cross over with my grip and whatnot. That's just a thing I'll continue to learn.

"These defensive players in the league, they're savvy and they're always trying to go after the football. So they're willing to keep me up for a little bit to punch out the football. So I need to be aware of that and that’s something that I'll definitely learn from."

Kmet can expect something of this sort from the Saints, whose defense ranks fifth overall. The Saints knocked Mitchell Trubisky out of the last game after one play and a fight broke out at one point.

"I think they're a team that they pride themselves on their physicality and I think that's somehting that shows up on tape and something that we've seen and that fans have seen since obviously Sean Payton has been there," Kmet said. "They're a physical team and you've just got to match physicality with physicality."

The Bears have to be careful how they do it.

In the last game, Javon Wims took some swings at Chancey Gardner-Williams after Gardner-Williams had been yanking on Bears mouthguards and getting mouthy. Wims was suspended, Gardner-Williams was given a $5,128 fine, and later in the season Gardner-Williams was fined for unsportsmanlike conduct in a loss to Philadelphia.

"The toughest thing about it is I don't think it's personally his style, at least to me it's not," Bears receiver Allen Robinson said of Gardner-Williams.

Kmet would like to see the Bears to stay physical in the running game because it helped trigger their turnaround.

Their new style of offense, using Mitchell Trubisky under center more or moving him with bootlegs and play-action has led to more than 100 yards rushing in every game since they switched to it.

"I think when you can run the ball the way we've been running the ball and you can have big bodies in the field like that and run and pass, it keeps defenses on their heel," Kmet said. "So I think that's something that we've done a good job of in this past three weeks or so."

They'll need to continue it if they want the season to extend past this weekend.

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