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OPPOSITION TERRITORY: Eagles vs. Bears Pregame Preview · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Opposition Territory here at the Philadelphia Sports Table
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: podcast show, the longest running weekly Philly sports podcast show
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: in the world, over twelve and a half years strong.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Got a great Eagles and Chicago Bears preview coming your
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: way this week here on Opposition Territory coming to us
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: from Windy City Gridiron. You know we love our SB
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Nation sites out there. Got a lot of great folks
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: coming on this podcast platform from SB Nation. We've got
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Lester Wiltfong Junior, my friend. Thank you so much for
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: taking the time to join us here.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: Buddy, anytime, my friend. How you doing today?
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: I'm doing all right. Look, we're still kind of going
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: through a post mortem after this Eagles cow Boys Week
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: twelve matchup that was seriously depressing to watch as an
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Eagles fan in so many ways. But here on this
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: podcast platform, Lester, we want to be as objective as
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: possible when we are talking about our Philly sports teams.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: It includes Philadelphia Eagles, includes us talking about the Chicago
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Bears as well, the season they are having and this
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: upcoming matchup and what we may be seeing. So I mean,
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  Speaker 1: I'd love to get started off really talking about as
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: I've been doing on most of our Opposition Territory podcast
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: this season is really talking about the strengths and the
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: weaknesses of who the Eagles are going to be playing
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  Speaker 1: on any given week. So let's start with that. As
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: the Bears are eight and three a top of the
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  Speaker 1: NFC North. Here, let's talk about the biggest strength and
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: the biggest weakness of the Bears. Let's start with the
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: biggest strength. What is that strength? Heading into Week thirteen
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: of the season, the biggest strength that we need to
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: keep our eyes on is Eagles fans.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: I mean, honestly, from a Chicago Bears perspective, it's all
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: about the head coach. I mean, Ben Jonson kind of
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: came in. He kind of changed this whole thing.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: Around culture change.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, the Matt Iberfus era was just it was
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: a disaster from retal art. It was just horrible. I mean,
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: but yeah, but Ben Johnson kind of came in his offense,
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: and here's the thing. His offense has not been clicking.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: Like when you watch it, you know, play a play basis,
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: you're like, man, they're missing so much stuff. But then
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: you look at the numbers, you're like, man, that's a
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: top ten offense. That's a top five offense. Like they
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: had a graphic on before the last Bears game, the
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: previous three weeks they had the best offense in the league. Yeah,
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: so you're like, man, there's so much more meat on
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: the bone here and things aren't clicking. But the one
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: thing the Bears have, you know, this whole year since
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: the buy, i should say, is the run game. The
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: run games are really strong. They put a lot of
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: money into the offensive line, kind of revamped that. That
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: along with Ben Johnson's scheme, which is just like I said,
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: it's beautiful if you like, you know, running the ball,
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: if you enjoyed that. Ben Johnson does some stuff that
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: as Bears fans, we have not seen in a really
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: long time. So there's a lot of motion, it's it's
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: it's some duo stuff, it's it's some some zone stuff,
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: kind of mixes them in. It's just really fun to
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: watch from that perspective. So the run game has been
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: to strength to this run game play action kind of
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: work off that, and Caleb the Kala has been good,
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: you know, but but he's up and down. But then
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: again you look back at the numbers, like, man, he's
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: he's taking care of the ball. Yeah, he's extending players
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: with his feeds, you know. So, I mean for the Bears,
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: the one big strength besides the running game, just more
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: generally speaking, is that offense. Yeah.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, We're gonna get into Caleb Boy It was a
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: little bit more in detail dissecting his growth as a
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: quarterback this season. But let's flip that coin. What's the
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: biggest weakness of this Bears team at this point?
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: Lester? Yeah, I mean, the the defense has been rough
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: all year. A big part of that is injuries, obviously,
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: but you know, they can't stop the run. It's been
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: a problem with this entire year. So anytime going up
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: against a good running running team as a Bears tid,
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: I'm a little nervous. And of course they got say
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: Kwon Barkley coming up.
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  Speaker 1: So that this isn't a good run team though, that's
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: the but I'm telling you, but.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: The way the Bears operate, the Bears can make even
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: a bad team look at it on the So the
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: one thing the Bears have done is they kind of
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: went to more of their beef package inside Andrew Billings,
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: who's like I think he's listed at three twenty but
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: you look at that man, he's gigantic, so he is
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: now in there. They brought up Jonathan Ford off the
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: practice squad who plays every now and again. He's another big,
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: big body guy. So they're doing their best to stop
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: the run. But it's just hard. I mean, last week
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: they're missing all three linebackers, so the secondary's missing Jalen Johnson,
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: Kyle of Gordon. Yeah, you know the things they're on.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: You know, they're on cornerbacks four and five. They're on
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: linebackers five and six this last week. So it's a
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: problem that the front's been okay, but they're not getting
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: a lot of pressure besides Manta sweat. So it's okay.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: We're gonna get into some of these matchups in a bit.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: But I really wanted to talk about Caleb Williams because
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: coming into the NFL, him coming over from USC, I
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: had some skepticism about how his game at the college
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: level would translate over to the NFL. Obviously, first season
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: not all that great, and just like a lot of
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: rookie quarterbacks there are like no rookie quarterbacks anymore these days,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: to come in and bam, it just clicks and they're
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: able to get it done and they're a playoff caliber team.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: It just doesn't happen. Growth takes time in the NFL,
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: going from college to the professional league. It just takes time.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: And he has, certainly, Caleb Williams taken steps forward this season.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: He has shown growth as a quarterback. Like you said,
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: you know, really not turning over the ball this season
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: a lot, you know, protecting the ball, and you know,
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: he has put the Bears into some good offensive positions
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: throughout this year. So, Lester, how have you seen Caleb
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Williams developing under center? And what more does he need
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: to do as a quarterback to be even more effective.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: I'll start with the neck at first. His actually issue
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: has been a little problem this year. You know, it
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: wasn't really that big of a deal last year, but
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: this year he's missed some throws, he's sailing some things.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: I think part of it is I think he's still
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: kind of thinking a little too much in the offense.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: He's not going to just reacting. And then on the
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: other side of it, sometimes as receivers aren't really you know,
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: giving him any favors with some of the drops they've had.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: I know, you know, he hasn't any drops the last
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: couple of games, but prior to that, I think the
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: Prayers were among the league leads and receivers dropping the ball.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: But he's just getting better as far as the operation
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: of the offense, you know, not as much freelance stuff.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: I know from a national perspective. They show the highlights.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: So yeah, a lot of people see, oh, he's running around.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: He must be leaving the pocket too soon. That's not
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: what it is. On a play to play basis. He's
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: really good from the pocket. That's what he wants to do.
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: If he can just sit in the pocket and do
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: what he has to do, he'll be fine content there.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: I was on my show That's Night. I pulled these
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: numbers up. But Danny Parkins, who used to be a
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: Chicago UY, now he's more national stuff. Yeah. From the pocket,
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  Speaker 2: Caleb is averaging two undre and ten yards per game,
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: fourteen touchdowns and just three picks. Passer rating over one
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: hundred on hundred point too. And while he's able to
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: stit in the pocket, he is the fourth lowest pressure
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: percentage in the league. So if he can stay in
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: the pocket, he'll stay in the pocket, right, But of
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: course the highlight stuff is the stuff that he does
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: give you. That's when the cape comes on. He can
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: kind of get outside the pocket and make some plays.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: Those outside of the pocket things have not really transitioned
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: into big plays yet this year. Like I said, some
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: of those are drops. He had some of those just
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: he just gets out of the side of the pocket,
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: just chucks out of bounds. But like you said, he's
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: smart with the football. That's happened last year. This last
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: week he took one sack which was probably the worst
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: play he's had this entire season, or he fumbled it
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: in the end zone a touchdown. But other than that,
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: other than that, he's been really smart with the football,
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: running the offense as he has to. And look, Ben
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: Johnson's hard on him. I mean that's something he talked
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: about when he took the job. He's going to coach
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: him hard. And Caleb, to his credit, even last year,
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: said he wanted to be coach hard. But those coaches
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: last year they just didn't do it. You know, they
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: just weren't. They weren't at that level you wanted. And
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: I think Caleb got a little lax because there was
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: no one pushing him right, And you want to be
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: the best. You want to be coached by the best,
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: and I think he's getting that this year. And like
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: I said, it's as you look at the status, you're like, well,
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: some games the stats don't look as good as they
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: should have when he's really really well. Other games is
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: the opposite. But overall and the gross there, the offense
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: is clicking and win a can. There's just, like I said,
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: there's so much more left to go for this offense.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: And you know, he may not ever get to the
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: point where he's in that Pat Mahomes stratosphere, but as
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: far as Bears fans go, he's the best quarterback we've
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  Speaker 2: seen in most of our life.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: Absolutely absolutely. And there's another quarterback that's going to be
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: playing in this game on Friday that has not been
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: turning the ball over a lot either this season, and
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: that is Jalen Hurts. I mean, you talked about Caleb Williams,
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: his development, where he is at right now as a
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: quarterback in this league. I'd really love to get your
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: assessment so on Jalen Hurts and what you expect to
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: see from him this week in Philadelphia. I mean, there
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: there remains this controversy and narrative surrounding this Eagles offense
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: where you know what, things are clicking, clicking, clicking, then
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: all of a sudden it stops. It halts for a
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: significant period of time where there are six seven, eight
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: drives where there is nothing going on, and then all
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: of a sudden, a spark happens and you have Devonte
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Smith with a forty one, forty three yard reception. His
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: body control is incredible, and my gosh, this team is
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: back into the game. But you know, I think Jalen
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: Hurts put some of that negative narrative last week to
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: rest even though they lost to the Cowboys. At the
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: end of the day, I'm wondering, Lester, how do you
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: see Jalen Hurts as a quarterback this season and especially
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: what you maybe see in this Friday.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: You know, I think from a nasal perspective, quarterbacks get
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: way too much criticism. And I me being a Bears fan,
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: and like I said, it's been a long time since
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: we've made anything to be happy about the quarterback spot,
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: so I kind of look at that through that lens.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: So if I see like a guy like Hurts getting
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: a ton of criticism, you know, nationally, I'm like, that's
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: probably a bunch of bs. You know, for the most part,
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: that's just the hot take artists. That's you know, the
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: guys in ESPN want to make sure they get that
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: that dig in, you know, with faffiliate. It's just like Chicago,
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: big city, a lot of passionate fans. So you take
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: one little shot at Hurts, all of a sudden, it's
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: it's huge on social media, right, So I think it's
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: kind of that's going on. But from a from a
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: Bears fans perspective, I'm more concerned with his what he
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: can do with his feed because, like I said, the
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: defense has been pretty bad this year. They've been letting, letting,
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: scrambling quarterbacks could get quite a bit of yards against them.
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: They kind of play a combination, you know, man zone.
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: They're not always you know, and man with it with
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: their backsted quarterbacks. But but even then, you know, they're
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: they're there are so many backups in that secondary, in
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: the linebacker corps, so they're giving that kind of stuff up.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: They're not really doing a good job of containing quarterbacks
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: and kind of get out of the pocket, kind of
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: make some plays out there. So from my point of view,
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: I'm more worried about him as a runner than as
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: a passer. Even though, like I said, like I said,
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: the defense is bad in Chicago, it's just been bad.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: But the crazy thing about about the defense in Chicago
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: is they're really good at taking the ball away. So
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: that's that's been ingrained them since camp and for some reason,
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: and you know, Dennis Allen comes up with these good,
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: good plays on third down. So they're among the league
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: leaders in third down conversion. Again, so those are two
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: pretty good. If you're gonna suck on defense, you better
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: be good in those two spots. And that's where there
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: are at.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, very good again, folks. Talking to Lester
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: Wiltfong Junior from Windy citygrid Iron dot Com, Great SB
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: Nation site. Lester, tell everybody where they can find you
• 11:22
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• 11:23
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• 11:25
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  Speaker 1: Very nice, very nice, And if you are watching us
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  Speaker 1: that said, folks, we got more coming your way. We're
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: gonna take a break, but when we get back, we're
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: gonna talk more about matchups that we're gonna see this Friday,
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: Philadelphia Eagles against the Chicago Bear. Stick with us, all right,
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: we are back again with our good friend Lester Wilfong
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: Junior from Wendy citygridiron dot Com, Great SB Nation site.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: Let's get into some matchups here, buddy. The Eagle secondary,
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: I mean it's looking almost similar to the Bears secondary
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: at this point. A lot of injuries happening. Andrew mccooba's
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: gonna be needing surgery on his ankle. I mean, he's
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: been having an interesting rookie season up and down for sure,
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: but we're likely going to be seeing Sidney Brown taking
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: his spot on the field of Dory Jackson as a
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: concussion likely will not play this Friday, and Red Blankenship
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: left the Cowboys game with a thigh injury. How do
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: you see the Eagle secondary in terms of what the
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: Bears offense could potentially do to them? Definitely a weakness
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: coming into this game, this Eagle secondary. This is gonna
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: be an interesting matchup. How do you think the Bears
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: receiving core is gonna handle this year secondary?
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: You know, we've yet to see a huge game from
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: the passing attack last year Caleb, I think at three
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: three games over three hundred yards. This year, he hasn't
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: done it yet, so we haven't really seen that part
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: of the game explode. So so maybe this is a
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: week right. I mean, you guys have a lot of
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: problems in the secondary. You know, the one thing Caleb
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: has been doing really good this year is is going
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: over the middle of the field. I think I saw
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: his passing chart last week. It was pretty much the
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: whole thing was the middle. In the middle of the field,
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: which is you know, that's that's usually quarterbacks last place.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: Had they get to where they really are having success, Yep,
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: Caleb's done a great job there. I mean, it's it's
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: DJ Moore is Electric Roma Dunes a Luther Burden. Slowly
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: but surely this whole year has been getting more and
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: more playing time. Whereas he was clearly wide receiver four
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: early on, each week more snaps, and now now he's
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: clearly established as wide receiver three. He may be the
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: most talented receiver on on on the on the Bears.
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: He's he's just still trying to get things figured out.
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: He's rookie. One of the reason why they brought along
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: slowly was he missed a ton of time in camp.
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: But ball in his hands electric, I mean, he has
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: just got that going on. If you guys watch him
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: at Missouri, you know in college, you kind of know
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: what I'm talking about.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: Yards after the catch too, right.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: Really good there. I mean, that's that's what he's done
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: all year for the Bears. And then of course Dj
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: Moore is established, romandoon Day's coming to his own. He's
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: the Bears top receiver this year. But man Colston Loveland,
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: the rookie tight end. He may have the best hands
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: on the team. Yea, he is just such a mismatched nightmare.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: And again, kind of like Burden, they brought Loveland along
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: a little slowly because he had some injuries in camp
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: he had to recover from the shoulder injury he had
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: a college but each week he's getting more reps and reps.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: And he's not officially technically a starter because colomets you're starting, why,
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: But he is your move tight end. He's your mismatch guy,
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: and he is a much better blocker than I thought.
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: He was coming out really good all around tight end,
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: but from a mismatch standpoint, he has the athleticism he
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: split out wide. If he's matched up on a safety
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: or linebacker, he normally has the edge there. And then
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: he's of course he's too big for corners. So we're
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: just now starting to see how Ben Johnson can kind
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: of use him. And if you remember Ben Johnson from
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: his time in Detroity as Sam Laporta, yep, kind of
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: similar role ton of targets there, and I think that's
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: eventually what he envisions for Colston Lovelin. So, like I said,
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: this could be a week where they kind of take
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: the running game and say, hey, it's just not working
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: his best, but let's attack this Eagle secondary.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, look folks in Eagles Nation out there listening, it
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: could be a long day. It really could. This is
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: going to be quite the matchup to keep our eyes on,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: for sure. But let's move over to another matchup that
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: I think is going to be absolutely fascinating. The Eagles
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: offensive line against the defensive front of the Chicago Bears.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: This Eagles offensive line continuing to struggle week after week
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: after week, and as we know, when Lane Johnson is
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: not out there, things are an absolute mess for this
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: offensive line. And we're continuing to see that. Second year
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: center Cam Jurgens is actually ranked as one of the
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: bottom five centers in the league after an incredibly dominant
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: year last year. Yes, he's been going through a bunch
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: of injuries this year. It's obviously affecting him, but he's
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: still out there. He wants to be a warrior. Be
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: that as it may. Right guard Tyler Steen has been
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: struggling for a week after week in various in game situations. Lester,
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: how do you see the Bears pass rush, the defensive
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: front in general really stacking up against this very inconsistent
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: Eagles offensive line that's always been known to be dominant.
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: Montes Sweat has really heated up. He was kind of
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: had a slow start to the early season, but then
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: he had like a stretch right like a sack in
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: four straight games. He had two sacks against the Steelers.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: Should have add a third, but he let Mason Rudolf
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: slip away. Austin Booker, who the Bears just got back
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: from injury reserve. He is a really young player. He
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: came out of college as a red shirt sophomore, so
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: he came into the league really young. Here's now in
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: the year two, worked on getting himself better. He was
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: injured a lot early on in the season. He's kind
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: of given the Bears a little bit off the edge.
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: I talked about injuries. I mean, the Bears are missing
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: guys there too. They're missing their other starting defensive enddo o'dangbo.
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: So it's been Booker and Sweat, But you look inside
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: great Jared who the Bear signed as a free agent
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: coming out of the Falcons. Pretty non existent early on,
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: but these last few games he's he's kind of making
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: a presence. I'm not sure if he was kind of recovery.
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: There was a slight period there we had an injury,
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: so maybe he just was kind of working through something
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: in camp. They flared up it got worse, but he
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: missed like two or three games in the middle of
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: the season there, but these last few games, his presence
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: is showing up. You know, he's he's penetrating, he's getting
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: his hands up, he's knocking balls down, he's getting at
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: the quarterback. I don't think he has any sacks, but
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: he's getting pressures, he's getting hits, he's getting hurries. Yep.
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: And then of course I talked about Andrew Billings. He's
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: just a gigantic dude, and you know, the Bears have
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: been kind of letting him kind of play more of
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: a run stuffer, but he's pretty good at pushing the pocket.
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: I mean, I know coming out of college he was
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: like one of the strongest dudes at the time. I know,
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: in high school he has set a whole bunch of
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: Texas powerlifting records, and that's kind of has been his
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: forte in the NFL is just power. You can't move
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: him right. And then you know, so the Bears d
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: lined a lot of money invested in there. They haven't
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: really had had a huge impact yet, but the last
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: few weeks are starting to come.
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: On, yeah, and they could certainly have quite an impact
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: against this Eagles offensive line again that's having some challenges.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: So before I let you go, buddy. We ask our
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: guests on our Opposition Territory podcast every week what's one
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: thing each team is going to need to hit on
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: for a win? Start with the Chicago Bears. What's the
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: one thing the Bears are going to need to hit
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: on for a win this week against Philadelphia Eagles.
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: I'm going back to the defense because I'm pretty sure
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: the offense will have some some able to move the
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: ball and they'll be consistent as much as they have been.
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: But man, if the defense can get after the quarterback,
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: like I said, sweats heated up a little bit. I
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: want to see Austin Booker, second year player. He had
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: a fantastic preseason. You know, coming out he was a
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: speed guy. That's really Chali Hatty, and he had a
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: speed and he had a long arm. They would you
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: once in a while. He has really put together a
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: much better toolbox of pass rush moves, and we saw
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: in the preseason he hadn't really translated yet. So I
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: think if the two defensive ends for the Bears can
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: get some pressure on Hurts and and make him jittery back,
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: I think that's probably the best best thing for the Bears.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: All Right, and to close us out. What's the one
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: thing the Eagles, in your opinion, are going to need
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: to hit on for a win against the Chicago Bears
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: this week in Philly.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: I think if the Bears running game is clicking, I've
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: seen no reason why they should stop. I mean, if
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: things are going good for Barkley and if that that
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: line's able to make some holes for him, and I
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: think if that's happening, and then you get Bigsby mixed
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: in there a little bit, I think, if this is happening,
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: like I've seen games this year where I've watched the opposition,
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: I'm like, why would they stop running? Yeah, gashing the Bears?
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: They just stop. So I think a Philly just sticks
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: to the run. If it's working, I think that it
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: could be a really grinded out, slow, low scoring game
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: where the Eagles coming out on top.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: All right, Very good again, folks. He is Lester wilt
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: Fong Junior from Windy citygridiron dot Com over at espanation
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: at Wilfong Junior on various social sites out there. My friend,
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: it was great talking to you. I absolutely love the
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: discussion and this preview pod come back on. I'd love
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: to have you on the show at some point down
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: the road, my friend, we'll see you in the playoffs.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: All right, that sounds good to me, Anice right, that's
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: gonna do it for us here on Opposition Territory this week.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: Please share our podcast with your friends and family members
• 20:15
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• 20:18
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• 20:21
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• 20:25
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• 20:28
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• 20:32
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• 20:39
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• 20:42
  Speaker 1: catch you next time.