Latest / 2nd City Gridiron / Bears Banter Ep. 220: Matt Spiegel joins after Jake Moody wins it!

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Bears Banter Ep. 220: Matt Spiegel joins after Jake Moody wins it! · 2nd City Gridiron

• 0:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you so much for watching this video.
• 0:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's fans, it's time for another edition of the Chicago Bears podcast bears banter powered by second city Grand Iron Bill Zimmerman with you and we are just gonna let that music play for a little bit because these Chicago Bears have won.
• 0:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: three in a row and two in incredible fashion here with the Raiders game and now this commander's game on Monday night football.
• 0:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: We are going to talk about it.
• 0:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're going to talk about the positive.
• 0:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're going to talk about the negatives.
• 0:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're going to talk about Troy Eggman.
• 0:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: I might even talk about the officials.
• 0:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're going to talk about it all and we're going to talk about it.
• 0:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: with Matt Spiegel of the score, he's gonna be by here in just a little bit, gonna pick his brain on all this, because every time Matt seems to come on this podcast, it seems to me some sort of disaster is looming for the bears, but this time, we get to come out after a win after things are looking like they're headed in the right direction.
• 1:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: I am excited, bears fans should be excited, and we are just moving everything in the right direction.
• 1:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that is a beautiful,
• 1:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: beautiful thing to see.
• 1:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: So let's dive in.
• 1:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let's jump in with this bear's game last night.
• 1:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know what?
• 1:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're not going to start with Ben Johnson.
• 1:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're not going to start with Caleb Williams.
• 1:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're going to start with Jake Moody and all the jokes were flying around, but he got elevated from the practice squad.
• 1:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: And all the jokes were flying around
• 1:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: After it found out that Cairo Santos was going to be inactive about Jake Moody.
• 1:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: He inaccuracies that this is going to come down to a Jake Moody field.
• 1:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: All the bears are doomed.
• 1:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: Oh my god, you know, that meme of the video game kicker with the field gold aimed to like 50 yards to the left.
• 2:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like all that was coming across the timeline for Jake Moody and I get it.
• 2:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: This guy was a
• 2:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: third round pick at kicker was a third round pick by the 49ers of good organization they said we are just going to take an awesome kicker and we are never going to have to worry about kicking again and he doesn't even get through what is second year with the 49ers before he's released Ryan Paul stashes him on the practice squad.
• 2:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: Which was like, all right, fine, no big deal, one way or the other.
• 2:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: But here, Santos has the nagging injury and here comes Jake Moody getting called up.
• 2:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: felt like Matt Prater for Buffalo a few weeks ago when he hit the game, winning field goal and had a big game for Buffalo.
• 2:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: And here's Jake Moody, who probably half the roster barely even knew at that point when he gets called up and is in the locker room dressed on Monday night before the game.
• 2:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: was Jake Moody, perfect.
• 2:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: Look, he did everything he needed to do.
• 2:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: I know he missed a field goal.
• 3:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: And when we look at that field goal, you can sit there and see, well, that's why, that's the Jake Moody that the 49ers released.
• 3:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that ball was so low, and apparently it was gonna hit the offensive lineman in the backs.
• 3:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: It was unbelievably a low kick, but they still, the offense was stalling.
• 3:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: It couldn't get in the end zone much yesterday.
• 3:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: So here comes Jake Moody, Drill and Field goals.
• 3:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he missed the one, but then with the game on the line,
• 3:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: moody drills the field goal to give the bears a victory.
• 3:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: Ben Johnson gives them a game ball after the game well deserved for Jake moody hitting all those field goals and hitting the one that matters.
• 3:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's a great story and I'm not going to sit here and be like moody needs to be the bear's kicker.
• 3:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: I understand he's got a much bigger leg than Cairo Santos.
• 3:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: Santos is a much more accurate kicker than moody.
• 3:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: If Santos is healthy for next week's game against New Orleans,
• 3:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: No, I don't think the bear should keep two kickers on their roster in case someone else wants the sign Jake Moody.
• 4:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: If that's all Jake Moody ever does for the Chicago Bears, we tip our cap to you Jake Moody and look, if the bears want to make a change and try and give Moody a shot, that's mine, because Cairo Santos isn't the long-term answer here either.
• 4:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I
• 4:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm ambivalent to this, whatever happens moving forward, but I'm not sitting here going to pound the table for Jake Moody because I understand where he's been, but because of where he's been, that makes that game all the sweeter for him.
• 4:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: That was an awesome story.
• 4:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm all for for being part of the Jake Moody fan club.
• 4:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, no moody blues here, moody comes through, hits the game winner for the bears.
• 4:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: So Caleb Williams, pumping him up after the game, giving him a big hug screaming in his ear.
• 4:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like that's what we're getting with Ben Johnson.
• 4:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's an easy transition to start talking about the coach about the camaraderie, about the culture that Ben Johnson is building in this locker room because these last two games, and I don't understand there was a buy in the middle
• 5:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: The Chicago Bears are finding ways to win football games for a team that has found ways to lose football games.
• 5:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I know a lot of it was the coach.
• 5:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't always the coach.
• 5:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: Some of the times the players did too.
• 5:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: But this is a team that found ways to lose games in the past.
• 5:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it's part of the culture.
• 5:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's part of a losing culture.
• 5:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I understand years ago, when fans were wanting the bears to tank, because the season unraveled, and they wanted the number one pick.
• 5:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: And thanks to the Houston Tech and Texans and Lobby Smith, they did get the number one pick.
• 5:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: And because they got that number one pick, all this is fallen in place.
• 5:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: Lobby Smith deserves so much credit for where the bears are now.
• 5:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's really funny that all this has come together like it did.
• 5:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: That they got the number one pick.
• 5:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: that Ryan Polls could trade to the Carolina Panthers.
• 5:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: They have a disastrous season.
• 5:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: They get another number one pick.
• 6:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: This time they draft Caleb Williams.
• 6:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: Ben Johnson comes here because of Caleb Williams.
• 6:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: All the things that came together, thanks to Loveysmith winning that football game in week 18 and delivering the bears the number one pick.
• 6:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: Truly incredible stuff that that has happened.
• 6:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: Beatwriters, a lot of media should local media cover in the team, one of the bears to try and win football games down the stretch, because they wanted the bears to start building a winning culture.
• 6:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: And bears fans were getting all over Dan Weeder and the others who were talking about that going, no, they need to lose games, they need to tag, they need to have the number one pick.
• 6:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I was one of those.
• 6:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: I was one of those.
• 6:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: I said, you know, forget culture right now, bears need the number one pick.
• 6:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: They need that asset more than anything else.
• 6:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: But to their credit, to weater in the other guys credit, the bears did need to build a winning culture.
• 6:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now the problem was they had a coach and potentially a GM, but most importantly a coach who didn't know how to do that, now they have a coach that doesn't know how to do that.
• 7:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: who saw Dan Campbell do it firsthand and Dan Campbell took a ratchet organization with a ratchet culture.
• 7:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: It took him one and a half years to build it up because they were a disaster in year one and a disaster the first half of year two then they started winning football games because of the culture that was built.
• 7:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: that the players despite losing games were believing in Dan Campbell and believing in the teammates and the faces in the locker room and saying, we can win football games, we're going to win football games and because they believed it, it happened.
• 7:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: Because so often, when teams are expecting the next bad thing to happen, it does.
• 7:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then when it does happen, that you just let it consume you, it overwhelms you, and it becomes your identity.
• 7:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: Instead of a mistake with a winning team that hasn't a mistake,
• 7:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, brushes it off immediately and says, all right, we move forward.
• 8:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: We made a mistake, everyone makes mistakes.
• 8:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: But we are a good team, we are a winning team.
• 8:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: We are not going to let that get to us.
• 8:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's that culture that Ben Johnson's building.
• 8:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: That is so excited.
• 8:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: And he's not sitting here thinking, this is a three and two team.
• 8:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: They're great.
• 8:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: He understands that they have a long way to go.
• 8:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: You heard him in the locker room after the game.
• 8:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: Talk about.
• 8:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: say even say it after the wedding guys this is why I'm talking about we need to clean up the penalties we need to clean up some of the sloppy play and when we do do you see it now like he's asking the team do you see it do you see how good we can be if we clean all that mess up and he is right
• 8:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: And he is holding that locker room accountable and they love it.
• 8:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like, look, I'm going to sit here and look at the players that they are playing.
• 8:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: Hard, DeAndre Swift, who I've been super critical of over the last year and a half.
• 8:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: just drill in the holes.
• 8:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's hitting them so hard.
• 8:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, look, and Kyleman on guys, a fun little story is a seventh round pick.
• 9:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you watch that game and watch the speed that DeAndre Swift hits the hole at versus Kyleman on guy, it's a Ferrari and first gear versus a Ferrari and fourth gear.
• 9:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like it is, it is remarkably different.
• 9:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: The speed
• 9:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: is vision and that he doesn't always necessarily see where the holes are going to develop and where he needs to run.
• 9:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: But if the offensive line is going to open up holes like they did against Washington, the Andre Swift is going to be really effective moving forward here for the bears this season and potentially beyond.
• 9:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: Because
• 9:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't, I can see the hole there.
• 9:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't need to have vision.
• 9:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: He was gaping holes.
• 9:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: This offense of line was opening up.
• 9:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: Really happy to see this.
• 9:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: Really, because the Ben Johnson run scheme has looked choppy here the first quarter of this season.
• 9:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: Hasn't looked exactly like it was supposed to.
• 9:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we know how important.
• 9:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: that running game is for Ben Johnson and where he wants his offense to be.
• 10:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: The bears have to be an effective running team.
• 10:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: They have to be for Ben Johnson's offense to work.
• 10:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: And they haven't really been.
• 10:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: Even the blocking has been decent when you look at the metrics in the blocking numbers.
• 10:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: But it didn't translate to paper too much the first the first four games, but it did yesterday and DeAndre Swift was truly incredible with how he ran the football and the amount of yards he piled up and the big touchdowns and everything he did for the team.
• 10:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: This was the DeAndre Swift game.
• 10:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: This was the game where DeAndre Swift put the bear's offense on his back and says, I am carrying you to a victory.
• 10:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm absolutely not anything I would have expected from DeAndre Swift, but it was sweet to see because this offense is
• 10:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: starting to fit you're starting to see this Ben Johnson offense.
• 10:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's not there yet.
• 10:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: It is not clicking like Ben Johnson wants to see it, but you're starting to see it.
• 11:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: You're seeing the offensive line starting to really play as a unit and Theo Bennett it.
• 11:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: gets a lot of credit for me for how he played that game.
• 11:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I understand he didn't have to block Max Cross be this week.
• 11:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: I understand he didn't have to block you know Miles Garrett, but he though the commanders are a functional defense and he did a very good job.
• 11:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now I usually like to rewatch the game and I specifically like to watch the offensive line so I can
• 11:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: that knowledge to the podcast.
• 11:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: I am an edit chance to do that because we're recording here Tuesday morning right after the Monday night game.
• 11:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I did not get a chance to rewatch the offensive line play, but from what I watched when I just was watching the game on the television broadcast on Monday night, but it didn't look very good.
• 11:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: You're not going to see this guy over power players, but he was not getting pushed in the Caleb's lap for what I saw.
• 11:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: He was staying in front of his guy's solid in the past protection.
• 11:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: He wasn't from what I saw was not getting a ton of help and past blocking.
• 12:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: Was out there on an island a lot and was being effective.
• 12:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: He was moving his guy's stay in where he needed to put in his body, where it needed to be in terms of cutting off running, cutting off
• 12:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: defenders from getting into running lanes, everything he needed to do.
• 12:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: He looked really sharp.
• 12:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm really impressed with him.
• 12:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I don't think Theo Bennett can be a long-term left tackle.
• 12:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think he's got too many issues that could, you know, that's going to prevent him from becoming great because he doesn't have the arm line.
• 12:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't have the traits.
• 12:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: But what he could become, and look, and if he becomes a starter, it's even a great story.
• 12:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: He may be bumped into a guard eventually, and maybe that's where he can become a starter.
• 12:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: But even if he's never a long-term answer at starter, if Theo Bennett is the guy,
• 12:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: who you can keep around to be your sixth offensive lineman and he backs up for positions that's immensely valuable especially coming as a UDFA he's going to be a restricted free agent after next season the bears are going to be capable to keep them around at a pretty affordable price assuming they want to do that.
• 13:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: Theo Bennett it.
• 13:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, we can't talk about it enough when Braxton Jones, whether it's not a fit for this scheme, whether the injury, the ankle things aren't coming together, whatever it is for Braxton Jones things are not right for him with this offense this season.
• 13:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: Kronama, Gaji, we know, can't be the answer at left tackle.
• 13:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: Azita Pillow didn't work nearly as well at left tackle than he did at right tackle.
• 13:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: And look, they may try and do something drastic and move Darno right to left tackle next season.
• 13:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: So Azita Pillow could potentially start at right tackle.
• 13:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: They might try and do something like that next season.
• 13:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: But you can't do that to Darno right in the middle of the season.
• 13:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's too difficult of a transition.
• 13:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: So the fact that they were desperate,
• 13:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let's let's be honest here.
• 13:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: The bears were desperate.
• 13:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think a lot of the clunkiness of the offense, a big part of it was not getting the consistent play on a left tackle that they needed and they didn't have anyone to turn to.
• 14:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: They had, you know, three tackles and you know, between Amagachitra Pillow and Jones and none of them could get the job done.
• 14:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: So here comes feel better to the Canadian.
• 14:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, under believable story, we got Jake Modi went in the game, we got Theo Bennett and it making clutch blocks.
• 14:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: What is going on here?
• 14:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: The culture, the culture is what's going on here, because Ben Johnson, he is not a nerd with a whiteboard who doesn't know how to be a leader amen.
• 14:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: This guy is a leader amen.
• 14:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: He has this locker room believing and the running game is coming
• 14:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: The passing game is coming together and it doesn't look perfect and let's talk about Caleb Williams here for a minute with the passing game because I put out his projected stats last night because right now through five games Caleb Williams is on face to throw for over 4,000 yards 31 touchdown passes not combined touchdowns 31 touchdown passes with only seven interceptions.
• 15:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: Easily the greatest season in Chicago Bears history and easily that would be one of the top 10 seasons Top 10 seasons for a quarterback this year like that that that that it's over 30 touchdowns and over 4,000 yards That's gonna be a top 10 season but here's the thing I think if any of us looked at Caleb Williams to the first five games And I understand I was very panicked about Caleb Williams after game one probably over panic, but but even way I stand by it I stand by what I said
• 15:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: But when we look at Caleb Williams here, I don't think any of us are sitting here saying it's click it, it's humming with Caleb Williams.
• 15:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're seeing the deficiency still.
• 15:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're seeing the inaccuracies with with the football and that he needs to be, you know, a little more accurate.
• 15:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: He needs to lead his runners better so they can they can catch the ball in stride and get that.
• 15:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: which is critical to Ben Johnson's offense, we need to see him not dirt balls when he's doing screen passes.
• 15:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: We need to see him not overthrow guys like we're still seeing some of the issues with Caleb Williams.
• 16:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think that stuff's going to get better for Caleb because he's not an inaccurate passer.
• 16:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: We would have seen more of that on the tape at USC.
• 16:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think what we're seeing is a guy who's really trying to grasp a new offense.
• 16:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: And for the first time, I don't know what he did in high school, but for the first time in his life, I'm guessing really trying to operate within a system making sure he is at quarterback that plays on time gets the ball out and where it's supposed to go within a couple of seconds.
• 16:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's the way Ben Johnson wants his offense to run most of the time, and that's what Caleb Williams is trying to do, and that's a bit of a struggle for a guy who didn't do that pretty much ever in college, because he was running around, finding open guys and chucking them all out of the field, and that worked really well at USC, but it certainly didn't work well last season in Chicago, and now he's trying to operate in the system.
• 16:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: So in this system, when the idea is to get the ball
• 16:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: You're going to rush through your read sometimes.
• 17:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: You're going to rush the pass and not necessarily set your feet and have the proper fundamentals when you throw the football.
• 17:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think that rushing the process is what's leading to a lot of inaccuracies.
• 17:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: So as Caleb continues to get more comfortable in this offense and the speed of the game gets more comfortable with him and it's more natural for him to operate at that speed, I think the other parts of his game, the fundamentals, the footwork, the arm, making sure the arm is exactly the way it needs to go.
• 17:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think all that stuff is going to come together, the game will slow down for him and we will see the accuracy improve.
• 17:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: Caleb Williams doesn't need to be able to
• 17:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, to hit a can from 50 yards away on off of someone's head, you know, we don't need to see the William tell, you know, with a football kind of thing with Caleb Williams, we need to see more accurate than this.
• 17:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: He can't be, you know, the by percentage the most inaccurate passer in the NFL that's something we can't have from Caleb Williams, but I think that stuff's going to improve because we're seeing like what was what were my concerns about the Minnesota game, the inaccuracies and that's still there.
• 18:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: but seeing the field, but that's already been improved significantly and that frantic not being comfortable in the pocket and that's improving significantly.
• 18:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: So when I have three major alarm bells going off after the Minnesota game and two of them are already being largely corrected.
• 18:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think that third one is going to get corrected as this offense continues to move forward.
• 18:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, my favorite throw wasn't necessarily a completion that Caleb had, my favorite throw against Washington was the plate where Caleb Williams was going to scramble.
• 18:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: He was about to take off.
• 18:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's about to cross the line of scrimmage.
• 18:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: And all of the sudden he sees Olamide as the key is open over near the sideline where it's like, all right, that's going to be a first down.
• 19:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: I need to complete that pass because I'm not going to get a first down if I scramble here.
• 19:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's too many defenders in front of me.
• 19:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: So he stops.
• 19:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: He somehow with him a yard of the line of scrimmage has enough body control to keep his feet behind the line of scrimmage.
• 19:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm pretty sure his upper body was over the line of scrimmage because he had so much momentum going.
• 19:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: that his upper body kept going forward.
• 19:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's falling forward.
• 19:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then with this wild arm angle, the simps to ball out to the keys.
• 19:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now get inaccurate ball.
• 19:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: He threw it to high.
• 19:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: He threw a missile.
• 19:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't how fast was that ball moving.
• 19:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it was all arm.
• 19:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: There was no body behind it.
• 19:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: He was falling forward.
• 19:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: He unleashed a missile.
• 19:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: If that thing was aging inches loaders, the key is comes down with it.
• 19:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's a first down.
• 19:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's a highlight reel.
• 19:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: But unfortunately, he let that thing just sail on him a little bit.
• 19:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: If Zacchaeus didn't get a hand on that thing, that thing would have gone to the moon.
• 19:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: That thing was about to enter orbit.
• 20:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think gravity was pushing that thing back down.
• 20:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: An unbelievable throw would have loved to have seen Zacchaeus catch that.
• 20:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's being as a key.
• 20:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's not a great game for him.
• 20:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think we need to see Luther burdens starting to get more snaps.
• 20:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: I know Sikias is a coach's best friend.
• 20:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: Just the way he plays is just, you know, he'll block.
• 20:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: He'll run good routes.
• 20:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: He'll do all the little things.
• 20:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: I know coaches love that.
• 20:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure Ben Johnson just loves a guy like Olemene is the key.
• 20:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: But
• 20:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Luther Burton is the more talented player, Luther Burton when he's getting opportunities is making things happen and look maybe there's some other things in the offense that Burton needs to pick up before he can get more snaps obviously you got to trust Ben Johnson that but I would really like to see.
• 20:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: Luther Burton get on the field more often and get more involved in the offense, because he's making things happen there.
• 20:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: And look, the offense is interesting, because like I said, Caleb Williams on pace, throw for 4,000 yards, Roa would do and say, he's rackin up the stats, but other than Roa would do and say, everyone seems to be gettin' 30 yards a game, including DJ Moore, Luther Bird, and Olamide as the key is, the tight ends, like no one else is sitting here where they're gonna seemingly end up with 800 yards.
• 21:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: You keep thinking DJ Moore is gonna break out.
• 21:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: I felt like D. J. Moore was going to get more involved in the offense this week.
• 21:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: Look, that was going to happen early.
• 21:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe that injury he sustained.
• 21:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: We don't have a lot of information on that.
• 21:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe that prevented him from continuing to be one of those guys in the second half.
• 21:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: But, you know, he went over his yardage prop.
• 21:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's all that mattered for me at this point.
• 21:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Four and oh, and my bear's yardage prop's three and oh, from my article.
• 21:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you want to check that out, I want to try and make some money.
• 21:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: Believe we're five and one over the last two weeks on our bears prop.
• 21:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: So,
• 21:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, you want to check that out at Whitney City Grand Iron.
• 21:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: But regardless, would like to see that a little bit more Rochon Johnson even got a carry.
• 21:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: So we're seeing so many different guys getting involved in this offense.
• 21:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's really good to see.
• 21:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: It gives Ben Johnson so much flexibility in terms of what kind of personnel he wants to use and defenses are going to have absolutely no idea.
• 22:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: what to do with what the personnel is.
• 22:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: The personnel is not going to dictate what they're going to do whether they're running or passing the football, which is something that bears have not been able to do in the past.
• 22:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: They're personnel on the field highly told the defense if it was going to be a run or a pass.
• 22:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: And speaking of the defense, Dennis Allen's defense continues to look better.
• 22:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: And this was a Matt, we talked about it.
• 22:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: The fourth quarter of the Minnesota game and the Detroit game.
• 22:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, whatever it was, 73 points that they gave up in five quarters.
• 22:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: And absolutely a bombination of a defense.
• 22:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: Tyreek Stevenson, a perfect passer rating against.
• 22:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: And guys, he was covering through two games of the season.
• 22:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: But we are seeing things get better.
• 22:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: We are seeing Tyreek Stevenson play a lot better.
• 22:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: That he's starting to buy into this defense, buy into this coaching staff.
• 22:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe he's gotten humbled by this coaching staff a little bit something that desperately needed to happen.
• 22:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: But we're seeing a much better Tyreek Stevenson.
• 23:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: season for Tyrex Stevenson.
• 23:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: You saw the players, if you looked at the locker room in some of those videos on Instagram and on Twitter, celebrating specifically with Tyrex Stevenson, kind of given him that, hey, we got our revenge from last season in this stadium.
• 23:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: You got your revenge, too.
• 23:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: We did what we needed to do.
• 23:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: We got the wind.
• 23:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: It felt like that was there from this bear's team for him, that they wanted to almost win this one for Tyrex Stevenson to help bury what happened last year.
• 23:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: So when we see this defense coming together when we see this defense and they gave up a couple bad third down conversions, but when we see this defense really starting to play.
• 23:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: like a Dennis Allen defense and we're seeing turnovers and they're making big plays when they have to.
• 23:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: The pass rush still isn't there.
• 23:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if we're going to get a big pass rush ever from this defense with this specific personnel.
• 24:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe if Brady Jericho gets back and can be
• 24:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: a healthy version of Grady Jarrett.
• 24:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe that'll help a little bit.
• 24:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'll give him one more key defender that's going to have to the offensive lines going to have to focus on Montes wet look better.
• 24:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: We didn't see Montes wet being a terror in the backfield, but he did have a key pressure on Jane Daniels.
• 24:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: He did have a past of flexion.
• 24:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: He did cause the
• 24:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: at least last in this last game.
• 24:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, look, is he worth 25 million?
• 24:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: Not the way he's playing, no, but we need to see a better version of Montez sweat, but we're starting to see that.
• 24:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: So hopefully that continues to get there.
• 24:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: Dominique Robinson had his hands on a quarterback.
• 24:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: How about that?
• 24:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like when that happens, you know, Armageddon's coming.
• 24:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: So enjoy this bears season before the world ends because that's about the only way.
• 24:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: Dominique Robinson can get in the backfield.
• 24:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: He hasn't been doing that since his first game against San Francisco
• 24:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: So we're seeing this defense come together.
• 25:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's never going to, it's not going to be great this year.
• 25:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: But if it can be average to slightly below average, that's going to go a really long way for the Chicago Bears in terms of what they can become moving forward.
• 25:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: So let's finish up with one more thing before we get to Matt Spiegel.
• 25:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that's playoffs.
• 25:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's possible, but these next few games are going to be really key for the bears.
• 25:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like we look at this right now, bearers are three and two.
• 25:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: If the playoffs started today, they would not be in, I understand they had a buy and that's part of it, but there's enough four and two and five and one teams in the NFC.
• 25:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: The bears would not be in the playoffs right now.
• 25:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: They've got the Saints at home.
• 25:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: They don't win that one.
• 25:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's a bad loss.
• 25:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I think we should expect the bears can beat the Saints at home.
• 25:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: That'll put him at four and two.
• 25:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then there are next three games.
• 25:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: They're all winnable.
• 25:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: Ravens on the road.
• 25:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: Lamar Jackson will be back.
• 25:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: We'll see what kind of version.
• 25:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: We don't know who the Baltimore Ravens are.
• 26:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's an impossible game to predict.
• 26:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: It really is for me.
• 26:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: I have no idea what to expect from the Baltimore Ravens.
• 26:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: The Bengals with Joe Flacco and not Joe Burrow.
• 26:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then the Giants.
• 26:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: you should win the Bengals game.
• 26:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: You should win the Giants game.
• 26:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's a home game.
• 26:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: And you can win the Ravens game.
• 26:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: But let's be conservative here.
• 26:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let's say they win two out of those three games.
• 26:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: That went put the bears at six and three after beaten the Saints.
• 26:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: 6 and 3 with 8 to play, puts the bears in a damn good spot, 4 and 4, they get to 10 and 7 and look 10 and 7, you've got a good shot to make the playoffs.
• 26:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think it's guaranteed in the NFC this year that 10 and 7 is going to make the playoffs.
• 26:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think 9 and 8 definitely doesn't make the playoffs in the NFC this year.
• 26:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's too many good teams.
• 26:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: 10 and 7, you still might miss on the virtue of tiebreakers, but you're going to be right there in the mix.
• 26:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I'm not trying to sit here and concoct away for the bears to get to 11 and 6.
• 26:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think 10 and 7 is the key number if you want to get the playoffs.
• 27:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: So obviously 7 and 2 would be huge, but let's take a step back here, and let's say the bears are 6 and 3.
• 27:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: Then they've got that Pittsburgh game.
• 27:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: That is going to be a tricky game there.
• 27:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: If they can split those next couple games and be seven and four, Minnesota's the other game.
• 27:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: Be seven and four head into that Eagles game because let's be honest, infiladelphia, that's probably a loss that puts them at seven and five with five to play.
• 27:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let's say they split with the Packers.
• 27:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: Packers are a good team trying to be the Packers twice is probably going to be too much that's eight and six.
• 27:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: They've got to make sure they meet Cleveland at home.
• 27:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: That puts them at nine and six.
• 27:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: then you've got an opportunity against at San Francisco and home against Detroit.
• 27:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: You've got to beat the big boys.
• 27:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you want to prove, you can run with the big boys.
• 27:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: So being nine and six with two games to go against San Francisco and Detroit would be a great spot for the bearers to be in.
• 28:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: You win them both.
• 28:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: Who knows you could win the division?
• 28:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: You split them 10 and seven.
• 28:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: You got a good shot to get in the playoffs.
• 28:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: And if you lose them both, and you finish nine and eight, well, you weren't quite ready.
• 28:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: definitely pointing up.
• 28:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let's get to Matt Spiegel.
• 28:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: He joins me next.
• 28:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is Bill Zimmerman, Bears Banner.
• 28:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: We'll be right back.
• 28:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: All right.
• 28:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is going to be fun because this gentleman's joined the podcast the last few years.
• 28:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think every time he joins, the bears are a hot mess.
• 28:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: But for once, they are coming off an excellent win.
• 28:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: Two excellent wins in a row.
• 28:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: In fact, he is Matt Spiegel.
• 28:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: Of course, you know, from Spiegel in homes on the score.
• 28:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: And he joins me now,
• 28:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: Bill, I'm great man.
• 28:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: I feel like this is what bears fans deserve after all the years that we've been through and it's about Ben Johnson.
• 28:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's not necessarily about Caleb Williams and what we always thought would be a quarterback being the savior.
• 29:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think we have a coach who is a flat-out superstar.
• 29:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: So that's pretty fun.
• 29:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, actually you know, that is exactly where I was going to start.
• 29:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: So let's let's start there with Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams and I want to talk more specifically about Caleb Williams because there's plenty of things to be excited about with Caleb as well, but Ben Johnson to me, like right now it's kind of one of those things where I'm sitting here going, I may have a crush on Ben Johnson as high as one heterosexual male can have on another.
• 29:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: like it's it's really we get going to a place here Matt.
• 29:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, this is this is a guy, you know, with this.
• 29:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, he's a nerd who just wants a white board.
• 29:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, this guy is in the locker room.
• 29:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: He is motivating the team.
• 29:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: This team is following him.
• 29:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: He is changing this culture.
• 29:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's clear what's happening these last few weeks here with the Raiders game and now this commander's game.
• 29:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's really exciting to see because you're seeing all the parts coming together
• 29:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: the pieces aren't fitting quite yet but they're already getting victories which when you look at what Detroit had to do with Dan Campbell in terms of turning around that culture and how long it took.
• 30:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: The fact that they're getting these wins now is really exciting in terms of what is to come, not just for this year but for a year's later.
• 30:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, no, that's absolutely true.
• 30:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: The fact that they're getting wins, while they're jelly and while players are learning, I mean, Caleb was kind of a mess last night on a bunch of different specific plays.
• 30:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: There were a lot of mistakes, but that's okay because he totally rose to the occasion.
• 30:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: And we'll talk about him.
• 30:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: But Ben is, look, man, my biggest question about Ben in the off season when he took this job
• 30:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: is he really a communicator and a leader the way that that coach needs to be and is he fast-style enough as an offensive thinker to adjust things as opposed to just doing what he does and waiting until he has players and circumstances to fit what he does.
• 30:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: He is a real dude, and we have seen that, yes, he's a nerd, and can say that about himself and laugh.
• 31:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, he's odd with his little sayings, make better your best until, you know, whatever, that whole thing.
• 31:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: And like, there was another one last night, right?
• 31:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: There was a new one last night in the locker room.
• 31:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: A Caleb talked about how it's like, oh, we're over there on that, which is because Caleb didn't want to.
• 31:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: But we love this bleep, you know, we love this crap.
• 31:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: So it's like,
• 31:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: And he's got a real way of communicating about himself.
• 31:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: And it mits when he's wrong.
• 31:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: But he also was arrogant about himself.
• 31:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: Caleb shared that story about him on headset going, oh, man, wait a minute, we get this one.
• 31:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: We got a dial one up right here.
• 31:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is going to be awesome.
• 31:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah, you know.
• 31:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: So he's like, he's a genuine dude.
• 31:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: And clearly as an offensive bind and a strategist and a play collar, he's comfortable figuring out what his team does best.
• 31:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: And adjusting to that.
• 31:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: I was so excited to see him off of the buy, right?
• 32:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: And see what he had planned to do and was going to do to try and make the run to game work.
• 32:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because if the run game doesn't work, his offense doesn't work.
• 32:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: And frankly, I think the NFL doesn't work.
• 32:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: If your run game doesn't work.
• 32:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: And look what he did.
• 32:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Look how good that run game was with the change in personnel up front.
• 32:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: But also the change in schematics to what he was going to use.
• 32:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the winnowing down.
• 32:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is what he said after the game that got me so excited.
• 32:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't expect it.
• 32:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: He said, this was the smallest menu of plays they have had all season long.
• 32:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is not a guy that expanded.
• 32:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like, oh, here's the buy.
• 32:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now let me show you my geniusness.
• 32:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: No.
• 32:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: All right.
• 32:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think we can do
• 32:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let's just execute and do this stuff well and made it smaller.
• 32:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: Man, I love that and it totally played out that they were able to run the ball and put this game away at the end is just after the way this run game looked in the first couple weeks of the season, you would not have imagined that in their sixth game or their fifth game, excuse me, they were able to do it like they did it last night.
• 33:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: Super exciting, I think the coach is a superstar.
• 33:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and you know, one more thing on the co-chair and you brought it up there about how he's he's willing to criticize himself and I think that's so important not just for the bears, but across this league that players see coaches holding themselves accountable and we talked about it a lot with Matt Eberfluos on this podcast.
• 33:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: I know the score did as well about how he did, you know, not just the commander's Hail Mary debacle, but in other instances how he never really held himself accountable it was always,
• 33:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: which is just pointing the fingers at players.
• 33:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: In fact, Aaron Glenn, who had absolutely atrocious coaching performance in Europe there on Sunday morning against the Broncos, said basically it was right out of Maddie Bruce's playbook after that game.
• 33:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: We just need to execute better.
• 33:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that's not what the jet players need to hear at 0 and 5.
• 34:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that's the kind of thing that the bear's locker room had to deal with.
• 34:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: The fact that he's sitting there after the Vikings game and going, I got greedy, I wanted five yards.
• 34:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: Shoulda had Cairo kicked the ball out of bounds.
• 34:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not getting the tight ends involved enough.
• 34:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's not on Caleb.
• 34:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not dialing it up properly.
• 34:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like we constantly hear him criticizing himself and holding himself accountable for things he needs to do better.
• 34:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: So in previous weeks when he says this team's not practicing like a championship caliber team and some of the other things he said or Dennis Allen or Rochard, any of these guys have said over the last few weeks.
• 34:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: When the coaching staff is holding themselves accountable publicly,
• 34:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: They can hold the roster publicly accountable as well.
• 34:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think that goes a really long way in terms of building that trust in that bond.
• 34:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: 100% and we've known this and talked about it and to see it and hear it after games is another thing.
• 34:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: What did we hear from Caleb Williams post game last night when he was asked about the deandry swift 55 yard touchdown Caleb said, I screwed up the play call in the huddle.
• 35:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: He's willing to say that Bill, he's willing to say that he screwed something up.
• 35:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: And he was asked further like, so when did you get it right?
• 35:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: He's like, well, after the snap and he kind of rolls his eyes.
• 35:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like the team bailed him out and he's willing to say that because, Amen, we all screw up and you're 23 year old kid who's learning out of being NFL quarterback.
• 35:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is massive.
• 35:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, yes.
• 35:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Ben being willing to point the thumb as made players willing to point the thumb and then you know what happens your own players back you up your own players are like oh yeah Caleb's just like me he messes up sometimes that's cool let's help him along because the better he gets the better we are so yeah the way you are is ahead coach transfers to your players and it's the same frankly as the confidence you remember man after the Vegas game when the when Caleb showed up strong at the end Ben said
• 36:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: and Caleb said after the game to have been saying that to him gave him the confidence to then go lead his team and say, we got this guys.
• 36:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, how you are as a leader transfers to your other leaders in humility and in confidence both.
• 36:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: So we're seeing it in practice and it's super exciting.
• 36:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it really is and the other thing that you mentioned is that this running game looked so much better against Washington and Washington doesn't have an elite defense, but it's certainly a functional defense, this isn't just, you know, like a lot of people wanted to do the, oh, well, Caleb looked right against Dallas because Russell Wilson even looked right against Dallas, like that kind of thing, the Washington defense is a functional defense and the fact that they blocked this so much better and I've been critical of the Andre Swift.
• 36:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: plenty over the over the last season and a quarter year.
• 36:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: But he is running really hard this season, which I think is the credit to Ben Johnson.
• 36:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: He is slamming those holes hard.
• 36:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: Doesn't have the best vision.
• 37:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: But when the offensive scheme and the run blocking is opening up the holes like they did last night, even if you're running back has limited vision when he says
• 37:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: as quick and as agile as Swift is, it's going to work out really well and we saw that last night.
• 37:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we know how important this run game is for Ben Johnson for his whole offense to come together.
• 37:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: And if that really starts coming together, I think kind of the clunkiness of the passing game might start getting solved as well.
• 37:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: I uh, I was laughing as you asked your question because I've gotten a journey with the Andre Swift like when the bears signed him, I was telling people, no man, this guy can actually be a bell cow at times because I'd seen him do it somewhat in Philly, a little bit enough for me to be a happy about it.
• 37:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then last year I was super disappointed with them.
• 37:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I, like you, I criticized him like crazy.
• 37:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: This year in the offseason, I got excited about him again, because of the way that Ben's schemes.
• 38:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: And because the way Ben was talking about him, and the way that Eric B. Enemy, the running back coach was talking about him.
• 38:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: And in fact, last night Ben said, this is what I thought we were getting going into the season.
• 38:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: He said that about the Andre Swift.
• 38:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then the first few games, I'm like, oh, man, he's still doing that thing.
• 38:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, God.
• 38:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then last night, he was awesome.
• 38:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, he found creases.
• 38:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: Bye.
• 38:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: He found creases, he was very physical, he was aggressive, he ran hard between the tackles and he was incredibly productive.
• 38:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: This was a beautiful version of DeAndre's Swift.
• 38:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then you add the make a play on the outside on the touchdown that we had already talked about.
• 38:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: But it's like this was the version of DeAndre's Swift.
• 38:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: I thought might be possible in this offense.
• 38:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: But you mentioned the offensive line.
• 38:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: Kevin Fishbain and the athletic had the numbers bill.
• 38:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: where of all the running backs in the NFL, the red at more than 10 times in this week's six, the Andre Swift had the most yards before he was touched of any running back in the NFL.
• 39:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: The offensive line did its job, and the Andre Swift had opportunities to build up some steam and then find a crease and attack.
• 39:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: And if you're doing that, then he can be a very effective running back, which he was last night.
• 39:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and let's talk about this offensive linens and specifically it left tackle here because you know, I think everyone had confidence in Darnell Wright.
• 39:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: Everyone was excited about what Tuney, Dalman, and Jackson could be as a trio.
• 39:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: We knew it was going to be a significant upgrade, but when Braxon Jones kind of started falling apart and it may just be health issues that may not even necessarily be his fault.
• 39:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: What's going on with him and they just couldn't find it right Trapilla wasn't switching from the right side to the left side.
• 39:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, Karana, Magaji, we know all
• 39:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: And here comes Theo Bennett it and I know he doesn't have the length.
• 39:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't have the necessarily that the assets, the traits that Ryan polls and other GMs would look for at left tackle.
• 40:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: And you know, I like to go back and watch the offensive lines specifically after the game.
• 40:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're recording this Tuesday morning after Monday night football.
• 40:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I haven't had a chance to do that.
• 40:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: But watching Theo Bennett it live.
• 40:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: It was really good what I saw him doing.
• 40:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like he's not going to sit there and just overpower a guy and drive him back eight yards and pancake him, but he was consistently getting in front of guys.
• 40:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: He wasn't getting pushed in the Caleb's lap.
• 40:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: He wasn't getting beat on the outside.
• 40:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: I thought, you know, from just, you know, the cash will watching the online while you're trying to follow the whole game.
• 40:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: I thought Bennett had looked really good.
• 40:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's obviously a credit to him, but it's not just a credit to him.
• 40:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think it's a credit to Rochar and Ben Johnson that they're willing to give guys like Theo Bennett a chance if they're playing hard enough and playing well enough in training camp and in preseason like he did and work his way up the dev chart.
• 40:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's really exciting.
• 40:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: to see this, not because I'm sitting here thinking Theo Bennett is going to be the bear's left tackle for the next 10 years.
• 40:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: He probably isn't going to be, but the idea that these players are getting opportunities and they're making the most of it again, I think it goes back to culture.
• 41:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think this offensive line, I mean, we talked about all the struggles in front of Justin Theo's and front of Caleb Williams and both those guys last year and previously held on to the ball too long.
• 41:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: made it hard for the offensive line.
• 41:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: But with Ben Johnson and getting this ball out quicker and what they're doing, getting the run game established, this offensive line is really starting to come together.
• 41:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're really, really like you talked about the numbers with the Andre Swift.
• 41:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is becoming a top 10 offensive line in the league.
• 41:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Man, that's crazy to think about.
• 41:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, I'll tell you a couple of things there.
• 41:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Number one, run game matters more than past game, even for the left tackle to Ben Johnson.
• 41:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, Braxton Jones might be a better past blocker or at least can lose slower, like Theo Benedict could lose slower, you know, as a left tackle, but in the run game,
• 41:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: feel benedict destroys Braxton Jones and that's what this change was about and that's what matters more to make in the whole offense tick.
• 42:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's number one.
• 42:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: Number two is I trust Ben Johnson and Dan Rauschard the offensive line coach.
• 42:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
• 42:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I didn't develop on the lines of life, and more than I do, Ryan Polls, wasn't offensive.
• 42:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't call it, and he's supposed to be the offensive line whisperer, he was in Kansas City, when they drafted who, Creed Humphrey, and they drafted, uh, uh, um, is a choice Smith, the guard who'd race Smith.
• 42:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, trace them and thank you.
• 42:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: But like,
• 42:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: I trust Ben Johnson more than Ryan Polls and that's okay, that doesn't mean you've got a fire Ryan Polls.
• 42:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: It means that you let a head coach dictate the philosophy of your entire organization because that's how the best NFL organizations work.
• 42:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: John Lynch consults Kyle Shanahan and he should, you know, and Ben Johnson, the fact that he looks around and he's like
• 43:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think that's my guy not the second round pick that Ryan polls handed him is telling as to who's opinion matters more and that's okay so I'm glad that they've landed on Theo and I don't know how long it's going to last I'm not that concerned with it it might last a good long while I don't know
• 43:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: But I know that right now, to get good, this is what Ben Johnson and Dan Rauchar want and more power to them.
• 43:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's obviously a better choice than Braxton, who may be hampered by injury, but also just isn't the right fit for what they want to do.
• 43:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: So look, I think Ben Johnson gave Ryan Pohl's the win on giving Braxton Jones a chance.
• 43:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: He gave Ryan Pohl's the win on drafting Aussie Trapillo and now that they're in season, Ben gets to do what he wants and I'm all for it.
• 43:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and it's so far so good.
• 43:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, it will see how this looks moving forward.
• 43:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: So let's talk about Caleb Williams.
• 43:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: Obviously, that's that's the guy.
• 43:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: Every Barry's fan wants to talk about and look, it didn't look perfect last night that we're certainly some some off target balls.
• 44:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: I want to talk to you about Troy, I'm just commentaries while and I love Troy, but we'll get it in that in a minute.
• 44:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: But with with Caleb Williams here, it hasn't looked perfect.
• 44:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: But here's what's exciting, like, it hasn't looked perfect.
• 44:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think every bear's final sitting there and said, yeah, he's off target on some stuff, just some of the, you know, he's pressing here there and whatever it might be.
• 44:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: But right now, and it's not just a two-game sample size.
• 44:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: Five games, almost a third of the season.
• 44:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: Caleb Williams is on pace for over 4,000 yards.
• 44:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: 31 touchdown passes, not running as well.
• 44:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: 31 passing touchdowns and seven interceptions.
• 44:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: And absolutely phenomenal season for a guy that we don't even think,
• 44:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: this offense has completely been cohesive with him yet, which really shows you where it could be when he starts looking a little better.
• 44:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think that's a big credit to Ben Johnson and to Caleb's credit, yes, he held on the ball a couple times too long, got sacked a couple times.
• 44:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: But it looks so much better than it did last season and he's getting the ball out so much quicker.
• 45:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's getting through his reads quicker.
• 45:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: Everything with Caleb, the pace is picking up and his play has vastly improved
• 45:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it it it it has I grabbed my my notes as I from when I was watching the game last night as we talked because I wanted to see how many times I marked a little Caleb and accurate moments and I marked all the eight men subtle critiques that you're talking about maybe they weren't so so subtle and and I'll save that if you want to talk about just eight men specifically, but here's the thing Caleb is still an accurate at times Caleb is still learning Caleb is a work in progress and that's
• 45:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: But he is doing everything he is asking him to do and trying to do it.
• 45:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: And you see, I'm in time again, he make decisions that are better than last year.
• 45:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: So many decisions that are better.
• 45:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: So few times he holds it and then talks and runs and tries to make something up.
• 45:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's still a couple moments where you're like, oh boy, I wonder if he could have just delivered.
• 46:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: But he's trying to get it done and he's on his way.
• 46:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm cool with where he is.
• 46:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: If this is a big ask, this is a massive ask.
• 46:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: that Ben is asking of him and that we're expecting of him and it's maybe an ask we didn't realize we were going to need which is him to really learn how to do this but he's learning.
• 46:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: The sack numbers are way way down because the more times he just gets rid of the ball on those plays there's even isn't even a sack that's possible.
• 46:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: So first of all we're limiting.
• 46:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: We're limiting the times where we're hoping that he gets rid of it instead of holding holds it.
• 46:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: like Justin Fields getting sack to nine times on Sunday morning.
• 46:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, like it's not, it's not that kind of experience even remotely right now.
• 46:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I'll say this, I saw some massive improvements from Caleb on some specific plays.
• 46:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, last week, even just last week.
• 46:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: He fired the ball to DeAndre's swift on some outlets when he needed to use a little bit of touch.
• 46:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: He used touch last night multiple times on these little dump offs to DeAndre.
• 47:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: So it's showing me that he is a DeAndre even credited on the 55 yard of forgetting me the bubble early and giving me a chance.
• 47:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: He at Caleb is getting more controlled and more composed and more poised by the game.
• 47:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: We are seeing it happen.
• 47:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: So all of that stuff and I believe the accuracy will come with that.
• 47:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: We'll come with the poise in some of those little moments.
• 47:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: He's learning and what he has.
• 47:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: is a real calm at the end of games which is just special man and he's always had that and it's super exciting he's like as a dude he loves the end of games he loves those moments where he gets to just ball out and Ben knows that and lets him do that he talks about wanting to like pressure him like crazy during the week right him hard and then on some days just go play
• 47:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: just go play.
• 47:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: You're good at this.
• 47:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: And like that is it's a beautiful teaching mechanism that Ben is using with him and Caleb's getting better.
• 48:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Caleb's getting better at every week.
• 48:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: The fact that the winning ballies getting better is an unbelievable gift.
• 48:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, no it really is and you talked about it like the confidence that Ben's instilling him in him where he's like all right there are times where you need to play my game and there are times where you can play your game and and what we need to do is marry the to marry the two things where you know they start looking together.
• 48:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: If I can jump in like that confidence that he's instilling man, that's what makes Ben a super star Like that's a big part of it.
• 48:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like this is what Kevin O'Connell does with every quarterback that goes through there This is what Kyle Stattahan's doing with Mac Jones Mac Jones right now.
• 48:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's like he makes these guys confident That's your job So you got to break him down, but you got to build him back up and you got to do it on the fly.
• 48:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's what I think Ben is so good
• 48:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and, and we're seeing Caleb still do thing like the, the, the play to Rome, then obviously got called back and I don't think it should have with with with with the Benedict penalty, but you know, that was a great play.
• 49:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'll tell you, it was an incompletion, but the, the throw I absolutely loved.
• 49:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I don't remember the exact down in distance, but Caleb was scrambling in the backfield a little bit.
• 49:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: Decided he was going to run the football.
• 49:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: The last second before he crosses the line of scrimmage, he
• 49:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: C's Olamide is the key is over by the sideline decides he's going to throw the ball.
• 49:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: He somehow keeps his feet behind the line of scrimmage.
• 49:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's got so much momentum going forward that his whole body is starting to tip forward, awkward arm angle, and he unleashes a missile.
• 49:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now again, it was too high and the key is couldn't catch it.
• 49:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: If it was 18 inches lower, that's a phenomenal throw in catch.
• 49:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that's the kind of thing, that athleticism that he has to make these ridiculous throws.
• 49:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't a completion, but we've seen Caleb complete those ridiculous throws as well.
• 49:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's the kind of stuff where you sit there and just go as Ben keeps harnessing this and Caleb keeps figuring things out.
• 49:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: All the pieces are there for this guy to become a really special quarterback.
• 50:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I agree with you, and I remember the play you're talking about in general, he scrambles to throw and not scramble to run and who runs sometimes and he's fast enough to do it, but when he buys time, he is looking to make a play down the field and I absolutely love that because that's sometimes going to get a defender in conflict.
• 50:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Look, we referenced it and know you mentioned what I'm going to talk about it.
• 50:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'll tell you right now, I'm cool with Troy Akman's critique.
• 50:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: I want honestly, I want exactly how the veteran Hall of Fame quarterback who does this for a living feels, I don't take it as you're cropping on our player.
• 50:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: I take it as, let's get smarter.
• 50:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: And we've been through this with Tribiskey and Fields and Caleb, and now we've got Ben.
• 50:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is a work in progress.
• 50:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's stuff to critique on Caleb every week, and Ben is critiquing it.
• 50:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: and we should be comfortable talking about it too while we're also praising the fact that the kid is getting better and we're winning.
• 50:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and that's where I was going to go next was Troy Eggman.
• 51:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I'm glad you brought it up a little bit.
• 51:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: And look, there were some criticisms that were absolutely fairer Caleb Williams.
• 51:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: So we talked about it how he was he was inaccurate multiple times yesterday.
• 51:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: They even flashed up the stat that he has the most you know off target balls in the league still by percentage at this point.
• 51:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: So we know things need to
• 51:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I don't think it's just like he is an inaccurate passer.
• 51:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: I do think like you said, as he gets more comfortable in the offense, I think he's Russian throws.
• 51:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's not setting his feet a lot of times, and that's why you're getting Aaron passes.
• 51:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I think there are some of the criticisms we're fair for Troy equipment.
• 51:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: But first of all, let me just say, I think bucket equipment is the best broadcasting duo in the league.
• 51:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: I love them.
• 51:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think they're fantastic.
• 51:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I don't think Joe was hyper critical or anything like that.
• 51:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: I do think Troy, and I know Troy hates quarterbacks that they don't play on time.
• 51:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: And Caleb's playing more and more on time, but he does have that aspect to him.
• 51:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I just did think that Troy at times, especially in the second half, was looking for
• 52:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: critiques to make of Caleb rather than just let them naturally come.
• 52:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
• 52:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what it was.
• 52:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: It did feel a little over the top for me from Troy, but you think it was mostly fair.
• 52:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I thought it was fair.
• 52:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: I thought it was fair and I thought it was insightful.
• 52:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: And frankly, I think I think that's how Ben talks to Caleb.
• 52:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I think we got a window.
• 52:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: We got a window
• 52:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: and how and how every play is worthy of critique you want to be great let's talk about every little thing and when you're great we'll tell you you're great but when you're not let's talk about how you get better I thought Troy was comfortable and look Troy taught said enough things to know what he's getting from Ben
• 52:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: two like I mean he said that Caleb needs to be more accurate to throw what Ben calls a runners ball.
• 52:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: Remember that earlier in the game on one of those crosses that if you're not perfectly accurate on those, you're not going to get the yards after catch.
• 52:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: We just saw it in the Detroit offense on a James and Williams touchdown on Monday night against Kansas City where he gets a runners ball and then makes the move and then breaks a tackle and scores a touchdown.
• 53:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: But if you
• 53:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: then you're not getting there.
• 53:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now we don't know exactly if Zacchaeus is stopping his routes before Caleb thinks he should have that's on Zacchaeus or on Caleb.
• 53:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: But I think it's probably on Caleb.
• 53:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: My gut would be that's on Caleb every once in a while.
• 53:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that's
• 53:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's okay man, it's a big ask, it's a hard job, and you're playing on the fly.
• 53:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: You're not watching and learning, and you're doing in practice, you're playing on the fly.
• 53:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: I was totally cool with Troy's critique, and I think Bear's fans could stand to be a little less sensitive about hearing the truth about your franchise quarterback.
• 53:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: All right, a couple more things here with Matt's vehicle before we let him go let's move over the defensive side of the ball because I did think the defense I know they gave up 24 points, but I did think the defense looked a lot better and a lot of different aspects still not getting a ton of pressure they got a little pressure last night still not getting a ton of pressure I think that's just going to be a chronic issue with the personalities that they have up front here.
• 54:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I will say, and I felt for the most part, we saw it again, the same things, the positive things with Dennis Allen's defense, where they might give up some yards.
• 54:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: It might not always look pretty, but a lot of times they're going to come through on third down and they're going to force turnovers.
• 54:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I understand that turnovers aren't sustainable.
• 54:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: You're not getting three turnovers in game, every game, moving forward this season in next season.
• 54:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: But while the rest of the defense
• 54:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: creating turnovers and giving the offense short fields, it's going to go a long way in terms of keeping this unit together.
• 54:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: So just kind of some thoughts on the defense overall and how Dennis Allen's been doing through five games.
• 54:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, I think Dennis Allen now with TJ Edwards back and with Kyler Gordon back was freed up to do the kind of stuff schematically he's been wanting to do I I he played a lot more man with Kyler and even though Kyler got burned on the touchdown it was a really good ball and a really good wrap by Christian Moore.
• 55:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: But he played a lot more man and it freed him up to move Jekwan Brisker up and have him helping run defense and freed him up to play around with Kevin Byrd a little bit and then TJ's just such a good football player such a smart football player in the run game and more he was still little hampered by the hamstring got beat an open space a little bit but anyway I thought Dennis Allen schemed up a lot more of the kind of game plan that he wants to do that now he's
• 55:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: I thought Andrew Billings was present that it was more than what we've seen and I thought the run defense was better and the run defense is not just the defense of lying folks it is attacking and gang tackling and it's those linebackers and you know terrain Edmunds has been pretty darn good this year and I've been critical of him at times in the past but I thought terrain Edmunds and Edwards were real good and I was pleased with the
• 56:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: up front Bill Crosskey Merritt is good man.
• 56:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: He's good.
• 56:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: He is he is wiggly.
• 56:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: He is shifty and he turned a couple of one or two yard gains into some six seven and eight yard gains.
• 56:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: So give him credit for that.
• 56:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: But I was pleased with the defense of overt overall.
• 56:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: And even though Montez SWAT didn't get a sack, he was in there on some pressures.
• 56:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: He
• 56:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: He was better.
• 56:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, he did force the fumble and he did bat down a pass of the line of scrimmage.
• 56:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I noticed Montez sweat the most that I've noticed him in a positive way so far this year.
• 56:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I'll also give Tyreek Stevenson credit.
• 56:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, he had a perfect pass of writing against through two games.
• 56:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: He has looked a lot better.
• 56:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: A lot of people were hopeful for how he would look in Dennis Allen's scheme and he is definitely looking better the last few weeks.
• 56:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, he definitely has and I thought there was a moment, you know, he got burnt on the double move that ended up being the deep ball down the right side where Bired came and made the tackle.
• 56:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: That was a one seemingly bad moment for Tyreek Stevenson, but he's been playing a lot better the last three weeks and he's having a moment.
• 57:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: He's having a maturation,
• 57:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: moment.
• 57:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you've been listening to Tyreek the last three weeks, if you've been hearing how he talks about being coached about going to the coaches and asking for help, hey, I don't understand this play.
• 57:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Can you help me?
• 57:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't understand this coverage scheme and Al Harris and others helping him out, man.
• 57:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: Again, that is part of the humility that is demanded by the coach and that the coach is showing himself.
• 57:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I think Tyreek's having a very good moment of maturation and we're seeing that play into effect.
• 57:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: We haven't even talked about Jake
• 57:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: That was where I was going next is I said we can't not talk about Jake Moody during this interview and look, I'm not want to sit here and debate should it be Moody should it be Cairo Santos forget all that.
• 57:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let's let's just enjoy the moment with Jake Moody.
• 57:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean this guy had a you know pretty much a disastrous campaign after being a third round pick in San Francisco bear stash him on the practice squad.
• 57:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: Here he gets gets called up hits a bunch of critical field goes.
• 58:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean the one field was why you could see why the though.
• 58:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: Niners to one miss why the Niners let him go.
• 58:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, he basically kicked it in the backs of the offensive linemen.
• 58:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: It was so low.
• 58:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: But still with the game on the line with the pressure there that team rallied around him.
• 58:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: He got that ball through the uprights.
• 58:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: He saw Caleb William celebrating with them afterwards.
• 58:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's the kind of camaraderie and everything you need in the locker room.
• 58:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, what what a great moment for Moody.
• 58:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: It was a it was a lot of fun and a huge win for the bears.
• 58:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thanks to him.
• 58:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: What a great moment for him.
• 58:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: I love the idea that so many bears fans are today getting to know Jake moody like in post game You know, that's the first time that 99% of bears fans ever heard his voice or watched him speak Sure, like oh, it's kind of he's got kind of an interesting vibe right there He's well, let's learn about Jake moody his teammates just learned about him in what other line of work do you show up?
• 58:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: meet your teammates and then play that critical role and get a game ball.
• 58:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's what an amazing story and good for the long snapper and the holder and Richard Height Tower for having an infrastructure where the kicker can just step in and do his thing.
• 59:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: Very fun story that we get to celebrate today with a with a surprising road win
• 59:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: If they beat the Saints in a winnable home game next week, they could be four and two jump feeling that very different feeling.
• 59:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, right.
• 59:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's it's going to look amazing.
• 59:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: So last one for you.
• 59:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to tap into the with a baseball question here for Matt Spiegel here as as we wrap up this is going to be a three part question, but you can answer them all pretty quickly.
• 59:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: What is one key thing that Cubs need to focus on this off season, what where are the socks on the rebuild what do they need to focus on this off season and give me a team not name the Dodgers that you think can win the world series.
• 59:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Um, the cubs need to add a power pitcher with swing and miss stuff who can be a starter for them all year.
• 59:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: And if he's not a starter in the postseason, can do what we've seen some of these bulk reliever weapons do in the postseason.
• 1:00:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, and you can figure that out when you get there as bullpens change all along the way.
• 1:00:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: Go get the best swing and miss power, righty arm that you can get.
• 1:00:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I think maybe it's Dylan Seas.
• 1:00:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Um, what do the white socks do?
• 1:00:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: Uh, the white socks have to add a couple of well chosen veterans and further accelerate the ability for all those young pictures to come up and have an effect.
• 1:00:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Um, and I want to see another 15 to 20 game improvement from the white socks next year.
• 1:00:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that that's what this season has to be about.
• 1:00:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: And a team other than the Dodgers,
• 1:00:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: Man, the Mariners, if Julio Rodriguez hits like he's been hitting, and obviously, or a Polaco's a great story, but the Mariners have the arms.
• 1:00:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: They've got the starting arms in Castillo and Logan Gilbert and Bryce Miller, and now Brian Wu is back, and they've got the closer and moon youas if they can figure out a couple more bullpen arms to really trust along the way.
• 1:01:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: This could be the Mariners year, and I'm hoping they get there.
• 1:01:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: They've never been there.
• 1:01:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: that team has never been to the world series.
• 1:01:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm hoping for their fan base, they at least get there and it looks pretty good right now.
• 1:01:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, they're they're looking good there in the ALC.
• 1:01:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let's go figure it's the big dump her that gets it done and not the big unit.
• 1:01:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: But that's that's for a different podcast.
• 1:01:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: There he is.
• 1:01:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: Matt Spiegel, Spiegel, and Paul.
• 1:01:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: Matt, thanks for the interview.
• 1:01:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: That was a great conversation.
• 1:01:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: Enjoy the rest of the bare season and hopefully they keep chalking up W's.
• 1:01:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: A Bill Pleasures always meant.
• 1:01:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
• 1:01:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: All right.
• 1:01:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: There.
• 1:01:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: He is Matt Spiegel.
• 1:01:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: Everybody always good conversation with Matt that that was a lot of fun.
• 1:01:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: I enjoyed that.
• 1:01:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like I said, Matt, and I get to talk bears coming off of something positive before we jump into the mailbag.
• 1:01:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: Again, want to push the merchandise from win from second city.
• 1:01:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: Gradiron again, just Google.
• 1:01:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: Second city Gradiron merchandise.
• 1:02:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: It'll be the first hit that comes up.
• 1:02:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: you can get merch, whether that's T-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, winter hats, ball caps, shot glasses, you know, glasses, mugs, everything you could think of there with all your fit with second city gridiron with making monsters, mac and read.
• 1:02:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: Bear bones, bear and balance, anything with a bear name, we've probably already used it, wrap it up.
• 1:02:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: We've got all our shows on Second City Grand Iron Merchant Dice's page.
• 1:02:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: Make sure you go there.
• 1:02:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: And if you get, I've seen some bears banter merch out the wild.
• 1:02:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let's get some more bears banter merch out there.
• 1:02:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's really great stuff.
• 1:02:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've got stuff coming as well.
• 1:02:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'll start wearing it on here as well.
• 1:02:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'll honk my own merchandise.
• 1:02:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't mind.
• 1:02:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: doing it.
• 1:02:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, make sure you go get some second city gridiron merchandise and let's get some merch out there in the streets.
• 1:03:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: But let's get to the mailbag.
• 1:03:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're going to start with Jared Zimmer, who's a man shy of having a fantastic name.
• 1:03:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: I know you weren't worried about Caleb Williams after week one.
• 1:03:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Where do you think you sit on him now?
• 1:03:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: Why don't I want to sit on Caleb Williams at all, Jared.
• 1:03:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: But where do I think he is as a quarterback?
• 1:03:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: he's doing pretty good.
• 1:03:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's not perfect.
• 1:03:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: It is not where I'd like to see it, but I'm absolutely okay with where it is right now.
• 1:03:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that's the thing is Caleb Williams destined to become Patrick Holmes.
• 1:03:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe not, but he certainly has the field with Ben Johnson and him team together.
• 1:03:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: Certainly as the field of being a top 10 quarterback, which is something the Bears have never had.
• 1:03:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: In my lifetime, unless you want to count Jim McMahon when he was healthy for a couple seasons and 85 or 86, where I think he was a borderline top 10 quarterback, I mean, look, I don't have everything in front of me, but you know, you've got, you know, Phil Simms was better.
• 1:03:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: John L. Way was better.
• 1:03:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: Dan Reno was better.
• 1:03:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: Joe Montana better.
• 1:03:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: He was not in that like, elite top five group, but when he was healthy was Jim McMahon a borderline top 10 quarterback,
• 1:04:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: Caleb Williams where he's headed.
• 1:04:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think he's headed to being a borderline top 10 quarterback.
• 1:04:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think he's headed to becoming a firm top 10 quarterback.
• 1:04:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: The question is, is top five?
• 1:04:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: The question is, is that a lead tear?
• 1:04:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: The Mahomes, Lamar, Josh Allen, Tier, Joe Burrell.
• 1:04:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: Those four guys, there is not a fifth guy in that tier right now.
• 1:04:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: Who is that player going to be?
• 1:04:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: Who are those players that are going to become elite, elite tier quarterbacks in the NFL?
• 1:04:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: Caleb Williams could be that guy.
• 1:04:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: Drake May, Jayden Daniels, you know, Justin Herbert.
• 1:04:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: These are the guys we're talking about that could become that elite tier.
• 1:04:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if Caleb Williams is never going to get there.
• 1:04:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: Ben Johnson is if anyone can get him there, Ben Johnson can.
• 1:04:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: I do believe that.
• 1:05:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: So,
• 1:05:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm happy, you know, again, I think he's destined to become a Hall of Fame, you know, top 10 quarterback and NFL history.
• 1:05:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: No, I'm not there yet.
• 1:05:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: I haven't seen enough from Caleb Williams to think something like that as possible, but best quarterback and bear history, consistent top 10 quarterback in the NFL year and year out.
• 1:05:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, and that is a huge, huge bonus.
• 1:05:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: All right, let's get to some more of these J.T.
• 1:05:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: Barsack.
• 1:05:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: What were your thoughts on the penalties versus the bears on Monday night seemed like some very shaky calls to be kind.
• 1:05:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not wanting to complain about the officials because I think unless
• 1:05:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: Here's my thing about officiating.
• 1:05:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, there's going to be mistakes.
• 1:05:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you go and watch old football games, there's a lot more mistakes than there are now.
• 1:05:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that's not to excuse these officials with instant replay and some of the stuff they have now, they can get calls right.
• 1:05:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: And they need to make sure they get calls right.
• 1:05:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I thought the officiating was poor.
• 1:05:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I will say this.
• 1:06:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is always my belief about officiating.
• 1:06:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: officiating will be poor from time to time, always.
• 1:06:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's unavoidable.
• 1:06:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: You cannot control the officiating.
• 1:06:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: You can control how you respond to the officiating.
• 1:06:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: And unless there's no time, you get a bad call with 10 seconds to go and it costs you the win, there's nothing you can do about it.
• 1:06:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes that happens and those are brutal calls.
• 1:06:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, then you get to piss and moan and scream and yell.
• 1:06:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: But for the most part, how do you recover from a bad call?
• 1:06:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: do you rally and do you overcome it?
• 1:06:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: Or do you sit there and say, oh, the rough screwed us.
• 1:06:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: I hate the rough screwed us mentality.
• 1:06:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't like it, it bothers me.
• 1:06:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think it shows a bad culture.
• 1:06:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't like it when fans do it either to be honest.
• 1:06:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not, I'm not, you know, blaming you J.T.
• 1:06:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: for bringing it up.
• 1:06:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: as they were certainly some issues.
• 1:06:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: Some bad calls that took points off the board for the bears.
• 1:06:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then he said they're going to say, well, if the bears had those points, then maybe it didn't come down on the way it did at the end of the game.
• 1:07:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I get all the things.
• 1:07:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: So what I love most about the poor officiating is the fact that the bears overcame poor officiating and won the game.
• 1:07:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's the most important thing to me.
• 1:07:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't like using poor officiating as a crutch.
• 1:07:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, the bears could have won three games, but they got some bad calls.
• 1:07:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: So five and 12, they would have been eight and nine.
• 1:07:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: Then they would have had a better record.
• 1:07:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: They probably could have won a couple of the other games.
• 1:07:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I get, don't blame the refs.
• 1:07:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: Never blame officials.
• 1:07:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: I hate blame officials because you get a bad call with 11 minutes to go in the fourth quarter.
• 1:07:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's enough time to overcome that call most of the time.
• 1:07:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: So,
• 1:07:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: I didn't love the officiating.
• 1:07:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: I thought it was poor.
• 1:07:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: I even, you know, I brought it up to Matt.
• 1:07:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: I thought that the Obenedit call was bad.
• 1:07:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: There were other calls that I thought were not fair.
• 1:07:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're not great calls, but at the same time.
• 1:07:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I know the ESPN crew said the potential hold there on the bears wasn't enough of a shirt pulled to count as a hold on the Kale Williams on the touchdown there.
• 1:08:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
• 1:08:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like, part of me was just like, if they call that a hold, I certainly wouldn't have complained about it.
• 1:08:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I sit there and say, I think there were a couple bad calls on the bears, a couple bad calls on the commanders.
• 1:08:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think there were more bad calls on the bears.
• 1:08:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: I didn't love the officiating, but most importantly, I love that the Chicago Bears overcame it didn't need to use it as an excuse and got the victory.
• 1:08:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: Um, we're going to know if we're from J.T.
• 1:08:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: Barsack.
• 1:08:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: Why not?
• 1:08:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: If Austin Booker is activated this week, who do you see being likely released from the defensive line to make room?
• 1:08:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it depends on health and everything, you know, a gritty Jared's not going to play for a while.
• 1:08:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: They could put him on IR.
• 1:08:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: I know it's a defensive and defensive tackle kind of situation here.
• 1:08:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: Dominic Robinson actually, you know, showed up last night.
• 1:08:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: So,
• 1:08:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't have a straight answer for you.
• 1:08:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'd have to look at snap counts and everything for you know what we can look at this.
• 1:09:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let's look at the bare snap counts for the bears game here really quick.
• 1:09:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think that'll give us a good idea of who would be the guy coming off the field
• 1:09:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: for Austin Booker, if I could remember names, that would help.
• 1:09:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, Jonathan Ford was a call-up.
• 1:09:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't matter.
• 1:09:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: That was specifically for Grady Jared.
• 1:09:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: Dom Rob with only 19 snaps, Chris Williams and Schermar, Turner playing inside.
• 1:09:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, that was the, for the most part, that's what we saw on the defensive side of the ball.
• 1:09:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: Daniel Hardy is on the field for 72% of the special team stats.
• 1:09:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I think Daniel Hardy stays there no matter what, you know, Thanos and other guy, we could actually, so it's going to be Dom Robert Thanos.
• 1:09:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: Those are probably going to be one of those two guys is the guy we're going to see.
• 1:10:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: And back on the practice squad, like I don't think they're going to be straight released.
• 1:10:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: They'll be cut and move back to the practice squad.
• 1:10:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that shouldn't be an issue.
• 1:10:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't see either of those guys getting picked up.
• 1:10:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: Dolmite 79, a lot of chatter that if we won this game, we would be buyers in the trade market.
• 1:10:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: And if we lost, we would stand pat to you.
• 1:10:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: Think this is the case.
• 1:10:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: And if so, what position would you target?
• 1:10:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: Quarterback is definitely something they can target.
• 1:10:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: Pass rush help is definitely something they could target running back support is definitely something they could target any free of those if the bears want to make a minor move trying to tweak the roster I'm all for it.
• 1:10:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: I do not want to see this team make a major.
• 1:10:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: I do not want to see this team give up major draft assets to bring in a veteran.
• 1:10:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is not a super well-contender this year.
• 1:10:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: I know it's exciting there's three and two they're winning football games and they're looking good doing it even though the plays a little ugly.
• 1:10:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I get all that.
• 1:10:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's all a lot of positives, but don't give up a second round pick for somebody.
• 1:10:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: Don't do it this year.
• 1:10:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's not a good idea.
• 1:11:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: Regroup, they're gonna have to tweak this roster anyway, heading in the next season based on some of these salaries and everything.
• 1:11:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: They're up against the cap next year.
• 1:11:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: They need to make sure they rework some contracts or they're gonna have to trade some people.
• 1:11:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: They've got some roster things they need to do.
• 1:11:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: So if you wanna pick up,
• 1:11:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: a low level guy, a support guy, where you're just giving up a future seven or something like that.
• 1:11:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: You want to do something crazy?
• 1:11:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I don't think the Tennessee Titans would do this.
• 1:11:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: You want to trade Jeffrey for Jeffrey Simmons.
• 1:11:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: You want to trade DJ more.
• 1:11:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: Do something crazy.
• 1:11:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: Ask that for asset.
• 1:11:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'd be open to something like that.
• 1:11:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I do not think the bear should give
• 1:11:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: I did not hear anything that the bears could have been sellers or buyers coming down to this one specific game because if they lost this game and then they turn around and beat, you know, they got a couple games here before the deadline.
• 1:11:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: What happens if they beat New Orleans and then beat Baltimore on the road and even if they had lost this game, you're sitting there at four and three, they're going to be sellers that I'm not buying that.
• 1:12:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I don't think anything came down to this game in terms of what the bears were going to be.
• 1:12:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think that was probably just social media crap, but.
• 1:12:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: whatever the bearers decide to be at the deadline, I don't think they should be significant players, one way or the other.
• 1:12:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: Jady Brown, at what point do we say, Tyreka's having a stellar bounce back season, I believe the one play he gave up yesterday was a double move, and he's been solid and run defense to J.D.
• 1:12:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: I agree with you.
• 1:12:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: I talked about it with Matt Spiegel there.
• 1:12:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think Tyrex Steven sent his plane really, but he was awful the first two weeks of the season.
• 1:12:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: I can't say it enough.
• 1:12:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: Perfect passer rating against the first two weeks of the season.
• 1:12:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: He has been much better.
• 1:12:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: We all were hopeful that in Dennis Allen, using more man press that Tyrex Stevenson was going to be better.
• 1:12:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: He does certainly appear to be better.
• 1:12:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: a lot of positives with Tyrex Stevenson.
• 1:13:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: And here's something with Tyrex Stevenson.
• 1:13:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's always showing the ability to be a playmaker, get the big past defended, you know, come up and make a big play in Ron.
• 1:13:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's not afraid of contact.
• 1:13:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's willing to hit people all the things.
• 1:13:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: There were plenty of positive with Tyrex Stevenson, but it was the mental lapses.
• 1:13:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: It was the inconsistent play and if that can, if Dennis Allen can get that rid of all those aspects and get him playing more consistently from down and down and then you still get those big plays from Tyrex Stevenson then he could become a special player JD so we're seeing a lot of positive growth from Tyrex Stevenson through the first five games of the season.
• 1:13:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let's move on to organics.
• 1:13:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: You expect trade deadline activity from the bears, like I said, perhaps something minor.
• 1:13:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not expecting anything major and if they do do something major,
• 1:13:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: Look, if they get someone like Jeffrey Simmons in here, it's hard to complain.
• 1:13:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: I just don't think the bears are in a position right now to make that kind of move.
• 1:14:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: So you have to question it in terms of big picture and roster construction.
• 1:14:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not expecting anything major at the bears because I think Ben Johnson really knows how to assess this roster.
• 1:14:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: Because someone that would know,
• 1:14:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: when I was excited going into week one said, hold your breath a little bit, basically.
• 1:14:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, and that put a damper on the season, and then we'll horse the bears.
• 1:14:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't that he was expecting the bears to blow the game, but he was expecting that it they weren't just going to come out of the gate and start five and oh, so I think Ben Johnson understands.
• 1:14:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: exactly what he has with his team and where the limitations are and what the ceiling can be.
• 1:14:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I think Ben Johnson has major expectations, big picture, but I think he isn't going to overdo it and try and push Ryan Paul's or tell Ryan Paul's, yeah, go out and get this guy, whatever it might be.
• 1:14:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: Because I think he's got a pretty honest assessment of where his team is at this point.
• 1:15:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I don't think they're ready for a move like that.
• 1:15:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: Chester polls is going to make a splash.
• 1:15:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: How big is that going to be in the trade market?
• 1:15:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Again, I know we're getting close to the trade deadline.
• 1:15:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: If polls make a splash, I just again.
• 1:15:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: Montez sweat a second on pick and 25 million a year, overall has not worked out despite his half season of brilliance when he first came aboard.
• 1:15:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: Chase Claypool has not worked out.
• 1:15:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: That was the complete disaster.
• 1:15:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: So let's keep in mind, trade deadline deals are a risk when you go out there and make a splash.
• 1:15:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'd have big hesitations for the bearers to do it at this point.
• 1:15:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: Adrian with the bears now at three to two any chance they look by adding a past rest department may be Jeffrey Simmons.
• 1:15:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: I love all the trade talk.
• 1:15:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: But Adrian, we've addressed it, let's move to barely interesting.
• 1:15:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: After the win last night, I felt like the online had just looked better with the Canadian Eagle at left tackle.
• 1:15:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: I was wondering, is Benedict viewed more so as a short-term player or an actual part of their long-term future?
• 1:16:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's a great question.
• 1:16:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I don't think the bears have an answer for that yet.
• 1:16:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: He looked good.
• 1:16:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: And like I said, I have not rewatched the tape yet, but I thought Benedict looked good.
• 1:16:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think that's a positive.
• 1:16:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's probably going to be left tackle the rest of this season.
• 1:16:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: Does that mean he's going to be the left tackle going in the next season?
• 1:16:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: No, it doesn't.
• 1:16:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: Because I think this coaching staff understands that Theo has limitations.
• 1:16:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: But is Theo going to be a part of this team for the next few years at minimum?
• 1:16:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, I do think that's the case.
• 1:16:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: either he becomes the left tackle of the future, or he replaces Joe Tuneer, Jonah Jackson at guard, and starts there, or he's a versatile, can back up four different positions, offensive Lyman, who's a great OL six to have, where maybe he starts seven eight games a year at two or three different positions, because he has the versatility to play a bunch of different positions.
• 1:16:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I love what the Obenen is becoming.
• 1:16:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think the bears need to see more from him before they can commit to him in any significant capacity.
• 1:17:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: But right now, he's going to play left tackle, he's the best left tackle for the job and he is doing a very good job.
• 1:17:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: Bob, stay bill on his scale.
• 1:17:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: One to 100, how terrible was the night, officiating crew also throw in the broadcast as well.
• 1:17:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: Excuse me here.
• 1:17:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: I got to clear my throat.
• 1:17:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's why we have a view button, ladies and gentlemen.
• 1:17:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: All right, Bob, let's talk about it.
• 1:17:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: The officiating crew was bad.
• 1:17:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: One to 100 and said, oh, one to 10.
• 1:17:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: 82, that's what I'll say.
• 1:17:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: 82, they were bad.
• 1:17:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: They made a lot of mistakes, like I said.
• 1:17:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't blame me officiating crew, but I do think they could have been better, but the bears overcame bad calls and got the victory.
• 1:17:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: What I will say, Bob, is on the broadcast,
• 1:17:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: was too critical of Caleb Williams.
• 1:18:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: I feel he had a little bit of a narrative in his mind who he was gonna talk about how Jayden Daniels is to superior quarterback to Caleb Williams.
• 1:18:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: It didn't quite work out that way.
• 1:18:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: Jayden Daniels made some nice plays.
• 1:18:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: Jayden Daniels made some big mistakes.
• 1:18:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: Caleb Williams same thing was inaccurate on some passes but made some nice plays.
• 1:18:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think Caleb Williams outplayed Jayden Daniels.
• 1:18:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you listen to the broadcast, I don't think that's, you know, if you didn't watch the game, if you just listened to Joe and Troy, I don't think you would have thought that Caleb Williams was the better quarterback last night, and I believe he was, and I believe most people would say that Caleb Williams outplay Jason Nengues, so I was a little annoyed you heard me bring it up with Matt Spiegel, I love Troy Matt thought the criticisms were fair, I thought they were a little too slanted.
• 1:18:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not going to go crazy about it because here's the thing Caleb Williams continues to improve continues to get better.
• 1:18:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: We are going to hear quarter analyst talking about how fantastic he is in the very new future and not be.
• 1:19:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: overly critical.
• 1:19:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: I did think Troy was over in critical.
• 1:19:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: I didn't have any problems with Joe.
• 1:19:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: I didn't Joe was being over critical or slanted anyway on the broadcast.
• 1:19:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: I thought Joe did a good job.
• 1:19:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: I did think Joe was a little over critical of that JK.
• 1:19:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: Even with the rest making terrible calls, all night bears still pull out huge team win.
• 1:19:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: We'll wrap it up with that one.
• 1:19:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, Jay, a huge team win.
• 1:19:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: another culture defining culture building win just like the Raiders game was.
• 1:19:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: The bears had to claw their way to a victory there.
• 1:19:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: It was not easy.
• 1:19:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: It was not smooth.
• 1:19:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: It was not settled.
• 1:19:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: It was anybody's ball game at the end of the fourth quarter.
• 1:19:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: I made a joke with some friends.
• 1:19:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: I said bears are going to march down kick the field goal and Washington's going to get the ball back with about 20 seconds to go.
• 1:19:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: Get the ball to midfield and have one last play.
• 1:19:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like, that's what it felt like it was gonna come down to it again.
• 1:19:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: Then God, it didn't, I didn't think if the commanders had lined up for a Hail Mary with the game on the line, I don't think my heart could have taken at this point.
• 1:20:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm getting too old for this.
• 1:20:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, that God, that didn't happen because if it didn't happen again, my God, I think we'd all would have quit as Barefoot's Ben Johnson's hair probably would have just ignited on fire from fury if that had happened.
• 1:20:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, then God, it didn't, Barefoot get the win.
• 1:20:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: A culture defining win.
• 1:20:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: for the Chicago Bears and Ben Johnson.
• 1:20:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let's ramp it up with the prediction.
• 1:20:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: The New Orleans Saints.
• 1:20:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: the first round box bowl.
• 1:20:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: For those of you who understand, you understand, for those of you who don't, it's really not worth knowing, but it's something about Spencer Ratler versus Caleb Williams.
• 1:20:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: And when you say that out loud, you realize how ass and mindly stupid that is.
• 1:20:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: So if you don't know, you know, you don't know, and if you know, you know.
• 1:20:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: So when we look at this Chicago Bears New Orleans Saints game,
• 1:20:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's a game that bears have to win.
• 1:20:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: The bears are favored.
• 1:20:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: The bears are at home.
• 1:21:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: The bears are the better team.
• 1:21:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: The Saints are struggling.
• 1:21:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: The bears are better than this New Orleans Saints team in the coaching department at quarterback.
• 1:21:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: At all the key spots where you want to be, better offensive line.
• 1:21:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: The bears are a better football team period.
• 1:21:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's fantastic.
• 1:21:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: The Bears will win this football game.
• 1:21:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: The question is by a matter of how much.
• 1:21:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think the Bears win this one comfortably.
• 1:21:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'll say the Bears win this 27 to 17.
• 1:21:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think for a change, the Bears are not sweatin' this in the fourth quarter.
• 1:21:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's not gonna feel as hummin' as the Dallas game did, but I do think it's gonna look pretty damn good.
• 1:21:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think the Chicago, I think Caleb's gonna look good.
• 1:21:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: He'll throw for 250 and a touchdown or two.
• 1:21:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think the bears have got up 350 to 400 yards of offense.
• 1:21:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: The defense will be able to bottle up Spencer Rattler pretty well.
• 1:21:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: We know Dennis Allen can really confuse young quarterback Spencer Rattler should be no different than that category.
• 1:22:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: Bears win this one comfortably like I said.
• 1:22:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going 27 to 17.
• 1:22:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: We will talk to you next week.
• 1:22:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: Bear now and everybody.
• 1:22:24
  [UNKNOWN]: You