September 15, 2025 • 48 mins
The Chicago Bears dropped to 0-2 after a blowout loss to the Detroit Lions in Week 2. Shaw Local's Michal Dwojak and Joe Aguilar break down what went wrong.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, and welcome to the latest episode of the Shaw
Local Bears Insider podcast. I am Chicago Bears reporter Michael
Duojik here with the Northwest Herold Show aguilar As. We
are joining you on Monday afternoon. It's the day after
a pretty pretty tough day in the office for the Bears,
(00:21):
a fifty two to twenty one blowout lost to the Lions. Yeah,
the Ben Johnson returned to not go as many expected.
It's quite clear, Joe, just you know, I kind of
got wind of this toward the end of last week,
or to toward the end of the middle middle the middle
of last week, where I understood from the most part
(00:43):
that I think that Lloyd Lions fans were upset that
Ben Johnson left. Obviously he's this great coach for them
all these years. But I don't think I realized until
the end of last week and Sunday just how mad
the Lions fans were with Ben Johnson. I mean, he
goes out there for pregame one warm ups and it's
it's constant booing, like huge booing. It's you know, every
(01:06):
time the Bears are on the field, he's on the field,
there a booze there they are chants that I'm not
going to repeat here on the airwaves. Yeah, I guess,
you know, before we get into the blowout lost, Like
I just I guess I didn't truly realize Joe how
big of a game this really was for the Lions,
and maybe I underestimated that heading into things on Sunday
(01:27):
me too.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
And first of all, I do want to give you
props because you said I think we're gonna see a shootout. Now,
you didn't tell me the Lions we're gonna bring bring
all the weapons. Yeah, they could have stopped like twenty
points fewer twenty one points, sewer, But first of all,
you called it. You called the shootout, and that's what
it ended up being.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
The one team did the shootout party. I guess, oh
Bear's try.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
They just couldn't. They kept being Bears. The Bears kept bearing. Yeah,
you know, we'll get to that. But uh no, I
didn't either. I you know, I thought it would be
more like Ben Johnson's something to prove he's going back
to the team, you know, to the city where he
excelled and made the Lions.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
One of the top is not top offenses in the
National Football League the last two three years, and instead
it was like the Lions said, oh yeah, you think
it was all you will show you that we still
have the players, we still have the coaches, uh that
that we're gonna turn it on you, so, you know what,
good for the Lions, Good for the Lions fans, because
I don't think there's anyone in Chicago right now who
(02:27):
is being empathetic about the Bears and Ben Johnson and
and and wanting to be wanting to be patient.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
No, it was definitely, it was definitely a tough moment
for them. It's just weird, you know, It's it was
just interesting just to I you know, throughout the game,
you just started to realize more and more how much
of this was a revenge game for the whole team,
for the whole city. It felt like like obviously the
way things started against I think I think that the
(02:55):
their their Week one against green Bay only made things
worse for the pairs on side. I think they were
mad about the way things kind of went off. I
think everyone in Hot Take Sportsland was saying that maybe
Detroit's washed, and you know, green Bay's his great team,
and Detroit's like, no, we just had one pet game,
like obviously it's we it's week one, and they came
(03:16):
out in full force. I mean you saw it with
the with the you know, the interception celebration of the
stumble bum, you got the all the different celebrations by
the Lions player, and the Lions player said after the game,
like everyone said they love Ben Johnson. Jared Gobb said
that the chance, you know, f Ben Johnson, that went
a little bit too far by the fans. But they
(03:38):
wanted to prove that they're more than Ben Johnson, and
I think they did that. They showed that they have
great playmakers like we expected, and they showed that they're
a great talented team that's likely to compete for the
top spot in the NFC.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Yeah, and I you know, football is an emotional game.
We hear it all the time. We think it's cliche,
we think it's like doesn't matter, it matters. I wish
the Bears will play that kind of emotion because I
don't know what you could take positively And we're gonna
have to come up with a couple out of that
game yesterday. Well, energy matters in that sport, doesn't matter
in every sport, you know, I don't think if yet.
(04:14):
You need a lot of energy when you go try
to hit a ninety five mile power of fastball. Hockey's won,
Football's won. Bears didn't have it, the Lion. Maybe the
players fed off the fans. I would I would think
that's the case. That's the hope right at the home crowd.
But the fans were fired up and the Lions were
fired up, and they wanted to remind I think not
only just the Bears, or maybe the NFC, the entire
(04:37):
National Football League that there's still a Super Bowl contender,
and they still have weapons, They still got their head coach,
and they they sure looked the part yesterday. Are the
Bears that bad? I don't know if they're that bad.
They're the worst team in the National Football League. We're
looking at a top three pick in the drafts. Are
that bad? And maybe they are? I said, you know,
(04:57):
a couple weeks ago, three I've been saying it. I
think we'll know early on this season where the Bears
are because I silly me, because I should know better.
I was optimistic. I really thought the coaching staff, what
a fool I am, Michael. I really was optimistic, and
I said, we kind of know early. I'm thinking five games.
(05:17):
I think two games in, especially if Jalen Johnson, we'll
get to that. I'm sure it is done for a
long time, or maybe the season. I don't see how
it's getting much better. I don't. I'm sure I'll be wrong.
It's the NFL and again in Sunday all that stuff.
That's true too. They'll find a way to get wins.
But right now after that, after these first two weeks, wow,
(05:41):
I'm I don't know what Bears fans did that. Maybe
we I'm done thing. What did we do as a
fan base to deserve this? It's like, what did the
football gods say, You're cursed for the rest of this century?
Another seventy five years of this in this century? Because
this is really bad. And we changed the coach, we
changed the culture, change the coordinators, We're going to change
(06:02):
the stadium eventually, and it's still bad, bad, bad.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yeah, well, we'll get into the what it all this
kind of means. I do I do think that, you know,
let the answer lie somewhere in the middle. I think
that you know, the Bear, the Lions are very good.
I don't think the Bears are that bad. I think
you know this. It's it's two games into the air,
and we'll get into all that. But there's a lot
to break down and there's a lot to talk about it.
(06:28):
For two weeks into the season, there are a lot
of takes out there, and uh, I think, if you're
joining us on the livestream, thanks so much for joining us.
Rick is chiming in, I hate Ryan Poles. Other than that,
everything is great, I think Rick is, I think that
statement kind of exemplifies how Bears fans are feeling a
lot of a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
In my mentions during the game, where to sell the
team chance we're getting started? We got We're we're in
full We're two weeks into the season joke, but we
are full. We are pretty much in full season mode
at this point. I thought, I thought, where am I?
Is it not November? Like? Am I about to celebrate Thanksgiving?
Like this? This is too soon, guys, It's only two
weeks into things. But yeah, thanks so much, Rick, and
(07:08):
thank you everyone else's joining us on a live stream.
I know we're doing this on a little bit last minute. Obviously,
you had to travel back from Detroit and figure out
when the Bears availability so we're doing this on Monday afternoon.
If you're listening to this on the podcast, thanks so
much for listening. If you ever want to join us
on a live stream, make sure you check out our
social medias. That's when we post and share when we're
(07:29):
going to be doing this live stream, so you can
get shared your thoughts like Rick did and kind of,
you know, talk about what the heck just happened a
lot of times it's about losses. Sometimes it's about wins,
but Joe sometimes But why don't I guess before we
get into the every game we obviously like to do.
Our three winners are three losers. But why don't we
(07:51):
get into the breaking news that we kind of got
here on Monday mid afternoon, Monday morning, and that pertained
to one of the injuries at the Bear sustained on Sunday.
Jalen Johnson. You know, he came back, played his first game,
he was in full strength and make a made a
really impressive diving play to stop a pass to Amara
(08:12):
sat Brown and and you know when he was down
for a moment, it was kind of like, oh it
just probably dramatic effect. Is he being funny? Like, you know,
kind of you know, giving the lions a little taste
of their own medicine. And then, you know, he stayed
down for a while and he didn't get back up.
After a while, he got up, he went to the
medical tent, and then he went to the locker room.
He didn't come back into the game. We learned today
(08:35):
he left with a growing injury. We learned today first
from ESPN's Courtney Kronen and Adam Schefter that it seems
to be a severe growing injury that could potentially have
him out for a good chunk of the season or
at least the whole season, depending on whether they decided
to have surgery. And then Jordan Schultz also later on
(08:58):
tweeted here that now with fear that it's going to
be for the whole season, maybe they can get them
back toward the end of the season if the Bears
are in contention. We'll hear from Ben Johnson here at
at three o'clock, so fifteen minutes from right now, So
if you're listening to the podcast, there'll be newhere news.
But the general reaction to this show is this is
bad news. This is the Bears top defensive player. I
(09:21):
know it didn't look like it at the beginning. But
I do feel like Jalen Johnson didn't make a little
bit of an impact in that first half before he
got injured. And listen, I I'm it's there's no there's
no way to really sugarcoat it. That defense without Jalen
Johnson is not as good without it.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
No, And this was the fear. We talked about it
last week two weeks ago, leading up to the season opener,
about you want to be careful here if he misses
the opener against you know, essentially the rookie JJ McCarthy.
That's one thing better that than if you're going up
against Youred Golf or Jordan Love or Joe Burrow, you know,
in week in, week one season opener. So let's be
(10:01):
careful here because you don't want him gone for the
rest of this season and then what happens you bring
him back, and you know, once an athletes down the field,
you can't just say be careful, take it easy, don't
give a hundred percent. They're gonna one hundred percent. That
play he made it was it was a Pro Bowl
caliber play, you know, diving break up to just get
a finger on it and break up the play. That's
what great players do. That's what Jalen Johnson does. Unfortunately,
(10:24):
the injury happens, and that's you can't be shocked, right
you just and I know it's hard. I'm sure it's
hard for the coaches. It's hard for the player. The
player is never gonna say it. Yeah, I better sit
down again. But that's you said it, Michael, We've said it.
That's your best player on the on the defense. And
how bad did that secondary look yesterday? And other guys again,
(10:45):
they they've already you know, banged up with no Kyler
Gordon again, he might be your second best defensive player. Uh,
he shouldn't be. It should be Montest Sweat. That's another story.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Uh, we'll get there, don't worry.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
You lost a Zay Frasier before it even got going,
and then you lost Terrell Smith in the preseason. So
they're already depleted going into season, more depleted once the
season starts. And now if he's gone, that's why it's
just gonna be real difficult for this team. Not that
you're gonna face Jared Goff every week, but there's still
(11:19):
a lot of good quarterbacks. We talk about how schedule,
how tough. The schedule is this season in general, and
now you got him out. Wow, I maybe will be surprised.
Maybe the McLeod kid or Nie Sean Wright. They they
you know, more opportunities and more reps, they get better.
But you know you're not gonna replace Jalen Johnson. We
all know that, and that's just really a really rough blow.
(11:43):
If he looks like we're not gonna count on him
anytime soon, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Yeah, yeah, it'll be it'll be well, we'll hear from
Ben Johnson and we'll see what the latest. But doesn't
seem good at all. The TJ Edwards injury also didn't
look good. He you know, got caught up trying to
chase I think it was Jamison Williams. It was either Jamison, Yeah,
it was Jamison Williams, and you saw him like trying
to sprint after him, pulled up and grab that hadstrenk
and you know, obviously we'll get an update about TJ two.
(12:10):
But that didn't look good either. Like it is one
of those things where you know, you get these soft
tissue injuries early in the year and I've heard complaints,
but this is just an NFL thing. I don't know
whether it's just because training camp isn't you know, as
whatever you want to call it, tough or whatever, but
it's obviously not the same what he used to be
before with the preseason games. And I don't know if
(12:32):
that plays a factor in it, but you've got three
starters on your defense out with soft tissue injuries, and
those are major three players like TJ. Edwards manning the
middle is very important, and Kyler Gordon and Jalen Johnson
both back there are really important. They they were all
suffered with some with with some injuries. So it's not good.
(12:54):
And that's a good way to kind of transition to
our wins and losses. Obviously with losses. With the such
a blowout, we're gonna start with the losses. Joe what Well,
who's your first loser from Sunday's game?
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Wow, I've got like fifteen candidates. We can pick one.
Where do you start? The biggest loser? Dennis Allen? I
just boy, I expected am I that gullible that I
think we all expected better? And I know, you know
he can't go out there and rush to pass himself,
but he's he's supposed to scheme better. You just got
(13:26):
fifty two, fifty three points. I couldn't keep up after one.
I couldn't keep adding that much after a while. It
just you got to be able to figure out and
stop it. I don't care if who's out. I don't
care if you got a bunch of JV guys and
you're coming in off the bench, Michael, you got to
figure it out and stop it. They looked. I don't.
(13:47):
I don't know if I have anything positive to say
at all about the defensive effort from the players to
the coaching. And I'm not a coach. I'm not saying
what I well, what I have schemed up, but what
I have cooked up I don't know. But stop it.
You can't allow I don't care the fans playing inside
on their field to allow fifty some points Week two,
embarrassed like that. And I don't know what the rest
(14:07):
of the season holds out, but that's gonna be one
of you better be your worst game of the season.
And we've only played two so far. So I'll say
Dennis Allen because man, oh man, I have so much
respect to that guy, and his resume is pretty impressive.
But that's it's not all on him. It's never all
on the coach. That's a lot of it. He's got
to own a lot of that.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
I do want to I'll piggyback off of here is
and I'll go with the lack of a pass rush.
And I'm curious to know how much. You know, it's
tough for me because I think the scheme is there
right Like obviously, I think he's throwing different fronts at them.
I think he could have done a better job of,
you know, of adjusting on the fly and realizing that
(14:52):
Jared Goff was attacking up the middle and maybe he's
securing that, maybe doing you know, I know he went
to his zone coverage rarely a couple of times. Sometimes
it got burned that way, So I don't know if
going to zone really was going to be an answer there.
But my first loser is the lack of a pass rush.
It's just it's not there. And I think all off season,
(15:12):
I think the general thought, I think everyone we focused
in on the left tackle, we focused in on the quarterback,
and those are obviously important parts. But throughout the off season,
during during training camp, I was just kind of like,
is this defense going to pressure the quarterback? They brought
in dio Adangbo as their prize, you know, pass rusher
to go opposite a Montes Sweat. They brought in Grady
(15:34):
Jarrett up the middle. They drafted him our turner, and
you ended up with the performance where you didn't get
a sack. I know Montes Sweat had a sack, but
then it was nullified because of offsetting penalties. So I
guess you can say they had one sack. But Jared
goff had all day back there. He was able to
find you know, Amara Brown had time to get into
(15:55):
his route and get up the middle, and then you
know burn Tyree Stevenson. He was able to throw the
ball deep to find Jamison Williams for those deep passes.
Jared goffitt all the time in the world. And you know, Joe,
I agree with you. Could there be some better schemes
and that sort of stuff. Sure, could you adjust to
what the Lions are doing a little bit better, I agree,
(16:15):
But at some point your players just need to play
the game right, like you need to get to the quarterback.
You need to You're going against a new center and
a new guard, and you can't bully that. You can't
do anything from the middle that you think and much
pressure from your middle dio kind of got some pressure
at the beginning of the game, but then it all
just kind of died after halftime and you just didn't
(16:37):
see anything. So I agree, I think maybe there could
have been some game plan adjustments in this sort of stuff.
But for me, it just feels like you just got
to make the plays and there's no pass rush at all.
Two games into the season for the Bears defense.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Nope. I mean, I don't disagree at all. Montese sweat
and we thought maybe he had to be hurt last year,
right because we know he's better than that, and then
two games here to two games without a sack? Is
he is? He hers? He's just not good? Does he
really need a complimentary player? He sure look great in
twenty twenty three after they got him, and then he
got paid, and since he got paid, as he has,
he really done much. He didn't even have a great
(17:12):
finish to the twenty twenty three season, if you remember,
he kind of he cooled off at the end there,
and he's right, he's gotta make plays. And I know
it's hard. You're getting double team, triple team whatever. Too
bad you're supposed to be a great player. You can
put eight guys on Micah Parsons, he'll get a sack,
you know, and they played different positions, but he he's
not making an impact. And I know we'll keep saying this.
(17:35):
Everyone keeps saying it's early. It's two games, it's early,
it's two games, it's three games, it's one game. It's
not early, it's not early. You gotta gotta go right
now because his team right now as a whole looks
like they need three more months of training camp to
get it to get a going. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
I agree, you just got Yeah, I mean two games
into the air, you know, could we could be talking
later in the air and it's gonna be there five
hundred and they're battling, and sometimes you need to kick
in above like sometimes you need to get kicked in
the teeth, like Ken Johnson said, like it. I but
I agree you, this isn't the response we wanted to
see from a new coaching staff two games into the year.
(18:15):
I think I think if you win Monday night and
then you this game happens on Sunday, I think the
reaction it still stinks, obviously, but I think it's much
more muted because you're just kind of like, all right,
that team was an NFC Championship game, are contending for
an NFC Championship game. We're still learning and I think
that would probably play a factor. But I do agree
(18:38):
you need to show off more and you gotta be
more competitive in these types of matchups. And obviously that
just did not happen. Joe, who's your other who's your
second loser of the game.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Well, I'll go again with a guy who didn't wear
a uniform on Sunday. That's Ryan Poles. Oh boy, where
do we start? Where do we again? This is like
another hour conversation we could have just on the draft class.
Right so far by Mike count Luther Burden and Coleston
Lovelin each have two catches, so they're on pace for
(19:08):
if my math is correct, seventeen catches each, and we
know if so, they've not made an impact. I'm not
saying they're bad players that like both guys, I think
they're gonna be great. They should be great, Like starting out,
let's go, they're not. They're not making they're not being utilized,
they're not playing Ozzie Trapillo. What's going on with this
is this are we already calling this a wasted pick
(19:30):
because he can't play a left tackle. The left tackle
for some reason, Brax and Jones has gotten worse. Maybe
he's not healthy still, that's another that's another hour conversation too.
We've already had that conversation a lot. He's a healthy
scratch Shmier Turner. Is he actually a person? You've seen
him right at a Hallas all because I wouldn't.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
The game?
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Yeah, all right, they see, so he is he is
a person. Yeah, and he was drafted by this team
in the second round. He's been at I guess he's
still heard. I guess right, he is still hurt. Uh,
he's an active Who am I missing here? You know
we mentioned.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Karan you didn't play.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
What's going on here? He's and then he got the extension,
so he'll be another here. He'll be here another ten
twenty years, Ryan Poles, I guess, so I don't this
team and I mean I couldn't tell you, like after
two games for the leading candidates for Rookie of the Year,
I haven't looked at all the draft picks and who's
making an immediate impact, if any really off the top
(20:33):
of my head, Well, we saw what the number one
pick did yesterday? Camp Uh cam Ward with that throw?
But you know what I mean, you know the running backs?
Where we how how many times we talked about the
running back issue? Why didn't you get one in the
offseason if you thought you had the guys there or
you're you know, uh Kylie Minou what's his name? Karn
(20:54):
uh Kyle anung guy. I was a little joke there
by the way, if he was going to be the
guy and you're counting on a seventh round pick that
to be an impact player, and no, that's a mess.
So I'm calling this on the GM because this is
not this is not OK. Well, maybe it isn't the
bars case a six year rebuild. You know, let's you're
(21:16):
already in desperate mode coming into this season and we
get no help in the draft class, and we know, look,
if they're going to be showing potential this year, showing
signs that twenty twenty six looks a little more promising
or twenty twenty seven, then Luther Burden and Colston Leblin
are going to be a big part of that. So
I do suspect they won't continue this one catch per
(21:37):
game average pace, But certainly you'd like to see a
little more from those guys starting Sunday against Dallas.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Yeah, Rick had the same thought as you did. Big loser.
Ryan poles two healthy second round picks in the actives.
His first round pick as zero catches and his other
second round pick is a kick returner. I'm doing a
bear down nerd up, and I'll give you guys a
little sneak peek. Make sure to check out all the
stances tomorrow. But I mean. Coleston Lovelin has twelve yards
on two receptions. He's been target targeted three times and
(22:06):
has played fifty five percent of the snaps. Luther Burdon
has two yards on two receptions for three targets. Ozzie
Trapello has played five special team snaps in Week one
and was inactive in Game two. Shamar Turner didn't play
in either game. He was inactive in Game two. Zay
Frasier is on NF I won't play. Hippolyte has four tackles,
(22:30):
most has mostly played on special teams. Luke Newman has
three offensive snaps and three and eight special team snaps,
and Kyle macdong guy has twenty eight rushing yards on
seven carries nineteen receiving yards on two receptions four targets.
So your seventh round running back has more targets, receiving
yards and the same amount of catches as your first
(22:52):
round tight end and your second round wide receiver. By
the way, Tyler Warren had a game yesterday for Indianapolis.
As the Colts move on to T and O, I
you know, I agree, and I understand the argument of
(23:14):
you know, you need to use Colston Loveland for protection, Okay,
but then if protection was your need, then maybe you
should have drafted an offensive lineman with number ten or
traded up for number ten if it's that big of
a need. I understand that. I understand if you need
to use coal Comet and Colston Loved and to shure
up the left side or whatever. I get that. But
(23:35):
then maybe at number ten you shouldn't be drafting in
a tight end. Maybe at number thirty nine you don't
go for the luxury pick of a top wide receiver
and you go for an offensive tackle or something each
or you go for a pass rusher. It's just I agree,
it's not good. It doesn't look good right now. Your
third round pick from last year isn't playing Zach Pickens.
(23:59):
You cut them a couple of years ago. Javon Dexter
isn't generating too much for you. Your second round pick.
It's not looking good, I mean your first round. I
mean Caleb Williams looks. I thought he looked fine in
week two, and we can get into that a little
bit later. And roem A Doonsay obviously looks. He's your
number one receiver without a doubt that that's going to
be our good later on. But everything else is just
(24:22):
not good. And I agree if I don't know, these
first and second round picks can't be luxury picks that
you stash away. These are your players who are making
an impact for you right away, and they're not doing
that right now. I don't know whether it's scheme. I
don't know whether it's not getting Ben Jonson's trust, but whatever,
And for all we know, it could be Colston isn't ready,
(24:44):
Luther Burden isn't ready, and they're not putting in the work.
And maybe that's on them. I'm not saying that it's
on Ben Johnson, but something clearly is now working and
some part of the scouting process is not doing well.
At all.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Yeah, I mean I don't get it. I think you
nailed it on the head here. You know, I in
my three and out column we do at Shaw Local,
I jokingly had one of the three positives or whatever
being Tory Taylor. That was really mostly a joke and
the only thing I really said there was at least
(25:19):
he plays. You know that Bears took so much criticism
for that pick. What fourth round pick Tory Taylor the punter,
at least he plays. The other guys don't play. I mean,
you could have taken another offensive line of a long
snapper project guy in the fourth round. They'd probably be
sitting the bench too. Somewhere. At least the punter plays.
(25:40):
And that's really sad that we're talking about the punter.
It's even sad that we talked about Cairo Santos. I
haven't talked about cairos Aantos yet. Hopefully we don't even
have to today. But this is a rack, and this is
Ryan Poles who got extended somehow, somehow, he got a
contract extension in the off season. Why because he got
(26:01):
the head coach that every wanted. Okay, I'll give you
credit THEREK because I'm not giving up on Ben Johnson yet,
but man oh man, and again I like Loveland. I
like to pick Yeah, I think he's a.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Very talented player.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Yeah, what are we talk about? Who's gonna be the
Beers rookie of the year And you're you got Loveland,
I've got Burder. Like, let's hope we're having a conversation
in January about this and how both those guys just
crushed it this year. Well they're not on pace to
do it, but I'm not giving up on him. I
like them both. But can I see the football in
their hands? Please?
Speaker 1 (26:35):
That would be nice. Uh yeah, I don't know. I
And you know, maybe we'll ask Ben Johnson about it
today because that's been going around the last couple of days.
And you know how it is after a game, you
can't get all these types of questions and particularly but yeah,
it's it's it's a major topic. And I'm sure if
it is Ben Johnson and Ryan Poles is like, what
are we doing? Dude, Like come on, help me out
(26:57):
here a little bit, And if it is Ben Johnson,
He's like, come, I dude, what do we doing here?
Help me out here? But something very clearly is now
working two games into things, all right, My next negative
goes to the officials, and I thought the game was
relatively well officiated. I don't think anything was crazy. But
(27:17):
Robert chiming in, Hi, Robert from across the pond. Great
to hear from you, officials, losers again, what the heck
was that played before halftime? And I agree that wasn't
that for Yeah, I'm sure if you watch the game,
you know obviously you know the incredible catch down the sideline.
One official said he was out of bounds. One official
(27:38):
said he was in bounds. There's confusion. One officials telling
Ben Jonson that there's no time left on the clock
to go to the locker room. And then as they're
making the announcement on the speaker overhead, the head officials
says that there's still six seconds left, and there's just
like it was all poorly done. And I understand that
(27:59):
maybe there's confusion or whatever, but it's very clear that
he went out of bounce. The clock should have stopped,
and I you know, we got the official word after
the game, and even that official word was kind of confusing.
But the thought process was this clock should have stopped
at sixteen seconds and you do a ten second, you
(28:20):
get rid of ten seconds because of the Lion's not
having a timeout, so they had six seconds left. But
that should have been communicated much better. That should have
been done much better, and you know, quite honestly, like
I you know, you need to say that. You know,
let's get a stop in that moment, think you're going
(28:41):
into the locker room, like you kind of start to
like cool down at least a little bit, right, but
then you're told to go back on and get a
fourth down stop. And Jared Goff just does the same
play he does to Amar Prown all the time, quick
in and out hits him right on the money, Like
I know, we picked on Tyrek Stevens, but that's just
the player. It's like they do that all the time, man,
(29:03):
Like they just know it, like one two step, I'm
gonna hit you, like they have a down path. So
that was just all bad. I think, just the whole experience,
the confusion toward the end of the half, because you
go from getting a big stop and it being a
seven point game to start the second half too, it's
a fourteen point game and you got to figure things
out quickly. So I yeah, I didn't like the end
(29:25):
of that first half at all. I thought that was
all jumbled up and that could have been handled a
much better way.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Yeah, I agree, and that in my three things that mattered,
that wasn't one of mine. That should have been I
should like I should, that really should have been one
of the things that mattered, because that didn't matter for
exactly the reason you said. And you know, the Bears
had scored the offense finally stop getting you know, out
of it, stop getting in its way to pull within
twenty one fourteen, it's late, less than two minutes, I
(29:52):
think to go there, just just stop once, give me
a first time stop and going a halftime down a
touchdown instead, that whole drive happens, and then the the
teslaw kid, how about the catch he made by the way,
and they got him what third round? Because that's what
good teams do. They find guys in the third round.
You know, yes, he makes a spectacular catch and then bang,
(30:12):
but the ref screwed that up. The replay clearly showed
that he was down inbounds. Terry Stevenson got looked like
his knee hit his helmet or his shoulder pads or whatever.
So he was down. That was confusion, and that hurt
because now then the next play, bam, and it's back
to a two touchdown game. And the Bears come out
second half, the offense again looks just like against Minnesota's
second They come out bone, let's get momentum. Nope, they
(30:35):
look like it's it's day one of camp again, and
and then it just got out of control.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Yeah, it was just crazy, and obviously you know it was.
It was an insane catch by Tesla. That was That
was an amazing catch. That was the one time I
was kind of like, all right, Tyre. Those back to
back plays were kind of where I was kind of like,
all right, Tyreek, like you've gotten burned a lot today.
But I don't know what you're supposed to do on
both of those plays. All right, Joe, what's your last
loser of the day.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
So I've gone with two guys on a uniform, Dennis Allen,
Ryan Poles, and I'll just make it consistent. I'll go
with the third guy on a uniform, and that's Ben Johnson.
And I didn't think i'd be saying that all year.
I said in the preseason they looked well coached. There
were none of the they look coached in the offseason,
the preseason games for what those are worth. But I
believed in the guy. I still believe in it. But
(31:20):
you got to call it like it is, right, he's
going too and his teams. That's a bad loss on
Monday night to the Vikings to open with that fourth
quarter disaster and then they play pretty much four quarters
of his Well, it wasn't all bad for four quarters,
but you got embarrassed. They dropped fifty plus on you.
That can't happen. And he's a very confident guy. I understand,
(31:42):
like any guy, any person who's successful in life, there's
a fine line between confidence and arrogance. And it's okay
if you're winning, maybe a little bit some people think that.
But man, when you've gotten off to this start, this start,
you're not playing dis playing football. And look, if it's
you want to blame of players and dumb it down
(32:03):
for him, you know, if it's still too early in
the process, dumb it downd. You have to know your personnel.
I understand he's still learning it. But you've been mentioned,
like beck, I don't want to keep bringing up the
Minnesota game, but the Cairo Santos kicked at the end
of the game when he should have kicked out of bounds,
and like, well, you know you told me to kicking
out of bounds he could And you're like, well, shouldn't
you know that the guy can't kick it out of bounds?
You're right, he should. So you never need to start
(32:25):
figuring it out because it's it's a long season with
but it's a short season, right, You get one game
a week, and you can't get off to this start.
And if he's supposed to be the next Boy wonder,
if he's supposed to be the next Matt Luffler or
Sean McVay, uh whoever, you you can't have your football
team off to this start. And you can't just say
(32:46):
it's all bad execution and unfortunate injuries to keep players.
It's got to come down on him too. So Ben Johnson,
come on, man, you're better than this.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
I I yeah, I agree. I thought we we thought
it was going to be better, especially for all the
rhetoric about the discipline play and that sort of stuff,
and that kind of goes into my last loser. It's
the pre snap penalties again. The turnovers were not you
know the DeAndre Swift turnover, I was kind of like,
all right, like that's a little tough. A Branch got
his helmet on, and it's just kind of a tough play.
(33:19):
Like very clearly Branch was made a nice defensive play
on it. The Caleb Williams interception I didn't love, obviously,
office scramble. Those are the moments where he needs to
learn and just be like, all right, live to fight
another day. I know. But again, that interception was done
because you get a holding penalty, move you ten yards back,
(33:39):
and then you get a face mask penalty on your
offensive lineman on your left tackle. I've never seen that before.
I've never seen an offensive lineman be called for a
face mask penalty. It's just those things and that just
leads that just kills drives. Man, Like the first two
plays on those drives, DeAndre Swift was getting into getting
some momentum. He picked up fourteen yards on two rushes
(34:01):
and then that happens. So it's just the prestat penalties. Again,
it's not good. It needs to get fixed. I honestly thought,
you know, the first drive things are it's insanely loud
in there. I can't think at all, it's like so
loud in that stadium, and I'm like, I don't know
how this is going to go the silent count. But
the Bears actually did a pretty good job of running
(34:21):
that silent count, I feel like. But then you get
plays like that where you're just like, man, it's just
killing the offense and you need to figure it out
quickly because it can't continue like this, like these are
just mistakes that are really hurting any sort of progress
that you want to make offensively.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Yeah. No, no arguments there. I mean, you know, aw, come,
other teams don't jump offside. I don't know. I don't
know what the stats are through two weeks. So they're
the most penalized team, penalized team in the national.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
I think there. I think I heard there, third on
the list. There are two more penalized teams.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Yeah, yeah, there. You go for a team that still
has the training wheels on its offense, right, so you
can't have it. So completely agree there and this offensive
line and we can go, we can we can do
fifteen three negative and fifteen negatives after this game. But
the old line, and it's not just the lineman, it's
(35:15):
the DJ moorees it's the DeAndre Swift first before the
first snap of the game, right, he was whistled for
illegal procedure, I believe, or is that the second half?
Speaker 1 (35:26):
But on the second half?
Speaker 2 (35:27):
Second a half? Right, thank you? So it's on. Everybody
is at the quarterback, you know, messing everybody up. I don't.
I don't know whether you A lot was talking in
the week about about his cadence going to the silent count,
et cetera. You right, the interception that goes second and
twenty nine, and how bad is his aim? I know
he wasn't hit on the play. I know he's throwing
on the run. I know throwing a football is hard,
(35:49):
but how bad is your end that that ball should
be fifteen yards out of bounds? He's not gonna get
called for intentional ground. He throw it fifteen yards out
of bounds and somehow he managed to throw it in
bounds and then Kirby Joseph was play. I mean, they
got great safeties in branching and Kirby Joseph he makes
a diving interception, you know, look like a defensive guy
making a play. Imagine that for your team, the team
(36:11):
you root for. That that's a great play by him.
But Caleb, come on, man, stop doing that.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
Definitely a learning moment for him. Yeah, I don't know.
It's one of those things. I feel like, you know,
I said to be careful. He's been careful with the
ball when we were doing our preview and maybe go
for it and letting your rip. Those aren't the moments
when you will let it rip. Those are the moments
where you just got to throw it away and get
rid of it and live to fight another day. Other
guys chiming in. Robert Johnson's offense can't operate without a
(36:39):
decent run game. But main problem now is the defense.
Also said that Stevenson is a loser, just too slow,
got burned after time after time. I would agree with that.
Who else is what else do we have out there? Shoot?
I saw some more there. Picking the punter in the
fourth round is the word script chiming in there, CJ.
(37:05):
Chiming and get to hear from me, CJ.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
There was no.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
Attempt to try Darnell left tackle and Ozzie had right tackle.
That should have gone to look at least I think
it maybe it would have done it, But I do
think that it very clearly was to them that they weren't.
They didn't like that idea at all. So I don't
know whether it's just Darnell and not being able to
play left or what have you, but I I very
clearly it seemed to them that it didn't really make
(37:30):
sense to me. I'm gonna have an honorable mention for
loser before we go on on the positive here. You
could not have scripted it any better, Joe to start
that game off with Cayrol Santos kicking it off out
of bounce a week after the Bears decided not to
kick the ball out of bounds to preserve time in
the second In the two minute warning, he kicks it
(37:52):
out of bounce, and I, I just, you know something,
I don't believe in the whole NFL script thing. I
don't believe in any of that stuff. But then there
are more moments like that where you're just like, that's
not real, like someone someone told him to do that,
Like Roger Gell's like chiming in and telling him to
kick it out. When that happened, I was like, this
is not real life. And I you know. Ben Johnson
(38:14):
gave Carol the vote of confidence after Sunday's game. Obviously,
they signed Ja Comody to the practice squad. He still
believes in him. But that was just that was just
kind of like a funny moment to start the game
where I was like, come on, like that's not real,
Like are we really doing this?
Speaker 2 (38:30):
I agree. I don't know if I've ever watched a
football game, even especially for the Bears. Again, I've been
a fan a long time where before the first snap,
I'm thinking, oh boy, here we go again, because that
was like, here you go, she can't even keep the
ball in bounds and you give this real good offense.
(38:51):
You knew it was good. You knew it was better
than what it showed against Green Bay. Now they have
the shorts field sixty yards later, what was it? A
five play drive? Boom boom, boom, boom boom.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
They're in.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
It's like here we go again, and you hate but
you know, it's like when you're so used to getting
beat up, when you know you're not expecting good things
to happen, and maybe it's then it becomes it's only
two games in the season, but you start to expect
bad things. And I'm sure that every man on the
Bears would say, oh that didn't bother us. We had
(39:19):
to go out and play our do our do our
one to eleven, do our job. But man, you give
him a shortfield right off the bat, and before you
could even basically take your first sip of your pepsi,
you're down seven nothing. So that was a bad start,
and you're looking first sight. Let's something. Let's hit him
in the face, something positive right away. And of course
(39:40):
we didn't get it.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
No, we didn't. All right, Joe, let's go to the positive.
We got a few minutes left here. Luckily, I don't
think there's much We don't really need that much time
to talk about the positives.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
Who's the winner for you, Joe, Well, I think it's
I think everyone will probably probably agree here. It's got
to be roma Dunesa. I know he had a drop
and the play he may could have made. Uh, but
still having catches one twenty eight receiving both career best.
Those numbers will get better too, I think, well, those
aren't gonna be his career best for the rest of
the season. He'll have better games. The two touchdowns we're
(40:11):
starting to see it with him is a finished product.
Does he never won a receiver? Right now? No, but
I thought he was really good. Uh, you saw what
he can do and five catches in the first half.
I thought, let's build on it. They really didn't build
on it. They couldn't because they've got it out of
control at the end and then beenway through the fourth
everyone's on the bench. But I thought Rome was someone
(40:31):
to be excited about and let's see, hopefully he can
build off that. And I think he's gonna end up
having the best season of any receiver as fair to say, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
I would agree. I think I was tweeting this during
the game, but the Caleb Williams Rome duns a connection
is clicking, and that's a great thing for Bears fans.
It's very clear that Rome is becoming Caleb's number one
target now. Like he's looking for Rome, and last year
the kind of fell apart because the DJ Moore and
Keenan Allen kind of became the safety net. But he's
(41:03):
looking for Rome a lot, and that is good because
Rome can make plays.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
Man. He showed you that.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
And I know he dropped that tight pass they probably
should have caught, but he's making plays out of nothing.
Sometimes he's making great routes on his first touchdown. That
was like, what a five yard pass that he takes
that he sees what he has in front of him
and takes twenty eight yards for a touchdown. Like the
second touchdown is a great move to create space and
the goal line for you know Caleb Williams after the
(41:29):
pocket kind of collapses around him.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
You know.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
After the game, Rome was like, well, I obviously would
have wanted to win the game, but I that's gotta
be huge, man, especially for what this team can be.
If Roman Caleb are really good with each other, that's
gotta be a break winner. So yeah, that that's an
obvious winter. I mean, a career day for Rome. So
that's a big win for me. First first drive show,
those unscripted plays are going, well, that's they're two for
(41:55):
two on that. After the Lions just went down the
field and put it on the Bears, I was like, oh,
it's going to be a long day. And then the
Bears just responded. DeAndre Swift had a great run twenty
yards to kind of get them out of bad territory.
DJ Moore with a nice twenty yard catch, and then
Caleb hits Roma Dunes for the touchdown. I there are
two for two on the scoring touchdowns on their opening
(42:16):
drive after failing to do it last year, and that's huge.
Obviously you want that to translate for the rest of
the game, but we've seen worse, and I think it's
good to see that they can kind of build momentum
at the start of the game at least.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
Yeah, well, I that was gonna be my number two
positive two. Again, there weren't many were already you know,
running running out of options here for positive plays. But yes,
if everything you said there the the opening drive, and
again they were moving them all pretty well there. De
Andre Swift fumble was really unfortunate because they were inside
(42:51):
the thirty five at the thirty two when he fumbled.
There looked like they were gonna get at least a
field They were gonna get at least a field goal.
They were moving the ball, and then that happened, and
then they're playing catchup, and then we talked about some
of the things that happened. But yes, and the Bears, er,
I didn't score at all on the opening drive all
last season. They were horrific. A lot of times it
was three and out on their first drive, let alone
(43:13):
not get any points. So that is a positive, and
that is a positive for Ben Johnson too, because that's
him and Declan Doyle. So yes, we got two.
Speaker 1 (43:25):
All right, Joe, you got anything else? And he? Can
you muster up another? I won't make us. I don't
think we can do three each. I really don't. Maybe
it's people in the common section can help us come
up with stuff, But do you have another one that
you want to add or can come up with?
Speaker 2 (43:37):
The kiddle gets the kicking tee off the field after
the kickoffs. But he was excellent. I thought he showed
a lot of great anticipation. I think his name was
joh I think his name is Johnny Johnson. The third
a really good job by him, really really instinctive, hustled,
and I think he did a little trash talking to
(43:57):
the Lions players as he was running off the field.
So is the kid who retrieves a kicking team Johnny
Johnson as my number three positive from the game.
Speaker 1 (44:06):
All right, my last one. I'll wrap us up here.
There are fifteen games left in the hear, guys, it's
two games into the air, and I'm not listen. I
am well aware that there are issues. There are defensive injuries,
there are problems. I'm not here to tell you that
everything is great and dandy and all that kind of stuff.
But I mean, the Cowboys come into town on Sunday
(44:28):
and you saw how they played with the Giants on Sunday.
I know they won that game, but that wasn't pretty either.
And I think listen, like I said last week, it
was game one, this is game two, and I think
that's the biggest thing that the Bear's kind of had.
It seems like it would be crazy if Ben Johnson
lost his locker room two games into his career, that
would be insane. But everyone's saying the right stuff at
(44:51):
the end of the game. It's just a game. You
learned from it. Ben Johnson talked about how he's been
part of plenty of you know, teeth kickings in his career.
That's just part of the way of life sometimes and
sometimes you just get sometimes you get beat. It didn't
look pretty. I think some solids can be taken in that. Listen.
It was a twenty one to fourteen game with two
(45:12):
minutes left in the first half, and I think that
your defense came up with some stops here or there.
You just need to take the next step right, you
need the offense to not come out of the second
half and go three and now with three bad plays,
you need your defense to make some more stops. But
there are fifteen games left in the season. I'm not
here to tell you that it's all gonna be great
and the Bears are still gonna make the playoffs. But
(45:34):
I also don't think it's doom and gloom and that
the Bears are only going to win two or three
games and that they're gonna get the number one pick.
I think that the Bears are still like I predicted
it earlier in the year. They're in the middle somewhere
they're gonna be They're gonna have these great games where
they look great, and that could happen on Sunday against
the Cowboys, and they're gonna have bad games like Sunday
against the Lions. There's still there's still a lot of
(45:55):
games left to be played, and I think, you know,
this team can start owing too and look terrible. But
I think by the end of the year, if Da've
got momentum toward the end of the year, Caleb looks
like he's the quarterback, and they figured some stuff out
and they finished the season with eight or seven wins.
I think you're feeling much better than you are right now.
Speaker 2 (46:13):
Yeah, I mean, and you're looking ahead at Dallas three
twenty five kickoff right, three twenty five pm kickoff Sunday.
You know they're not you know, they give a forty
to Russell Wilson and the Giants, So that's not a
great defense. They weren't even even great last year with
Michael Parsons. So I expect Caleb and the offense to
play well defensively though, especially because it's almost certainty that
(46:34):
Jalen Johnson is not going to play and hopefully get
Kadler Gordon back. That would be a reason for optimism
if he could play. But no, the sun came up today,
it'll come up Sunday.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
My prediction will continue to do so it'll do so.
Speaker 2 (46:46):
So you know, let's build.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
And you're right.
Speaker 2 (46:49):
I mean, we've kind of really everyone's been saying it
all year long. It's like this season won't necessarily about
be about wins and losses, even though it's always about
winning and losing, it won't be be about the development
of the young players. And is you know, if we
see some positive plays, some catches and runs after catch
from Colston Lovelin and Luther Burden and continue more from
(47:10):
Rome and more accuracy from Caleb. You know you'd like
to win Sunday. They can win Sunday. Dallas is not
going to the Super Bowl this year, so they're beautable.
You're at home, that's good. Hopefully the crowd will be
fired up. And I'm doing too early, and we'll see
what happens.
Speaker 1 (47:29):
It will be, you know, it's interesting, and I feel
like we're always like, how you terrible are things? And
obviously the Cowboys won, but I mean you could be
the Cowboys and you traded Micah Parsons away, and you know,
it can always be worse. But I don't know. We'll
see how that goes. But that's everything that we've got
for this podcast. We got to get out of here.
I got to go listen to what Ben Jonson's gonna say.
But thanks so much to everyone who joined us. Thank
(47:49):
you to all the guys who chimed in on the chat.
Great to get your guys's comments. I'm really appreciated. And
make sure you like this podcast, uh this live stream
to make sure that other people can join the chat.
If you're listening on the podcast. If you're listening on
the podcast and you want to be part of the conversation,
make sure you follow our social medias. We try to
do this every Monday and Friday morning. Obviously, my travel
(48:10):
sometimes gets in the way of that, so sometimes we'll
have to do Monday afternoon or Tuesday, but we'll try
to stay on a regular schedule as much as possible.
Follow Joe at Joe Aguilar sixty four. He's got your
Northwest Herald coverage sports coverage coming up, so make sure
you follow him there. And I am at M. Dwojag
ninety four on all social media's. Like I said, Ben
(48:30):
Jonson talks today, so I'll have that story and obviously
I'll have the latest from Hallis Hall before we talk
to you folks again on Friday. As we previewed the
Dallas and Bears matchup on Sunday afternoon, Blake Joe said,
the sun will come out tomorrow and everything will be fine,
and until then we talk. We'll talk to you folks
down the road.
Hello, and welcome to the latest episode of the Shaw
Local Bears Insider podcast. I am Chicago Bears reporter Michael
Duojik here with the Northwest Herold Show aguilar As. We
are joining you on Monday afternoon. It's the day after
a pretty pretty tough day in the office for the Bears,
(00:21):
a fifty two to twenty one blowout lost to the Lions. Yeah,
the Ben Johnson returned to not go as many expected.
It's quite clear, Joe, just you know, I kind of
got wind of this toward the end of last week,
or to toward the end of the middle middle the middle
of last week, where I understood from the most part
(00:43):
that I think that Lloyd Lions fans were upset that
Ben Johnson left. Obviously he's this great coach for them
all these years. But I don't think I realized until
the end of last week and Sunday just how mad
the Lions fans were with Ben Johnson. I mean, he
goes out there for pregame one warm ups and it's
it's constant booing, like huge booing. It's you know, every
(01:06):
time the Bears are on the field, he's on the field,
there a booze there they are chants that I'm not
going to repeat here on the airwaves. Yeah, I guess,
you know, before we get into the blowout lost, Like
I just I guess I didn't truly realize Joe how
big of a game this really was for the Lions,
and maybe I underestimated that heading into things on Sunday
(01:27):
me too.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
And first of all, I do want to give you
props because you said I think we're gonna see a shootout. Now,
you didn't tell me the Lions we're gonna bring bring
all the weapons. Yeah, they could have stopped like twenty
points fewer twenty one points, sewer, But first of all,
you called it. You called the shootout, and that's what
it ended up being.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
The one team did the shootout party. I guess, oh
Bear's try.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
They just couldn't. They kept being Bears. The Bears kept bearing. Yeah,
you know, we'll get to that. But uh no, I
didn't either. I you know, I thought it would be
more like Ben Johnson's something to prove he's going back
to the team, you know, to the city where he
excelled and made the Lions.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
One of the top is not top offenses in the
National Football League the last two three years, and instead
it was like the Lions said, oh yeah, you think
it was all you will show you that we still
have the players, we still have the coaches, uh that
that we're gonna turn it on you, so, you know what,
good for the Lions, Good for the Lions fans, because
I don't think there's anyone in Chicago right now who
(02:27):
is being empathetic about the Bears and Ben Johnson and
and and wanting to be wanting to be patient.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
No, it was definitely, it was definitely a tough moment
for them. It's just weird, you know, It's it was
just interesting just to I you know, throughout the game,
you just started to realize more and more how much
of this was a revenge game for the whole team,
for the whole city. It felt like like obviously the
way things started against I think I think that the
(02:55):
their their Week one against green Bay only made things
worse for the pairs on side. I think they were
mad about the way things kind of went off. I
think everyone in Hot Take Sportsland was saying that maybe
Detroit's washed, and you know, green Bay's his great team,
and Detroit's like, no, we just had one pet game,
like obviously it's we it's week one, and they came
(03:16):
out in full force. I mean you saw it with
the with the you know, the interception celebration of the
stumble bum, you got the all the different celebrations by
the Lions player, and the Lions player said after the game,
like everyone said they love Ben Johnson. Jared Gobb said
that the chance, you know, f Ben Johnson, that went
a little bit too far by the fans. But they
(03:38):
wanted to prove that they're more than Ben Johnson, and
I think they did that. They showed that they have
great playmakers like we expected, and they showed that they're
a great talented team that's likely to compete for the
top spot in the NFC.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Yeah, and I you know, football is an emotional game.
We hear it all the time. We think it's cliche,
we think it's like doesn't matter, it matters. I wish
the Bears will play that kind of emotion because I
don't know what you could take positively And we're gonna
have to come up with a couple out of that
game yesterday. Well, energy matters in that sport, doesn't matter
in every sport, you know, I don't think if yet.
(04:14):
You need a lot of energy when you go try
to hit a ninety five mile power of fastball. Hockey's won,
Football's won. Bears didn't have it, the Lion. Maybe the
players fed off the fans. I would I would think
that's the case. That's the hope right at the home crowd.
But the fans were fired up and the Lions were
fired up, and they wanted to remind I think not
only just the Bears, or maybe the NFC, the entire
(04:37):
National Football League that there's still a Super Bowl contender,
and they still have weapons, They still got their head coach,
and they they sure looked the part yesterday. Are the
Bears that bad? I don't know if they're that bad.
They're the worst team in the National Football League. We're
looking at a top three pick in the drafts. Are
that bad? And maybe they are? I said, you know,
(04:57):
a couple weeks ago, three I've been saying it. I
think we'll know early on this season where the Bears
are because I silly me, because I should know better.
I was optimistic. I really thought the coaching staff, what
a fool I am, Michael. I really was optimistic, and
I said, we kind of know early. I'm thinking five games.
(05:17):
I think two games in, especially if Jalen Johnson, we'll
get to that. I'm sure it is done for a
long time, or maybe the season. I don't see how
it's getting much better. I don't. I'm sure I'll be wrong.
It's the NFL and again in Sunday all that stuff.
That's true too. They'll find a way to get wins.
But right now after that, after these first two weeks, wow,
(05:41):
I'm I don't know what Bears fans did that. Maybe
we I'm done thing. What did we do as a
fan base to deserve this? It's like, what did the
football gods say, You're cursed for the rest of this century?
Another seventy five years of this in this century? Because
this is really bad. And we changed the coach, we
changed the culture, change the coordinators, We're going to change
(06:02):
the stadium eventually, and it's still bad, bad, bad.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yeah, well, we'll get into the what it all this
kind of means. I do I do think that, you know,
let the answer lie somewhere in the middle. I think
that you know, the Bear, the Lions are very good.
I don't think the Bears are that bad. I think
you know this. It's it's two games into the air,
and we'll get into all that. But there's a lot
to break down and there's a lot to talk about it.
(06:28):
For two weeks into the season, there are a lot
of takes out there, and uh, I think, if you're
joining us on the livestream, thanks so much for joining us.
Rick is chiming in, I hate Ryan Poles. Other than that,
everything is great, I think Rick is, I think that
statement kind of exemplifies how Bears fans are feeling a
lot of a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
In my mentions during the game, where to sell the
team chance we're getting started? We got We're we're in
full We're two weeks into the season joke, but we
are full. We are pretty much in full season mode
at this point. I thought, I thought, where am I?
Is it not November? Like? Am I about to celebrate Thanksgiving?
Like this? This is too soon, guys, It's only two
weeks into things. But yeah, thanks so much, Rick, and
(07:08):
thank you everyone else's joining us on a live stream.
I know we're doing this on a little bit last minute. Obviously,
you had to travel back from Detroit and figure out
when the Bears availability so we're doing this on Monday afternoon.
If you're listening to this on the podcast, thanks so
much for listening. If you ever want to join us
on a live stream, make sure you check out our
social medias. That's when we post and share when we're
(07:29):
going to be doing this live stream, so you can
get shared your thoughts like Rick did and kind of,
you know, talk about what the heck just happened a
lot of times it's about losses. Sometimes it's about wins,
but Joe sometimes But why don't I guess before we
get into the every game we obviously like to do.
Our three winners are three losers. But why don't we
(07:51):
get into the breaking news that we kind of got
here on Monday mid afternoon, Monday morning, and that pertained
to one of the injuries at the Bear sustained on Sunday.
Jalen Johnson. You know, he came back, played his first game,
he was in full strength and make a made a
really impressive diving play to stop a pass to Amara
(08:12):
sat Brown and and you know when he was down
for a moment, it was kind of like, oh it
just probably dramatic effect. Is he being funny? Like, you know,
kind of you know, giving the lions a little taste
of their own medicine. And then, you know, he stayed
down for a while and he didn't get back up.
After a while, he got up, he went to the
medical tent, and then he went to the locker room.
He didn't come back into the game. We learned today
(08:35):
he left with a growing injury. We learned today first
from ESPN's Courtney Kronen and Adam Schefter that it seems
to be a severe growing injury that could potentially have
him out for a good chunk of the season or
at least the whole season, depending on whether they decided
to have surgery. And then Jordan Schultz also later on
(08:58):
tweeted here that now with fear that it's going to
be for the whole season, maybe they can get them
back toward the end of the season if the Bears
are in contention. We'll hear from Ben Johnson here at
at three o'clock, so fifteen minutes from right now, So
if you're listening to the podcast, there'll be newhere news.
But the general reaction to this show is this is
bad news. This is the Bears top defensive player. I
(09:21):
know it didn't look like it at the beginning. But
I do feel like Jalen Johnson didn't make a little
bit of an impact in that first half before he
got injured. And listen, I I'm it's there's no there's
no way to really sugarcoat it. That defense without Jalen
Johnson is not as good without it.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
No, And this was the fear. We talked about it
last week two weeks ago, leading up to the season opener,
about you want to be careful here if he misses
the opener against you know, essentially the rookie JJ McCarthy.
That's one thing better that than if you're going up
against Youred Golf or Jordan Love or Joe Burrow, you know,
in week in, week one season opener. So let's be
(10:01):
careful here because you don't want him gone for the
rest of this season and then what happens you bring
him back, and you know, once an athletes down the field,
you can't just say be careful, take it easy, don't
give a hundred percent. They're gonna one hundred percent. That
play he made it was it was a Pro Bowl
caliber play, you know, diving break up to just get
a finger on it and break up the play. That's
what great players do. That's what Jalen Johnson does. Unfortunately,
(10:24):
the injury happens, and that's you can't be shocked, right
you just and I know it's hard. I'm sure it's
hard for the coaches. It's hard for the player. The
player is never gonna say it. Yeah, I better sit
down again. But that's you said it, Michael, We've said it.
That's your best player on the on the defense. And
how bad did that secondary look yesterday? And other guys again,
(10:45):
they they've already you know, banged up with no Kyler
Gordon again, he might be your second best defensive player. Uh,
he shouldn't be. It should be Montest Sweat. That's another story.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Uh, we'll get there, don't worry.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
You lost a Zay Frasier before it even got going,
and then you lost Terrell Smith in the preseason. So
they're already depleted going into season, more depleted once the
season starts. And now if he's gone, that's why it's
just gonna be real difficult for this team. Not that
you're gonna face Jared Goff every week, but there's still
(11:19):
a lot of good quarterbacks. We talk about how schedule,
how tough. The schedule is this season in general, and
now you got him out. Wow, I maybe will be surprised.
Maybe the McLeod kid or Nie Sean Wright. They they
you know, more opportunities and more reps, they get better.
But you know you're not gonna replace Jalen Johnson. We
all know that, and that's just really a really rough blow.
(11:43):
If he looks like we're not gonna count on him
anytime soon, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Yeah, yeah, it'll be it'll be well, we'll hear from
Ben Johnson and we'll see what the latest. But doesn't
seem good at all. The TJ Edwards injury also didn't
look good. He you know, got caught up trying to
chase I think it was Jamison Williams. It was either Jamison, Yeah,
it was Jamison Williams, and you saw him like trying
to sprint after him, pulled up and grab that hadstrenk
and you know, obviously we'll get an update about TJ two.
(12:10):
But that didn't look good either. Like it is one
of those things where you know, you get these soft
tissue injuries early in the year and I've heard complaints,
but this is just an NFL thing. I don't know
whether it's just because training camp isn't you know, as
whatever you want to call it, tough or whatever, but
it's obviously not the same what he used to be
before with the preseason games. And I don't know if
(12:32):
that plays a factor in it, but you've got three
starters on your defense out with soft tissue injuries, and
those are major three players like TJ. Edwards manning the
middle is very important, and Kyler Gordon and Jalen Johnson
both back there are really important. They they were all
suffered with some with with some injuries. So it's not good.
(12:54):
And that's a good way to kind of transition to
our wins and losses. Obviously with losses. With the such
a blowout, we're gonna start with the losses. Joe what Well,
who's your first loser from Sunday's game?
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Wow, I've got like fifteen candidates. We can pick one.
Where do you start? The biggest loser? Dennis Allen? I
just boy, I expected am I that gullible that I
think we all expected better? And I know, you know
he can't go out there and rush to pass himself,
but he's he's supposed to scheme better. You just got
(13:26):
fifty two, fifty three points. I couldn't keep up after one.
I couldn't keep adding that much after a while. It
just you got to be able to figure out and
stop it. I don't care if who's out. I don't
care if you got a bunch of JV guys and
you're coming in off the bench, Michael, you got to
figure it out and stop it. They looked. I don't.
(13:47):
I don't know if I have anything positive to say
at all about the defensive effort from the players to
the coaching. And I'm not a coach. I'm not saying
what I well, what I have schemed up, but what
I have cooked up I don't know. But stop it.
You can't allow I don't care the fans playing inside
on their field to allow fifty some points Week two,
embarrassed like that. And I don't know what the rest
(14:07):
of the season holds out, but that's gonna be one
of you better be your worst game of the season.
And we've only played two so far. So I'll say
Dennis Allen because man, oh man, I have so much
respect to that guy, and his resume is pretty impressive.
But that's it's not all on him. It's never all
on the coach. That's a lot of it. He's got
to own a lot of that.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
I do want to I'll piggyback off of here is
and I'll go with the lack of a pass rush.
And I'm curious to know how much. You know, it's
tough for me because I think the scheme is there
right Like obviously, I think he's throwing different fronts at them.
I think he could have done a better job of,
you know, of adjusting on the fly and realizing that
(14:52):
Jared Goff was attacking up the middle and maybe he's
securing that, maybe doing you know, I know he went
to his zone coverage rarely a couple of times. Sometimes
it got burned that way, So I don't know if
going to zone really was going to be an answer there.
But my first loser is the lack of a pass rush.
It's just it's not there. And I think all off season,
(15:12):
I think the general thought, I think everyone we focused
in on the left tackle, we focused in on the quarterback,
and those are obviously important parts. But throughout the off season,
during during training camp, I was just kind of like,
is this defense going to pressure the quarterback? They brought
in dio Adangbo as their prize, you know, pass rusher
to go opposite a Montes Sweat. They brought in Grady
(15:34):
Jarrett up the middle. They drafted him our turner, and
you ended up with the performance where you didn't get
a sack. I know Montes Sweat had a sack, but
then it was nullified because of offsetting penalties. So I
guess you can say they had one sack. But Jared
goff had all day back there. He was able to
find you know, Amara Brown had time to get into
(15:55):
his route and get up the middle, and then you
know burn Tyree Stevenson. He was able to throw the
ball deep to find Jamison Williams for those deep passes.
Jared goffitt all the time in the world. And you know, Joe,
I agree with you. Could there be some better schemes
and that sort of stuff. Sure, could you adjust to
what the Lions are doing a little bit better, I agree,
(16:15):
But at some point your players just need to play
the game right, like you need to get to the quarterback.
You need to You're going against a new center and
a new guard, and you can't bully that. You can't
do anything from the middle that you think and much
pressure from your middle dio kind of got some pressure
at the beginning of the game, but then it all
just kind of died after halftime and you just didn't
(16:37):
see anything. So I agree, I think maybe there could
have been some game plan adjustments in this sort of stuff.
But for me, it just feels like you just got
to make the plays and there's no pass rush at all.
Two games into the season for the Bears defense.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Nope. I mean, I don't disagree at all. Montese sweat
and we thought maybe he had to be hurt last year,
right because we know he's better than that, and then
two games here to two games without a sack? Is
he is? He hers? He's just not good? Does he
really need a complimentary player? He sure look great in
twenty twenty three after they got him, and then he
got paid, and since he got paid, as he has,
he really done much. He didn't even have a great
(17:12):
finish to the twenty twenty three season, if you remember,
he kind of he cooled off at the end there,
and he's right, he's gotta make plays. And I know
it's hard. You're getting double team, triple team whatever. Too
bad you're supposed to be a great player. You can
put eight guys on Micah Parsons, he'll get a sack,
you know, and they played different positions, but he he's
not making an impact. And I know we'll keep saying this.
(17:35):
Everyone keeps saying it's early. It's two games, it's early,
it's two games, it's three games, it's one game. It's
not early, it's not early. You gotta gotta go right
now because his team right now as a whole looks
like they need three more months of training camp to
get it to get a going. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
I agree, you just got Yeah, I mean two games
into the air, you know, could we could be talking
later in the air and it's gonna be there five
hundred and they're battling, and sometimes you need to kick
in above like sometimes you need to get kicked in
the teeth, like Ken Johnson said, like it. I but
I agree you, this isn't the response we wanted to
see from a new coaching staff two games into the year.
(18:15):
I think I think if you win Monday night and
then you this game happens on Sunday, I think the
reaction it still stinks, obviously, but I think it's much
more muted because you're just kind of like, all right,
that team was an NFC Championship game, are contending for
an NFC Championship game. We're still learning and I think
that would probably play a factor. But I do agree
(18:38):
you need to show off more and you gotta be
more competitive in these types of matchups. And obviously that
just did not happen. Joe, who's your other who's your
second loser of the game.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Well, I'll go again with a guy who didn't wear
a uniform on Sunday. That's Ryan Poles. Oh boy, where
do we start? Where do we again? This is like
another hour conversation we could have just on the draft class.
Right so far by Mike count Luther Burden and Coleston
Lovelin each have two catches, so they're on pace for
(19:08):
if my math is correct, seventeen catches each, and we
know if so, they've not made an impact. I'm not
saying they're bad players that like both guys, I think
they're gonna be great. They should be great, Like starting out,
let's go, they're not. They're not making they're not being utilized,
they're not playing Ozzie Trapillo. What's going on with this
is this are we already calling this a wasted pick
(19:30):
because he can't play a left tackle. The left tackle
for some reason, Brax and Jones has gotten worse. Maybe
he's not healthy still, that's another that's another hour conversation too.
We've already had that conversation a lot. He's a healthy
scratch Shmier Turner. Is he actually a person? You've seen
him right at a Hallas all because I wouldn't.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
The game?
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Yeah, all right, they see, so he is he is
a person. Yeah, and he was drafted by this team
in the second round. He's been at I guess he's
still heard. I guess right, he is still hurt. Uh,
he's an active Who am I missing here? You know
we mentioned.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Karan you didn't play.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
What's going on here? He's and then he got the extension,
so he'll be another here. He'll be here another ten
twenty years, Ryan Poles, I guess, so I don't this
team and I mean I couldn't tell you, like after
two games for the leading candidates for Rookie of the Year,
I haven't looked at all the draft picks and who's
making an immediate impact, if any really off the top
(20:33):
of my head, Well, we saw what the number one
pick did yesterday? Camp Uh cam Ward with that throw?
But you know what I mean, you know the running backs?
Where we how how many times we talked about the
running back issue? Why didn't you get one in the
offseason if you thought you had the guys there or
you're you know, uh Kylie Minou what's his name? Karn
(20:54):
uh Kyle anung guy. I was a little joke there
by the way, if he was going to be the
guy and you're counting on a seventh round pick that
to be an impact player, and no, that's a mess.
So I'm calling this on the GM because this is
not this is not OK. Well, maybe it isn't the
bars case a six year rebuild. You know, let's you're
(21:16):
already in desperate mode coming into this season and we
get no help in the draft class, and we know, look,
if they're going to be showing potential this year, showing
signs that twenty twenty six looks a little more promising
or twenty twenty seven, then Luther Burden and Colston Leblin
are going to be a big part of that. So
I do suspect they won't continue this one catch per
(21:37):
game average pace, But certainly you'd like to see a
little more from those guys starting Sunday against Dallas.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Yeah, Rick had the same thought as you did. Big loser.
Ryan poles two healthy second round picks in the actives.
His first round pick as zero catches and his other
second round pick is a kick returner. I'm doing a
bear down nerd up, and I'll give you guys a
little sneak peek. Make sure to check out all the
stances tomorrow. But I mean. Coleston Lovelin has twelve yards
on two receptions. He's been target targeted three times and
(22:06):
has played fifty five percent of the snaps. Luther Burdon
has two yards on two receptions for three targets. Ozzie
Trapello has played five special team snaps in Week one
and was inactive in Game two. Shamar Turner didn't play
in either game. He was inactive in Game two. Zay
Frasier is on NF I won't play. Hippolyte has four tackles,
(22:30):
most has mostly played on special teams. Luke Newman has
three offensive snaps and three and eight special team snaps,
and Kyle macdong guy has twenty eight rushing yards on
seven carries nineteen receiving yards on two receptions four targets.
So your seventh round running back has more targets, receiving
yards and the same amount of catches as your first
(22:52):
round tight end and your second round wide receiver. By
the way, Tyler Warren had a game yesterday for Indianapolis.
As the Colts move on to T and O, I
you know, I agree, and I understand the argument of
(23:14):
you know, you need to use Colston Loveland for protection, Okay,
but then if protection was your need, then maybe you
should have drafted an offensive lineman with number ten or
traded up for number ten if it's that big of
a need. I understand that. I understand if you need
to use coal Comet and Colston Loved and to shure
up the left side or whatever. I get that. But
(23:35):
then maybe at number ten you shouldn't be drafting in
a tight end. Maybe at number thirty nine you don't
go for the luxury pick of a top wide receiver
and you go for an offensive tackle or something each
or you go for a pass rusher. It's just I agree,
it's not good. It doesn't look good right now. Your
third round pick from last year isn't playing Zach Pickens.
(23:59):
You cut them a couple of years ago. Javon Dexter
isn't generating too much for you. Your second round pick.
It's not looking good, I mean your first round. I
mean Caleb Williams looks. I thought he looked fine in
week two, and we can get into that a little
bit later. And roem A Doonsay obviously looks. He's your
number one receiver without a doubt that that's going to
be our good later on. But everything else is just
(24:22):
not good. And I agree if I don't know, these
first and second round picks can't be luxury picks that
you stash away. These are your players who are making
an impact for you right away, and they're not doing
that right now. I don't know whether it's scheme. I
don't know whether it's not getting Ben Jonson's trust, but whatever,
And for all we know, it could be Colston isn't ready,
(24:44):
Luther Burden isn't ready, and they're not putting in the work.
And maybe that's on them. I'm not saying that it's
on Ben Johnson, but something clearly is now working and
some part of the scouting process is not doing well.
At all.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Yeah, I mean I don't get it. I think you
nailed it on the head here. You know, I in
my three and out column we do at Shaw Local,
I jokingly had one of the three positives or whatever
being Tory Taylor. That was really mostly a joke and
the only thing I really said there was at least
(25:19):
he plays. You know that Bears took so much criticism
for that pick. What fourth round pick Tory Taylor the punter,
at least he plays. The other guys don't play. I mean,
you could have taken another offensive line of a long
snapper project guy in the fourth round. They'd probably be
sitting the bench too. Somewhere. At least the punter plays.
(25:40):
And that's really sad that we're talking about the punter.
It's even sad that we talked about Cairo Santos. I
haven't talked about cairos Aantos yet. Hopefully we don't even
have to today. But this is a rack, and this is
Ryan Poles who got extended somehow, somehow, he got a
contract extension in the off season. Why because he got
(26:01):
the head coach that every wanted. Okay, I'll give you
credit THEREK because I'm not giving up on Ben Johnson yet,
but man oh man, and again I like Loveland. I
like to pick Yeah, I think he's a.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Very talented player.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Yeah, what are we talk about? Who's gonna be the
Beers rookie of the year And you're you got Loveland,
I've got Burder. Like, let's hope we're having a conversation
in January about this and how both those guys just
crushed it this year. Well they're not on pace to
do it, but I'm not giving up on him. I
like them both. But can I see the football in
their hands? Please?
Speaker 1 (26:35):
That would be nice. Uh yeah, I don't know. I
And you know, maybe we'll ask Ben Johnson about it
today because that's been going around the last couple of days.
And you know how it is after a game, you
can't get all these types of questions and particularly but yeah,
it's it's it's a major topic. And I'm sure if
it is Ben Johnson and Ryan Poles is like, what
are we doing? Dude, Like come on, help me out
(26:57):
here a little bit, And if it is Ben Johnson,
He's like, come, I dude, what do we doing here?
Help me out here? But something very clearly is now
working two games into things, all right, My next negative
goes to the officials, and I thought the game was
relatively well officiated. I don't think anything was crazy. But
(27:17):
Robert chiming in, Hi, Robert from across the pond. Great
to hear from you, officials, losers again, what the heck
was that played before halftime? And I agree that wasn't
that for Yeah, I'm sure if you watch the game,
you know obviously you know the incredible catch down the sideline.
One official said he was out of bounds. One official
(27:38):
said he was in bounds. There's confusion. One officials telling
Ben Jonson that there's no time left on the clock
to go to the locker room. And then as they're
making the announcement on the speaker overhead, the head officials
says that there's still six seconds left, and there's just
like it was all poorly done. And I understand that
(27:59):
maybe there's confusion or whatever, but it's very clear that
he went out of bounce. The clock should have stopped,
and I you know, we got the official word after
the game, and even that official word was kind of confusing.
But the thought process was this clock should have stopped
at sixteen seconds and you do a ten second, you
(28:20):
get rid of ten seconds because of the Lion's not
having a timeout, so they had six seconds left. But
that should have been communicated much better. That should have
been done much better, and you know, quite honestly, like
I you know, you need to say that. You know,
let's get a stop in that moment, think you're going
(28:41):
into the locker room, like you kind of start to
like cool down at least a little bit, right, but
then you're told to go back on and get a
fourth down stop. And Jared Goff just does the same
play he does to Amar Prown all the time, quick
in and out hits him right on the money, Like
I know, we picked on Tyrek Stevens, but that's just
the player. It's like they do that all the time, man,
(29:03):
Like they just know it, like one two step, I'm
gonna hit you, like they have a down path. So
that was just all bad. I think, just the whole experience,
the confusion toward the end of the half, because you
go from getting a big stop and it being a
seven point game to start the second half too, it's
a fourteen point game and you got to figure things
out quickly. So I yeah, I didn't like the end
(29:25):
of that first half at all. I thought that was
all jumbled up and that could have been handled a
much better way.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Yeah, I agree, and that in my three things that mattered,
that wasn't one of mine. That should have been I
should like I should, that really should have been one
of the things that mattered, because that didn't matter for
exactly the reason you said. And you know, the Bears
had scored the offense finally stop getting you know, out
of it, stop getting in its way to pull within
twenty one fourteen, it's late, less than two minutes, I
(29:52):
think to go there, just just stop once, give me
a first time stop and going a halftime down a
touchdown instead, that whole drive happens, and then the the
teslaw kid, how about the catch he made by the way,
and they got him what third round? Because that's what
good teams do. They find guys in the third round.
You know, yes, he makes a spectacular catch and then bang,
(30:12):
but the ref screwed that up. The replay clearly showed
that he was down inbounds. Terry Stevenson got looked like
his knee hit his helmet or his shoulder pads or whatever.
So he was down. That was confusion, and that hurt
because now then the next play, bam, and it's back
to a two touchdown game. And the Bears come out
second half, the offense again looks just like against Minnesota's
second They come out bone, let's get momentum. Nope, they
(30:35):
look like it's it's day one of camp again, and
and then it just got out of control.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Yeah, it was just crazy, and obviously you know it was.
It was an insane catch by Tesla. That was That
was an amazing catch. That was the one time I
was kind of like, all right, Tyre. Those back to
back plays were kind of where I was kind of like,
all right, Tyreek, like you've gotten burned a lot today.
But I don't know what you're supposed to do on
both of those plays. All right, Joe, what's your last
loser of the day.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
So I've gone with two guys on a uniform, Dennis Allen,
Ryan Poles, and I'll just make it consistent. I'll go
with the third guy on a uniform, and that's Ben Johnson.
And I didn't think i'd be saying that all year.
I said in the preseason they looked well coached. There
were none of the they look coached in the offseason,
the preseason games for what those are worth. But I
believed in the guy. I still believe in it. But
(31:20):
you got to call it like it is, right, he's
going too and his teams. That's a bad loss on
Monday night to the Vikings to open with that fourth
quarter disaster and then they play pretty much four quarters
of his Well, it wasn't all bad for four quarters,
but you got embarrassed. They dropped fifty plus on you.
That can't happen. And he's a very confident guy. I understand,
(31:42):
like any guy, any person who's successful in life, there's
a fine line between confidence and arrogance. And it's okay
if you're winning, maybe a little bit some people think that.
But man, when you've gotten off to this start, this start,
you're not playing dis playing football. And look, if it's
you want to blame of players and dumb it down
(32:03):
for him, you know, if it's still too early in
the process, dumb it downd. You have to know your personnel.
I understand he's still learning it. But you've been mentioned,
like beck, I don't want to keep bringing up the
Minnesota game, but the Cairo Santos kicked at the end
of the game when he should have kicked out of bounds,
and like, well, you know you told me to kicking
out of bounds he could And you're like, well, shouldn't
you know that the guy can't kick it out of bounds?
You're right, he should. So you never need to start
(32:25):
figuring it out because it's it's a long season with
but it's a short season, right, You get one game
a week, and you can't get off to this start.
And if he's supposed to be the next Boy wonder,
if he's supposed to be the next Matt Luffler or
Sean McVay, uh whoever, you you can't have your football
team off to this start. And you can't just say
(32:46):
it's all bad execution and unfortunate injuries to keep players.
It's got to come down on him too. So Ben Johnson,
come on, man, you're better than this.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
I I yeah, I agree. I thought we we thought
it was going to be better, especially for all the
rhetoric about the discipline play and that sort of stuff,
and that kind of goes into my last loser. It's
the pre snap penalties again. The turnovers were not you
know the DeAndre Swift turnover, I was kind of like,
all right, like that's a little tough. A Branch got
his helmet on, and it's just kind of a tough play.
(33:19):
Like very clearly Branch was made a nice defensive play
on it. The Caleb Williams interception I didn't love, obviously,
office scramble. Those are the moments where he needs to
learn and just be like, all right, live to fight
another day. I know. But again, that interception was done
because you get a holding penalty, move you ten yards back,
(33:39):
and then you get a face mask penalty on your
offensive lineman on your left tackle. I've never seen that before.
I've never seen an offensive lineman be called for a
face mask penalty. It's just those things and that just
leads that just kills drives. Man, Like the first two
plays on those drives, DeAndre Swift was getting into getting
some momentum. He picked up fourteen yards on two rushes
(34:01):
and then that happens. So it's just the prestat penalties. Again,
it's not good. It needs to get fixed. I honestly thought,
you know, the first drive things are it's insanely loud
in there. I can't think at all, it's like so
loud in that stadium, and I'm like, I don't know
how this is going to go the silent count. But
the Bears actually did a pretty good job of running
(34:21):
that silent count, I feel like. But then you get
plays like that where you're just like, man, it's just
killing the offense and you need to figure it out
quickly because it can't continue like this, like these are
just mistakes that are really hurting any sort of progress
that you want to make offensively.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Yeah. No, no arguments there. I mean, you know, aw, come,
other teams don't jump offside. I don't know. I don't
know what the stats are through two weeks. So they're
the most penalized team, penalized team in the national.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
I think there. I think I heard there, third on
the list. There are two more penalized teams.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Yeah, yeah, there. You go for a team that still
has the training wheels on its offense, right, so you
can't have it. So completely agree there and this offensive
line and we can go, we can we can do
fifteen three negative and fifteen negatives after this game. But
the old line, and it's not just the lineman, it's
(35:15):
the DJ moorees it's the DeAndre Swift first before the
first snap of the game, right, he was whistled for
illegal procedure, I believe, or is that the second half?
Speaker 1 (35:26):
But on the second half?
Speaker 2 (35:27):
Second a half? Right, thank you? So it's on. Everybody
is at the quarterback, you know, messing everybody up. I don't.
I don't know whether you A lot was talking in
the week about about his cadence going to the silent count,
et cetera. You right, the interception that goes second and
twenty nine, and how bad is his aim? I know
he wasn't hit on the play. I know he's throwing
on the run. I know throwing a football is hard,
(35:49):
but how bad is your end that that ball should
be fifteen yards out of bounds? He's not gonna get
called for intentional ground. He throw it fifteen yards out
of bounds and somehow he managed to throw it in
bounds and then Kirby Joseph was play. I mean, they
got great safeties in branching and Kirby Joseph he makes
a diving interception, you know, look like a defensive guy
making a play. Imagine that for your team, the team
(36:11):
you root for. That that's a great play by him.
But Caleb, come on, man, stop doing that.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
Definitely a learning moment for him. Yeah, I don't know.
It's one of those things. I feel like, you know,
I said to be careful. He's been careful with the
ball when we were doing our preview and maybe go
for it and letting your rip. Those aren't the moments
when you will let it rip. Those are the moments
where you just got to throw it away and get
rid of it and live to fight another day. Other
guys chiming in. Robert Johnson's offense can't operate without a
(36:39):
decent run game. But main problem now is the defense.
Also said that Stevenson is a loser, just too slow,
got burned after time after time. I would agree with that.
Who else is what else do we have out there? Shoot?
I saw some more there. Picking the punter in the
fourth round is the word script chiming in there, CJ.
(37:05):
Chiming and get to hear from me, CJ.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
There was no.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
Attempt to try Darnell left tackle and Ozzie had right tackle.
That should have gone to look at least I think
it maybe it would have done it, But I do
think that it very clearly was to them that they weren't.
They didn't like that idea at all. So I don't
know whether it's just Darnell and not being able to
play left or what have you, but I I very
clearly it seemed to them that it didn't really make
(37:30):
sense to me. I'm gonna have an honorable mention for
loser before we go on on the positive here. You
could not have scripted it any better, Joe to start
that game off with Cayrol Santos kicking it off out
of bounce a week after the Bears decided not to
kick the ball out of bounds to preserve time in
the second In the two minute warning, he kicks it
(37:52):
out of bounce, and I, I just, you know something,
I don't believe in the whole NFL script thing. I
don't believe in any of that stuff. But then there
are more moments like that where you're just like, that's
not real, like someone someone told him to do that,
Like Roger Gell's like chiming in and telling him to
kick it out. When that happened, I was like, this
is not real life. And I you know. Ben Johnson
(38:14):
gave Carol the vote of confidence after Sunday's game. Obviously,
they signed Ja Comody to the practice squad. He still
believes in him. But that was just that was just
kind of like a funny moment to start the game
where I was like, come on, like that's not real,
Like are we really doing this?
Speaker 2 (38:30):
I agree. I don't know if I've ever watched a
football game, even especially for the Bears. Again, I've been
a fan a long time where before the first snap,
I'm thinking, oh boy, here we go again, because that
was like, here you go, she can't even keep the
ball in bounds and you give this real good offense.
(38:51):
You knew it was good. You knew it was better
than what it showed against Green Bay. Now they have
the shorts field sixty yards later, what was it? A
five play drive? Boom boom, boom, boom boom.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
They're in.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
It's like here we go again, and you hate but
you know, it's like when you're so used to getting
beat up, when you know you're not expecting good things
to happen, and maybe it's then it becomes it's only
two games in the season, but you start to expect
bad things. And I'm sure that every man on the
Bears would say, oh that didn't bother us. We had
(39:19):
to go out and play our do our do our
one to eleven, do our job. But man, you give
him a shortfield right off the bat, and before you
could even basically take your first sip of your pepsi,
you're down seven nothing. So that was a bad start,
and you're looking first sight. Let's something. Let's hit him
in the face, something positive right away. And of course
(39:40):
we didn't get it.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
No, we didn't. All right, Joe, let's go to the positive.
We got a few minutes left here. Luckily, I don't
think there's much We don't really need that much time
to talk about the positives.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
Who's the winner for you, Joe, Well, I think it's
I think everyone will probably probably agree here. It's got
to be roma Dunesa. I know he had a drop
and the play he may could have made. Uh, but
still having catches one twenty eight receiving both career best.
Those numbers will get better too, I think, well, those
aren't gonna be his career best for the rest of
the season. He'll have better games. The two touchdowns we're
(40:11):
starting to see it with him is a finished product.
Does he never won a receiver? Right now? No, but
I thought he was really good. Uh, you saw what
he can do and five catches in the first half.
I thought, let's build on it. They really didn't build
on it. They couldn't because they've got it out of
control at the end and then beenway through the fourth
everyone's on the bench. But I thought Rome was someone
(40:31):
to be excited about and let's see, hopefully he can
build off that. And I think he's gonna end up
having the best season of any receiver as fair to say, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
I would agree. I think I was tweeting this during
the game, but the Caleb Williams Rome duns a connection
is clicking, and that's a great thing for Bears fans.
It's very clear that Rome is becoming Caleb's number one
target now. Like he's looking for Rome, and last year
the kind of fell apart because the DJ Moore and
Keenan Allen kind of became the safety net. But he's
(41:03):
looking for Rome a lot, and that is good because
Rome can make plays.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
Man. He showed you that.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
And I know he dropped that tight pass they probably
should have caught, but he's making plays out of nothing.
Sometimes he's making great routes on his first touchdown. That
was like, what a five yard pass that he takes
that he sees what he has in front of him
and takes twenty eight yards for a touchdown. Like the
second touchdown is a great move to create space and
the goal line for you know Caleb Williams after the
(41:29):
pocket kind of collapses around him.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
You know.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
After the game, Rome was like, well, I obviously would
have wanted to win the game, but I that's gotta
be huge, man, especially for what this team can be.
If Roman Caleb are really good with each other, that's
gotta be a break winner. So yeah, that that's an
obvious winter. I mean, a career day for Rome. So
that's a big win for me. First first drive show,
those unscripted plays are going, well, that's they're two for
(41:55):
two on that. After the Lions just went down the
field and put it on the Bears, I was like, oh,
it's going to be a long day. And then the
Bears just responded. DeAndre Swift had a great run twenty
yards to kind of get them out of bad territory.
DJ Moore with a nice twenty yard catch, and then
Caleb hits Roma Dunes for the touchdown. I there are
two for two on the scoring touchdowns on their opening
(42:16):
drive after failing to do it last year, and that's huge.
Obviously you want that to translate for the rest of
the game, but we've seen worse, and I think it's
good to see that they can kind of build momentum
at the start of the game at least.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
Yeah, well, I that was gonna be my number two
positive two. Again, there weren't many were already you know,
running running out of options here for positive plays. But yes,
if everything you said there the the opening drive, and
again they were moving them all pretty well there. De
Andre Swift fumble was really unfortunate because they were inside
(42:51):
the thirty five at the thirty two when he fumbled.
There looked like they were gonna get at least a
field They were gonna get at least a field goal.
They were moving the ball, and then that happened, and
then they're playing catchup, and then we talked about some
of the things that happened. But yes, and the Bears, er,
I didn't score at all on the opening drive all
last season. They were horrific. A lot of times it
was three and out on their first drive, let alone
(43:13):
not get any points. So that is a positive, and
that is a positive for Ben Johnson too, because that's
him and Declan Doyle. So yes, we got two.
Speaker 1 (43:25):
All right, Joe, you got anything else? And he? Can
you muster up another? I won't make us. I don't
think we can do three each. I really don't. Maybe
it's people in the common section can help us come
up with stuff, But do you have another one that
you want to add or can come up with?
Speaker 2 (43:37):
The kiddle gets the kicking tee off the field after
the kickoffs. But he was excellent. I thought he showed
a lot of great anticipation. I think his name was
joh I think his name is Johnny Johnson. The third
a really good job by him, really really instinctive, hustled,
and I think he did a little trash talking to
(43:57):
the Lions players as he was running off the field.
So is the kid who retrieves a kicking team Johnny
Johnson as my number three positive from the game.
Speaker 1 (44:06):
All right, my last one. I'll wrap us up here.
There are fifteen games left in the hear, guys, it's
two games into the air, and I'm not listen. I
am well aware that there are issues. There are defensive injuries,
there are problems. I'm not here to tell you that
everything is great and dandy and all that kind of stuff.
But I mean, the Cowboys come into town on Sunday
(44:28):
and you saw how they played with the Giants on Sunday.
I know they won that game, but that wasn't pretty either.
And I think listen, like I said last week, it
was game one, this is game two, and I think
that's the biggest thing that the Bear's kind of had.
It seems like it would be crazy if Ben Johnson
lost his locker room two games into his career, that
would be insane. But everyone's saying the right stuff at
(44:51):
the end of the game. It's just a game. You
learned from it. Ben Johnson talked about how he's been
part of plenty of you know, teeth kickings in his career.
That's just part of the way of life sometimes and
sometimes you just get sometimes you get beat. It didn't
look pretty. I think some solids can be taken in that. Listen.
It was a twenty one to fourteen game with two
(45:12):
minutes left in the first half, and I think that
your defense came up with some stops here or there.
You just need to take the next step right, you
need the offense to not come out of the second
half and go three and now with three bad plays,
you need your defense to make some more stops. But
there are fifteen games left in the season. I'm not
here to tell you that it's all gonna be great
and the Bears are still gonna make the playoffs. But
(45:34):
I also don't think it's doom and gloom and that
the Bears are only going to win two or three
games and that they're gonna get the number one pick.
I think that the Bears are still like I predicted
it earlier in the year. They're in the middle somewhere
they're gonna be They're gonna have these great games where
they look great, and that could happen on Sunday against
the Cowboys, and they're gonna have bad games like Sunday
against the Lions. There's still there's still a lot of
(45:55):
games left to be played, and I think, you know,
this team can start owing too and look terrible. But
I think by the end of the year, if Da've
got momentum toward the end of the year, Caleb looks
like he's the quarterback, and they figured some stuff out
and they finished the season with eight or seven wins.
I think you're feeling much better than you are right now.
Speaker 2 (46:13):
Yeah, I mean, and you're looking ahead at Dallas three
twenty five kickoff right, three twenty five pm kickoff Sunday.
You know they're not you know, they give a forty
to Russell Wilson and the Giants, So that's not a
great defense. They weren't even even great last year with
Michael Parsons. So I expect Caleb and the offense to
play well defensively though, especially because it's almost certainty that
(46:34):
Jalen Johnson is not going to play and hopefully get
Kadler Gordon back. That would be a reason for optimism
if he could play. But no, the sun came up today,
it'll come up Sunday.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
My prediction will continue to do so it'll do so.
Speaker 2 (46:46):
So you know, let's build.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
And you're right.
Speaker 2 (46:49):
I mean, we've kind of really everyone's been saying it
all year long. It's like this season won't necessarily about
be about wins and losses, even though it's always about
winning and losing, it won't be be about the development
of the young players. And is you know, if we
see some positive plays, some catches and runs after catch
from Colston Lovelin and Luther Burden and continue more from
(47:10):
Rome and more accuracy from Caleb. You know you'd like
to win Sunday. They can win Sunday. Dallas is not
going to the Super Bowl this year, so they're beautable.
You're at home, that's good. Hopefully the crowd will be
fired up. And I'm doing too early, and we'll see
what happens.
Speaker 1 (47:29):
It will be, you know, it's interesting, and I feel
like we're always like, how you terrible are things? And
obviously the Cowboys won, but I mean you could be
the Cowboys and you traded Micah Parsons away, and you know,
it can always be worse. But I don't know. We'll
see how that goes. But that's everything that we've got
for this podcast. We got to get out of here.
I got to go listen to what Ben Jonson's gonna say.
But thanks so much to everyone who joined us. Thank
(47:49):
you to all the guys who chimed in on the chat.
Great to get your guys's comments. I'm really appreciated. And
make sure you like this podcast, uh this live stream
to make sure that other people can join the chat.
If you're listening on the podcast. If you're listening on
the podcast and you want to be part of the conversation,
make sure you follow our social medias. We try to
do this every Monday and Friday morning. Obviously, my travel
(48:10):
sometimes gets in the way of that, so sometimes we'll
have to do Monday afternoon or Tuesday, but we'll try
to stay on a regular schedule as much as possible.
Follow Joe at Joe Aguilar sixty four. He's got your
Northwest Herald coverage sports coverage coming up, so make sure
you follow him there. And I am at M. Dwojag
ninety four on all social media's. Like I said, Ben
(48:30):
Jonson talks today, so I'll have that story and obviously
I'll have the latest from Hallis Hall before we talk
to you folks again on Friday. As we previewed the
Dallas and Bears matchup on Sunday afternoon, Blake Joe said,
the sun will come out tomorrow and everything will be fine,
and until then we talk. We'll talk to you folks
down the road.
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