October 17, 2025 • 42 mins
The Chicago Bears will return to Soldier Field for the first time in nearly a month when they host the New Orleans Saints. Shaw Local's Michal Dwojak and Joe Aguilar preview Sunday's game.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello and welcome to the latest episode of the Shaw
Local Bears. Inside our podcast from Shaw Local. I am
Michael Duo Jack here with the Joe Aguilar as we
get you ready here for Week seven of the football season.
We're talking to you on Friday afternoon, a little bit
bit of a different time, but hopefully we're getting your
(00:22):
weekend started here with the Bears preview as they play
the Saints on Sunday afternoon at noon Joe at Soldier Field.
And we got a noon game after all these different
three pm starts Monday night, all that sort of stuff.
We've only had one noon game so far on Sunday,
so it'll be good to kind of get back to
(00:42):
that normal, that normal schedule on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Yeah, good old Bears football. You know how I love
the noon kickoffs, Michael, like Walter Payton and the Super
Bowl twenty Bears. It's just old school Bears that hopefully
they play like the Super Bowl twenty champion Bears and
get another W on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Yeah, for sure, I'm sure everyone's looking forward to that.
Thanks so much for everyone who's joining us. Thanks so
much on the YouTube stream. Thanks for joining us. If
you don't mind give us a like. That's the best
way to support us upgrow our brand. If you're listening
on the podcast and want to be part of the conversation,
make sure you check our social medias. We usually like
to do Friday and Monday morning, but if we have
(01:22):
to change, obviously, make sure you check out our social medias.
We'll always get you up to date on those. You
know when we're going to be going live. But let's
look forward to this game happening at noon, Joe. And
since we're recording this on Friday afternoon, we have the
luxury of you know, having the full injury report for Friday.
(01:44):
So Cayro Santos and Noah Stool are both out for
Sunday's game. Grady Jared returned in a limited fashion. DeAndre
Swift was limited again. Austin Booker, Travis Homer, and Amen
Amiga we're all full and they'll all be questionable for
a Sunday's game. We got a chance to talk to
(02:06):
DeAndre after the you know injury report was released. He
said he expects to play on Sunday, nothing to really
be concerned about. And then DJ Moore and Jonah Jackson,
they were both full participants and they had no designation.
Earlier in the day, Ben Johnson said, you know, they'll
they'll see how the injury report looks when it comes
(02:27):
to determining whether DJ Moore plays. But Joe, I mean,
for the most part, this is a pretty good a
pretty good injury report. Obviously the Carol sindhost isn't great.
But I do think that where things work on Wednesday,
you have to be pretty encouraged about where things stand
at this point.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yeah, and it's nice to know that Jake Moody can
do the job right in which we didn't know a
week ago. A lot of people probably didn't know he
was on the practice squad, But so I'm not as
concerned about that now. That would be interesting if the
weather's a little nasty, it might rain. I think Sunday potentially.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
We'll see, Yeah, it's gonna rain and it's gonna be
uh windy. So it's definitely not going to be a
good not going to be good. Especially, you know, I
feel like it's always windy at Soldier Field regardless on
a beautiful day, so I'm sure it'll be extra extra hard.
I think they're calling for like gusts to be like
up to like forty miles an hour or something like that,
(03:25):
thirty miles an hour once kickoff happens at noon.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Yeah, that could be a factor. Then.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
I mean, I don't know if it'll be as nasty
as it was Monday night in d C. You you
were there, so but you know, kicking gets Soldier feel,
like you said, even if it's if it's a nice
date at seventy and sunny, there's wind and it's tough
to kick kick there. So a lit'll be interested to
see how Jake does in those conditions at Soldier Field
(03:51):
because he's probably gonna get opportunities again with this offense
sometimes getting stagged inside the thirty. So we'll see there.
And then Noah's Sewell, who we haven't talked a lot
about this season. He's been pretty solid, pretty steady his
first year as a starter, and so they'll miss him.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
And you know, still no Jayalen.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Johnson that's the big one, but we'll see if we
get him back at all this season. So but overall, yeah,
pretty good. And I saw they also just released Tanno
passing yo is that did A get his name right?
He's significant because he's I think he's got one of
the few bear sacks this season. So I don't know
if that opens the window from my guy Austin Booker here.
(04:31):
Will see, we'll see if he even is active, and
if he's active, does he play, and if he plays,
is he any good?
Speaker 3 (04:37):
But but I'm.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Kind of curious to see what happens there, and we'll
talk more about this defensive line here as we go
along here. So but overall, like you said, pretty good
all things considering with the injury injuries.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Yeah, I think that's good detective work on your part, Joe.
Obviously Tando got that that sack earlier. I would imagine
considering you know, Austin's been a full participant in practice
for the past two weeks ever since Day opened up
his practice window, I would assume at this point, Dad,
that's likely to give Austin Booker a chance to get
back on there. But we'll obviously see what that kind
(05:10):
of looks like on Sunday, Joe, we'll get into the preview.
I'm here. It's something I want to talk about. I
feel like the other big story of the week was
kind of I don't know how much it was the
story of the week. This whole Troy Aikman thing with
Caleb Williams. You know, I don't know how much time
you want to spend on it. I don't know what
your thoughts are about this, but you know, obviously, you know,
Caleb talked about it on Wednesday, he said, you know,
(05:31):
he posted on Instagram. Part of his caption included a
quote where you know, Troyman called that fifty five yard
touchdown pass to DeAndre Swift lucky. You know, it's funny
because part of it was kind of lucky because Caleb
said that the play wasn't going the way it was
supposed to, but obviously it worked out. But you care
about that at all? Like do you bring any credence
(05:51):
to that? Or is that just kind of like fans
kind of being fans and you're not really too worried
about you know, I've seen people start comparing Troy Aikman's
stance to Caleb Williams to be like wholla. They're like
Caleb is so much bigger. It's like, well, it was
a different league back then, Like it wasn't a past
heavy league back when Troy, Like, I feel like we
were really jumping at things when it came to this one.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Yeah, I know, I think more fans being fans. And look,
I've said this kind of like, you know, being a
writer being a fan. The beat writers, whether it's you
and the other guys on the Bear Speat or guys
who cover the cubs of the black Hawks every day,
it's tough to come up with material every single day,
it really is. So you know, if it's out there,
(06:35):
you're gonna write about it.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
And I don't. I don't blame you.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
I'd be writing about it too if I were, if
I were you, or if I were one of the
other guys.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
But I didn't have a problem with Troy. I guess
I don't.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
It's just noise to me anyway, literally in this case,
but the past it was I mean, that wasn't designed
to go fifty five yards for a touchdown. And but
you know that's football. I mean, did Washington make a
bad play they were pursued. Yeah, but you know there's
a dozen of most plays every game where a guy
did something stupid and he knows it, but it happened
and it cost you a game, or maybe it didn't
(07:07):
cost you, but it cost you a drive. So I
don't know. I mean and look, we talked about it
the other day. I mean, Caleb wasn't great. I'm not
a problem with Troy, but you know, again, the national
media in general seems to have it on for this
guy still. I mean, he's you know again, I heard
ESPN guy's talking this week about how Drake may might
be the best quarterback in this class, never mind jayde Daniels,
(07:27):
and I just hope all those quarterbacks strew out to
be pretty good so far. A lot of them are
off the great starts in their careers. So but this
is gonna be the noise that comes with being the
first overall pick. And it's interesting because now that he's
facing another quarterback from that draft. On Sunday, guy went later,
you know, in the fourth, fifth round, Spencer Rattler.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
But we'll see.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
But to me, it's there was more much ado about nothing.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
He's a guy that obviously, you know, Caleb was battling
for that at Oklahoma before he transferred to us I too.
You know, Calebo he asked about Spencer. You know, they
haven't really kept in touch or anything like that, but
you know, Spencer can play, can play again sling, and
he can run and maybe he'll be one of our
matchups that we're looking for too, So Joe, let's move
on over obviously noon kickoff on Fox, we talked about that,
(08:16):
what's your what matchup are you looking at here? When
the Bears host the Saints on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Well, I really want to see Calvin Banks, their left tackle,
who all reports are what you hear are saying that
he's off to a good start. Now he's the kid
who the big offensive tackle, who went ninth right before
the Bears to Colston Loveland and he's played well. Banks
And I don't know, you might have more knowledge on
this than me, but you know the question is, and
(08:43):
it's you know, it's kind of mood at this point anyway,
but if Paddy ben there at ten, would the Bears
have taken him? He's looking pretty good there. Bears still
are having issues with their left tackle spot, as we've
gone over at nause really since you know, the summer.
So I want to see that because the pass rush
to me was a little better last week, but still
(09:04):
not getting enough pressure and not getting the big sack.
You know that the big ten yard one. I may
at the end of the second one sack they had
against uh the other day, you know where or Gervon
Dexter got into the backfield I think was with maybe
Dominice Robinson forgot. That was a little bigger yarded sack,
I believe. But I want to see some more big
(09:26):
like where you where you you drop him eight ten
yards behind the line of scrimmage the quarterback whoever they're playing.
So I want to see more and more of that,
and then let's see how.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Good the Banks kid is that and that.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
I don't expect him to struggle against the Bears defensive front,
but I'm curious to see that battle and just got
to get a good look at him playing a professional
football game.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Yeah, I think you're you're gonna be It's going to
be interesting to see. You know, how much pressure are
you able to put on a rattler and how much
is your run defense going to be able to spot stop?
You know, Dennis Allen kind of you know, mix some
guys up, like we talked about on Tuesday, where you know,
he had you know, Shamar Turner go off to the edge,
he had Dio Cooke go inside. He you know, he
got a lot of different looks and a lot of
(10:08):
different guys involved, and I think you're going to see
more of that here, especially you know, if Grady does play,
I'm sure it'll be more at a limited role. But
obviously if you get Austin Booker in, there are there
instances where you have Dio Dango inside with you know,
maybe Jervon Dexter, and then you have Sweat and Booker
out there. Like, I think there are a lot of
different combinations that you can put out there to kind
of pressure Rattler and stop that run defense. So yeah,
(10:32):
I think that'll be really interesting just to see whether
that passing, pass attack, pass defense, that rush defense can
kind of you know, kind of continue off the momentum
they had, you know, they again, like it's like we've
talked about Jade and Daniels is a tough quarterback to stop.
So you know, I actually did feel like they did
actually a pretty good job of stopping him, given what
(10:52):
Jaden Daniels is. But I agree that's gonna be a
big matchup, especially you know, if you are going against
Banks and you know that side, I think you have
a really good opportunity to kind of keep this you know,
keep this pass rush kind of moving the way it
did earlier against the Commanders. All right, Joe, my big
matchup is is this running game gonna keep on moving
(11:14):
the way it has and if if if it rains
the way it's supposed to be forecasting and it's as
windy as it is, like you're gonna have to run
the ball, which which will be really big. You know,
it's encouraging to hear that DeAndre Swift's gonna likely play.
It seems like more it felt like more like a
maintenance thing for his growing as opposed to you know,
actual you know, a concern. So it'll be interesting to see.
(11:39):
And it was interesting today, you know, Ben was asked
about Roshan Johnson and whether he was, you know, whether
he you know, impressed with that one carry that he
had for six yards, and Ben, you know, kind of
answered in an interesting way where he was kind of like, well,
you know, Rochean does a lot for us on special teams,
so it's kind of hard to like find them snaps,
you know, especially with the all the mouths that they
(12:01):
have at the running back position, which you know, I
thought was an interesting thing to say because you obviously
have DeAndre Swift, you obviously have you know, kam Ung guy.
But then does that mean that Travis Homer is coming back?
Does that mean that you're more interested in Dj Moore?
And you know Alamide's a kais like running the ball
like that was kind of interesting to me, just kind
(12:21):
of you know, Russeean Johnson is obviously a running back,
but then you got two guys who aren't running backs
who have more rushes than him. So I am really
interested to see what this running attack looks like and
whether you know, Darnell Wright and Theo Bennett can continue
to kind of set the outside like they did before,
whether there are any difference differences based on the defense
that you know, because the Saints turning three or four
(12:43):
defense as opposed to what the Commander's run. So it'll
be really interesting to see can that run attack continue
and is it only DeAndre Swift or do we see
more out of Kymannun guy? Do we see more Dj Moore?
Do we not? Because of the injury and all this
sort of stuff. I'm really interested to see what does
running attack is able to do, especially given the circumstances
(13:03):
of the weather on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Yeah, no, great point, And I too want to see
what they do with the running game after that, really
breakout game offensively for them running the football. I you know,
I don't expect DeAndre Swift to run for one hundred
and eight yards of every game, but I like to
see more of it. I don't think it's gonna be like, Okay,
we showed everyone we can run the football. We'll get
(13:25):
back to what we were doing before. Now you got
to keep doing that for the rest of the season
every game.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
So I want to see them if they can continue that.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
It's good that Swift is healthy, because man, if he's
not healthy, I don't have any confidence in Rochean Johnson
and Kalmnung guy, you know, you know, teaming up to
rush for one hundred and forty yards or anything close
to that. So I think Rochean Johnson is just is
what he is. He's a special teams guy. If he's
your number two guy, you're probably looking to upgrade, which
I thought they were going to basically do in the offseason,
(13:53):
and they really didn't until they took him. An Ung guy,
And you know, I think you get to me out
of a seventh round pick because is gravy, but he
seems to be clearly the number two guy, the complimentary
guy for Swift and Travis Homer is a special teams guy,
you know, that's all he is.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
So I don't love Rochean Johnson. I like him as
a special teams guy.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Maybe give him the ball in the short I don't
even like giving the I'm just gonna be honest. I
don't like even giving it too much, you know. And
you know, third in the yard or four or fourth
and a and a half a yard we've put roche
On back there.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
I don't have a lot of confidence in that.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
I mean, you know, he did okay last year in
that role. Last year he was having kind of their
go to guy in the goal line whatever they needed
a short yard, you know, or in a short yard situation.
But I don't know, I just want to see more
Deandros sloop when he did get him from space. The
offensive line coming coming off a real good game, probably
their best game right certainly passwords, but there seemed to
(14:46):
be lanes there for Swift, and that's what you need
to get him outside, get him in space, make him
make that play on the fifty five yard touchdown pass
where he makes one little move and Washington guys over
pursue and bang there he goes the other forty yards
to cap it off, and you know they got to
roll pivotal touchdown there.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
So let's see more of the running game.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
And you're right, I mean, with the conditions potentially on Sunday,
if it's gonna be similar to what they were Monday
night in Landover, you got to run the football and Caleb,
you got a good story today that ran and shawed.
They just noted what maybe we can get into Caleb
a little later. I don't want to speak too much now,
I guess, but about his passing efficiency still isn't what
(15:27):
they wanted it to be, about how they wanted it,
you know, about seventy percent, and they talked about that
I remember.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
And it really hasn't been there. And you think, you know,
like seventy percent.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
There should be enough easy throws to hike that percentage
and we just haven't seen it enough, which you know,
just the the eye tests. Will would say, yeah, that's right.
I don't think it doesn't look at the eye test
that he's been throwing at a seventy percent clip or
close that he really hasn't.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
It's really been about.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Sixty zo point two or three whatever you had in
the story today.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Yeah, and I think you know, deu Glen Doyle kind
of made it a point and kind of talked about
it where you know, he's still not the checkdowns are
still not there, the short passes are still not there.
They're working on his technique. They're working on you know,
him going through his progressions. And I think that's the
most important thing because especially in a game like this
where it is going to rain, it is gonna you know,
whatever the circumstances are, even if it like is in
(16:21):
rain raining as heavy, like I don't remember whether Soldier
field like has like a tarpond, but it's going to
be raining all of Saturday evening, Saturday night, Sunday morning,
Like that's good. That field is going to take a
lot of rain, so it's going to be sloppy if
it's not you know, being covered at all. So it'll
be interesting to see. You know, if you're running the ball,
you can open up the run a little bit too
(16:42):
by you know, doing those short five yard pass there's
those seven yard passes. You don't have to air it
out against thirty mile you know, thirty mile hour wins,
like you've got playmakers who you can just dump it
to and they'll pick up a bunch of X right
or you know the carries. So yeah, I agree. I
think I think Declan made a good point of like
the completions are going to go up if you like
(17:03):
make the easy throws and if you like complete those.
Those haven't been what Caleb has done so far. Like
obviously that's something that they're going to work on and
try to hopefully improve on. But yeah, I mean that's all.
That's also an interesting, you know aspect just to look
at can they dump it off as the key is,
can they dump it off to Luther Burden? You know,
DJ Murphy's in there? Even Rome I think you know,
(17:23):
for how much Rome is like your prototypical X receiver right,
Like he's a big bodied guy, he can fight for
fifty to fifty balls and all that sort of stuff.
He's also like really talented and like if you like,
get them the ball really in short field, he can
do something with that with proper blocking. You know, he's
not as you know, maybe they'd give me a hard time.
Maybe he's not as shifty as you know as Luther
(17:45):
or or you know as DJ. But he can still
do that, so I think and I think Ben will
probably find a way to kind of use him in
those short yard situations if that's what they need him
to do.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
I hope so.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
And you talked about, you know, Declan Doyle talking about
how you or passes will get that percentage up. The
easier throw, that will also help your yards period.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
I mean, you see how many times even they happened
against Washington.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
You know, the short little drop, you know, at short
pass and that turns into five, seven, you know, ten,
fifteen yards.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
I mean, you know you take that from a run.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
I mean, if you're gonna average five yards a play
throughout the course of the game, you're gonna win a
lot of football games, you know. I know it's not
the sexy thirty yard missile across the field to a
wide open guy. We all want to see that. But
just some of those little throws, man, they turn into
big gainers. And I've said it since the summer. You know,
get the ball in the hands of these playmakers. They
(18:39):
have a lot I mean, I've seen a lot of
Bears football over the decades. They have a lot of
guys who can make plays. And you know, Luther burden
again and against Washington. Give him a little give it,
give him the ball man, because he makes plays when
he has the football in his hands. I I just
want to see more of that guy we talked about,
you know, the depth that stuff can get the ball everybody.
(19:01):
I want to see more of that guy. And it'd
be fun to see him have a big, big game
on Sunday. I'm not sure if that's gonna be my
my bear to watch. I'm still trying to figure that
out as we'd roll along here. Mike like keeps changing
my mind as we talk, but for sure it doesn't.
And if it's really windy, we'll see how windy it is,
because sometimes we hear these forecasts and come kick off,
(19:21):
the sun is out and it's not as bad. We'll
see what it's like come noon Sunday at Soldier Field.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
All right, Joe, what is your surprise prediction for Sunday afternoon?
Speaker 3 (19:33):
Well?
Speaker 2 (19:33):
I would love to say, hey, man, they're gonna win
by twenty five.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
Easy game.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Here they finally get an easy one. I I just
I guess the surprise. It's gonna be a close game.
I'm almost well, I should have given away my my
MVP guy, or I just think it's gonna be a
closer game than we want. We so much want the
Dallas game again, even better than that. Right, you're playing
a one win football team. But here again, like last night,
(19:57):
this is again. I've told you this. This is why
I don't bet, because there's no way I had the
Bengals beating the Steelers last night and sent him a gun.
That's what happens Joe Flacco. He's older than me, and
he gets the job done.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Again. I don't get it. I don't get this. Leak
is tough to figure out.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
So it's weird to talk about Bears playing a trap game,
a trap game for them because they're normally one of
the bad teams, and there's no such thing. If you're
a bad team, they're no trap game. You're expected to
lose every week. So I don't know. I just I'm
afraid it just might be another Jake Moody game at
the end. I guess that's my surprise prediction.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Yeah, I I forget what the line. I think the
line is at five and a half or somewhere around that,
but I you know, I think this has the potential
for being a trap for it to be a trap game.
But I think the Bears are not gonna let it
be a trap game. Like I feel like they've been
asked a million times at this point whether this is
going to be a trap game. And it's interesting because
(20:55):
you know, we were we were talking a little bit,
you know, know, in the media room here, and this
is the first time the Bears are favored in a
game since last year against the Patriots, like it's almost
a year ago. Like, so, I it's funny because I
don't think the Bears are in a position to have
a trap game, right, like they it's based on what
happened last season, based on what is going on so
(21:17):
far through the first you know, six weeks of the
season here. Yeah, I understand that you can fall into
the lull of like it's a one in five team.
Maybe they're not as talented, but they still got a
bunch of talented guys on there. I mean Kamara is
on there, Olave is there. You know, They've got a
lot of great defenders as well. I think Chase Young
is on there too, So they've got a lot of
(21:38):
talented players. It just isn't maybe as whole of a
team as you want it to be. But yeah, I agree,
I think this is going to be a closer game.
I think, you know, I know Caleb says this every time.
It seems like he says this every single time he
sees us. He wants to win by thirty points. But
based on the forecast and whether, yeah, I would agree
with you, I think I think that'll be uh one
(21:59):
of one of a closer game than we're usually used to.
My surprise prediction is, you know, it probably wouldn't be
a surprise prediction to say that this defense is going
to force more turnovers. I think Caleb airs it out
a little bit here, even even with the weather forecast.
I don't think I don't think he's throwing forty yard bombs.
(22:22):
I don't think it's gonna be stuff like that. But
I think he'll consistently pick up ten yard completions, fifteen
yard completions because I think I think the Bears will
do a good job of setting up the run, and
I think that kind of opens things up. And I
think that if there's a sloppy track out there too,
I think that lets playmakers like Luther Burden, like DJ Moore,
(22:42):
like oh Lamaday to kind of you know, catch a
step on some defenders. And you know, the thing about
the Saints secondary is that, you know the front I
think the front line is pretty good. The secondary has
given up a lot of big plays so far this year.
So I wouldn't be surprised at all if you drop
it off to you know, for a five or ten
yard pass and then you get another ten yards on
(23:04):
the act or something like that. So that's gonna be
my surprise prediction. I'm not saying that Caleb is gonna,
you know, toss it out for like forty yard fifty
yard passes and we're not. I don't think we're gonna
see too many Hell Mary's. But I do think that
at the end of the day, you'll see a lot
of passing yards just based on those short passes and
what his playmakers are able to do with the ball
(23:24):
after they get the ball. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
Great point.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
I And you know, you look at the Saints in general,
I think at one win, like, what's why do they stink?
And then you look at Spencer Ratler's numbers. It's really
not bad. I mean, his numbers are pretty decent at all.
You know, Elvia Kamara's approven running back in the league.
And then now I'm saying, I hear he wants to
stay in New Orleans. I mean, he's a good player, right,
So they got some weapons there. So why why do
(23:47):
they stink even though they're at the bottom of the league.
You're close to the bottom in offense, defense, you name it.
You figure they have only one win through six weeks,
and maybe it's that. It's just you know, they're giving
up some big plays there. The weather again, it's gonna
be real important here. I mean, if it's really nasty,
let's hope it's not that nasty where it's just coming
down in buckets and it's it's windy, because that affects everything, right,
(24:09):
I mean a lot of what you're saying about what
I'm saying, it's like, well, we didn't know that was
going to be the case weatherwise, because that's that's the
big X factor here. But uh that that'd be nice
to see they I'd just like to see this team
assert itself like, hey, this three these three wins in
a row. I know, the last two were right, it
came down to the last play the game that matters,
(24:31):
I mean, and we got wins and we're rolling, and
now we're gonna beat a team on our field and
beat them convincally. It doesn't have to be by thirty,
but you know, a nice double digit win here at
fifteen would be, you know, showing that we're coming. The
Bears are real and let the talk come Monday morning nationally,
locally be are they Are they a playoff contender? Make
(24:54):
make that be the case here. Let's not have a
Jake Moody, you know forty yard are at the end
to win it again because I don't Again, I don't
know how many more is at least I can take.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
I mean certainly not three in a row. It's that's
tough to watch.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Tough as a fan, right, Yeah for some reporters too,
trying to come to your story ideas and you know
it's coming down in the last second of the game.
So but that'd be nice to see if they can
they exploit this the secondary of New Orleans.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Joe, We're gonna move on to our most valuable Bears.
I had DeAndre Swift last week, and I think you
had who did you have last week? You had like
you had a roam right or a wide Yeah?
Speaker 3 (25:31):
DJ?
Speaker 1 (25:32):
You at DJ did got off to a good start.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
Then he got hurt a little bit and they didn't
go to him as much.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
But yeah, I ended up with more fantasy points. Obviously,
DeAndre had a season high day. He had that fifty
five pass, so I went there. I am up four
to one on the season. I'm running away with this
thing so far. But obviously, Joe, you still have there's
still what twelve or thirteen games to go, so I'm
not going to start show voting this early. I I
(26:00):
think I chose first last week. So who who are
you selecting? Us your most valuable bear? On Sunday, I said.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
Oh so hard.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
My initial thinking was it's gonna be closer than I thought,
so Jake Moody, but I don't know if I could
trust him yet. If it's gonna be this weather, the
Soldier field weather, I like that. You know, I'm gonna
go Jake. I'm gonna go Jake. I should have played
him last week, but we didn't know he was playing
last week. We didn't find out until like what the
(26:31):
day before the game that he was gonna be kicking.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
I'm gonna go Jake Moody. I'm gonna I'm.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Gonna I gotta see more from this offense where they
can you know, put the dag use the dagger here
to put away a good team. So maybe it comes
down to another four field goal day for for Jake Moody.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
I'm hoping, I hope, I'm I'm hoping.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
I'm wrong, Michael, and typically I'm wrong, so uh that's okay.
But I'm gonna go Jake Moody. A weird a weird one.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Yeah that that you know. I don't, I don't. I
don't think we've ever chosen a kicker on these, but
I like I like it, especially with the sloppiness of
the field and you know what, we kind of expect
the weather conditions to be. I like the outside thinking,
I you know, I don't know if I'll go with
DeAndre again. I'm I'm not going to use my second
Caleb pick just because they could run the ball all
(27:17):
day and I don't really feel like wasting my quarterback
pick on that one. Since you're going with Moody, I
think I'll go I'll go with Luther Burden. I think
that this feels like a game where you can get
Luthor involved, and it's like it seems like that's kind
of been a point for Ben. You know, I think
the thing that we're kind of see here is I
(27:37):
don't think a lot of Bears receivers are going to
finish over one hundred receiving yards. I think that maybe
they can get to like eighties and that kind of stuff.
But it's become very clear to me that I feel
like the only way you're going to get to above
one hundred is going to be if you get like
a big play and then you get like another like
twenty yarder like Luther did when he got over under,
(27:59):
like he had the the hail Mary, and then he
had another like twenty yard catch. But it seems to
me that, you know, Ben wants to use all his playmakers,
and he wants to give everyone the ball. He's not
just going to focus on one guy if there I'm
sure if there's like a mismatch'll he'll pick on that,
for sure, I think. But I think it's become clear
that he's going to move the ball around a lot here.
(28:19):
So I think Luther Burden gives him a really good
opportunity to you know, whether it's screen passes, whether it's
short five yard passes, I think Luther really gives him
a good opportunity to kind of pick up a bunch
of yards on short passes and really gives you know,
defense is a hard time because I think defenses have
kind of shtriggled, you know when Luther Burden has been
(28:40):
called upon like he has. You know, even that Commander's
pass that he caught for like what was it thirty yards?
I think he had another ten yards or five yards
just based on his moves and that sort of stuff.
So yeah, I'm gonna go with Luther. I think that
he just feels like a game where you can get
him involved in the short game and he can kind
of pick up a lot bunch of yards, especially if
he's guys, if he's got guys slipping on a bad turf.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Yeah, well, I've been waiting for it all year with
him again, you know where I stand. I'm a fan,
and I wasn't a fan of the pick when they
picked picked him high in the second round. But now
that I've seen him enough, get him the football. Colston Loveland,
I guess he's still on the team. I just like
I'm waiting for that breakdown too. But a breakdown game
(29:25):
for him at this point would.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Be three pass receptions.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
You know, that's and that's not gonna be enough to
be like he was the MVP of the game for us,
unless it was the game winner or something. But someday,
I hope, I hope we're talking not necessarily next week
or down the road here as we get to November
and December, like uh, where we're considering like Colston Loveland. Man,
we're gonna have to burn that Colston Loveland card as
(29:50):
an MVP for the upcoming game here because I just
need to see more of it where he's becoming a fixer.
But we have him, but I'll take Luther Burden more involved,
more involved, absolutely, so that would be fantastic because I
want I want to see, like I want to see
him have the seven reception game two TD game or
where we can really see what why they picked him
(30:10):
and why they thought they got to steal there.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Earlier in the second.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
CJ chiming in, Hey, CJ, good to hear from me.
His most valuable is going to be cold commenting Coaston Lovelin. Yeah,
Bears playing gay plan tight end open this week. I
can see that this feels. I think that the Saints
can pressure the quarterback, but I think that maybe Ben
Johnson would be comfortable enough with the offensive line only
doing it. I don't think he needs to give them
(30:34):
too much support against the Saints pass rush. Maybe he will,
you know, depending on the matchups he sees out there.
But this does feel like a game where you can
get either Coal or Colston involved, especially if you like
want to do those dump offs and that sort of stuff.
So I like that pick, CJ. I think that either
Coal or Colston can kind of take advantage of some
mismatches here, especially if they're if the secondary's focused on
(30:58):
you know, Rome, DJ Luther and that sort of stuff.
Like I can see them picking on some linebackers here.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
Hope you're right, CJ. Hope you're right.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
I saw a video this week on social media, had
to be from the Colts, like doing a mock draft
room where when the Bears picked Lovely Attend, they all like, ah.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
They didn't draft our guy Tyler.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
He's gonna follow it like it's not like it's already
become like a little bit of a joke here and
it's only one video someone did, but you know, people
are aware.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Yeah, I think you definitely want to get him. I
think he's been. You know, it's been tough obviously with
the injury stuff over the off season. Then he's got
the hip injury, like he hasn't had the I don't
feel like he's been in the best opportunity yet, So
we'll see if he's able to do that. All right, Joe,
any lasting thoughts before uh Sunday? I guess you know,
I'll ask you the question, like, is this as much
(31:54):
of a must win game as a game as a
game in Week seven could potentially be for this team? Like,
obviously season is not decided on what happens here on Sunday,
but if you take care of business on Sunday, you
go to four and two and then you head into
a good stretch here where you play the Ravens against
likely Lamar Jackson at Baltimore. That's not a great matchup,
(32:16):
but you have the potential to play the Bengals with
Joe Flatt go again, maybe you have a couple weeks
to kind of get ready for him, and then you
have the New York Giants, where the next four weeks
aren't easy by any means, like it's every week in
the NFL, But I do think you have a really
good opportunity here where you can make some hey, build
up that record and maybe you can win three out
(32:36):
of your next four. Even if you go two and two,
I feel like you feel pretty good and you are
just kind of chugging along here before you kind of
get into that harder part where you play the Vikings
and the Eagles and the Packers and that sort of stuff.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Yeah, I mean, I think when you're where the Bears
are as a franchise right now, every win is big.
And this is a game that even before the season started,
when you're circling w W L L L a lot
more ls n w's this is the w this was
a w Saints home w They can't lose this game
(33:13):
going into any any stretch. This is a game you
have to win because every win is important. And you
look back at this three and two so far, five games.
You know the Vikings game that one got away, should
have beat the You know, you play decent fourth quarter,
you win the game, Detroit nightmare. Hopefully that's the worst
loss ever Ben Johnson's ten year, if he's here ten
(33:34):
years as head coach the Bears. You get that stinker
out of the way, and now you've got these these wins,
the good good game in Stallas, you get the Josh
Blackwell blockfield goal at the end to beat the Raiders.
Now you get the Jake Moody game against Washington, and
now you got the Saints. That's a team you have
to beat. And if it's twenty three to twenty two
and they win it out of Jake Moody, you know,
(33:56):
chip shot field goal, so be it. You know, no
no style points, just get the w's because you don't
want to be going into this stretch. Imagine if they
lose Michael Sunday. Because if they lose, whether it's a
close game or it's they get they lose by double digits,
they're gonna get a lot of heat. There are pretenders,
you know, all all this talk. So they can do
(34:17):
themselves a big favor by just beating the Saints, a
team they should beat come Sunday.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Yeah, it'll be really interesting to see what happens. But
this really feels like a game where you just need
to take care of business, and it seems like that's
been the mentality here at Hallis all week. The mentality
has kind of pretty much just been we're not taking
them lightly. We're not looking at that one in five
record and you know, being like, we're gonna roll over
this team. I don't think the Bears are in a
spot right now as a franchise to be a team
(34:44):
that thinks that they're gonna roll over teams. I mean,
that's just not who they are. I mean last year,
you went into that Patriots game, the last time you
were a favorite, and you're like, oh, they should take
care of business. It's Caleb Williams against Drake May and
then you saw what happened. It was like an ugly
loss and that got you know, Shane Waldron fired. So
it's it's it's it'll be interesting to see. I think
the mentality is there. The weather, we'll see what that's
(35:06):
going to look like. But I I I think this
feels like a game that the Bears know what's at
stake here. They know that they need to take care
of business, and I think you'll see that on Sunday.
You know, maybe an act of God is going to
change something. But I do think for the most part, yes,
you would like a blowout game. Maybe it won't come
(35:26):
exactly like that. Maybe we'll I don't know, but I
do think that the bear should take care of business,
and they seem like ready for for for that.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Yeah, and I and I think it's a big game
again for Ben Johnson as he goes through this year one.
It's gonna be a lot of first right, first game
now for him coming off a win and going into
a potential if you want to call it, the trap game,
how his team responds, because if they lay an egg
here Sunday, you know what everyone's gonna say, they weren't prepared.
(35:55):
And who takes the blame for that? The head coach.
They weren't prepared, and he'll say, the first guy, you know,
we are on coach, they beat us in all three
phases and including we got to coach better, I got
I gotta be better. He'll he'll own it, because that's
the way it works in sports, right, You lose a
game that you're you should win, and it comes down, well,
the coach didn't have them prepared. And I have seen
(36:16):
very little from Ben Johnson this year that suggests they
got it wrong. I've been encouraged with what we've seen,
probably ninety percent of it. It just you know better
than me. It looks different, it sounds different, They look different,
as a football team. So I'm pretty confident that they
will be ready come Sunday. They will win. But that's
(36:41):
why we play the games because every week, like last night,
how does that happen? How do they lose to that team? Hopefully,
hopefully we're not saying that in regards to the Bear
Saints come Sunday.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
Yeah. And it's interesting because you know, Ben was asked about,
you know, how do you handle being favorite, like you
approach it different and all that sort of stuff, And
you know, he made the point to bring out like
this is like the last time the Bears came out
of a short week, and that was obviously the season
opener against the Vikings, and then they had a short week,
they got they got blown out by the Lions. Right,
Like he even if he's like looking at a different opponent,
(37:16):
he's looking at like is our process better? Like he's
looking at like are we handling a shorter week better
than we did in the past. Like, I think that's
the biggest thing that you're seeing a lot with Ben
this year, is he's looking at growth at different points
of this year. Right. And this is another point where
sure that I mean, obviously the Saints are not what
the Lions are, but it can be easy to, you know,
fall into the malaise of they won an emotional Monday
(37:40):
night game, they got home, laid Tuesday morning. They only
had two practices on Thursday and Friday. It's going to
be rainy, right, Like, I think he's really interested to
see what how this team responds to adversity because this
is a short week. This is not an easy situation,
even even if you are playing at home. So yeah,
I would agree. I think it'll be really interesting to
(38:02):
see how this team responds and how they respond in
the game that many are expecting them to put up
a big performance.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Yeah, and this whole arc of winning, you know, the
beers are so you know, on the scale level, Okay,
you've got to do this to get to that level
and that level and then when you're really good, you
win a playoff game. And that they are still way
at the bottom here. They are still figuring this out
and growing. And I know time will go quickly and
you don't get five years to figure it out. But
this is an important stretch for them handling different situations.
(38:33):
But it's a home game, it's a road game, it's
a short a short week. It's a bye week. All
this stuff game we're favored in. It's they got to
learn to expect victory every every week. And when you've
been sorry, when the culture has been losing, losing, you
expect bad.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
It gets on your skin a little bit after a while,
and it kind of seeps into you. So this is all.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
It is part of the process. And I will just
say at the end of here and close eye in
Ben Johnson, I trust and I think equal Bears fans
will be happy come about three thirty on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Joe, I almost forgot the most important part of this
podcast predictions. Your prediction for for Sunday afternoon, Well, I will.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
Take the Bears already committed to Jake Moody making podcasts
for then our podcast insider podcast history by taking a kicker.
I don't know why I did that in retrospect, but
you know it's already out there, so I'll stick with it.
So I guess it's got to be close for me,
and I'll say, uh.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
I'll go twenty eight twenty seven.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
I don't even know how that adds up with field
goals and extra points and all that stuff.
Speaker 3 (39:36):
I go twenty eight twenty seven.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
Bears can't be twenty five to twenty four again, right
for the third game in a row.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
That would be that has to be. I know it's
not exactly score a Gomi, but there has to be
some version of score a gomi, right, like where you've
got to retraight games like this is two straight games
where you had twenty five to twenty four. I am
kind of the same mindset with you. Twenty eight points
seems like a lot, honestly, and if there's like that rainstorm,
but I do think that it will be a closer game.
I think the Bears win twenty one to seventeen. There
(40:05):
you go. CJ's got my prediction twenty one to seventeen.
He posted it exactly as I said it. Yeah, it
just feels like a game where I think they win.
I think there's a lot of good stuff. I think
the forecast just gets in a way. It's one of
those ugly games where you're just kind of, I know,
we want to see the Bears win a game where
they just kind of dominate, kind of like they did
against the Cowboys. I think maybe if you had perfect
(40:26):
conditions or near perfect conditions for mid October on Sunday,
you might see that. I think this is just based
on what we know about the Soldier Field, turf and
all that sort of stuff. I'm pretty much expecting the
worst when it comes to the weather into the field
conditions on Sunday. So I'm gonna go with the twenty
one to seventeen performance, kind of going against the opposite.
(40:47):
Robert could to hear from you. I hope you're unrelying
on takeaways again. I'll take it. But it's nice to
see the oh turn up big time again. Yeah, you
would love the offense to kind of get it going,
but at this point, you just gotta stack wins, right,
That's pretty much the only thing. You got to learn
how to win, like I've said in previous podcasts, And
(41:07):
once you do that, then you can turn your attention
to going to Baltimore and trying to figure out how
to stop Lamar Jackson in the Ravens.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (41:15):
Yeah, get the w that's it. Like you said, you
got to stack them.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
And you can't be looking back at the end of
the year or on the final month and saying we're
gonna need to win three or four here.
Speaker 3 (41:28):
Oh that dang Saints game. That would not be good.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
All right, guys, thanks so much for joining us on
the live stream. That's everything that we've got for this
Friday afternoon. Hopefully this was a good start to your weekend.
Thanks to all the comments on the live stream. If
you like what you hear, make sure you give us
a like. That's the best way to support the live
stream and help it grow. If you're listening on the
podcast and want to be part of the conversation, make
sure you check out our social media's. I'm at m
(41:55):
DWO jag ninety four, Joe is at Joe Aguilar sixty four,
and obviously we're Bears Insider on all our social media's.
Make sure you check us out. We like to do
every Monday and Friday, but sometimes we have to move
things around because of our schedules, and we want to
obviously have you guys be part of a conversation. Make
sure you check out Joe's work tonight. He'll be having
your Friday night coverage as they are in week number
(42:16):
eight of the high school football season, so playoff berths
on the line, So make sure you're following Joe tonight
and make sure you're following me this weekend. I'll be
at Soldier Field on Sunday, first time. The Bears are
back at Soldier for pretty much a month, so it'll
be good to get back to Soldier Field and get
some home cooking and see what the Bears are able
to do. But for Joe and I, thanks so much
(42:38):
for joining us this Friday afternoon. Hope everyone has a
good weekend. Enjoy the game on Sunday, and we will
talk to you folks on Monday morning.
Hello and welcome to the latest episode of the Shaw
Local Bears. Inside our podcast from Shaw Local. I am
Michael Duo Jack here with the Joe Aguilar as we
get you ready here for Week seven of the football season.
We're talking to you on Friday afternoon, a little bit
bit of a different time, but hopefully we're getting your
(00:22):
weekend started here with the Bears preview as they play
the Saints on Sunday afternoon at noon Joe at Soldier Field.
And we got a noon game after all these different
three pm starts Monday night, all that sort of stuff.
We've only had one noon game so far on Sunday,
so it'll be good to kind of get back to
(00:42):
that normal, that normal schedule on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Yeah, good old Bears football. You know how I love
the noon kickoffs, Michael, like Walter Payton and the Super
Bowl twenty Bears. It's just old school Bears that hopefully
they play like the Super Bowl twenty champion Bears and
get another W on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Yeah, for sure, I'm sure everyone's looking forward to that.
Thanks so much for everyone who's joining us. Thanks so
much on the YouTube stream. Thanks for joining us. If
you don't mind give us a like. That's the best
way to support us upgrow our brand. If you're listening
on the podcast and want to be part of the conversation,
make sure you check our social medias. We usually like
to do Friday and Monday morning, but if we have
(01:22):
to change, obviously, make sure you check out our social medias.
We'll always get you up to date on those. You
know when we're going to be going live. But let's
look forward to this game happening at noon, Joe. And
since we're recording this on Friday afternoon, we have the
luxury of you know, having the full injury report for Friday.
(01:44):
So Cayro Santos and Noah Stool are both out for
Sunday's game. Grady Jared returned in a limited fashion. DeAndre
Swift was limited again. Austin Booker, Travis Homer, and Amen
Amiga we're all full and they'll all be questionable for
a Sunday's game. We got a chance to talk to
(02:06):
DeAndre after the you know injury report was released. He
said he expects to play on Sunday, nothing to really
be concerned about. And then DJ Moore and Jonah Jackson,
they were both full participants and they had no designation.
Earlier in the day, Ben Johnson said, you know, they'll
they'll see how the injury report looks when it comes
(02:27):
to determining whether DJ Moore plays. But Joe, I mean,
for the most part, this is a pretty good a
pretty good injury report. Obviously the Carol sindhost isn't great.
But I do think that where things work on Wednesday,
you have to be pretty encouraged about where things stand
at this point.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yeah, and it's nice to know that Jake Moody can
do the job right in which we didn't know a
week ago. A lot of people probably didn't know he
was on the practice squad, But so I'm not as
concerned about that now. That would be interesting if the
weather's a little nasty, it might rain. I think Sunday potentially.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
We'll see, Yeah, it's gonna rain and it's gonna be
uh windy. So it's definitely not going to be a
good not going to be good. Especially, you know, I
feel like it's always windy at Soldier Field regardless on
a beautiful day, so I'm sure it'll be extra extra hard.
I think they're calling for like gusts to be like
up to like forty miles an hour or something like that,
(03:25):
thirty miles an hour once kickoff happens at noon.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Yeah, that could be a factor. Then.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
I mean, I don't know if it'll be as nasty
as it was Monday night in d C. You you
were there, so but you know, kicking gets Soldier feel,
like you said, even if it's if it's a nice
date at seventy and sunny, there's wind and it's tough
to kick kick there. So a lit'll be interested to
see how Jake does in those conditions at Soldier Field
(03:51):
because he's probably gonna get opportunities again with this offense
sometimes getting stagged inside the thirty. So we'll see there.
And then Noah's Sewell, who we haven't talked a lot
about this season. He's been pretty solid, pretty steady his
first year as a starter, and so they'll miss him.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
And you know, still no Jayalen.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Johnson that's the big one, but we'll see if we
get him back at all this season. So but overall, yeah,
pretty good. And I saw they also just released Tanno
passing yo is that did A get his name right?
He's significant because he's I think he's got one of
the few bear sacks this season. So I don't know
if that opens the window from my guy Austin Booker here.
(04:31):
Will see, we'll see if he even is active, and
if he's active, does he play, and if he plays,
is he any good?
Speaker 3 (04:37):
But but I'm.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Kind of curious to see what happens there, and we'll
talk more about this defensive line here as we go
along here. So but overall, like you said, pretty good
all things considering with the injury injuries.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Yeah, I think that's good detective work on your part, Joe.
Obviously Tando got that that sack earlier. I would imagine
considering you know, Austin's been a full participant in practice
for the past two weeks ever since Day opened up
his practice window, I would assume at this point, Dad,
that's likely to give Austin Booker a chance to get
back on there. But we'll obviously see what that kind
(05:10):
of looks like on Sunday, Joe, we'll get into the preview.
I'm here. It's something I want to talk about. I
feel like the other big story of the week was
kind of I don't know how much it was the
story of the week. This whole Troy Aikman thing with
Caleb Williams. You know, I don't know how much time
you want to spend on it. I don't know what
your thoughts are about this, but you know, obviously, you know,
Caleb talked about it on Wednesday, he said, you know,
(05:31):
he posted on Instagram. Part of his caption included a
quote where you know, Troyman called that fifty five yard
touchdown pass to DeAndre Swift lucky. You know, it's funny
because part of it was kind of lucky because Caleb
said that the play wasn't going the way it was
supposed to, but obviously it worked out. But you care
about that at all? Like do you bring any credence
(05:51):
to that? Or is that just kind of like fans
kind of being fans and you're not really too worried
about you know, I've seen people start comparing Troy Aikman's
stance to Caleb Williams to be like wholla. They're like
Caleb is so much bigger. It's like, well, it was
a different league back then, Like it wasn't a past
heavy league back when Troy, Like, I feel like we
were really jumping at things when it came to this one.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Yeah, I know, I think more fans being fans. And look,
I've said this kind of like, you know, being a
writer being a fan. The beat writers, whether it's you
and the other guys on the Bear Speat or guys
who cover the cubs of the black Hawks every day,
it's tough to come up with material every single day,
it really is. So you know, if it's out there,
(06:35):
you're gonna write about it.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
And I don't. I don't blame you.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
I'd be writing about it too if I were, if
I were you, or if I were one of the
other guys.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
But I didn't have a problem with Troy. I guess
I don't.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
It's just noise to me anyway, literally in this case,
but the past it was I mean, that wasn't designed
to go fifty five yards for a touchdown. And but
you know that's football. I mean, did Washington make a
bad play they were pursued. Yeah, but you know there's
a dozen of most plays every game where a guy
did something stupid and he knows it, but it happened
and it cost you a game, or maybe it didn't
(07:07):
cost you, but it cost you a drive. So I
don't know. I mean and look, we talked about it
the other day. I mean, Caleb wasn't great. I'm not
a problem with Troy, but you know, again, the national
media in general seems to have it on for this
guy still. I mean, he's you know again, I heard
ESPN guy's talking this week about how Drake may might
be the best quarterback in this class, never mind jayde Daniels,
(07:27):
and I just hope all those quarterbacks strew out to
be pretty good so far. A lot of them are
off the great starts in their careers. So but this
is gonna be the noise that comes with being the
first overall pick. And it's interesting because now that he's
facing another quarterback from that draft. On Sunday, guy went later,
you know, in the fourth, fifth round, Spencer Rattler.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
But we'll see.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
But to me, it's there was more much ado about nothing.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
He's a guy that obviously, you know, Caleb was battling
for that at Oklahoma before he transferred to us I too.
You know, Calebo he asked about Spencer. You know, they
haven't really kept in touch or anything like that, but
you know, Spencer can play, can play again sling, and
he can run and maybe he'll be one of our
matchups that we're looking for too, So Joe, let's move
on over obviously noon kickoff on Fox, we talked about that,
(08:16):
what's your what matchup are you looking at here? When
the Bears host the Saints on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Well, I really want to see Calvin Banks, their left tackle,
who all reports are what you hear are saying that
he's off to a good start. Now he's the kid
who the big offensive tackle, who went ninth right before
the Bears to Colston Loveland and he's played well. Banks
And I don't know, you might have more knowledge on
this than me, but you know the question is, and
(08:43):
it's you know, it's kind of mood at this point anyway,
but if Paddy ben there at ten, would the Bears
have taken him? He's looking pretty good there. Bears still
are having issues with their left tackle spot, as we've
gone over at nause really since you know, the summer.
So I want to see that because the pass rush
to me was a little better last week, but still
(09:04):
not getting enough pressure and not getting the big sack.
You know that the big ten yard one. I may
at the end of the second one sack they had
against uh the other day, you know where or Gervon
Dexter got into the backfield I think was with maybe
Dominice Robinson forgot. That was a little bigger yarded sack,
I believe. But I want to see some more big
(09:26):
like where you where you you drop him eight ten
yards behind the line of scrimmage the quarterback whoever they're playing.
So I want to see more and more of that,
and then let's see how.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Good the Banks kid is that and that.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
I don't expect him to struggle against the Bears defensive front,
but I'm curious to see that battle and just got
to get a good look at him playing a professional
football game.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Yeah, I think you're you're gonna be It's going to
be interesting to see. You know, how much pressure are
you able to put on a rattler and how much
is your run defense going to be able to spot stop?
You know, Dennis Allen kind of you know, mix some
guys up, like we talked about on Tuesday, where you know,
he had you know, Shamar Turner go off to the edge,
he had Dio Cooke go inside. He you know, he
got a lot of different looks and a lot of
(10:08):
different guys involved, and I think you're going to see
more of that here, especially you know, if Grady does play,
I'm sure it'll be more at a limited role. But
obviously if you get Austin Booker in, there are there
instances where you have Dio Dango inside with you know,
maybe Jervon Dexter, and then you have Sweat and Booker
out there. Like, I think there are a lot of
different combinations that you can put out there to kind
of pressure Rattler and stop that run defense. So yeah,
(10:32):
I think that'll be really interesting just to see whether
that passing, pass attack, pass defense, that rush defense can
kind of you know, kind of continue off the momentum
they had, you know, they again, like it's like we've
talked about Jade and Daniels is a tough quarterback to stop.
So you know, I actually did feel like they did
actually a pretty good job of stopping him, given what
(10:52):
Jaden Daniels is. But I agree that's gonna be a
big matchup, especially you know, if you are going against
Banks and you know that side, I think you have
a really good opportunity to kind of keep this you know,
keep this pass rush kind of moving the way it
did earlier against the Commanders. All right, Joe, my big
matchup is is this running game gonna keep on moving
(11:14):
the way it has and if if if it rains
the way it's supposed to be forecasting and it's as
windy as it is, like you're gonna have to run
the ball, which which will be really big. You know,
it's encouraging to hear that DeAndre Swift's gonna likely play.
It seems like more it felt like more like a
maintenance thing for his growing as opposed to you know,
actual you know, a concern. So it'll be interesting to see.
(11:39):
And it was interesting today, you know, Ben was asked
about Roshan Johnson and whether he was, you know, whether
he you know, impressed with that one carry that he
had for six yards, and Ben, you know, kind of
answered in an interesting way where he was kind of like, well,
you know, Rochean does a lot for us on special teams,
so it's kind of hard to like find them snaps,
you know, especially with the all the mouths that they
(12:01):
have at the running back position, which you know, I
thought was an interesting thing to say because you obviously
have DeAndre Swift, you obviously have you know, kam Ung guy.
But then does that mean that Travis Homer is coming back?
Does that mean that you're more interested in Dj Moore?
And you know Alamide's a kais like running the ball
like that was kind of interesting to me, just kind
(12:21):
of you know, Russeean Johnson is obviously a running back,
but then you got two guys who aren't running backs
who have more rushes than him. So I am really
interested to see what this running attack looks like and
whether you know, Darnell Wright and Theo Bennett can continue
to kind of set the outside like they did before,
whether there are any difference differences based on the defense
that you know, because the Saints turning three or four
(12:43):
defense as opposed to what the Commander's run. So it'll
be really interesting to see can that run attack continue
and is it only DeAndre Swift or do we see
more out of Kymannun guy? Do we see more Dj Moore?
Do we not? Because of the injury and all this
sort of stuff. I'm really interested to see what does
running attack is able to do, especially given the circumstances
(13:03):
of the weather on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Yeah, no, great point, And I too want to see
what they do with the running game after that, really
breakout game offensively for them running the football. I you know,
I don't expect DeAndre Swift to run for one hundred
and eight yards of every game, but I like to
see more of it. I don't think it's gonna be like, Okay,
we showed everyone we can run the football. We'll get
(13:25):
back to what we were doing before. Now you got
to keep doing that for the rest of the season
every game.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
So I want to see them if they can continue that.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
It's good that Swift is healthy, because man, if he's
not healthy, I don't have any confidence in Rochean Johnson
and Kalmnung guy, you know, you know, teaming up to
rush for one hundred and forty yards or anything close
to that. So I think Rochean Johnson is just is
what he is. He's a special teams guy. If he's
your number two guy, you're probably looking to upgrade, which
I thought they were going to basically do in the offseason,
(13:53):
and they really didn't until they took him. An Ung guy,
And you know, I think you get to me out
of a seventh round pick because is gravy, but he
seems to be clearly the number two guy, the complimentary
guy for Swift and Travis Homer is a special teams guy,
you know, that's all he is.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
So I don't love Rochean Johnson. I like him as
a special teams guy.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Maybe give him the ball in the short I don't
even like giving the I'm just gonna be honest. I
don't like even giving it too much, you know. And
you know, third in the yard or four or fourth
and a and a half a yard we've put roche
On back there.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
I don't have a lot of confidence in that.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
I mean, you know, he did okay last year in
that role. Last year he was having kind of their
go to guy in the goal line whatever they needed
a short yard, you know, or in a short yard situation.
But I don't know, I just want to see more
Deandros sloop when he did get him from space. The
offensive line coming coming off a real good game, probably
their best game right certainly passwords, but there seemed to
(14:46):
be lanes there for Swift, and that's what you need
to get him outside, get him in space, make him
make that play on the fifty five yard touchdown pass
where he makes one little move and Washington guys over
pursue and bang there he goes the other forty yards
to cap it off, and you know they got to
roll pivotal touchdown there.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
So let's see more of the running game.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
And you're right, I mean, with the conditions potentially on Sunday,
if it's gonna be similar to what they were Monday
night in Landover, you got to run the football and Caleb,
you got a good story today that ran and shawed.
They just noted what maybe we can get into Caleb
a little later. I don't want to speak too much now,
I guess, but about his passing efficiency still isn't what
(15:27):
they wanted it to be, about how they wanted it,
you know, about seventy percent, and they talked about that
I remember.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
And it really hasn't been there. And you think, you know,
like seventy percent.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
There should be enough easy throws to hike that percentage
and we just haven't seen it enough, which you know,
just the the eye tests. Will would say, yeah, that's right.
I don't think it doesn't look at the eye test
that he's been throwing at a seventy percent clip or
close that he really hasn't.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
It's really been about.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Sixty zo point two or three whatever you had in
the story today.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Yeah, and I think you know, deu Glen Doyle kind
of made it a point and kind of talked about
it where you know, he's still not the checkdowns are
still not there, the short passes are still not there.
They're working on his technique. They're working on you know,
him going through his progressions. And I think that's the
most important thing because especially in a game like this
where it is going to rain, it is gonna you know,
whatever the circumstances are, even if it like is in
(16:21):
rain raining as heavy, like I don't remember whether Soldier
field like has like a tarpond, but it's going to
be raining all of Saturday evening, Saturday night, Sunday morning,
Like that's good. That field is going to take a
lot of rain, so it's going to be sloppy if
it's not you know, being covered at all. So it'll
be interesting to see. You know, if you're running the ball,
you can open up the run a little bit too
(16:42):
by you know, doing those short five yard pass there's
those seven yard passes. You don't have to air it
out against thirty mile you know, thirty mile hour wins,
like you've got playmakers who you can just dump it
to and they'll pick up a bunch of X right
or you know the carries. So yeah, I agree. I
think I think Declan made a good point of like
the completions are going to go up if you like
(17:03):
make the easy throws and if you like complete those.
Those haven't been what Caleb has done so far. Like
obviously that's something that they're going to work on and
try to hopefully improve on. But yeah, I mean that's all.
That's also an interesting, you know aspect just to look
at can they dump it off as the key is,
can they dump it off to Luther Burden? You know,
DJ Murphy's in there? Even Rome I think you know,
(17:23):
for how much Rome is like your prototypical X receiver right,
Like he's a big bodied guy, he can fight for
fifty to fifty balls and all that sort of stuff.
He's also like really talented and like if you like,
get them the ball really in short field, he can
do something with that with proper blocking. You know, he's
not as you know, maybe they'd give me a hard time.
Maybe he's not as shifty as you know as Luther
(17:45):
or or you know as DJ. But he can still
do that, so I think and I think Ben will
probably find a way to kind of use him in
those short yard situations if that's what they need him
to do.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
I hope so.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
And you talked about, you know, Declan Doyle talking about
how you or passes will get that percentage up. The
easier throw, that will also help your yards period.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
I mean, you see how many times even they happened
against Washington.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
You know, the short little drop, you know, at short
pass and that turns into five, seven, you know, ten,
fifteen yards.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
I mean, you know you take that from a run.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
I mean, if you're gonna average five yards a play
throughout the course of the game, you're gonna win a
lot of football games, you know. I know it's not
the sexy thirty yard missile across the field to a
wide open guy. We all want to see that. But
just some of those little throws, man, they turn into
big gainers. And I've said it since the summer. You know,
get the ball in the hands of these playmakers. They
(18:39):
have a lot I mean, I've seen a lot of
Bears football over the decades. They have a lot of
guys who can make plays. And you know, Luther burden
again and against Washington. Give him a little give it,
give him the ball man, because he makes plays when
he has the football in his hands. I I just
want to see more of that guy we talked about,
you know, the depth that stuff can get the ball everybody.
(19:01):
I want to see more of that guy. And it'd
be fun to see him have a big, big game
on Sunday. I'm not sure if that's gonna be my
my bear to watch. I'm still trying to figure that
out as we'd roll along here. Mike like keeps changing
my mind as we talk, but for sure it doesn't.
And if it's really windy, we'll see how windy it is,
because sometimes we hear these forecasts and come kick off,
(19:21):
the sun is out and it's not as bad. We'll
see what it's like come noon Sunday at Soldier Field.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
All right, Joe, what is your surprise prediction for Sunday afternoon?
Speaker 3 (19:33):
Well?
Speaker 2 (19:33):
I would love to say, hey, man, they're gonna win
by twenty five.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
Easy game.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Here they finally get an easy one. I I just
I guess the surprise. It's gonna be a close game.
I'm almost well, I should have given away my my
MVP guy, or I just think it's gonna be a
closer game than we want. We so much want the
Dallas game again, even better than that. Right, you're playing
a one win football team. But here again, like last night,
(19:57):
this is again. I've told you this. This is why
I don't bet, because there's no way I had the
Bengals beating the Steelers last night and sent him a gun.
That's what happens Joe Flacco. He's older than me, and
he gets the job done.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Again. I don't get it. I don't get this. Leak
is tough to figure out.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
So it's weird to talk about Bears playing a trap game,
a trap game for them because they're normally one of
the bad teams, and there's no such thing. If you're
a bad team, they're no trap game. You're expected to
lose every week. So I don't know. I just I'm
afraid it just might be another Jake Moody game at
the end. I guess that's my surprise prediction.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Yeah, I I forget what the line. I think the
line is at five and a half or somewhere around that,
but I you know, I think this has the potential
for being a trap for it to be a trap game.
But I think the Bears are not gonna let it
be a trap game. Like I feel like they've been
asked a million times at this point whether this is
going to be a trap game. And it's interesting because
(20:55):
you know, we were we were talking a little bit,
you know, know, in the media room here, and this
is the first time the Bears are favored in a
game since last year against the Patriots, like it's almost
a year ago. Like, so, I it's funny because I
don't think the Bears are in a position to have
a trap game, right, like they it's based on what
happened last season, based on what is going on so
(21:17):
far through the first you know, six weeks of the
season here. Yeah, I understand that you can fall into
the lull of like it's a one in five team.
Maybe they're not as talented, but they still got a
bunch of talented guys on there. I mean Kamara is
on there, Olave is there. You know, They've got a
lot of great defenders as well. I think Chase Young
is on there too, So they've got a lot of
(21:38):
talented players. It just isn't maybe as whole of a
team as you want it to be. But yeah, I agree,
I think this is going to be a closer game.
I think, you know, I know Caleb says this every time.
It seems like he says this every single time he
sees us. He wants to win by thirty points. But
based on the forecast and whether, yeah, I would agree
with you, I think I think that'll be uh one
(21:59):
of one of a closer game than we're usually used to.
My surprise prediction is, you know, it probably wouldn't be
a surprise prediction to say that this defense is going
to force more turnovers. I think Caleb airs it out
a little bit here, even even with the weather forecast.
I don't think I don't think he's throwing forty yard bombs.
(22:22):
I don't think it's gonna be stuff like that. But
I think he'll consistently pick up ten yard completions, fifteen
yard completions because I think I think the Bears will
do a good job of setting up the run, and
I think that kind of opens things up. And I
think that if there's a sloppy track out there too,
I think that lets playmakers like Luther Burden, like DJ Moore,
(22:42):
like oh Lamaday to kind of you know, catch a
step on some defenders. And you know, the thing about
the Saints secondary is that, you know the front I
think the front line is pretty good. The secondary has
given up a lot of big plays so far this year.
So I wouldn't be surprised at all if you drop
it off to you know, for a five or ten
yard pass and then you get another ten yards on
(23:04):
the act or something like that. So that's gonna be
my surprise prediction. I'm not saying that Caleb is gonna,
you know, toss it out for like forty yard fifty
yard passes and we're not. I don't think we're gonna
see too many Hell Mary's. But I do think that
at the end of the day, you'll see a lot
of passing yards just based on those short passes and
what his playmakers are able to do with the ball
(23:24):
after they get the ball. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
Great point.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
I And you know, you look at the Saints in general,
I think at one win, like, what's why do they stink?
And then you look at Spencer Ratler's numbers. It's really
not bad. I mean, his numbers are pretty decent at all.
You know, Elvia Kamara's approven running back in the league.
And then now I'm saying, I hear he wants to
stay in New Orleans. I mean, he's a good player, right,
So they got some weapons there. So why why do
(23:47):
they stink even though they're at the bottom of the league.
You're close to the bottom in offense, defense, you name it.
You figure they have only one win through six weeks,
and maybe it's that. It's just you know, they're giving
up some big plays there. The weather again, it's gonna
be real important here. I mean, if it's really nasty,
let's hope it's not that nasty where it's just coming
down in buckets and it's it's windy, because that affects everything, right,
(24:09):
I mean a lot of what you're saying about what
I'm saying, it's like, well, we didn't know that was
going to be the case weatherwise, because that's that's the
big X factor here. But uh that that'd be nice
to see they I'd just like to see this team
assert itself like, hey, this three these three wins in
a row. I know, the last two were right, it
came down to the last play the game that matters,
(24:31):
I mean, and we got wins and we're rolling, and
now we're gonna beat a team on our field and
beat them convincally. It doesn't have to be by thirty,
but you know, a nice double digit win here at
fifteen would be, you know, showing that we're coming. The
Bears are real and let the talk come Monday morning nationally,
locally be are they Are they a playoff contender? Make
(24:54):
make that be the case here. Let's not have a
Jake Moody, you know forty yard are at the end
to win it again because I don't Again, I don't
know how many more is at least I can take.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
I mean certainly not three in a row. It's that's
tough to watch.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Tough as a fan, right, Yeah for some reporters too,
trying to come to your story ideas and you know
it's coming down in the last second of the game.
So but that'd be nice to see if they can
they exploit this the secondary of New Orleans.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Joe, We're gonna move on to our most valuable Bears.
I had DeAndre Swift last week, and I think you
had who did you have last week? You had like
you had a roam right or a wide Yeah?
Speaker 3 (25:31):
DJ?
Speaker 1 (25:32):
You at DJ did got off to a good start.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
Then he got hurt a little bit and they didn't
go to him as much.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
But yeah, I ended up with more fantasy points. Obviously,
DeAndre had a season high day. He had that fifty
five pass, so I went there. I am up four
to one on the season. I'm running away with this
thing so far. But obviously, Joe, you still have there's
still what twelve or thirteen games to go, so I'm
not going to start show voting this early. I I
(26:00):
think I chose first last week. So who who are
you selecting? Us your most valuable bear? On Sunday, I said.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
Oh so hard.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
My initial thinking was it's gonna be closer than I thought,
so Jake Moody, but I don't know if I could
trust him yet. If it's gonna be this weather, the
Soldier field weather, I like that. You know, I'm gonna
go Jake. I'm gonna go Jake. I should have played
him last week, but we didn't know he was playing
last week. We didn't find out until like what the
(26:31):
day before the game that he was gonna be kicking.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
I'm gonna go Jake Moody. I'm gonna I'm.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Gonna I gotta see more from this offense where they
can you know, put the dag use the dagger here
to put away a good team. So maybe it comes
down to another four field goal day for for Jake Moody.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
I'm hoping, I hope, I'm I'm hoping.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
I'm wrong, Michael, and typically I'm wrong, so uh that's okay.
But I'm gonna go Jake Moody. A weird a weird one.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Yeah that that you know. I don't, I don't. I
don't think we've ever chosen a kicker on these, but
I like I like it, especially with the sloppiness of
the field and you know what, we kind of expect
the weather conditions to be. I like the outside thinking,
I you know, I don't know if I'll go with
DeAndre again. I'm I'm not going to use my second
Caleb pick just because they could run the ball all
(27:17):
day and I don't really feel like wasting my quarterback
pick on that one. Since you're going with Moody, I
think I'll go I'll go with Luther Burden. I think
that this feels like a game where you can get
Luthor involved, and it's like it seems like that's kind
of been a point for Ben. You know, I think
the thing that we're kind of see here is I
(27:37):
don't think a lot of Bears receivers are going to
finish over one hundred receiving yards. I think that maybe
they can get to like eighties and that kind of stuff.
But it's become very clear to me that I feel
like the only way you're going to get to above
one hundred is going to be if you get like
a big play and then you get like another like
twenty yarder like Luther did when he got over under,
(27:59):
like he had the the hail Mary, and then he
had another like twenty yard catch. But it seems to
me that, you know, Ben wants to use all his playmakers,
and he wants to give everyone the ball. He's not
just going to focus on one guy if there I'm
sure if there's like a mismatch'll he'll pick on that,
for sure, I think. But I think it's become clear
that he's going to move the ball around a lot here.
(28:19):
So I think Luther Burden gives him a really good
opportunity to you know, whether it's screen passes, whether it's
short five yard passes, I think Luther really gives him
a good opportunity to kind of pick up a bunch
of yards on short passes and really gives you know,
defense is a hard time because I think defenses have
kind of shtriggled, you know when Luther Burden has been
(28:40):
called upon like he has. You know, even that Commander's
pass that he caught for like what was it thirty yards?
I think he had another ten yards or five yards
just based on his moves and that sort of stuff.
So yeah, I'm gonna go with Luther. I think that
he just feels like a game where you can get
him involved in the short game and he can kind
of pick up a lot bunch of yards, especially if
he's guys, if he's got guys slipping on a bad turf.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Yeah, well, I've been waiting for it all year with
him again, you know where I stand. I'm a fan,
and I wasn't a fan of the pick when they
picked picked him high in the second round. But now
that I've seen him enough, get him the football. Colston Loveland,
I guess he's still on the team. I just like
I'm waiting for that breakdown too. But a breakdown game
(29:25):
for him at this point would.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Be three pass receptions.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
You know, that's and that's not gonna be enough to
be like he was the MVP of the game for us,
unless it was the game winner or something. But someday,
I hope, I hope we're talking not necessarily next week
or down the road here as we get to November
and December, like uh, where we're considering like Colston Loveland. Man,
we're gonna have to burn that Colston Loveland card as
(29:50):
an MVP for the upcoming game here because I just
need to see more of it where he's becoming a fixer.
But we have him, but I'll take Luther Burden more involved,
more involved, absolutely, so that would be fantastic because I
want I want to see, like I want to see
him have the seven reception game two TD game or
where we can really see what why they picked him
(30:10):
and why they thought they got to steal there.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Earlier in the second.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
CJ chiming in, Hey, CJ, good to hear from me.
His most valuable is going to be cold commenting Coaston Lovelin. Yeah,
Bears playing gay plan tight end open this week. I
can see that this feels. I think that the Saints
can pressure the quarterback, but I think that maybe Ben
Johnson would be comfortable enough with the offensive line only
doing it. I don't think he needs to give them
(30:34):
too much support against the Saints pass rush. Maybe he will,
you know, depending on the matchups he sees out there.
But this does feel like a game where you can
get either Coal or Colston involved, especially if you like
want to do those dump offs and that sort of stuff.
So I like that pick, CJ. I think that either
Coal or Colston can kind of take advantage of some
mismatches here, especially if they're if the secondary's focused on
(30:58):
you know, Rome, DJ Luther and that sort of stuff.
Like I can see them picking on some linebackers here.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
Hope you're right, CJ. Hope you're right.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
I saw a video this week on social media, had
to be from the Colts, like doing a mock draft
room where when the Bears picked Lovely Attend, they all like, ah.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
They didn't draft our guy Tyler.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
He's gonna follow it like it's not like it's already
become like a little bit of a joke here and
it's only one video someone did, but you know, people
are aware.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Yeah, I think you definitely want to get him. I
think he's been. You know, it's been tough obviously with
the injury stuff over the off season. Then he's got
the hip injury, like he hasn't had the I don't
feel like he's been in the best opportunity yet, So
we'll see if he's able to do that. All right, Joe,
any lasting thoughts before uh Sunday? I guess you know,
I'll ask you the question, like, is this as much
(31:54):
of a must win game as a game as a
game in Week seven could potentially be for this team? Like,
obviously season is not decided on what happens here on Sunday,
but if you take care of business on Sunday, you
go to four and two and then you head into
a good stretch here where you play the Ravens against
likely Lamar Jackson at Baltimore. That's not a great matchup,
(32:16):
but you have the potential to play the Bengals with
Joe Flatt go again, maybe you have a couple weeks
to kind of get ready for him, and then you
have the New York Giants, where the next four weeks
aren't easy by any means, like it's every week in
the NFL, But I do think you have a really
good opportunity here where you can make some hey, build
up that record and maybe you can win three out
(32:36):
of your next four. Even if you go two and two,
I feel like you feel pretty good and you are
just kind of chugging along here before you kind of
get into that harder part where you play the Vikings
and the Eagles and the Packers and that sort of stuff.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Yeah, I mean, I think when you're where the Bears
are as a franchise right now, every win is big.
And this is a game that even before the season started,
when you're circling w W L L L a lot
more ls n w's this is the w this was
a w Saints home w They can't lose this game
(33:13):
going into any any stretch. This is a game you
have to win because every win is important. And you
look back at this three and two so far, five games.
You know the Vikings game that one got away, should
have beat the You know, you play decent fourth quarter,
you win the game, Detroit nightmare. Hopefully that's the worst
loss ever Ben Johnson's ten year, if he's here ten
(33:34):
years as head coach the Bears. You get that stinker
out of the way, and now you've got these these wins,
the good good game in Stallas, you get the Josh
Blackwell blockfield goal at the end to beat the Raiders.
Now you get the Jake Moody game against Washington, and
now you got the Saints. That's a team you have
to beat. And if it's twenty three to twenty two
and they win it out of Jake Moody, you know,
(33:56):
chip shot field goal, so be it. You know, no
no style points, just get the w's because you don't
want to be going into this stretch. Imagine if they
lose Michael Sunday. Because if they lose, whether it's a
close game or it's they get they lose by double digits,
they're gonna get a lot of heat. There are pretenders,
you know, all all this talk. So they can do
(34:17):
themselves a big favor by just beating the Saints, a
team they should beat come Sunday.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Yeah, it'll be really interesting to see what happens. But
this really feels like a game where you just need
to take care of business, and it seems like that's
been the mentality here at Hallis all week. The mentality
has kind of pretty much just been we're not taking
them lightly. We're not looking at that one in five
record and you know, being like, we're gonna roll over
this team. I don't think the Bears are in a
spot right now as a franchise to be a team
(34:44):
that thinks that they're gonna roll over teams. I mean,
that's just not who they are. I mean last year,
you went into that Patriots game, the last time you
were a favorite, and you're like, oh, they should take
care of business. It's Caleb Williams against Drake May and
then you saw what happened. It was like an ugly
loss and that got you know, Shane Waldron fired. So
it's it's it's it'll be interesting to see. I think
the mentality is there. The weather, we'll see what that's
(35:06):
going to look like. But I I I think this
feels like a game that the Bears know what's at
stake here. They know that they need to take care
of business, and I think you'll see that on Sunday.
You know, maybe an act of God is going to
change something. But I do think for the most part, yes,
you would like a blowout game. Maybe it won't come
(35:26):
exactly like that. Maybe we'll I don't know, but I
do think that the bear should take care of business,
and they seem like ready for for for that.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Yeah, and I and I think it's a big game
again for Ben Johnson as he goes through this year one.
It's gonna be a lot of first right, first game
now for him coming off a win and going into
a potential if you want to call it, the trap game,
how his team responds, because if they lay an egg
here Sunday, you know what everyone's gonna say, they weren't prepared.
(35:55):
And who takes the blame for that? The head coach.
They weren't prepared, and he'll say, the first guy, you know,
we are on coach, they beat us in all three
phases and including we got to coach better, I got
I gotta be better. He'll he'll own it, because that's
the way it works in sports, right, You lose a
game that you're you should win, and it comes down, well,
the coach didn't have them prepared. And I have seen
(36:16):
very little from Ben Johnson this year that suggests they
got it wrong. I've been encouraged with what we've seen,
probably ninety percent of it. It just you know better
than me. It looks different, it sounds different, They look different,
as a football team. So I'm pretty confident that they
will be ready come Sunday. They will win. But that's
(36:41):
why we play the games because every week, like last night,
how does that happen? How do they lose to that team? Hopefully,
hopefully we're not saying that in regards to the Bear
Saints come Sunday.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
Yeah. And it's interesting because you know, Ben was asked about,
you know, how do you handle being favorite, like you
approach it different and all that sort of stuff, And
you know, he made the point to bring out like
this is like the last time the Bears came out
of a short week, and that was obviously the season
opener against the Vikings, and then they had a short week,
they got they got blown out by the Lions. Right,
Like he even if he's like looking at a different opponent,
(37:16):
he's looking at like is our process better? Like he's
looking at like are we handling a shorter week better
than we did in the past. Like, I think that's
the biggest thing that you're seeing a lot with Ben
this year, is he's looking at growth at different points
of this year. Right. And this is another point where
sure that I mean, obviously the Saints are not what
the Lions are, but it can be easy to, you know,
fall into the malaise of they won an emotional Monday
(37:40):
night game, they got home, laid Tuesday morning. They only
had two practices on Thursday and Friday. It's going to
be rainy, right, Like, I think he's really interested to
see what how this team responds to adversity because this
is a short week. This is not an easy situation,
even even if you are playing at home. So yeah,
I would agree. I think it'll be really interesting to
(38:02):
see how this team responds and how they respond in
the game that many are expecting them to put up
a big performance.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Yeah, and this whole arc of winning, you know, the
beers are so you know, on the scale level, Okay,
you've got to do this to get to that level
and that level and then when you're really good, you
win a playoff game. And that they are still way
at the bottom here. They are still figuring this out
and growing. And I know time will go quickly and
you don't get five years to figure it out. But
this is an important stretch for them handling different situations.
(38:33):
But it's a home game, it's a road game, it's
a short a short week. It's a bye week. All
this stuff game we're favored in. It's they got to
learn to expect victory every every week. And when you've
been sorry, when the culture has been losing, losing, you
expect bad.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
It gets on your skin a little bit after a while,
and it kind of seeps into you. So this is all.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
It is part of the process. And I will just
say at the end of here and close eye in
Ben Johnson, I trust and I think equal Bears fans
will be happy come about three thirty on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Joe, I almost forgot the most important part of this
podcast predictions. Your prediction for for Sunday afternoon, Well, I will.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
Take the Bears already committed to Jake Moody making podcasts
for then our podcast insider podcast history by taking a kicker.
I don't know why I did that in retrospect, but
you know it's already out there, so I'll stick with it.
So I guess it's got to be close for me,
and I'll say, uh.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
I'll go twenty eight twenty seven.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
I don't even know how that adds up with field
goals and extra points and all that stuff.
Speaker 3 (39:36):
I go twenty eight twenty seven.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
Bears can't be twenty five to twenty four again, right
for the third game in a row.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
That would be that has to be. I know it's
not exactly score a Gomi, but there has to be
some version of score a gomi, right, like where you've
got to retraight games like this is two straight games
where you had twenty five to twenty four. I am
kind of the same mindset with you. Twenty eight points
seems like a lot, honestly, and if there's like that rainstorm,
but I do think that it will be a closer game.
I think the Bears win twenty one to seventeen. There
(40:05):
you go. CJ's got my prediction twenty one to seventeen.
He posted it exactly as I said it. Yeah, it
just feels like a game where I think they win.
I think there's a lot of good stuff. I think
the forecast just gets in a way. It's one of
those ugly games where you're just kind of, I know,
we want to see the Bears win a game where
they just kind of dominate, kind of like they did
against the Cowboys. I think maybe if you had perfect
(40:26):
conditions or near perfect conditions for mid October on Sunday,
you might see that. I think this is just based
on what we know about the Soldier Field, turf and
all that sort of stuff. I'm pretty much expecting the
worst when it comes to the weather into the field
conditions on Sunday. So I'm gonna go with the twenty
one to seventeen performance, kind of going against the opposite.
(40:47):
Robert could to hear from you. I hope you're unrelying
on takeaways again. I'll take it. But it's nice to
see the oh turn up big time again. Yeah, you
would love the offense to kind of get it going,
but at this point, you just gotta stack wins, right,
That's pretty much the only thing. You got to learn
how to win, like I've said in previous podcasts, And
(41:07):
once you do that, then you can turn your attention
to going to Baltimore and trying to figure out how
to stop Lamar Jackson in the Ravens.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (41:15):
Yeah, get the w that's it. Like you said, you
got to stack them.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
And you can't be looking back at the end of
the year or on the final month and saying we're
gonna need to win three or four here.
Speaker 3 (41:28):
Oh that dang Saints game. That would not be good.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
All right, guys, thanks so much for joining us on
the live stream. That's everything that we've got for this
Friday afternoon. Hopefully this was a good start to your weekend.
Thanks to all the comments on the live stream. If
you like what you hear, make sure you give us
a like. That's the best way to support the live
stream and help it grow. If you're listening on the
podcast and want to be part of the conversation, make
sure you check out our social media's. I'm at m
(41:55):
DWO jag ninety four, Joe is at Joe Aguilar sixty four,
and obviously we're Bears Insider on all our social media's.
Make sure you check us out. We like to do
every Monday and Friday, but sometimes we have to move
things around because of our schedules, and we want to
obviously have you guys be part of a conversation. Make
sure you check out Joe's work tonight. He'll be having
your Friday night coverage as they are in week number
(42:16):
eight of the high school football season, so playoff berths
on the line, So make sure you're following Joe tonight
and make sure you're following me this weekend. I'll be
at Soldier Field on Sunday, first time. The Bears are
back at Soldier for pretty much a month, so it'll
be good to get back to Soldier Field and get
some home cooking and see what the Bears are able
to do. But for Joe and I, thanks so much
(42:38):
for joining us this Friday afternoon. Hope everyone has a
good weekend. Enjoy the game on Sunday, and we will
talk to you folks on Monday morning.
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