The Chicago Bears Podcast

Bears vs Colts Preview: Key Advantage for Chicago Revealed w/Courtney Cronin

The Chicago Bears Podcast with Pat The Designer & ESPN's Courtney Cronin brought to you by the Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana!

In this episode, we dive deep into the Bears vs Colts matchup this Sunday!

Injury Updates: Will Teven Jenkins & Keenan Allen be ready to play? We break down what their status means for the team. Plus, this could be the week Rome Odunze shows up big!

The Colts' defense has struggled against the run. Can the Bears’ offense finally find its rhythm on the ground? Pat and Courtney discuss how Caleb Williams, Shane Waldron, and the offense need to establish their identity.

How much control does Caleb Williams really have at the line of scrimmage? Pat & Courtney analyze the QB's influence on play-calling decisions.

Defense Wins Games: With the Bears' defense holding the clear edge, can they contain Anthony Richardson and shut down the Colts' offense? Pat and Courtney believe so! Don't miss this action-packed preview episode full of insights, updates, and predictions!

#ChicagoBears #BearsVsColts #CalebWilliams #NFLWeek3 #InjuryUpdates #TevenJenkins #RomeOdunze #ShaneWaldron #BearsDefense #NFLPodcast #BearsNation #BearDown

Broadcast on:: 19 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: other

[MUSIC] >> Bad on Bears fans, another edition of the Chicago Bears Podcast coming your way. Pat the designer, Courtney Cronin here at Hallis. Courtney, we got to hear from the coordinators today, and they seem like they're gonna figure it all out heading into this Colts game. I'm excited to see what this Bears team is gonna do this coming Sunday. >> Yeah, it seems, I don't know, like two weeks in the answers apparently are so simple, yeah, it seems so complex, so we'll see. I mean, there's some very obvious fixes that at least you'd like to think would probably play out in real time against the Colts. But then again, the Colts probably know you're trying to run on them because everybody has run on them successfully through the first two weeks of the season. So we'll see if this really, I mean, this is gonna be like Def Con level one. Come Monday, if they can't run on this defense, so we shall see. >> Listen, listen, if somehow DeAndre Swift comes out of here and he still doesn't have a total of 100 yards in the season, I am going to be banging. The you never pay running backs again, drum so loud. People are going to be sick of me. We'll talk about all that more to this episode of Chicago Red's podcast. Hit that like button, subscribe to the page, lead a five star review. Y'all know what to do. Let's start off with this. Let's start off with the game itself. We've got a lot of injuries heading into this. We don't yet have the injury report recording this just after they kind of kick us out of practice. But yesterday, there was a lot of limited. There was a lot of four very tough DNPs for me on the Bears injury report. When you look at the fact that we saw Kevin Jenkins added to that list, concern starts to raise, especially with some of the struggles here on the Olaf. >> True, and it's a thigh bruise. Maddie Bafluis did not really seem all that concerned about it keeping him out for Sunday, but I think it was good to see him back out there today. We saw him during stretching. We'll see how much he's able to actually do at practice. But both their guards are there. Em, Nate Davis, at least you have your starting five. Now, is it the best starting five? Doesn't sound like they're going to be making any changes to it right now. But you're not having to tap into your depth if Kevin can play this weekend. That means that Matt Pryor, if he plays at all, I think it's really only on feel goal and P-A-T when they have him out there, they want a bigger body to block. But regardless, it's a good sign, at least for Kevin, that he is back at practice in some capacity, but the one that is still alarming is Keenan Allen, still on the bike. >> That is the name. Keenan Allen is still on the bike. And I thought what concerned me a little bit yesterday when we got a chance to talk to Flus was the fact that you heard him basically say this is not a re-aggravating issue. This is a pain tolerance issue and Keenan Allen is somebody who we've seen throughout his career is willing to play through the injury. Do you feel like the bears are possibly downplaying the severity of this injury a little bit? Because if it's just a pain tolerance thing, I think Keenan Allen will be fighting through it. >> And pain tolerance can be different for everybody, right? That's what Roma Dunes, they said he had to play through last week that structurally his knee was okay, but it's how much pain can you handle and, you know, play in a full game where you're playing nearly 94% of snaps or whatever it was. Like, what are you going to feel like the day after the game? Are you going to have any sort of setbacks for him? It was no with Keenan, I mean, it's a foot injury. It's like what we believe to be plantar fasciitis and that's tough because he's been dealing with it, you know, for weeks now dating back to the preseason. I don't, you know, we don't know exactly because we haven't talked to him or really seen him. Like, was this on the on the overthrow that he had against Tennessee that Caleb had for Keenan Allen against Tennessee, it seems like that's where he re-aggravated it. But like, what's the process like if him being able to plant off his foot to move around, to do all of the things that you need to as a receiver to have mobility, like, it could be pain talents, but it could also be a mobility issue too. Like, are you slower? Are you a tad, you know, like, tad late in like your releases and all of that? Like, I don't think that it might not be risk of re-entry, but it could also be it's hindering your ability to play the position, which is why, you know, you can only probably do so much in fighting through pain tolerance issues if that truly is what it is. And that's something, you know, in the preseason, I think we kind of attributed it to, you know, he's going through the motions. I know I did that first game, right? It did seem like he was a little bit slower and through the preseason, he seemed a little bit slower. I remember like everybody was like, is Keenan Allen fat? I was like, he's not fat, guys. Like, I don't know where you're getting that, but he's definitely moving slower with the foot. So maybe there is that to be added to it. Somebody else who popped up on the injury list heading into this Colts game, who I think, listen, if you can play through it, if you can have the pain tolerance, you have to step up. This is your moment to help out your rookie quarterback. You had an opportunity to do it last week and weren't, weren't able to do it in the end zone. That's Roma Dunes. I'm seeing now, listen, MCL, I think, you know, Shane's got to kind of figure out personnel in certain things. I don't like that the final play of the game is a comeback where Roma Dunes, they basically asked to cut and plant and turn around and run back. They were, there was a miscommunication there, but you know, maybe he's healthy enough to do it. Maybe he's not. Is this the week that Rome kind of has to have his week because opposite of DJ Moore, you know, that's going to be the focus. You're the other guy that's out there. That's the number nine overall pick that, guess what? Top 10 means eventually you got to start making some plays. Yeah. And he knows that, you know, the, the ball in the end zone, that's his, like he's got to catch that. I honestly think the conversation around Caleb Williams would be so much different if there were two passes that were caught, Keenan Allen's at the goal line against Tennessee and then the ball that hit off the top of Rome's hand in the end zone, that those are two touchdowns right there. And Caleb's stat line looks a little different. And we're talking about a quarterback who already had thrown his first passing touchdown, which he has not to date. But to your point, it, it, it really should be your number nine overall pick. If he's healthy enough to, you know, when we've seen him through, I mean, he was a full participant or was limited yesterday, full limited, limited participation yesterday. But like he's, you know, he's full in games. So I think a lot of that slow playing to get him like, don't wear him out during the week, get him ready for the game. That's the right approach, but he's got to be able to come through in those moments. So if there are these contested catches, I know that there's been some back and forth discourse about, you know, what was said about keen, or Rome needs to, Caleb needs to just throw Rome, the contested catch balls, because he can't get open right now. He led FBS last year in contested catches. I don't think that would be an issue if that like ends up being kind of like how he makes an impact. But he's got to do that. There's been some growing pains for him the first two weeks this season, just like there has been for Caleb, but you've got to find somebody opposite DJ more because DJ is probably going to get those 10 targets once again. We'll see if Caleb can be more accurate than nailing six of those for DJ more and DJ too. But like, I really think this has got to be a, because there's just no, right now it's starting to feel, or at least it looks right now, kind of like last year where it's a DJ more show and then everybody else. There was a moment where DeAndre Carter looked like, I mean, the catch down, they drew for DPI down near the goal line, you know, the other third down catch, which, you know, Caleb should have made that throw, like he was in position, but you've got to find somebody else that can be the one B to your one A. And it just doesn't feel like they've been able to iron out who that is in week one and two, when it should very well be Romadunze. Yeah. I mean, listen, we started the game with the Andre Carter, right? Being the guy and we're like, I'll take this, you know what I mean? Like it as long as you're moving the offense down the field, but to me, that is the part where you have to get again, the personnel, right? I think even some of the things, I was trying to get another question into Shane today. I really wanted to ask him about the Gerald Everett tight ends where Rome is blocking the tight end screens. And I'm just like, why isn't that flip like give me Rome one that find easy ways to get these guys going. I don't think that's something that we've seen through week one and two where the easy pass, the easy dump down to DeAndre Swift or the easy, you know, screen pass to Romadunze who, yeah, yeah, he has struggled getting open early on here, but you know, he's got the speed. You know, he's got the size, you know, he can fight through some of these tackles. If you're putting them out there, you would assume he's healthy enough to play, maybe he's still a little banged up, but you know, you got to get easy passes. How you got them involved in preseason, that end around that he's able to take what was it? 30 yards down the field at the end of it, find easy ways to get these young guys involved. To me, that is a massive thing that the Bears have to do heading into Indianapolis. Yeah. And I mean, this is the prime opportunity to run the ball to like, I know we make jokes about it, just because it seems so obvious. But when you have a team that's giving up an average of 237 yards a game, league worst, they've been there. They're super injured. But the new one on the injury report today is not new, but like who's not practicing is a lot too. Lot too. The pass rush is taking a hit. They just put divorce Buckner on injured reserve, leave Kenny Moore is playing through a thumb injury. Like defensively, they're super banged up right now. If they can't figure out a way, even if they have like there's going to be some push and pull here, even if they get heavy boxes, loaded boxes, you should be able to open up the passing game. This is a team that has shown you a major deficiency on defense. So they're probably going to have to sell out one way or the other to try to keep this as even as they can. And that's going to open up a big opportunity, potentially for Caleb Williams, if they are trying to stop the run. But what we've seen through two weeks is that they can't. Yeah. It's not a problem, but it should be to the Bears benefit that they're able to get DeAndre Swift going to mix in some personnel there too. Because you bring up like, you know, usage and all that. We still don't really have a clear answer on what was happening with Rocha on Johnson last week. I know Shane Waldron said he was, you know, Oh, well, each of them on special teams. He played 15 snaps and it's like 50% of special team snaps. Well, what he's running back, you know, but it's just like, you're trying to run power with the Andre Swift. Yeah. I remember in Travis Homer, like getting like crumbs and then DeAndre, it just wasn't working with Swift. And I just, those third downs where it felt like, Oh, it's a prime opportunity for Rocha Johnson. You have Travis Homer in there. I was, I was just really surprised by some of that. It's very confusing. I mean, early on in the season, it's, it's been the one thing that the utilization of the personnel in the right position, I bring up the tight end screen, because to me, I think there are better people you can use on that put the big bodies up front, you bring in DeAndre Swift. And all of a sudden you've got a better opportunity to possibly break something off. Swift's biggest player preseason, heck, his only playoff preseason is a screen pass underneath that breaks something big off because you're utilizing that guy the right way in a way that he's successful at Rocha Johnson the same way you bring up those third down passes. You're running DeAndre Swift up the middle two weeks in a row versus to Von Drey Swift or to, to, to Von Drey, Sweat and a defensive line that has Will Anderson and, and, uh, Daniel Hunter on it, you're sitting here trying to force him to be something that he has not been on any team he's been on, which is the power back. And yet you've got this guy who's got massive thighs out there and yet just knows how to push the pocket and you don't want to put him on the field to try and push things forward for a yard. You're putting Khalil Herbert out there. Who let's be honest? There's an outside zone guy has not great in pass protection either. And, and so it's just, I don't understand somebody usage that we've seen from Shane Waldron. I do have a problem with a lot of, a lot of how these guys have been used early on because not, if you're going to go all out on the pass, go all out on the pass, but you got to have those guys underneath the moments that you do run on third and one, you got to take advantage of the big bodies down there that you have like a guy like Rocha Johnson Travis home or where'd that come from? Like, don't tell me you're just playing favorites here because he was with you in Seattle because that's how it feels. I mean, it certainly feels like he has a leg up because he was with him in Seattle two years ago. Gerald Everett too. Same thing. Yeah. It's definitely, I wonder if that's a comfort thing too. Just like, all right, I know, I know how I can use these guys. I want to try to get this team in a rhythm and it's not working, but like that was, you know, that might be like the, the impetus behind why their usage is what it is. But this is a, you know, week three is as much of an opportunity. You want to talk about Caleb Williams, like, can he, can he get on track? It's as much of an opportunity for Shane Waldron as a play caller to figure out what is the identity of this offense? Can we start to manipulate other teams' weaknesses with our strength? We don't know what their strength is yet because they've shown us very little to give you an idea of, okay, they could be a great rushing team that is going to take the weight off Caleb Williams while they're working out the passing game or, oh, well, we do know they're making a more concerted effort to throw the ball, but you're not seeing a great passing attack by any stretch. You're seeing very incremental improvement. I mean, I guess a little bit is better than nothing, but it's still, this is such a good opportunity for a team that is one-in-one facing team that's 0-2 with a young quarterback who, you know, the Bears don't really know a whole lot about, you know, there's a lot of unknowns there with Anthony Richardson, but we do know at least in terms of the scheme, like defensive, they should have the edge to give themselves the opportunity offensively to finally start, you know, having your way with teams a little bit, like they should this week. It should be a no-brainer what the strategy is, but that comes into like, let's not overthink the personnel usage, it's not constantly being 11 when there could be a better opportunity to bring other guys in to max protect to make sure your quarterback's okay and just simplifying some of the route concepts to get him some easy completion. I thought it was so interesting today with Shane Waldron when I got a chance to ask him, you know, about being in 12 and 13 personnel, maybe a little bit more to help protect Caleb, and he was like, well, you got to, you know, you don't want to just overdo it with one thing, it takes all 11 guys and you got to do it when the situation calls for it. Caleb William was sacked seven times last week. Shane, I don't know how to tell you, I think the situation called for it a little bit. Yeah, yes, they were in 12 and 13 personnel, sometimes out there. Oh, what about your guys that are blocking, like, to me, you know, when Mercedes Lewis is in the game, we know what the play is going to be. It's probably going to be a run play, but like, what about keeping guys in on a more consistent basis until you're comfortable, like, and if your past protection is as bad as it is with your starting five offensive line, you that's the easiest work around imaginable. It just takes away some of your other capabilities of what you're going to do downfield. But that's okay. If it means you're going to run the ball a lot, like, what's the harm in that? Listen, I told you when we hired him, when he got here, I was like, he's going to have that thing in the air. He's throwing the football. And that's okay if you can, if you've already established a strong run game to allow yourself to do that, but there's going to be, like, if there's no play action opportunities on Sunday, you're going to know it's because they're not winning the ball effectively. And that's a big problem for a team that has shown, hey, we want to get Kayla about the move. We want to roll him away from pressure. We want to put him in an advantageous situation where he can utilize, you know, his athleticism, you know, outside of the pocket and making those plays because we know he's going to throw in those moments and you're just not seeing it yet. And I think you said something even there, right, where if Mercedes Lewis is in the game, we know it's a run. You're at a point so bad offensively right now, protecting. Put Mercedes Lewis out there on past place to help block because he's good at blocking. Have Roshan Johnson in the game on past place that he'd be relied upon a lot more this week for past protection. I mean, how not? He was so good at it last season. You can't tell me to travel his home is good at it. Neither Cleo Herbert. DeAndre Swift is okay. He's solid. I think he's been better in the past than he's been this season, but like you have these guys on the team that literally are the answer. And it just literally feels like through two weeks, Shane Walgen has tried to fit a square peg in a round hole. Yeah. And you can't do that in week three, not when the opportunity is as great as it is to steal one on the road here, a game that I know the Colts are favored by like a point and a half, but the Bears feel like a better team and a healthier team too. I mean, they don't, they're really lucky on defense that they don't have the same sort of injuries that the Colts are dealing with right now. And there's a prime opportunity to just chip away at some of the things that you know that you have to be better at. You can run the ball on this team. You can set up opportunities for play action for bootlegs for, you know, getting Caleb in a situation where he's not doesn't have Coleman Shelton in his lap after two seconds. Like there's ways to do it that I just don't think we saw enough of an effort towards in weeks one and two for a number of different reasons. But now, you know, like what DJ said yesterday about it takes about two to three games to get the quarterback in a wide receiver on the same page, you got to put your money where your mouth is if you're the Bears this week, like it has to start looking a little bit more polished, a lot more polished than it did the last two weeks. Yeah. And even to that conversation, I'm glad you brought the DJ thing up because I thought about last week. Of course, you know, the frustration we saw from DJ not getting things going again, the easy things we saw this last season, three weeks of basically just like, how do we get DJ more involved with an offense, which is by far the most confusing thing I like this is great. I get it. There's tough dudes guarding them. You got a luxurious need last week that makes that makes things difficult, right? But dog, like you got to know he's going to beat his guy more times than not throw him the football or do what they did last year in Washington, which is when you kind of saw Justin Fields and him come together and have that big moment early on short passes with DJ, right? Short passes, screen passes, different things like that, that just get them the wall in his hands and he can turn something into magic. And then all of a sudden we come through at the end of the day and go, Oh, look at that. The offense worked like it feels like we're trying to do too much complicated stuff early on. And we, we asked Shane about that today as well, right? And his response was kind of, you know, Caleb can handle this much information at once. We're not going to try to take anything off his plate or, you know, they're comfortable with the load that they have. And I mean, he has feels like he's got a lot of autonomy within like what he's able to call it the line to, which is a lot. I mean, seven audibles, I believe in that. And they're weak. Apparently he's, you know, for rookie quarterback, you don't really expect them to have that much like on their plate, but like clearly he's shown them something. But if it, you know, at some point you've got a, I just don't think they'd ever be willing to say, Oh no, we're taking things off his plate because it's going to look like an indictment on the quarterback. There are ways to simplify things within what you're asking him to do that aren't going to feel like you're just like stripping him of his power and you're trying to make him, you know, trying to dumb it down, like half field reads, quarter field, quarter field reads. I don't know if you've need to go that far because he can go through his progressions. It's just the other stuff that you have to do, simplify it for the 10 other guys to make his job easier. I think they'll be in a much better place, 100%, 100%. You also brought up the fact that it feels like this defense has the advantage here coming Sunday. I mean, listen, you get Anthony Richardson out in the space. You know, he's dangerous, but we're really good at coverage. So I think that having a spy on Anthony Richardson all day is going to be something that the Bears are probably going to do more than likely to be one of the two linebackers, I would think. And they're both really good at tackling. So I'm not as worried about Anthony Richardson's legs. And we know he can throw it through the roof, but we still don't know if he can hit his open receivers. So I'm not that worried about it. Only thing that does concern me as we saw a name who's been a massive name for the Chicago Bears through two weeks here, pop up on that injury report and that's Andrew Billings. I mean, like how he's been able to improve his game, how he's become a pass rusher out of no, I didn't even know he could become a pass rusher out here in year seven. So I'm excited by that. What is, what does it mean to this defense if big bill is limited even in this game? Yeah. I mean, it's, it's dangerous because he's starting nose tackle and sack Pickens also DNP yesterday. He was, I saw him in the training room earlier, like just at practice, like that's, remember when Maddie Briflu said after the Kansas City game, like in the preseason that the tackle depth is worrisome. Yeah. It's, it's a situation like this where it plays out. Okay. You've got a guy show up on the injury report. You hope that, okay, it might just be something he has to work through during the week and that he'll be able to go. You can't afford to be without him. Even Eric Washington today saying when they're talking about the rush plan, everything starts with him because he has the quickest line to the quarterback. That's true. He, the false start that he drew, I think it was the center for the Texas, like I don't know if it was him yelling move or him, you know, just being, the move is great. The move is great with his presence, but like he's, he's a big part of what they do up front and why this past rush has been able to be fortified this year. And if they don't have him, that's a big problem because I don't know who Chris Williams. Quickly because Demarcus Walker is also dealing with some injuries. So you're hoping he's back this week, Walker in there, like for at that position for the entire game. Yeah, that's true. I, I think that like, that's the one that's at the under the radar, like not like at like a red alert level yet, but just keep an eye on it because if you don't, if they were somehow without him, that'd be pretty problematic, I would imagine because teams are going to try to run on you at that point too. He was out there stretching. I mean, that's the only part we get to see. We did see him out there stretching. So hopefully we see him be a full participant today or at least a full participant by tomorrow. But this, you're at the, you're at the beginning of the season and like you said, the bears have been pretty fortunate to this point, injury, I mean, there's some teams that are decimated with injury out here and the 49ers, right? Listen, I don't pre-season is important. I don't know what to tell you guys. Like a rash of injuries, like it's so humbling. I mean, there's the, there's the hip drop tackle stuff, which is one thing, but then like some of the other injuries that had have shown up, I mean, if you're a team at the 49ers and you lose the NFC offense, NFL's offensive player of the year, you lose Debo Samuel for however long George Kittle left the game with like apparently some pretty serious cramps. Like, so I don't know if that's a situation you're going to have to monitor. That's like, you know, 70% of your skill guys right there, that's a brand and I use show. But like, think about how lucky the bears have been outside of keen and out. I mean, certainly to beat the blitz, I'm sure they would have, they wish they could have had him, but like to only have one significant injury that's costing somebody playing time right now and being as healthy as they are, like that's just not normal. That wasn't normal for them last year. Yeah. No. I mean, you started off last season decimated with injury. It does feel like the bears are in a better spot right now and especially coming in at this Colts game, it feels like they're, I mean, heck, they're scheduled now. It feels like the bears are kind of on the right side of those injuries too, because you got the Colts this week, who their defense is completely banged up. Lots of leads. You said is the newest edition. You got the Rams next week who are super, I mean, it's over. Like if they don't get puka or and they're not getting back anytime soon, both of them him and Cooper Copper on IR and their offensive line is super, super injured. Like if you, if you're just looking at it from a schedule standpoint, these are the two games that you should be able to steal. Yeah. You should be able to come out of these games at three and one on the season and feeling really good going into a game where you're going to be playing Andy Dalton, I can't wait for that game. Like I can't wait for them. I mean, it's breaking right now in their favor. It's like just that the bears have to take advantage of that. What is the conversation because that is one place I wanted to go with this because it does feel, I'm predicting a bear's win this Sunday. It does feel like the bears should be able to get this one. Rams feels really good right now because I don't know how they're going to move the ball offensively. And then you got the Panthers. If we get through that Panthers game and this bears team is four and one and the Caleb William situation is kind of maybe a little bit better, maybe a little bit worse some games, but just kind of still in this middling space. What's the conversation around this day? It's going to, if that's the case where they've won games like, but they're four and one basically on the backs of their defense, it's going to be what's going on with it. It's the same conversation that we're having now about, but extending it into Caleb Williams isn't living up to expectations. Now those are expectations that are measured differently by different groups of people. If he's showing consistent improvement and the offensive line still a struggle, then is that really on him? No, but it but it just kind of depends like what does his output look like within this offense, is there, are there any moments where he is the reason that they're, you know, in net yard, like positive net yardage, like winning game? If he's not showing at that point, then you're kind of like, well, maybe he's further away from that than we thought, but is it independent of the circumstances or is it because of the circumstances? Like if they're four and one and this offense is towards the bottom of the league still and you're leaning on the defense. Well, okay, that's great that you can do that, but then it also raises the questions about, man, what's it going to take for Caleb to get on track and for this offense to get on track? Because if you go more than a quarter of the season and it doesn't look like it should, then that's, that's kind of cause for concern, I would say. No, 100%. I think the thing for me would be, especially with the offense line, and I see all of you in the comments, right? No, you told me he was going to be generational. So he should be able to overcome all of these problems. Yeah, I just don't know either. Here's my thing. We've seen one guy, we've seen one guy in the last, what, 25 years, basically be able to go maybe two, I'll throw big Ben in there as well, basically be able to go. My offensive line sucks. There's nothing I can do about it. And I am going to take a team deep into the playoffs and be able to be competitive. Like that doesn't happen. Tom Brady is by far the greatest quarterback of all time. Look at his numbers under pressure. He is literally the worst statistical quarterback in NFL history. Like it's important to protect your quarterback. And it seems like only the Chicago Bears sit here and have this struggle or this mentality of like, we need to protect them. But you know, Alan Robinson, I'd love to get left tackling here, but how's Brandon Marshall for you? No, I mean, and I think that like we've all wanted to play revisionist history based on how the first two weeks have played out about what they could have done differently in the off season. But like if they spend those resources elsewhere, do they have a keen an Allen in here? Do they have Roma Dunes? I, who knows? Like, you know, I haven't seen kind of Williams play yet. So but you could have got kind of Williams. Yeah. I mean, that could have been an answer. I think the concern right now for Bears fans is some of the guys who even the rookies right who are banged up now, Jackson Powers, Johnson stuff like that, their answers that you feel are waiting in the wings. This feels like there's no answer and it is still early with that. Like, and if they don't give you some sort of semblance of an answer this week as to a like legitimate workaround, then I think it's fair. I think the criticism is completely fair. I think it's fair right now, but you got to give them time, at least like give them the idea of, all right, you guys are going to fix this. It's going to look different, but I still don't think it's going to look that different in terms of personnel, at least until after week four, they're not going to start shuffling people around right now. They can't. They don't have the depth to do it because that depth is on injured reserve. So we'll see like, you know, eyeing that date of going into the Panthers game or maybe even going into the London game, what are they able to do with Ryan Bates? What are they able to do with Larry Borm, potentially at that spot? Because they bring them both of them back and then have like move guys around the offensive line. Then maybe that's when you get the Tevin Jenkins moving back to right guard stuff. I don't know. It's interesting to think about, but I think we're still a way as a way from getting there. Is there a, like let's say, it seems like, you know, we know the Forest Buckner won't be out there. I don't know how serious the lots of leads to injury is, but let's say the Bears offensive line dominates this week. It's the conversation just dead after that because they're looking at it going, well, I hope you can dominate these guys in my mind. I think there's the measure, you have to measure like who your opponent is, who you're going against and, you know, can that carry over on a week to week basis? Like you should be like a team that's decimated by injuries, especially up front. They might be without one of their starting defensive ends this week and the Forest Buckner is gone. You should be in a much better spot, like in terms of past protection, in terms of being able to run the ball by having your guys go out and find work, like, I don't know, though. But if they don't, then those questions, it magnifies the problem if they can't figure that part out. Here's the thing that we know, and this is just how the conversation is going to go. It started with Chris Morgan, there's always the scapegoat, right? Sure. It started with Chris Morgan who, I mean, listen, three years in, I'm here to have the conversation as well, but that's your scapegoat for why Caleb Williams is struggling. The next person is going to be Shane Waldron and how he utilizes this personnel. If we have a struggling offensive week this week, there's going to be a ton of questions around your bear's new offensive coordinator, especially with the fact that you had another guy in here that you could have brought in and Gary in a Clint Cooby Act, and he's dominating down there with your scraps of Lucas Patrick. And it's just like, hey, we figured out to use this guy. You know, if you make him a guard, he's a solid guard. It's that through two weeks. I'm not that upset about it yet, but we'll see. No, but that's, that's a good point because of what they're doing down there. Like they've, they've, they had a lot of offensive line issues, two new starters. They bench Trevor Penning at left tackle last year. They move in the right tackle. They've made the adjustments within like their system and they're also like taking pressure off those guys by running a lot of play action. Derek Carr is looking like a very early version of himself because of what that scheme is doing and you just kind of hope that, you know, those comparisons are always going to happen when it's like, well, you could have had this guy. He's using some of your former players to make this X, Y and Z happen and look at what your thing has. I mean, we here with Justin Fields right now, like, oh, look at what's happening in Pittsburgh, albeit it's a completely different offer. We didn't need the James Daniels one though, like nobody needed to bring up James Day. We're good. We're good guys. I've watched him the last few seats. Yeah, I, but like if, if they don't start getting it together and other teams where it's like, oh, well, you could have had these people, you could have had this system. If those things look great somewhere else, then it just compounds the conversation even more as to like things aren't great right now and then you, you know, they made the wrong decision. But again, I don't think people can fully have a judgment on that until like at least through the first quarter of the season. Yeah. Listen, and I do this is, this is crazy to say with all the offensive struggles, I do believe this bears team is probably going to win their next three games. Maybe that's wishful thinking, but I'm just looking at who's decimated on the other side. Now if injuries pop up for us, that's different. We can revisit all of this, but where the bears are right now, the bears defense just looks like a better. It feels oh, six ish where, yeah, I don't know if offensively they can beat anybody, but defensively, I know that they can shut him down. They're going to make his life miserable. Andy Dalton's out there. That's all you need to know about that. Yeah. I mean, like, and so I think that they can be in every one of these games and the offense can get enough. That conversation of now your foreign one here through the first quarter, we know the conversation then will calm down on one side of the ball and it'll calm down on, you know, people losing their minds at Lucas Patrick, having a good day, but it's still something where to me, you don't have the fixes to change anything in the season. Are you going to hurt the development of Caleb Williams? Because if you keep seeing games like we saw Sunday, he won't be there by weeks six. I mean, you can't have that happen. You can't have him get sacks seven times and just act like, oh, it's a byproduct of, you know, early season ups and downs. No, that's serious. By the way, all 11 guys is new. Is this a new thing? Have you heard this? Which one? It takes all 11 guys to block. You know, I mean, I've, I've, yeah, they're always going to say that I feel like they're because they don't want to just solely pin the blame on the offensive line. I get it, but even still gives a shit who claims on like, you can't have that. What happened? You can't have him sacks seven times. He won't make it through an entire season getting hit that much. Listen to what CJ Strauss had to him after the game, like stop taking those hits. And it was not at all. I don't know why people are so up in arms about that. It was not at all condescending. He's right. You have to avoid that. And some of that, I know people are like, well, how much is on Caleb? How much is on play calling? How much is on the offensive line? Are there moments where maybe he could find his way out of like a situation where he's getting hit? Maybe. That more of that's on past protection. Who's responsible for it? Whether it's the offensive line, whether it's somebody else who's in there to chip to block whatever it is, and it's on the offensive coordinator, eventually, if it looks this bad in a couple of weeks, then you could probably start sharing more of that pie of blame with Caleb Williams. But right now I'm not absolving him of it, but I don't think that that's a situation where he should be getting a bulk of the criticism right now by any means. Oh, if I, if I were going to put a pie chart together of a blame, give me, give me 50 30 20. Some math, right? Is that math? Right? 50 30. That's 80 20, right? 50. I'm going first off. Don't wait a minute. That was crazy, Courtney. I was trying to make sure she was like he can't count. There's no way he's got to make sure I was trying to help you out there because I wasn't sure of it either. I don't know if I could have done that on the fly. Give me, give me 50 offensive line because I think that's a position you basically just ignored and you were like, it'll get better with, if Caleb throws the football quicker, he's eighth in the NFL in time getting the football out. He was sixth in the NFL last week. You know what I mean? Like he's getting the ball out quick. We're not worried about that. He's still getting hit 30 because Shane Walgant like, I'm sorry, after my quarterback gets hit the fourth time, you got to change your scheme up. And that seems to be the one thing that over the past few offensive coordinators we have, they've been very stubborn on that. You need to go, hey, my guy's getting killed back there. Let's throw a couple blocks. Let's throw Mercedes, Louis Rocha on Johnson in there. Y'all help him block. Yes, I have less receivers out there. And I know that the receiving crew right now is thin, but I got DJ Moore out there. And if I put the Andre Carter on the other side, I feel better about that because my quarterback is back there protected, figure out some chips or whatever it is so that he can get out. But you got to figure that stuff out. That's your job as DOC. And I do think 20 of it is on Caleb. I'm giving him the least right now because dropping him back for 57 passes, I understand the interception. Do I want him to throw the interception? No, but Caleb Williams then goes into the mindset of, all right, they want me to make a play. They keep telling me to pass the football. I got to make a play. I got to put us. So we're down nine here. We got to go down and score. So I understand why he's trying to make the big throw, why he's looking for the Superman play. Because this is what he did at USC. So like, I know, I know your bingo card wasn't me defending Caleb Williams behind a bad offensive line this year, but that's what you're going to get. I mean, in some of those things, I know that he does not feel that there's stuff he can get away with in college that he can't get away with in the NFL, but he's learning. Like he may not want to, he may not be comfortable admitting that just yet, but there are things that he, he can't out athlete everybody else. He's not the best athlete on the field anymore. You have a great, like you go up against really good defenses every single week. There's not an accountable. You're going to get humbled. And yeah, like there, you're going to get humbled on that. I think he's learning that that's normal. We expected that, but it's like, if we're projecting this thing out five, three or four or five weeks, you can't see some of the early season moments like that show up again later on. That's not growth from learning how to do it in college to the NFL. No, you've got to eliminate the mistake. I mean, listen, if we're being a hundred percent honest, if he doesn't throw the two turnovers, the bears probably win that game. And I don't know if you heard this yesterday. Kyla Gordon said the ref told him that if they had called it an interception on the field, they wouldn't have overturned it because there wasn't enough evidence to overturn it. That would hurt. That would hurt a little bit. I was like, that's a win that, that's a loss, but it's a win. But like you, you're when you're talking about moving forward, right? If you just don't mess up, that's what, that was week one. Caleb didn't screw up. Did he play well? But he didn't screw up and the bears found a way to win. I think that is going to be the next couple of weeks. I don't know if like all of a sudden, the Panthers game is the one to me where you can say, all right, peso, man, for like 350 and two tutties, but outside of Asia, they're so bad. It's impressive how bad they are, but outside of that, I mean, like you, you just want to keep seeing him get better. Finally throw a touchdown. Yeah, that'd be good. You know what I mean? You can imagine him going like three weeks without throwing a touchdown. Is there been a rookie quarterback that's thrown one yet? It seems very interesting early at the Jaden, no, Jay is all field goals. It's not. Oh, Nick's look horrible out there. That was a stark difference from, yeah, those are the three because Drake may is not playing and who's the other one? Michael Penn, Jr. He's not playing. No, Minnesota, Jay Jay McCarthy got hurt. He got hurt. Yeah, everybody's out. We need to touch down this week. Give me, give me that, Caleb, give me that at least, and he's put you in position for him. Yeah, he's driven you down there and got your position for him. Like his guys have to catch the ball. That happens again. Can you imagine how frustrated he's going to be? He's going to DJ more. He's going to just helmet slam, stale face on the side. Which by the way, guys, I wanted to say this on the podcast. I've had to tell my guys yesterday. That's just DJ's face. Yeah, I don't, I was, I think it's like a really stark misrepresentation of who he is because he's, I don't, he didn't do anything that, yeah, like everybody loves him. Like, he wasn't doing anything on the sideline that, I don't know. I was just so surprised that like people ran with that and he wasn't slamming his helmet down. Did he go on his back and kind of roll over and take his helmet off? Yeah. And anyway, the sideline, I, I think it's, I think really people got upset because they saw whatever he was that he said to Tyson Vajant and thought, okay, he's, he's, this is the wheels coming off. He's upset with Caleb Williams. And then from there, you see him sitting on the sideline looking pretty sullen. Um, but he says that that's how I normally am like, he doesn't show a lot of emotion that way, which I'm like, okay, like I have RBF. So like, you know, does it, am I, am I angry all the time just because I look like I like in piss? Like that's, no, I'm not. Okay. DJ Moore. Like maybe that's just super power. I don't know. It's just a weird thing that like some of the like weird, ancillary stuff after the fact, whether it was people getting mad at C. J. Stroud for trying to be a nice guy. Yeah. Like in Caleb's reaction to it, people are getting upset about it and then DJ Moore, it's just weird. Quickly a game. People, people, people have gotten weird with the like first, everybody's a body language actually. The lip reading is hilarious because it's just like, I need you to all get out there. It's like what? You think that's what he said to Tyson Vajant on the sideline and he's walking back. Yeah. Like, come on. And then, uh, oh, when I, when we were in the locker room yesterday, DJ was like, he did media. He went to his locker. He's sitting there looking the same way. I wanted to snap a picture, but yeah, yeah, be respectful, but I literally was like, it's just his face. Yeah, I don't understand why people ran with that, but he handed it really well. It was Keener on the other side and like, well, he's teaching him what he can and can't do and I was like, well, Keener's not in the game. Like he can't talk to him in the huddle. Yeah. So he handled it well. I thought he did a good job with it. It's some of the stuff that gets picked up. I'm not going to lie. Like being in the building, it is hilarious. Like when you actually talk to him, it's like, so what's going on? They're like nothing. All right. Cool. Good to know. Yeah. What's your final prediction for this game one Sunday, Courtney? I'll pick the Bears to win. You know, I don't think, you know, what did I pick last week, 21 17 Houston? You did. I think I think it's a 24, 27 21 Houston. Okay. So I don't know. I mean, offenses are down right now. So like, I don't know if I'm going to pick a score total that high. I'll say I'll do 21 17 bears because I just feel like this is the week where you can, if you can't break out with your running game, there's a serious issue. Are you, are you in the milk hyper camp here where you got to eliminate too high safeties because passes are too difficult. The offense is then run the ball. Run the ball. We should see a resurgence of running back. I just love greenie going. No, I get it. I was like, I don't you want to eliminate a play in football? No, there's no way. There's no way. I was a little silly this morning, but no, I mean, I think 21 17. I think the bears will win on the road. They should be able to stop the option stuff with Anthony Richardson. They have the athletes on defense. They have a better defense. They're healthier. And if you, again, if you can't run the ball this week on this defense, there's a serious problem. You got problems. I need, I need a hundred yards out of the address with, and I'm not talking about on the season. I need a hundred yards on Sunday out of the Andre Swift and a, and a touchdown. Listen, $8 million. Don't be giving the ball to Khalil Herbert to running in. I need 10 touchdowns out of the $8 million for running, but I'm not starting this conversation and we're drafting punters for Courtney Cronin, his boy, Pat the designer back at it again. Let us know your thoughts, your final score prediction in the comments below. As always, hit that like button. Subscribe to the page. Lead a five star of you. Y'all know what to do. Y'all stay safe. I'll be right down. One love. Peace. [Music]