The Chicago Bears Podcast

The Bears CAN'T Afford To Overlook The Titans In Week 1

The Chicago Bears Podcast with Pat The Designer and ESPN Chicago's Shea Norling, brought to you by The Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana, kicks off by celebrating the NFL's return after last night's Chiefs vs. Ravens thriller! ??

Then, they dive into Sunday's Bears vs. Titans matchup:

Caleb Williams' First Start: What Pat and Shea expect from the rookie QB as he takes the field for the first time. ? Coach Eberflus Under the Microscope: Pat focuses on the team's preparation and Eberflus' coaching decisions. ? No Room for Overconfidence: Shea reminds Bears fans that the Titans are no easy opponents. ? Defense Must Excel: Pat emphasizes that the Bears defense has to be dominant right from the jump. ? Get all the insights ahead of Sunday's game! ??? #ChicagoBears #NFLKickoff #BearDown #BearsVsTitans #CalebWilliams

Broadcast on:: 06 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: other

But on Bears fans, another edition of the Chicago Bears podcast coming your way path. The designer Shane Norling in on a Friday. He's got that look. I don't know if I don't know if this is going to go the way most bears fans think it's going to go with Shay, but it's a bears Friday. You can't go wrong with a good bears Friday. How are you? Kind of like a chance to talk about real football games feels like it's been a decade since we were able to talk about actual games that will occur on the field. No more debates about the quarterback, no more off season stuff like it's just ball. I'm so I'm I'm I'm amped. I mean, listen, at the end of the day, we're here, but we're only a toe away. Just like the Ravens. We're three days in, only a toe away. My guy poor Isaiah likely he played so well just to come that short. You know what? I felt poor Isaiah likely all until the post game pressers. There's one bear. You don't vote. There's one bear. You don't own this. I guarantee he does not play well in that playoff game. If they get to a playoff game versus the idea, you're going to come out after that and talk about. Yeah, if that's if that's the best they got, good luck in the postseason buddy. It's too straight. You just got tagged. Like, I don't know what to tell you that that's not going to work. The best do not go after the Chiefs. The best they got, which is, which is my favorite thing about it because it was like, you mean a really dominant defense that kind of had your quarterback in hell all day. And then an offense that your defense couldn't slow down. Yeah, it's probably the best they got. It's pretty good. You know, when people are going to make that game about a toe, it's not about a toe for me. When you break it down, like Lamar, I thought was spectacular play well play really well over 300 total yards, hundred and whatever 125, whatever was on the ground, 15 carries. He was the play calling questionable to me. Basically they're best running back. Yeah. Top monk. And I thought it was terrible. Um, no, but what it's really going to be about at the end is Lamar badly overthrew likely in the corner of the end zone and almost got him killed falling out of the corner. And then Lamar really boofed a throw to Zaflowers wide open in the back of the end zone. And I don't care what Lamar wants to tell me after the game that he did, the throw was at four Zaflowers. It was intended for somebody else. Dude, look at the camera angle from behind Lamar Jackson when he throws the football. The Zaflowers is right in front of him wide open in the middle of the end zone and he just missed. Yeah. It's okay. You missed. Yeah. That's what I've seen because it was literally like both plays tie that ball game. And it just comes down to that guy's got to be better in clutch moments like that. It just seems like every year he plays this incredible game has this incredible season last year MVP. And then the clutch moment, the big moment against the Chiefs, your chance to prove you are better than the best and he vomited on himself for an entire game. That was that last night he was spectacular and then right at the moment that he needed to be nails. He's not. Yeah. And it's it's it is literally the moment, right? Makes the big pass to get you down there, puts you in a great position to win this game. Also again, Todd Muckin, I don't know if you know this or not. There's this large giant of a running back that you have on your team when you got down in the red. So he's done. You could have tried to utilize him. He's toast. You could have tried to utilize it. They didn't have a timeout. What are they supposed to do? They can't run the ball with there. Henry with no timeouts and also Derek Henry's toast toast. Derek Henry was the heck of a lead blocker last night. That's all we saw. We say Adam, I'm past blocking now. How about third and one justice hill pitch Derek Henry not on the field that dudes cook. It's over. And that's look 30 years old to make it that far as we're running back. Congratulations. He's just the workloads. It's been too much. I got it. I got to see I got to see more before I say he's cooked. I'm a big King Henry guide, but it can we look back. Can we agree? Mark Andrews dropped the rose on the casket. Good night, my friend. I get it. You're only 29, but you've had a million gushions and two bad knees. That's all. That'll be all for Mark Andrews. That was probably done last night when you when you saw Isaiah likely just like go out there and do the Lamar right when he didn't stop unless the guy go past runs in the end zone. I was like, ooh, I felt nail in the coffin right there as a shout out to all those people who drafted Mark Andrews high in the fantasy leagues out there. My week one match up in one of my leagues and going against somebody with Mark Andrews, that guy is not a happy kid for this morning. He is very upset. The first thing somebody said in our chat this morning was like, anybody want Mark Andrews? I was out trade to Geno Smith for him. I got the same. Just to see. I'm like, no, I'm good. Just to see. You never know. You know, you'll get that Mark Andrews game or two. You never know. But hey, the thing is football is back. We're excited. You get basically four straight days of football, the NFL said, we don't care what else you got going on over your weekend Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, we're going to monopolize all of it. Okay. Peacock. Oh, I am a subscriber to Xfinity. I think we get it free. Look at you. So shout out to Xfinity on that one. If you ever want to fancy guy over, if you ever want to tap in and sponsor the pod, we would appreciate that because I do get Peacock free. So I'll be, I'll be watching it, I'll be, I'll be tuned in and I got NFL plus. So I got a few ways to watch the game. There you go. I got a few ways to watch the game. But football being back, that means the bears are back this Sunday. That means, like you said, we get to answer all of the questions that we've been waiting and talking about for so long. And my God, never give us a Hall of Fame game again. We did not need that extra week of preseason. It has been so long up at training camp. So the players are sick of training camp, Titans, bears this Sunday, got to preview the game, got to start off on the offensive side, Caleb Williams, getting his first opportunity to play four quarters. What are you looking for from Caleb Williams in this game? Like of course, you know, everybody has high expectations. You want to see them. CJ shroud, this thing hit the ground running, but week one, what do you need to see from Caleb Williams? I would prefer not turning the ball over. Don't go nuts. Targeting luxurious need. Do I imagine it's going to catch DJ Moore and most of the formations? I don't need you to go crazy throwing the football. Honestly, here's what I need. And this is going to sound lame. It's like kind of just the soft excuse way to get out of it. Win the game. I don't care how pretty it is. You don't get style points. This isn't college football. You don't need to blow somebody out. Just go in the game. I don't need to see a throw for 300 yards and four touchdowns. If you can do 250 and one, I will be elated if it results in a win. If you could do 250 and two, I'd be over the moon. I'm not asking for the world. Like I feel like when you get the generational tag and the way Ryan polls has now said generational. The way that everybody talks about the hype around this team and the offense, the explosive weapons, I feel like people are setting themselves up for a little bit of disappointment. If they go out and have a day where it's 350 yards of offense, you score 21 points and you walk out of there with a kind of narrow victory, I'd be more than happy. This league is designed to be brutal and you have a rookie quarterback. Just do what it takes to win, protect the ball, play in the structure of the offense. Don't go crazy too much. If you want to let it out of the bag a few times, good. I like seeing it, but let's just get out of here with a clean operation and a win. Yeah. I would agree with that. Like I love what Ryan polls said when he talks with the podium, lean on the tee. You've got these weapons. Use them. That means the Andre Swift. That means Khalil Herbert. That means cold commit. It doesn't just mean I love that. I hope that the Titans DC does come out there and try and press us the entire game like he said, that would be fun because I mean, listen, I would love that because you've got two of the top 10 guys against the press. I know everybody in the comments was like, well, a genius need was one of the best players against the press and so versus the top wide receivers who are good against press. Like, well, he can only cover one guy, there's a lot of guys to cover on this team. So I would love to see that be the game plan, but you don't have to do too much in this first game and the bar's not that high early on. We need to see more out of the defense that we need to see out of the offense early on. And like if you're going for Bears rookie records, if you want to compare them to, is he going to be better than the guys you've had before? It's not a high bar. No, he throws 130 yards in the first game. He's on pace to break the Bears rookie record after week one. If he can get to 200 yards in the air and a couple touchdowns, I think everybody in this city should be beyond excited. Yeah, beyond excited. The offense is honestly, like, I expect Caleb Williams to be good. I always have. You and I used to fight about it. I told you, Caleb Williams is the guy who's always going to be the guy. The wide receivers that you've put around him, I think you've insulated a rookie quarterback as well as any team ever has. The running back room is very talented. The offensive line has gotten better. Like the offense, I just expect to kind of go out and take care of business. And the biggest thing I need to see, and it's everybody is a unit. It's not just Caleb. No false starts. You're playing at home. Yeah. No false starts. No procedural penalties for the love of fucking God. If I see an illegal procedure on anybody on that line, like Ronnie Stanley, I get the penalties done. But when you get called for it five times, back up, like get on the line. Make the adjustment and figure it out. So if it gets called once for the Bears, and it probably will, because it's this point emphasis, this is the point of emphasis to start the season, adjust and just squeeze up as far as you have to line up, be right, be ready. Don't do stupid stuff. Don't make them errors, have it look clean and get out with a win. Yeah. I mean, listen, you think about last season, right? We talked about how prepared we wanted to see the Bears be. We talked about, you know, like they didn't play at all in training camp, really. They didn't play at all in preseason. It was all different. And we're and we're sitting there going, okay, we'll show us something and the season starts on a false start and every Bears fan in the world was ready to rip Matty refluse apart. Not again. Everything has been different this season. I've said it. I went into training camp this year going. I am going to be judging Matty refluse as harsh as he's ever been judged because if you do what you did last year, you didn't learn from your mistakes. It seems like Matty refluses learned from his mistakes through this entire process. They just players in preseason allowed them to get a heck of a lot more work in training camp. I mean, for the most part, like this is outside of like that first year where guys are basically like, if I don't go hard, I'm not going to be in the NFL anymore. This has been the most we've seen people work at training camp. Like you've got your team, what it feels like through four preseason games, much more prepared now than they were heading into week four of last season when you're taking on a Broncos stick, like that to me is a good spot for your team to be in to start now. And it's why I think most Bears fans feel a lot more confident about this Tennessee Titans matchup. Now here's where things get tricky. And this is not a message to the to the Bears or to the team. I think they're doing everything right. I don't think they're listening to all the hype that's out there, even if they're selling some of it themselves. Yeah. I mentioned already. Ryan polls calling Caleb generational. Oh, they're selling some of them. They are selling the hype. But I think if you go in that locker room, it's not nobody's like, Oh, Titans, whatever, they're a layup. No, I think they're going to take this seriously. This is my advice to Bears fans. The confidence that you have, I'm happy for you. I feel very good for you. This is the best team that this organization's had in a very long time. And it's the most positive feeling long term situation, probably since the 80s. But this is an outstanding place to be number one pick quarterback who's build generational. You've got five years of rookie control. The wide receivers you've put around him, the faith in the general manager, like they're just the vibes haven't been this good about a team in a very long time. But now it's about week one and it's test your mental situation. And I think a lot of Bears fans have spent this off season since the schedule came out in May, looking at this and talking about, Oh, Titans week one, we got a layup bad team back quarterback. We'll love us. They're kind of in a tank situation. Stop. No, stop. They aren't. They are much more similar to Tampa Bay a year ago than they are to New England right now. This Tennessee team spent all off season hearing from national media how ugly they are, how they aren't attractive enough to pick up the date at the bar. Problem is they weren't listening. They went out traded assets to get luxurious need. They went out and signed Tony Pollard who might not be great anymore, but still a decent running back productive. Whatever you want to say about fantasy Tony, I don't care. He's a running back on the field in the national football league. He can be productive in spurts. Taijay Spears, they drafted it'll be a rotational room. They also signed Calvin Ridley helps a young quarterback with a surefire target on the outside. The wide receiver room is far from terrible. By the way, how about two tackles and Peter Skoransky and JC Latham, who are both maulers and then the defense go and add on the defensive line, add in your linebacker room. I already mentioned luxurious need. They don't buy what everybody nationally is selling that they suck. It's a lot like Tampa last year, Tampa a year ago. Everybody's telling them, you're done, Brady left you. It's over. Problem is they went out, signed a bunch of pieces. They didn't behave like a team that thought they stunk. They won their division. Yeah. Be very careful. Just walking into this game on Sunday and I'm not telling you, you should be scared. You're a grown man with a mortgage, a wife, kids, a life. It's not all about football. Don't be scared. Your team might lose. I'm just I want to make sure I get the message out to bears fans. You don't walk into this going. We're going to freight train them. That ain't the NFL. No, I agree with you a hundred percent. I've said the same thing about the Titans because I think that people overlook the Titans have kind of done. I don't think the talent is the same level, but they've kind of done for Will Levis. What Ryan Paul's has done for Caleb Williams. Let's go get him D hop now D hop dealing with what he said was an MCL tear, so he's been working through that. He was limited at practice. I don't know if he's going to play or not, but MCL tear doesn't sound like you're going to play. Right. We'll see. You got D hop in the building. You've got Calvin Ridley. You've got Tony, like there's weapons for Will Levis to go to. There's an offensive line in front of Will Levis. I love the fact that we sit here and we go, we're going to get after Will Levis. We're going to put pressure on him and we're going to make him scared. We couldn't do that last season for Joe Flacco. We remember that, right? Yeah. Like we had my test sweat on the team 300 plus passing yards, game you needed to win. We couldn't do that last year for Joe Flacco. Now at that game, I don't believe Jalen Johnson played Tyree Stevenson had a tough game that game as well. There were some injuries there, but like you have to, if you give quarterbacks in this league, time to process, they can kill you. It doesn't matter who the QB is. Well, I shouldn't say that like Mitch might not kill you, but for the most part with most of these quarterbacks, if they're given time, they will process what's being seen. Where DBs can only cover for so long and somebody will get open and Will Levis is talented enough to find an open man in the middle of the field. That's where it gets dangerous. I won't sell to anybody Will Levis is some stud. No, not at all. He's the top 15 QB, but if you ask scouts, he's got the strongest arm in the NFL. So do not get burned because he'll hit guys deep and he has the ability to rip it over the middle of the field. If there's guys open and like just honestly, the other thing too, they remind me in process and maybe not in result, very much of what polls and the bears tried to do for fields last year in that you're going out and acquiring pieces to make the football team better and really to give yourself a fair evaluation of what you have and Will Levis. Will Levis might be terrible. Will Levis might be really good. Nobody has the answer. I don't have a crystal ball, but that is the process that they're going with. And last year's bears were a pain in the fucking ass to play against. They were one of those annoying teams that you knew on a Sunday were going to give you hell. Ask Detroit, ask Cleveland, ask Denver, ask and a lot of those games ended with bad results, but the process to get there was, damn, this team is pesky. And I think the Titans are in that same kind of vein again, I'm not telling you, I think the bears are going to lose. I don't. I think they win this game. But when I look at the point spread, four and a half points now down to three and a half, I'm sorry. What have you done to earn laying north of a field goal with a rookie quarterback making his debut against anybody? That's the defense. It's 100% the defense. I'd just be very careful that the NFL is not built on blowouts. It's built on field goals. Oh, 100%. No, I think what it is to and it has to show up. It's the one list. The offense, not to say I'm willing to sit here and say that you shouldn't be productive, but we can give time to the offense. You can have a 250 passing yard day, 80 yards on the ground and go, all right, not the best day, not the worst day. The defense, there's no time. The defense, you got to hit the ground running. You have to get after. Gervon Dexter, I need to see you being the three technique of the future because that's what you are being built at. I need you. I need to see you pushing the pocket, forcing the center into Will Levis's lap. So he has to choose whether he's going to the left for either Austin Booker or maybe the Marcus Walker if he actually ends up playing in the game. He's on the injury report is limited right now with a groin or he's running into the lap of Montez Sweat, who by the way, is an absolute dog on the other side. He's your bet. I don't care what anyone says, Bill, any other player on that defense, you can have your favorite. He's the best player on the defense right now. He's going to put pressure on Will Levis. He's going to get to the quarterback, but it helps if he's not getting double teamed and chipped off the edge. Because guess what, Khalil Mack is still really freaking good, but he's a lot better on the Chargers because he's got a Bosa on the other side of him. There was no Bosa on the other side of him here. And so we spent weeks going, well, Khalil Mack really didn't show up here. Yeah, it's hard to play football when you're getting triple teamed on one side. Montez Sweat is going to get after it, but you need your bond Dexter to hit the ground running. You need Tyree Stevenson may be the second most important player on the field outside of Kayla Williams because Jalen Johnson is going to be on one side. He's going to be guarding either Tyler Border, D-Hop, depending on who plays and they're going to go, nope, we're looking at you all game because you gave up nine touchdowns last season, great second half of the year, but nine touchdowns, a lot of touchdowns. Let's see if you can replicate what you did at the second half of the season to start this season here. Yeah, I think it's going to be a lot of those guys like most of my questions, it's funny because we talk about the expectations for the offense and what they've built and what we want them to look like and what we want to see. On the offense, my biggest question is going to be the offensive line. And it's kind of the same deal on defense. Like, if I've got one question left on this pair's team that I need answered week one, week two, week three, it is what do your trenches look like? It's the only spot on the field where I think you still have holes. So I don't want to see Caleb getting sped up in situations where he doesn't need to be because somebody on that line, whoever it is, is allowing pressures or hurries or whatever. And similarly, it can't be Montez sweat and nobody and just hoping for coverage sex. But that is to your point where Tyrek Stevenson and guys like Terrell Smith become really important in needing to cover because Jalen Johnson, you know, will do his job. Jaquan Brisker's got to show us a little more, Tyler Gordon's got to show us a little more. It's on everybody else to pick up the slack. This defense is really good. You have elite players, two of them on it, Jalen and Montez sweat. Other guys have to be complimentary. And that's really, if this defense is going to continue to be top 10, that's what it has to happen. Yeah. You got three to four pieces of my mind. My biggest question is the depth right there, right? If you lose one of these guys during the game, if you lose one, like you're quickly at Austin Booker, guys. I love Austin Booker. Hey, that might not be a bad one. I love Austin Booker. Me and you were probably the only two people in the world that were like, you're drafting a punter over Austin Booker. What are we doing? I was, I was pissed and then they go back and get them. I was like, all right. Here we go. All right. I'm back in. But to me, like that's not a position you want to put the rookie in. The best spot that you have them in right now is you've got to Marcus Walker ahead of them. You've got Montez sweat ahead of them. He can figure it out. He can learn as time goes on. You don't want to put him in a spot where it's back against the wall. I think he can thrive in it. I think he's that kind of player, but you don't want to put that guy in that spot where it's back up against the wall, figure out how to play or we lose this game because we're not getting pressure. Now, what's interesting to Marcus Walker popped up on the injury report yesterday already. So we may see a lot of Austin Booker, which honestly, dude, I'm excited about because I love him as a player and I think he can be a difference maker opposite Montez sweat. I don't care that he was drafted in the fifth round. I watched him at Kansas. I watched him at the senior bowl. You know, he was lined up against the senior bowl, Jordan Morgan, who the Packers selected in the first round to be their offensive tackle of the future. You know, who was getting absolutely bullied by Austin Booker at the senior level. Jordan Morgan was on his back and Kate by like, I really like Austin Booker. I hope we see a lot of him on something. He's such a natural player. He's such a. He gets it. And it's so crazy because to me, Austin Booker is like a bumblebee. It doesn't make sense. He's like how bumblebee shouldn't be able to fly. Austin Booker is 240 pounds, baby. All right. Like I think I think 240 is you getting that kind of mind stretch. He's six feet tall. He's old legs, like nothing about him makes sense. And then you watch him play and he's he's not just maneuvering around guys, right? Like I think Chase Young's skill set. He has the power, but a lot of it is his speed. Yeah. Austin Booker's going through large men, like pushing them out of the way to get to the spot he wants to get to in a way that we saw Khalil Mack do in a way that we see Montes sweat do with the long arm. And these are natural moves here. I remember we talked to Thayer on on the Bears podcast about this and he was like, that's spin move that he has. Like no one's ever taught him. He just like learned it one day and realized it works for him. The long arm that he has, nobody sat there and was like, this is a move that you should do. He just naturally has that. Now he can get his game refined. Like I am, I hope we see a ton of Austin Booker, especially with the youth you have at the tackle position of it. Yeah. And what it tells me too is the guy watches a ton of football, studies ton of football, figures out how to do things on his own. And like Montes sweat, I think was the one who said the other day. He's beyond where a rookie should be. He's adding moves to his arsenal because look, you can mall guys in the preseason and you're going up against threes. You can run right through them. That's great. But when you're playing against ones, which will happen on Sunday, if he gets in the game, you got to have more. And Montes sweat was saying he's already adding to the arsenal. He's got a variation of pass rush moves. I'm excited to watch him. And like nobody wants to be happy that any players on the injury report, the Marcus Walker being on the injury report, obviously is not great for the Bears, but it is an opportunity and I think Austin Booker's poised to take it. I think what sucks more about the walk being on the injury report is your lack of depth and defense of faculty. He could play that inside and outside position. And that that to me is what sucks more because I think to me, Austin Booker was poised to try. When you go out and you're trying to get Matthew Judah, when you go out and you're scouring the NFL for that other edge rusher, that can be a cheap edge rusher. When you're looking right, they have remained in contact with unique and got away, which I don't know where he's going to end up at this point. But like, or if he's going to play this year, like I have no idea or answers on any of this, but you were scouring, you were keeping in contact with unique and got what that tells you that you feel you have a problem over there. So I think Austin Booker was going to get opportunity to try and win that job anyways. The season went on where the Bears are hurt on Sunday defensively, though, is you saw a step forward from a Javan Dexter. You didn't see that step from Zach Pickens. And now Zach Pickens is hurt. Zach Pickens is getting man-handled by backup centers in the Hall of Fame game. Number three centers in the Hall of Fame game, like Zach Pickens did not have a good training camp. He did not have a good preseason. You didn't see that step you wanted to see from him. I wanted to see more from him because I was like, okay, Javan's two, you're three, you're supposed to be an impact player in this league. And we're not seeing that that you lose that depth at that defensive tackle room on the inside. And that's what hurts the Bears most on Sunday with if the Marcus Walker isn't able to go. Yeah, again, it's kind of the reason that I don't buy the interior of the defensive line as being some great unit. And it's kind of the reason I really think this is going to be a very close, very competitive, try to escape with a win, not necessarily we're going to cover a spread and put a big number on somebody. No, I think this is going to be a tight game because, look, I mentioned Tennessee's offensive line is really good. With two really good tackles, a good interior, they want them on the ball. They have a two-headed monster in the running back room, Tony Pollard, Taijay Spears. That's the way they're going to approach this. And then when opportunity comes, they'll hit you with play action with Will Levis and let him bomb it. Yeah. And I think you put yourself in kind of an iffy situation match up wise because your defensive line depth is rough. But if Javan Dexter can keep showing us something, and if Austin Booker and certain opportunities can step up and Montez Sweat can be Montez Sweat, you'll get on to this easy. Oh, yeah. I think here's the thing too. When you look at what it comes down to, Maddie Rafluis, you can't do what you did last year. Again, this is another like, I love what I've seen through training camp. I love what I saw in the preseason. Is this your number one thing that you need to see is like Maddie Rafluis can't blow games late? Well, not even that. You got to be able to adjust. We spent a half a season going, we can't get pressure with four and he won't send a blitz. That's going to be different. Like if the preseason is any indication, they're going to blitz their ass off. And that's, and that's what my hope is be able to, I know you want to get pressure with four. This is your one. I would love to see you get pressure with four because if you get pressure with four, that's when this defense is at its best. But if you can't get pressure with four, I don't need to see three quarters of you not getting pressure with four and then you blitz in the fourth quarter. Make the adjustments quicker. Make the adjustments on the fly. I need to see that from both coaching staffs because even on the other side with Shane Waldron, Shane Waldron was a guy that was very committed to just keeping that ball in the air, whether it was ugly or not, sometimes you got to put it on the ground. I just want to see this bearish team make those adjustments quicker this season. Last season, it's not even like it was slow in a game. It was slow for a half a season and all of a sudden it took the players going, yeah, we love the blitz more. But to that point, rather, it's like later in the year, Iber Flus did start blitzing a lot. Yeah. And once this defense got good, part of that was a result of they sent pressure way more often and had a ton of success on it. Pre-season looked no different. They blitzed a ton as a unit in those games. I don't imagine that just because Eric Washington was calling plays pre-season, that's going to disappear with Matt Iber Flus calling plays in the regular season. No, I think they're going to blitz a lot. And if they don't, I'd be surprised and frankly, I'd be nervous because I think sending pressure in the right times, in the right spots from the right places is the key to this defense being top 10 again. Yeah. And sending pressure. Here's the thing, this is the best time for you to send pressure. It feels like the field is covered. Like who are you going to throw on in the belief is that maybe you can throw on Tyree Stevenson, Tyree Stevenson finished out second half of that season is one of the best DBs in the league. Tyler Gordon in the slot is really good and he will light you up if you throw a football down there. TJ Edwards has got the field covered, right? Like this feels like the team that you can say that we can blitz more because everything's going to be covered. And if we get pressure on the quarterback, we saw this last year. Maybe he's grown tremendously from this. You put pressure on Will Evans, he will give you the football. Yeah, he'll make mistakes. And you didn't even mention J'Kwan Brisker, who I think is quietly becoming one of the best in the box safeties in the league. 100%. So the whole unit, like as a backfield on the defensive side, I have no issue saying I'm totally faithful in them to get the job done. Yeah. And that's where if I'm even flus and if I'm the Bears, I want to blitz, even if I'm simulating pressures, just getting Will Evans's face mask and make him make mistakes. No, 100%. That's where I'm at with it. And I'll say this. If you talked about the one thing that I need to see from flus, don't be just good enough. That's why we lost so many games last season. When played Detroit, we're up 31 to 10, going into that fourth quarter, the Denver game was the horrible one. The Denver game as well, 28 to three going into that like you're dominating. And then you go, all right, we're not going to do it like we can, we can not like Justin Fields with the field that he didn't get the job done ended again. Justin Fields in that Detroit game in the second half through one pass. You said we're taking the foot off the gas, run the football, run the clock out. Well, you didn't run the clock out. Do you take anything out of the, I was reading this the other day. This kind of thought process that apparently, Iber Flus had no faith in Justin Fields in those situations to make a positive play. He was too concerned about fields either turning the ball over or taking a bad sack, threw it up the situation, because I thought about that Detroit game when I read it. And the fact that he wasn't used in the passing game at all in the second half. And I just wonder a little bit if that was the fear settling in for Iber Flus could be, it feels like they don't have that anymore where it's like, look, we've done a good job with God out to a big lead, do not fuck this up. Yeah. Like you, you cannot make the mistake that causes this to go sideways. So they play it too safe. I don't think that's going to be a problem. They all trust Caleb. Yeah. I think that there is a case to be made on that 100% because when you watch how they went about the second half of the season, I mean, like, all right, I'm sorry, the second half of games, when the bears were up, they literally were just like, just packing it every time. Yeah. It was like, like throw the football, like, why are we? But I think and it felt like turtling, but now it's, it feels more like they were way too scared. The quarterback was going to make a bad decision and send this thing in. And I think that, you know, as much as we can dislike Justin and we don't have to rehash any of that conversation because we're in a much better place now, but like that kills a quarterback. Oh, absolutely. That will destroy a quarterback. I'm not making the point that it was the right thing to do. I'm just making the point that that feels like that's what they were doing. 100%. And I think that the whole season, I was just like, what are you scared of? Are you scared of scoring too many points? Are you scared of like this, this massive turnover when you're up in huge moments, which then you put them in a position and I think that that's why I say this season, you can't do it scared because what you do is with Caleb Williams, you will put Caleb Williams in Superman positions and maybe he is Superman. I hope he's Superman. I hope that he can be Tom Brady with two minutes to go. I hope that he's Aaron Rodgers with 30 seconds on the clock and everyone on the other sideline goes, we left him 30 seconds. Like you, you, you remember those moments where it would be like coaches would be actively going, don't score a touchdown because if you score a touchdown, we're only up four and you give the ball back to Aaron Rodgers with a minute, you have to go down at the one. Like I remember those moments vividly and then Aaron Rodgers would go down and he'd rip your heart out. And I hope that Caleb is that guy, but at the end of the day, that's not the position you want to put your players in offensive or defensive and loose did that probably six games. And I mean, the problem is those, you can't cause those situations. So if you go up big on Tennessee and I don't think that you will, but if you do just Sunday goes like a dream and you're up 21 nothing, leave your foot on the gas because you get very few opportunities to blow people out. I think Colcometh just said it. There might be two, three games a year where you just run somebody off the field. The rest of them, you're going to be playing within about three points. That's just the league. Like that's you bring up Aaron Rodgers back that though, don't score because he's got too much time. I got bad news. That's the NFL. That was last night and it was chiefs and Ravens that at the end of the game, you give Lamar a minute and 48 seconds, he's going to work his way down the field, didn't finish the drive. That's just what the NFL is. And as much as you're saying, I hope Caleb Williams is that guy. I will say Caleb Williams is that guy. There's going to be six or seven of those guys in the league at any given moment. Like right now, you could argue Jared Goff is one of those guys, Jordan Love is one of those guys. Like it's not just Rodgers and Brady and my homes and Allen and whoever. There's a group of guys who you're like, okay, if they get the ball and there's a minute and a half left, we got a shot. Caleb's going to be one of them, he will. And you're going to be in those situations. It just, it can't be a result of the head coach that you are. Yeah, if you're up 21, nothing in a game, you can't let it get to 21, 17 and needing them or God forbid you blow it fully 21, 24 and you need the moment. Yeah. You just got to blow them out when you get there. That's the thing. And I think that's the one part with defensive coaches that kind of sucks. They rely on their defense and it's not to say you shouldn't. I think the Bears have a defense you can do that with, but they will go if it's, if it gets to 21, 17, we're still good. Guess what? And you weren't good when it got to 31, 27. And all of a sudden you're like, we got to get a stop here, boys. You weren't good. Tremaine Edmonds is trying to make a tackle. He's fallen the wrong way and the drive continues like, and honestly, like I don't care how good your defense is. Kansas City, great example. Last night the chief's defense, one of the best in football, but when you start getting in the range of 65, 70, 75 snaps, I don't care how good you are. The end of that game, they were gas. They were gassed to the point that Andy Reid's taken a time out to stop things and get guys some water, hydrate them, get them a break. If you get, if you're out big, like 10 point lead for Kansas City and their offense comes off the field, they don't score, got some questions about what went down on those drives. Defense comes back on the field and they are out of gas and struggling to just a bad position to put the team in. Yeah. And to me that goes like Andy Reid last night, I would almost say he, and you can rarely say this about Andy Reid, but that he almost put the team in a bad position because of his unwillingness to hand the football off almost at all. One, I thought one, I thought one thing you got to eat some clock though. One thing he did that was horrible was punt from the 40 yard line late in the game. Yeah. Give them the ball back to Baltimore. It ended up as a touch back. They get the ball in 20. I thought that was a terrible decision. And it's, look, that's Andy Reid. He's best coach in football. A hundred percent. John Harbaugh made some horrendous decisions last night. He does every year. He's one of the best coaches in football. A hundred percent. These guys are going to make bad decisions. It's just Hebrew flu's made some last year that were historic loss bad. They all felt fearful. Yeah. I think you bring it up. That article was great. They all felt fear. You can't be afraid. Yeah. You've got a quarterback, man. And you have an opportunity with this team to win the ball on offense, to get the, to win the game on offense rather, get the critical first down, run the clock out, choke somebody out. Everything's got to be done defensively. You got to take advantage of the quarterback that you have in the offense that you have and win games on that side of the ball. Yeah. I literally got the last season. I was like, he knows it's okay to win like 41 to 10, right? Like, do we know? Are we okay with that? Like, do we? I don't know that that's fair because I don't know that they could last year. Like, I don't think they were good enough to do that. There were, there were so many, and I'm not saying like every game is going to be 41 to 10, right? But there were games with the Bears were literally railroading a team and the team was shell shot. But was the Cleveland game the what's up years game? I think it was the what's up years game for the second half. And in the second half, you're like, no, because we won the game. That was watching. Yeah, I think I was Washington and we're sitting there going, well, what was up years? Yeah, you didn't have anything up yours. Like, we needed to see something. I got some tricks up. I got some tricks up. That was the half time line. I got some tricks up of my sleeve. And then cut scene, no tricks, even flus, where were the tricks? What's up yours? What's up yours? Yeah. All right. But it was cool. They won the game. They won that game. But like you just, you can't live like that. When you live like, I think we saw Philly live like that ever season. Too much pressure on the defense is not a good thing no matter how good your defense is. Yeah. Yeah. And listen, if you're, if you're the 85 Bears, I put on a pressure in the world on them. You got to show them you the 85 Bears first. Yeah. You got to show them the 20, 18, they're first. Maybe if you had an offense, you would have won an 86. That was an unfair shot right there. I'm just, I'm just making the point. Teams that are built defense first, Seattle only one, one, like teams that are built on defense, it's hard to make a dynasty. There's a reason the Patriots were built through the quarterback and built the dynasty. There's a reason the Chiefs are the dynasty now. It's offense first. Can we count Seattle winning one? No, I don't want to be careful. I love, have you seen this now? Nobody takes the blame for calling the, the past. Nobody take none of the coaches say they call the past. So either Russell Wilson said, I'm passing the football on this final play and I'm going to turn myself into a God or somebody's like, yeah, I'm going to tell you right now. They're all lying. This is classic. I'm Spartacus, like they're all, they, they either all take responsibility or nobody does. But I got to tell you, if you had the chance to either take responsibility for something and admit you're a complete dumbass or everybody band together and nobody admit who did it, it's option to. I love, I love that we've gotten to the point where like beast mode like is, is more open about it. Now he's just like, but who made the decision? Who made the call? I need to know now. That's such a great thing to me. Before we get out of here, Shay, hit that like button, subscribe to the page by the way, lead a fire survey. I know what to do. I don't know if you saw this, but you being somebody who has been very high on Caleb Williams the entire time, I think the only issue you had with Caleb Williams was his head coach in college, basically Lincoln Riley, babying him the entire time. And what you saw in preseason, were you impressed by this young man? Yeah, definitely. And I thought bell check was being a little unfair. That's where I was going. Bill Belichick, who is well, he was 10 or 20. He was the greatest coach of all time. We thought about it. Greatest coach? What did he have? Four drops. He had four drops in the first game. Okay. So you were 14 and 20 passing. I think that's accurate enough. And the highlight plays like bell check all the highlights. They weren't that good buddy. If Brady ever did any of the shit that Caleb was doing, you would have had a straight throw. Like, and that's not a shot. It's Tom Brady. It's just he, sorry, Tom couldn't roll out to his left and juke out a defender and then launch it 60 yards downfield, the Roma doing say on the run. It just wasn't happening. That's exactly where I was going. I saw Brady. I saw Bella check this morning and I'm like, I just want, I wonder if he's literally doing this because Caleb is gotten, it seems very close with Tom Brady and he's like, I can't raise anything. This guy's going on right now. I don't know why Bella check does anything he does. I don't know why he drafted Mac Jones. I don't know why he had Mac, watched Mac Jones almost win a rookie of the year and then hired a defensive coordinator who was bad to be his offensive coordinator for God knows what reason. I don't know why last year he traded up in the draft for a kicker who this off season was cut. I don't know why he does a lot of what he does. Maybe he was just bad at his job at the end and maybe he's not a great personnel evaluator if you don't believe me, check his draft classes. Maybe he wasn't great at this and he's not the voice we really need to care about when it comes to evaluating Caleb Williams. I think we're good. I feel like Bella check has been the guy who's turned the high round picks have been terrible. He's been Ryan Pace with the top level. Okay, but did he turn Julian Edelman into something or did Tom Brady turn Julian Edelman into something? I would agree with you, but you got to go find Julian, you got to see something in Julian to put him with Brady. It's the seventh round. They were picking a Mac quarterback out of Kent State. It was a throwaway pick and Brady goes, I like this cat. He's squirrely. Super Bowl MVP loading. I'm not going to lie to you. That's a great definition of a lot of the guys that turned into something there. White squirrely. White squirrely. You know what they never did? They never drafted Xavier Worthy. How's that going for the Chiefs? I rest my case to Brady was begging for first round receivers. I'm just making the point. I don't need to hear from Belichick and Caleb Williams. Bro, if we live in a world where the bills, I said this on the breeze this morning. The bills are like the rabbit that gets the gun and then goes, this ain't for me. You need to have this so that you can kill me later. If Xavier Worthy becomes a great wide receiver and it's the reason that the bills don't win in the playoffs again, do you understand? It's not just Xavier Worthy. The bills are responsible for giving Kansas City the draft picks that became Xavier Worthy and Patrick Mahomes. Everybody in the NFL should look just stare up below and never stop staring at them. They've ruined the league. You know what they are? And this is for the real. They've ruined the league. This is for the real nerds out there. They're the guy in your Dynasty Fantasy league that every offseason is trading like a number one wide receiver for a future third round pick and everybody's ripping their fucking hair out. Get out of the league. That's what the bills are. They gave the Chiefs Patrick Mahomes and now Xavier Worthy. Great. I've always said this. You've killed football. I've always said this. I can live with Pat Mahomes because nobody was on Pat Mahomes except the Chiefs. I can live with that. With the Bears, the pick I can't live with is not Patrick Mahomes. It's the show of Watson. That was a layup. Now, as time is going on, right? It's not that bad. That'd be a weird situation. Yeah. You still be in now. You're still planting your flag there. Well, I'm not planting my flag on anything with Sean Watson. The show of Watson. The flag planting is what's gotten him into this problem here. I was going to make the same deal. But at the end of the day, you saw one of those guys go out there and be one of the best quarterbacks in football and you went, "Mr. Biscuit, that's the guy I need." I can live with Sean or with Pat Mahomes for most moves that were made. It looks bad on the bills. You watched these guys turn a guy who nobody thought was going to be amazing into entire recovery kill into what is now one of the best wide receivers in football. And then you said, "Knowing, for a well, they're probably going to go get the fastest guy in the draft because he's fallen further than people expected. They're probably going to get the guy who's got really good hands, who's good off of the line, who can replicate some of what Tyree Kill did because you know what we didn't have for the last two seasons? Speed off of the line. They're probably going to go get this guy. But man, we could use those picks. Yeah. Damn. Boy, they could get Xavier Worthy, but we could get a key on Coleman. Let's check in on Bills Camp, drop pass, drop pass, drop pass. They've ruined the league. The bills have ruined the league. And you know what? I think the bills are going to be good this year, but I also think they've ruined the league. I think that they gave the Chiefs a three-peat though. And he didn't even get a ton of targets. They're the team that every other owner in the NFL is looking at, like, "Dude, you've got to get your head together. You've got to start after that." They ruined all the sympathy that the 90s Bills had for losing so many Super Bowls in a row. They ruined it. I feel bad about it. And now it's like, I don't. Maybe this is just who the Bills are. They're supposed to screw things up and fall short. I appreciate Johnson and Ann. Hit the like button. Subscribe to the page. We got Friday football tonight. Before we get out of here. One, what is your pick for tonight's game and two, what's your final score for the Bears game? Eagles laying two tonight. I like the Birds. Packers, I'm not as high on as everybody else. This is a weird neutral site. Yeah. Fucking kind of game. I'll go with the Eagles. Not going to get any tweets out of Brazil, either. Final score for Bears 2017 win. 2017 win. Okay. Okay. No scoring game. Dogfight. I like it. Yeah, it's going to be a battle. I'm kind of right. I think I had mine 24-21. So same area. Same way. You had a 21. You had three touchdowns. I think Swift ends up with two of them passing. One rushing. I think you get one, two DJ more after everything on Hard Knocks, and I think you get a field roll out of it. Cairo Santos. Give me a 48-yarder. I still don't trust them anything over 50, it's just me personally. Maybe they don't either. We saw a lot of weird puns last year, too. We're going to get a Caleb Hail Mary from the 41-yard line. Oh, we're going to get freaking. That's why they drafted Tori Taylor in the fourth round. Anything over 50. Oh my God. 50, we got a point. Okay. I just got to tell you. And then we'll get out of here. But if I see the Bears punt with Tori Taylor in some coffin corner situation from plus territory, my television will be lucky if it survives. That's all I got. My television will be lucky if my cell phone is not sticking out of it. You're going to finish the game out on the tablet. Yeah, dude. I'd be so angry. Don't do it. Tori Taylor from the Bears on 48 like like him all you want. But if you'd like bears sitting on the Titans 45, here comes Tori Taylor, a bullet is going through my TV. Don't do it. Don't like him all you want to keep those it keep those puns from the 35 where you can let him show up the boomstick or whatever. But the what? Excuse me. It's leg, man. It's leg. I didn't know. One of his two, not three legs they have that down under appreciate you guys for tuning in and showing love. Hit that like button. Subscribe to the page. Leave that five star view. Y'all know what to do. Forshay, Norling appreciate you coming through on a Friday. Y'all stay safe out there. Chicago. That's exactly it. Fred. One. Love. Peace. [MUSIC] [MUSIC]