Bears After the Bye: Catching Up With Kevin Fishbain

Bears After the Bye: Catching Up With Kevin Fishbain

Coming up on Hogan John’s out of the by-week and into Commander Week, Kevin Fishbane is gonna join us and we’re going to talk playoffs. The NFC is super interesting right now. We’re going to figure out where the Bears stand. Hogan John starts right now. [Music] What’s up? Welcome in. Hope everybody enjoyed their by weekend. We are on to Commander Week and a lot of different storylines here with this one going back to last season. Johny, what’s going on? Good morning, boys. Kevin Fishbane is here everybody. Hello, Kevin. Wow. Good morning. Let’s go. I’m I’m looking at your background, John Z, and I just I don’t know. I kind of miss when he just sat at his dining room table and had nothing behind him. Yeah. I don’t know what’s the What’s that first press pass from? Let’s see. Oh, we’re gonna make a move. It is the Packers game last year. Oh, yeah. Then we have the 2024 season for the Bears. The annual meeting from gosh, this has to be 2018 Pro Bowl media week 2019. We got a lot of stuff here. little hodgepodge of uh of events there. I’ve saved all the ones with my uh picture on it. Oh, okay. If I did the other ones, there would be too many. My wife wouldn’t like that. So, all the ones with my picture on it have been saved. Kevin, do you save your press passes? You know, I do. I’ve got a bulletin board up conveniently not in my backdrop. And the problem is the NFL since they went since they upped the security now every credential is the same. So no matter what Yeah, the lanyard’s different. I guess the color is different for the team, but like you would go and like each team would have their own unique uh credential, which was kind of cool. And now they’re pretty much all the same. Look at this old one. Can you see it? Oh yeah. Which which 100 years 100 years Arizona Builtmore, Adam John, Chicago Sun Times. I remember racing into the ballroom because we had to have a press conference about the Bears and Packers opening the uh 2019 season. I do not remember that. Maybe Pat Finley went for me. I remember that. And then if I recall, the Bears forced a three and out on the opening drive, but I don’t remember anything else that happened after that. Well, I remember they scored three points and Adrien Amos picked off Mitch Trabiscy. That’s what I remember. Oh, that I remember the game. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It was not a It was not a good one. Uh well, welcome in. Week five is almost in the books. Got Chiefs and Jaguars tonight, but um starting to This is a long by week because we’re still a week away from the Bears game against the Commanders because they’re playing on Monday night uh as well. But uh a couple things we want to talk about uh coming out of this buy. Watched a lot of football yesterday. And Kevin, I’ll start with you on on this. By the way, please subscribe to all of our social channels. They’re all out there. Become a diehard. Got Hogan John’s Twitter accounts back. K Fishbane for him on Twitter and uh the breaking in pod where I don’t know how you keep getting these guests, but um I’m at the point where I’m almost apologizing that we were one of the guests. I mean, that’s that’s how good the guest list is getting. But we’re still number one. That’s true. You know, I’m not here to talk about standings, but I should thank the dedicated Hogan John’s listeners for, uh, listening to that episode, subscribing to Breaking with Kevin Fishbane, uh, which is on YouTube and all your audio platforms. There you go. Check it out. It’s a great It’s awesome. All right, so I was thinking about this last night. A great win for the New England Patriots on the road at Buffalo. Although the Bills did deserve to lose for those awful uniforms they decided to wear last night. I think that was really the the main problem. Um but Drake May, you know, if you haven’t watched a lot of Patriots football this year, and before last night, I had not watched, you know, a crazy ton. Statistically, in a lot of the advanced metrics, he’s been pretty high. and and to the point that I I I apologize because I kind of dis I made some comment last week I think on this show where I was like you know basically criticizing his average depth of target which is fair to a certain standpoint but it was it was diminishing too much what Drake May has actually been to this point this season and then last night was one of those to me and I always make this argument with Baker Mayfield a lot you know throw out the stats sometimes that was just a gritty performance he’s running for his life a a lot. He’s not He didn’t have a lot of protection and he threw a number of great passes along the sideline, especially rolling to his right and made plays when they needed to be made to beat obviously a really good team in the Bills who I think are still really good and could still be in the Super Bowl. They were my Super Bowl pick this year. But where I’m going with this and how it has to do with the Bears was I think that what happened last night with the New England Patriots and Drake May is exactly what the Bears need to happen next Monday night on Mon on Monday Night Football against the Commanders is it was just like an important kind of coming out party for a young quarterback. Same draft class as Caleb Williams. You throw in Caleb will also be playing Jaden Daniels added storyline. So even kind of more important on a big road stage. Last night was Sunday Night Football for the Patriots. This will be Monday Night Football for the Bears. And also beyond just the quarterback storylines, I think everybody saw last night a team that’s buying into a new head coach and Mike Vrabel. And I think the Bears are doing that with Ben Johnson. But another opportunity on Monday Night Football coming up next week. So, I just Kevin, do all those story lines kind of make sense? As I’m watching that game last night, I’m just like, this is exactly what the Bears need to do next week. Well, I can tell you those story lines would are much more amanable to a Bears fan than the other story lines you’re going to hear about all week heading into Bears at Washington. But it’s a great point, Hogan. I think you heard afterwards like the whole the the the phrase statement win. Like it was a statement to go into. It’s funny to talk about it in these terms after what the Patriots did to the Bills for about 15 years. But for the New England Patriots to go into Buffalo on Sunday night and win in that fashion, it’s a statement. It’s a statement for Vrabel. It’s a statement for Drake May, Will Campbell, Stefon Diggs had a incredible game. Um, the Roandre Stevenson narrative is so fascinating to me about a guy just has these fumble issues and comes out of the game, gets a talking from his head coach, comes back in, makes a big play late. But you’re right, those plays when Drake May was rolling right, you’re just thinking, “All right, he’s going to either get sacked or throw it away.” And then somehow he’s able to find somebody. Uh, he’s just he he seemed cool, calm, collected. Um, I think the Baker uh comparison is really apt. that that just sky is just he was just nails in the fourth quarter. So that’s a that that’s right. It’s a big win on their stage and but John before you I was thinking about this watching this game because I I I I feel for Bears season ticket holders a lot because of what they’ve had to go through over the years. Imagine if you’re a Buffalo Bills fan and you get tickets to that game last night and you’re thinking, “Oh, Sunday Night Football. It’s a beautiful October night. Our team’s going to the Super Bowl and we’re gonna beat our division rival who kicked our butts for a decade and this is going to be so much. We’re we’re eight point favorites. This is going to be fun and then that’s what happens. Well, that’s why it’s so meaningful from the the Patriots side, from the young quarterback developing side. That’s the overlapping story here with with the Bears, right? You want your young quarterback to play well on the premier stage of of football against one of the best quarterbacks in the league. Look, I Jayen Daniels isn’t playing up to what Josh Allen is right now. He’s having like he’s been hurt. The second season isn’t off to a fast start like his like his first season was. But at the same time, like you’re on a national stage with everyone watching, everyone overanalyzing coming into the game and everyone going to overanalyze after the game. The Bears would love to have their quarterback talked about like like Drake May is right now. Just just search his name on X. Like everything is so glowingly positive. Can I just read you some stats from from last night? This is from Albert Brerier. Patriots QB Drake me Drake May was 13 of 14 for 184 yards in the second half and six of six for 90 yards in the fourth quarter. Ceilings always been skyhigh for him. Tonight was a glimpse of what might look like if he reaches it. This is from Benolan, friend of the show. Drake May wakes up today ranked fifth in passing yards 252 per game, second in completion percentage, 73.9, fifth in yards per attempt at 8.24, sixth in passer rating, 107.8, and 14th in TD interception ratio of 7 72. So yeah. Well, I mean, I was say to to go off that John’s to make the Caleb comparison, you know, Drake May had the what they had the loss to the Raiders in the opener and then like there was obvious question marks. Adam Hogue destroyed Drake May apparently last week on this show, but if you’re going to go back to comparisons with Caleb Williams, rough start to the season. and to return to the Monday Night Football stage after what happened against Minnesota um and have this opportunity coming off a great fourth quarter in Las Vegas, you know, and and great final drive. You could see that those comparisons of being able to say, “Hey, this is who I really am, and now everybody in the country gets to see it against a really good team on the road.” Yeah. And and look, there’s there’s some obvious differences. I mean, one is I mean, Caleb’s completion percentage hasn’t been anywhere near what Drake’s has been. I think probably though you look at some of the the difficulty of some of the throws. I think you could probably look at the film and say Caleb’s completed more of those. Um but I I got to say last night I mean Drake put some incredible passes along the sideline and then the whole shot that set up the the the game-winning field goal too. So, um, it just I think, you know, it shifting this more to the Bears conversation among the many storylines we’ll probably continue to talk about all week. I mean, again, it’s another homecoming for Caleb Williams. Uh, and last year’s didn’t go the way anybody wanted, you’re going to have the Tyreek Stevenson storyline, and he’s been playing way better. I mean, he’s had the last couple weeks have probably been, you know, some of his best games as a Chicago Bear. So, if he can flip that narrative, uh, and get a little bit of a redemption. I mean, we I know we’re going to hear it from Ben Johnson and the coaches this week. We weren’t here last year. It, you know, we’re just focused on this game this year. And I get all that. I get why you have to address it like that as a coach. But I went on this rant a couple weeks ago, too. And I I feel the same way. You can’t you can’t overlook it too much though because for Tyreek Stevenson it is real. You know for Caleb Williams going back home it is real. For a lot of these players that lived it last year and lived that disaster that was and not only the disaster that was the end of the game but the following 10 weeks or nine weeks to add up to 10 losses in a row. You can’t you can’t tell me from a human nature standpoint that that doesn’t matter. So, I think to dismiss it completely would be a mistake, but it is kind of a tricky thing to navigate if you’re the Bears coaching staff this week when you weren’t here last year. Okay. One one final thought on Drake May’s performance last night. Sure. He was so good that the University of North Carolina got peer pressured into sharing a social media clip of of his success last night. And obviously, oh, did they finally do it? They they did it. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. How many layers of uh how do you think our old friend Brandon Faber’s conversation went with uh Bill Bich in terms of of getting that approved? Yeah. Uh Bill, we have to do this. Yes. I know there’s a bitterness towards the Patriots right now and there’s all these other, you know, they’re not letting scouts go there or what, whatever, but uh yeah, I mean, come on. Drake May, you got to celebrate this guy. He’s he’s he’s stupid not to. I mean, if you’re if you’re recruiting, you got to be like, “Hey, we he’s one of us. He’s a North Carolina guy. We we need to we need to promote this awesome performance.” So, he’s good. Anyway, back to to Monday Night Football. Part of me wants to believe that Ben Johnson once he saw this game on the Bears schedule fully embraced it. Like this is something in terms of culture building that you just have to get through. It’s like reliving your nightmare being asked the questions again and again about it. Like seeing the broadcast, you know, of it again. Like if I’m Ben Johnson, like I embrace this. I show it. I show it to the team this week is like some coaching motivation. Like this is how bad it is. This is unacceptable. We’re getting through this together. Like this is a culture defining week in a sense. Now, I’m I’m probably being, you know, too dramatic here, but just from a coaching perspective, like I would embrace this if I’m Ben Johnson. It’s something we have to get through together. Yeah. And I’m guessing he’s not to Hog’s point, like I could see him not going into it publicly because you don’t want to, again, you don’t want to publicly make it bigger than it is. Uh, and you don’t want to give Washington any reason to make it any bigger on their end. But you guys heard the players after the game in Las Vegas essentially say, “Yeah, Ben pointed out to us that we’re known for not winning games like this.” So, I do think if you if you take that privately, like I could see it coming up. And look, we’ve talked to Caleb about it before. To Tyreek Stevenson’s credit, he’s been he, you know, I thought he was fantastic talking to us over the last week because he’s had these two great games. Um, so it’s it’s a great opportunity to because the thing is is like they have to know like what especially because Monday Night Football that Hail Mary is going to be on the show and the pregame show throughout like all the time like you’re going to see it. Do you think they’ll show the uh handoff to Doug Kramer if if they’re going through every piece of the the catastrophe that that played out? Yeah, I’m sure Doug Kramer will get a little bit of a of a starring role, but Hog, you’re right. I think I think he’s got to address it with the team. I think he’s got to know that for a lot of those players, they’re going to want this one. Yeah. And and it’s going to be it’s going to be meaningful for them. And and like on the commander side, like what do they like they don’t have any of that kind of that’s why I don’t think it comes up publicly very much because if you’re the commanders, it really is just another game. Um, you do have to be careful with it though because if you make too big of a deal about what it means in terms of like flipping the culture and getting that redemption and then you lose, right? Then then then you then you don’t want it to be like, oh, we’re still stuck here in the mud. So I I But it but it would feel that way though, right? It would still like it would I Well, I think depending on how the game plays out, right? like, you know, if it’s another sort of slugging your way through the like that game last year was not pretty to watch offensively. So, if this one ends up being more of a, you know, game played into the 30s and both quarterbacks look good and you’re just on the wrong end of it, I don’t necessarily know that that would be, you know, an indictment of things not going in the right direction. Uh, the context obviously matters, but yeah, I guess my thinking on this is just I I I don’t think you make too big of a deal of it. You you sort of got me questioning like whether you said show it and I’m like, oh, I never even really thought about that and I’m kind I’m kind of debating that in my head right now if that’s a good or a bad idea. I I do I don’t know like I maybe I don’t know if NFL teams really do hype videos like college teams do but like you know Ben Johnson like show like a boxing match or something before one of the games. What did he show? UFC. UFC. Thank you. So lead into the uh the Dolphins uh joint practices. Yeah. Yeah. So I I do think NFL teams use different tactics to to motivate their players. But guys, just speaking of the locker room again, we all know that after that Washington game, like that’s when things really started to shift for that team, let’s not forget the commentary that came out of there, like Matt Eberloose not accepting responsibility for his role in it and players like Kevin Bard openly questioning some of his decision-m prehill mary coverage to the things they were doing in the secondary like not calling a timeout to gather gather everybody together. Like those were the things that were being discussed immediately after that game and then we then we know we started to cover it like things started to crumble. That was the first of what 10 losses in a row. Yeah. Yeah. It was 10 losses in a row. I’ll tell you what itself. If I’m uh if I’m Jonathan Ganon this morning, I’m going to talk more about this later on Bears. I am paying attention to every he was on Matt Ibra Flu’s coaching staff too. So they have a relationship like Flu should be calling Jonathan Ganon this morning and being like, “Hey, everything I did wrong last year after that Commanders game, do it different today. This is a very important moment for you in in Arizona right now. That’s a little off topic, but that game yesterday was sort of reminded me of the Bears situation.” By the way, Hog Hog, you can use this on your CHO show. This is a freebie. Matt Eberloose, he tells guys they have to secure the ball through the paint of the end zone. That’s his thing. You have to secure it through you until you get to like the painted letters. That That was always his thing. So, hey, man Ruthless got his win against Justin Fields this weekend. I’m glad he did. He did. All right. Um, I want to do this as we talk about where the Bears stand in the NFC North. Just watching a lot of football over the weekend on the by-week. We’ll kind of get to a conclusion of how realistic the playoffs might be. But I was going through the NFC teams, okay, with this question in mind. Well, really two questions. Like which teams can you definitive definitively say right now through five weeks, four games for the Bears that they are all right, they’re worse than these teams, you know what I mean? Like it like if if they were to play them in a playoff game, they’re probably not coming away with a win. Um and then the opposite, who are they definitely better than at this point? Like you’d look at them be like, “All right, they’re they’re at least definitely better than these teams.” So let’s start with the first one. Who are they definitely worse than? And I have three teams. I have the Detroit Lions, the Philadelphia Eagles, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I think you could probably make an argument for the 49ers, too. But I’ve watched a lot of the 49ers, and I’m not totally all in on their 4-1 record despite that impressive win over the Rams uh with a bunch of guys out the other night. We’ll find out later in the season because right now the Bears are scheduled to play the 49ers on Sunday Night Football. uh in late December. Anyone else you would add to that list in terms of teams that you’re like, “All right, these teams are definitely better than the Bears at this point.” Well, I think you got to include the Vikings in that conversation after what happened in week one, even though they’ve I mean, they’re still winning with Carson Wentz. Didn’t Carson Wentz get hurt? Did he come back with the Vikings? He kind of Yeah, he came back. But here’s why I didn’t go with the Vikings, John. It’s like the Bears outplayed them for three quarters. Like when that game was over, I wasn’t convinced the Vikings were better than the Bears. I might include the Rams in that conversation because I I think the Rams are just a very talented team on both really both sides of the ball. I don’t like the word definitely in this exercise because that’s the point of it because the point of is I think there’s like a cluster of teams in the middle that you could make an argument one way or the other but we got to let the rest of the season play out to to to really see how these teams sort out. Right. I mean I think you’re right with those three. I look I’ll I’ll go to that middle category like who would be a favorite if they played the Bears and then you’re going Philly, Washington, Detroit, Green Bay, Minnesota. If it was in Minnesota, Tampa, San Francisco, Seattle, LA, I think if the Bears went to Arizona, Arizona would be favored. Um, I don’t know now. Well, yeah, yesterday was was pretty bad. That NFC South is weird. I don’t know what to make of Carolina. There’s they’ve looked like the worst team in football half a season or one of the worst teams in football and that but yeah I mean it’s look you saw what happened to Philadelphia yesterday and that can I just throw this one at you guys though talk about the NFC that Tampa Seattle game would it be fun for the Bears to play in a game like that? Yeah, maybe Monday night. Maybe Monday night you get the flip of last year. Maybe like it’s just Caleb Jaden just going shot for shot. That’d be a lot of fun. But I was like I’m like watching that game and I’m like, man, what a fun game. Bears never get to play in games like this, but that could be coming. Yeah. Credit to Sam Darnold who’s uh who’s carried over a lot of the stuff from the Vikings last year and is having a a really good season which has surprised me a little bit. So, the teams that I would say are definitely that the Bears are definitely better than uh the Panthers, the Giants, the Cowboys, we have the evidence of that. The Bears beat them pretty solidly. Uh the Saints, good win for the Saints yesterday. They’re still awful. And then the new I don’t know I would have said this before yesterday, but watch I watched way too much of that Cardinals game. Kevin knows why. It was my lock of the week. um they’re out. The Cardinals are they’re they’re a disaster right now. They might need to fire their offensive coordinator. It’s just it’s not going well for them. So, I think I think the Bears are better than the Cardinals, too. So, that leaves these uh what do we got here? Eight teams including the Bears, which is sort of my point here. the 49ers, the Packers, the Seahawks, the Vikings, the Commanders, the Rams, although Johny put the Rams in the higher category, the Falcons, and the Bears. So, eight teams there for four playoff spots is essentially is how I would look at this. Like, let’s say the Lions, Eagles, and Bucks are in. You got these eight teams for four playoff spots. I like how you looked at this, Kev. How many of these teams would the Bears actually be favored against? Well, we know they’re a five-point underdog already to the Commanders this week. I’m not sure against any of these teams. I would say if you’re talking neutral field, maybe Atlanta just because Atlanta hasn’t shown a ton. Yeah. But that’s the thing. I mean, you go through those Yeah. I don’t see I don’t see how based on what we’ve seen from the Bears so far, you can say that they should be favored against any of those teams definitively. So, at two and two, I think the Bears have, this brings me back kind of full circle to the start of the show, gotten them to the point was how I was viewing the Patriots before last night’s game. Like, they’re they’re there. They’re they’re in the cluster of teams that could still make the playoffs, but I need to see more out of them before I’m gonna start to say, “Hey, look, they can beat these teams in this cluster.” I feel that now I feel that way about the Patriots after what they did last night against the Bills. And they have a you look ahead to the next month, they have a favorable schedule. They could they could very well put themselves in position to be in good shape going into November and December. Which brings me back to the Bears. If the Bears can get this game against the Commanders, they’re in a similar spot with the Saints coming up. Banged up Bengals who look terrible. Um the Ravens, I still view that as a hard game going on the road to Baltimore, but they’re now one and four and really. So, there’s some opportunity there if they can do what the Patriots did last night and get a tough win on the road. That’s kind of the whole point of this conversation. I think they’re in the playoff conversation. I think they need to show more before I’m going to be like, “Yeah, they can actually do this this year.” You’re talking about the type of performance from Kale Williams that not only goes viral, but completely like galvanizes your team into to believing what maybe they can accomplish together like a like Drake May delivered. That’s what we’re saying. That’s what we’re talking about. Well, and I think you saw that post game last night. I think you saw a Patriots team that clearly believes in their quarterback after what happened last night. That stretch though, Hogue, is cuz I think the is the game after the Bengals, the New York Giants at home. I I believe so. So, you look at Giants and Saints again, none of these are given. We all know that. We’ve covered this team long enough. Um, but Bengals, I’m sorry. It goes um I’m sorry. It goes Commanders, Saints, Ravens, Bengals, Bengals, Giants, then Giants, then at Vikings. The Bears will be favored against the Saints. They’ll be favored against the Giants. They might be favored in Cincinnati if that’s I think they will be at this point. I think they will be. And then so that’s right like so, but those wins are going to be important because you got to win those games if you’re trying to be a serious team. And that’s that’s where this money against the Commanders comes into play. Like what can you prove? You know, can you go on the road against a playoff team and a really good quarterback and beat them? Um I mean that’s the type of win that this team just they they haven’t they haven’t had those. You’re looking at two games here. I think specifically like we have to wrap up this conversation. It’s Washington and in Baltimore where you’re where if you’re the Bears, you want your quarterback to elevate not only his game, but everyone else’s game. you know, that razor of a boat type of performance where he’s able to to take his team to a different level, whether it’s on Monday night against Jayen Daniels or then later on the road against the Baltimore Ravens and Lamar Jackson, an MVP like every single year. Like that’s when you need your quarterback to not have three and outs. You need to have more than complimentary football. You you need that type of performance that you’re talking about in terms of Baker Mayfield going toe-to-toe with Sam Darnold where you have quarterbacks dueling it out. You need a Drake May like performance where he’s out playing Josh Allen on the road on prime time. Like that’s the type of performance you want to be talking about at least in these two two games if we’re going to wrap this this fivegame segment up because let’s face it, the Saints don’t have a quarterback. The Giants, Jackson Dart, I don’t know. And Joe Burrow is out in Cincinnati. So, if you want to bring this to the conversation about quarterbacks, you’re looking Jaden Daniels, Monday Night Football, and then two weeks from now on the road in Baltimore against Lamar Jackson. And Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry might combine for 500 rushing yards that day. So, Ca Caleb will have to put together like a seven touchdown performance. I don’t know. Something wrong. Derrick Henry’s on my fantasy team. There’s something wrong. I don’t know. I don’t know what’s happening, but fumbling the ball. Well, there was something wrong with Ashton Genty and then the Bears came to town. Great point. Although I didn’t think that was really Ashton Jenty’s fault. Um, all right. Couple more for you, Kev, before we get let you go. Uh, TJ Edward, speaking of the run defense, great segue. TJ Edwards, Kyler Gordon expected to return this week. Bears badly need them for multiple reasons, but how how much do you think that does their return will help fix what’s going on in the Bears run defense right now? I think okay I think Kyler Gordon might help more than TJ Edwards in a sense and it’s not I don’t want to take anything away from TJ Edwards I just think Noah Su’s played pretty well um so like but I mean that Kyler Gordon what I think one of the things that makes him so good is his run defense and the way that he can get guys you know is blitzing and tackles for loss. I think back to that one against Carolina he had uh a couple years ago. It’s great play, great TFL in that win. Uh so I just think that and Nick Mloud’s been fine from a coverage standpoint, but I think the upgrade you get there from run defense matters. And I also aren’t you guys still fascinated to see what Dennis Allen’s going to do with him? We haven’t seen it because he hasn’t played. Like this was supposed to be this ultimate chess piece for DA and we haven’t gotten to see it yet. So I’m fascinated to see that. I mean I I mean TJ were just huge. He’s a veteran. He’s just reliable. There were moments last year when the defense was falling apart and every week you could count on one player pretty much and that was TJ Edwards. Like he was the one guy that seemed to continue to make plays week after week. But I I just I think again I’m not sliding T.J. Edwards. I am just kind of want to give some flowers to Noah Su because I think he has played really well. I think actually I think both their returns are going to help immensely. To me it comes down to to tackling. They’re both very good tacklers. It’s as simple as that. Like they take the ball carrier to the ground. They’re they’re not dipping their heads. They’re not missing arm tackles. They are taking ball carriers to the ground. And like there is something that happened in that Ravens game with like it’s it’s Ruben Hippoly not playing like at all on defense. I think once you get TJ Edwards back, I think the Bears coaching staff is going to feel confident playing in their base defense again where you could have Su at your strong side linebacker, then you have Tmaine Edmonds and TJ Edwards out there where you could better combat some of these formations that these opposing offenses want to send at you, especially the Washington Commanders who, you know, who we all know want to run the football. All right, last one. sort of a guy who’s been forgotten about here in the first four weeks of the season because he’s been on injured reserve. Austin Booker could be eligible to um at least have his practice window opened up and come off of injured reserve. Bears need some type of spark in their pass rush or really just on their defensive line in general. What is your level of faith or confidence, however you want to put it, that Austin Booker could provide just that. I’m not I’m not setting the bar any higher than that, but just a spark to the pass rush whenever it is he returns because we don’t know if it’s going to be this week or if he still needs more time. I did see him in the locker room though last Tuesday before everybody left for the buy uh walking around. So, we’ll see. But what’s your level of of uh confidence that maybe Austin Booker here can provide some level of spark to the pass rush? Here’s some trivia for you guys. Who leads the Bears in sacks? Oh, that’s a good question. I don’t know. Uh, who is it? Dominique Robinson. Hog. Do you have a guess? I don’t even know if I have a guess. That’s so crazy. Um, these embarrassed. I didn’t know the answer to this until I Is it Javon Dexter? It’s a fiveway tie between Montes Sweat, Dio Dingbo, Dominique Robinson, Javon Dexter, and Tano Kapaso each have one sack. Nobody on the Bears has more than one sack. Oh my god. Through four games. At least those were all defensive linemen you named, right? I didn’t That’s true. That’s true. Okay. progress. It’s not like the year that uh Jaquan Brisker led the Bears in sacks. Correct. I bring that up because to your question, Hogue, how could he not provide something relative to what the Bears have shown? And I go back to Dennis Allen, who’s been phenomenal with these third down defenses and mixing things up and confusing quarterbacks. And now you get a a different type of edge rusher who we saw in the preseason. He’s built well for the spot. So, I don’t know how long it’s going to take for him to really get in a rhythm, but you just, you know, maybe it’s 10 snaps on Monday night. Maybe it’s 15 20 the next week, but yeah, it’s it it’d be hard for him to not provide a spark because that is what you’re getting right now from your pass rush. And I I like the idea that he’s going to have somebody else that he could work with that could just mix things up a little bit because it’s been uh yeah, those guys have not done a whole lot um as far as sack production goes because the the Bears have been pretty good on on third downs, right? Correct me if I’m wrong. Yeah, best in the league. Okay, so I’m not I’m remembering that correctly. Well, 29.3%. That’s actually outstanding. Um, I I think what I like most about Austin Booker returning to the lineup is that he’s just different than every other pass rusher they have where he is well, he’s smaller and he’s faster. He He’s not diode Angbo. He doesn’t have the same build as Montes Sweat because I feel like all the other defensive ends have a similar build, a similar physical makeup. Austin Booker, he’s thinner but he’s faster. And I think that type of juice, that type of energy, something just different from that pass rush physically from an athlete spam athlete standpoint should benefit the Bears at least a little bit. Kevin, appreciate your time this morning, especially because we took up way more than what people realized here on the show. Um, so thank you for your patience. And what’s your uh here we’ll leave you on this. What’s your a week away? What’s your initial gut feeling on the Spars Commanders game? My I’ll tell you my initial gut feeling. I think the line’s a little too high at five. Yeah, I think the line’s a little too high and one thing I’m a little worried about is Penn State coming off that terrible loss against UCLA. Now they play Northwestern at home on Saturday and I’m I’m I fear for my Wildcats that that that they are going to take it out on them after losing UCLA. So, I think Northwestern can play ugly in the first half, you know, keep it low scoring. U but might have to might have to rely on some trick plays to uh to pull off the upset in Happy Valley. Okay. I take back everything I said about being grateful for your time and patience. But I’m glad you got that in there. Big win for the Cats over Louisiana Monroe. Huge confidence builder. All right. Thanks, guys. See you, Kev. See, see if Kevin was doing things properly, he would go to the game at Penn State and then on his way to DC on Monday night. That’s close enough. You could pull that off. Yeah. Yeah. Sounds like a nice long weekend. Yeah. All right, we have to take our one time out of the show. We’ll come back with a a couple more thoughts to to close things out and uh which will include one of the greatest games I’ve ever seen in my life on Friday night. I think it needs to be I think it was that good it needs to be brought up. So, uh we will address that coming up next. But first, all right, Adam falls here. I think was 85 degrees. Oh, I think it’s coming today actually. Soon. I think like this afternoon it is actually arriving. Well, I don’t know if you were like me this weekend watching football, but I was sweaty, a little bit smelly on the sideline. I think I’m always like that. You know, getting hot, heated. Maybe you were in a big high school game, but you know the feeling. It’s game day. You’ve been working hard all week. Your lucky jersey, your lucky coaching search shirt might be smelling a little too lucky, but let’s not another coaching search. Come on. We’re all You’re just programmed. You’re just programmed. Yeah, we are. But let’s be honest, regular deodorant just doesn’t cut it after a long day. But there’s a real game changer out there. Mando deodorant plus sweat control. This isn’t just another cover up. Mando is one stick, two jobs. Powerful odor and sweat control. It actually stops odor before it even starts. No more masking, just freshness. Clinical strength sweat control. One swipe and you’re good to go. Deodorant re re-engineered to stop odor before it starts. How about that? So, get Mando starter pack. It’s perfect for new customers. It starts with a solid stick deodorant, cream tube deodorant. Two free products of your choice, like a mini body wash or deodorant wipes, plus free shipping. As a special offer for our listeners, new customers get 20% off sitewide with our exclusive code. Use code cho@ shopmando.com for 20% off sitewide and free shipping. That’s hop.com. Please support our show and tell them we sent you. Manuel’s got you covered with deodorant plus sweat control. Say goodbye to sweat stains and hello to longl lasting freshness. And our friends at Sunnyside Dispenser are here to elevate your football season. Sunnyside is always your home for judgment free shopping wherever you’re at in Illinois. Sunnyside has a location for you. Or you can just check them out at sunnyside.shop for bright buys every day, including 50% off your first three online purchases. Enter code hiccoo at checkout to qualify. Or if you’re a returning customer, you can use CHCO 50 exclusions apply. Sunnyside Dispensary Bright buys every day only for 21 plus or Illinois medical card holders. You know, Adam, we were talking about our our gut feelings or you have your gut feeling for this Washington Commander game. Kevin had his like my gut feeling on this Monday morning is that I think I think like maybe it’s just because I hope but I want to see some fireworks from Caleb Williams versus Jaden Daniels. Like I want to see that showcase match up come through for for our coverage, for this conversation, for what it could mean to to Chicago to have the Bears young quarterback deliver in another key moment. Like he delivered. Let’s not forget like he delivered on the road in Washington against that team. Like he wasn’t on the field for the Hail Mary, but before that like he delivered for the Bears. I think he does even better this time in his return home to Washington. Now, can he keep up with Jaden Daniels? I think he can, but I want to see a fireworks show. Like, that’s what my gut is telling me right now. Monday morning. Yeah. I mean, Jaden came back looking pretty good yesterday. They fell behind 10 nothing. Then the Chargers just I don’t even know. They just like stopped now. They got They’re really banged up, too. And they got injuries all over their offensive line. But, um, seems like everybody is at this point. Um, Commanders, Terry McLuren probably still out it seems like, but Debo’s getting a ton of share in that offense. And we don’t, we just don’t know what the Bears are going to be coming out of a buy yet. We have no evidence of, you know, what Ben Johnson’s like coming out of a by-week. I’m guessing he spent the week when he wasn’t at Wrigleyfield obsessing over ways to jump start the offense. Um, can I say something about that? Like I like that he was at Wrigleyfield. Good for him. Yeah, me too. I was kind of hoping there was a lot of stars came out at Wrigley last week. Um, we’ll see if they get more than one game this week at home. Way game one went. Yeah. Um, by the way, we should say don’t if CHO Cubs got you covered for all your Cubs coverage this week with the NLDS and it being Monday. Got game two tonight. Make sure you check out their watch along and their um postgame show as well. John, you’ve been missing out because Portillos has just been bringing in food, hanging out with the the Cubs crew. I saw the cake get delivered. Yeah, the cake. And but I managed to be here at the right time last week and I got a burger out of it. So that was fantastic. Underrated part of Portillo’s menu, everybody, if you’re listening. Like every tourist that comes to town is saying, “I got to get the hot dog. I got to get the Italian beef. You know, I would get the beef over the hot dog. Number one, there’s better hot dog places around the city. But the underrated item on that menu is actually the cheeseburger. It’s fantastic. So, I don’t know if I should say this out loud. That was my first ever portillos’s burger. Oh, dude. And I didn’t know that. And Tony Gil was saying the same thing. He was like, “How you never had a portillos burger?” I’m like, “It’s just not what I get there. I go there for beef and hot dogs usually and my son will probably order pasta. Yeah. But yeah, it was uh it was I agree. It was it was it was better than I thought it was going to be. It was really good. They make a very good Chicago chop salad as well. Yeah, the salad’s solid. All right, so before we get out of here, Friday night, um what did Notre Dame do, by the way? They had a lead on Julia Catholic in the fourth quarter, but Julia Catholic made a few more plays on the road to uh pull out the win. It’s tough. I don’t know why, but we haven’t played Julia Catholic or Notre Dame a ton. It feels like it’s the leveling. Yeah, I know. It’s very confusing. I’ll never understand it. Um, Caramel Montini Friday night was one of the craziest, most entertaining games I’ve ever seen. Um, unfortunately, we were on the wrong end of it at the end after uh going for two, going for the win, which we had to do as you should. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No second guessing that at all. Amazingly, there was still 27. We didn’t get it. Their their linebacker, I’m honestly not sure if it was their linebacker safety. insane tackle like the half yard line on the two-point conversion when we ran the play. It was a great play call. I thought it was a walk-in touchdown. Um and uh they great plays. Sometimes the other team makes plays. You got to give them credit. Um there’s still 27 seconds left on the clock. We actually got the onside kick and still had a chance and then there’s a holding penalty in there and it just didn’t work out. But um 55 to 54 with it’s like a high school basketball game, but but with legit two of the best quarterbacks not only in the state of Illinois, but they’re ranked second and fourth nationally in next year’s class 2027. uh Israel Abrams from Montini and our guy Trey Taylor um who really just did not flinch in a crazy game and we were struggling to get stops and he would just go back out there and make another throw and another throw and another throw. Um it was just a bonkers game. It was cool to see, you know, a game with a lot of hype live up to the billing. Shout out to Mark Pod Ash who come I think he’s come out to a caramel game every year that I’ve been coaching and um he came to a good one on Friday night. So and he sat on the opposing sideline as he Yeah, that’s what he does. is the contrarian about special teams and uh yeah we well I like I know we have a lot of like out of country out of state listeners here but like Trey Taylor he’s committed to Nebraska like Illinois this part of Illinois everybody for some reason right now has some of the best quarterback prospects in the entire country like Lincoln Way East which is just south of Chicago Jonah Williams right like he is going to or he was go he was committed to Oregon. Now he’s committed to USC, but he has had like numerous offers for for years. Yeah, it’s fun. It It’s uh there’s a lot of good and it’s not just the quarterbacks. There’s it’s I’ve always felt like Illinois is underrated when it comes to our high school talent, but um it’s there’s been there’s been a lot of other good games like Mount Carmel and Brother Rice the other night. Uh Katie, what was the final night that you were there? You said that’s okay. Yes. I I mean there’s just I mean we always talk about the Catholic League. Well, those two teams specifically are loaded with like 10 or 12 division one players. It’s crazy going to some of the best programs in the entire country. Yeah, it’s um it’s cool. I just wanted to bring it up. So, unfortunately, my son took the biggest hit of the game. I saw that on the sideline and I Now, did the kicking net actually catch him or did he go through it? No, that was the other kid. There were two kids that were taken down. Jeez. Yeah, it was cool though. like after the game, I think they were both hurting pretty good and they were like, but they were both like, you know, when Trey makes it to the NFL, we’re going to be able to say that we got, you know, crushed on the sideline by by an NFL player. So, I don’t know if my son was quite around to that hype yet, but he’ll be fine. I actually didn’t even realize how bad it was till I saw the film the next morning. I was sitting there with my wife. We’re drinking coffee and like I was wait I was looking at the film, I found the play and I was like, “Oh my god, that’s way worse than I thought I was.” He He was doing a good job of getting out of the way, too. He was well past like the the player line. Oh, no. He did. That’s one of those where Trey got shoved as he’s going out of bounds. Someone’s getting hit on the sideline. It was just unfortunate that um you know, it was him and another another one of our kids. So, um, it’s all right. He was at hockey practice just fine Saturday and Sunday. He’s a tough guy. He’s a hockey player now. But, yeah. Uh, all right. Goodbye week edition coming out of the buy. We’ll be back on Wednesday. Uh, we’ll hear from Ben Johnson tomorrow at Halis Hall. So, we’ll have some some content from House to discuss as the week gets going. And then, of course, we’ll be back Friday with our preview episode. And uh this is just one of those weeks. I always say it whenever they play on Monday night, it just feels like it’s only one extra day, but it feels like two because it’s also a night game. Like Sunday at noon all the way to Monday night. Like that’s a long time. So it’s it’s more than 24 hours, Adam. Yeah, it is. Good math. And then we’ll flip like that and the Saints game will be here before you know it. So, um, we’ll have you covered all week as always. Also, check out CHO Bears. Got another show coming up today there at 100 p.m. And throughout the week, we will have you covered every single day over there. And really all of our shows. Blackhawks start tomorrow night. Wow. Against the defending champions, Florida Panthers. So, our Hawks guys will have you covered. And then, um, actually going to the home opener on Saturday night with James against the Canadians, Montreal. It’s the best thing about October. It’s It’s the one month where you get all four major sports playing. Yep. Bulls preseason starting up. Bulls guys will have you covered. And of course, CHCO Cubs with the playoffs happening. Great week. You want to be right here locked in both CHCO Sports and Hogan John’s. Please hit the like button. Please subscribe. We’ll sleep in January, maybe even February. That’s what I like to say. Um, all right. See you on Wednesday.

The Bears are BACK after the bye week as they get ready to face the Washington Commanders. Kevin Fishbain joins Hoge & Jahns to discuss what to expect from the team’s return, and early predictions for this matchup in Washington.