COLE KMET JOINS: How the Chicago Bears Have Made Incremental Progress | CHGO Bears Podcast

COLE KMET JOINS: How the Chicago Bears Have Made Incremental Progress | CHGO Bears Podcast

It’s a great day here on CHCO. Our guy Cole KT. Yeah, back on the show. Long interview with Cole. We got a lot to talk about. Catch up on this awesome season the Bears are having. Plus, the report card is in on Caleb Williams performance against the Giants. We’re going to break it all down. CHO Bear starts right now. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Music] Hey, heat. Hey, heat. [Music] This is the CHGO Bears podcast on a Cole Kat Tuesday. And yes, we are proudly presented by our friends at Bet 365. Download the Bet 365 app. Use the code cho365 when you sign up. Whatever the moment, it is never ordinary at Bet365. Before we get to Cole, there’s a some other breaking news that’s been going on here that we’ve not talked about. And it actually is you, Adam Hog, with the football. Yes. You’ve been walking around with the football. You’ve been patting the football. You’ve been doing shorts with the football. You might be sleeping with that football. I don’t know what’s going on with the football, but it’s a whole new thing here. He’s always carrying the football. And no one’s talked about you and the football. And I don’t want to make Cole wait here, although we did tape it earlier. Uh, you know, I think he’s well on the way with the rest of his Tuesday at this point. Yeah. Well, he wants to watch it back and grade himself, but can you just explain what’s happened with you and the football ball? No. Uh, this is one of our kicking balls from Caramel and um I don’t know. I decided to bring it in here a couple weeks weeks ago. I keep it on my desk slash the intern slash Max’s desk. I don’t know. I keep sales guy Max. You know, I figure if people are going to keep stealing my desks, I can at least have a football that I keep here. Wasn’t stolen. I gave your desk away. That’s what happened. That sounds like stolen. No, I gave it away. He doesn’t need it. I didn’t know that you really wanted it. I I was wrong of me. Well, I don’t know if you guys like know this about me, but I like football and this is a football. So, it brings me This is like my Woot has his comfort pillow. I have my comfort football. Okay. Comfort Comfort football. And you have a harmonica. I do. Not on me today. Thank God. Well, actually, you know, while we’re playing Cole, I’ll probably go acquire re re get together with my harmonica. Reet together. That would be called a reunion. Yeah, have a reunion. There you go. I’ll have a reunion. I got you. All right. So, should we do this? Should we listen to call? Yeah. So, we figured uh you know, we’re we’re nine games into this great Bears season. Cole KT, even though he’s not doing the 85 this year, still a friend of CO and program and um definitely likes me and Greg. Yeah. I don’t think he likes No, he likes Karm, too. He really likes Stephen. And um we thought it’d be a good time to have him on the show, have him on the show again. So, we uh we did pre-tape this so he can enjoy the rest of his off day. It is Tuesday. It is his off day. Um although he got Monday off, too. So, um this is fun. A longer interview with Cole. Lot of different topics. We had a lot to catch up on. So, Stephen, why don’t we go ahead and do it? Here we go. It is time now to bring in our guy Stephen. Why don’t we hit the music? Yeah. Bring in our our old music for Cole KD. Let’s go. Joining us once again on CHCO Bears. Cole, you’re up. You’re six and three. You’re technically in first place on this Tuesday morning. I mean, how about that? That’s amazing. I mean, it’s not like we have a whole other half of the season left to go, but that’s uh that’s good stuff. I love it. That’s good. Good to sit there at the moment. Enjoy it. Well, you know, like, hey, you got to celebrate the win. Six of your last seven games you guys won, surpassing the win total from last year. So, yeah, long way to go. Second half of the season, sights are underway. Uh, but it does got to feel good to see how you guys I mean like how does it feel to see how you guys responded from 0 and2 when I was ready to jump in Lake Michigan to now winning six of your last seven games and and Bears fans and and obviously you guys in a much better place. Well, first of all, were you about to say enjoy it while it lasts? I was like, is this is this coach Brags? I mean, that’s what I was That’s what I That’s what it seemed like you were about to say, which is fine. I mean, I don’t know if it just kind of rolled off the tongue or whatever. I would never say that for one. We’re looking at the playoffs, but yes, I was I you know, I don’t know what I sometimes when I start talking, I don’t know what I’m going to say. So, I I knew not to say that, but it’s exciting. And we, you know, for me, it’s like, hey, enjoy. You should always celebrate your wins. Yes, you have a second half of season to go. We have no idea where it’s going to go. But yeah, just because there’s more work to be done doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate this. I know. I No. No. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I I was just messing with you, man. I was just messing with you. No, but uh yeah, obviously going from 0 and2, which I’m sure like you said, you’re about to jump in Lake Michigan. Um but I I mean, you know, we’ve really rallied six since then, winning six of our last seven. Is that if if I’m saying that right? Uh so um you know definitely have had our ups and downs along the way during during this time but um nonetheless finding ways to win and uh it’s been a lot of fun to be part of. So I think we’ve won in a in a lot of different ways whether it’s been our defense coming up big, special teams coming up big or offense winning in a shootout. Um we found a we found a lot of different ways to go win football games and I think uh that’s going to bode well for us as we continue down here on the stretch uh closing in towards the playoffs. Cole, I knew at 0 and2 you guys were going to win six and se six and seven and turn it around. And I can also I don’t want to tell you what I see in the future, but I see really good things. So, we’ll just we’ll just leave it at that. But, uh I’m curious the Ben Johnson aspect of this. You obviously learned a ton in training camp and everyone talked about the details, but as far as going through the season, game days, you’re down, you’re you got to come back late. What What have you learned about your head coach in season that maybe you didn’t necessarily know in training camp? Well, I think that’s the thing. I think what we’ve gotten from him since training camp is what we get now. Uh, so it’s the same guy every day. And, uh, he doesn’t waver on the details or who he is. And, um, I think I think us as players like we all appreciate that because you know what you’re getting, uh, on a day-to-day basis and it’s consistent and the me messaging is consistent. So, uh, you know, despite whether we win or lose, uh, we come in that next day and we look at the film and, um, you know, we look at look at it objectively and and things that we got to get better at and things we got to correct and, uh, we keep addressing those issues dayto-day and, um, I think we’ve gotten better along the way. I’m sure there’s still a lot of things that, you know, we need to get corrected and we need to be better at as as we go forward here, especially as we face, uh, some of the tougher teams in the league, but, um, you know, the consisting consistent messaging from Ben has been has been awesome, and I think guys have have really responded well to that. Without giving up state secrets, what what’s one thing you think you guys need to get better at, as you just put it? Well, I think just finding more efficiency uh throughout the course of the game. You know, I think uh uh you know, obviously Cincinnati was a really good game for us, but um you know, you look at it from the totality of the season. Um there’s been segments where our run game has done really well and our our pass efficiency hasn’t been as good or maybe our run game is is uh you know, isn’t isn’t doing well and then and and our passing has been good, but um I think that, you know, playing a complete game is is is still something that we’re, you know, we’re really searching for and doing it in a consistent matter consistent manner on a on a week-to-eek basis. So, um, you know, those are the things. Obviously, I think we’ve cleaned up some of the penalties here the past few weeks, but those are still things that we can get better at and, uh, you know, we’ll continue to address as, uh, as the weeks go on. All right, let’s have some fun here. Uh, Greg learned that you were a lefty last week. Yeah. Uh, in Cincinnati. Uh, give us the play. What was the what’s the play call on that? And Tyson, you know, we had Tyson on last week. He was, you know, Cole went through some progressions. He’s like, you know, he got to his second second read on that play. What What take us through that play in Cincinnati. Yeah. Well, first of all, I don’t get why these quarterbacks, they’re getting paid so much. This [ __ ] ain’t that hard. It’s it’s top down reads. One, two, get the ball out. I mean, I don’t really understand why these guys are getting paid so much to do this stuff. It just find the open guy and throw it to him. Uh, no, but that being said, uh, the play call, I didn’t come up with the play call name. It was just, it was called Lake Forest because I guess that’s, you know, where I’m from, where I live at the moment. And I don’t know. Um I didn’t love the the name of the play, but I loved the play. So gets baby Tyson Beijing gets baby daddy for I know. I like baby daddy. That’s a good one. Um that’s a good one. But you know is what it is. Uh what happened was I had thrown a ball in practice. I think it was like on Thursday when I was coming back from uh my back deal. And uh I threw it and it was it was a it was a pretty good throw and I I mean I didn’t think much of it and uh you know I think Ben eyes Ben’s eyes lit up and we went to our screens and kind of specials period and he just drew up a play on his uh on his little notepad and showed it to all of us and told us what to do and we did it and executed it pretty well on air and uh we did it the next day in practice uh you know on a full speed rep and then he he called it against our defense and Uh, I launched one deep. I mean, it had to be like a 60some yard throw in the air to DJ down the field and, uh, then I think Ben felt felt pretty comfortable about calling it in the game. So, um, obviously, you know, in the game the the safety covered it pretty well and, uh, you know, went down to Rome there. Uh, I guess on a 15 yard checkdown, but, um, nonetheless, still pretty cool. And it’s fun when you it’s fun when you get those plays installed. It kind of keeps it light at practice in a sense. And um you know, I think I think all of us have fun running those type of trick plays. So um it’s a lot of fun when he calls them and then when you get them executed in the game. I love that you just have a head coach that just he he’s willing to scribble something on a napkin right there, isn’t he? If he he he is not a he’s not afraid to draw up or call anything. Like even watching the tape from Sunday, there was a run play where you the splits between the tackle and the guard and and the guard in the center. There was like a whole there was like two giant holes open in there. And I’m honestly I don’t know enough about it to be like I don’t I don’t know the reasoning for it or why you’re doing it, but there must be something there. Like Ben’s not afraid to try anything. Yeah. No, I think you see him I think he just wants to put the defense in uncomfortable situations and kind of test their rules and um more often than not I think obviously he sees stuff on tape or or whatever it is that he feels like he can exploit with a certain package or a certain formation and uh it definitely puts the defense’s rules to test and uh more often than not it seems like you know he’s able to get guys get guys open. So, um, you know, wouldn’t be a a Ben Johnson offense if the tight end didn’t throw a pass and the quarterback didn’t catch a touchdown reception. So, uh, it’s it’s been cool to see over the past few weeks for sure. Well, he’s also got you lining up at fullback and cracking the hell out of guys is Kyle Manung guys going in the endzone. People love them. Yeah, that’s new for me this year. Uh, but that’s been I mean that’s been fun. Uh, you know, working that stuff and um, obviously that was a cool play there to to get our first touchdown of the game. So, um, but yeah, no, it’s been fun. Kyle’s been running downhill and um I think our run game, you know, really since the by-week has really come along really well. So, uh it’s been fun to it’s been really fun to get going up front and get that run game going and you know, we’ll need it especially as the weather starts to turn here uh down the stretch. With that being said, what has this season been like for you personally? I’m assuming from a production standpoint, you’d probably want more yards, catches, touchdowns. I think everybody on offense has that mentality at the same time and we’ve been saying it on this on these airwaves whether it’s you or Lovelin like you guys have just been blocking your asses off from week one on and so how much like how rewarding is that for you even though that may not be something that shows up you know on the stat sheet the same way that fans can appreciate uh on the same way as a touchdown uh for instance. Yeah. Well, I think what’s been really cool about the culture that we’ve built with our unit in the offensive and from an offensive perspective is that we got a bunch of really selfless guys and guys that are willing to do whatever it takes to win and um I think that’s really shown up here especially you know the last seven weeks or so. So, um, you know, from my end, like, yeah, obviously, like, you know, you want to make plays in the pass game and all that, but, um, you know, at the end of the day, I want to win and, you know, I trust that, you know, Ben’s putting us all out there in the in our best possible spots to go make plays and to go win a football game. So, um, you know, whatever I’m asked to do in that moment, whether it’s to go play fullback, whether it’s to go throw a pass, like I want to execute it at the highest level possible and, uh, you know, be a guy that they can lean on for whatever they need me to do. So, um, I’ve been having a lot of fun with it. Um, this is the, you know, up to this point, this is the most fun I’ve had, uh, uh, in a season with this group of guys. And, uh, it’s been a lot of fun to, you know, kind of see us grow over the past few weeks. And, you know, we’ve been really sticking to stick sticking together through it all. So, um, yeah, it’s just really rewarding. I mean, it’s been it’s been fun to win games. I mean, and at the end of the day, that’s what it’s about. And, uh, you can have all the stats in the world, but if you’re not, uh, winning football games, that’s that’s no fun. Well, Adam John’s brought us the reporting from the locker room of how you explained kind of your mentality on that final touchdown against the Giants and your blocking helping kind of pave the way for Caleb to get into the end zone. You know, how fun is that for you to kind of take a man against his will, drive him into the end zone like that and help clear the way to to get that score in a big moment? Yeah, I mean it was awesome. Uh I mean obviously you think you’re getting the ball there initially. uh you know, I felt like it was open, but then I saw Caleb’s demeanor kind of kind of change and turned into like, okay, I’m taking this [ __ ] myself and uh turned up field and blocked my guy in man. Knew that he had to cover me a little bit. So, um you know, a little bit of a smaller dude and just took him in the end zone and then Caleb took care of the rest. So, uh, yeah, it was fun to see Caleb turn it on there, uh, for the last two drives and and kind of do what he does and kind of put on the Superman cape, be that number one overall overall pick and and really just take over the game there that last, you know, six, seven minutes, whatever it was. Uh, so yeah, it was a lot of fun, man. And, you know, just doing whatever I can do to to help the team win. And, uh, it it’s been really rewarding these past few weeks. Do you define the second guy coming in in the end zone as a cheap shot on your backside? cuz that that pissed me off watching it honestly. I mean, especially because it’s in the end zone. Maybe if it’s still on the field of play, but do you look at that as good football or do you look at that as a little too much? I’m going to be honest. I watched it on film and it was it was uh it was totally unintentional. So, I know it might have looked like that uh in the moment, and I felt like it was in the moment, but uh no, it was totally unintentional by by that dude. So, I I’ll kind of kind of just part of part of doing business. Part of doing business. All right, I’ll put my bear claws down. I was getting defensive for our guy. Cole, answer yourself on this one. I almost encourage you to do it, but see, just thinking about your, you know, you’re throwing passes, you’re blocking, you’re catching, you’re catching balls, you you you pitched in college, all these things. Who’s the best athlete on on the Bears? Because I I Is it you? Do you but then I’m thinking you know Caleb with his legs I I did not personally realize that he was this fast coming in and then you’ve got a million other guys that you could consider here. And when you say best athlete you mean like guys who could play other sports or like you’re just saying okay allaround freakazoid athlete the right tackles doing cartwheels. You want sure I’m I will I’m gonna have to honestly probably have to go with Darnell. Um, the way he moves around, man, at his size, it’s it’s pretty freaky. And his strength and athleticism, it’s it’s pretty nuts. And when you watch him even just catch or throw a ball around it, it it just looks easy for him. So, um, I’m going to h I’ll probably have to go with Darnell, honestly. Yeah, he’s a he’s a freaky dude, man. He’s a freaky dude, and he’s been he’s been tossing news around this year, so it’s been a lot of fun to see him really come in into his own and, um, you know, to be be the guy who we need him to be at right tackle. So, uh, he he’s been a lot of fun to watch. Cole, when those blocks, and there’s been a a number of them the last few weeks, like highlight reel blocks, whether it’s Theo taking the guy 10 yards out of bounds and or Darnell basically just flicking Brian Burns off them. When those get put up in the meeting rooms, are they being put up in the meeting rooms in front of everybody? And if they are, I mean, is that firing up the entire team? Like, just just I mean, what’s that like when those are being shown to you guys? Yeah. Well, I mean, obviously we see it all and we feel it all and I think that’s just become part of our identity as a group and um that’s been really cool to see. Kind of not not something that we’ve really had here in years past and I think guys are everyone’s kind of wanting to get their get their licks at it. Um you know, I know that’s how I feel when I’m out there as part of the run game and you know, we want to go dominate the guy across from us. So, uh we’ve really kind of taken that embodied that and uh we see it every week from guys all across the line of scrimmage. you see it from the receivers and um it it’s been cool to see and I think it’s it’s a big it’s going to be a big part of our culture and identity going forward. So, you know, like I said, that’s all the stuff that we’re going to need here, especially as the as the weather turns here in Chicago. Where do you think that that mentality caught? Like, was that at camp? Was it after the buy when the run game really started to take a hold in that Washington game? You know, I’m just curious. Was it the 11 straight runs against the Cowboys? Was there a singular moment maybe you can look at that kind of where that identity and mentality kind of switched for you guys from changing from what it has been in years past? Yeah, I think there was definitely checkpoints for that and a progression to it. I think it initially started in camp when we had that uh we had that really physical practice that one day that I’m sure you guys all remember if you were there. um you know we did a lot of short yardage goal line um and that really hyped up and set the expectation of of the intensity of of and physicality of what our team should look like. So, I think it started there and obviously there was still some things that we had to put together from an operation and schematic standpoint in the run game uh that we had to get dialed in with up front and uh you know that came along over the first few weeks and it felt like we were close and I know it wasn’t it wasn’t our best running effort through the first three four weeks of the season but um you know I think we came out of the by-week you know really understanding what we had to get done and uh showed up against Washington and then it’s really continued forward so um yeah I I think we’ve had that attitude, that physicality really from that practice. And then, um, I think really since the by-week hit, uh, we’ve just been executing at a much higher level. Um, you know, we’re we’ve all been better with our communication and, uh, I think that’s led to the to the high production in the run game. Can you give a behind the scenes as we’re kind of talking about culture here, how good, better, best is taking hold here? like the first time Ben did it where you’re like this might be a little bit corny or whatever. But you guys like it just seems like it’s really kind of a fun time in there. Yeah, I for sure the first time someone does stuff like that, but whatever head coach like everyone’s got like their own thing. It it comes off a little corny like this is a little interesting, but uh you know as you win man it just everyone starts feeding into it and buying into it and uh it’s definitely one of the things that we all look forward to after a win. So, uh, you know, he gets fired up about it and really the message of messaging of it is great and, uh, I think guys are really buying into that and, uh, it’s it’s always always fun to see see Ben fired up after a win and and give his little rant there. Does he does he do a pregame talk, too, or is that just you guys are professionals? Go out there and kill him. How does that work? We’re just professionals. Go out there and kill him. Yeah. Yeah. He’s he you can tell he’s locked in, ready to ready to get his play sheet going and and play calls going. So, um, yeah, we just go out there and we get ready to roll. Well, we talk we we do shows weekly with Lance Briggs and, uh, to your point about the the the rally cry, so to speak. He said the first time that Lovey Smith had him break the huddle, world champs. He said they were all looking at each other like world champs, I guess. And he he was like by the third year, he’s like, we we believed it. So, it’s cool as a fan to kind of watch this kind of grow. And um it’s it’s exciting to see what this future can become. And hopefully you guys are are breaking the huddle, saying good, better, best at at a Super Bowl here one of these days. I I switching over to uh Coloulston Loveland, you know, what has that been like working with him and and seeing his progression and and and you guys working together as a a a tight end tandem unit and and doing everything you guys are doing out there. Yeah, he’s been awesome, man. I mean, really since coming in, I mean, obviously he had a shoulder injury uh back at Michigan that he was rehabbing from for the most part of the spring and in the early part of camp. Uh but really, man, as he’s gotten going, he’s just gotten better each and every week. Uh and he and he just continues to do the right things every day. Um, you know, I know I’m sure I not that we talked too much about this, but I’m sure he was a little frustrated maybe, you know, not feeling like he was doing his part of the deal, uh, in terms of the receiving game early in the season, but obviously I think everyone’s kind of seen him seen him come alive, you know, these past two or three weeks. And, uh, you know, he’s really a special talent, man, and he’s been he’s been fun to play with and and fun to see him ascend week to week. And as he continues to grow, uh, he’s just going to be become more and more of a dominant figure in this league and and for our team. And he really just presents a ton of mismatch problems across the board for a defense. So, um, he’s obviously, you know, a big guy. He’s long. Uh, he can run physical and, uh, he’s really coming along in the run game as well. I know that. I know how hard that was for me. You know, my first year is is getting settled in with the NFL run game, but uh, he’s not afraid to throw his hat in there and do what he’s got to do. and uh you know that’s only going to help him in the past game as well. So it’s been a lot of fun to see him grow this year and um you know obviously uh a guy that I’ve grown to to really love and and become a really good friend of mine uh over the course of the season. Cole, a few more for you. We’ll let you go enjoy your off day. Um appreciate appreciate your time on this Tuesday. But you you know you’ve been through the you’ve been through this journey with Caleb Williams the last you know season and a half now. um through some of the ups and downs. Obviously, there were some moments in camp and even early in the season where, you know, you guys were all kind of going through this together. The pre- snap penalties, kind of the whole deal. You know, I found it interesting in Ben Johnson’s postgame speech to you guys the other day, and I forget the exact quote, but he basically said something like, you know, if you guys aren’t believing now, just wait. when when he was presenting the game ball to Caleb. What are you seeing from your quarterback specifically like you know in the last month or so that like is something clicking here is I mean you can speak on I feel like better than anyone other than maybe Caleb himself just because you’ve been on this journey with him from the start. Yeah. Well, I think what it is it’s just not just a crazy jump from one week to the next. Like this is continued steady growth as it is for any player. like it starts from when you enter the league up until you know for him now and you know for me like when I first entered the league up until now like it’s a steady growth and there’s there’s ups and downs along the way along the way and I think a lot of people get caught up in when there’s a dip of oh no like he he stinks or he sucks or this player stinks and like he’s he can’t figure it out and then there’s an up moment it’s like oh he figured it out and then it’s back but like it really is an up and down deal in this league and it it’s hard to figure out and um but Caleb’s navigating it. And I think you go back to last year. Obviously, last year was a really hard year uh for everybody involved and but he he kept he kept at it, kept going at it and um you know, kept showing up to games and uh did what he had to do and then comes in this year and obviously there’s some struggles of learning a new system and uh you know, Ben puts a lot of a lot a lot on his quarterback and a lot on us in general and Caleb keeps responding every day, keeps coming back for more, keeps learning and uh just has continued to ascend. But I mean I I I do feel like Caleb’s like always had it like you know we see these he has all these fourth quarter you know led comebacks now this year but I mean that that’s I don’t think that’s anything new like if you look back last year uh I know you know you go back to the Washington game that we ended up losing but it was kind of a stallout game for most of the game and then boom he kind of leads us on a drive to to put us ahead there and then obviously you know what happens happens with the Hell Mary and then uh you know you fast forward and go up to the Minnesota game when we were at home and he’s able to leave a lead leave a drive lead a drive to get us into overtime so we have a chance to go win the game and obviously we fall short in that one but you saw it there and then uh last year the last game this season against Green Bay where he leads a drive and we get the game kick the game winning field goal so there he’s done this before and I think now we’re just coming out ahead and um it it’s just been awesome to see him grow from you know not only from him performing but from an operational standpoint him growing as a leader um it it’s been really cool to Well, and for you, you know, you you come in the league, you’re learning a ton, you’re moving along, and through all of it, you you play 90 straight games to start your NFL career, and I know you had just a ton of pride in that. What like ultimately when you had to make the decision, okay, I can’t go this week, were you was that just all you were the Bears protecting you from yourself? How how did that go down? Yeah, I think it was a little bit of both. Um, you know, I uh it was in the Saints game. I, you know, I finally got to a point where I was like, “Okay, I can’t go anymore.” And, uh, so I ended up leaving the game and, uh, you know, we kind of see what it was. And, um, you know, the trainers like, “It’s probably going to be tough to to get out there this week.” And I kind of gave it till Thursday to really see where I was at. And I knew by Thursday that it was going to be really really tough for me to go out there and do what I needed to do. And um you know, sure, could I have just been out there? Yeah. But like it wouldn’t like that would just kind of been a selfish thing and um that wouldn’t have been a benefit to the team at all. So um you know, figured I’ I’d wait and see. And obviously a tough decision in that regard. And you know, as you guys know, I put a lot of a lot of stock and a lot of pride in in being out there and being available, but um you know, at some point the NFL does catch up to you. So uh is what it is on that regard. And you know, I’ve had a These past three weeks were kind of weird for me kind of in and out of the in and out of the lineup with with injuries and whatnot, but um hope hopefully hoping that’s kind of behind me at this point for the rest of the year. All right. Well, you got another Brian Flores game coming up here. Yeah, man. NFC North. Uh it’s been a while since you guys have had a divisional game and uh I know the first couple weeks of the season were rough in that regard, but first game where they play a team for the second time this year, right? Yep. uh what’s as you dive into it kind of make this transition on the off day into the the new gamew week. What do you think are, you know, the biggest things that you guys can do uh better this time around than in week one when you couldn’t uh get it done in the fourth quarter against the Vikings? Yeah. Well, we’ll be interested to see what the game plan kind of looks like coming up really starting tomorrow. Um, but you know, taking a look at these guys, I think, you know, they’re play obviously still playing well on defense and they got they they present a bunch of different looks to us and uh they’re physical up front. It’s a divisional opponent, so we know we’re kind of getting from that standpoint. Um, so it’s going to be a tough challenge for us, you know, going out to Minnesota and and getting to win here. But, um, you know, we know as we enter these games in the division here down the stretch that we got to have them and we just got to find a way to win and that’s that’s what we’ve been doing in weeks past and we got to do it again this upcoming week. So excited about the challenge. Uh, it’ll be a good one for us and, you know, hopefully get a little redemption uh, from week one. Well, before you get your game plan from Ben Johnson tomorrow, I’ll I’ll send you my game plan here later this afternoon. If you have if you if you have a trick play, just send it over. Maybe we can get it in to the No. See, I’m No tricks. I I am just sending Kyle Manungy up the middle. I love Dude, I love the way this guy plays the game, man. Kyle Manungai is awesome. Like, how much fun is it blocking for this dude? just runs people over at will and then abandon. He’s great. I mean, he’s it’s he’s a bowling ball back there. It’s it’s freaking awesome. I love it. Yeah, it’s great. My My final thing for you is uh Notre Dame. Uh what are we what are we thinking here? It’s kind of like last year, right? Like I I they lose two in a row to start the year, but they were two they honestly like I normally I get really mad when they lose uh at the start of the year, but those were two pretty impressive games just from the way they fought. Now all of a sudden, we’re here at the end of the year. Looks like they might sneak back in the college football playoff. Think the uh Fighting Irish can return to a national championship? Yeah. No, I will say I haven’t watched as much as I would have liked. Um I’m kind of a fair weather once we get like obviously I’m following the the the team, but uh you know I’ll I’ll watch more closely as as we get maybe closer to the playoff or in the playoffs, but I don’t see why if we went out why we wouldn’t be in. Um it is it what is&m one or two at the moment? I don’t know what what they’re at, but they look like a pretty good They’re two, right? They’re two. Okay, they look like a pretty That’s a pretty good I I guess you could call it a pretty good loss. So, um yeah, I feel like if we win out, I think they’re playing good football right now. I obviously I think our the running backs that we got there are are pretty outstanding and um I like the quarterback, too. So, um I think it’s all out in front of us if if we can win out here and get get in the dance and we we’ll see where it takes us. Yeah, the the week that the Irish ran for 300 yards, you guys ran for 200 and like 50 yards or something. So that that was a fun weekend of of smashmouth football. Just on the way out on my last thing, more under center. I I loved when you got in there tush push and all. That was fantastic. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I’m I’m hoping for more of those opportunities, too. Yeah. Yeah, definitely gets maybe get some more complex reads in there as well. I think I showed I can I can handle a little bit of it, but we’ll see where it goes. See, I’m accepting the invitation here. We’re gonna draw up a play and see if we can get this thing in by week 18. Okay. All right. At some point in the game. I love it. Ben seems like he’s open to ideas. I think we can I think we can get this done here at CHDO. All right. All right. Cole, you’re the best, man. Thank you so much. Um enjoying watching I mean really watching you play and the whole team. Uh it’s it’s been fun. I know fans have been starved for this. So, uh it’ll be fun here as we get into the last eight games. NFC North battles here and um you know continued success to you and and the rest of the team the rest of the way. Appreciate you guys. We’ll talk soon. There he is. Cole KT. Cole Cole Cole Cole Cole Cole. Now we got to come up with a play. Who are you to say that? You think you got that level of thing as special coordinator man? Special teams coordinator. He literally it was his idea. Were you listening to the interview? You said that we should come up with a play and he said, “Yeah, you should.” No, that’s not what happened. That’s not He said we should come up with a play. I joked with him that I was going to call him for the game plan, my game plan this week, and he said, “I’m excited to hear your trick play.” Oh, right. So, now we’re going to come up with a trick play. Oh, okay. That I I I see how we got there now. It makes more sense. Good job. Thanks. Uh, we got a lot more coming up. I do have some thoughts on a couple things from that interview and then we’re going toh dive into a little bit more on Caleb Williams. Got the report card. Little new segment here on CHCO Bears on a Tuesday. A lot more coming up on the show. Appreciate everybody’s comments in there. Get to some super chats as well. But first, whatever the sport, the app to bet is circa sports, Illinois, football, hockey, basketball. The Bulls ended up covering last night. I turned it off. I got too disust by four. Don’t know what was it, was four and a half. So, they did cover. They did cover. Webby just took over the game. They were in control. 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That’s right. Shout out to John. Um, but the Game Time app is the hack for unlocking amazing tickets and experiences in just a few taps. It’s incredibly easy to use, and the Game Time guarantee means you can trust you’ll get 100% authentic tickets at the best price. Plus, fees are always included, so what you see is what you pay. Take the guesswork out of buying NFL tickets with Game Time. Download the Game Time app. Create an account as I die and use the code cho for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply again. Create an account and redeem code cho for $20 off. We’re finishing this read strong. You can do it. Tap ticket. Go download the game time app today. All right. Can we just talk about how Cole tells a story of the the play where he threw the ball last week in Cincinnati and he basically just like threw a random pass at some point in practice and Ben saw him do it and was like, “Okay, we need to drop a play.” And he scribbled it down and they that was like Thursday and they ran it Sunday in a game. Which is funny because it takes me to last night with Did you see the picture of Matt Laflur riding on the sidelines all stressed out like during the game? Yeah. During the game. It’s like the difference between somebody that the wheels feel like they’re coming off for and you got Ben Johnson over here just like uh Fantasia, you know, it’s like whipping it up in in his own. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. I know. You know what I’m referencing where he’s like coming up with it. Yeah. It’s an older school reference. I think it’s a way for Ben to connect with his guys, right? You know, he sees he sees Cole. He gets to honor Cole. Everybody gets excited about it. Then he gets to show everybody. And he also puts stuff in that’s going to work, which will help the Bears. I think it’s a it’s a it’s a it’s almost like a bonding thing. I mean, you got to feel bad if you’re a Bengals fan that Ben was like, “We can put all of this into the game plan with the t the baby daddy Tyson Beijing play, the Cole KT Lake Forest play. They had other different, you know, uh uh gimmick gimmick plays in that game. He he threw the whole kitchen sink at the Bengals because he knew he could. They got to work on that name though, Lake Forest. Not great. We could at least call him call divider or something for his high school. Yeah, maybe he’s challenging Cole. Like you need to be more dynamic and then I’ll give you a better name than Lake Forest. Maybe you know it’s just you’re you’re just a down the middle gets the job done Cole. So he just like Lake Forest gets the job done close to house. Good place to live. Yeah. Uh I I would say now it’s almost a compliment for him. The question is what offensive lineman’s going to get the football here? And I think the obvious answer is Darnell Wright. I think at some point he’s gonna get a pass, you know, because that was the big thing with Detroit. Was using Trapillo in the jumbo package right now. Yeah, but it’s about who can catch it, right? So, I I think Darnell is going to be the guy. It was Darnell, right? That that insane one-handed catch in training camp, right? Yep. So, he knows he could do it. That was a one-day thing. They had them all go out for passes and Darnell, right, won the day. So, it’s another way, by the way, in the middle of training camp things get a little bit monotonous. Let’s have let’s have offensive lineman catch football day. I’m here to salute Ben Johnson all day long, by the way. That’s my plan. Whatever beats the Vikings, right? And I’ll just say this much. You know, it’s it was great to talk to Cole again. And you know, Cole is certainly somewhat of a lightning rod of a conversation for for as a for a player for fans to talk about, especially when they drafted Coloulston Lovelin. you had a lot of people in the offseason already kind of skipping ahead to the point of do they keep him at some point, should they trade him and and things of that nature. But Cole KT is a winning player and I think this year you can say what you want as of his ability versus Coulson Lovelins in receiving or we all understand Coulson Lovelin is a explosive player that’s going to do great things for this franchise for years to come. But watching Cole KT week to week, I just wish fans would appreciate more what this whole team on offense is doing. as Cole said, selflessness to block for each other. And Cole has been at the the the forefront of this and it’s this is an identity for this Chicago Bears team. And I think it’s something we as fans if if the team is embracing this no block, no block, no rock mentality. I think fans should too. And we all need to acknowledge just how great and how pivotal the tight ends have been for the run game and for the pass protection and how they have been blocking their asses off all year long. I’m just not here for like any Cole KT slander. The dude is the dude came in with Naggie, went through Eberflu, now he’s with Ben Johnson. He’s done literally everything that they’ve asked him to do. He played in 90 straight football games. He’s from here. He’s been a model citizen. He’s done he’s represented the Bears as well as you possibly could. Like the the guy I just don’t I don’t get anybody. Sure. Is he the greatest pass catcher in the history of the NFL? No, he’s not. He’s a good football player. He’s a winning football player. And part of that too, him and Colston Lovelin being good buddies. the way he talks that the way he talks about him. He’s he’s helping the 10th overall pick be as best as he can be at his same position. So like there’s there’s nothing for for me at least to not like about Cole KT and wanting him to hopefully spend his entire career here and be an asset. And it would be unbelievable obviously for the Bears fans at him if they get to the mountain top and he’s a part of it. I don’t know if this is just because I’ve been trying to make a concertive effort this year, a concerted effort this year to like kind of hang out in places that I feel like are more real life than sometimes, you know, like Twitter can be at times. I haven’t seen a lot of the Cole Kat hate this year. I’m not saying there’s a ton. Like I I I feel like most knowledgeable fans that understand what’s happening realize how well he’s been playing this year and embracing his role as more of the blocking tight end and understanding that honestly that’s where he was supposed to be the last couple years. People forget they signed Robert Tany a couple years ago to be the move tight end and he couldn’t do it. So then Cole had to play both positions. Then last year they signed um Gerald Everett and he was bad. So then Cole had to do both positions. This is the role. And you know I I think it’s okay for me to share this. I you know I reached out to Cole the weekend of the draft when they they drafted Coulson Love. I just kind of want to you know what do you think about this? And his response was the most Cole Kat response ever. That’s who he is as a player and a person. and he’s like, “We needed another tight end. I totally understand this move. This is going to be really good for the team.” And that wasn’t just coach speak or player speak on the record or anything. That was how he truly felt. And so, it should be no surprise that he is embracing this role on the team. Sure, would he like to score a couple more touchdowns and do more of the, you know, his bat swinging celebration? Yeah. But who doesn’t? but he sat here on his show last year multiple times on the 85 talking about, you know, how satisfying it is to get a touchdown block as much as a touchdown catch. And he had two of those on Sunday in a win. So, I I think that anybody who really understands football, understands what’s going on with this team, understands anything about tight end play, realizes that he’s playing well right now. And there’s really no reason to be hating on anything with Cole KTH this season. Well, and just what you’re talking about the play where Caleb scores to put the Bears ahead on Sunday. Some guys, you don’t throw him the football there, they’re kind of they’re they’re out of the play. You know, that there’s a maybe a minimal effort to do something. Not Not this dude. I’m going to drive you into the back of the end zone. Uh I I just, you know, it it it irritates me and maybe I’m actually just jump too much into Braggs land where I’m paying too much attention what people are saying. No, I mean, this isn’t just a Twitter thing. I mean, I don’t think I’m out of pocket for saying that ESPN 1000 over the summer had more than a few segments where they talked about getting rid of Cole Kat. So much so that we did a segment on our show to push back on that idea about it. So, right, I’m talking about more inseason though, now that we’ve seen what this looks like under Ben Johnson. Well, then in season, if you want to point to specific like the Raiders game wasn’t a perfect game and there were fans that were being hard on him in that game and so I that’s fine. And I I think he’s not above criticism. No player on this team is. But I also think there’s a lot of box score watchers out there. And because he only has one touchdown and how many yards on the season, uh it that’s where people are going to go to. This is such a fantasy football driven world and you know all the tape on you know how you’re going to catch passes but not appreciate just how much they have been and I add Coulson Lovelin in this too because the production has just started for Lovelin how much these guys have been blocking since week one and when you talk about Karm you know him bringing up in the interview how him and him him and Coloulston have become like best friends as he said it like I I wanted to dive into that a little more. We didn’t have the opportunity to, but that’s great to hear and it’s not a surprise. Uh, but at the same time, I think you got to give both those guys credit cuz ultimately, while Ben Johnson does run a lot of two tight end sets, they are competing against each other in a lot of ways for reps. And you’re starting to see Lovelin’s snap usage go up. You’re starting to see Luther Burton’s snap usage go up. You’re starting to see Kyle Manungai’s usage go up. But it feels like the culture of this team is selflessness and they’re all playing for each other. And that is something that take all the numbers away. You want to talk about can this team be a playoff team? That’s the kind of stuff that will is a big playoff identity culture. And I see a lot of comments and you know about the future of Cole KD here. I I look based on how this is working right now with Ben Johnson and the role of the tight ends in this offense. I would say right now it’s way more likely that he gets an extension that lowers his cap hit than they cut him loose anytime soon. Well, I mean, remember in training camp, Ben listed like four guys that he said he could trust. Yeah. And Cole was one of the four. And Cole wasn’t someone Ben Johnson drafted. Ben’s not an idiot. Ben’s a smart guy. Ben’s going to see what anybody realistically watching Cole play and realize his value that he has to the locker room, to the field, to the versatility, not the greatest pass catcher, catches plenty of balls, able to do it, able to block, understands the offense, always on point, comes in every single day. Why wouldn’t you want that guy on your team? Find whatever the number is, whatever they pay him. Sure. Great. All right, we got to take another timeout. We come back, we’ll take a closer look at Caleb Williams game against the Giants. Might surprise you a little bit. I’ve been working on a littleh project here for the last few weeks, so I figure we’ll uh we’ll throw out a trial balloon here in the next segment and take a look. See what people think. It’s coming up next here on CHGO Bears. But first, we’ve been warning you for weeks. And boy, did that snow show up. winter. It’s not technically here, but it sure is as far as your furnace is concerned this week. And my home’s heating is up for the challenge. Had the cat just sleeping right in front of the vent. I don’t know if yours does that. That’s his favorite place where heat running just right there next to the vent. Yep. Just blowing on them. No, I made my cats step outside yesterday for one second so they understand and appreciate the inside. That’s what I did. I’m like, “Get out here right now.” And they ran back inside. That was really weird. Uh anyway, uh my heating is up for the challenge because I call Four Seasons. You should get your Four Seasons furnace tuneup today. And if you happen to need a new one, you could save up to 4,000 on furnaces right now. Four Seasons Heating, Air Conditioning, Plumbing, and Electric. They’ve been serving Chicago land for over 50 years. Your trusted local experts are Four Seasons Heating, Air Conditioning, Plumbing, and Electric. Visit Four Seasons Heatingcooling.com for all their special offers and money-saving coupons. That’s fourseasons heatingcooling.com. And a shout out to our new sponsor, Brunt Workware. Let’s go. Look at these things. This is right up my alley right here. Give me that shoe. Give me that shoe. Wearing these. You’re going to put them on. All right, fine. You can put it on. Look, the these boots right here, they are built for the toughest job sites in the planet for our construction man Greg Brags, which we’re trying to get him to go back and do that for a career. And then uh You want these? Yeah. And uh we’re also thinking about just even you could have been out there in the snow with those and and you wouldn’t even felt any of the snow either because they’re waterproof. How do they feel? Perfect. They’re 11s. Can anybody That’s my shoe size. So I’m going to wear these out today. There you go. Look, uh the the look I mean just the best quality going on right there. Their founder, his name is Eric Gerard. He grew up blueco collar. He started Brunt. Wanted to hook up his friends in the trades. Why is this table so far away? It’s a good thing you got long legs. It’s not I mean there’s a good fashioner, but it’s not just a fashion brand. That is That thing is a functional great boot that you need in your life. Needed them when I was shoveling yesterday. You did. Temps are dropping. The holidays coming up. Time to treat yourself to the hardworking man in your life to some real comfort. Skip the, you know, the throwaway gifts and get him something built to last. Brunt Workware. Our listeners, you get $10 off the entire order with the code cho at checkout. That’s bruntwork.com. Use code chgo. Order today and let them know you heard it here on the show. Bruntworkware. You look good, Hog. Look at that. I just made him reappear. That’s amazing. Uh, it’s a it’s a new set design for us. Right when we get off here, we can put on the boots and go shovel the alley. What do you think? Greg’s been on his phone for an hour and a half. He’s He’s got something big going on over there. I Well, no, I’m not. I’m taking care of things. Just Just Well, embellish. Act like you’re doing something super important. You’re texting with polls. What are you doing? I’m not texting with polls. To start the show, I was retweeting the show and posting the link. You’re texting with Kevin Warren. You’re getting a stadium deal done. Yeah, that’s what I’m doing. Thank you. In the region. There’s no chance Greg’s getting that done. You’re ordering Taco Bell. Your best Taco Bell order ever. for the whole thing to fall out in January once we get through this calendar year with the stadium and on tonight so we can move it to the region. Okay. Hey Indiana, let’s go. If you’re leaving Chicago space and opportunity. Yeah. All right. Let’s go. Hog. Adam Hog has done work behind Well, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You have. So, the last three weeks I’ve been trying to figure out a better way to sort of chart and analyze what Caleb’s doing from a quarterback perspective. You know, when it comes to, you know, you could look at the numbers in the pass in the we look at passer rating, we look at, you know, completion percentage and obviously the head coach has challenged him to a 70% completion percentage, which isn’t really realistic. Then you look at a game like Sunday where I counted five drops. I know I think PFF counted six. It’s just even that’s a little subjective. So it’s like how do you quantify all this? So over the last three games I’ve been trying to look at a couple different things. I mean the but the main two are accuracy and decision making. But within that there’s you know like when I brought this up to Stephen earlier he’s like well how are you counting the throwaways right? Or like he actually took two sacks in the game. There were zero sacks, but he did take two sacks. Both were wiped out by penalty. So, did he happen to miss somebody wide open on one of those plays? Because if he had seen that, completed it, then you would decline the penalty and you would actually get a big game. Like, so the really what you need to look at is the amount of dropbacks in a game. So, I counted 44 dropbacks when it was all said and done against the Giants. Okay, we look at accuracy. So, I’m trying to come up with an accuracy score. Here’s what it looks like. So ultimately 32 throws where you’re actually taking a look at accuracy because I’m not going to count a throwaway as an inaccurate pass because he’s making a decision which gets us to a decision- making here in a second. 32 passes which are great accurate not accurate or was it at least catchable sort of a middle ground um which you get kind of like half percentage for that. So came out with 75% of those 32 throws were what I would call accurate, which you take that um last week, believe it or not, it was actually higher. Um which we’ll show in a second as well, just kind of how this looks over the last three games. Um the accuracy of these three games is actually the lowest, but still more than acceptable. The the decision score this week was super interesting to me. Um cuz I think we all came out of the game feeling like Caleb played really well. And by the way, there’s no change to that because he did. And I’m going to get into that in a second. But I’m trying to look at qu I’m trying to quantify, okay, when you actually have moments in the game where you have to make a a decision. Do I throw this or not? Am I going here to this read or that read? Am I making a good decision or a bad decision? Because not all plays are created equal from that standpoint. So take a look at this to give you an idea of all the different things that can happen within one play, right? You can have a good decision, you have a bad decision, check down, which also a lot of times you consider a good decision, but that’s not quite the same as like ripping a throw to a wide open guy over the middle for 20 yards. So there’s different levels to it. Then you have your scheme plays, right? Like if I’m dropping back and I know this is a screen over here to the left quick screen, then that’s that’s what I would call one read schemed up play. So that just gives you an idea of how these are all a little bit different. So we have 34 total plays where we’re looking at decisions here. 19 good decisions, six check checkdowns I counted against the Giants, nine uh bad plays, bad decisions, which see which surprised me a little bit when it was all said and done that he made nine bad decisions in this game. To compare that to last week against the Bengals, I had him at three, only three. And against the Ravens, I had them with six. Okay? So, and and I’ll give you a couple examples. I don’t know if you guys have any questions on this or not, but So, to be clear, you just did the last three games, not the whole season. Correct. I want to finish once we get um I’m probably go back at the end of the season and I’m digesting all the information. And then I guess my next question would be like to me the accuracy one I think is is probably an I don’t know if easier is the right word but maybe a more fair breakdown but when you’re deciphering the decisions from good decision to bad decision. How much are you acknowledging that you may or may not know what the reads are like you know where as he what the progression read is 100%. Um well one of it just comes from experience like I think I’m at this point I can diagnose which ones are the scheme plays the check down um leaving scheme plays off of it. Well the thing is when you watch the film you can see the reads that he’s going through, especially from the end zone angle where he’s looking on the field. So now, is it possible that he’s going through the reads the wrong way? Pro? Yeah, but probably not. I mean I mean probably not. Um and then yes, there are I’ll give you an example like there are plays I highlight. So um then you ask questions. You you find out from the head coach or you go in the locker room during the week and you say, “Hey, I was a little confused on this even off the record. Can you tell me what was supposed to happen? I brought up one of these on Hogan John’s yesterday. You know that first drive, fourth down, he throws to DJ Moore. He scrambles off to the right, fires a missile down the right sideline in the end zone. That was maybe a a catchable ball. It wouldn’t have been the easiest catch in the world. How do I It’s not a drop. If if people were counting that as a drop, that’s ridiculous. Keep going. Right. I I I put drop question mark on that one. What I noticed though is as I’m watching the film, I think he actually had DJ Moore open earlier in the play, which would have been within his normal progression standing in the pocket and right at about the time where he could have hit DJ coming over the middle, which might have been a post, whatever it was. It seemed like the window opened up there. He’s feeling a little bit of backside pressure and that’s when he decides to scramble. Now later in the play as he’s scrambling to the right, as he makes that decision to throw it and try to get a touchdown out of it. Remember it’s fourth down. Luther Burden’s guy fell down and Luther Burton’s standing there basically four or five yards beyond the the first down marker wide open. A much easier throw. first down moved the chains and instead Caleb went to the end zone on what could have been a touchdown. Arguably one of the best throws of the year by any quarterback. So, how do you grade that, right? Like, how do you Well, guess what the head coach said yesterday? Should have hit DJ Moore earlier in the play. That was the read. That’s what I thought he had time to make it. That’s what we want to see. I I mean I don’t want to bottom line this to a very basic level, but the bottom line is it’s a very talented quarterback who is still finding his way. That’s what’s going on right now. I think that’s really what I what I’m hearing of what you’re doing, right? and and but the the the reason why I wanted to have this discussion and why I’m purposely not looking at the comments right now because I don’t want people to feel like I’m killing the guy because I’m I’m not because this is the I don’t even think conundrum is the right word of Caleb Williams. This is the talent of Caleb Williams. So that’s one example where that gets marked down as a bad decision and the head coach confirms it. We want him to make that throw. And he didn’t even mention the the shorter check down option to Burton there instead of firing one a missile into the end zone. You know the 29 yard scramble he had where he got down to the one yard line. Yeah. I couldn’t believe that was the longest run of his career. I would have sworn the run the run in London was longer. That is that is surprising. It would have been longer in London, but he just fell down in the middle of the field. Even that one was long though. But go ahead. Yeah. Whoever’s saying show your math hog. It’s literally I we put it on the screen. Don’t get m get bothered. You said you weren’t going to read the chat. That’s my job. Get stay away from Staylor and Waldorf. He’s he’s dangerous. 29 yard scramble wide open checked out. I mean DeAndre Swift is standing there wide open in the middle of the field. Probably gain of 10 12 yards or whatever. Who was in the who was the checkown? DeAndre Swift just standing right there in the middle of the field completely unchecked. And it’s like if if Caleb had then scrambled and gotten sacked there, that would have been a play that we talked about like all week as like a massive fup by the quarterback because he didn’t hit his checkdown, tried to scramble instead. He’s holding on to the ball too long, all these things. But because he’s superhuman, he turns that into an amazing scramble for 29 yards. So this is this is and then later by the way he makes what and I’m going to break this down in my insider analysis column with Johnzy. The best throw of the day for me was the Luther Burden throw at the end of the game. Yep. Anticipation. Incredible anticipation. It was a great route by Burden. It everything about that was the timing, the rhythm, the accuracy was all great. And so this is why the the third thing that we that I’m that I’m judging here, we got accuracy and decision making, but something I’ve been doing for years since Mitch Trabiscy was the quarterback here, become a die hard and whatnot, is Thank you, Greg. Thank you, Greg. is actually um give a grade because like I don’t I don’t need to well actually I am I’m going to quote the great Hawk Harelson right now TWWTW the will to win. Well, right because at that point in the game when you want to talk about decision, passing up the check down on Swift or on the final touchdown of the game, even Cole said it in the interview. I was expecting the ball. Then was behind him as the second read coming across and he was open for a touchdown. But at that point in the game, Swift had dropped a ball. Manungai had dropped a ball. Uh Rome had dropped a couple balls. AlamDay had dropped three balls it felt like. So, it’s hard to say he should have hit the checkdown when he got the 29 yards himself, when he got the touchdown himself. And he at that point can’t how can you blame him for not trusting his receivers who had the most drops as a unit in a game for any team in the NFL this season? Yeah, but I don’t think that was it. He he he saw an opportunity, wanted he knew he could take it to the house or he thought he could. But I also think it is a vibe thing that the the for whatever reason the chemistry with the passing game was not happening. But but that’s where I think there’s a difference between the two scrambles. So I gave him a bad decision on the um check. He failed to throw the checkdown and then he scrambled for 29 yards. When you have a wide open checkdown like that without an obvious run in front of you like that’s got I guarantee you they’re in the quarterback room saying that that was a hell of a play. Hit the checkdown please. Because when he decided to go on the move there was no obvious touchdown in front of him when he made that decision. the difference between that one and the one late. And by the way, I still gave him a positive grade on the play because he ran for 29 yards. That’s where I’m getting to here where it’s not we have to look at all these things sort of independently. Is the ball accurate? Is the decision good? And then did he still do something positive at the end of the day? So, he got a bad decision grade on that one, but his overall grade was still positive on that play. However, I didn’t mark him for a bad decision when he decided not to throw it to Cole KT or Lame to see it Zakias because as you just said, Karm, there wasn’t there was still an obvious opportunity for him to run forward and pick up yards and it turned out to be a touchdown. So, I’m not going to say that’s a bad decision to pass up the throw. And obviously, he had the numbers on his side because Brian Burns completely bit on the play there, which was an incredible fake by Caleb on that play, too. and he knows he’s got Cole to turn around and block, which Cole did his job. So, just to sort of wrap this all up real quick when it comes down to it. So, the decision score was lower this week, but his the actual grade I gave him was a 10. And there’s a summary from the three games that I’ve looked at here, right? So, decision score a little bit lower than last week. The grade last week was an 11. the Giants game, it’s a 10. So, it’s actually a dip below, but it’s still those are those uh to translate that for you, an 11 and a 10 is blue chip player. When we talk about my tiers that I was doing, the roster tiers earlier in, you know, in the offseason, like that’s a So, he played like a blue chip player the last two weeks. So, that’s what I’m getting at. We’re like, I’m not knocking the guy. Can he play Can he make some better decisions? Ben Johnson said as much in his press conference yesterday, but at the end of the day, the guy still put the team on his back and made some incredible plays to get a victory against the Giants. And that’s what you want to be. That’s where you want to live in this world where you have your franchise quarterback. And I guarantee you, you know, at this point in Josh Allen’s career, well, maybe they are this week because they lost to the Dolphins, but most weeks they’re probably not nitpicking every single decision the guy’s making because he’s an MVP type player who, you know, is just going to will your team to victory most weeks. And that’s what you want to get to. And that’s what Caleb did on Sunday. Think you did a great job going through it there, Adam. and uh just confirms what my brilliant analysis has been telling everybody every week, which is that he’s an extremely talented quarterback. That’s that is is developing and a normal progression and there’s nothing abnormal about what’s going on right now other than the fact that there’s winning games in the fourth quarter like uh which is godlike. So, that’s been sweet. Mhm. You don’t need to be so uh I know there’s a lot of sensitivity out there, but as a quarterback whisperer, I you know, I think you just confirmed what I’ve been talking about. Really? What do you think, Greg? I think you’re an idiot. No, I look man, you of course on any project. Well, the best thing would have been to go there, but he could have gone there and then he did this. Was it a positive play? Yes, it was. Was that perfect? Well, maybe not. But does it really matter? Bears uh they picked up a first down, they got a touchdown, whatever it is. Uh you know, the play the player who runs it in doesn’t go to Cole. That one actually hooked that reminded me of of seventh grade after school sports. I had Slutzky open in front of me. I could have gone to Slutzky, but I was like, it’s Slutzky. And Slutzky was a sureanded guy. Slutsky could make the play, but I’m like, you know what? These legs are sweet. Was that really the name? Yeah, I was about to say like I I I question that this is a real person or just you trying to use a reason to say the word slutsky. Joey Slutzky was a real person. Look it up. Well, we did learn Scrod is real. Of course. Poor guy. Slutzky right now. I don’t know what he’s doing. He’s probably poor guy gives us a super chat on the post game and then he’s getting goofed on. He’s coming to the tailgate now. Slutsky. He probably had a rough go of it throughout school. Goofed. Scrot wasn’t goofed on. He was be He became iconic. That’s what happened to Scrody. An an iconic an iconic Scroy. He’s an iconic Scroy. What you put that dude put a super chat and send in a text to a radio station or something. You think they talk about him like that? Here. He’s a hero. Everybody’s going to remember Scrody now. Scrody’s a thing. We turned Scroyd into a thing. You’re I mean I Scrody owes us his life. And so does Slutzky, by the way, for what I’ve done for him today. I have no comment. I’m Hey, I thought this was tough. Normally Finley, Guy Finley irritates me in the chat, but this is actually a great uh and I love Guy Finley. Uh great die hard who I’ve had great conversations with drives me crazy in the chat, but I think this is a great comment by him. maybe his first in a while, but he says, “This reminds me of Dead Poet Society where we’re going to assign a mathematical score to poetry. Caleb is playmaking poetry like Favre was as a gunslinger. You accept the risk and ride with him.” And I think that’s a good balance. Like I think that’s great homework, but I also I think it also shows where you’re saying you gave a bad grade for the decision, but a good grade overall. the poetry that that Guy Finley is talking about there that there is some things you have to accept and Ben Johnson talked about that yesterday that not wanting to take that away from him because if you’re going to praise him for how many sacks he avoided and he’s from a sack avoidance metric standpoint been one of the best quarterbacks in the league which is an unbelievable turnaround considering the 68 sacks he took last year. Then you can’t also say, “Well, don’t do this uh on certain plays when he’s saving you on plays that get blown up from a protection.” You don’t want to take that away from him. You you don’t want to take that um crazy playmaking ability that he has. And and like that that 29 yard scramble to me is like the perfect example. The guy completely misses his check out like and an obvious like gain or check not just like check down to be safe and get a couple yards like it probably would have been a first down check down but he got but he made a better play out of it somehow. Right. It almost turned into a touchdown. Yeah. No, but I’d also like to not see him get hit the way he did. That was when I said he didn’t take a bad hit. All that was actually That was a bad hit. I And I you know so even there Dark got put out of the game for a similar hit. Exactly. And and and those will add up over time. So that is I don’t even want to say risk and reward because you know he takes really good care of the football for the most part and he doesn’t takes hard hits. Yeah. Yeah. So but you know you do hold your breath sometimes when you when he’s running around. Um but I just sorry K real quick I just to explain sort of the reasoning for this a little bit more. I admittedly raising my hand, this is part of the trap that I would fall into sometimes with Triscy and with Justin Fields, putting too much EF. So the I mentioned in there the grades I’ve been doing forever and it’s not that complicated. Great plays are worth two, good plays worth one, a lot of zeros that are just no grades. Minus one for a bad play, minus two for a really bad play, you know, like think about like your back breaking turnovers and things like that. And sometimes you would have these games where the accuracy wasn’t good, the decision-m wasn’t good, but Trabiscy would scramble and like do this and that. Remember the year his QBR was actually like fourth in the league. He had like I think it was 2018 he like the fourth highest QBR in the entire league. But I don’t know that anybody’s sitting there watching the tape going be like, “Yeah, this guy’s a franchise quarterback.” You know what I mean? I might have said that. What? He definitely after after the Tampa Bay game, he definitely said it. Have you ever seen I buy a six? You said it. I know. You definitely It was an incredible display that day. Yeah, you definitely you had him in the Hall of Fame. You would have thought the Messiah had shown up at Soldier Field that day. The point I’m getting at is there was a lot of games where the accuracy wasn’t great, decision-m wasn’t great. you would still give them an overall score and you would fall into this trap of, oh, we have our guy, when you really don’t. But those games are okay as long as they’re not what you’re living and dying on every single week. Does that make sense? Absolutely. So then I can go back to last week’s game against the Bengals where the grades high, the decision-m’s high, the accuracy is high all across the board. That was a great game, you know, but it didn’t have and it still had the TWWTW. There we go. you know, at the end, which is crazy cuz they were showing a lot of behind thescenes stuff, the NFL films and the Bears shared, and he was absolutely exhausted as somebody else said chat, uh, those last two drives, and still had enough to push over the top to get the touchdown. I will also say from the behindthe-scenes stuff they showed from the miked up guys, I I know we talk a lot of Tyson Bean, your guy, but man, do I love Case Keenum. He’s awesome. Case Keenum has to stay on this team. You can see how important he is to that quarterback room and how important he is to Caleb Williams. There was a few times they showed him gassing him up on the sidelines or talking to him in the way that he needed to. Case Keenum was a great pickup for the Bears. Underrated one. That good underlining. That was impressive. He’s was building them up in a big time way. Uh all right to end the show. Hold on. Are you ready? You got something you want to end? Well, I think we need to bring up Asante Samuel on the way out. Okay. Well, all right. I’ve got something that I just want to get to. But do something stupid or serious. If I was doing a meeting right now, I’d say, is this a stupid way to end the show or which we could still do, but I would like to get to the serious thing first. Do the Asante, then we’ll do the best ending that you could ask for on a day like today. Well, as you see here, Jeremy Fowler reported last week uh that Asante Samuel Jr. uh had a bunch of free agency uh scheduled visits. Uh and so this started last week. He’s already been to the P Panthers, then the Packers last Thursday, Vikings last Friday, 49ers yesterday, and today Asante Samuel Jr. is at Hall, at least reportedly, and then the Steelers tomorrow. I guess word is he’s going to go through all of these meetings before he ultimately comes down to a decision. But it’s an interesting one and maybe somebody that can help this secondary room. But I would also say that if they do sign him, maybe that gives you a peak behind the curtain on how confident they are Jaylen and or Kyler or how quick they could come back if at all. Yeah, there’s a little bit of that for me. I think there a lot of variables to this. One is, you know, how healthy is he? Spinal fusion surgery. That’s significant. A serious deal and not a lot of, you know, that’s scary. So, uh, I would say most guys do not return to being the same player after that procedure. Um, and so these medicals, you know, I think he’s approaching it well from his side of being like, I’m going to visit everybody, see what my market is. Maybe that drives up the price a little bit if you can create a bidding war. On the other hand, how many of these teams are going to be like, I don’t feel comfortable with this. We’re not even going to offer anything. So, that’s that’s a huge part of it. Um, and then in terms of what it means for the Bears if they do offer him and reading into I the only thing I wouldn’t rule out is if if he checks out medically, he’s a good player. I think you could look at it being like, well, in the meantime, he might as good as Nan Wright’s been and I’ve been singing his praises as just like what he’s been doing. Any opportunity you can have to upgrade, I think you got to take it seriously. So, it could all you could also look at it like that, right? and and somebody that a player to that caliber isn’t always available this time of year, but obviously the extingu extenuating circumstances dictate that. I see Gary in the chat saying that it would take him a few weeks to ramp up. And I think that’s another part of the equation. The idea that he’d be able to kind of drop in like CJ Gardner Johnson has and immediately make an impact is not realistic, especially with what he’s coming back from, but also CJ’s familiarity with Dennis Allen. Santi Samuel Jun Jr. doesn’t have that. So, I think those are things you got to take into account as well. Bear’s doing the right thing, kicking the tires, and if he checks out medically, and you want to take a spin at it, I I’d have no problem with it. I do want one of you guys. Don’t give me a look because whatever you have I promise is stupid. I do want one of you guys or somebody please to try to get any kind of an update on Kyler or Jaylen. Okay. If they if if I don’t know he what what do you think they’re going to say? He’s been giving an update every week. Do you guys not watch the press conference? What do you Who How would you go about getting that? He said I I just said more than but I keep hearing this asked him lately. I He he got asked twice, do you think? How long do you think he’s going to be out? He said it’s going to be the short-term variety. He made it very clear he could be back after 4 weeks. It’s not that was a couple weeks ago. I know, but what has changed? It hasn’t been four weeks. We’re getting closer now. So, we want a new update. We want a new update. Okay, I’ll ask. People ask me to find out. You guys are the ones that are asking. So, you guys find out in front of some of the stupid questions being asked in there and ask about Kyler and Jaylen. Okay. Okay. Uh, I told you Jaylen was in the locker room a couple weeks ago. Hawks is Hawks is coming up. We got to go. And we got super chats. 9999 from Greg Bags Jr. Last time I was this happy was 2018. All I want for Christmas is a winning record and beat the Packers. Hog Jordan love. Hog Jordan love is bad. Uh, what’s FTP? F the Packers. F the Packers. Thank you. Love the sweatshirt. Bryce Karma is the goat. Psych. Bear down. bags. Uh, bags. Kevin Majeski. Majeski doesn’t look like that. I don’t see a ski on the end of that. Looks like a maj a Mac. Uh, read it. Kevin, you’re the man. Can can agree. Can’t agree. Can’t agree. Green Bay is very winnable now. Time to put an end to the Green Bay rain over us at Green Bay. It’s not good when Greg’s reading better than you are. No, that’s a And maybe Kev speaks Majooki better than I do. Uh, but that’s a good But hey, absolutely. They’re getable. I hear you. Bear Talk Show. Five bucks. My dog is getting put to rest tomorrow. That’s brutal. Happy to have a podcast like you guys to help deal with that today. Bear the f down. Don’t you dare start laughing. What are you laughing? I laughed at because how he said that’s brutal. Well, it is. Caleb Willy’s 18 is is and will be the goat. Sorry about doing that, man. It’s There is honestly nothing harder than putting your pup down. Believe me, the only thing I like in this life is Poppy. So, that’s horrible. Um I hope I hope Shout out to Jackie. That was depressing, too. I mean, you know. No, but it is. It’s It’s a It’s a tough one, man. So, we’ll be thinking about you, Jonathan. The Is that our guy Joing? Uh Jo, fan of the year. Awesome show today, gentlemen. Happy Veterans Day to all that served, past and present, including you, Jonathan. You’re the man. Uh Karm, can we get some tootses? Have a great day, everyone. And bear down. I don’t have any tootses for you today, but I do have this because Guy Finley’s out here with his poetry. So, I just wrote a poem over here while you guys were talking about whatever you’re talking about. Ready? Here we go. Back to throw. What to do? Open, close, wide, open, fleeting the moment, now and gone. Run with wind against the gale. Win lose, the game begins and never ends. Caleb, thank you for watching. Blackhawks is next. [Music] [Applause] We all s like the mayor.

Chicago Bears Tight End Cole Kmet joins the CHGO Bears Podcast on today’s episode! Cole talks about how it feels to be winners of 6 of their last 7 games ahead of a rematch with the Minnesota Vikings. Plus, Cole reveals the name of his trick play versus the Cincinnati Bengals and how that play came to be. Later, Adam Hoge debuts a new segment ‘Caleb’s Report Card’ where he dives deeper into Caleb Williams’ performances by analyzing each of his dropbacks. Join Adam Hoge, Mark Carman and Greg Braggs Jr. on the CHGO Bears Podcast.

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