Where The Chicago Bears Have the BIGGEST Edge Over the Packers | w/ Jurko

Where The Chicago Bears Have the BIGGEST Edge Over the Packers | w/ Jurko

Bat on Bears fans. Another edition of the Chicago Bears podcast coming your way. Pat the designer John Ukovich back in the building. Good kid. It’s Packer Week. It is Packer Week. Bears. Animosity in the streets. Well, cats are chasing dogs. The Bears are uh leading us and the division. Usually the hammer doesn’t have a rivalry with the nail. Yeah. And because Green Bay has kicked the Bears ass for such a long period of time, basically the last 30 years, uh, they’ve been 30, let’s go, even more, 32 years. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 93 they went Packers went 2-0. 94 they went 2-0. 95 they went 2-0 against the uh You were on some of those teams. Yeah. Against Chicago Bears. So, let’s do that. Let’s do it. The last 32 years, uh, the ass has been handed to the Chicago Bears. So, it’s great to see the Bears in a position uh where they’re in first place here at 9 and three. The Bears uh the Packers at 83 and one. A game that means something. A Bears offensive line that’s certainly getting after it. A Bears running game that’s certainly getting after it. And you’re going to go up there with confidence. Yeah, you’ve won nine of your last 10. You’re going to go up to confidence. And this is the first time I think the the the Packers going to see something like this. So, you know, you got to like they did last week, you kind of got to beat them into some submission. They did a good job against the Philadelphia defensive line. I think this is going to be equally as challenging. The benefit Green Bay gets is they saw it happen on film. Yeah, they they know what’s coming and they can prepare themselves. There’s some adjustments that are happen. They can prepare themselves, which is the little bit of an advantage the Green Bay Packers have. Uh but I but I am sure I am sure uh the Chicago Bears going to bring a formidable game plan in there. They’re going to want to control the clock. They’re going to want to limit the amount of touches and drives that are going to be available in this football game. I don’t think you’re going to see 15 drives a piece right in this game. I think you’re going to see it limited to about 10 and 10. And then you’re going to have to be productive in the 10 drives that you get offensively. And if you could steal a couple via the turnover, that’d be fantastic. Listen, you talk about advantages, that’s what we’re going to talk about here today. I’ve got three advantages I want to talk to you that I feel the Chicago Bears have coming into this game. We’ll touch on that. And of course, got to put a little uh would you rather in there? I know that’s a that’s a little game. Would you rather have this? Well, that’s would you rather have that. That’s a game Sylvia Waddle play. Yeah. Yeah. We’re taking it today. Would you Yeah. Would you rather taking it today? It’s a team game, right? It’s an ESPN Chicago game. Sure. We’re We’re going to take Don’t worry about that. All that more in today’s episode of the Chicago Bears podcast. Hit the like button, subscribe to the page, lead a fivestar view. Y’all know what to do. Today’s episode brought to you by Underdog. Make picks, win money. Jerk, you want to tell us about Mitch Lions? Absolutely. Mitch Lionswealth.com. Uh Mitch, win, grow, uh grow, and win retirement. That’s what we want to do. That’s what we’re looking to do. Uh mitchwealth.com. He played in the NFL, played for the Steelers and the Atlanta Falcons. He’s a guy that chewed some of the same dirt I did. Uh he does a wonderful job. But go on to his website, get his book, Retirement of Steel, read it, figure out everything that you need to have before you retire. That way you can game plan for it. Good man. Good man. Good kid. Shout out to Mitch Lions. Make sure to tap in with everything he’s got going over there. All right. I got three advantages that I think the Chicago Bears bring into this game, Euro. And uh it it is based off of what we’ve seen honestly since the byee, but it feels more real after what we watched in Philly. Uh number one, I think is the obvious one. This run game to me feels like it’s a run game that no matter the scenario, people keep saying, “Oh, you’re not going to be able to do this top five run defense up in Green Bay or I think there’s six now after what went down last Sunday. You’re not going to be able to run the football the same way. Since the byee, the Bears, and Karm gave this stat out yesterday on you guys show, the Bears have averaged 180 yards a game running the football. Now, there’s some popup games that make that number a little bit more inflated, but the Bears have been a pretty regularly dominant running team, and I think that speaks to an advantage over a team that has Michael Parsons on the other side. Right. The problem I think Philadelphia had last week was they started to freelance and they started to play uh not within themselves. So guys after they were victimized with the ball being run against them, guys tried to do too much. And in trying to do too much, they were doing very little. So they got out of what they usually do as a defense. I don’t think the Packers are going to get out of the norm of what they do. They’re going to watch and they’re going to see Philadelphia’s defensive line self-destruct. I don’t think the Green Bay Packers are going to do that. I think the the Green Bay Packers are going to play their heavy form of defense they like. They’re not going to run out of anywhere, you know, with their head cut off, hellbent for election. I think they’re going to play their solid defense. They like to play. They like to get in. They like to penetrate uh get into a guy and they don’t over penetrate. They don’t get crazy and then they they stay the course and they wait to see where the ball’s going to commit to and then they break off and they try to make a play on it. So these guys you might have to outflank. These guys you might have to go down down get around the perimeter get guys caught up in the wash. But I don’t know how much you’re going to be able to go left and think you’re going to be able to cut the ball back in. I think if you go left, you’re going to have to continue to go left, right? If you go right, I think you’re going have to continue to go right. You might be able to get a gash here or there, but I think this team’s going to be a little bit more disciplined than the Philadelphia Eagles were. Like I said, the Eagles when things are going great, that defense is fantastic. When things started to go sideways a little bit, I think everybody started to freelance. And then when everybody started to freelance, that became a problem. So, it’ll be a little bit more difficult, but not impossible against the Green Bay Packers. Do you think that this this run game will travel up to Lambo versus, like you said, a defense that may be a little bit more disciplinary? All run games travel. passing games you got a concern with because of weather and things like that, but all run games travel. So, I think they’re going to travel. I just think the quality of the defense and the discipline of the defense is a little bit different than what we saw in Philadelphia, right? And again, that only happened because of the success that the Bears had against Philadelphia. I think they kind of started to implode after that. Then, and gap integrity and and discipline went out the window by Philadelphia against the Chicago Bears. I that’s not going to happen. I believe with with the Green Bay Packers doesn’t mean they’re not going to be run on, right? Doesn’t mean you’re not going to have success running against those guys. It just I think they’re a little better equipped now being forewarned on what the Bears are doing, but I still think the Bears going to find a way to be successful, but they might have to do it via the air a little bit too. Yeah. So, it’s going to be a combination of the two. Quarterback’s going to have to be a little bit better. He’s going to complete near. I hope that he’s completes near about 65% of his balls. His receivers don’t disappoint him. Uh, but I like the way the Bears play. I like the way they run the ball. They kind of hit you in the submission. Yeah. And really their thing then doesn’t really start until the second half because you hit, you hit, you hit, you pound, you pound, you pound. Takes for a while. It takes a while for the guy to say, “You know what? This stinks. I’m sick of getting hit. Let me see if I can avoid this a little bit. Let me see if I can swim up over the top and not have to get my head pounded in here.” So, uh, but I think there’s a chance for the Bears to be successful. It’s going to be a close game 100%. They’re going to be battling back and forth. One key interception, one key fumble, one key strip. Uh either way might be the thing that sends it up over the top. And and that is my advantage number two. Good kid. You’re doing a great job just leading me into these today. You are phenomenal right now. I’m a pro. Yeah, he’s he’s he’s been doing this a while. Uh my sec my second advantage I feel the Bears have if this is a close game, if this is a clutch game, we have seen Jordan Love wilt in those games in moments, right? Usually when we look at the end of the season and we look at the interception total, we go, “Ah, the interception total is not that bad.” But when you look at the games that they come from, the moments in those games, there’s a lot of those times where it’s in the biggest moment of the game. When it comes to clutch factor right now, in a close game, I would say that advantage this season, I’m not saying forever, is right now in the Chicago Bears favor with what you’ve seen from Caleb in the fourth quarter and with what we’ve seen from this defense being able to take the football away. All right. And I’m going to let you know, too, the weather’s going to affect both teams. doesn’t just affect the Bears. It’s going to affect the Green Bay Packers, too. It’ll affect receivers. Receivers don’t like catching cold footballs. Uh if it’s going to be 15 to 10 degrees up there, uh nobody’s going to be overjoyed and thrilled with that. But you still got to find a way to perform. I always say keep the body core and the temperature exactly where you need to keep it. And that’s 98.6 degrees. So, whatever you need to get or whatever you need to wear to get that to where it is, do it. Uh, so if you’re a wide receiver and you’ve got to put sleeves on, put your sleeves on. There’s no there’s no bravery. We frown on that. There’s no no there’s no there’s no there’s no nothing. I remember watching the Raiders come out bare armed and me laughing at him trying to Well, I had a bicycle I had a hind bicycle suit that went from my wrist all the way down to my ankles, covered my whole body, and then had a long sleeve shirt on. Did you have the over part that No, I didn’t have the over. I didn’t look like Frozone. That would have been great. That’s what I was hoping for. I didn’t look like Frozone from Mr. Incredible, you know, or the Incredibles. Incredible. No, I didn’t have that. Just had it went around the neck and boom, you could see a little bit of it in that game. It was 0 degrees outside, minus 20 with the windchill. And uh we I had Vaseline on my toes and every time I put them in the heater, it’d get that Vaseline hot. And by the time I got back on the field, it kept me warm the whole time. Just enough to where we got off the field and I got to put my feet back into the heater again. Here’s here. So, you got to be smart. You got to be smart playing in cold weather. Yeah. You know the to me guys that go out there and they’re bare skin, if that’s what you want to do and you want to punish yourself, feel free. Go ahead. You’re a tough guy. Congratulations. Me, I want my body temperature as close to 98.6 as it can possibly be. I’m going to be comfortable all day. That way I can function at my highest level. Period. So, whatever each individual needs, if you go out there bare armed, good for you. If you don’t, I don’t care. Good kid. Here’s what always throws me on the you go out there bare armed to prove you’re you’re as tough in the cold as the team that plays in the cold. When they then go put a coat on on the sideline, it’s like you could have just wore sleeves. You could have been warm today. Now I get it if it’s the culture of your team. Jac has said, you know, guys would go out there and try and wear sleeves when when he was on the team and Olen Kroos would rip the sleeves down and say go in there and take that undershirt off and come back out. That’s the culture that you set. That’s a different thing. Sometimes it is though. like I’m trying to be tougher. I’m proving I’m tough out here. And then you’re freezing and you have a terrible day. I listen, it’s different strokes for different folks. Some guys going to do things uh no matter what and other people are smarter. It’s okay. And other people are just smarter. What a what a great line. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t mind. I mean, that’s like going out there and saying, “Oh, you got to wear seven studs.” But that day I wore turf shoes. Yeah. On a field. I had the best traction of the whole of everybody out there. My traction was the best. Why? Because I went out there with a number of different pairs of shoes. I went through full speed activities and found that these triple cone turf shoes that we wear in the rain were good for a frozen field in the end of December in Lambeau Field. So, you go out and you test it, you find out what’s best for you. Yeah. Sterling went with 3/4 uh seven studs, right? Okay. That’s for him, right? He was playing out on the perimeter where the heating coils in the old Lambo field, they weren’t uh the heating coils went out to a certain spot and that kind of helped him with the field a little bit, get a little bit of penetration with those three/4er studs, right? That’s what he felt he could operate the best in. So, whatever each individual goes out, tests their shoes, boom. But bring your other pair out just in case your synopsis was wrong, they’ll bring another pair of shoes out. That way if you got to find a way to play better, you play better with another pair of shoes on. That’s fine. But you got to go test it out. I had the best traction of anybody out there. I was flying around. Two and a half sacks, nine tackles. Oh my god. Look. Look. You kidding me? The only double digit sack day I ever had in my life. I actually had three and a half sacks, but they said there was a forward pass. I stripped it out of the quarterback’s head. They didn’t give it to me. I’m like, come on. Did they get you to fumble but not to sack? No. Called an incomplete pass. It’s a ridiculous passages. And that was Hosteller. And then uh and then Vince Evans after we knocked Hosteller out of the game. We sacked him eight times that day. I had two and a half. Reggie White had two and a half. Tony Bennett had two and a half. And Bryce Pop had a half. We’re getting after him. It’s a good day. Well, it was a pretty good day. That was a born That was the birth of Lambo Leap up there, too. December 26th, 1993. Yeah. That’s when Reggie forced the fumble. flipped it back to Leroy. Leroy took it all the way in. Even though Reggie’s foot was out of bounds. No instant replay back in the day. That’s the makeup for your strips that call. That was the makeup call. And then I’m hugging Leroy while I’m freezing my ass off on the field. Yeah. I’m not going to lie to you. You told that story on the air once uh when I was still working construction. Yeah. Went to work the next day, Vaselined up the foot. Yeah. I’m telling you. Put the sock on, threw the boot on cuz we had a heater that we could like foot near. You just put your foot near the heater. It warms up the Vaseline and then keeps your fit your foot warm for a while. Now, eventually it cools off, right? It cools off. And then you’re going to have to get back to the heater, but at least you can work in inclement temperatures. Now, I’m assuming you’re a union guy. At some point, the temperature gets to a certain area where you guys just say, “Hey, we’re calling it today.” Yeah. It gets cold enough to where you’re not operating safely enough because whatever materials you work with sometimes, you know, you get below freezing, you can still work in certain areas, but when you get to zero degrees, working in zero degree temperatures don’t make any sense. Hey, hey, good kid. Let’s just say uh I’m a union guy now. I’ve been a union guy before. At one company, I was not a union guy. And uh they worked you like was definitely out there during the polar vortex. You know what I mean? My foreman told me, he said, he said, “Listen, we have to be on site because if we’re not, we the the they’ll bring somebody else in.” yada yada yada. He said, “Go out there, turn the wrench one time, get back in here. Run out there, you turn one bolt, you and you run right back inside in the trailer.” So, I’ve been out in some cold weathers out there. I played some cold weather games. Your roof’s got more layers than the Conspiracy Podcast. Is that a sandwich rapper? Oh, yes. Vintage 1988. It really builds character. Aenddale Roofing. Inspect smarter, dig deeper, and get to the core of your roof’s health. Uh, my third advantage that I think the Bears come into this game with, and I would love to hear your opinion on this, especially with the changes that they’ve made there. Um, Jüko, can we say that the Chicago Bears have the best offensive line in football? I I can see I think you can say they have one of the best offensive line. One of the best. You’re not at the top yet. one of one of the best five. I feel like that is a force that will help the run game. It’s going to have to help the pass game. I think there’s going to have to be some tight end chipping because I would assume Micah lines up against Azie Trapillo probably a good chunk of this game here. Um, but I think this offensive line that you’re going to war with can make up for a lot of the deficiencies that we see around right now the passing game as Ben Johnson has brought up and has will continue to help that run game be dominant this week. I tell you, the wind affects uh the passing game more than the cold does. So, the wind that they had Yeah. The wind they had in Philadelphia crazy made passing the ball uh very difficult. So, if you’ve got a cold day up there, but you don’t have a ton of wind, I think you’re going to have a fine passing day. Yeah, I don’t think it’s going to be that problematic. Um, so hopefully uh the quarterback and the receivers, they could all get on the same page and good things are going to happen for the Bears. Um, I think the Bears I think the Bears they offer legitimate challenges to what uh you know what Green Bay’s been able to do defensively. I they they offer legitimate challenges and it’s going to be a a they’re going to try to knock the living age out of each other. Yeah. You talked about offensive lines. Indianapolis has still got a great offensive line. The Denver Broncos is I like Denver. They got themselves a nice offensive line. The Bears got a nice Philly too. Philly still has they little bang still got a I mean they’re not doing what they did with Saquon last year at all. And Saquon’s not doing what Saquon did last year. Um so Philly Yeah. But pay them. They’re okay. They’re okay. Uh I would say they’ve dropped down to like the 11th Okay. offense in the league. Uh other teams are just playing a little bit better than they are. Um you know, Carolina’s got a pretty good offensive line. Uh people don’t give it a ton of credit. Carolina’s got Jüko. I maybe I’m the only one that that sees it. I would assume not. I feel like the trenches are the only reason they’re seven and six. I don’t think Bryce is this phenomenal quarterback. I think that they had that game verse the Packers and I think that’s a game that the Bears need to be watching heavily. how that O line handled Micah Parsons and allowed uh uh who’s that Rico Dao to run that football that day. It it destroyed him. And it I think it’s a lot of what you said. And I’ll ask you this. When you’re doing everything right and it’s not good enough, how hard is that to overcome because that’s what it looked like the Packers were doing, right? They were doing things correctly, but it was still they were getting gashed. You know, whether it’s Rico D, which it has been, uh Chubba Hubard got hurt. Has been hurt. Yeah. Chuba had himself a game last week where he came back not only via the run but also via the pass. So they got a nice little one-two combination. Uh but yeah, when you’re doing things right and they’re still gaining yards on you, it’s a little bit frustrating and it can be frustrating. Again, I think the limited amount of possessions that each team is going to have is going to put pressure on you to be perfect and it’s going to put pressure on you to be able to get the ball into the end zone. the team that can get into the end zone is going to be the team that’s going to be in better shape than the team that has to settle for field goals or has to get off the field because they can’t convert on third down. Yeah. So, uh and if you look, their third down defense is an area that they’ve got a little bit of trouble in. Uh they give up some first downs, so that might be an area. And they also don’t take the football away. Yeah. And we don’t turn the ball over. We don’t fumble the ball. We don’t put the ball on the carpet. Every once in a while we make a bad decision at the quarterback and you throw the ball into the other team’s hands, but for the most part throwing a screen pass on a third and six or whatever that was. Yeah, if you could have got the ball to the running back, he had a chance, but unfortunately the defensive lineman was in the way. Great play. Great play. So, um, but you know, between, uh, lack of turnovers and I mean, they’ve for everything they do, you know, via the pressure on the quarterback in the sack, they’re 11th in sacks in the NFL with their main guy having 12 and a half, but they only have like 34 or 35 sacks, right? It’s it’s it’s very much less. Yeah. So, it’s not like they’re lighting the world on fire. The number one team is the Denver Broncos with 51 sacks. Yes. you know, they’re getting after the quarterback. 51 sacks means you’re averaging four sacks a week, you know. I mean, you’re doing one hell of a job getting to the quarterback. So, that’s that’s sacking the guy. And then also all the pressures that you get where you don’t get the sacks. So, their pressure rates got to be something that’s absolutely outlandish. Your problem is that you can’t get to the quarterback without bringing a blitz. And even last week against Philadelphia, you brought the blitz and you couldn’t get to the quarterback. Yeah. So, that’s your problem. you you you haven’t seen it enough and you’ve seen it’s been very much one guy, right? You’ve got they threw the long ball last week 100%. And Watson came down with a catch or two. Uh that’s the one thing we’re hopefully going to be able to compete for the football. Last week AJ Brown caught two touchdown passes. The one was underthrown. You know, he’s catching underthrown balls because we’re not getting our head around on that one. Yeah. Though you’re going and you’ve got to see the football and you’ve got to be able to adjust to the football. I think, you know, even though the the the Bears lead in interceptions, uh they still have a small issue locating the football on long balls or longer balls, uh that’s not allowing them to be able to make plays. Yeah. So maybe that’s if there’s one thing they can work on, that’d be the thing they work on. Hopefully they work on it this week. Hopefully having Jaylen back will will help with that, too. Two weeks in a row having Jaylen Johnson back. I mean, it’s been the one it’s been one guy that’s been getting picked on essentially on that. It’s Non Wright. Higgins took advantage of him. AJ Brown takes advantage of him. I mean, Nan Tyreek gets beat on the line. Well, Tyreek hasn’t played the last couple of days, but yeah, Nan Wright at least has been able to intercept the ball. Yes. Get his hands on the football, score points, strip the ball. So, he’s been a productive player even though sometimes he ends up getting victimized. Possibly a Trayvon Diggs type player. A guy who you you can beat him over the top. Yeah, I mean, you could throw the long ball on him, but he was he’s a guy that can take the football away from him, but he’s not getting beat way over the top. He’s getting beat because he’s not locating the football, right? You know, he is usually in the right spot. He’s he’s close. He’s there, but because he can’t see the football, guys are adjusting on him and making plays. So, and T. Higgins play where he came up over the crowd. That was one hell of a catch. That’s where you got good coverage and it doesn’t make a difference because the receiver, you know, found the football. But those are the guys that give him trouble. Yeah. So, that’s what the thing that he’s got to work on to make himself better. But Jaylen Johnson’s going to be there and after being beat early, Jaylen Johnson responded. Locked in. Yeah. Locked in. Beat early when he kind of looked like a fool on one play. But after that, he was locked in for the rest of the game. So, he’s fine. I I I it felt very much like it turned into don’t throw Jaylen’s way and which is what we saw from Jaylen years previously. So, very excited to see that. Uh we’ll see what this Bears team is ending ends up doing here in Green Bay. We got to continue to talk about that here on the other side. We do got to get to our underdog play. Courtney going with uh higher than 190 and a half Caleb Williams passing yards. Oh boy. After last week, that’s what she wants to do, huh? After Yeah, rough last week. Rough last week. Not Not the good kid. Just did a little disappointment right now. Well, if it hits, nobody’s going to be disappointed. Put it that way. I’ll go with Jordan Love interception. Oh, you think Jordan Love gets an interception this week? Plus 324. I like it. Or 3.24. 24, however you like. 3.24 times times x. 3.24x uh higher than.5 interceptions. Jordan love interceptions. So, I can’t wait for it to happen. That’s that’s uh is is it a clutch one? Is it a clutch one like we’ve seen him do? I hope so. You know, an end of game ceiling one. We haven’t talked about uh uh Green Bay’s running game at all. We have not. Josh Jacobs having a year. Yeah. Well, he’s having a solid year. But the kid that came in, Wilson, yeah, when he was hurt, Wilson came in. And they didn’t skip a beat either. Yeah. So, you know, oh, Josh Gate, Jacob’s this, we’re paying him a ton of money. Your backup came in there was a productive running back. So, and my might speak to the offensive line. Good kid. This is this has 110% been the year. Last year, everybody was chess because me and you have the same opinion on running backs, right? You build the offensive line, the running back comes in, you get the job done. It doesn’t matter who it is as long as the O line is good. Last year, everybody’s like, “Well, look at Saquon. Look at Henry. Look at And I’m like, well, it’s still the O line, guys. They’re giving him four yards before contact, but it’s come down to earth in a drastic way this season. He was 5.8 yards per rush last year and he’s 3.7 this year. Saquon Barkley. Uh Derrick Henry had a problem fumbling early on. Cost the Baltimore Ravens a lot of game. Might cost in the playoffs. Yeah, possibly. So, you know, you don’t know yet what’s going to happen in that AFC North. It’s a very goofy little North. I had a steak on the line. You got going on. What’s that? Got steak dinner on the line for that. Do you? When the uh Ravens were one and five. Do you have the Bengals? I No, I went I said uh the Ravens would come back and win the division over the Steelers. The guy I made the play with was a Steelers fan. He’s like, “There’s no way we lose.” And I was like, “I’ve watched Steelers footballers for the last five years, buddy.” And the Steelers were 4-2 at the time. Yeah. Uh yes. And they won that night, so they were five and two at the time. Oh, no. I remember. Yeah. Yeah, it but you I mean you got you got to recognize their running game a little bit too. So, I’m going to recognize their game. Uh I like listen people say Grady Jarrett’s a disappointment for how much money they pay him. He might be a financial disappointment, but when Grady Jarrett is in there, I feel a little bit better. Yeah. You know, and I think Billings is might playing a little bit better now. Uh Jervin, I still try to figure out what Jervin does sometimes, but he’s got four sacks on the air. He’s out there when things go well. Pressure’s gotten better. I see him cheering. So I I mean at least he’s out there. I know he can cheer. Uh and Montes, I guess, has been more productive. Yeah. Statistically. Um hopefully they play a solid team defense. And they’ve been able to get off the football field. They’ve got to be able to do that this week again. Get off the football field. Yeah. They get off the football field. You do that by taking that football away. Jordan love and the Packers got a great fan base. But if things don’t go well up there, they’ll turn on them. the way Philadelphia turned on them. I don’t know if Green Bay will turn that much. They won’t boo, but you’ll hear some silence. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It can get quiet in there. You know, quiet as a church mouse in there when things aren’t going well for them. I don’t know if they turn on and I I got booed one time in there. We were down 17 something at halftime. 173 against the Rams. Yeah. We’re coming in. Oh, we got booed. Did you Did you win that game? We got booed. We came back and made it back and made it competitive. Isaac Bruce’s rookie second year. He blocked the punt. They took it into the end zone. Um, which was part of the 173. Yeah. So, I mean, that’s how long ago it was, but we got booed and we deserve to get booed because we’re playing like crap. And when you play like crap, you get booed. That’s how it works. Billy went after him. I love it. We made Santa Claus leave. I don’t That’s got to be a highlight of the season. You made Santa lead. You made one Santa lead. You made one Santa leaf. Yeah. The Grinch never left. The Grinch was there. And then there was a mama Claus and Santa Claus. Santa and Mrs. Claus were there. an older couple and when they saw everybody leaving early, they we’re gonna stick around the whole time. You got no choice. Maybe stay another 20 minutes. We’ll make our way. Let that parking lot clear. Let everybody get the hell out of dodge. That way when we get to our car, we got ourselves a little bit of time. Hey, cuz you’re waiting and maybe even get to the car and have a cold one at the car. That’s always a good time. Yeah, it’s always a good time to wait and be patient. wait and be patient and then finally get out of there because there’s no reason to try to get out if everybody’s leaving at the end of the third quarter, beginning of the fourth quarter. Yeah. Yeah. Every everybody’s head for the dorm. No, you’re going to you might as well finish the game. Get your money’s worth. Finish the game. You got the beautiful Santa outfit on. You and the wife, wave to everybody. Have a good time. So, while there were a handful of Santaas that took off, probably trying to find the nearest pub where they can drown their sorrows. What what do you do if you walk around downtown Philly and Santa’s drunk in the at the bar after a Bears win? Say hello. Say hello. I’m feeling it. I mean, they’re still got a great record. I mean, yeah, they Well, you know, that’s how that’s how it goes. You’ve lost four times this year. It’s the worst team I’ve ever seen. I don’t know if Dallas I don’t know if Dallas is going to catch them, but um high hopes obviously Friday standalone game. Yeah. And you came out and you played that way. So, yeah, you were hoping to see a little bit more from it. We’ll see if Philly gets a bounce back this week. This is uh this is the greatest underdog ad read of all time. Download the app today. Sign in with a promo code CBP. Score $100 in bonus entries when your first $5 bet wins. That’s promo code CBP. Underdog make win money. EO cue the disclaimer. Must be 18 years or older, 19 or older in Alabama and Nebraska, 19 or older in Colorado for some games. 21 or over in Arizona, Massachusetts, and Virginia, and present in a state where underdog fantasy operates. Terms apply. See assets.underdogfantasy.com/web. underdogfantasy.com/web/playandgetter terms_dfs_.html for details. Offer not valid in Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Concerned with your play, call 1800 gambler or visit www.ncpgpambling.org in New York. Call the 247 hope at 18778NY or texty or texty 467369. Welcome back to Chicago Bears podcast. Path the designer John in the building. All right, good. You brought up the run game and and kind of what we’ve seen from this defensive line. Uh, I want to touch on that before we get to this final topic. What would your other game? Uh, what have you personally seen out of young Austin Booker? It feels like the Bears may have found something on that opposite edge of Montes sweat where he’s not getting the great sack numbers yet, but you continue to see him produce with the pressures and being around the quarterback. I’d like to see 20 more pounds on him. That’s what I’d like to see. I think Dennis Allen, too. I’d like that. you know, you can get away with guile and quickness and, you know, kind of eluding stuff. At some point, you’re going to have to anchor your ass down and and take a guy on, you know, chest middle to middle. Yeah. Midline to midline. Um, and when he can do that, I think that he’s got a legitimate shot of being a guy that can play three downs for you. Um, right now he’s doing a little bit with smoking mirrors, and it’s not a bad way to do it if you can keep doing it. I mean, the the the the shortest distance between two points is an unencumbered straight line. Yeah. So, if you got something you can get out of the way of something and get back in and and make plays, then that’s absolutely fantastic. I think he needs to continue to develop. I think he needs to continue to develop his pass rush moves. Yeah. Um being a half a second short uh is not like being there on time and making things happen, right? So, uh I think he’s still young. I think he’s still developing. I hope somebody’s telling him what his shortcomings are and what he needs to work on, but a little more heft in the kester might not be so bad. No, if he can find a way to bulk up. I think that’s really all DA’s looking for. The one thing I will say about him with the smoking mirrors, it’s almost like he uses the smok and mirrors then every every now and then he just goes, “All right, now I’m going to go through you.” And you’re expecting the smoking mirrors. Hey, you’ve seen a couple of guys get caught off guard. We’ve seen it once, that’s for sure. When he went against Orlando Brown Jr. He did. He did it there. He did it there. And guess what that did? Sent the alarm waves to everybody that, hey, you got to be able to know that he’s capable of that. Yeah. So, they sit on it and until they see something else. So, they’ll sit on that, right? They won’t they’re not going to get budged as much anymore. You don’t think? Yeah. They ain’t going to go do it until you show them something else. Like you put that in and then you got something off of that, right? Yeah. You plant the left hand, they hunker down, and then you come back up over the top, you anchor it, maybe you knock the hand down, spin through, something, but uh that’s it’s a great play, but you can’t do that. Yeah. 32 times a game. You got to be able to add to the arsenal. Can’t just go over the top. You got to have a little bit more of an arsenal. Most of these guys knock the hands down, they dip the shoulder, they get by the guy, the big big O of a guy. They do that. They’re not going through a guy because you can’t do that 32 times. You can do that five times, six times a game. the other 26 guy times you got to have something else and then just running around the outside and doing a big loop that doesn’t do it either. Yeah, you didn’t get to him. Steps up. Yeah, that doesn’t anything. Now they can go out the left side and buy themselves some time. So you got to have that uh who was who was Julius Peppers would use that but he had the reach to like just reach in there and grab a quarterback trying to run away. I just I just remember him doing that just be like you’re going nowhere but when they put the rule where you can’t grab the back of the cable. Yeah. That kind of started to minimize that too. So that became a problem. So yeah. No, I listen I liked that Katie came back. I thought he popped um you know during the preseason. He’s the only guy that was really rushing the passer. Of course they didn’t play their starters anyway. Yeah. So how would we know what anybody else was capable of? But he was the one guy that can get to the quarterback. Then he gets hurt. Then they bring him back and then the first play that he gets in, he does a sack and a fumble and the Bears recovered the fumble and u now he’s he’s been okay. Like I said, he’s doing a little dipping. He’s doing a little diving. Yeah. You know, he’s doing this, he’s getting out of the way and he’s finding a way to make a couple plays, which is a good thing. He’s been able to create pressure. Do you value the pressure more than the sack, right? Or are you more Well, no, no, no, no, no, no. You got to have the pressure and then the sacks result from pressure, right? And I think the sacks really result from situations where you know they have to throw the ball. Yeah. Like uh going into halftime going into the end of a football game. Yeah. You see that guys have a chance to get sacks. That’s when they have a chance to get sacks. Team’s down by two touchdowns. They got to throw Michael last week. Pin your ears back and you ain’t got to worry about nothing else. Yeah. I thought I thought that really exposed, you know, and that’s the kind of game I don’t want the Bears to get into where you got to drive back and throw it because you’re down because that’s when Michael Parsons becomes so the great pass rusher he is. Look, look at over the course and 10 plays. Mhm. It’s the least amount of times that a quarterback ends up getting sacked in the NFL. First and 10. Look at second and eight plus. Second and eight plus. It’ll be the second time, right? Then you get third and seven plus or even third and five plus. You go down to four plus. Most teams aren’t going to run the ball with four yards to go, right? Third and four plus. You got to be a team that you know is going four and four. That’ll be your number one spot of where sacks come, right? Third and four plus because why? They’re not going to run the ball. They’re going to come out. He’s going to be in the shotgun. We’re going to pin our ear back and we’re going to go after him. They’ll run a draw once out of every 10 plays. Keep you honest. Maybe run a screen, but the screen is still a pass. Yeah. to, you know, try to slow you down. So that’s when the sacks come. So you know, if you’re only getting four sacks a game, 17 of 68 sacks on the season, you look the last five minutes of the first half, the last six minutes of the second half. That’s where if you plot the graph, you’ll see most of the numbers. Yeah. You’ll see you’ll see a concentration of color there and then you’ll see independent dots before that and before that. Yeah. Yeah. Any sack before those times are bonus sacks. You know, if you’re a player, you’re like, “Man, look at that.” Or your Miles Garrett or your Miles Garrett, you just you’re you arista sacked the quarterback every play, right? Yeah. Uh let’s play a little would you rather hear your go to finish it out. Uh Eio brought this topic up. I thought this was a very interesting one with the coach and quarterback right now going into this matchup. Would you rather have Lafleur in love or Johnson and Williams? I’d rather have Laflur in love going into this matchup. the quarterback’s more established. You like what you’ve seen out of out of Jay Love and and Yeah, he’s got more games, more experience. Uh they’ve had more success up there between the two of them and because of the experience and the comfortability they have between the two of them, I’d rather be them. Doesn’t mean I don’t like the combination we have in Chicago, but you ask me one or the other. So, that was Laflur and Jordan Love. Okay. I’m not I’m not I feel like Well, I mean, you don’t have to be mad. You could be mad. I I just I mean it doesn’t make a difference. I’m trying I’m trying to think if this is a hot take. This may be a hot take because of everything that’s happening in Green Bay with the rules and everything they have going on. Uh uh with uh what is it? The president has to step down after they turn 70. I think it is the president of the team has to step down once he turns 70. That’s happening this year. There’s a changing of the garb coming in. I think if the Bears go in there and B Johnson goes in there and and handles business, we may see Matt Laflur uh moved on from in Green Bay. Oh, I don’t know. I don’t know if the president has much to say about anything. Bob Harland was the president up there. Ron Wolf ran the Packers. He ran the football side. Harland ran the business side. Right. Mark Murphy has been up there. Mark Murphy is the guy that runs the business side. He’s not the general manager, right? Goncast is the general manager. He and Laflur run the football side, right? So if a new president comes in, the president runs the football I mean he runs the business side of everything and the football side stays with the general manager and stays with the head coach. So you don’t think a new president would want his guys in there? Absolutely not. That’s not the way. That’s not how the Packers do it. That’s not the way they function. It’s not the way they do it. So there’s a lot of Green Bay fans worried. They hired their football guy. They’ve hired their football guy. Yeah. Hey, listen. Anybody that thinks Laflur is doing a bad job up there has lost their, you know, effing mind. I don’t know what the hell’s wrong. You know what it is? You haven’t suffered. Hey, you haven’t suffered. That’s what that tells me. You know, I understand Pittsburgh after such a long period of time. Pittsburgh fans being a little bit of frustrated. Yeah. Yeah. They’ve never solved their quarterback problem after Rafflesburgger left at all. They never have. And you’ve gone with peacemail pieces. And you No, they’ve gone drafted. They drafted Aiden Oonnell. They drafted this guy. They drafted this guy. You haven’t gotten it right. because you haven’t gotten it right. You’ve had to try to figure out what the hell you were going to do, you know, at quarterback. And they’ve tried anything and everything saying, “Hey, we need this. This is all we need.” They need a Ben Rothllessberger-l like quarterback to be able to come in there and take him to whatever level they’re going to go. Right? The longer they ignore the quarterback position, the longer they’re going to suffer. If I’m Tomlin, I’m like, “You want to get rid of me? Fine. Thank you. for the love of God, get rid of me and let me go someplace else. Uh, and I’m going to go someplace that has a quarterback. That way, I ain’t got to worry about the quarterback play. Yeah. So, they might be coming to a point now. Tom, been there 20 years. Yes. If they finish Tomlin 05 first year. Yeah. I think 20 years literally. Yeah. If they finish nine and eight, it’ll still be him never having a losing season, but getting fired because they’ve had too many nine and eight, eight and eight seasons. Yeah. Yeah. It It’ll be interesting. And he he might be happy if I got I got a couple of friends who are Packer fans and they just go, “What is Matt Laflur really winning us? I don’t know. Like he he can get you to the playoffs but he can’t get you any further. Loses in the first round.” I’m like the risk you run. Not wrong, but you’re winning like 11 games a year almost. The risk you run. I mean, listen, homegring got up there. We finished nine and seven. Didn’t go to the playoffs. We finished nine and seven. Went to the playoffs. Uh we won a game, then we lost the game. uh 9 and seven again, went to the playoffs, won a game, lost a game. In 95, we go to the playoffs, win a game against Atlanta, we go out to Fris, win a game, go down to Dallas in the NFC championship game. We lost the game. So, what is what was Mike Hungan doing? Mike Homeran was making the playoffs and he was losing games, right? Yeah. You you won, you won, you won, but you lost lost lost and the last time you lost in the NFC Championship game. So, maybe one can argue that he’s making headway. the quarterback was finally there. Either way, they went to the Super Bowl next two years, right? They won the first year, they lost to the Denver Broncos in the second year. Then after that, they fired Mike Homegrren because he and Ron Wolf don’t see eye to eye, right? Not because Mike Homegrren wasn’t a good coach, but because Mike got tired of seeing the guys that he liked walk out the door because Ron Wolf didn’t like him. And so, at some point, Mike said, “You know what? Screw this. the guys I trust and I want to keep. I I gotta play with his guys. He’s bringing these guys in. I don’t know who the hell they are. Yeah. Yeah. So, and Homer go see then you get in the meetings and Ron would just basically say uh um you know Terrell Buckley when he first came was guessing and doing a lot of things. And they come in meetings, I don’t want to hear about Terrell Buckley. He goes, let’s talk about everybody else. Because they they they would analyze the play and say he’s guessing. Uh he’s not playing the defense the way it needs to be played. You know, they were just breaking down telling the truth. Yeah, they wanted the papers want to blame Mark Prior, but Mark Prior’s not he’s playing deep middle, right? He’s not deep as the deepest on the on the left side when Fred Barnett just walks by you because you saw a butterfly in front of you, which is like a running back coming out of the back field and you decide to cheat and you wanted to come up. Now, Terrell Buckley turned out to be one hell of a football player. Uh he was a good football player with the Packers. As he went on and had more experience, got out of his rookie year and as the game slowed down, he started to recognize a lot of things. He went to Miami and was a great corner, right? He’s a fantastic corner for them. I think he finished with 40 some odd interceptions in his career. 47 48. You don’t do that if you’re not a pretty damn good corner. Yeah. So, he had a lot of success down there. But early on in his rookie year, there were problems and you know, we kind of had to overcome and compensate for some of the problems that Terrell had at the corner position. And that’s just the way it works sometimes. That’s that’s how it goes. Taste. They’re going to play a guy, the GM wants him out there. Uh the defensive coordinator and the coach don’t necessarily want him out there, but because the GM drafted him in the first round, you got to play him. So that’s how and that’s fine. And eventually he became a great player. Yeah. But when he had to get paid, somebody else paid him. We didn’t. The the Packers didn’t pay him. That’s how it moves in Green Bay. So, so there’s You don’t think there’s any world where Lafleur gets fired? No. Lafleur’s fired at the end of this season in Absolutely not. They’re going to make the playoffs, they’re going to try to make noise in the playoffs. Um I there’s a possibility they get the number one 100%. They if they win this game and the lose, they could get the number one seed. So, yeah. And that tie might come down ultimately to be of advantage. Yes. But when I started this whole thing about the Bears making the playoffs, you know, two weeks ago, I I said I’d rather lose to Philly and take two from Green Bay if I could. Then beat Green Bay if I had a choice. But now But now we’ve beat Philly. Let’s take this one from Green Bay. Take the first one. I’m not worried about the second one. Let’s take the first one from Green Bay. Come back against Cleveland and outclass Cleveland. So just outclass them. Yeah. Yeah. um win that one. It gets us to 1011. Now you’re at 11 and three, right? Things start to teams start to beat themselves up. Teams start to lose. Like we would then be what is that? Five and two. We’d be six and two. Uhhuh. Or seven and two in the divi in the conference. That now you’ve established yourself in the conference where you’re going to win all these types of crazy things. So, but that’s it. win this one, beat Cleveland, then you get Green Bay at home in front of a crazy crowd, you know, in front of a crowd that it’s gonna be nuts. So, you get Green Bay at home and and you win this game. Yeah, Euro, you you might have a chance to beat Green Bay three times in in 2025. Yeah. Has that ever been done before? Could this be the first time that’s happened to the Bears have done it? I know the Bears have Well, no. Didn’t used to go this long. I know it’s been done in the um in the NFL before. Three times a week where a team is beaten three times in one calendar year. So going from January 1st previous season to December 31st. Matter of fact, one team played the other team five times. Twice in the playoffs, um three times in the regular season. Which team was it? Twice. Which two teams were they? They played five times in the calendar year from January 1st to December 31st. I I old older older team. Well, I mean, it’s older like like back in back in the day. It’s It happened when I was playing football. While you were playing football. That’s why I remember it. Uh give me I’m trying to think what two teams would have been good in the same division had a Giants. I was going to say is that is it Broncos Steelers? Let’s stick with the NFC North. AFC North. NFC North. Oh, NFC North. Was it is it Packers Lions? It is Packers Lions. Ding ding ding ding ding. So, the question is when did it happen, right? When did it happen? It happened in 1993. when there were two by-weeks. Oh, the one year they had two by-weeks, it happened in 1993. So on January 2nd, is that right? Yeah, I think it’s January 2nd. On January 2nd of 19 um 94, right after the 93 year, the Detroit Lions beat the Green Bay Packers in Detroit. They went and played him the next week, January 8th on Saturday. They won. The Packers beat the Detroit Lions in a playoff game 28- 24. Then in the next season, they came back and played during the regular season. Yeah. So in 1994, twice in the regular season in November 6th, the Packers won. They played him again uh week 14, Sunday, December 4th. They lost to the Detroit Lions at Detroit. And then they played at home on December 31st in the wild card round of 1994 where they beat the Packers beat the Detroit Lions 16 to 12. And there you go. And that’s how you have it. You’ve got five times a year got two teams matched up. It’s the only time it’s ever happened in the NFL that they’ve played five times in one year and that’s the way it ended up happening. When you say it, it feels like mathematically it feels so normal, right? But literally, it’s January 2nd, regular season. January 8th is a playoff, right? Two regular season games in 94, right? And then the wild round, we happen to play on the 31st. And because it was on the 31st, that’s how you get five games in one. What was the wild card around earlier that year? We we got rid of the you got rid of the whatchamacall you got rid of the by-weeks. There’s only one buy that year. There was only one buy that year and the season started September 4th. Okay. Sunday, September 4th. That does feel wrong. Yeah. So they that year they started before Labor Day. It wasn’t until after that they started the league after Labor Day, right? This started before Labor Day. September 5th was Labor Day. So that’s how you ended up having it. That’s a real rivalry. That’s that’s that’s a beef right there. I play you five times in a year. I know everything about you. You know everything about me. They beat us. What? What did they beat us? We were three and two. So they beat us twice in the regular season, right? More than that. Yeah. Twice in the regular season. We beat them once, but we won both playoff games. You beat them once in the So they were beating their chest going into the playoff game saying we can do it again and then you beat them the second time. We beat them both playoff games. I mean that’s the fun that you’ve got to have every once in a while. Oh boy, what a time. Do Do the Bears get a win this Sunday? I I think the Bears win. Oo. Now it’s not going to be outlandish 2017. It’s a division game. 20 to 17. Yeah. And that’s a good win. That’s a good division win. Yep. It’s gonna be hard fought. Like, you gotta be tougher. And they showed you last week. They can be a physical team. There’s gonna be ups and downs, guys. Let’s uh let’s hope this Bears team finds a way to put the Green Bay Packers, but I don’t care how it happens. And dare I say, uh to make the underdog play work there, good kid. Hey, Nan Wright uh league leading interception or it would be a league tying interception with Kevin Bard to uh put the game away on Jordan Love. Yeah, I don’t mind that. And uh it’s ball game, baby. It’s ball game for that. I’ll be excited. Hey man, appreciate y’all for tuning in and showing love. Let us know how you guys feel in the comments below. Would you rather have Laafloren Love or Ben and Caleb? Give me Ben and Caleb all day. I get the established, but I told y’all last week, give me Ben Johnson over a lot of coaches in this NFL. That includes Nick Seriani. Shay, where you at? Y’all stay safe Chicago. Bear down. One love. Peace.

🐻 The Chicago Bears Podcast | ESPN Chicago

Hosted by Pat The Designer & ESPN’s John “Jurko” Jurkovic
Brought to you by Mitch Lyons Wealth & Underdog Fantasy

Today’s episode focuses on the advantages the Chicago Bears have over the Green Bay Packers heading into this week’s rivalry matchup. Pat and Jurko break down where the Bears can control the game — starting with a powerful Bears rushing attack facing a vulnerable Packers run defense.

The guys also look at Jordan Love’s turnover issues in clutch moments, why the Bears’ offensive line has become a dominant group, and how Chicago’s physical identity can take over at Lambeau.

They also check in on Austin Booker’s growth, and debate a big question: Which QB & HC duo would you rather have — the Bears’ or the Packers’?

Plus, Jurko gives his weekly Underdog Fantasy picks.

👇 Episode Timestamps:
00:00:00 – Bears running attack vs. Packers rush defense
00:07:30 – Jordan Love’s turnovers in clutch situations
00:15:00 – The Bears’ O-line is becoming a dominant unit
00:24:00 – Underdog Fantasy with Jurko
00:28:00 – Checking in on Austin Booker’s growth
00:34:00 – Which QB & HC duo would you prefer: Bears or Packers?

🎧 Subscribe for daily Chicago Bears analysis, film breakdowns & rivalry-week previews from ESPN Chicago!

📱 Follow for more: #ChicagoBears #BearsPodcast #ESPNChicago #NFL #BearDown #Jurko #JordanLove #BearsVsPackers #AustinBooker #UnderdogFantasy

Underdog Fantasy: Download the app today, sign up with promo code CBP to score A HUNDRED DOLLARS in Bonus Funds or Bonus Entries when you play your first FIVE dollars – that’s promo code CBP

For More Bears Content Watch:
The Chicago Bears Podcast : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCGqxB8UeLZiM5tuLNUFDXgj54SQhCpO_

Waddle & SIlvy : https://www.youtube.com/@WaddleAndSilvy/videos

Kap & J Hood : https://www.youtube.com/@KapAndJHood/videos

Carmen & Jurko : https://www.youtube.com/@CarmenAndJurko/videos

Bleck & Abdalla : https://www.youtube.com/@BleckAndAbdalla/videos