BIG Bears Injury Boost! Key Players Return Ahead of Packers Game | w/ Courtney Cronin

BIG Bears Injury Boost! Key Players Return Ahead of Packers Game | w/ Courtney Cronin

Bet on Bears fans, another edition of the Chicago Bears podcast coming your way. Path the designer Courtney Cronin here at Courtney, you’ve set the internet on fire during Packer Week. We’re not getting past this, Courtney. Ketchup on the hot dog. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. I think that as Chicagoans, we need to like like let a dead dog lie and not just like the hot dog, but like let people eat their hot dogs how they want to. Obviously, Ben Johnson got the city of Chicago free hot dog because he ripped his shirt off and everybody went crazy and he delivered on the bet. I guess you would call it a bet. A promise. I don’t know what it was there yet. He But the thing is he never said no. So that’s how you knew that the offer was still on the table about a month ago when the Wiiers circle reached out and asked him on Twitter. Um and he obliged. But yes, I ate a hot dog or I bit into a hot dog cuz it was cold and gross live on TV. And I had mine with ketchup because that’s the way that I like my hot dogs. I don’t like them with I don’t like mustard. I don’t like relish. I don’t like pickle spheres. I don’t like those onions. I don’t like it. I don’t like it. Might be the hottest take I’ve ever had. That that’s that’s a pretty hot take in this city. I’m not going to lie to you. You know, we take our food very seriously. I think most of Chicago, especially our generation, has come around to um we don’t really eat deep dish. Like this was a ploy that we watch tourists come in here. We eat tavern style. We enjoy that pizza. But the the hot dogs kind of sacred in this city and that that’s uh that’s sacrilegious. There’s there’s a little a little sacrilegious there. Well, hopefully you don’t pick the Packers to win this week and uh we all will be forgiven. No, we got a lot to get into on this episode. Make sure that you guys hit that like button, subscribe to the page, leave a fivestar review. Y’all know what to do. Hit a thumbs up if you’re not messing with Courtney going ketchup on a hot dog. Let’s Let’s do that there. Episode might be the worst thing that’s ever happened to me on this podcast. This episode is brought to you by Underdog. Make picks, win money. We got a couple of positive updates today. Courtney got to hear from Ben Johnson. And at practice today, got to lay eyes on TJ Edwards and Noah Su back out at practice. I think that may be one of the most important things that could happen to this team heading into Packer Week. The possibility, we don’t know what the designations are just yet, if they were limited, if they were full, if they’re going to play on Sunday or not. But it’s good to see them back out there. You got two versus three coming up against the Packers here. And to me, I think that this defense, you like, we look at the numbers, we look at everything that we’re seeing, but then you see how they’ve played over the last couple of weeks on the field, and I think they’re outplaying what the numbers are saying they are. And I mean, the adjustments from Dennis Allen in all of this, the amount of dime packages that they were able to generate pressure out of in Philadelphia with all of the DBs that they’re starting to get healthy at the right time, Jaylen Johnson coming back, Kyler Gordon coming back, and realizing where they’re thin. I think that there’s like two things that stand out to you about what you saw in this Eagles game. You know, the pass rush has not been consistent throughout the season. and they’re like, you know, bottom five in pass rush win rate and that still isn’t preventing them from getting the takeaways. And I think the way that they’re generating pressure, obviously using more nickel, more dime packages is is impressive, but also the way that they stopped and limited Saquon Barkley. Yeah. Like the linebackers that they had. And when you hear Ben Johnson say, you know, no one’s going around the building crying about like who’s not playing, like wo was me, I think is the way that he phrased it. I think you look at Dennis Allen and you say, “Wow, that’s, you know, this defense, despite everything that’s happened injury-wise and who they’ve been without, has still been able to go on the road, be at home, wherever it is, and have some really good game plans for their opponent. And I would expect given what we saw in Philadelphia and how healthy they might be getting at that linebacker spot because we were told once TJ Edwards can play with the cast and obviously it’s the hamstring too he’ll be playing like regardless of whether that how long it takes his hand to heal he will play. So definitely a strong development on Tuesday this week that you see him back out there you see Noah Su back out there. Obviously, we’ll be keeping an eye on Ruben Hippolite, what’s going to happen with him, but it’s a numbers game at this point, and if they can get those numbers going in the right direction to get this defense healthy, that’s a good sign. And and you feel like you’re adding to a unit that really hasn’t fallen off a cliff here over the last couple of weeks. I look at what Demarco Jackson has done the last few weeks. I thought it was very interesting when you look at the passing charge versus Pittsburgh against uh and then look at Philly. Philly tried to attack it. Like it actually was these guys went out there and played the game very well. You had some veteran presence out there with Demarco Jackson who’s been with DA for a while here and he just he he was able to hold his own there getting Jaylen Johnson back getting Kyler Gordon back. I actually feel like if we can get TJ Edwards back healthy here you’re heading towards a final part of this season in December here where dare I say you might be having the defense that you thought you were going to have at the start of this season that Bears fans and and Bears media alike were very confident in saying that that is a strength there. We didn’t know what the D line was going to be, but you knew that the DB unit and the linebacker unit was going to be a strength that this team could rely on. Yeah. And at that point too, you could have Tummaine Edmonds back. Remember December 20th, that’s the second Packers game that’s going to be played on a Saturday at Soldier Field. That is the target date. Can he be back from the groin injury by then? Like this defense for all of the issues it’s had with injury, like it hasn’t played together at all this year. It’s like starting from like the very beginning of training camp, Jaylen Johnson’s not out there and you’re trying to figure out what you have in your secondary and Kyler Gordon goes down early in camp and then the linebackers have injury like early in the season. You lose TJ Edwards, you get him back, you lose him again, Tmaine Edmonds, like everybody’s going in and out of the lineup. So, if you get healthy by the middle of December and you’re feeling like you can, you know, run the table here with your defense being what carries this team, because, you know, for as much as things change with the coaching staff and the offensive philosophy and how many explosive plays this unit generates, it’s still they’re still winning games, run game, and great defense. And that stuff that travels into January as we know in the postseason and I think they’ll be feeling pretty good if those numbers can like in terms of health, guys coming back, guys who are available and up on game days like that’s a good sign. Can this defense disrupt uh Toyota Jordan Love though? That’s going to be the big question this week, which those numbers are insane. Like I mean and like there like what Ben Johnson said today about like the Packers as a whole like felt like he was checking every single box. I think he said it best. Obviously, it’s more than Parson. It’s the back end of their defense, too. They’re playing really good football. Um, but with Jordan Love, I mean, you see what he did last week. Four, like that was, I think, his best performance season. And like, you know, 234 yards, four touchdowns, like the numbers aren’t like, wow, oh my god. Um, that’s, you know, for for some of four touchdowns kind of is. the way he threw those touchdowns, those were big time throws and there weren’t the like those were like there were no turnover worthy plays like you know that’s for him that’s like a I would say like a a solid B like in terms of statline but then you look into what happened in that game not having Tucker Craft the last couple of weeks he’s out for the season seeing how this passing game has stayed afloat with the like of Dantavian Wixs um and you know all of their other receivers who were belist receivers who have risen into a position where now they’re a big part of this passing game. Um Malik Heath being one of them too like that’s like it’s dangerous but like you know Jordan Love is always like you’re always ready for the turnover worthy play whether it’s something you do as a defense to generate it or just a bad decision from him. He didn’t have any of those against the Lions. And that’s I think if you’re this defense, how do you force him into those situations where he does make that cross body throw where you’re like, what are you doing? Yeah. But um if you’re the Bears, you’re like great that you did that. Well, and what what you have to do I think it’s always interesting to me, right? We talk about Jordan Love as this turnover guy and then you look at the numbers at the end of the year and everybody goes, “But he didn’t turn the football over that much. How’s he a turnover guy?” The thing that I think is so consistent with Jordan Love doesn’t turn the ball over a ton, but when he does, it is usually the backbreaking turnover in the game. That means you have to for you to take advantage of it. I think that there has to be a moment where you you’re trying to keep this game close no matter what. It’s a divisional game. I would love to see the Bears go in there and roll them 40-3. I don’t expect it. We know Matt Laflur is getting up for this game. We know that Ben Johnson I I thought my take away from the Ben presser today when when he was asked the first question and essentially went through every player on the team was Ben Johnson is completely locked in and understands what this kind of game means not only for the division for you holding on to the number one seed in the NFC but truly for you creating space and and instilling and holding on to the dominance that you’ve been able to show here over the past couple of weeks. a lot of the good that you’ve done. Not to say it’s wiped away, but it changes the position that you’re in where right now you control your destiny. And we’ve seen Ben Johnson be very dangerous in those moments. Yeah. I think it was a couple things like he’s not obviously what he said to start his introductory press conference when he talked about like I look forward to beating Matt Laflur twice a year. Like he’s going to tone that down this because I know a lot of people are wondering like yeah can we can we rile him up about this? Like he’s not accepting any advances on any of that. And I get it because, you know, even when I asked him about like, “What do you like about the chess match?” You’re not going headtohead with him, but like it’s like he, you know, he delivers a punch on offense, you deliver a punch. And he very quickly got into another conversation of personnel going from Jordan Love to all of the receivers to Josh Jacobs to the offensive line and like he’s not given an inch on that. And yeah, like of course the magnitude of this game and what it means for maintaining the one seed like if they like just if I mean obviously there’s results that have to happen that will happen elsewhere whether the Rams I believe they have the Cardinals this week like if they win that game let’s just if you were looking at the playoff machine the predictor right now if you just click on Rams it’ll move them into the one seed but if the Bears like independent of any other result if the Bears lose in Green Bay they drop from one to seven it just shows you how quickly things can change and that they It is an accomplishment just in terms of how far this team has come, but it doesn’t mean anything in the grand scheme of things cuz they’re going to need 11 wins to get in the playoffs. And it to be able to go into a place that where you need to have your run game travel because we know there have been issues in the passing game. Um, I think that it puts them in a really advantageous spot that they just did the like, you know, what they should what they should be carrying into Green Bay is the game plan that they had for the Philadelphia Eagles outside windy game. We’re expecting similar uh conditions up at Lambeau Field this week. And if they do that, if they’re opportunistic on the defensive end again, like what they were with ripping away the tush push um football the ball that uh Nan Wright got them to fumble on and then of course the interception. Like there’s a lot to like about what they’re doing right now that that can carry over into this green bag. I love that my husband’s so handy. He leaves more money for the important stuff. Gosh darn it, Steve. Oh, don’t be like Steve. call Aenddale Roofing. DIY is for Pinterest, not your roof. Yeah. And I thought what was interesting to me I I started, you know, kind of going through and right now the strength of this team is a run game. The strength offensively of this Bears team on the road too. Yeah. I thought Ben Johnson like he was a little surprised when he’s like thinking about it. I haven’t thought of it that way. Like our run game, their best numbers that they’ve put up this year have been in Philly and in Cincinnati. It travels. Yeah. Like the road is where they are. like for whatever reason, that’s where it’s at at its best. And you’ve seen this this run game be dangerous, this offensive line be dangerous. And over the past few weeks, you’ve seen teams start to get to that Packers run defense that I believe ranks sixth in the NFL right now. One of the best run defenses in football. They just they just lose a major piece in the middle uh to season ending injury. And you start to kind of look at what this offensive line has been able to do. And I looked at the Carolina game. Carolina wins that game. 163 yards on the ground. Rico Da 130. He dominates that day. Uh you you look uh ahead to that Giants game where it was way it was competitive way longer than we thought it was going to be. Jamus Winston in that game. I don’t know if that that was versus the Lions that he caught the pass. So I don’t think it was that game. But like that was crazy. You saw that? Yeah, I did. That was that was insane. I’m not I’m I don’t have the TV gene where like the fly crawls on your eye and you could just keep going. Like that was that was wild. I’m glad somebody else saw it. Anyway, I I look at that Giants game, right? Tyrone Tracy has a big day. It put the Packers defense a little bit more on their back foot. I think there’s a conversation to have here when you look at the Bears with the best run run run game in football right now and you look at the Packers where their run defense is where you go, this could be advantage Bears in Lambo on the ground. Yeah. And I just think that you look back to like there’s a couple things that happened last week that would lead you to believe it could be a little different in a good way. So like when Ben Johnson was thinking postgame about like the impact that the run game had and he’s like yeah like I see I called 36 passes I probably shouldn’t have like when he’s thinking about that in real time and how we adjust like having a better pulse or you know maybe just like in real time not forcing it cuz during that middle eight of the game they got away from it and in especially in the second half the passing game fell off like it’s leaning where you can to be able to eat up the clock play time of the time of possession game and you know control the flow. The offensive line’s been playing great like we saw and against that front obviously they move Micah Parsons around. They can play him all over the place like they know that they have to be aware of him. But when you have an offensive line that’s run blocking as well as the Bears has been like that opens up so many more opportunities where you know it’s the yards before contact that these running backs are getting. Like it’s just it’s a byproduct of It feels like Philly last year. It does. I mean, the Bears running back about that offensive line, taquin Barkley and everything else. Like, that to me shows you where the clear advantage is here for for this offense, and that’s what they have to lean into when they go to Lambeau Field. Is it is it crazy to think this and and listen, we got we got to talk about the passing game as well, get to our underdog play and kind of get, you know, some some early predictions on this and how we think this is going to go. But is it crazy to feel that if coming out of this game we’re talking about the Bears winning that now the conversation goes to okay how much can this team win this season? Is this team a deep threat in the playoffs? Is this like I feel like there’s that much emphasis on this game? I love that for Ben Johnson it is go one and0 every week, but at that point I feel like you’ve answered all of your questions and you’ve beaten all of your biggest opponents that you’re going to face outside of Detroit maybe the final week of the season. Although they’ve fallen off a little bit, Sam Fran still in there as well, but it feels like now you’re having a conversation on not only can the Bears be a playoff team, but the Bears can be a contender. Yeah. And I think when Ben said yesterday that it will take 11 wins to get into the playoffs, they’re so close. Like they’re a nine- win team, but they haven’t won anything. I get that. You go into Lambo Field where it’s the game got flexed. You’re in a prime time window. It’s all attention on this team. I think people are still looking to see are they going to fold at some point. If you don’t here, then the conversation around this Bears team isn’t just, hey, they’re a 10- win team. It’s they’re a 10- win team that might be ahead of schedule, but could be a legitimate playoff contender this year, not just a oneandone in the wildard round if it ends up being that they don’t get the one seed or the, you know, the first round buy, whatever. Um, and that’s that’s where they want to be. It feels like a pipe dream probably inside this building because there’s five games left. They’re not thinking about that. But it does like each week that the wins keep piling up and they’re in the midst of a fivegame win streak. They’re winning these games by fewer than 10 points. They’d obviously like to take what they did in Philly and expand on that, but it’s going to be tough like to, you know, in terms of like winning by nine. It’s going to be tough against this defense. And you know, the way that Jordan Love played to have to outduel him is a challenge. And I don’t know if you I don’t know what the state of the passing game that you can outduel him like the way that he and Jared Goff I mean it was a little too late for the for the uh Lions. I mean, obviously Michael Parsons in those fourth uh those fourth quarter sacks that he had, the one on third down two that kind of that kept them out of the end zone when they were threatening to come back. Like, you’re going to have to face that if you’re Caleb Williams in this passing offense, which is why I think the run game, don’t stray from it this week. Once you get a pulse on how to be able to beat this team, stick with what’s working. And I and more times than not, I think we’re going to be looking at a Kyle Manun guy and a DeAndre Swift, you know, maybe not 280 and But like, you know, close. I think that’s how they’re going to have to do it. And and I I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. I think what’s being undertalked about here and with what we’re seeing in the in the NFC North, how the standings are playing out. Ben Johnson has turned the Bears into what the Detroit Lions offense was last season. Like, this offense has become elite level offensive line. I I said yesterday, and me Shay kind of talked about this, I it might be the best offensive line in football right now. For sure. the interior three. I don’t know what Azie is as of yet. Two games in. He looks really good at being being on that left side and Darnell’s playing at an all pro level right now. So, I think that’s a fair conversation to have. Like, and then you put the run game together. This is what Gibbs and Montgomery were last season. Now, without Ben Johnson there, we’re not seeing that same level of production out of David Montgomery that we were seeing in years prior. So, Ben Johnson has come to Chicago in one season, maybe surprisingly so, and has kind of turned this Bears team into that Lions offense, still waiting for Caleb Williams to catch up. And I think that’s going to be something where hopefully this is a week where we see him start to get on target. But you, when you’re facing Michael Parsons, I think that the Lions found that out last week, you don’t want to sit there and just drop back and and throw the football 40 times cuz he’s going to get to you. That’s how good he is. So, uh, we’ll see what ends up happening. We got to keep this thing moving along. Appreciate y’all for tuning in and showing love. We got to get to our underdog play here, Courtney. The streak is broken. Yep. You got you got a little you got a little over your skis. I I it ended last week and it was it was nice while it lasted, but my my pick did not you went Caleb rush or receiving touchdown, which you weren’t out there today, but it was crazy to see Caleb and all the quarterbacks take receptions. They love doing every week. I love that. But Caleb has caught a pass this year. So yeah, and I mean they’ve they’ve lined him up out wide. I I still stand by that at some point like in the next week or two, next game or two, he’ll have a rushing touchdown. But this week, I’m going to look at the passing numbers because I think there’s a lot being made about this passing attack. When Kmet called it a weak link yesterday, he’s not wrong. No, it’s it can’t look like this if you plan to, you know, be more than a wild card team or a team that’s playing wild card weekend and a first round exit. Yeah. So, it’s 190 and a half. I will take the slight over, cautious over, like if it’s 193 like it was against Minnesota a couple weeks ago, I wouldn’t be surprised. But I the reason I think it will end up being under 200, still a low number, is weather conditions. I mean, it’s going to be 20°, I believe, around kickoff. That’s the high, so probably even less than that. We know that, you know, the wind was a huge factor in Philadelphia. Ben said like he’s it was one of the more challenging games that they’ve had because of how he had to you know adjust to that and even with Caleb like that’s why he wasn’t upset with like the passing game and um and what he you know tried to walk back on Tuesday where his comments about you know it’s not where it needs to be but he’s not upset with the quarterback. However, I still think that those numbers are low and I think it it’s I’m going higher than 190 and a half but not by much. Like that’s my play. That’s my underdog play because I just think that that’s where they’re going to be leaning on will not be the pass game. But there will be a more concerted effort for Caleb to be more accurate on some of his passes and that came comes down to receivers running the right route. Um the depth of the route being where it needs to be. That’s you know they’re putting it on everybody which you know collectively with 11 players you’ve got to fix that unit because it’s a weak link right now. Yeah 100%. There there’s some layups that continue to be missed and and Caleb has talked about that as well. Uh, I think last week was a weird week throwing the football in general. I mean, you you saw some passes just get taken by the wind. Um, I don’t know what was going on with Philly’s field if everybody kept slipping. Everybody kept slipping. I I I don’t Usually Philly’s got a a decent field. So, like you saw DJ go down, you saw Luther go down, and those were perfect balls from Caleb Williams. We’ve seen over the last couple of weeks, I think. And I love how Ben pointed this out. He’s he’s happy with where the quarterback is at, but he needs him to improve because and I the passing attack. He’s not saying the quarterback. He’s saying the passing attack, right? Because to clarify today, it’s not all on Caleb. And yes, for two things can be true. A 47% completion percentage is awful. Yes. Like that’s awful. Now, was it all on the quarterback? No. But when you’re off target on 27% of your throws, those things can be on you. However, like the bigger thing in all of this that I know a lot of people looked at what Ben Johnson said today that you know Caleb is managing the game at a level in which he needs to. That’s the number one thing for a quarterback. People hear game manage manager and they freak out. Yeah. They think it’s a crime or a sin. They Well, it’s because when you get labeled game manager, it means that more times than not, it means that you’re nothing special as a quarterback, which I think is so not true because obviously not everybody can be doing what he’s doing. But it then kind of minimizes the special talent and all of the elite attributes that certain quarterbacks have. The Patrick Mahomes of the world, obviously Josh Allen can be, you know, he’s not a game manager. There’s certain there’s only a couple that fall into that category. So, I feel like you hear game manager or he’s managing the game well. They didn’t call him game manager verbatim, but he’s managing the game well and you think it’s something negative. I don’t think it is. I think for a quarterback in year two, like it’s not like he’s 10 years into this and they’re saying that he manages the game well. The fact that he’s learning how to do it now is a good thing instead of an insult. And and sometimes you have to do that. I mean, we we saw Jordan uh not Jordan Love, we saw uh Jaylen Herz do that a ton last season, right? And when he needed to be big play Jaylen, he was able to go out there and do that in the most important game in the Super Bowl. Right. We saw I always say this, Tom Brady was a game manager his first two Super Bowls, maybe his first three, like you you look at players throughout history and it’s there’s a development process that’s happening. And what I love is we are seeing that development happen. I think once you get to the point where right when we’ve seen Caleb most on point, the percentage doesn’t look as good. there was a game where the receivers are dropping passes and he’s got the most drops of any quarterback in the in the season. So, like I think there’s it’s getting itself on track. It’s just taking a little longer than most people want it to, but you’re nine and three while that’s happened. Yeah. And that’s a good sign that like you can still figure it out where it doesn’t look great right now. And I do think the fear would be in a oneanddone situation, it it could cost you. Yeah. But you have like I I know that you know fans might not love it or maybe they will like all these outdoor games they have the rest of the year. That’s a great prep for the playoffs where you’ve got winter games in Soldier Field um at Lambo, you know, in Cleveland. No, Cleveland’s here. Like San Francisco, I mean that’s an outdoor game. It won’t be cold but like or you know as cold as it is here. I think it’s a great test that the rest of the way you’re forced to play in the elements because that’s going to teach you what you can get away with in the passing game areas where if weather is a concern, how the quarterback has to adjust, how the play caller has to adjust, and the receivers, too. Yeah, listen, you got you got to be it looked like it out there today. As they say, bare weather. And it seems like this team has taken advantage of some of that bare weather over the last couple of weeks. Uh, make sure that you guys stay tapped in with Underdog and everything that they have going on over there. Uh, download the app of course and use the promo code CBP to score $100 in bonus entries when you play your first $5. That’s promo code CBP. Underdog make win money. EOQ 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 underdogfantasy operates. Terms apply. See assets.underdogfantasy.com/web/playand getter terterms_dfs_.html for details. Offer not valid in Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Concerned with your play, call 1800gambler or visit www.ncpgambling.org in New York. Call the 247 hope line at 18778 NY or text hopey or text hopey 467-369. Welcome back into the Chicago Bears podcast. Path the designer Courtney Cronin. All right, Courtney, let’s finish it out with this. What do you think is going to be the most important thing the Bears have to have locked down to come out of this game with a win? I will continue to lean heavily on that run game. I think that that is it’s it helped them in Cincinnati. 283 yards a season high for them. Like the amount of yards that they’re getting before contact. Two games now where that’s been over 180. The rest of the NFL has one of those combined. Like it is the culprit of everything on offense. Good. Like all the good things on offense start up front with the offensive line, the run game, and how like to me it’s like the explosive plays. People think explosive plays and they think like passing game. The amount of explosive runs that they have, whether it’s lead the league, they lead the league in explosive runs this season. They lead the league in all explosive plays. And for Kyle Manungy to be your in between the tackles guy, which by the way, like they had Philly gave up a like a a season worse. I actually think it was like dating back to like last year against Dallas. It was their most yards they’ve given up between the tackles. Like you have a very good interior unit right now. I would continue to lean on that. And it might sound like it’s oversimplifying things. I think when your head coach talks about maybe I got away from the run game a little bit too much. and he said this a couple times this year, but to say it coming off last week and knowing how well that thing travels and knowing that you’re going to have to do whatever you can at this point to stack two more wins minimum to me that’s the don’t get off a winning horse argument and I think that that’s the most important thing going into this. I I think you hit the nail on the head especially with him saying I got away from the run game. You ran the football was it 35 times like you something like that. Yeah. You you didn’t completely get away from the run game but when you looked at that game you saw what was dominating and he’s trying to keep Caleb Williams involved. I like that. But even seeing just how much that team in certain moments where, you know, third and two, you’re start you’re passing the football in that situation. I would have rather seen you go with the run because it was what was working and it was what was comfortable that day. And normally we’ve seen Ben Johnson go with the comfortable. I think coming into this week, right, you you not to say you want to make Caleb into that game manager that we talked about, but there’s one clear way for you to go out there and beat Micah Parsons. Everybody has seen it in the NFL overtime. And it’s not what Jared Goff and the Lions did last week. It’s not drop back and try and throw the football. I get it. You weren’t getting the the production that you wanted to see out of Jir Gibbs. But you got to run the football at Michael Parsons. That’s how you beat him. We’ve seen that time and time again. And I think Jones, the reason he said he traded him because he was a great run defender. Yeah. That that I wouldn’t buy into that. But uh but uh it it is one of those things that you look at and you say your best pass rusher on this team. That’s a clear weakness. And I thought it was I thought I said a lot when I brought up today in the presser that you know you faced a lot of good pass rushers and he instantly went back to Max Crosby. One of those guys that plays well on both sides both the pass and the run plays at elite. You haven’t seen a ton of those guys this year but you’ve seen really good pass rushers and Ben’s had the game plan for all of them. Yeah. And I I just when he commented that this is one of the best defenses, if not the best, that they’ve seen this year, he’s right. Yeah. The Packers have done such a good job limiting what teams do really well. And I know that sounds so basic basic. They let Jameson Williams go off last week, but they took away everybody else. Yes, Aman Rob Brown got hurt. Um David Montgomery didn’t run the ball effectively. Jir Gibbs didn’t run the ball effectively. Like they picked one thing, said, “You’re going to beat us with this one thing.” and it wasn’t enough because their defense came through at the end of the game. Their clothes are closed. And that’s something I think that this Bears offensive line absolutely needs to be aware of. It’s not like it’s rocket science, but when you have a game wrecker who in the fourth quarter when he had two and a half sacks and where the pressure was coming from and especially in the red zone, like it’s it’s a matter of not getting away from what you’re doing really well because that shows you how little margin there is when you have a player like that and multiple players. I mean, their linebacker unit when he’s talking about Quay Walker and all these other guys, like they’re a really good team. And that I think is something that you have to be very cognizant of when this game determines the first place in the NFC North and determines whether they stay at the one seed. Yeah, we’ll see what ends up happening here. Hopefully, this Bears team is able to find a way to win over the Packers here. Of course, we’ll have you covered the rest of the week. This week feels so long. It’s only Tuesday, but it’s cuz we played a Friday game, so there’s so much coverage that we’ve got coming you guys way, man. stay tapped in with us. Uh for Courtney Cronin, it’s your boy Pat the Designer back at it again. Make sure that you direct all your mustard packets and relish packets to Courtney Cronin at Courtney Ronin. Y’all stay safe on the Chicago bread down love. Peace. Hey,

🐻 The Chicago Bears Podcast | ESPN Chicago

Hosted by Pat The Designer & ESPN’s Courtney Cronin
Brought to you by The Advantage Dealer Group & Underdog Fantasy

It’s Packers Week — and the Chicago Bears are finally getting key players back at exactly the right time. Pat and Courtney break down the returning impact players, how Chicago is trending health-wise, and why this matchup sets up favorably for the Bears.

The crew takes a deep dive into scouting Jordan Love and the Packers offense, discusses why the Bears have a clear advantage in the run game, and lay out how Ben Johnson should lean on that strength early and often.

Plus — Courtney joins for Underdog Fantasy picks, and the episode wraps with the most important key the Bears must focus on to beat the Packers on Sunday.

👇 Episode Timestamps:
00:00:00 – Bears are getting healthier at the right time
00:07:00 – Scouting Jordan Love & the Packers offense
00:12:00 – Bears have the advantage in the run game and must lean on it
00:19:00 – Underdog Fantasy with Courtney Cronin
00:25:00 – The most important key for the Bears to beat the Packers

🎧 Subscribe for daily Chicago Bears coverage, injury updates & game previews from ESPN Chicago!

📱 Follow for more: #ChicagoBears #BearsPodcast #ESPNChicago #NFL #BearDown #CourtneyCronin #JordanLove #PackersWeek #BearsVsPackers #UnderdogFantasy

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