Chicago Bears Search for IDENTITY During Bye Week | The Charter

Chicago Bears Search for IDENTITY During Bye Week | The Charter

What’s up everyone? Welcome back to the Charter Podcast brought to you by St. Xavier University. I’m Ruthie Pollinsky back with Clay Harbor who is rocking this gorgeous blue collar today. You usually are sort of more of a muted tone. Clay, I know for people who are listening, you won’t be able to see, but maybe pop this on YouTube cuz I mean I walked in and I ga you walked in and I gasped. I was like this is stunning on you. I’m just sad David Hall won’t be able to see it today in the Big Pro football show because this is my Cubs blue. Obviously, this is a football show, football podcast, but Cubbies get the win. We got some blue and some white. They got to do it. They got to do it today. What do you think? Win or go home. What’s your gut telling you? My gut is telling me they pull it off. This city is just too electric when the Cubs are good. It’s just fun. I might have to pop over Wrigleyville if they get this win. Oo, look out Wrigleyville. Clay’s coming in hot. They get this win. I’ll see you guys over in Wrigleyville. Okay, there it is. Uh Clay Harbor. It is the bye-week and of course the Bears are coming off of their second win of the season. Squeaking that one out in Las Vegas, just barely. Uh we can recap that game a little bit here. Obviously, it’s Thursday. Feels like it was a long time ago because we’re already sort of looking into this by week and where the Bears are headed when they come out of it. But let’s just start with that Raiders game and I guess we can pick apart some of the biggest takeaways and how you think that can carry into Monday Night Football against the Washington Commanders. That’s the next game. I think it’s poetic, by the way, that they got the Commanders coming out of the break. I love that. I love that. The team that kind of derailed your season last year. Remember that was the team that they faced coming out of their by-week last year. Exactly. Oops. But as far as like looking at the Raiders game, I mean there’s a lot of positives, there’s a lot of negatives. Positives. Let’s let’s start on defense for once, Ruthie. There there were some positives. Believe it or not, there were some positives. I mean, the the way that that defense started the game with the takeaways and giving the offense this short field over and over and over again, it felt like, and the offense unable to capitalize, that was sort of, I think, where things maybe that’s the story you wanted the defense to tell. Unfortunately, you know, when you can’t stop the run and the Raiders go off for 240 yards on the ground, it’s a different story. But the four takeaways, Kevin Byer, Tyreek Stevenson, if we’re starting with what was very positive for this Bears group, I think you got to start there. Oh, absolutely. I was going to say Kevin Bard. It was funny because if if you watch the tape, you realize that it was the same exact defense both times and Kevin Byer did his same did the same exact read both times. So what what they did was Dennis Allen did this simulated pressure look where the linebackers are all pressed up in the line of scrimmage. Makes Gino Smith think that there’s some pressure coming. Then it looks like it’s almost a cover two look with Bayard going deep, but instead Bard’s the robber and it’s an inverted look. So buyer’s basically reading Gino and he just does a great pattern recognition of realizing there’s a clear route going past him. Most safeties are taking that clear route because they’re scared they’re about to get beat deep, but he realizes there’s this dagger, this dig coming in behind him and just jumps in front of him and makes two amazing interceptions. Kevin Byer’s got to get better in the run game still, but that shows you that he still has value in the pass game. He’s he’s one of the guys that’s just been picking off balls for years. He’s seen a lot of different offenses, so he’s a guy you can count on to do that. And Tyreek Stevenson, I mean, this guy has had a turn a two-e turnaround that’s I mean, pretty crazy. He had another solid game. His interception was like one of the most athletic interceptions I’ve ever seen. Obviously, Gino threw it a little bit behind him, but diving, making that play, I mean, that was big time. And then Big Bill coming up with the uh the hit in the hole. I think it was actually Noah Su that actually forced the fumble, but just taking advantage of a Raiders busted, right? They the the center went the wrong way and just let Big Bill in the in the back field. The crazy part is if it was just Big Bill, Ashton Genty shook him off. Yeah. Like that’s a 350 lb man that he shook off, but luckily, you know, you had Su there to force a fumble. So those turnovers were huge for the Bears. So positive. You know, we want to start glass half full, not half empty. Positivity, the turnovers were definitely positive for the Bears and something that back-to-back games of four turnovers. Now you’re starting to think maybe this is something after one game of four turnovers, okay, they’re never going to do that again. Okay, two games in a row now some this team can get some turnovers. You got some guys that can make some plays in the back field. Some guys are going after the ball. So, I liked what I saw in that aspect. You may have this, Clay. I think the Bears are either third or fourth in the league in turnover margin. Yeah, it’s huge. Was it third or fourth? Do you remember? I don’t remember. It was I think it’s I had it somewhere, but uh we were all we were all surprised by that. We’ll check that for you. We’ll get that on the Big Pro Football Show at some point. I am very excited to also group Caleb Williams into the positives of that game. It wasn’t positive for about three and a half quarters, but he made the right decisions when he needed to. And that all came in the fourth quarter on that game-winning drive. Absolutely. I got some Ruthie, you know, I like some numbers and obviously we’ll put some cont. I know. I usually do. First half, Caleb Williams. Edgar Edgar got it for us. They’re third in the league turnover. Third in the league in turnover margin. You’re going to win a lot of games. games. I know Ben J made a point to say EPA makes more of a difference now than even turnover margin does, but turnover margin is huge. But to get back to Caleb, thank you, Edgar. Good job, man. This guy’s quick. Um Caleb Williams first half against the Raiders, 12 of 22, 54% completion percentage, 98 yards, an interception, obviously batted ball, and a 47.2 rating. when the when the game’s online, Caleb Williams in the second half, 10 of 15, 67% completion percentage, 114 yards, a TD, 115, 111, excuse me, passer rating. So, Caleb Williams always seems like he’s getting better down the stretch. Like last year, we would see it. Some people wonder, is it because now they’re they’re down and the defense is changing the way they’re playing, maybe why he’s playing better in the second half. There were some horrendous first halves that he bounced back from, but now you’re starting to see that this guy is a guy that can get better as the game goes along. I know there was this thing in the beginning of the season where, oh, the first 15 is the only time he’s doing anything, but now he’s showing, hey, I can get better as a game goes along, too. And you see, he’s a guy that has that clutch gene, and he realizes that this is something I’ve done over and over again. There’s no difference than running this route now than when we did it the five times in practice and the five times in training camp. That’s the stuff that that Tom Brady I always bring up Tom Brady, Drew Brees, they treat these practices, training camp practices, practices like games. So when you do it in the game, it’s not the first time you’re doing it. Yeah. It’s just, oh, this is just normal. This is just routine for us. And Caleb, like he said, he’s a guy that it looks like and he has said that his heartbeat actually slows down. Yeah. in these situations, these pressure field situations instead of the guys that, you know, they start speeding up and next thing you know, they’re a little bit frantic, a little bit too quick, a little bit late, missing a read. So, I loved what I saw from Caleb coming back, getting that win. I know it was a blocked field goal, but even if they don’t block the field goal, you have the scoring drive there. You love to see that. And you have time. You sort of felt like with two timeouts left, you sort of felt like, okay, they were going to have a shot to at least go kick a field. That’s what Ben was saying. 100%. just on the way that Caleb especially orchestrated that that final drive, that gamewinning drive. Let’s go to special teams, Clay. Another big positive. I mean, so many different aspects of special teams won the day for the Bears. They don’t win the game if Kairo Santos isn’t four for four. They don’t win the game if Tory Taylor maybe doesn’t punt that ball to the two and then the penalty puts him at the one. They don’t win that game if Scott Daly doesn’t tell Josh Blackwell, “Hey, their long snapper is kind of doing something funky with the ball right before he snaps it. You can get a start on your jump. Josh Blackwell blocks the kick. Everyone did their part. Josh Blackwell. Yeah. NFC special teams player of the week. Uh, everyone did their role in that unit and I think they deserve a lot of recognition for that. Absolutely. Kairo Santos four for four field goals, one for one extra points, two 40 plus yard field goals, two 50 plus yard field goals. You don’t talk about the kicker a lot unless they do something wrong. So hey, Cairo hit some big field goals. If he misses one of those different ball game, so you love that for Richard High Totower, you know, he’s a guy that I feel like everybody respects and I know in the media people respect him. I know in that locker room people respect him. I know in that coaching staff a lot of people respect him. So you love to see that for Richard High Tower as well. A guy that works his tail off. Yeah. And and just one of the more lovable human beings like when you hear him talk. Um Okay. So that’s all the good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You want to get into the bad? Let’s get into the bad. Just a little bit. Okay. Just a little bit. And first to harp on it. Running defense. You know, you give up 240 yards rushing. I think that’s obviously not good enough to win. Ashton Genty was a guy that that hadn’t had a breakout game yet. We said on this podcast, don’t let this be the day that this guy breaks out. Whoops. I know he’s a six overall pick. We know that he’s talented, but for whatever reason, he was averaging 2 something yards per carry. Not the case versus the Bears. He was able to get going and he hadund this is a crazy staty once again. You know I love stats. Ashen Genty one gained 140 of his rushing yards after contact the second most by any player in a game this season per nextgen stats. So that’s something you got to see. You got to tackle. He he broke 11 tackles per nextgen stats. The second most of any running back this season. So to me that says you got to get better at tackling. I think there are the Calvary is coming. So I think when Kyler’s back and Kyler said, you know, he’s like he’s almost ready. He’s almost there. We think he’ll be ready to go. We hope TJ will be ready to go. We hope Grady will be ready to go and you’ll get some of these defenders back. And then Dennis Allen, you have the week to do the self scout. That’s why we love this bye-week. Now you get to see, okay, we’re giving up this many yards in the run game. Self scout. What’s the problem? Where are we getting gashed at? What are we doing wrong? They’re 24th in the league in rushing, which actually seems better than what you would think they are. 24th isn’t good, but it’s not as bad as you would think. 25th in yards per rush. So, you know, overall, it’s not good, but it’s not as bad as you would think. Also, Clay, while we’re on defense. All right. I’m sorry. I I absolutely what I absolutely misspoke. I’m talking about that was running the football that I said there. I was I was going to say yes. Okay. Run defense is that was rush offense. The Bears were 24th in the league. Also not good. We’ll get to that. Yes. Let’s get to Let’s start with the R run defense. Yeah, just to make sure that that the listeners are aware that was the rush offense. And I pulled the wrong numbers there, but run defense. Yeah, you got to get better at filling your gaps. Tmaine Edmonds has to be better. Uh Gervon Dexter is a little bit out of place. I felt like um Big Bill had some good plays. I I I still think that there’s some gap responsibilities these guys are missing, but a lot of it just comes down to tackling. Nick McCloud looks uninterested in tackling. Nan Wright does not want to tackle anybody. So, I think some of this is individual players as far as tackling. And to me, that’s interesting because Ben ran such a hard training camp where most teams don’t tackle. Yeah. But Ben did. He worked on those fundamentals of tackling. So, that’s why it’s a little bit surprising. Uh, I also think we need to give the pass rush or lack thereof a little bit of attention. Yeah. Montes Sweat, Dio Oangbo, you guys are both being paid a lot of money to get to the quarterback. And Clay, I just don’t feel their presence on the football field. Well, there’s a reason you don’t feel their presence because I don’t think anybody does. a week a week after uh Gino Smith was sacked six times and was constantly under pressure. One week, I mean, how much can you fix in one week? The Bears defensive line was credited with three total pressures and no hits. The only quarterback hit came by Jaquan Brisker on a blitz. So, for an offensive line that’s giving up a lot of pressures and sacks, that tells you, you go and you watch the tape, say, “Hey, we can beat these guys this way. we can beat these guys this way. They did a good job of pass defense. They only gave up 117 yards to Gino Smith, who was second in the league in passing yards coming into the day, but they really didn’t have to throw the ball because they were running the ball so good. So, right, I think that that’s a little bit of yin yin and yin and yang. Yin and yang. Yin and yang. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You got to stop the run to be able to pressure the passer. So, that has something to do with it. But even in the passing situations, you are not feeling these guys. You got one sack from Montes Sweat and one sack from Dio Dango. And they’re not getting double teamed or chipped that much, too. That’s something people say, well, they’re getting double teamed and chipped. It’s hard. No, you want to see somebody get double teamed or chipped. Look at Max Crosby and what he was able to do getting two and three guys thrown at him all game long. He was just an absolute monster disruptor of the game even in that scenario where you are basing your game plan around him. So Sweat and Dio and I looked up this number there’s there’s a stat PFF does about how often you get chipped and double teamed and Montes Sweat 52nd o over edge rushers of edge rushers with 30 or more rushes. Dio Dango 45th of edge rushers tell you about them too rushers. So they’re not getting chipped that much. They’re not getting double team that much. They’re just not winning their one-on-one battles. And we hope coming back from the bye-week they’ll be a little bit rejuvenated. Maybe you can scheme up some more one-on- ons, some pressures. You got Kyler Gordon. We know he’s an excellent blitzer. We know TJ Edwards isn’t the fastest, most athletic guy, but he’s a smart blitzer. He knows how to disguise his blitz, make it look like he’s dropping into coverage. Eyes is look looking at a receiver. Next thing you know, he’s blitzing. He’s the the little things that TJ does is what makes him such a pro. So, I think those two guys will help. And then obviously Grady wasn’t at full speed even when he was playing with the knee injury. So hopefully you can get him more healthy, get him back in the lineup because we know he can be disruptor in the middle and there’s nothing that quarterbacks hate more than pressure up the gut. I hear you Clay and and that’s all great and dandy and good about these guys coming back and potentially helping Montes Sweat or Dio Jingbo get going in the in the pass rush phase. But we were talking last week on this podcast and across all programs that the Raiders had the worst offensive line in the National Football League. So for the Bears not to have a singular sack, not one, one hit, and you’re paying Montes Sweat to be one of the top pass rushers in the National Football League. Like what how does that get better? Like I I I hear you that other guys are coming back are going to help, but like this guy, if he isn’t upset or angry or or frustrated that they talked about one player who wears the number 98 going into the Hall of Fame and it’s not him on that football field, like he’s got to be frustrated or at least show some sign of like, okay, what can I be doing to be better? Absolutely. And and I think his I think he I think he’ll get better. I mean, obviously he can’t do less than he’s done. I don’t think that’s that possible. Maybe he could not have one sack, but Well, that’s the other thing, too, is that Max Crosby plays every single snap. Montes Switz on the field for twothirds of the game on defense. Like, like I I just can’t wrap my head around that player being as ineffective as he’s been so far through four games. And I’ll understand if you’re on the field for twothirds of the snaps if you have a great defensive line unit like say the Eagles last year when you can just rotate guys in. But when you got Dominique Robinson and Tano and and some guys that just aren’t up to the level that you’re supposed to be at, you need to be playing pretty much the full game. You need to work, I don’t know, work on your conditioning in the offseason or something because you need to be on the field. And there’s and we’re not talking about just the first quarter, second quarter. There was pivotal parts of that game where you watch the tape. You go why is Dominique Robinson and Tano in the game right now instead of Dio and Montes Sweat? Like is are these guys tired? Are are they just not performing? So that’s definitely something that’s concerning. I know in my history of playing in those got to have it situations for you to keep out like one of your best pass rushers or run stoppers or players. I mean those they got to be hurt or something’s got to be happen because those guys if they’re not on the field they’re gonna be next to the coach like coach come on like it’s third quarter it’s fourth quarter we need to stop put me back in they’re going to be tugging on shirts you know trying to get back in the game and I don’t think that’s something you’re seeing right now from some of these defensive linemen on the other side of the football on offense they can’t run the ball we know they can’t stop the run they can’t run the ball either so you know you want to be a hard-nosed tough football team. You’re not really displaying the qualities or character traits of of a tough football team quite yet. How do you Clay diagnose the issues in the run game? Let’s start there. And you’re talking offensively. Offensively. Yeah. So, defensively, the Bears rushing yards per game allowed they are allowing 164.5, which is 32nd in the league. Okay. the worst in the NFL. Offensively, they are they are averaging 102 rushing yards per game, which is 24th in the NFL, 3.8 yards per carry. Some of that is Caleb Williams. Not good enough. So, some of that is the running back. You know, I think I love DeAndre Swift. He’s he’s a hard worker. He’s a guy that that gives you everything he’s got, but I think he’s more of a guy that’s kind of like a role player, right? You get him out in space. He can catch a ball. He’ll pick up a blitz for you, too. He’s not afraid to put his face in there, but he is not like a between the tackles runner that’s just going to break a bunch of tackles, move the move the pile, get that extra yard. You don’t have that guy. So, that’s tough. I liked what I saw from Manungai last week. He only got four carries, but in those four carries, he runs hard. He runs hard. He was running hard and moved the pile. So, maybe coming back, you see more of a of a share there. You know, maybe you get to see a little bit of Roshan Johnson. And but I mean besides that, Britain Brown on your practice squad. I know yesterday in the Big Pro Football Show, we talked about maybe you use this time to work out some guys. You’re not going to find anybody in the scrap heap right now that’s going to do anything for your team. See, this is who you got, you know? And it’s funny because we were talking about this, too. You look around at some of the guys that were late pickups like JK Dobbins, fourth in the National Football League in rushing yards. He’s sixth in rushing yards per game, 5.7 and sixth in touchdowns with three touchdowns. JK Dobbins is having excellent year. Andy can even speak Spanish. We learned I know that was so cool. He was like one of my favorite interviews ever. Yeah, Edgar, I know you like that, man. He was uh getting interviewed after the game by like ESPN Deportes and he he did the interview in Spanish. It was awesome. I was like, “Wow, man. I got to get on my game.” I’ve tried a couple of those apps, Ruthie, like the you know, trying to learn. I I just You’re very worldly. I tried and failed. You have a great British accent. No, absolutely. It’s it’s great British accent. If I ever go to London, I always talk like this and sometimes they think I’m actually from there and uh I’m like, actually, I’m from United States of America. But yeah, I I’ll spare you guys the rest of that. Clay, what have you done with me? What have you done? I don’t know. It’s too much. Uh okay, so DeAndre, it is what it is, right? Yeah, it is what it I think a part of Let’s talk about the offensive line. Yeah. I can’t believe it’s taking us this long to get here. Yeah. Obviously in the game, Braxton Jones benched, Theo Benedict goes to the left side, Azie Trapillo in the right in at right side. Theo Benedict seemingly the left tackle moving forward at this point. Yeah. Do you think that was the right move or are were you surprised to see that happen in the way that it did? I think it was the right move. Here’s the thing, like people should know that Theo Bennett playing left tackle is not going to move the needle. Like it’s not like he’s head and shoulders better than Braxen Jones. Excuse me. If he is better than Braxen Jones, it’s by a minuscule amount, but Braxton Jones is in his fifth season. Theo is a young guy, so I think Theo has a higher ceiling. He is a little bit better of a run blocker than he is a pass blocker. And he’s a guy that’s he’s just a fighter, man. He’s a guy that’s going to he’s going to grind. He’s going to fight. He’s going to bite. I don’t know if he’s going to bite. Let’s not get that out there. Theo Benedict is a biter is some headline somewhere. No, but that’s just a figure of speech like Dan Campbell biting kneecaps. You know, he’s just one of those guys. You know what, Theo Benedict did sort of give me Dan Campbell vibes because he has that cut on his nose and before the by-week, uh, some of the reporters were talking to him in the locker room and they said, “You think that cut’s going to heal up over the by-week?” And he goes, “Ah, we’ll see. I might have to just crack it open if it if it starts to heal cuz he likes how it looks. It was awesome. Okay, so there’s sort of Dan Campbell vibes there. Anyways, yeah, but you got the sixth highest paid offensive line in the NFL when Darnell Wright comes back. I mean, that right side at least should be good. And I think the left side with Tuni should be good. You got the the the players I think to move some piles. You got Joe Toney, Jonah Jackson, Drew Dolman is more of a positional blocker, but I think these guys have just they they’ve like taken turns making mistakes. It’s not like you can put it on one guy. It’s like, okay, Cole KT hasn’t blocked great. The last game I think was the worst game I’ve ever seen Cole KT play. And you know, Ruthie, I’m the leader of the Cole KT family. Very uncharacteristic of him. Very uncharacteristic of Cole. I think he’ll come back. He’ll bounce back. He’s a real pro. He’s a guy that that will get in his book. he’ll do what it takes to to be one of those guys. I do think he’s one of the better pass block or pass blocking or run blocking tight ends in the league. Not a good game for him blocking it. It wasn’t a great game obviously for right or left tackle. They’re going against obviously Max Crosby which is tough. But I think the Bears are struggling to find an identity is something that I’ve seen. They uh when you see a team when they need uh it’s like a got to have it play, they have like specific plays that they go to. And like whenever you’re in a good team, you know, like, okay, we’re probably going to go to some sort of gap scheme here or some sort of zone or some sort of toss crack. And you find the Bears, you look at the Bears and they’re trying everything. They’re running it all. You know, if you’re a jack of all trades, you’re a master of none. So, right now, the Bears are a master of none when it comes to the run game. Interesting. Yeah, Caleb Williams just you haven’t seen it super consistently yet from him. What do you want to see from Caleb Williams on the other side of the bye-week Monday Night Football against the Washington Commanders? I’ve been pretty pleased with Caleb. Obviously, I want to see more consistency. He’s gotten better with the pre-nap stuff before since week one, week two. You’ve seen the improvement. You’ve seen the operation improve. You’ve seen his confidence improve in that. So, I want to see that keep keep trending up, right? Keep trending up in that stuff. Keep trending up in your your sacks, right? The Bears are 10th in the league with a 4.55% sack rate. Last year, they were a massive improvement from last year where they ranked last with a 10.3. So, they cut that number in half. And obviously 10th, people are like, “Oh, he’s 10th in sack rate.” Last year, you were dead last. Yeah. you were getting sacked so many times. And a lot of that just isn’t the offensive line. Some of it’s the offensive line. A lot of that is Caleb with awaren awareness and just having this elusiveness and escapability of getting out of some of these pressures. And then Caleb Williams was sacked 16 times in his first four games last year, most in the NFL. This year he’s been sacked seven times. So you see him improving in that holding the ball too long, the sacks. He’s getting better with rhythm. He’s getting you talk hear Ben talking about his feet, marrying his feet with his arm and getting rid of the ball, getting through his progressions. Yeah, it’s not perfect. He’s missing some throws, some of the gimmies he’s missing. Then you’ll see a throw like he did to Rome for the touchdown. You’re just like, “Wow.” You’ll see the wow plays. But get more consistent with like the gimmies, the the screens, the quick throws, cuz those are are very valuable if you can do them consistently. And that’s something Ben loves to have in his offense. He wants to treat that as a run play when you can just throw the ball out to the receiver, they catch it and go. Yeah, you want to catch that nine times out of nine. Not nine out of 10. Nine out of nine. I don’t know why I said nine out of nine. She said 10 out of 10. But uh you know, you guys get the point. We get the point. Get the point. So, he’s got to get better there. But overall, I feel like I’ve been pleased with Caleb. Let’s I mean, passing touchdowns, eight, third in the NFL, 927 passing yards, 11th, 97.8 rating, 13th, only two interceptions. So, I think you’ve seen some growth there. You’ve seen some improvement. Excuse me. You’re excused. So, thank you. So, you want to see that continue to trend upwards because you do got a decent schedule coming out of here and um very winnable games and and games that maybe didn’t look like they were so wable being this season. Now, they look like they’re winnable and you can put yourself in a position to be able to talk playoffs. I know I’m getting ahead of myself, but playoffs. chill out. I think what we said all off season, Clay, when we talked about this Bear schedule is it’s not who you play, it’s when you play. So, no Joe Burrow, a Lamar Jackson up in question. Uh even Jaden Daniels sort of up in up in the air about his durability has been a concern. Um you know, a lot of question marks when you look at the Bears opponents coming out of the by-week. So that’s good news for them, especially if they’re able to self scout and clean up their weaknesses as well. Yeah. Yeah. This Bears offense has scored 20 points in four straight games for the first time since 2013. Wow. To beginning to to beginning season. So I mean that just tells you that this is something that is uncommon. We haven’t seen in a while for a Bears team. You you can see a little bit of that Ben Johnson effect. You know, it’s not perfect. is not where he wants it, but they are improving. I don’t think anybody’s going to sit here and say that the Bears are going to win the Super Bowl this year. But I think you can see some real growth and real improvement from the quarterback and that relationship between Ben and Caleb. I think you talk about Exactly, Clay. I think you talk about what we’ve learned from this team through those first four games. It’s that there is a growing sense of belief that they can win football games, win close games, win comeback games. And I think that you can I’m sure you can touch on this, but if even for the defense and for the special teams, like when you’re sitting on the sideline and your offense keeps going three and out, three and out, three and out, like that’s deflating. You can’t just keep, you know, the defense sitting there being like, “Dude, we just got you the ball four times with a short field, you know, like help us out here a little bit if we can’t, you know, we can’t score all the points.” So, I think when you see Kayla Williams drive down the field, score a game-winning touchdown, you see special teams come up huge, make big plays, Kyro Santos continues to be consistent, like these things all sort of add up. And you’re coming out of this byee with a sense of belief and confidence in who you are as a football team and the fact that most importantly, Clay, this is not the Bears of last year that couldn’t win those close games. Yeah, definitely. You’re start the sense of belief is a real thing. I go back I I’ve talked about this before, but I go back to my time at the Lions when we started off super slow and you know, we were one of the worst teams in the in the North and next thing you know, we win this one close game at Minnesota. It was we were down. We got the ball with like 16 seconds. We had a timeout. We threw a deep dig. Ended up kicking a long field goal. Take it to overtime. We win the game in overtime. And then since that game, we had those situations over and over and over again. I’m going to go back and find the stats on this for you. You know, I love my stats. And we just kept winning. And every time we’d be in the huddle, I just remember talking to one of my uh former teammates, Eric Ebr. I’m like, dude, how do we keep finding ourselves in these situations, right, every single week where it’s the fourth quarter, we’re down six, we’re down three, we’re down so we got to have a last minute drive and we kept winning. Everybody knew staff was going to do it. Next thing you know, we rip off five, six in a row, we make the playoffs. Wasn’t a happy ending. We end up losing in the first round to the Seahawks. But that belief is a real thing once you do have that comeback. Now once you’re in the huddle in these situations, you really believe it’s going to happen and that starts helping you execute better. I don’t know how to explain it. If it’s some esoteric intangible thing that subconscious subconscious thing where it’s just you believe and so it happens. It’s like manifesting it. It’s the beauty of sports. Yeah. It’s why it’s great. All right. So, we’re going to do something real quick, Clay. This is going to how we’re going to wrap this up. Yeah. I want to play a game since it’s the bye-week. We’re going to go around the league. You’ve been covering the whole league on Pro Football Weekly. Yeah. So, I want to get your thoughts and we’re going to play this little game and I’m going to go through the entire NFL. Okay. I’m going to list off the teams for you. Yeah. And you’re going to say the first word that comes to mind when I say this teams. One word or phrase. Or phrase. Okay. Or Yeah. Okay. And it can be random. It doesn’t have to be necessarily educational. Hold on. Please hold. Please hold one moment. I like this segment. This is going to be fun. Okay, you ready? Yeah. We will start with the AFC East. Love it. Buffalo. Super Bowl. New England. Up and coming. Miami Dolphins. I was going to say something bad. Thank god I didn’t say that. Oh man. Um, Dolph tell me off the air. A hot seat. Okay. Jets winless. Yeah. Okay. AFC North. Pittsburgh surprising. Cincinnati. Unfortunate. Yeah. Like that. Baltimore. Very unfortunate. Injury. Injuries. Injuries. Yeah. Cleveland. Great defense. Terrible offense. This is too long. That was Yeah. Sorry. AFC South Colts. Indiana Jones. Indiana Jones, baby. Jacksonville Jaguars. Your Jags. Duval. I like the Jags. I think they might pull an upset on the Chiefs this week. I know we’re getting off topic here. Hot take. Okay. I love that. Houston overrated. Yeah, great defense though. Okay, Tennessee. Brutal. Okay, AFC West. Almost said Clippers. We’re getting to basketball here. Chargers. Madison Brer Beer. No, I’m kidding. Um, dude, that’s Justin Herbert’s girlfriend. You put in your pants. I’m sorry. Um um Chargers, man, I just I can’t figure them out. Who’s got it better than us? Yeah, Kansas City comeback. Denver Broncos, defense, Las Vegas Raiders, turnovers. Okay. National Football Conference, the NFC FC. Yeah. East Philly Fly Eagle Fly. I mean, uh, Rocky Balboa, you can hit him, but he keeps winning. You can beat him, beat him, beat him, but he’s going to win the game. Commanders, what’s the regressing? Okay. Interesting. Yeah. Dallas Cowboys fle New York Giants. I mean that’s a tough one. Um Jackson Dart Dline. Jackson Dart. Dart. Jackson Dart. Duvall. Okay. Detroit Lions. NFC North. Here we go. Should we save this for last? Let’s do the NFC North last. Let’s go south. Tampa Bay. Gritty. Love that. Atlanta Falcons. Up and coming. Carolina Panthers. O just bad. New Orleans Saints. Rattled. That division is wild. Spencer Rattler rattled. Rattled. Yeah. NFC West 49ers. They’re three in one, but like a fake. I think they’re they door closing. Window window window closing. Okay. Seattle Seahawks. Surprising. I actually like the Seahawks. I’m sorry. I like Darnold. LA Rams. Contenders. Arizona. Cardinals. Me mid. Okay. Let’s go back to the NFC North. Okay. Detroit Lions still got it. Resilient Super Bowl contenders. Okay. Yeah. Green Bay Packers up and down. Confused. Confused. Minnesota Vikings. I know we’re wearing the the Michigan colors right now, but Mason blue quarterback. Mark. Yeah. Okay. Last but not least, Chicago Bears. What’s the word you’re going to use? Drum roll, please. Progress. Oo. It’s getting hot in here. That was good stuff. Clay, did you enjoy that? Oh, that was fun. That was really fun. I know. I didn’t understand the assignment. I said a few extra words. Phrase. I said word or phrase. Yeah, that works. No, that was fun. Yeah, that was great stuff. Clay Harbor. What are you doing for the bye-week? For the by-week, I am gonna be working with you all week. Still covering the Bears and the Big Pro Football Show this weekend. Do you have any plans? Oh, Valley. I’m uh doing the Missouri Valley game of the week in Normal, Illinois on Saturday. And then on uh Sunday, I’m going to go watch my niec’s soccer tournament. Cute. Uh while I have my phone on me to make sure that I’m still watching uh some games, you know, watch games online. Okay. Love it. Still paying more attention to the soccer. Fun. Yeah. Love that for you. Yeah. I’m gonna get some golf in. It’s gonna be nice. Yeah. It’s gonna be nice. It’s nice. Still nice weather. It’s 85 degrees in October in in Chicago. Uh, all right everyone. Thank you so much for listening to the Charter Podcast. Watching the Charter Podcast. You got to see, if you were lucky enough to watch this episode, you saw Clay in this gorgeous suit he’s wearing and you got to hear him talk in a British accent. He’s Clay Harbor. I’m Ruth Pollinsky. Enjoy the bye-week everyone. Watch the rest of the league. Have fun. We’ll be back next week. [Music]

Bears hit the bye after a razor-thin win in Vegas: early defensive takeaways, special-teams heroics, and Caleb’s clutch drive — but big concerns with run D, pass rush, and run-game identity. We sort out the O-line shuffle (Theo at LT), what Ben Johnson wants next, rapid-fire the entire NFL, and look ahead to MNF vs. Washington.

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