Chicago Bears Brace for Aaron Rodgers, Playoff Push | CHGO Bears Podcast
It’s Tuesday with your first place Chicago Bears. We got a good show for you today. Baldi is here. He’s going to join us. We got a lot to talk about. Updates on Aaron Rodgers. And since it is Tuesday, we got your quarterback report card as well. It all starts right now on CHGO. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Let’s get [Music] [Music] Welcome in to the CHGO Bears podcast on an amazing Tuesday. Let’s brace for that uh Aaron Rogers character. We are proudly presented by our friends at Bet 365. It is never ordinary at Bet365. Download the app, use the code cho365 and you get $150 in bonus bets when you deposit $10 and place that first bet for $5. Adam Ho, Greg Braggs, Brian Baldinger on the way, and apparently so is Aaron Rogers, even though I guess Mike Tomlin’s going to play this koi for the rest of the week and not commit, but it sure sounds like he’s going to be playing on Sunday. We’ll see. We’ll see. I it wouldn’t surprise me if he doesn’t and he’s just, you know, going to keep the Bears on their toes all week. Oo, the old keep the Bears on their toes. I mean, Rogers always wants to be in, you know, the media spotlight in the headline of the story. So, will he or won’t he play? I still think it’s 50/50. We’ll see. The update today, uh, for those that might not have heard, is that he does not need surgery on that wrist. It’s just a matter of like, you know, wrapping it up in a way where he can avoid further injury. And Tomlin also said the pain tolerance really won’t be an issue. So I think it really just comes down to do they think he can, you know, hurt it more and which would then risk the rest of their season because they are still in the mix of I’m sure Brian Baldinger played through broken wrists. No problem. That’s true. Why don’t on that why don’t we bring in the legend, our friend, our pal, our NFL guru from the NFL network and everywhere else. Damn it. You see him everywhere. Of course, right here on CHO. Baldi, thank you for making time as always, my friend. Good to see you. Thank you. Good to be with you guys, man. It’s been a while. Yeah, good to see you, Baldi. So, why don’t you just tell us, Baldi? You know, Aeron’s playing, right? We’re We don’t have to We don’t have to think about this all week long. He’s He’s gonna He’s He’s not He’s not going to lose out on a final opportunity to play the Bears at Soldier Field. That is not that dude’s ego. He’s playing. Yeah. Yeah. He owns the Bears. Uh I don’t know. I mean I you know I mean there’s a lot of football to be played. I don’t know you know the if it’s a fra I mean I don’t know if it’s a spraining a fracture. If I’m sure that if he can put a soft cast on it and just protect it that he he’ll he’ll definitely play but um you know he he has a hard time protecting himself right now just uh with his movement and things like that. So, uh, but I I would I would I would plan for him to be out there. I I would put it that way. Baldi is a competitor. You I mean, you know, the history here. He owns the Bears. He said as much. He’s doing the discount double checks all over Soldier Field throughout all the years. His record is unbelievable. We beat him five times. Um, I hate him with every fiber of my being. Yeah. If you’re a Bears player right now, like do you would you prefer to play him this week or do you or are you like it’s not the end of the world if he doesn’t play? Uh, you know, I mean, I think if you’re, you know, Kevin Bard, Montes Sweat, some of these guys been around the block for a while, you know, played a long time in this league. They like to see the best. Brings the best out of them. I mean, nothing against Mason Rudolph. He was he ran the offense just fine. Now, it helped that they scored, you know, two defensive touchdowns. um you know to really help the offense out that has struggled for much of the year. So I I mean I think I don’t think they would mind having to see uh Aaron out there and go beat the best. You know they want to um make the playoffs this year and keep this winning streak alive. And if they could beat Aaron Rodgers while they’re doing it um that just gives you more confidence that you can go up against an elite quarterback that has all kinds of experience. Not the forget about the record against the Bears. These guys don’t know that. uh they weren’t here when he was playing, but you know, but at the same time uh I always feel better after you beat and help, you know, especially defensively if you beat a really good player. Yeah. I think ideally if you’re telling me the Bears are going to win no matter what, you want to play Aaron Rodgers for a multitude of reasons, whether it’s the history or you know, the Bears, this this current team climbing the ladder and you know, beating a respectable quarterback in Rogers. My concern is how do they get to the quarterback because last week they had zero sacks on JJ McCarthy came close a couple times. I know Grady Jarrett was making a little bit of noise but this pass rush man it’s is a lot left to be desired. It’s not their strength. I mean they have 15 interceptions though like nobody’s close to him you know and so um he still puts some up there. Now look you know they probably would like to play JJ McCarthy every week. He’s going to give them two you know. Um, Aaron is doesn’t play like that, but pass rush is um it’s important. It’s don’t don’t get me wrong, it’s important, but they’re still getting the turnovers. They’re still getting the takeaways like at a record rate right now. So, they’re getting some kind of pressure. The quarterbacks aren’t seeing things clearly, you know, with as many fumbles that they’ve caused and recovered and interceptions that they have. I mean, Kevin Byer is just playing zone coverage. I mean, he’s got instincts. Um but you know for him to have five interceptions at the stage of his career like he’s still trusting his eyes and his instincts to get in these passing lanes and um you know Edmonds is doing the same thing and you know Nan has been really good at the right corner. So you know whether they get the pass rush or not I I feel like you know Pittsburgh heck they throw to the tight ends and the running backs. They’ll take a shot to DK, but honestly, the ball goes to checkdowns in in most of the games that they’ve played this year, and they let those guys just kind of dink and dunk down the field. Well, yeah, you know, a lot’s changed uh since we were talking Bears offense last year a lot. Um I feel like I’m in football heaven watching this offense at times. They’re just lining up. They’re mashing guys. They’re they’re just like the touchdown common unguys touchdown on Sunday. Just the the the way the tight end pins down, they pull over the the the guard and the other tight end and just the whole the hole just opens up. What Ben Johnson’s doing, it’s just so fun to watch. And as much as he gets like kind of credited for, you know, new school ideas or whatever, like there’s a lot of old school smashmouth football in his offense. How much fun are you having watching the Bears offense when you’re breaking down film every week? I’m having fun, but I tell you what’s amazing is in a passing league, and there’s they they still throw it more than they run it, but they bounce it up pretty good. Um I I think maybe the Rams I mean, I don’t have any I don’t look at these stats like some people do, but maybe the Rams play more under center than Caleb. Maybe, but he’s under center more than as much as any quarterback in this league. And so he’s either handing off from there or play action pass. Nobody does play action more than what Ben Johnson is calling. And I think I like that personally. I like it. They play with two backs. They’ll put a tight end in the back field and have a lead back. Um it’s good because they never get far away from the run and it doesn’t right really matter right now whether it’s DeAndre or whether it’s uh you know Manangai. It doesn’t matter like they’re they’re going to run the football and then Caleb is just special. I mean that you can’t get that guy off his feet. And you know last year I looked it up. Um after 10 games last year he was sacked 41 times. He’s been sacked 16 times so far this year. Like that that number has just completely gone away. Um it’s it’s it’s on the low end of the of the business right now. And some of that is is Caleb just getting better and getting the ball out on time, hitting his back foot and throwing it. Um and then some of it is his ability just to escape. Dallas Turner had him wrapped up last week. somehow he got out of it like a Houdini type act. But I I do like the offense. I like it. I think you’re going to see, you know, I think there’s plays for Luther Burton. He should catch the ball when it thrown when they throw it to him. Um I I believe he could do that consistently. Dropped one last week that was, you know, inexcusable, but um and I think Lovelin is coming on and so uh you know, I think there’s a lot more to go. Now, that being said, there’s seven wins all against teams with losing records. They’re going to see some teams here, you know, coming up that um at least Baltimore had a losing record when they when they lost to them. But um yeah, so I mean, they’re going to see better teams coming down the stretch right now. To piggyback off your observation of under center, I I do got to give a shout out to our guy Shane Mars, who does shows with me on Monday nights. He gave me the stat last night saying, you know who has the fourth most passing yards for a quarterback under center in the NFL? That’s Caleb Williams. And this was a guy to, you know, to talk about this idea. This was a guy that people said he couldn’t play under center. That that’s something he had never done and it wasn’t something he was going to be comfortable doing. And Ben Johnson just seems to be force-feeding him. You know, get comfortable being uncomfortable and let’s see what you got. Well, I think that might be part of it, but I mean, Ben Johnson has been coaching him hard. I mean, just being out hall this summer, like he coaches everybody hard and he’s very demanding and there’s a a way that he wants things done and there’s a reason why. And I think Caleb is smart. You know, he understands the benefit of being under center both in the run game and what he gets off the play action pass game to let some of these routes develop down the field to get the ball down the field to, you know, to Rome and to DJ and the guys like it. It takes time to run these routes and it’s better and it times up better um off sevenstep drops uh in play action to get the ball down the field and get your chunk plays and they keep getting them and it’s not it’s not going to slow down. And so I give Caleb credit, but I I think he’s smart enough to know that there’s a lot of benefit to playing under center and it’s not always just about being comfortable or being able to see, you know, both sides of of the defense uh from from the shotgun position. I I think, you know, even last week, I mean, Minnesota knew he was going to be in play action a bunch. That’s why they kept blitching off the edges, you know, coming at him and more teams are going to do that rather than blitzing up the middle because sometimes he doesn’t see it, but he does feel it and he does escape it. Baldi, how do you size up the NFC North right now? If you look at the gambling markets, the Bears are still behind the Packers and the Lions in people’s estimation as far as making the playoffs. And yes, to your point and to what everybody knows as far as the record is they’re, you know, the Bears haven’t beaten any good teams yet. No teams over 500. Do you still do you look at the Bears as the third team in the North or do you look at it as more of a coin flip? I don’t think they’re the third team. I mean, they’re at least I mean, Detroit on a good day is the best team, but you know, I they the Eagles just completely shut him down, you know, and we’ve seen that happen a couple times. Cleveland did the same thing, you know. So, I I I I feel like on a good day, you know, when they’re healthy, like they they’re still the team to beat, even though they’re a little flawed defensively with all the injuries, but um I think Chicago’s right there with Green Bay as the second best team. I mean, Green Bay could have easily lost that game to the Giants, uh on Sunday afternoon in New York. I mean, you watch that game. I mean, if the receiver runs out at the end the right way, maybe Jameus doesn’t throw an interception, he throws a touchdown. But regardless, um, you know, they got back in the winning ways, but I think Chicago is every bit the team that that Green Bay is. They might not have some of the star power. Um, you know, Micah Parsons and some of this stuff, but um, you know, but they but from a coaching standpoint, game planning standpoint, like I think Ben knows how to coach in those games right now. How about the quarterbacks? It’s it’s it’s it’s interesting to look at these quarterbacks cuz they’re all a little different. Um, you know, sometimes we get a little bit too much recency bias, but you know, Jared Goff coming off the tough game the other night against Vic Fangio, obviously his accomplishments, we know what they are. Jordan Love’s been a little bit inconsistent here. JJ McCarthy’s going through his struggles like and and obviously Caleb’s developing. I just How do you stack up the quarterbacks in the division right now? Well, I think Caleb’s the most talented by far and so um you know, but that doesn’t mean he’s the best. I mean, Jared Goff has proven, you know, what what he has been able to do consistently. I think, you know, Ben Johnson was on this call with us, he would say the same thing. But, you know, he just has 10 years of experience, too. So, but I I feel like Caleb is ascending and he keeps getting better and so these games are going to get bigger. Um, he’s, you know, last interception was to Nate Wiggins in the fourth quarter against Baltimore. And, um, not, you know, most corners can’t run a 425 like Wiggins does. And you know, he you know, he he undercut the the ball, but he’s taking care of the football and he’s still taking shots down the field. So, I feel like the best football is in front of Caleb right now. And this offense, I think it’s the best the best footballs in front of him regardless who they play. So, I like the way Ben game plans. I like the the the style of runs that he has and how he runs the ball. So, I I feel like, you know, this is going to be a good stretch run for Chicago, the everybody in the division right now. But I I I feel like Detroit can be vulnerable. Um, you know, and so they they’ll see them next week, you know, and that should be fun. Bald, we know these coaches, um, especially season to season steal so much from each other. That’s why we see these trends in football, but even within a season, we see adjustments. We see things. Where I’m going with this is cuz I’m sure you’ve you’re you’re when you’re watching the Rams, you’ve seen this. Shawn McVey is doing something remarkable. I don’t know if the average fan is is aware of this. He’s running 13 personnel with three tight ends on the field. Yeah. At an insane amount and it’s working. And I’ve noticed the last couple weeks and certainly on Sunday in the Bears game, all of a sudden I’m looking at the snap counts the next morning and I’m like, how are all these tight ends playing so much? The Bears are running a lot of 13. So, I’m wondering if Ben’s seeing this and doing it because Sean’s doing it and he’s noticing this trend and how it’s Sean’s copying Ben. Come on. You think Sean’s copying Ben? Okay. But just No, no. I’ve been I’ve been tracking it. I I’ve seen it. I’ve done some breakdowns in Rams off. They actually dress for tight ends. Uh Terrence Ferguson is also a part of it and he’s like he can be a game record. Like he’s just getting better and better. But Davis Allen is their lead blocker and you know Kobe Parkinson can kind of do it all and Higgy’s been their guy when they were an 11 personnel. He’s been there a long time in the offense but they play four. But what happens is when you see the three tight ends at the end of the line of scrimmage and you’ll see it in Chicago. Um what it does is it makes the defense defend another gap. So every defense is a gap defense. So you got your A gap, you got your B gap, you got your C gap, right? And then when you get two or three tight ends to a side or an extra tackle and two tight ends like a lot of teams are doing, Philadelphia will do it, it forces the defense to defend one more gap. And so are you doing that with a defensive tackle with a safety? Like how are you defending that gap? And so uh and then if you overdo it, teams are running weak away from it and and they’re getting a numbers advantage to the weak side. So the offense is trying to gain a numbers advantage. the defense is trying to counter it and it’s one of the and so it’s really effective in the run game but it’s also good especially if your tight ends like Chicago and KT and Lovelin uh are good receivers and you can do the tight like everybody’s running this tight end delay now you block you block and then you you leak out late um and and you can just get the defense to expand especially if they’re in zone coverage and you can just get easy completions and and good games underneath they did it to Lovelin last week and so that’s part of the reasons why um we’re going to see a lot more of that down the stretch. And it’s it’s it’s pretty much the good offenses right now are running two and three tight end sets uh a big majority of the time. Baldi NFL on Twitter and the Baldi breakdowns are the greatest thing on Twitter outside a couple of your tweets. Greg, you’re those are amazing too. But uh the you you underlined the Bears physicality, Baldi, and how much you like it and you picked out one Manungai touchdown run. You see KT coming through and just had on hat and I talked about it you know the other day that the Bears are just so much more physical this year than they were and they that started all the way back in training camp. when you I don’t off this the top of your head when you look at the Bears O line compared to what else is out there and what you see of the where they’re playing like do you think this is like a a top 10 top five unit I would say they’re somewhere around 10 top 10 I mean Tony makes such a difference you know he’s just such a great player I mean in so many different ways the subtle things he does but I mean obviously you know the right tackle is playing really good football and you know he’s probably in Ben Johnson’s eye, he can be I don’t think he’s as talented as Pen Su, but in his eyes, you’re starting to see him on some of these pin and pools and toss cracks and he’s getting down the field. He’s playing he’s playing staying on his feet. Used to kind of have like some bad balance, but he’s staying on his feet. Um I I feel like in the run game, Theo is a really good player in the run game. He struggles some in pass protection, but he but you know, I mean, he’s just got to keep working at it. You know, he’s going to he’ll figure it out because he’s a great athlete. He’s always on his feet. You never see the guy on the ground. And it’s one of the reasons why they put him out there. And so, um, you know, you go up against Dallas Turner, he’s a top, you know, he’s a first round pick out there. He’s going to give up some ground, some little pass rush there. Some guys are beating him, but, um, but he’s battling though. And I would say at this point, they’re a top 10. And, you know, everybody is looking to to get that tough yard to convert on third and one or fourth and one. You see Baltimore use Mark Andrews in a play that he’s volved, you know, from a tush push, but I like when Chicago can just line up and knock people off the ball and just run it in, you know, like that’s Walter Payton back there, you know, like just go knock somebody off the ball. Um, so, you know, you got Hilenberg and, you know, all Mark Borts and some of my, you know, good friends out there. Um, the way they used to do it, I I feel like that’s still the best method if you could do it that way. You can mention any 85 Bear when you’re speaking Karm’s language. Whenever you want to come on, it’s totally fine. And by the way, I realize how kind of ridiculous that question is, too. Are they a top five or top 10 offensive line from where they came from last year to even be able to ask that question seems absurd, but I mean, you underline it and you’re looking at like the Bears are playing physical up front, man. Yeah, it’s across the board, too. I mean, you’re you’re the tight ends, as you guys mentioned, they’ve been physical all year long, and you got Azie Trapillo even getting out there, getting reps, smashing people. It’s it’s a lot of fun, and I know Chicago Bears fans are enjoying it. My final thing for you, you know, as we skip just to get a little bit of a a skip ahead scouting report on what’s going on with the Philadelphia Eagles, you know, they’re one of the best teams in football, but if you follow some of their local coverage, it doesn’t feel feels like there’s a lot of trouble in paradise. I I mean, I heard Seth Joiner making comments about, you know, what’s going on with Jaylen Herz behind the scenes. You know, G, as we look ahead here, these next two games, what do we expect as the Bears take on the Eagles on Black Friday next week, because as great as they are, it seems like there’s some things on the underbelly going on there. Yeah, I mean, I’m 13 miles away from Novaare. Like, I hear everything. I try not to listen to it just the way Jaylen Herz doesn’t really listen to it. Um, all he does is win games. Um, you know, and so he’s been the Super Bowl MVP and he’s been to two of them. um he really doesn’t care. He’s he’s not going to turn the ball over. He’s not throwing the ball like, you know, routes on timing and against zone looks. He’s not throwing in tight windows. He’s not He’s going to hold it. Uh the offensive line that takes a hit with losing Lane Johnson, a big hit. Um but Fred Johnson’s okay out there. But yeah, I mean, he’s just he’s not going to pull the trigger if he thinks the ball could be deflected, tipped, um intercepted. Uh he might throw a 50-50 ball down the field where he feels like Devonte or AJ could go get it. Um he’ll do that and he’s pretty good at that. Pretty good deep ball thrower period. But he’ll run it. He’ll take a sack. He’ll throw it away. But he’s not going to turn the ball over. He’s got one interception the whole year. I think one fumble. Like he’s he’s just going to take care of the football and win games. and everybody else going to keep chirping cuz the the offense honestly if I sit here and watch their offense like not not only does it put me to sleep it irritating like there’s nothing fun about it you know they don’t do anything particularly well but their defense is so good and um they’re so good so like you know it’s like the 85 Bears like okay well we got we got McMahon maybe he’ll make a throw down the field and and maybe Sweetness will bust a couple and we’ll win 13 to 10 and they’re And Jaylen’s okay with that. Yeah. Who Who’s the best team in the NFC in your opinion? I I lost your your sound. Who Who who is the best team in the NFC in your opinion? I think the Rams are I think the Rams just the way that they play u they don’t have a weakness and unless the quarterback, you know, get shelled for whatever reason. like the way his decision making and what they can do and how they do it and how they game plan. Um it’s it’s pretty special. So I I feel like the Rams they they should have beaten the Eagles in Philadelphia. Had two field goals blocked in the last quarter of the game, but they would have beaten them there that day. Um but make no excuses. That’s that’s just a really uh solid team. Well built. They they draft and they develop and they don’t miss. They they’ve got six defensive linemen they’ve drafted over the last three years and they are all on the field and they’re all good players. Baldi, you’re the best. Just like the Bears. Okay. I look forward to I can’t wait to watch this week’s game. Should be fun. Should be a good one. Schedules without or without him. Yeah. Yeah. Schedule’s getting tougher. We’ll see how the Bears handle it. Baldi, we’ll talk to you again soon. Always great uh talking if we don’t talk to you before Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving and uh enjoy the football. Enjoy your best, Baldi. All right, guys. Take care. Good seeing you. Before we take a break, though, you know what, Karm? I gota Enough of the 85 Bears. We’re talking 25 Bears. Okay. Right now. How about that? Yeah. 25 Bears. Yeah. No, I We love the 85 Bears. Hey, listen. I I stand ovation. I Hey, I’m They’re releasing the documentary uh on HBO, The Shuffle. The Shuffle um on Thanksgiving for the 85 Bears. And really I it’s past time because we haven’t had a documentary about the 85 Bears and I know we need one. It’s been like 5 years since the last one. If there if we need if we haven’t had 12 documentaries about the 85 Bears, then we’re going to get one. Are you going to watch it? You’re a Bears fan. You have no choice. But like I mean I have a hard time believing we’re going to hear any stories that haven’t been told 14 times over. But shout out to the shuffle. Can’t wait to watch it. But we can talk about Michael Jordan for the rest of my life. bring back the last dance. All right, we’ll take a quick time out. We’ll come back. Um we have the QB report coming up and um a little bit more on obviously this weekend’s game. So, but first with the Bet 365 early payout offer, you are a winner if your team goes up by 17 points like the Cowboys did last night. I was looking at the app and it changed. It said that they put the Cowboys up there like we’re paying out. Already paying out. Instant payout on straight bets and parlay selections. Bulls go up 17 last night. I think they were just shy of 17. But also that does not apply to basketball. This is a football situation. Thank you for that clarification. Shout out CHGO Bulls. Shout out at 365. This is why we’re here. Download the app. Use code CGO365 when you sign up. And uh they always got you covered. Thursday nights with a $10 safety net bet 365,000 jackpot on Sundays and 50% super profit boost token on same game parlays on Monday night. Breaking news for Bet 365. New customers now get 150 in bonus bets when you bet $5. Win or lose. Sign up. Use code ch365. 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Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code cho for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. That’s tap, ticket, go. Download the game time app today. All righty. Thank you to Baldi for being on. So gracious with his time to hang out with us in the middle of a seven and three Chicago Bears football season. Hog, I know you got a special thing coming up for everybody. You want to tease it a little bit? You want to you want to get a little preview on your hard Caleb work that you did that that’s super exciting? No, because as we discussed while you I don’t know where you just went during that break. Uh but we have about a twominut segment here and then we’re going to break again and then we’re going to do the quarterback grade. So we’re going to spend these two minutes giving Well, that’s perfect. That’s a perfect opportunity for you just to tease what’s coming up and then we could have been done. Grades are coming up or as we waste more and more of these two minutes and I’ve already teased the grades. We’re going to just say goodbye to Jake Moody real quick. No. um who was signed by the commanders. And you know, it’s kind of warning people of this that when you’re on the practice squad, you can always be signed to another team’s active roster. Um now, you don’t have to sign. It’s not like the commanders just claim you and you have to go sign there. But if you’re a, you know, a competitive athlete and another team wants to put you on their 53man roster and make you the starter, you’re going to do that. So Jake Moody with all the talk about Cairo and Greg firing Cairo in the middle of the game the other day. Um Jake Moody is no longer with the Chicago Bears. Your thoughts, Greg? I don’t love it. I mean, I guess it is what it is at this point. You’re going to ride it out with Cairo the rest of the year. And um I still have yet to find a Bears fan that can look me straight in the face and tell me they trust when Kyro Santos lines up for a kick. All the credit to him. He knocked that kick through to win the game and uh we’re very grateful for that. But I still don’t trust this guy. I hate saying that. I hate projecting here forward for some big game, big moment when we need a kick. Know one just happened last week. Uh so, you know, maybe I’ll give him a little bit of a benefit of the doubt here, but I still do not feel comfortable at all when Kyro Santos lines up for a kick. I don’t care if it’s 54 yards or 45 yards. There’s just something about him that makes me uneasy. And you can show me the stats on how good he’s been on 50 plus yards. You can show me the stats on how accurate he’s been. Uh he ain’t Robbie Gold, guys. I don’t care if his stats technically say he’s better. I trusted Robbie. I don’t trust this guy. I’m I hate saying that. He’s a bear and I want to put my full support behind Cairo, but he just does not give me confidence. I mean, first of all, Let’s just give Jake Moody his his moment in time. The dude came in here, went eight for nine, won the Commanders game, and when the Bears win the Super Bowl, I’m I think that he actually should get a, you know, a playoff share. What do you think? Playoff share for Moody. Wouldn’t be here without the Moody. Put us on good mood. Moody guy earned himself an extra little paycheck. Thoughts? You know, when it comes to Cairo, uh, you don’t think he earned it? You don’t think that he earned a little piece of the playoff pie? I mean, he he got him. He won him a game. Won him a game. And that might be the difference between them making the playoffs and not. If you were a Bears player and you had to vote on Moody getting Okay, if you really want to have a serious discussion about that, if the Bears win the Super Bowl, Jake Moody will get a ring. Yes. That’s not even a debate. That’s how that works. When they go But how about if you’re a player, what percentage would you give them? Guy was here. Percent of what? Percentage of the Don’t they vote on playoff shares? Yeah. If you play in the games, if you’re on the team, that’s called your paycheck for working that week. No, you do not get a paycheck for for being on the commanders during the playoffs. They vote on play in baseball. They vote on playoff money. The players vote on what percentage. Oh, I don’t know how. Okay, maybe they do. I don’t know if you know are familiar with the Bears, but they don’t usually make the playoffs. So, I don’t really know how that works. That’s That’s the formers. This is the 2025. You guys told me to lean into 2025. Yeah. So, anyway, I I listen, I trust Cairo if if we’re having that conversation. I know Greg doesn’t. Um, despite the fact that he’s I don’t trust him. I don’t even believe that he’s the most accurate kicker in Bears history. I think two things can be true. If you’re a little uneasy with Cairo right now, I would I don’t blame you. On the other hand, in the year of 2025 that we’re in, the Bears have won at Lambeau Field on a walk-off field goal from Kairo Santos. They have won at US Bank Stadium against another rival on the road in a loud environment on a walk-off field goal from Kairo Santos. So, I also think the panic and I’m not saying you did this by any means, Greg, but if anybody’s trying to tell me that this is like Cody Parky in 2018 where the warning signs are there, I don’t think it’s anywhere near the same thing at all. Would you have you you would have cut Cairo and kept Moody? Yeah. See, I think that’s ins I I think that the risk with that is I I just I I gotta be honest with you. I don’t know what you’re basing that off of because Moody came in one game. It’s a Yeah, it’s a gut feeling. I mean, Moody came in. Guess who also missed a kick that game, right? It was raining. It was literally the same game. It was raining that game. He kicked it in the back of the head of the guy. I don’t care if it was raining. I’m just saying it was tough elements. So, I I I grade those kicks a lot tougher than, you know, if if it wasn’t raining. I’m just saying that to me, I’m not I’m not dis that would have been bolder than what the Bears did, which was a mistake when they cut Robbie Gold and moved on from him. I think this would have been bolder to do that and be like, “No, we’re riding with Moody cuz the commanders want him off our practice.” I get it because Moody has been inconsistent in his career. I get that. But then my point goes back to the off season. You knew who Kairo Santos was before the season started and they should have looked for an upgrade at that position. I there are too many kickers out here now, you know, that you don’t think about it when they line up and they can be drilling 60 yard kicks. Okay, name those guys though. I mean, I’m going to be serious. I think there’s really only like I don’t have to name kickers cuz they’re not supposed to be named. They just knock them through the uprights. It’s like everybody across the league before it used to just be uh Turner from Baltimore that was like the only Tucker. I’m sorry. Who’s out of the league? Exactly. Right. For different reasons. But I’m just saying it used to just be Tucker that could hit those kicks. Now everybody hits. It’s like it’s it’s a norm across the league. Cyro’s the only guy it feels like I watch all the other games. These guys it does not feel as uneasy as it does with Cairo. I I get it, man. Um I get it’s reactionary, but Cody was only here for that one year, right? Yeah. Thank you. I’m Gary Ross. Maybe in the first time in the history of the world, we are agreeing on this. He said Brandon Aubrey and Cam Little are the only ones. I I I agree. I think it’s like two kickers in the league right now. That you genuinely feel like this is 100% going to go in every single time. I think Kyro Santos is with the majority of the rest of the league. We’re like, this is pretty good, but you know, anything could happen here. I’ll throw one more guy in there that we’re actually going to see this week. That’s Chris Boswell. Okay. He’s been booming him from 50. There’s one. Are we talking about length or both? He’s been accurate. I’m talking about like and to your point with Tucker when Justin Tucker was before everything that happened off the field when he’s lining up that dude was drilling them. Not just like it was like if you put the if you had squeezed the uprights to like five feet apart, he was drilling them right down the middle every single time. Um that is a kicker where you feel completely confident. All right. All right. Hog. Mr. Kicker. There’s one kicker in the NFL who’s perfect with more than 20 attempts. Do you know who it is? Perfect. Perfect. Hasn’t missed. That includes That includes six for six from 50 plus and eight for eight from 40 to 49. I got to guess. Go ahead. Is it Jason Meyers? It is not. He’s got this guy’s got a bare connection. Is it Eddie Pierro? It is. Yeah. So, that’s your one kicker. That’s perfect. All right. Now, what what stat matters the most to you, by the way? 50 plus makes. Is that is that what matters the most? This the the top of the league. Los Santos is good at by the way. Top of the league 8 for8 Chase Mclofflin the Bucks. All right. Chris Boswell is seven for8. We’re playing this week 50 plus. So where does Cairo rank in 50 plus? Tied for 18th. Five for seven. See, to be honest, and we need a break, but I actually consider I I want my kicker to be perfect from the 40s, which is to your point where I am I am not ackn I’m not sitting here saying Cairo is perfect and that you you should feel 100% confident because I’m with you. Like he missed that 45 yard. You got to make that. It’s the NFL. You got to make that kick. I feel like the 50s and beyond are more of a bonus. you know, that’s a little bit more coin flippy. Uh, when you’re kicking from that deep, it’s the it’s the if I could draw my perfect kicker, I just want to know that when I’m on that fringe range, we’re talking 45 to like 49 yard field goals, my guy’s going to make it. He barely made that gamewinner against Minnesota. You know, I give him the credit for it. He knocked it through. I don’t think the And I know there was the hold and stuff that operationally it wasn’t perfect, but that one didn’t feel great coming off the foot. I I just whatever. I mean, we’re riding with him, so it’s a moot point. And I’m not from the 40s. Sorry, excuse me. Topps from the 40. He’s nine for nine. He’s 23 at 24 from extra points. I see everybody banging on on Pinterero for the extra points, which is fair. He has missed four. Nine for nine. 23 of 24 from from uh extra points. And we have not named him, I don’t think. Just say, Stephen, we got Riley Patterson, the the pea dog, Dolphins, Kickers, Even I’m like, that’s enough kicker conversation. Uh when we come back, we’ll talk about the quarterback. Caleb Williams got your quarterback grades from this week’s game against the Vikings. But first, winter is almost here, but is it’s already cold enough that your furnace is running. And you might be asking, is your is the home up for the challenge? The heating? It’s good question. Mine is cuz I called Four Seasons. You can call Four Seasons for a lot of different reasons. If you got a plumbing emergency, call Four Seasons. Electrical emergency, call Four Seasons. If you need a hot water tank installed today? I do. Really? Yeah. Okay. Today? Yes. Okay. Well, call Four Seasons. Now’s the time to schedule your Four Seasons furnace tuneup. Four Seasons. 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And of course, it’s perfect for a tailgate. See you on Sunday. Come on out. Let’s celebrate before the game. Game day on the couch is good, too. Or anytime you’re craving something delicious. Try it now. Use the QR code on the screen or in the episode notes. 20% off your first order with the code CHGO. Again, scan that QR code, but you can buy it at retailers like Benny’s or order with Door Dash. You have to be 21 or older. Please enjoy responsibly. Hit the like button for Kickers. Hit the like button for Baldi. Hit the like button for Braggs just for being the amazing Braggs that he is. And now you can hit the like button for Hogue, who did the deep dive on the QB as we get the Adam Ho QB grades, which we’ve been waiting for all week. Damn it. So, what do you got there, buddy? Yeah, so um the headline is I actually came out of the the film room with uh feeling pretty good about Caleb’s game against the Minnesota Vikings. And you know, I said it on the postgame show, the numbers didn’t seem great. I just it it really felt like I it felt like he played better than what the numbers suggested. I didn’t want to like make any grand conclusions on the post game. So, now that we’re a couple days removed, gone through it, I I think he played pretty well. Um so, as we we do this for two weeks in a row, and I’ve actually been keeping track of this for four weeks in a row now, and we’ll keep it going the rest of the season. Uh we take a look at Caleb’s report guard. We’ll start with the accuracy. Um, and so you know, I basically his accuracy score came out to uh 20 I’m sorry, 76.9 in this game. Um, he had 18 accurate throws, four that I still considered catch catchable and then only four that I I graded as, you know, actually inaccurate. That includes the, you know, the two deep balls on the first two third downs, of course. But from that point on, there was only a couple other throws that I really had any issue with. So, um, accuracy could still be a little bit better, but um, all in all, when you consider those first two third downs, he was pretty much way off on those deep balls. Uh, I thought he was pretty good the rest of the way. um his his decisions. I I I I actually, believe it or not, thought he was better with his decision making this week against the Minnesota Vikings um than I was a week ago against the Giants when we came out of that being like, “Yeah, he made a lot of crazy plays and he deserves positive uh a positive grade on this play, but yeah, you also missed your checkdown.” Or also, “Yeah, you had this guy open. You probably should have thrown it.” So, there’s a difference there. And this week, I thought his decision-m was pretty good. Uh, I had 22 plays where he made a good decision, four checkdowns in there. Um, I only counted four bad decisions throughout the, you know, that actually marked down as bad. Now, were those bad decisions of where he chose to throw the football or bad decisions because he bailed out of the pocket too soon? Um, break down the bad. Yeah. So, okay. One of them was play action incomplete to DeAndre Swift after he spun out of the pocket. I thought there’s a there’s a chance he spun out a little too early on that one. Uh I thought he could have maybe hung in there. I think it was DJ Moore coming across the middle maybe. Now that’s 50/50. I’m not going to blame him for spinning out and trying to make a play, but then after that he had the little flip over the top to DeAndre and he completely missed him. So that was to me maybe questionable on the bad decision, but also not accurate. after you spun out, you still had the opportunity to hit to hit him and you didn’t. Um, there was another play later in the game where he had DJ Moore on a deep in, he never looked there and then he misfired to the corner to Roman Dunes instead. So, again, that was a play where I didn’t like the decision and I thought he was inaccurate with the, you know, once that he made the decision he did. Um, the sack he took, it was only minus one yard, which was good, but his checkown was open. So to me that was a sack that he didn’t he didn’t have to make on that one. Um that was the first of the two sacks. The second sack I didn’t no problem there immediate pressure was given up by Jonah Jackson on that play. He had nowhere to throw the ball. There were there were no checkdowns available. Um and then the last one where I gave him a bad decision. I thought he waited way too long to throw the ball away after scrambling and took an unnecessary hit. And I just think that that’s another area where he um could tighten things up and not take so many so many hits. I just those are going to start to add add up. But other than that, as you made me f focus on the negative. Uh I I’m just curious. I mean cuz like when we did the postgame show and we were all kind of trying to figure out was he bailing out of the pocket too soon? Was he running and scrambling too much? I think there’s like two instances where I probably would have said that. And that’s what I’m saying like from the first half to the second half. Also, when you consider how many times Brian Flores dialed up the blitz, you know, I think it was 78% of dropbacks that Brian Flores dialed up the blitz on. I thought Caleb got much better as the game went along. By the way, there were four incomplete passes. And this is why I do this because we can just go off of, you know, his completion percentage and that goal, which Karm brought to my attention yesterday. I stopped looking at it. It’s 59%. Which is not good. But three more drops in this game. Five last week that I counted. That’s eight in two weeks. This is why I’m doing this. And I’m looking at actually how accurate are you. What decisions are you making? Are they good or bad decisions? Um there were four incompletions in this game that I actually gave him a positive grade on. So the three drops, they were, you know, good throws. And then there was another I don’t have it off the top of my head, but there was another play where the ball was incomplete and I thought he made a great decision and and um you know still got a positive grade. So in terms of the overall grade, while it might not have looked as good as last week, you know, to the naked eye uh as it did against the Giants, and Stephen, this is where we can bring up the last four games. I only had him a tick below where he was last week against the Giants. Um, you know, against the Ravens he was a five, Bengals 11, Giants 10, Vikings nine. And to translate that for you, that is basically just a cumulative of, you know, plus one, minus one, plus two, minus two. There’s, you know, did you do good on this play? Did you do bad? Um, and that’s the cumulative. So, it came out to nine. So, it’s only a tick below. If that sounds confusing, let me simplify it. I think Caleb Williams is playing pretty good football right now. I think the last three weeks have been really good. Um, is there still stuff to clean up in the offense? Sure. Is there still a few things that he can do better? Yeah. But he needs more help from his wide receivers. And I I brought this up the other other day, man. Like we were talking about this group being the among the best wide receiver groups in football. I realize it was a tight window throw to Roma Dunay in the end zone and there was a safety coming over and he might have gotten hit. Catch the ball, man. It was a tight window. Caleb could not have put that when I saw the end zone angle. Caleb could not have put that ball anywhere else with any different velocity. If he if if he underthrows that a little bit, then it it might be picked off. He had to rip it. It’s there. You’re in the end zone. make a play for your guy. You know what I mean? So, like there’s there’s some of these plays that there’s not a lot of guys that can make that throw and you got top 10 picks out there or highly paid wide receivers in DJ Moore’s case. Stop dropping the ball, catch it, make some plays for this guy because he to me right now he’s playing at a pretty high level and his development over the last three weeks has been pretty good for me. So, what I I liked most on Sunday to me was just I loved him in the huddle. He looked very in control. He was I mean it’s loud in there. He’s screaming. He’s looking at guys. Uh just his sideline demeanor in general. I mean, he’s been the emotions have been out which I’ve actually enjoyed. Uh I think, you know, shout out Case Keenum and the way he’s uh bringing out whatever he’s bringing out there or just just coaching him up in the moment. Um so I just I think a lot of that’s looked good. And yes, you want to say anything? Well, you know, as the chat has mentioned, November 18th, 2001, Caleb Williams entered the world. So, today he is 24 years old. So, he gets a game ball. Game ball and birthday. Birthday game ball. Birthday birthday ball. He gets a birthday ball. And he also I mean, are you going to sing happy birthday to him or you going to leave it to me? No, I’m going to hit the break like our producer asked us to. But we could do it on the other side. But first, [Music] listen guys, growing up, one of my favorite hobbies was collecting cards. I used to love to go to the card shop down the street from my house. We’d me and my buddy Kyle would spend hours in there looking for the the most rare Michael Jordan cards we could possibly find. 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To choose from their huge inventory of new Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram vehicles. Right now, you can get 0% financing for 60 months on all new 2025 Jeep Grand, Cherokee L models. That’s what I drive. Got the third row for the kids. It is clutch. Or you can get up to $10,000 off MSRP. That’s right,$10,000. Plus, you can shop over 125 vehicles priced under 20,000. They’re always going to give you the raise price promise so that you know what we’re talking about here. The price you see, the price you hear is the price that you pay. So, don’t miss out on Black Friday sales event. For huge savings on new models. For more information, visit raycdjr today on Route 12 in Fox Lake or online at raycdjr.com. They’ve been serving the community since 1963. [Music] Happy birthday. No, no, no, no. I’m only singing this if you can play Happy Birthday on the harmonica. Okay. So, I’m playing it. You’re singing it if you can do it. Otherwise, I’m not I just did it. I was I had a great start. Birthday. [Music] Happy birthday. No, this is bad. I say that part was kind of there. I was working I’m working on it. Listen, happy birthday to Caleb. You want to do a should we get a Hans Galva Campbagaman? The greatest song ever in birthday history? You can do that. Yeah. Well, also Greg, you don’t have to chat to the chat. You’re on the show. You can just talk. Me and Guy are going to go 10 rounds, maybe 12. No, I Well, I’m sorry. I checked out for the harmonica segment of the program. Uh I like Mace Dog. He’s joking. I mean, we could just we could just do the Braggs Guy Finley battle on the air. You know what? I think you should have Guy Finley. You should add him to your Monday night after dark show, too. Yes, that’s fun. Hans Hanska. Hans second year. Looking good. Drop back. Throw right, find Roma. Drop back, throw right, find Roma. DJ Moore to look at the tide that Cole KT started to look good. Playoffs, playoffs. You see the playoffs, playoffs, playoffs. No one think they could do it. You bonded with Casem. You and Ben are really cute and Ben. you and Ben Hans Hans Caleb. Ladies and gentlemen, that was maybe my best song ever. Don’t care what any of you say. I know a lot of you love me. My time was better spent arguing with I agree. You go back to I you you can go back to All right. Also, as Cornell Bryant mentions, no song no song, but Joe Tuni’s birthday is also today. Great point. Joe Tuni and Caleb on the same birthday. Do you think they go to dinner together? I mean, the Joe Tunisect on this show is I’m tired of it. Wait, what? There’s no Joe Tuni disrespect on this program. Well, there is cuz like I just said top 10 NFL offensive line to the to the great Brian Baldinger led by Joe Tun. First of all, Joe Tuni is older than Caleb. And so, and and don’t take this the wrong way because Caleb’s going to be great, but right now, Joe Tuni is a better player than Caleb. Okay. Uh, so he should his birthday should be mentioned first is my point. And I would never You just sang the worst song of all time. He’s actually really good. And I would never challenge the great Brian Baldinger, but when you asked them, Karm, if the Bears offensive line is top 10 or top five in the league, they’re definitely top 10. They’re definitely top 10. And if anything, you could make an argument they’re top five. Adam John’s was sharing some of these stats here earlier today. The Bears ranked second in rushing offense with 146.6 yards per game, which the majority of that output started after the buy. like that. That’s impressive. I mean, when you look at uh the sack percentage for Caleb Williams, he ranks seventh, 4.69. That’s offense. That’s an offensive line stat. They’re ninth in points scored in the league, you know, and then when you look at the explosive plays, we talked about that a million times over the last few weeks, that, you know, that’s that’s an offensive line that’s given a quarterback time to throw. So, you know, and obviously Caleb does a lot on his own valition to give himself time to throw. Uh, but at the same time, this offensive line is they’ve got I, you know, I’m not monitoring that closely all 32 other teams, but the Bears offensive line is is definitely fringe top five. There’s no way they’re not with these kind of stats. How many Pro Bowlers are on that offensive line right now? Uh, I these guys were having a conversation with Scarpelli about this. I’m confident it’s two. I think Darnell Wright, who’s the third? Joe Tuni, and and Jonah Jackson starting to push. I think J he’s got a case, but I don’t know if he’ll get there. Drew Dolman has a case as well. Yeah, I think Jonah has a better case than Drew at this point. Jonah’s been playing really good football the last few weeks. Shout out Jonah. Um, but I think Darnell Wright’s a lock and I think and Joe Tuny’s a lock. Can we uh just getting into that, can we can we lean into some stats that uh some are good, some are not so good that I that I think that people might a little bit be spacing on. Um do you do you realize, Gregory, because I know you do, but you might have forgotten the Chicago Bears right now since the by-week, week five. All right, went in the buy. The Bears are averaging Stephen 404 net yards per game. All right, 176 on the ground, the rest through the air. Number one in the NFL since the buy, man. Remember the beginning of the season, we’re going to start out slow. We’re going to get in the buy. We’re going to see where we’re at. We’re going to make adjustments. Change your left tackle. Change your left tackle. Come out of the buy. Num number one in the number one in the NFL. Guy Finley catching strays on this stat. Um, I think that’s I think that’s a significantly good stat. Yeah, I would say that being number one in something is good. Number one in something. That’s groundbreaking. Thank you. Thank you for analysis. This was good though. This good. Thank you for confirming. I haven’t heard anybody else bring this up. I haven’t I haven’t heard anybody else bring this up. I went I went through the game notes. What do you What do you think? I’m making I didn’t make it up. I was just wondering where you got it from. I’ll give Karma’s credit. I haven’t heard anybody else bring this up. I’m sure it’ll be a segment on some other network here. No time. Coming up at five o’clock tonight. Well, one that I did do on my very own just looking at at the stats because I was looking at the defensive stats and just, you know, we all know the Bears are getting to the quarterback on their uh a ton. I just but it did jump out at me. The Bears are being led in sacks by Montes Sweat with five and a half, which is I guess good that sweat’s at the top of you. You’d like a little bit more. He’s played better. That’s fine. I suppose you want more. Gervon Dexter, senior, you’re second at four. That’s also, I guess, kind of fine. You’d want more. Uh, I think Big Dex, there’s hopefully another level for him. But number three on the Bears in sacks is CJ Gardner Johnson, who’s been here for eight seconds, and he’s got three. So that means CJ Gardner Johnson with three has more sacks than Domro one and a half. Tmaine Edmonds one. Uh, you could Dio injured one. Chris Williams one. Booker won. A lot of these guys have been hurt, but it’s just it’s just kind of amazing that your number three guy on the team in sacks is CJ Gardner Johnson. Shout out CJ Gardner Johnson and Dennis Allen for the way they’ve dialed him up in a very brief time. By the way, he also started out CJ Gardner Johnson. His first week here, Karm Notes, he played 59% of the snaps, I want to say, and then that zoomed to 99 and 100. dude’s just been they talk about a mid-season acquisition off the scrap heap that has made a huge impact. That dude has been big time. Yep. It was big big pickup. Um yeah, it’s it is shocking how bad this pass rush has been at times. I mean to Baldi’s point, the way they’ve generated turnovers. I mean Grady Jarrett is directly involved in that interception Kevin Bard got against the Vikings. So I think we’ve got to start keeping an open mind to looking at that part of the equation. I can remember being at the Raiders game that happened a couple times on interceptions off Gino Smith that there was pass rush generated that didn’t get home but affected the throw. So Grady Jared I think kind of coming alive here in this last game is encouraging uh because they need all the help they can get on that front because but it’s not enough. But here people keep asking this question like are the Bears good? you just number one in yards since the by-week is a pretty good indication. John’s had this tweet a little while ago. Okay. Um he’s pulling a brags here. What? I read these stats. All of them? No, you read some of them. You did not read all of them. No, you did not go through. You pulled a half a brags. Yeah, but this is why I want But you also didn’t give credit to our coworker. Actually, actually, I did. Now you officially pulled Brags. Okay. See, you tried to You tried to weasle your way out. Wow. How the turntables. I will say I will admit I’ll half admit I heard I heard you read a couple of the stats. You did not go through all eight. I did not hear you mentioned John’s. I did. You mentioned John’s. So that part I always I always give credit where credit is due. Are you done or is there more? I don’t know if you want me to. This is a good chance to remind everyone that if you use promo code John’s loo.com, you can become a diehard right now for only $36. Get a free t-shirt in the door. Come back on the top of the hour, you can hear the rest of these amazing stats from John’s. You got to use the code J Ahns, if I spelled that correctly, and you get 36 bucks for the year. Use the QR code on your screen and then you can hang out in the Discord and hear Guy Finley give you the company line for the Chicago Bears every day of the week. Discord’s amazing. Guy Finley does a great job in there. We’ve having a lot of conversations. Yesterday, Guy Finley actually taught me about uh proper eye maintenance in in Discord, which was I really thank you, Guy Finley, for that. Which was eye maintenance? Yes. Cuz I What the hell does that mean? Well, he he said he missed the show yesterday, but Karm, if you didn’t if you just wore your glasses on the train, then you wouldn’t have lost your glasses. And I’m like, oh, I like to when I’m when I don’t need my glasses, I like to take them off to maintain my eyes. And then Guy Finley told me just to eat carrots and that wearing glasses doesn’t hurt your eyes. and and and and and thank you, Guy Finley. Become a die hard and whatnot. Become a die hard and whatnot. All this is available for you in addition to the fact that you’ll get a discount on the tailgate this Sunday, which is going to be awesome with the Steelers coming in. I think we’re going to have a special guest at that tailgate, too. So, John’s stats of the day. No, no. I see I’m protesting now. No, you’re not. No, I am. I was because what I was about to do was give uh Stephen a nice short to work with for the rest of his day, but now I’m not going to do it. That’s a good pout. I like a pout every now and then because what I am going to do instead since we hit overtime was uh we have a new uh Steven/Hog investigation. Um I have one more stat that I want to give, but go ahead. Um yeah. Oh, so I was going to ask Greg if he could even name the the bottle, but okay. It’s okay. So bottle. Well, is this bottle the Yeah, it is the Pat Norton stash or not? I believe so. Yeah. Okay. So, you may have heard referenced a couple postgame shows of a secret bottle of four roses or as uh Greg calls it, Angel’s Roses. Yeah. Yeah. There’s a couple. So, so I I have not been privy to where this bottle is or even exist. Well, except for the fact that I just took those photos of that bottle. So, I have found thought maybe it was out in the wilderness. No, I happened to open the right cabinet at the right time just before the show started today. Uh, I was looking for a top because I didn’t want to pull a karm. I could not find a top for this cup of coffee I had going here. Um, instead I found that Four Roses bottle. Um, which if we could put that back up. Um, phenomenal photography by the way. Small batch. Good stuff here. Yeah. I mean, that’s a good looking bottle. But if you look at the photo on the right, there’s a little shot in there. That isn’t even a quarter of a shot. Baby shot. Did you? I did not. If it’s one thing to finish off a bottle that’s not yours, it’s even worse to leave that much left. That was not me. I had a few weeks ago I had drinks out of that bottle and it was mostly a few drinks and uh and it was mostly full at that point. I haven’t seen that bottle since um for the watch. Does Patrick Norton know that his whiskey has been stolen? No, he’s the one that told me I could have some drinks out of it a few weeks now. It’s just kind of been a running bit. I see. Well, whoever left three drops in that bottle. And it can’t be Nordon because he hasn’t been in the studio for like a month. So, it’s somebody else around here. We Who could it be? Who could it be now? All right. Well, you guys took a picture. I’m gonna bet Jim. You took a Oh, wow. Sales guy Jim. Seems like a gym thing to do. Sales guy Jim. Sales guy Jim. missing the Hawks game the night he was supposed to go to. You also Yeah. Okay. Uh, one more stat that I want to give before I forget. Hog, if I can unlock my computer. There you go, Karm. Good job. I did not know this and it goes along with the whole whiskey thing because that’s a big time deal right there. Elite whiskey. This is an elite stack. At Call Me Taste says there’s a psychopath in the building. the Bears offense, Hogue, which is still developing right halfway there to where they could get to. Okay, you want to say that? I think that’s fair. The Bears offense has 82 big plays this year. What’s a big play? Over 20 yard pass over 10 yard rush. Over a 20 yard pass. Over a 10 yard rush. That is the most by any team in the NFL through the first 11 weeks of the season. There is no team in the rest of the NFL that has more explosive plays, a run of 10 or a pass of 20 yards than the Chicago Bears. Right. That stat is crazy. We’ve been Is that the first time you’ve heard that stat? I mean, I’m being serious. Do you remember when I brought I’ve done that? I feel like every day for the last I’ve been getting yelled at because I said it like four times on the post. We had a VOD on it, too. That stat that we said before but was never said as defiantly as demonstrabably as I said in it. You you guys tough word. See see tough word. I mean it’s like cumulative. That’s a tough word. But but I said it but I said it I was worried when you said it. I said it after you said it after you might have said it after 10 weeks, after 9 weeks or even I said it after 11 weeks, which is more weeks. So, well, remember when we brought the graphic from Marcus Mosher on that showed that he updates it every week. I remember that moment. I remember the Moer moment. He’s been updating it every week and it just keeps extending for the Bears. Yeah, I think I follow Marcus now because we did that on the show. Yeah, it’s a big move for me. Okay. Yeah. Turn I do I bring it up. See, now you’re pulling a brags car. See Hogue pull the Braggs earlier. Um, turn Snakeo 96 in the chat. Braggs brings it up every show multiple times. It I mean people are like telling me I saw in the post game somebody was like Brags quit saying this over and over. I’m sorry. This has never happened in my life. It’s kind of shocking. So, I’m going to continue to say it. Just as all week any thought I have, I’m going to say the Bears are in first place cuz that hasn’t happened since 2018. And this whole explosive offense thing has never happened in my life, nor did I ever think it would happen in my life. And so I’m going to continue to say it over and over and over. Also, they keep dropping more explosive plays. They should have more. They keep dropping them for the record. That’s where to what you were about to say. And so if you’re not going to take the short because you wanted to pout, I’ll say it. And when people say the Bears, are the Bears a good team or a bad team? I’m stealing the short. This is an interception. Are the Bears a good team? No, they’re not. And that should scare the living daylights out of every single one of you because the Bears are the most explosive offense in football. The Bears are second in the league in rushing. The Bears are on the comeup. and every one of you Vikings, Packers, and Lions fans watching a bad team be in first place. And despite all of that, knowing that there are greener grass ahead, we’re coming for you. And I hope you’re ready. Are they a good team yet? No. But the day they are, you’re in trouble. If you if you do that was if if you you got the shirt on. Got the brand shirt the Manungai shirt got the angry run shirt out. Shot. Look at this thing. If you do that as a short, Stephen, just put pom poms on the side. Just like just add a little bit of this. It’ll make it even better. I think I want to do like a rivalry short now. Like you do your take and I take whichever one’s better. Go ahead. Do yours. All right. Yeah, do yours now. Okay. Oh, see he’s stealing the John stats for his shorts. That’s cheating. This is good. Although I did site one of John’s stats in my short. You did. You did. Well, I’ll credit it in the short. I don’t care. I don’t care. Don’t do that. All right. The next time 3, two, one. The next time somebody asks you if the Chicago Bears are a good team. Just read off these stats courtesy of our guy Adam John’s. The Bears rank second in rushing offense. The Bears rank first in takeaways. The Bears rank first in interceptions. The Bears rank first in turnover differential. The Bears rank second in defensive third down percentage. The Bears rank ninth in points scored. The Bears rank second in 10 plus yard plays and fifth in 20 plus yard plays. Caleb Williams ranked seventh in sack percentage. You don’t do all of those things if you’re a bad team. The Bears are a good team. All right, you’re up, Karm. Well, Karm’s gonna do one, too. Sure, why not? All right. You ready? Three, two, one. Well, that was just horrible energy. My shorts are my my shorts are the best shorts. Everybody knows this. Three, two, one. Are the Bears a good team? Of course, they’re a good team. You know what’s happening with the Bears? They’re starting to actually hit you in the mouth like it’s old school 1985, Adam Hul. That’s right. Keith Van Horn, are you actually Jonah Jackson? I think you might be. And you know what else I like about the Bears right now? I like the fact that there’s this guy. Let me think about Oh, yeah. His name is Ben Johnson. The greatest head coach that the Bears have ever had. That’s right, Mike Dicka. I’m coming right at you. You have a leader at the top step of the dugout if this was baseball that we’ve never seen before. An emerging quarterback, an offensive line that’s coming together. And don’t forget, a team that is also getting healthy. Can’t wait to see you Jaylen Johnson. Can’t wait to see you Kyler Gordon. And I don’t care if they’ve beaten the worst teams in the NFL to get to this point. Pittsburgh, you’re up next. And then Green Bay, we see you twice. I’m looking forward to it. Well, I did put a poll uh who has You beat me, too. I went I went in there to do the same thing. Yeah, I already got you. Uh I And you know what? As the unbiased guy that I am, I voted Hog. I thought Hog short was better. I mean, well, here’s what we can definitely agree on. Karmmes was by far the worst. Karm was the worst. I mean, it was way too long. And he did that like voice inflection at the beginning. Uhhuh. I thought mine was the best. As I always think mine’s the best cuz I am the best. But you started off okay, but then you you turned towards Hogan. You you reference threw the short. Honestly, it wasn’t my greatest performance ever, but you know, it’s still I had the most juice. I like this hat, too. It’s a good hat. By the way, I think this hat says Stephen, I think his is the one that we green light. Hogs was the best. Shout out to John’s. You shouldn’t You shouldn’t have credit. You should have just stole it from him. Then that could have been something you talk about on By the way, John, we could have done that. John’s has a great offensive line story coming out. Actually, you know what? I don’t know if it’s great yet. I haven’t read it. He just sent it to me. It might not be great. So, uh, I’m going to be That’s great to use there. Speaking of I’m going to be editing it when the show’s over. I’m going to read through. I don’t even want to call it editing. He doesn’t need editing. He’s he’s the goat. But I do, you know, and he has these big pieces. Usually Pat and I read through them. I’m very excited about it because he’s been working on it for a while. on the offensive line and Ben Johnson’s basically the stuff that gets me geeked up and fired up the old line. What Ben Johnson’s doing, how much he loves his offensive lineman. Sweet. Uh so use that code John’s J Ahns. Great time to sign up. You’ll get that $36 die hard offer. I that story is coming out Wednesday, which means our insider analysis column, which has been coming out every Wednesday morning. We’re going to push that to Thursday this week just to let his uh bigger and better story breathe a little bit. Speaking of um Put that on your calendar. Yep. It’s appointment view and become a die hard and whatnot and then you can get exclusive access to that content QR code Stephen for a short. It’s interesting. You want to sit here? I’ll sit there. That’s a lot of pressure. Speaking of stolen valor, uh I’ll sit there because you don’t know what you’re doing behind that computer. Uh speaking of stolen valor, um did you see Courtney Cronin stole the snap counts from Fishbane? Oh snap. Sitting next to him at the airport. Why they had to fly from Minnesota? I don’t know. But I guess they flew. Yeah, you fly from Minnesota. Yeah, you fly. Oh, okay. I mean, it depends if you’re going on a family trip. Like, if we’re going up for Christmas, we’ll drive. Cronin’s bad. Going up there for a game. But Cronin was sitting next to Fishbane in the airport and stole his snap count. Stole and then What do you mean she stole it? Like she tweeted it first, right? And then she put like kind of egged him on like, you know, I’m take cuz I know this will upset Fishbane. Those are his snap counts. Whether you guys like it or not, I support it. Stephen, you getting over here? ‘s work. Uh, a lot of pressure. It’s a lot of pressure. That’s why I messed up. I almost said worthless. I was going to go r I was trying to say ruthless. Uh, I I I honestly the Cronin last week against the guy that retired was amazing. That was amazing. Um, one of these days I’ll be healthy. It’s not today though, guys. All right, Stephen. You’re sitt You’re sitting in the flat chair that’s always extra heating. No, no, that’s the uh bonus chair over there. Oh, that’s the bonus chair. Okay, you got good chair. Sweet. I can mute Karm’s mic. Bam. I like that. Just like that. Great power. Like that. With great power. With great power comes great responsibility. Finley, you’re on notice, too. Go ahead, Stephen. Oh, god. Don’t Don’t Ste. Y. So, you got to do the Steven looks like Captain America before he was Captain America. Who said that? You are you saying that? Are you saying that? Yeah. I don’t know something about I look like Captain the Scrawny. You know, I’m going to change my short to an arm wrestling match against Hogue right now. Oh, I’ll lose. I know you will. I will lose. You are. You are definitely cruising for a bruising there. Yeah. Now my camera. See, now he looks like Captain America. Now we’re Now we’re rolling. We good. This guy gets a lot done. We’re ready. All right. Shut up, Carl. I’m going to try to do a short. He’s muted. Don’t worry. Oh, perfect. Okay. Are the Chicago Bears lucky or are they good? Why can’t they be both? At seven and three, the Chicago Bears are in first place. the latest in the season they’ve been since 2018. Playoffs, why not? Caleb Williams looks like the franchise quarterback we’ve been hoping and praying he would be. So, the Chicago Bears, lucky, good, all of it. I screwed up at the end there. It was It was going right. You were rolling. I was doing okay. I was doing It’s not bad for not sitting in this chair ever and then also not being ready for a show. Dude, you had started so good. It was It was okay. And then I just go rolling. You shut up. He’s still muted. Nobody can hear him. I’m not. He is still staying muted. All right. We got to get super chats on the show, though, because I believe Blackhawks is up, right? Oh, no. No, they have a game tonight. Oh, okay. All right. Super. Yeah, I’ll finish the show. I mean, maybe. It’s kind of dangerous. I haven’t been over here in a while. Okay. Super chat. Joseph Saniovani. What a great name. We got the Swiss Franks coming in. 10 Swiss Franks. It’s my favorite of the Franks. Uh Caro has been a good kicker. Not great. Accurate with in his zone, but now that we have moved into the future with proper coaching, uh let’s get a leg to boom kicks. I don’t I don’t think we can rule that out in the future, but I my point is I just think it would have been insane to just roll with Jake Moody the rest of the season. Um, Dark City two. Uh, I don’t know why I can’t say 2004, but Dark City 2004. $2. Cairo’s gritty was disturbing. I see. That’s the one I wouldn’t even say it’s disturbing. That was the one thing I loved about what Cairo did. You like the gritty? I thought it was hilarious. Not just the gritty, he did the skull. He did the That was He was mocking the skull. That’s badass. I like that. He’s got some swagger to him. Yeah, he he is a good uh crap talker. I don’t know if I’m allowed to swear. It’s past the hour. Also, crap talker is not swearing. I understand that. I was going to say he was going to say [ __ ] talker. If I still muted muted or not, you’re not I unmuted you, but you’re on you’re on the ice. Nutella happens. This is like Karm’s worst nightmare by the way. Producing for him. Uh Nutella happens. Uh let’s get out of here. 10 bucks. Thank you. Nutella feel like people talk about under center versus shotgun more and more each week. Any chance we can get a breakdown of pros and cons of each and why Ben might want Caleb Moore under center as he just took away the super chats on the right side of the screen for whatever reason. I think to me saw what happened there. He did sabotage you. Uh yeah, that’s I mean we can go into a deeper discussion about that someday, but but I you know the biggest most obvious thing is play action works better under center. Um and and you know I prefer runs under center too versus shotgun runs. So the more you’re under center, the more you can hard sell that play action where you actually turn the quarterback turns his back to the defense. Now, the con to that is you’re turning your back to the defense and you’re taking your eyes off of where your routes are downfield, and so it can take a little bit longer to develop off of play action when you actually throw it. So, there are pros and cons, but I am more on the pro side of uh leaning towards Ben Johnson. I like my quarterbacks under center. We’re going to run hard play action that way. Uh and I think the Bears are reaping the benefits of it. And shout out to Caleb for doing pretty good right now under center. I think he’s doing a great under center. And I I like also when you talk about the run game, you mentioned this briefly there. I like seeing DeAndre Swift and K Nunga having that full head of steam when Caleb’s under center. We’ve seen them running way way harder than DeAndrew Swift has never run harder in his career in my opinion. He’s hitting the holes hard right now. Uh this is probably the best stretch we’ve seen of him since he’s been a Bear and maybe even better than he was doing on the Eagles. And and what Stephen’s talking about when you have a when you’re doing shotgun run when you’re at the handoff point that running back hasn’t really started moving forward yet. He’s usually aligned to the side of the quarterback. So it’s kind of like stop pivot grab the ball then go. Whereas when you’re running downhill you’re meeting the quarterback at the mesh point where the handoff is and you’re already moving forward getting that momentum. I I thought you John’s asked the question to Ben Johnson yesterday about the final run on third and 10 and I thought that was something we did kind of miss on in the postgame show that that what an underrated moment in the game like it I mean I don’t think any of us were really expecting that and Jonah Jackson helped clear the way on that and then to your gun point that brings me back to a on the 15play touchdown drive in the first half it was third and four uh before They got to the goal line and they ran gun run with Manungai and he completely laid out Matelis as he came through the middle as I I love Mungai. But what a that was a in both those moments, you know, uh Ben Johnson calling the run play on third down, which is I think a tendency of his. He likes to call run plays on third down to set up the fourth in inches to go for it. I mean, I thought that was the best segment on the show right there, Karma. I thought you were great. I haven’t used that one in a while. Karm’s protesting. We got the quiet Karm sign off. He’s not He’s not going to end the show. So, I will. Thank you to Stephen and Greg and Karm and Baldi and John’s for his great stats and you guys watching most importantly contributing in the tra chat, especially Guy Finley. Yeah. And Bo Chanton. I told the guy Finley you love him from your account. Brags, you son of a [ __ ] Hog’s at Hog is at Halis tomorrow. Hog at Halis. Try to mute the other guy that’ll be on the show with me tomorrow. No, I would never do that cuz I’m a class guy. Um, this hat, by the way, it says RIP Kevin. Kevin Costelliki, our the uh our guy who uh passed away and naked man across the street. They are honoring him this Sunday, 5 to 8 at Carol’s Pub and then all night long after that at uh the store. So, come one, come all. I will plan on uh being there myself after Wait, is at the Carol’s Pub or it’s at the store? It’s at Carol’s Pub at from 5:00 to 8:00 and then after that they’re transitioning to the store for the all night Saturday night. So, after the Bears beat the Steelers, have a little postgame celebration for Kevin, the Bears, and everybody else at at Carol’s at 5. And then, uh, for those who have the stamina of a Greg Braggs, you can stay out till, uh, you know, the cows come home, as they say, somewhere, I think, still. So, RIP Kevin, thinking of you and I like that we have a tribute hat to him, who was awesome to us and everybody here. So, he was shout out to all our great dieards. Kevin was the best. That sounds like a great thing to do on Sunday. Man, I almost died there again. Okay, you’re all right. You battled. You’re you’re great job today with the Caleb work. Gregory, you were fantastic as always. Stephen, even though your short was it was ruined. Pathetic. Um it’s it’s not it’s not you’re really actually the best person uh ever in the history of shorts. So, I think you should do more because it’s good for the show. I’m worried about Greg cuz he has a weird look on his face and the preview screen is hidden right now. Because we’re in live mode because when we hit the end screen, when you’re not in preview mode, it stalls. Oh, I thought you had some I’m having issues with it either way. I thought you were going to if I go to preview mode. That’s what I’m most scared of right here is that I’m not going to end this show properly. So, that’s I’m looking at Stephen with a a sense of panic because look he gives anyone. We’ll talk to you tomorrow one o’clock. See you then. Didn’t didn’t work.
The Chicago Bears turn their attention to Week 12 with the Pittsburgh Steelers coming to town. But will QB Aaron Rodgers play for the Steelers after suffering a small fracture in his wrist in Week 11? Or will it be the backup Mason Rudolph? Brian Baldinger is back with his take on the first-place Bears. Should they want to play Rodgers? Later, are NFL playoff odds disrespecting the Bears? Both the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions are being given higher odds to make the NFL Playoffs. Later, Adam Hoge has his QB Grades. Did Caleb Williams perform better than the stats indicated? Join Adam Hoge, Mark Carman and Greg Braggs Jr. on the CHGO Bears Podcast.
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29 comments
Bears hoping Rodgers sits out . Rodgers is 25-5 vs Bears.
Always a good day when Baldy shows up- Bear TF down ladies and gents
Rodgers is a diva he'll string this along as long as he can
Ah yes, the weekly disaster CHGO Bears show.
Love CHGO Braggs is the best
Are we seriously talking about Playoff shares for Jake Moody based on how it works in baseball???????
Someone needs to install a filter for Carm between his brain and his mouth lmao
Braggs is deep in the weeds basing his Santos decision purely on vibes.
Stop singing carm!! PLEASE
The Bears ran more 13 as a adjustment to the outside pressure Flo was bringing.
💯💰🫵✊🐻👇CW 🧊 MAN
Good show. I stopped watching at 49:55 fsr
I trust santos !!!🎉🎉🎉
39:56 Hoge's Report Card – Boo this man off the stage tomorrow. 18 + 4 + 4 is not 26. What is he trying to pull?!?! we know all bears math equals 85.
Oh braggs …your just a young buck and dont appreciate just how great the 85 BEARS were ! They should of won 3-4 super bowls with that defense !
Carm just big mad
Hoping this is a good CHGO Bears show like the old days instead of an hour of slandering the Bears
Blah Blah Blah
Don’t let Carm anywhere near the QB grades.
I may never listen to another podcast if they continue to let Carm sing
Carm is ruining this show lol
Carm trying to play happy birthday on the harmonica gave me a very good laugh
Booker is our best d-lineman now
He missed olamide on a deep post because he got happy feet and left a clean pocket. That was the worst decision of the day by a lot. He’s still the guy, but gotta call him out for that one
Trust in Cairo! I understand the scars from the double doink from Parkey, but Santos has been money $ and strengthened his leg this year
Tucker is available…
Will someone please ask the bricklayer "how many team fan bases feel comforable with their kicker?" Because the answer to that question is closer to 1 than 30.
Braggs short take is more realistic, Bears are bad, but holy hell, watch out!!! Hoge’s has some money Jahns stats, but we’re not there yet…Steelers and Eagles win will say otherwise!! lol Carm gets a high five!
I do not trust Cairo Santos either especially I know it's going to come down to a late kick somewhere late in the year and we're going to need this guy and he's going to blow it I do not trust him
Bears might need to get blown out one time to bring all these issues to the forefront. Barely scraping by