Dan Bernstein (7:31)
No, I'm not, I'm, I'm not doing that. I'm just, I'm reading the temperature nationally of what the country loves the story of probability. The country loves inevitability. They love a dynasty. Without the Chiefs, there's a vacuum. There isn't a dominant team narrative who can beat the blank that doesn't exist this year because of the blob size that we've talked about all year. It's a blob year, and that means all of the powers that be are constantly on the lookout for possibilities for. Oh, don't forget about this team right now. Hey, the. Mike Vrabel is coach of the year and Drake May is an amazing story. And the Patriots being the Patriots, while Bill Belichick languishes in embarrassment and ignominy, that. That's a wonderful story. But it's not the Rams, because the Rams are so far out west, it's different. Even though the NFL does a pretty good job, I think leveling some of that stuff about when we see some of these teams. But I'm telling you, I'm telling you, if the Bears win, if they beat the Philadelphia Eagles, who have long been the darlings and are in themselves embroiled in infighting and controversy and frankly, offensive difficulty, other than taking care of the football. They're not explosive. They haven't really done a great job specifically against zone defenses. They, I imagine the Bear. And we're going to talk about that further on forward progress, because I think when you, when you do have a lot of reserve linebackers, reserve cornerbacks, it's hard to play a discipline zone. But I think that's really what the Bears do have to do. But they're. If, if they're weren't creeping toward national darling status, they're going to get there real fast with a win. Now, having made that point, I don't need the Bears to win, to think well of them. And I want that very, very clear. I mentioned it yesterday and I'm going to say it again. I just think it's important that they play well. The whether or not it ends up a kick goes through or a ball bounces, where to actually give them the win or the loss isn't as big concern of mine on Friday as the overall quality of their play against a real opponent. Compete for real, not Fluky, not, not just because somebody fell down. Really compete physically and consistently with this team. That's going to go a long way for me. That's more important to me than whether or not they're they eke out a win. It is a test of their quality. And sometimes the final score isn't necessarily indicative of the quality of your play. You can play like shit and win a game. You can play great and lose a game. A game. Not a full season of games, but a game. I think this is a great opportunity for the Bears to run a much tighter ship all the way around in all three phases. Even considering the injuries that you have. The Eagles have injuries too. I think Makuba is down. I think there may be another injury in their defensive secondary, so definitely keep an eye on that. But I'm not using any of any of those things as excuses. Not when DeMarco Jackson popped up. Was it in foxes like all NFL team of the week because of the number of tackles that he had. I look at the Tribune story today about Obong Bemiga and Jackson being like Erlacher and Briggs in the game against the Cardinals, the comeback game, just because of the tackle numbers. What are we doing here? What are we doing here? Like that's a reach. But if we're already doing that, there's no injury mitigations for any of this stuff. I just think that they could be the possibilities that exist out there if they win. We've got a hell of a story brewing. We have a hell of a story brewing if they win this game. If you're talking about they seal a winning record in Ben Johnson's very first year after starting 0 and 2 and they go to 9 and 3. Buckle up, buckle up for what you're going to get. I'm not saying it's what happened when they beat the Cowboys 44 to nothing. I'm not saying that because it's, you know, the monoculture was a different time in a different place. But you know these games when you see them and by the time this ball kicks off, this is Gonna feel really big. I'm telling you, you might not feel it quite yet. We're all. Everybody's traveling. You're on the phone, you're figuring out where grandma is, making sure she can make it because you know she's out gambling or something and you gotta get her on the plane. You're getting your kids home from college. You're figuring out how you're going to make sweet potatoes for 23 people. Trust me. But by the time you wake up on Friday morning, I know what you're going to wake up. You're going to be like, holy shit, the Bears are playing the Eagles at 2 o' clock today. It's going to be one of these. Also, Can I just say this? I thought this way since I've been a kid. Since I've been a little kid. There are few pleasures in life. There are few little simple pleasures in life, like genuine anticipation for a Bears game when you really. And not just you do it because you. Once more unto the breach and you feel like you're sort of walking down into the basement to go walk to the end and talk to Hannibal Lecter. It's not that kind of feeling. It's the, it's. It's the. When you get that little sort of frisson, you get the butterflies in your stomach in a good way, remembering that there's a, that you're looking forward to the Bears game. There are few pleasures like that. Like back when you knew they were good and you were. Those of us of a certain age know that feeling of like, countdown and, oh, yeah, we don't have to wait till Sunday for the Bears game. And then on, when it is Sunday and you wake up like, oh, we already had the Bears game. So it's, it's good when, when they're good, that's that little thing that gives you that, that anticipation is something different and special. And if you. We are, we're in for a Bearsgasm.
