← Forward Progress - A Chicago Bears Podcast
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- [00:01]
A
I mean, if you're a Bears fan, you're thinking forward progress. Come on.
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B
10, 2, 19.
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A
2, 19. Forward progress. A Chicago Bears podcast with Dan Bernstein and Matt Abaticola on 312Sports.
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B
When we last left you on forward progress, we were giddy over the Bears, easy over the Cleveland Browns. And now we've can we have stuff to discuss based on the Bears own reactions to the win, what it means, where it places them, what it says about their current playoff proximity. And the cool thing is nothing's decided. It's in their control right now. As of according to the Athletic, the bears have a 78% shot of making the playoffs. They have improved their odds of winning the NFC north to 42% because the packers did lose that game. And it really is this one. Like this is it. You beat the packers and things look really good and you don't, and then you're gonna, you're gonna need a win or two down the stretch.
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A
Well, I just like it that the Bears, it's all in their control.
- [01:22]
B
Yep.
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A
They don't have to wait on other people to do things for them to get where they want to be. They just have to go out and do their job. And they do have the hardest three game schedule left in the NFL. But that's great. Okay, you want to show that you're a big boy team and that you're a real team, that you're a good team. Here's your chance. You get the packers at home on Saturday, you go to the Niners, you get the Lions at home in week.
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B
18 not knowing what the stakes will be in a week 18 game. And it may be an opportunity to rest some guys, it may not.
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A
So.
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B
So it must be an opportunity to get other.
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A
There's a lot of ways to play out that, you know, let's say the Bears take care of business with the packers and Niners. Then you're at 12 wins and that week 18 doesn't seem as important and doesn't have a play as far as what your season is going to, how your season is going to end up for you. But right now, with the bears as the 2 seed, the Rams at the top of the NFC, Eagles 3, Buccaneers 4, Seahawks 5. At 11 wins, the 49ers the 6 seed and the packers dropped down to the 7 seed. So playoffs right now, Dan, you get the Bears and Packers matchup in the first round, but we know that's going to play out differently.
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B
Well, if you were to tell me they'd have that matchup and they're missing Micah Parsons.
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A
Oh yeah. So Micah Parsons go down with a knee, a knee injury. Christian Watson, what's his update latest that.
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B
I read on Christian Watson I saw our buddy Rob Demofsky noted that there they were checking his lung I guess and his lung is fine. There's going to be maybe later today they will perhaps find out more. But it does appear that his status for the Bears game is unknown for this week. He has not been ruled out.
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A
Okay.
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B
So there. We'll see. Like I thought it was going to be the kind of thing where either season ending, usually you end up, you have an injury, you leave the field, you go to the hospital, at least you're definitely not playing the next game. But they did not say he has been ruled out yet. Okay.
- [03:19]
A
Well and hopefully as the Bears prepare this, this a bit of an odd week with a Saturday night game so they do lose one day of preparation for the packers matchup here at Soldier Field. They have put on tape the last couple of weeks that you can get deep on the Bears and hopefully they are preparing for a way to not allow that to happen because we saw it yesterday with, what is it, what was his name?
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B
Isaiah Bond.
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A
Bond, who got deep three different times on three different, on three different players.
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B
Once was at least two were on blitzes too.
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A
Yeah. Once on Edwards, which you can't expect him to, you know, take that slot wide receiver down deep down the field.
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B
Once on Jalen Johnson matchup and once.
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A
On Johnson, once on CJ GJ who just couldn't keep up pace wise either.
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B
Well, and they should have learned that from the last Packer game that it was Watson who very similarly was left one on one in this island when you're blitzing guys, they didn't need to blitz yesterday and they got home once on the DeMarco Jackson sack. But let's change some things up or blitz from some different places that allow for a little bit of help.
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A
So Caleb Williams yesterday finishes 17 of 28, 242 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions. And we know he's the best in NFL history at that protecting the ball. He's better than Jacoby Brissette.
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B
Better than Jacoby Brissette.
- [04:41]
A
Yeah, it says something. Wow. And he finished with a rating of112.5 61% completion percentage for Caleb Williams. And as I've been saying since the post game show, it was the most confident, the most comfortable, the most in control. I thought that I saw Caleb Williams in his 31 games as an NFL starter, certainly the most Comfortable this, this, this season.
- [05:05]
B
And against a real defense too. I think it's easy for someone to dismiss. You keep saying the Browns are bad. The Browns are bad. The Browns are bad.
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A
They are.
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B
But their defense is top three.
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A
Yep, that's a, that's a good defense. Now their offense is a mess. I mean that was their ninth offensive line. That common combination. Line combination they had starting this year. You had a rookie quarterback. I think he's the fourth guy to take snaps as a quarterback this year for the Browns. Third or fourth.
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B
You know, Flacco, Gabriel Sanders.
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A
So just three.
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B
I know there's, I think there's another one on there. I'll check.
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A
Okay. And they made him look like a, you know, a fifth round draft pick. 144 overall. So they did their job. Their defense though, as you mentioned, is a quality defense. Remember they beat the packers earlier in the year in Cleveland, so it's a good defense that Caleb Williams had a strong game. I thought it was the game where the receivers let him down more than he let the passing game down. That hasn't happened since the Giants game. Now he was bad in the Giants game as well, but there was, that was the game with all the drops. This was a game where if you want to look at some at completion percentage or why some stuff was missed, I would put it more on the receivers in this game than on Caleb Williams and that, that's a big step.
- [06:21]
B
I noted this on DBU earlier and think it bears repeating. Caleb Williams is also getting better at some of the little things when it comes to his cadences. Being weaponized to draw a neutral zone infraction. That's great. And you can do that every game. You can try to do it. It becomes a weapon on 4th and 1 at your own 29 if you want. And he also is getting a little better with some of the sleight of hand stuff that we'll get to when we discuss some of the new formational things they're showing.
- [06:52]
A
All right, so let's take a some listen to some audio here. We have a couple from Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams, but this first one from Ben Johnson, he was asked if does 10 wins mean much to you? And then it goes right into a question about DeMarco Jackson as well.
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C
Not really.
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B
We're just.
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C
We're on to the next one. You know, it's 10, 10's great, but it's not enough.
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B
What impressed you most about demarcos play on leaping interception and attempted up to himself.
- [07:19]
C
Yeah, I thought, well I think that was a game changer to me. You know, you're always looking for a little bit to spark your team, ignite your team there. And in the second half, that's really what it was. Correct me if I'm wrong, was a score 143 at that point. Yeah. So we really needed it because we were able to capitalize and make that into 21 3. And it felt like we took firm control of the game there at that point. And so he's done such a great job coming in, you know, at the end of training camp or whenever that was and picking up the defense. I know he had some familiarity there with da but to go from a guy contributing on special teams to playing significant snaps at Mike linebacker, I think that's, that's a big credit to him.
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A
And he's a guy that we talked about yesterday, that they really showed up and they found themselves a guy that can play well.
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B
Not only that, played a high level too. He won the job over their draft pick.
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A
Oh, yeah.
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B
He was, I believe, a fifth round pick. DeMarco Jackson was a fifth rounder out of Appalachian State in 22. Sewell was the Bears fifth round pick in 23. So it can cut both ways. But if you say, look, that this coaching staff was not pressured to say it's got to go to Sewell, Got to go to Sewell. We made investor with a draft pick. That's our guy. No, this guy was allowed the chance to win the job. And they were not burdened by pedigree, by history, or by Luther, by investment to reward the better player.
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A
Yeah.
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B
And it's a great sign. It's a great sign that they didn't do it out of necessity because the draft pick was just terrible, but this guy was in practice. It shows that when they say we've had a good week of practice, that the practices matter. They're seeing stuff. They're seeing what's happening in games. And as the Mike, he's got the green dot.
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A
Yeah.
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B
So there's a lot that's going on there about getting people set, getting the calls in. It's more than just running to where you're supposed to be. So certainly Bears watching on a guy who is emerging as a really important player. Who knew after you had both of your starting linebackers go out with injuries.
- [09:38]
A
That you would have him step up to that, that level of play. Make a really athletic play Yesterday too, on that interception. Called it. Also the game balls during our postgame show, I said it would be the.
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B
Two DJs that's our thing now.
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A
Yeah, we can nail those. All right. And then here's a. Here's a cut from Caleb Williams. He was. He was asked about the use of play action in their offense. And he also gives us the nickname we've been looking for of the offensive line.
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D
Yeah, I don't know. I was told I couldn't get under center and, you know, turn my back to the defense. So I don't know. No, I think, you know, I think the guys up front, they do a hell of a job for me. And, you know, it all goes into it, whether it's the run game, pass game, play action, keeper, all of it goes into it in the sense of, you know, we make and we try to make and, you know, kind of take this. This advice from Peyton is you want to make your. Your run game, your keeper and your passing or your play action game all look the same. And so then it gives. It allows me to have more time. And then, you know, I. I call my old lineman the Avengers. And then you got those guys up front, so, you know, they give me enough. Enough time with enough space with the receivers we got and special talent we have. We'll go make plays. And then when it's not there, I think. I think coach trusts me to check the ball down or go make a play for us.
- [10:56]
A
So he calls him the Avengers Vengeance. The offensive line guys in front are the Avengers. Like his little sarcasm there at the start, you know, I was told I couldn't go under center. You know, that was the knock on me. I couldn't go under center.
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B
Good. Let him have it, man.
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A
And I like it. So he's obviously hearing and reading things that, you know, the criticism.
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B
Of course.
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A
I just, I think it's funny when guys say they don't, you know, I don't pay attention to that stuff. Sure you do. Sure you do. But yeah, I like, I like that. Starts off that little, little sarcasm there. Yeah, I was told I couldn't go under center. And then of course, he gives us the name of what he calls yours. All right, there's a couple other audio clips here. I want to. I want to play. I want to play this one. This is from the actual broadcast from yesterday. I want you to see if you can. You can guess what bothered me about this play. Bring it. Kyleman guy, the running back on third down and three.
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B
Rounds.
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A
Rush four to the sideline. Open is Colston Loveland, the tight end rumbling into Cleveland territory. Right? So it's a third and three, first down past the Colson Loveland. Okay. What bothered me about that call.
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B
About the call?
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A
About the call. Not. Not the play. The call in the broadcast.
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B
Was it the description of rumbling?
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A
Yes.
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B
Okay.
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A
He's not a rumbler. Colson Loveland's a glider. Big wide receiver. That dude runs. He's not a rumbler. And I get that you're just in the whole paces of calling football, and the tight end catches the ball and the tight end rumbles downfield. Wow.
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B
You're turning into me. I'm so sorry. What do you mean? I feel terrible.
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A
Why do you say that?
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B
You're getting. You're getting hung up on it.
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A
Not hung up on it.
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B
I just thought, you know, a verb choice, give the kids some cred.
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A
He's not a rumbler.
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B
Yeah, that man's not rumbling. That dude.
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A
He's got feet.
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B
He's running.
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A
Yeah, that's a big wide receiver there.
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B
Now if you. If you had shown, once again, Andrew Billings moving laterally or getting off the field, that doesn't even rise to rumble.
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A
That's not rumbling.
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B
That's not rumbling.
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A
That's stomach grumbling.
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B
That's like glaciating or something. That's. I don't know what that is.
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A
I just. I just thought that was funny. It stood out to me. That dude don't rumble. That dude runs.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Yeah.
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B
There are. There have been tight ends who rumble.
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A
Well, most. Most tight ends rumble. I'll. I'll give him that. That's a. That's a proper. Usually a proper adjective of. Of a tight end catching a ball.
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B
Yeah, Give that. Put some respect on the verbs you use for Colston Loveland. Okay.
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A
All right. I want to play this here for you. So this is Caleb. Okay. This is the. The touchdown to DJ Moore. This is that. That first. Which one?
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B
The first.
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A
First one, first one. Third and goal burden in motion play action.
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B
Williams in zone.
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A
DJ Moore touchdown. Here he is right here.
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D
You can see.
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A
Look at the outside. He's on the outside shoulder. And he's going to cross formation to the left. So you can see he's open immediately right there. Well thrown ball by Caleb Williams. All right, so there's the call on Beautiful ball by. Beautiful ball. And then I just like hearing Caleb talk about. About those plays. So this is Caleb actually on that touchdown pass.
- [14:11]
D
Number was Cole. And then he got. He got taken down by the dn, which is typically the guy that makes me get the ball out. And so, you know, with all that space, I end up peaking, you know, my other Other receivers on the, on the front side, the other, other couple guys. And then from there it's, you know, just seeing and feeling space, seeing nobody was in the end zone back there with DJ and just, just give him a good ball.
- [14:35]
A
So I, I play that just to talk about the progression and development of Caleb Williams because I'm not so sure earlier in the year Caleb Williams reacts the way he does. So if you watch that, watch that highlight again, Cole Comet is taken, he's literally taken down by the D end. That's his, that's his primary receiver. I'm not sure if Caleb Williams sits there in the pocket as long as he does once Cole goes down to look and see because especially at a.
- [15:03]
B
Team that's got Miles Garrett on it.
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A
Especially the team with pass rush. Yeah, because DJ Moore is lined up like slot right and he comes all.
- [15:09]
B
The way across the field to do that.
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A
And so for Caleb to sit there. And again, like Ben Johnson said, sometimes we need to wait in the house while it's burning down. Wait a little bit longer.
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B
This is fine.
- [15:19]
A
I'm not sure if he, if he would do that a few weeks back or you know, earlier in the year that maybe he just peels out to the right where DJ Moore clears out and he tries to make something happen to the right on his own.
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B
And then he watches that right. He takes that entire side of the field off the menu.
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A
Right.
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B
Once he does that and he, there's.
- [15:38]
A
No possible way, there's no chance of throwing that ball. Although he probably would knowing what he did in the second one. Yeah, because he can do, yeah, because he can throw anywhere. Right. So I just thought it was a really good highlight of his progression and patience in the pocket, the way he's growing as a quarterback. So that was really good to see. So the, the first, the primary receiver goes down, he waits in the pocket. The house is burning down around him. Still makes a beautiful throw. I mean, in a place where only DJ Moore could catch it. Just thought it was really good. Well, I wanted to, wanted to play that and give that kid some more kudos. Cause I, I thought he played a hell of a game yesterday.
- [16:09]
B
I also think that his, and I have mentioned this before, just the little things around what he's doing are starting to come together and every, every once in a while you just have to note when you see it and there's going to be fits and starts to his development. There's going to be mistakes, but the way he can still make some high risk throws while still Taking care of the ball. And we can talk about all his near interceptions, you know, and another one that was. That was tipped and maybe should have been. And there are metrics that we'll look at all those things, but I think you phrased it where it's more of a feel thing, where rather than breaking down all the numbers of just how do you feel when you realize he's dropping back to pass? And my answer is better than ever.
- [17:02]
A
Yeah, no, I agree with that.
- [17:03]
B
That there's always something like, oh, yeah, you know that. Where you see it and you realize, oh, well, you think they're going to run and they don't like, okay, here we go. And he's looking around. I don't. I don't have the same trepidation. My. My level of innate instinctive trust is building.
- [17:22]
A
Yeah, no, I agree with that. And I'm not sure if it's because I'm actually seeing those things happen and develop or if Ben Johnson played some Jedi mind trick on me where he said, hey, we're going to play our best football in December. And now I'm like, oh, okay, yeah, they're playing the best football in December. And he looks the best I've ever seen him. You know, this is not the bad quarterback you were looking for. This is a good quarterback. Oh, yes, this is a good quarterback. So maybe he's. Maybe he's got me with a Jedi mind trick.
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B
If it's working on me, I like it.
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A
Yeah, no, I'll. I'll take it for sure. And again, I'm going to stick to it. Man, that was the most confident, the most comfortable, the most in control I've seen him play as an NFL quarterback.
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B
Where are we on the selly. Where are we on the cold? Palmer just. We should probably whiteboard that. That when he did after the second touchdown, he did a little, like, shiver, as in, ooh, I'm so cold. And he admitted that that was inspired by Cole Palmer, footballer, the midfielder, winger for Chelsea of the Premier League and England's national team. And he, as Cole Palmer, is known as Cole de Palmer, and he does that. So are we going to have any reaction to futball being an inspiration for a football celebr? No, not at all. I'm cool with it. Yeah. Okay. I'm cold with it, actually.
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A
Yeah, no, it's good. It's good stuff.
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B
So.
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A
And, you know, having, you know, young, young kids in the house, I was familiar with that stuff.
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B
Yeah, See, I. I had to look it up.
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A
I didn't yeah. Why would.
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B
You know. Would you have soccer fans? Are they.
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A
No, they're. But they're. The. Their consumption of the video stuff is all. Yeah. Is all sports related, so.
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D
Yeah.
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A
Well, they're not in anything else just yet, which is good. Let us stick with the sports algorithm.
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B
Check every once.
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A
Oh, we have to. So I want to make sure.
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B
Okay.
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A
Yeah. When they, you know, they'll whether out of the house or whatever. Even if they. They hop in the shower, it's like, all right, you know, time for a quick phone check. Go through and see what's going on here.
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B
See in there? Check the.
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A
Take a look at these profile text message conversations. See what those are all about.
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B
Yeah, I think I'd let my wife handle a lot of that when it was that time.
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A
Whenever.
- [19:28]
B
We can't do it now. Yeah.
- [19:30]
A
Well, no, now you can't.
- [19:31]
B
Yeah, I wouldn't want to.
- [19:33]
A
No, I don't think. Yeah, there's something there I wouldn't even understand. Yeah.
- [19:37]
B
What is this? Way beyond me at this point.
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A
I just.
- [19:40]
B
Forget it. Whatever.
- [19:42]
A
All right. You want to get into this new.
- [19:43]
B
Formation that they have. I've been having fun with this. I started rabbit holing this when we saw it. And I mentioned on the post game yesterday that this inverted wishbone, or it's a pistol formation, he's flanked by a tight end on either side. So it's Caleb Williams. It's a shotgun. It's like a short shotgun. Tight end to the left, tight end to the right and running back behind him. So full house of a backfield.
- [20:17]
A
Yep.
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B
And I knew I had seen something similar and I went, and I think I mentioned it Yesterday, that in 1986, Mike Ditka unveiled a formation he called Eagle. And it involved, I believe it was Tim Reitman and it might have been Emory Moorhead as well. I think it was. And it was the same thing. And I went back and I checked and I had a difficult time sort of finding it and eventually using some different search terms, I was able to track it down. So what it is, what it was, I should say what Eagle formation was, was in 86. And he did this to create different angles in the run game, different angles in the passing game. So there was some. There's a guy on Blue sky who is awesome, absolutely awesome, and totally earned a follow from me. And as I was. This was actually sent by a listener who was listening to the postgame yesterday and heard us discussing this. So I want to thank Antifa. Is that his name? Who sent me. He said, here's a possible explanation for the inverted V formation you were talking about in the postgame. And there's this guy, Ollie Connolly on Blue sky, who is an outstanding X and O film guy. And he explains this is according to what he was showing. He goes, it's the old Greg Roman reptile package. A full house pistol set with split flow action. It sounds like an infomercial. And it's also been referred to as lizard, referred to as reptile. And apparently when Cole Comet was asked about it, he referred to it as bully. It's fascinating. There's pages and pages and pages of what you can do off of this. When I say split flow action. When you watch what happens on the DeAndre Swift touchdown, the bodyguards, those tight ends break left, it looks like the play is going left. And what you will see in split flow, say out of an I formation is that fullback that the generally isolation block, the tailback will follow him into the hole where he's going to pick up. He's designated a linebacker to block in a classic I formation run. Split flow means fullback goes one way and the play goes the other. It's a decoy. And that happened on the play to Swift. There is a zone blocking scheme set up over there and there are all kinds of counters to it. I don't know if it's just gonna be used as window dressing or not. And I've gotta dive in. There's sheets and sheets and sheets of just these reptile actions. But the fact that Ben Johnson would introduce this now, I thought was really cool to wait until game 14 to say, you know, I got a little something for you that you're going to have to spend some practice time working on. Brad Biggs talked to Cole Comet about it, and the part of this that I thought was cool was that Kemet said, we repped it a ton in camp. He said, usually they don't hit front side. They wind back. Said Swift saw something to bounce it out. They gave us a lot of fronts you weren't expecting, etc. He said, it's pretty basic play. It's good against all. We repped it a ton in camp. A mirrored set like that, we can run off whatever look or front they want to show. If they sent the front to my side, we can kill it. We can run it the other way. If they send it to Colston's side, we can run away from that. So the tight ends provide an automatic chip. The Bears can keep one in if they want. The Bears have leaned into condensed formations to add Protection against Myles Garrett and Micah Parsons. They used it on the deep shot to Burden and he said on the Burden play, Kemet and Durham Smythe both chipped before going into the flat on each side. It drew coverage. That's how they got the huge window in the middle of the field for Burden in the run game. The mirrored tight ends in the backfield create more gaps for the defense to cover. So you get an edge based on the formation. And in the passing game, you get stress for the coverage, especially on the backside. So for them to have repped it in camp and to get this far into the season, and then you talk about we're going to be playing our best football in December, and you start talking about the stuff that he just wanted to rep in camp. Say, remember this? Remember this, Remember this? And then it goes away. I don't know how often they use it in practices, but he wanted to have it installed. They always use that term, installation. They wanted to have it installed. Hey, remember this? Remember this? We ran it in camp. Oh, yeah, we're using that.
- [25:42]
A
Yep.
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B
We're bringing that out. And that shows me that Ben Johnson has had a full season approach to everything, starting in the earliest days of camp.
- [25:53]
A
Oh, for sure.
- [25:54]
B
And that now that's one aspect. The other aspect is the trust. That means his line and his quarterback are at a point where he can do that. Because there's a lot of coaches that have this grand plan and we discussed it. No matter what they want to do, they pare it all down. What can we block? What can we do? How do we get out of a game? But to be this far ahead, it's a huge testament to the offensive line. Huge. And a testament of the trust in Caleb Williams for them to say at this point in the year, we're going to begin with a new. I don't know where it goes from here. I don't know if they're going to do all of these reptile variations off the Greg Roman stuff. Maybe they won't. But the fact that they could and the fact that as an opposing coach now I got to be like, oh, boy, I've. We. Let's go drag out some old Greg Roman film and let's see what else they're. They're doing off of this so we can get our guys ready. That's. That's some. That's some fun, interesting, different kind of stuff from a bear's head coach to be doing this now.
- [27:04]
A
Yeah, and it's. It's cool. The formation itself is really cool. From an offensive perspective based on what front you see from the defense, they're the option. The run options are just insane. I mean you can, you can run anywhere on the left side of the line with a lead blocker. You can go right side of the line with a lead blocker, you can go outside with a lead blocker. You can fake one side to the running back and have a QB keeper to the opposite side with a lead blocker. You can actually have both guys lead block for outside runs.
- [27:33]
B
Either way, you're describing a lot of the stuff that is actually here in the X and O's. If you go to Ali Connolly. Yeah, I'd love, I don't if he can talk, he'd be a great guest. I guess he has done NFL scouting, he's been involved and what he says is the bluff for the arrow route is already built in for an easy red zone change up. You can get deeper shots in the fringe. He says when coaches say they want stuff to look the same, this is it. There's no beat on the run pass conflict. You can be run as a turn the back fake, flash fake with eyes reading the man on the end of the line. From the same pre snap set and initial action you can get to a grab bag of anything. He says Ben Johnson is exceptional at many, many things but the design of the run game is the sweetest. And the daggers that there's so many easy automatic quick hitters tagged onto those run actions that you have to respect them even though you know he wants to run it. When he says quick hitters he means quick little passes. Getting a mismatch, getting an angle, boom, gone. And he says even though you know when you see that formation, the preference is to run it. You, you, you can't sell out against it.
- [28:49]
A
You can't. Yeah, because the pass options are going to be there for it. You know it's interesting because there was a formation that Vanderbilt ran about the middle portion of the year. They had similar pistol formation, so a quarterback slightly back running back behind him. They had two tight ends and they also, they had a tight end on the line on the right side of the line. So he's on the line. Then they had two other tight ends lined up behind that tight end in like a single file formation. So you have four guys in the backfield, right. And they're lined up behind the tight end. So it's like three tight ends in a row.
- [29:24]
B
Okay, well that, that's to get somebody a free release. That's a man beater.
- [29:28]
A
So here's what they did, though, with it, because I saw it, and I'm like, all right, what are we doing out of this? They took both those tight ends in the backfield and scraped them down the backside of the offensive line to the left.
- [29:38]
B
Okay.
- [29:39]
A
Okay. So they both went left. The ball carrier went right.
- [29:43]
B
Well, that's. That's a similar split flow there.
- [29:45]
A
Yeah, 100%. Yeah. But it was great. And I'd never seen that before. I'd never seen a formation like that. Thinking it's pretty obvious that, okay, you got. But. And I actually implemented it, and we started using that. We called it a box formation and. But what we did was I was able to use those two tight ends as lead blockers going left. We also had them go left, and we ran right because you still had the tight end on the line there to block on the outside.
- [30:09]
B
Okay.
- [30:10]
A
Okay. You need to go all the way outside to, like, the 8 Gap, or you could go off. Tight end. I also had that second. That second tight end that's lined up in the backfield. I put a running back there, and I would give him the ball. So my running back became a lead blocker, and we'd go left.
- [30:25]
B
Oh, that's kind of cool. Yeah, that sounds. I mean, if I'm. And I'm looking right now, if you go to this. Olly Connolly's blue sky handle, he's got the schematics.
- [30:35]
A
Okay. I'll take of a lot of these.
- [30:37]
B
Plays, and there's one that's called a wolf action. It depends. Depending on a defensive shift over or under, there's all sorts of opportunity. But there's one tight end designated as the. Yeah. And another as the F, which is the equivalent of. Of a fullback or a hybrid. An H back.
- [30:58]
A
Yeah. And what I. What we would do with it, too. So we would. We would hit that. That running back lined up as a tight end. We would hit him going left, then we would fake that, and we'd keep. The QB would go right, and he'd still have the front tight end in front of him, but the tight end on the line would be able to release. So we had an option for the QB to run or just dump it off.
- [31:16]
B
I'd love to hear Ben Johnson discuss some of this stuff. This is the kind of thing he'd geek out on and probably just spe day moving salt shakers around the table.
- [31:24]
A
Yeah, no, that'd be fun.
- [31:25]
B
That'd be a fun conversation to have it just. And I'm sure there's Stuff that my eye isn't trained enough to notice. Believe me, with the more research I do, the more I find out how much I don't.
- [31:34]
A
Don't know about offensive game plan.
- [31:36]
B
Because there's. There's so much. And even when you get past the jargon, even when you get past a lot, because everybody calls these things different things, the principles are always the same. But whether it's reptile, lizard, bully, that it does appear that the Bears are trusting everybody to unveil a whole new set of possibilities now, which I just think is cool.
- [32:03]
A
Yeah, no, I love it. It's really good stuff. All right, a couple other things around the NFL I want to play some more Sound for you. This one here, this is from the Vikings Cowboys game from last night. This was a J.J. mcCarthy touchdown run. I don't know if you saw this play. It was a really beautiful setup where he fakes it, right? And it's a QB keeper left and he basically can gritty into the end zone and did.
- [32:26]
B
And okay, McCarthy, the keeper, the walk.
- [32:31]
A
In, little gritty on his way to the end zone. That's a little nasty right there. Touchdown Vikings. That's the kind of personality that is this kid. And that's why they're all wanting to be so patient. All right, so he literally does the gritty into the end zone. So after the game, Kevin o' Connell is asked about it.
- [32:53]
C
Anything special he did on the fake handoff and then the rollout on the touchdown.
- [32:57]
E
I would say the finish, I would not classify as special. It was entertaining. That's. I guess we are in the entertainment business, but I would have preferred him to show that that 40 time that he likes to talk about having never run a 40 coming out, which was unique to say the least. But as a guy who once ran a fast 40 and couldn't throw it very well, I can probably understand why quarterbacks are choosing to do that these days. But yeah, I thought the sell, I thought the moment, the action, all those things. And you know, even I knew the play and I knew what was happening and the action was so good, I, you know, I even had to take a double take right there. And it's awesome moment in the game.
- [33:40]
A
So J.J. mcCarthy. McCarthy talked about it too, and he was like, McCarthy said, I was told not to do that, and he did it anyway. And he goes, I'm going to get, you know, downgraded on that. I'll get a minus grade for it. But, you know, that's okay.
- [33:53]
B
Okay, wait, He. He was told not to do what?
- [33:57]
A
To celebrate. Like that running in the end zone. Why?
- [34:00]
B
And how would he know to tell him not to do that?
- [34:02]
A
Because he'd probably done stuff like that before because that. That's the personality that they love in the kid and why they're will be so patient with him.
- [34:09]
B
So he did it in practice. He's like, don't do it in a game.
- [34:11]
A
Yeah. So don't do that. Don't do that anymore. And so obviously, when. When they're going through and he's. He gets graded by koc. He's been graded as a minus before for things like that, but he still decided to do it anyway.
- [34:24]
B
It's a dance.
- [34:25]
A
I know, but I guess we are.
- [34:27]
B
In the entertainment business. Grumble, grumble, grumble, grumble.
- [34:30]
A
You know what? But to a certain extent, I get where KOC is coming from. Like, you're not at that point yet, kid. Like, you're. You're not quite there yet to box.
- [34:40]
B
There on that play.
- [34:41]
A
What. What's like we're telling you to do. You haven't quite made it yet.
- [34:46]
B
Well, I was more troubled by the fact that after the game, he was with Roel and Javier Pavia, which I thought was a way worse sign that JJ McCarthy.
- [34:55]
A
Roaming the streets of downtown Dallas, JJ.
- [34:57]
B
McCarthy was flanked by the Pavia brothers. Now that there's a formation, I want Ben Johnson to unveil the Pavia formation. Yeah, we're all three guys walk up to the line of scrimmage like that with their gold chains hanging out, you know, kind of then and then, you know, the ties, the whole thing. I like, I got the turtleneck right now.
- [35:16]
A
Yeah, you got to go. And you see the big gold chain?
- [35:18]
B
Three of them, maybe.
- [35:20]
A
Maybe the Bears get him in the draft. Maybe a six or seventh round pick on Diego Pavia.
- [35:24]
B
I'm out.
- [35:26]
A
Oh. So I asked you, and I couldn't find anything else, but. But I think the top of our heads, I think we were correct on the Heisman voting. Two quarterbacks finish, 12 of Hispanic descent. Correct.
- [35:39]
B
Yeah. And I did until you said it. I had. I was not even mindful of that.
- [35:44]
A
At all because I was jotting my notes down, and I was like, oh, Mendoza and Pop. And I'm like, well, wait a second.
- [35:48]
B
Has this happened before? I'm sure not. Yeah, I'm sure not. But that's really cool.
- [35:55]
A
It was cool. It was cool. All right, one other. One last cut for you. This is from the Kansas City Chiefs post game. And this is. This is Chris Jones. It's really quiet because obviously he's not very happy with the outcome of the game. But let's see if we can. If you can hear this here.
- [36:10]
F
Tough. It's tough. I mean, any game you lose is tough. We're all competitors here, especially me, you know, especially with so much at State. Still have a fighting chance. Are we out of the playoff?
- [36:27]
A
We are. Okay. Aw. So he didn't know that they were out of the playoffs?
- [36:34]
B
What do you mean he didn't know?
- [36:36]
F
It's tough. It's tough. I mean, any game you lose is tough. We're all competitors here, especially me, you know, especially with so much at State. Still have fighting chance.
- [36:49]
A
Fighting chance.
- [36:51]
F
Are we out of the playoffs?
- [36:53]
A
We are.
- [36:54]
B
Okay. Oh, it's sad, isn't it?
- [37:02]
A
Sad?
- [37:02]
B
Yeah.
- [37:03]
F
Still have fighting chance.
- [37:05]
B
We're still alive. No, you're.
- [37:06]
F
Are we out of the playoffs?
- [37:08]
A
We are. Okay. We still have a fighting chance. Oh, are we out of the playoffs?
- [37:14]
B
Well, I rescind all that.
- [37:15]
A
I retract any fighting chance.
- [37:18]
B
We no longer have a fighting chance. And we're not competitors. And I need to get my golf clubs out of the garage. Aw.
- [37:28]
A
Poor guy, right? Yeah.
- [37:29]
B
Especially when your quarterback is hurt. The entire direction of a proud franchise is now in question. They're clearly moving into the twilight of a great era. Aw. Are we out? Remember when Dick Jaron had to hold a meeting to find out if they were eliminated?
- [37:48]
A
Yeah.
- [37:48]
B
Where they were clearly eliminated. And then the next day, there was this bizarre press conference conference where the Bears head coach was announced they were going to have a meeting to determine if they were eliminated or not. And everybody's looking at each other like, does he not know?
- [38:02]
A
I think they called the NFL offices and guys, Roger there. It's Dick Jaron.
- [38:07]
B
Yeah.
- [38:07]
A
What? Just trying to confirm our standings right now in the playoff picture.
- [38:13]
B
You need a notarized document presented to you. I didn't know what they needed. Yeah, dude, you're out of the box.
- [38:18]
A
You've been eliminated.
- [38:19]
B
That's it. There's nothing you can do here. There's no like, you know, principals discretion or something? It's going to let you in.
- [38:25]
A
So our list is growing of eliminated teams. The Chiefs, the Bengals can be added to that. The Vikings as well. So we have Vikings, Falcons, Saints, Commanders, Cardinals, Giants, Titans, Raiders, Browns, Jets, Bengals, Chiefs. But the Kansas City Chiefs eliminated from the playoffs. Have you seen any of the memes about Chris Collinsworth?
- [38:46]
B
Oh, but now that Mahomes is gone.
- [38:47]
A
Mahomes is out of the playoffs. It's all like him crying. Yeah. He's not gonna have his old child.
- [38:53]
B
I tell you this Patrick Mahomes, he can do whatever he wants. Most of the mainstream impersonations of him now fall back on Mahomes.
- [39:04]
A
Just glazing. Mahomes.
- [39:05]
B
Yeah. Look at you.
- [39:07]
A
Glazing.
- [39:08]
B
Well, I didn't say dick riding.
- [39:10]
A
No, but you said glazing. Look at you like a young person.
- [39:14]
B
I hear things out in these streets.
- [39:17]
A
Yeah, the fishing streets. Oh, boy.
- [39:19]
B
Yeah, don't get me started with fishing slang.
- [39:22]
A
Talk about glazing. They just don't talk any. Any English Premier League.
- [39:26]
B
Right.
- [39:26]
A
That's why you don't eat Palmer.
- [39:28]
B
I missed that. There's a lot of La Liga, but.
- [39:30]
A
No English Premier League. Yes. So I just. I just thought that was. That was funny. Chris Jones being informed at the podium after the game that they're eliminated from playoff contention. So Mahomes goes down.
- [39:44]
B
Should have told him before. We would have played better, right?
- [39:46]
A
Or.
- [39:46]
B
Yeah, you know, or maybe you wouldn't.
- [39:47]
A
Have gone out for the press conference. So Mahomes goes down with a torn acl. Micah Parsons down with a torn acl. We talked about Christian Watson.
- [39:56]
B
Did we talk about Philip Rivers?
- [39:58]
A
Philip. We have not mentioned Philip Rivers yet. He's on our list though.
- [40:01]
B
Now he's no Andrew Billings.
- [40:03]
A
He's not.
- [40:03]
B
But he may be aspiring.
- [40:06]
A
So apparently the. The video that I saw from the Madden video game, that was. That was a doc like a doctor thing. So he wasn't made to look like a lineman, which is too bad. Oh, thanks for the listene.
- [40:18]
B
Okay. But it's still clever. It's still great.
- [40:20]
A
It was great. It was huge. They had him as a big fatty, Fatty McFaddy. It was great.
- [40:27]
B
What does it say about NFL quarterbacking that he could step in and be borderline competent. It was.
- [40:33]
A
Won the game.
- [40:34]
B
I know. What does he have the lead late in the. What does that say about the state of quarterbacking?
- [40:40]
A
Does it say. Does it say more about him or does it say just more about the general state of quarterback in the NFL? I'm going to lean towards the fact that it just states more about the. The quarterbacks in the league right now.
- [40:51]
B
And maybe it's not all bad. Maybe it also is because, again, the coaching and the systems are so important. Maybe it just really does show you the significance of knowing where and when that how many. How many teams would have somebody in the quarterback room who would be capable of doing that. And maybe it happens in practice. Maybe you get an assistant coach there and it's Funny, because I used to see it in basketball at a practice where an assistant coach, you're like, no, no, no, no, no. Give me the ball. Here's how you get into the set. You clear this screen now I go here. And you couldn't do it all game, right? But for a couple plays, somebody can be completely competent and look like a professional player who had done it before.
- [41:38]
A
But that's very, that's very different, though.
- [41:40]
B
Than starting an NFL game with those guys trying to kill you.
- [41:43]
A
So it was, it was interesting to hear the evolution of that with, with Philip Rivers that he was still staying in touch with because of the high school. Because the high school. Because he runs that in his high school playbook. So he talks to the coaches and know. So he was up on what they do offensively. It's amazing that he was able to step in.
- [42:03]
B
And do you ever think that.
- [42:04]
A
And to go against Seattle.
- [42:05]
B
Let me play.
- [42:06]
A
It wasn't like he played, you know, the Browns or, you know, the Bengals or whoever. Wells is really bad.
- [42:13]
B
I just. Giants. I wonder, I wonder, when you're coaching Hank and Jackie, do you ever think like, God, just let me. If I only could do this and throw it there and this. And I know they're little kids, but there always has to be. Do it the way you're supposed to do it.
- [42:32]
A
Yeah.
- [42:32]
B
Let me show you again.
- [42:34]
A
Don't get like the frustrated anger type thing. It's just you do have to show, like the repetition of footwork and what your arms should look like. And when you make this throw, how should your body turn and look? But, but, you know, and it's funny, the more that I do that, the more I get sore, too. So it's like the next day I'm like, jesus, I was doing too much practice yesterday and we're getting down in a three point stance and letting kids at full pads on. You're, you know, letting them hit you. You hit them. It's like, this is how it should look. Yeah. No, it's not good. Well, they're smaller still.
- [43:01]
B
I don't care.
- [43:02]
A
Yeah, I wouldn't do that with our varsity team.
- [43:04]
B
But, yeah, I know. Even I, I wouldn't let any of those kids in your team hit me. You kidding? Like I said, they got helmets and pads on. Yeah, I know.
- [43:12]
A
No, we're bigger and stronger and faster, smarter, whatever.
- [43:16]
B
Just don't let him hit me. I'm staying on the other side of the fence.
- [43:19]
A
Yeah, no, of course you get, you get frustrated with it, but you have to realize that it's, you know, they're 13, 12, 11 year old kids and they're not out there.
- [43:27]
B
Not coaching them hard enough. Damn it.
- [43:29]
A
Yeah, I guess not. I should coach harder. So.
- [43:31]
B
Yeah, no more water for them.
- [43:33]
A
Oh, we never do water.
- [43:34]
B
Can't do water. Water's bad for you. Water just shows you're weak. No helmets either in practice.
- [43:39]
A
Take them off. Nope.
- [43:40]
B
Yeah, I can't do that with my kid.
- [43:42]
A
Yeah, your kid needs a helmet all the time.
- [43:44]
B
Absolutely. Driving helmet, dinner helmet, drinking helmet, sleeping helmet. Yeah, we got to do all that stuff.
- [43:51]
A
That's great.
- [43:51]
B
Yeah. What?
- [43:54]
A
Nothing.
- [43:55]
B
Okay. I just want to see if there's any other around the league stuff because I will say it looks like the Blob is expanding. It really is. And I'm not sure where the Rams. And with that performance, I didn't think that they'd explode quite like that against the Lions.
- [44:09]
A
Yeah. So I was monitoring it while I was at a basketball game and Lions were winning and I was like, come on, this can't. And then they came back and it was close. Next time I checked the score, they were up at like two touchdowns. I was like, what the. Yeah, I didn't anticipate that at all.
- [44:23]
B
Yeah, Puka Nakua is becoming. And these play action motion stuff. He goes wherever he wants. That guy got like the Jordy Nelson cloaking device. Now where Jordy Nelson left his cloaking device and he gave it to Puka Nakua and he just sort of shows up on your screen with the ball like, damn it. He's got to be so annoying to play against. Maybe that'll be the NFC championship.
- [44:49]
A
Rams. Bears.
- [44:50]
B
Yeah. See how the bracket lines up? That'd be fun, wouldn't it? Oh man, that'd be fun. That'd be worth the trip out to sofi.
- [44:59]
A
Well, I can't. I'm glad that it's a Saturday game. This is one less day to wait. And we will be live Saturday night after. Damn right. Packers. So you make sure to tune in to us, join in on our. On our YouTube channel for the live post game show, which has always been. It's been a lot of fun this year doing the live post game stuff.
- [45:19]
B
And make sure you get the app. You got to absolutely make sure you get. Not going to say download. Get the app.
- [45:26]
A
I said in DVU as a download once.
- [45:28]
B
I know. Get the app at the Google Play store, the Apple App Store where you can find 312 sports and then you register and you're just. You. You get access to everything and you're a part of the 312 sports family. You're even more connected than you already are right now. So that'll do it today for Forward progress. We got a lot more coming tomorrow. We'll have guests throughout the week and getting you ready for I can't believe we're already doing another Bears packers week, but we are here and we'll be here for you. Ted 2:19 2:19.
- [46:05]
A
Forward Progress a Chicago Bears podcast with Dan Bernstein and Matt Abeticola on 3one2 Sports.
- [46:16]
G
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