Chicago Bears - How can they get the #1 seed in the NFC?

Summary

Forward Progress – A Chicago Bears Podcast

Episode: How Can the Chicago Bears Get the #1 Seed in the NFC?
Hosts: Dan Bernstein & Matt Abbatacola
Date: December 23, 2025

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Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into the Chicago Bears' late-season playoff push, analyzing their path to potentially clinching the NFC's #1 seed. Dan and Matt break down the critical playoff tiebreakers, recent team performance, and what’s ahead for the Bears. The show features post-game coaching insights, a candid look at penalty issues, and speculation about stadium rumors and future team directions, all layered with the duo's trademark blend of expertise, transparency, and humor.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Bears Playoff Picture: Road to the #1 Seed

• Current Standings: Bears sit at 11–4 with two games remaining (@49ers, vs. Lions).
• Path to #1: They must win out (finishing 13–4) and get help from other NFC teams, especially needing the Seahawks or Rams to drop a game.
• Tiebreaker Details:
  • If Bears, Seahawks, and Rams finish 13–4, Bears would need the best conference record (Bears: 9–3; Seahawks/Rams could finish 8–4) to seal the top seed.
  • “That’s it. That’s how the Bears get in. All right, the number one seed.” – Dan Bernstein (13:06)
• No Room for Engineering Outcomes:
  • Both hosts agree: play to win out, don’t try to “game” the matchups based on potential playoff opponents.
  • “I wouldn't even look at the bracket until it's presented. …that seems like the presumptuousness of, if we win this and lose this, we're in a better position because we'd face this team...” – Matt Abbatacola (14:45)

2. Upcoming Challenge: Playing the 49ers

• 49ers Analysis: The Bears’ lack of pass rush will be a major challenge vs. the Niners’ efficient, if unspectacular, offense under Brock Purdy.
  • “He steers the vessel… he’s not only a starting quarterback but a winning quarterback that can lead his team deep into the playoffs. I just don’t see it still.” — Dan Bernstein (1:32)
• Game Plan Adjustments:
  • Discussion on whether to hold back play calls in case of a playoff rematch.
  • “Would the possibility of seeing the Niners again change the way you call a game? Would you want to hold anything back potentially for a second meeting?” – Matt Abbatacola (17:17)
  • “Which would be what? I'd love to hear that. Or maybe you want to lie…” – Matt Abbatacola (17:36)

3. Ben Johnson’s Coaching: Accountability & Growth

• Handling Play Management:
  • Johnson takes full responsibility for a late-game field goal situation, citing communication and execution issues.
    • "That's on me. That 100% falls on me. I gotta do a better job coaching that with all the players involved..." – Ben Johnson, Bears HC (2:47)
• Penalty Issues:
  • Acknowledges 10 penalties (four personal fouls) as a product of being overamped but says only Booker's penalty on Jordan Love is hard to coach out; the rest are “preventable and egregious.”
    • “...those 15 yard penalties, they really add up... all the other 15 yarders, as far as I’m concerned, those are all preventable and at times egregious.” – Ben Johnson (5:27)
• Team Goals & Standards:
  • From 11 wins (never missing playoffs at that number), to division title, to the #1 seed.
    • “Number one was to get to 11... that was step one. Step two is, we want to win this division... And then step three would be clinching number one seed.” – Ben Johnson (9:19)
  • Johnson credits the team for not deviating from development standards for Caleb Williams, resisting the temptation to simplify the offense or "borrow from the future" just to win now (see: Washington Commanders’ cautionary tale).

4. Roster Notes & Injuries

• Pro Bowlers: Kevin Byard, Joe Tooney, Drew Dahlman.
• Injury Updates: Only significant Bears concern is CJ GJ (knee), sustained on a touchdown play.
• Comparison to Previous Seasons:
  • Emphasis on not making the “Commanders’ mistake” of adjusting the offense primarily to a rookie QB’s college strengths at the expense of long-term development.

5. Stadium Relocation Rumors

• KC Chiefs’ Move as Case Study:
  • Discussion about state-funded stadiums flipping from Missouri to Kansas; Bears could see a similar situation with Indiana.
  • “If another state wants to do it, and you can still enjoy everything you currently enjoy without having your tax dollars enrich the Bears owners, let Indiana do it.” – Matt Abbatacola (23:23)
• Bears Ownership’s Financial Limitations:
  • The panel points out that Bears ownership lacks the cash to self-fund, and new land at Arlington Heights could be sold off if Indiana becomes viable.
• Nostalgia & Fan Experience:
  • A little sentiment over “losing” the Bears to Indiana, but both hosts remain pragmatic – it’s about the cost, not geography.
  • “It would be weird if the Bears are in Indiana. That would be really, really weird. It's not going to stop me from being a fan.” – Dan Bernstein (25:18)
• Suite Economics & Modern Stadiums:
  • Focus increasingly shifts toward building for premium suite revenue rather than general fan experience.

6. Around the League (Fun Moments & Stories)

• “Small Market” Jab:
  • Sean Payton refers to Jacksonville as a “small market,” to which Jaguars coach Liam Cohen counters with dry gratitude after their win.
    • “Just thankful that, you know, a small market team like us can come into a place like Mile High and get it done.” – Liam Cohen (41:05)
• Travel & NFL City Anecdotes:
  • The hosts trade battle stories about covering the NFL and Super Bowls, including hotel horror stories in Jacksonville and Houston, run-ins at Waffle House, and run-ins with “local color.”
  • The segment veers into humorous debates about the largest city by area in the U.S. (“It might be. All they did was keep an eye on.” – Matt Abbatacola, 44:55)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Playoff Mindsets:
  • “You just have to go out and win.” – Dan Bernstein (14:43)
• On Modern NFL Stadiums:
  • “You are building all of these buildings now just for the suites, everything else is just fodder.” – Matt Abbatacola (26:28)
• On Penalties:
  • “The Brisker one is just dumb. That's out of frustration and the situation of the game. That's just stupid.” – Dan Bernstein (8:44)
• On Coaching Consistency:
  • “He’s doing more under center. He’s getting better at cadence because that was the plan.” – Matt Abbatacola (36:35)
• On Bears’ Ownership:
  • “Desperate people do desperate things.” – Dan Bernstein (24:58)
• On NFL Geography:
  • “...if they're bad, you know what they're going to be? They're going to be the Hammond Bears or the Gary Bears when they're bad, and when they're good, they’ll be the Chicago Bears.” – Dan Bernstein (28:21)
• On Keeping Perspective:
  • “This is sort of the cautionary tale of every season being precious. Never make presumptions when you say you’re a year ahead.” – Matt Abbatacola (32:06)
• On Fan Priorities:
  • “Just stay out of my wallet.” – Matt Abbatacola (30:55)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Playoff Standings & Tiebreaks Broken Down: 11:02 – 14:20
• Fourth-Down Field Goal Sequence, Coaching Accountability: 2:47 – 5:05
• Penalty Discussion (Including Booker's Hit): 5:27 – 8:17
• Ben Johnson on Team Goals: 9:19 – 10:35
• 49ers/Bears Playoff Dynamics: 17:17 – 18:36
• Stadium Relocation/Judging Bears Ownership: 23:23 – 30:55
• Commanders Cautionary Tale vs. Bears' “No Compromise” Approach: 32:06 – 37:24
• Fun NFL Stories & "Small Market" Coach Quotes: 40:44 – 41:48
• Jackonsville/Houston Super Bowl Stories: 41:57 – 47:22

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Tone & Style

The episode is marked by frank analysis, mutual ribbing, and the seasoned fan’s blend of skepticism and hope. Dan’s dry wit and Matt’s storytelling carry even the heaviest topics with levity, while the coaching and team development segments remain appropriately earnest and analytical.

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For Listeners:

This episode provides a roadmap for Bears' fans dreaming of a first-round bye, while offering a dose of practical skepticism about both stadium rumors and the rush to anoint the team as perennial contenders. The coaching philosophy discussion stands out for its insight into why this year's success feels different—and potentially sustainable. There’s also plenty of classic sports radio banter, salty as Chicago’s lakefront in January.

Transcript

[Dan Bernstein]

I mean, if you're a Bears fan, you're thinking forward progress. Come on. Forward Progress. A Chicago Bears podcast with Dan Bernstein and Matt Abaticola on 312 sports.

[Matt DiCutalola]

We give you forward progress on 312 sports. This is a Chicago Bears podcast. The Bears are and four. As we begin to size up not just these remaining two games, but now, what it's going to take to optimize their path to bigger and more important things. They are in the playoffs as of today. They have three Pro Bowlers in Kevin Byard, Joe Tooney and Drew Dahlman.

[Dan Bernstein]

Correct. So that is correct.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Congrats on those.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yep.

[Matt DiCutalola]

But the Bears are preparing now to head out to play the 49ers and if you watch them last night, and I hope you did, it's not going to be easy. That team's pretty good and especially with their the Bears ongoing lack of a pass rush. You better get to this guy because he doesn't make a lot of wrong decisions. He's not a great quarterback, but.

[Dan Bernstein]

No, he's not.

[Matt DiCutalola]

He certainly is a good Kyle Shanahan executor. He's. He steers the vessel like.

[Dan Bernstein]

I still can't believe that he's not only a starting quarterback in the NFL, but a winning quarterback that can lead his team deep into the playoffs. I just, I just don't see it still.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Well, they got skill, position people. Yeah, they do make a lot of plays. They seem to catch a lot of what is thrown near them.

[Dan Bernstein]

I know. And he's not bad. It's just. I just don't see it being anything great.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Well, any quarterback who knows where to go with the ball can be really effective when he's not on his back.

[Dan Bernstein]

It's called a game manager.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Yeah, maybe he's like an elevated level of game manager and that's all that Kyle Shanahan wants.

[Dan Bernstein]

All they need in the offense, they play really hard.

[Matt DiCutalola]

They get the ball into the hands of their guys to do stuff. So the Bears have their work cut out for him. Not just this week, but once, once this whole arrangement, once this bracket gets set, there's nothing is going to be given. Nothing's going to be easy.

[Dan Bernstein]

All right, let's get some Ben Johnson audio here. There's a couple cuts here from the Bears head coach. This first one he was asked about or actually he starts talking about a fourth down play that eventually led to the Kyro Santos field goal. So he talks about it. There's a follow up question, let you.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Hear the whole thing here.

[Ben Johnson]

What I'm not pleased with is, you know, I think it was 244 left and I think we could have handled that third down into fourth down better is both an offense and a in a special teams unit. And that scenario that's on me, that 100% falls on me. I got to do a better job coaching that with all the players involved, all the coaches involved, and I think we'll be better for that going forward.

[Matt DiCutalola]

What needs to go smoother in that sequence?

[Ben Johnson]

Well, yeah, I mean, I don't want to put our field goal unit in that situation to start with with the clock running like that. So ideally that third down throw is either past the sticks or it's clearly going to be out of bounds to where we're not having a running clock and we're forcing our field goal unit out there. And then I can do a better job communicating that we need to kick that thing as quickly as we possibly can. With that being said, you know, they're getting the K ball in there. At one point that thing was fumbling around on the ground and the umpire stood over the ball for a longer period of time than I had hoped for. And so we, we weren't able to get the kickoff nearly as quickly as, as I had kind of foreseen in my head. And so number of things happened there.

[Dan Bernstein]

So that was a play that you brought up in the post game show, but why it took so long. We'd also learned that Kyro Santos was kind of delaying his portion of it, waiting on the wind gust to kind of kind of break through. But if you're not familiar or if you don't know the top of your head, it was a third and nine that resulted in a five yard pass, a DJ Moore making it fourth and fourth. So that's, that's where the whole scenario sets up.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Really good follow up by Dan Weederer there too. When, when a coach gives you that little opening to then say, okay, well take us through it.

[Dan Bernstein]

Right.

[Matt DiCutalola]

And Johnson seems to be the type of guy who almost wants to go through that process. He has no problem with it.

[Dan Bernstein]

He's honest, he's fine talking with about things. But I thought it was just a good cut to hear because again, it was something that we brought up on the post game show. Why did it take so long? Again we add the layer of Cairo Santos waiting on it, but there were more things that we didn't see. If you're not there at the stadium, the camera didn't show ball moving around, umpire standing there. Maybe he didn't like the play call the option for a short pass like that for, you know, you know, a fourth and, or a third and nine, you get a five yard pass out of it, what good does that do? The clock still running.

[Matt DiCutalola]

And then we learned that the kicker has control over the timing of the snap based on any, anything with the wind or anything else that could go wrong. Ultimately the guy responsible is in charge.

[Dan Bernstein]

Right. All right, next cut here is. He was asked about the, the penalties in the game. Remember they had 10 penalties for 105 yards. Specifically asked about the four 15 yard penalties.

[Ben Johnson]

Yeah, I think that that might have had something to do with it. And you know, we talked about, he.

[Dan Bernstein]

Was talking about guys being amped up. Yep. For the game.

[Ben Johnson]

You get in these big games and it's, you can get a little bit emotional because it's a, it's a division rival and you want to make an impact and we don't want to shy away from that. We want to play aggressive and we want to, we want to be very physical team, but at the same time we can't hurt the team. And that happened a number of times and it's not. Okay. Know those 15 yard penalties, they really add up. I think we end up having four of them on the game. And you know, I talk about Bookers, you know, against Jordan love, and that's 100% a flag where he ends up getting concussed and it's, it's not what anybody wants. All right. But at the same time, that one is a, is a more difficult one to coach just from a technique perspective because we're trying to go after the quarterback and it's a bang, bang play like that. All the other 15 yarders, as far as I'm concerned, those are all preventable and at times egregious. We can't do that.

[Matt DiCutalola]

So Brisker's arm to the head.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yep. Deliberate and egregious.

[Matt DiCutalola]

DeMarco Jackson, for some reason, jumping on top of a pile after the kickoff.

[Dan Bernstein]

Not even a pile on the ground. Pile of men standing. He jumps on top. Yeah.

[Matt DiCutalola]

And I appreciate the way he handled the Austin Booker penalty because sometimes you, you, you can't coach over something like that. It looked like he wasn't intending to injure. You don't want to have head to head contact. We know that Jordan Love did drop his head a little bit. That if in fact he was aiming for the middle of Love's chest, you don't always want to go in with the crown of your helmet, but that was Certainly illegal, but certainly not dirty.

[Dan Bernstein]

Right. And then the one. And I'm glad he.

[Matt DiCutalola]

He.

[Dan Bernstein]

You know, he kind of umbrella. Both plays together because Booker is also penalized on the first drive for landing on top of. Of. He didn't do anything wrong there. No, didn't do anything wrong. Which. And again, it's such a subjective call where. Why not call Montez Sweat for landing on top of Malik Willis? I just don't get it. I hate that call. I really do. I really do like the crown of the helmet. I get it. It's. It's easy to spot, regardless of the official's positioning. You can see that he's leading with the crown of his helmet. That's illegal. That is a. It's a football play. That is illegal.

[Matt DiCutalola]

I also think picking up a guy and squaring him up, launching into the air and going out of your way to land on him is different. Is different than a tackle attack.

[Dan Bernstein]

He tackled him and fell on top of him. That's a tackle. It's a football move. So I just don't like that. It's subjective. At times. You'll call that, but won't call other times where a guy lands on top of him. You saw it twice in the same game. So just. Yeah, so he.

[Matt DiCutalola]

He's.

[Dan Bernstein]

He takes those. The Booker calls out of it, and then he just talks about the other two, which were really stupid. I mean, just absolutely stupid. The DeMarco Jackson one, I just. I chalked that up as being. You're too pumped up. I mean, you're a guy that NFC defensive player of the week. You were a starter for the previous four weeks. Now you're not starting. You're back on special teams, trying to make a play. I get it. You're fired up. The brisker one is just dumb. That's out of frustration and the situation of the game. That's just stupid.

[Matt DiCutalola]

The demarco Jackson one looked collegiate to me.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yes, That's a great, great, great adjective for it.

[Matt DiCutalola]

When you see these. The special teams, college players who might be down the depth chart, and they know it's their only chance at the biggest moment of the game in that opening kickoff, and they tackle a guy at the 22, and they're. And they're just bouncing around, and like I. It happens all the time.

[Dan Bernstein]

Very, very collegiate. That's a. That's a. That's a good call on that one. And then last cut here, this is about Ben and his. His plan. The idea of getting the 10 wins or 11 wins, and then beyond step.

[Ben Johnson]

Number one was to get to 11. And the whole reason why that was the number there just. There's really only been 110 win team not to make it. And that was last year, Seattle. There's never been 11 win team to, to not make it. And so that was kind of. We felt pretty good about that being the number going into the season. That was step one. Step two is, is we want to win this division. We want to have a at least one home playoff game. And then step three would be Clinton number one seed. So there's a lot of things still out there to play for. Our guys know that we talked about a few weeks ago. Just a big picture view of where we stood in relation to the last five games of the season and, and what we need to accomplish to achieve those goals. And so they get it. Not a whole lot needs to be said about it. Those goals are still out there and we continue pressing forward. Like I said, we're still not, you know, necessarily playing at the, at the level that we're capable of yet. And so, I mean that's the beautiful thing about this season. And we're all still getting better at what we're doing. There's a number of things that I could have done better in the last game and a number of our players would feel the same way and tell you the same thing as well. So that's, that's the fun part of what we do.

[Dan Bernstein]

So if you look at his, his outlook of the season, and I know they go by quarters, but with 17 games, the final segment of play would be five games. They needed to go where they were standing. They needed to go 2 and 3 to get to 11 wins. So now they're 2 and 1 so far with two games to go. They're at 11 wins with two to go. Here's how it breaks out mathematically where the Bears can claim the number one seed.

[Matt DiCutalola]

All right, this is the road to the number one seed.

[Dan Bernstein]

So there are eight teams still viable to look at for the nfc. Now there are five teams that have already clinched to the spots that are still open. So number one right now are the Seahawks at 12 and three. They play at Carolina and at the 49ers. The Bears 11 and four. The two seed are at the 49ers and they host Detroit. The Eagles at the three seed are at the Bills and verse Washington. The Panthers currently lead the NFC south at 8 and 7. They are hosting Seattle and then play at Tampa. Final final week of the season. 49ers. The 5 seed at 11, 4, of course, host the Bears and then host Seattle in week 18. The Rams at 11 and 4 play at Atlanta and host Arizona. The packers at 9, 5 and 1. They host the Ravens and then play at Minnesota. The Lions at 8 and 7 are at Minnesota and then at the Bears, week 18. So in order for the Bears to get the number one seed, Dan, they are going to need to win both games. So they'll have to beat the 49ers and beat Detroit to get the 13 and 4, which would give them a 9 and 3 conference record. Okay, in order for that to happen, the Bears get the 1 seed. They would need the Seahawks at 12, 3 to lose one of their two remaining games. So I have them beating Carolina and then they'll have to lose at San Francisco in week 18. That would make them 13 and 4 as well as the Bears, but that would give them an 8 and 4 conference record.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Okay, you did this all yesterday.

[Dan Bernstein]

This is morning. Okay, then looking at the Rams. The Rams at 11 and 4. Right now, I have the Rams winning both of the remaining games. So they would beat Atlanta at Atlanta and then beat Arizona at home. Would make them 13 and 4, but would also give them an 8 and 4 conference.

[Matt DiCutalola]

We knew that they lost that tiebreaker a while ago. Yes, that's been done.

[Dan Bernstein]

So the Bears would have that tiebreaker. Okay, so, so that would put Atlanta or the Rams at 8 and 4 in the conference. So we'd have a three way tie at 13 and 4, 13 and 4, 13 and 4 with the Bears at 9 and 3, but the Bears at 9 and 3, Seattle at 8 and 4 and the Rams at 8 and 4. Okay, that's it. That's how the Bears get in. All right, the number one seed. So I also have the packers losing both remaining games. So I have them losing to the Ravens and losing at Minnesota. I have the Lions beating Minnesota, losing to the Bears. So what that does is that leaves the packers at nine, seven and one, the Lions at nine and eight. So that puts the packers in the seven seed. I have the Panthers splitting their final games. They beat Tampa on the final game of the season, puts them at 9 and 8 and gives them the division. So what that would do is it would put the Bears at 1, the Seahawks at 2, the Eagles at 3, the Panthers at 4, the Rams would be 5, the 49ers 6, and the Packers 7.

[Matt DiCutalola]

So here we go again. Yep. All right.

[Dan Bernstein]

So that's the scenario. So the Bears have to win out. They have to win out. And they need a little bit of help.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Do you want to face the Packers? Because what I don't want to do is open the entire possibility of trying to game this to choose an opponent.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, just go out and win. You just have to go out and win.

[Matt DiCutalola]

You're not. I wouldn't even look at the bracket until it's presented. And then whoever is on it, wherever you are, you play that team. I do not. And I know that there are going to be people from the outside thinking, well, if they really want to engineer this, ideally, that always comes back to bite you one way or the other. That sort of. And I don't want to get all silly about it, but that seems like the presumptuousness of if we tried, if we win this and lose this, we're in a better position here because we'd face this team or this team, and we don't even know who's going to be hurt.

[Ben Johnson]

Right.

[Matt DiCutalola]

You don't know what's going to. And we don't know if you know. We need to call Nate Hobbs and we need to call Pope Bob because we found out. If you listen to dbu, we found out that there's only certain things that are in their control because all this has been scripted by higher powers.

[Dan Bernstein]

So the Bears would have the buy, Seattle would host Green Bay, the Eagles would host the 49ers, and then the Panthers would play the Rams.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Okay, I just. The reason why I want the buy.

[Dan Bernstein]

Is I just want the time off.

[Matt DiCutalola]

It's not time off that. It's the opposite. It's the best time. For all the silliness, a bye week before the playoffs. Playoffs is going to be great.

[Dan Bernstein]

Oh, yeah, I hear you.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Because then it's all a hype week.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah. I just.

[Matt DiCutalola]

You can watch all the other teams. You can know you're in. You get. And sure, the Bears would get time off to heal up. That's why you want the buy. And you can have practice time, whatever you want, but just for the city to be able to have, especially at that time of year where you're post holidays, people are getting back to work, people get sick. It's just like to have a fun, silly Bears are going to the playoffs week where you could. That would be great.

[Dan Bernstein]

It would be great now if that scenario sets up that way. Bears, Seattle Eagles, Panthers, Rams, 49ers, Packers. And if the three victorious teams would be Seattle, Rams and 49ers. So the Bears as the 1 seed, we get the lowest seed left, which would be the 49ers. So 49ers would go into Soldier Field. Yeah. And then the Rams would have to go out to Seattle and have that rematch again. So you get Bears 49ers another game that we are going to watch this weekend, and then ram Seattle.

[Matt DiCutalola]

So it that because of this, it brings up the obvious questions that Ben Johnson is going to be asked over the next few days is would the whatever percentage possibility of seeing the Niners again change the way you call a game? Would it change what you're showing, what you have installed? Would you want to hold anything back potentially for a second meeting? Now, you played the Packers a couple of times, right. If you run into them, I don't think there's any secrets right now unless they install something and maybe Ben Johnson's answer and maybe what in the world of Ben Johnson, there's not a finite number of plays and a finite number of formations. So you can say, hell, we'll do whatever we got to do to win this game like we do any game, and then we'll just invent new things for the next game. Which would be what? I'd love to hear that. Or maybe you want to lie and you say, oh, of course we hold things back. We never show all that we can do. Maybe when the Super Bowl's on the line, we still want to have something to pull out. As Jason Witten once said, pull a rabbit out of your head. One of my favorites. But this is just. These are great problems to have.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, no, absolutely. Now, the only thing that really screws that up is Seattle winning their last two games and getting to 14 and three. And then the Bears would be the two seed and would be hosting. If the rest of my calculations work out, they'd be hosting the packers for a third time. Well, playing the packers for a third time, hosting them for the second time this season. I don't know, man.

[Matt DiCutalola]

And if you look, overall, over 120 minutes, the packers have kind of dominated.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah. Pretty much. Because you didn't do shit the first half of the first game and you didn't do shit for the first 57 minutes of the second game.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Right. That's what I mean.

[Dan Bernstein]

Like, that's not good.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Yeah. If you have to play the packers again and you say who's. Who has been the better team. The Bears have, you know, the latest outcome on their side. But there's no question the packers have been better. The packers have been the better team.

[Dan Bernstein]

And if you had to rank the three quarterbacks, Caleb Williams would finish probably second. But I Mean, you take out those spectacular plays, which you don't. Can't, can't. Right. But I mean, who played a better game?

[Ben Johnson]

Right.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Who has been better in the series?

[Dan Bernstein]

I'm also going to hold to the fact though that the Bears defense set it up that way deliberately and it just played into the hands of Malik Willis to get a lot of yards and completions. Not a lot of yards, but to be able to complete passes. They, they were, they were deliberately playing bend, don't break. We really got to be tough in the red zone, which they were over five for touchdowns in the red zone. It worked out beautifully. You could throw some luck in there too if you want.

[Matt DiCutalola]

But I don't like the plan. I still would prefer.

[Dan Bernstein]

I like that plan better against Willis than I do Jordan Love.

[Matt DiCutalola]

I think the plan should be Montez sweat sack the quarterback every time, sit.

[Dan Bernstein]

On his head every time. Just don't get a flag right. Just don't put all your ass weight on him. Just half of it. Like one cheek. Yeah.

[Matt DiCutalola]

It's a single, I think.

[Dan Bernstein]

I think both cheeks is flagged.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Oh, I see what it is. If you actually were to sit on the quarterback's head and bounce up and down.

[Dan Bernstein]

What they need to do, because we've seen it now in the last three games, is wide receivers getting deep. Packers did it. Browns did it three times and it happened again last week against cj, gj.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Or running underneath, wide open. And that was. There's. When you're watching what Brock Purdy is doing.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah. Because those slants will be open for Brock Purdy too.

[Matt DiCutalola]

And he'll, he'll, he'll hit those shallow crosses.

[Dan Bernstein]

Then you got to deal with the guy with the long hair in the middle of the field catching everything.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Well, he didn't. You saw, he tried for that one handed end zone reception. I think it could have gone. Could have gone up with two.

[Dan Bernstein]

No, you gotta be. It's not as pretty though. I know, I know he got injured, but you know, I don't think it's anything serious. He's not going to miss. Yeah, he's not going to miss this game. And then the Bears, the only injury they came out of was cj, gj haven't heard anything else about that. Yeah. Knee. They said the knee.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Right.

[Dan Bernstein]

Because it was on that.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Yep.

[Dan Bernstein]

Touchdown pass. He ran all like. What was he doing?

[Matt DiCutalola]

I don't know. I don't know. Something looked weird and he took a weird.

[Dan Bernstein]

He was decided not to bend his knees while he ran.

[Matt DiCutalola]

What's the Josh Giddy. He's doing Josh Giddy.

[Ben Johnson]

He's.

[Dan Bernstein]

He can't bend his knees.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Of course he can.

[Dan Bernstein]

No, they don't bend.

[Matt DiCutalola]

They do on defense. He just.

[Dan Bernstein]

He had a. He had a procedure.

[Matt DiCutalola]

He can't.

[Dan Bernstein]

He had a procedure and he took his knees out.

[Matt DiCutalola]

He's just not get into the defensive stance.

[Dan Bernstein]

He's like a Lego, I don't know, figure a Lego guy.

[Matt DiCutalola]

I have yet to understand that. He also is difficult to understand sometimes.

[Dan Bernstein]

What was that brand? Oh, Playmobil. Remember Playmobil?

[Matt DiCutalola]

Yes, of course.

[Dan Bernstein]

The guys had. They didn't have knees.

[Ben Johnson]

Yep.

[Dan Bernstein]

Their legs were straight. That's what Josh Giddey is. He's like the Playmobil NBA player.

[Matt DiCutalola]

He bends his knees on offense. But I love the post game interviews when he's talking so fast in the Australian accent that you got to rewind.

[Dan Bernstein]

It or just not listen.

[Matt DiCutalola]

No, I like it. Yeah, you know, it sounds good.

[Dan Bernstein]

I say it's another option out there for you.

[Matt DiCutalola]

I'm not sure I understand exactly what he says, but it sounds good. VRBO makes it easy to claim your.

[Dan Bernstein]

Dream summer spot with early booking deals from homes with pools to poolside loungers. When you book a vrbo, you don't have to reserve any loungers.

[Matt DiCutalola]

They're all yours.

[Dan Bernstein]

Get that early booking [e-mail] I want.

[Matt DiCutalola]

To bring this up before we get into some more stuff here on forward progress. We found out the Kansas City Chiefs are going to be playing their games. Their next stadium is going to be built on the. On the Kansas side of Kansas City because the state of Kansas has decided they want their taxpayer money to enrich the Hunt family rather than Missouri deciding that they want their citizens money enriching the Hunt family. So good. Good for Missouri. Nice job. You still get to be of your Kansas City Chiefs. You still have a stadium you can go to and it's somebody else's problem. And the same goes, the same message goes for to Kevin Warren and to the state of Indiana. I'm cool, man. If the citizens of Indiana want to make the Bears ownership richer by giving them money and believing all these phony baloney press releases about what a stadium deal does to enrich the taxpayers who fund it, it's all bullshit. And if. And if another state wants to do it, and if you're somebody who goes to Bears games and they're still the Chicago Bears and you can still enjoy everything you currently enjoy without having your tax dollars enrich the Bears owners, let Indiana do it. Have at it. Go ahead. Enjoy.

[Dan Bernstein]

You know, I've said before, I don't care where they play, and I really don't, but thinking about it, I'm like. I'm like 95% don't care.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Well, I don't care.

[Dan Bernstein]

Like, I'm not gonna go if the.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Bears are paying for it. I totally don't care.

[Dan Bernstein]

Right.

[Matt DiCutalola]

If you. But they. They can't because they don't have the money.

[Dan Bernstein]

Right. So someone has to give them the money to do this.

[Matt DiCutalola]

That's really a story that nobody's right out there. Nobody's talking about. If they had the money, it would be different. They're. They're. This desperation comes from the fact that they don't have the right.

[Dan Bernstein]

And desperate people do desperate things, which. Listen, I'm.

[Matt DiCutalola]

I'm not.

[Dan Bernstein]

I'm not so sure that this is just some kind of bluff.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Well, fine, but you still own all that land at Arlington Heights, right? So if you got to sell the.

[Dan Bernstein]

Land, well, they can. They can figure that out after the fact. They can work. That's. That's valuable land that someone will. Will build on, will do things on.

[Ben Johnson]

They.

[Dan Bernstein]

They will. They'll. They'll be able to get rid of that land. So 95% of me doesn't care if they play in Hammond or Gary, but, you know, a small portion of a. As a Bears fan, I do kind of care, but I'm not going to go to games, so, you know, at the end of the day, it's not going to impact me, but it's going to be weird. It would be weird if the Bears are in Indiana. That would be really, really weird. It's not going to stop me from being a fan or watching all the games. I mean, you're not going to get me to go. Like, if they're in Arlington Heights, Dan, there's a better chance. Not that they care if I go to a game, but there's a better chance that I go there than I would downtown. But I'm definitely not going to go to Hammond or Gary for a football game.

[Matt DiCutalola]

I mean, at some point I might.

[Ben Johnson]

No.

[Dan Bernstein]

Unless there's a suite. Yeah.

[Matt DiCutalola]

So, I mean. Yeah.

[Dan Bernstein]

And it's free.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Oh, I'm not going to go sit outside.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah. Free.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Yeah.

[Dan Bernstein]

So if someone says, hey.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Right. Oh, sure. Yeah.

[Dan Bernstein]

Then I would consider. And if they send a car to pick me up and drive me home.

[Matt DiCutalola]

We could do that. Okay. We could arrange for all of that. Yeah, that's no worries.

[Dan Bernstein]

But wait, are you planning something? Are you.

[Matt DiCutalola]

You never know.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah.

[Matt DiCutalola]

There'll Be people with tickets.

[Dan Bernstein]

Did you already buy a suite?

[Matt DiCutalola]

Tickets will find your way to you.

[Dan Bernstein]

Did you buy a suite to Hammond?

[Matt DiCutalola]

Right. It's just amazing how the percentage of how you are building all of these buildings now just for the suites, everything else is just fodder.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah.

[Matt DiCutalola]

The people that fill the steerage of the ship and drink all the expensive beers, they don't really pay for much of anything. They just take it for granted.

[Dan Bernstein]

I mean they're there to spend money on concessions and merchandise. That's what they're there for. It's the people that buy the sweets that. That's what you need.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Yep. And that's what also gets people fired. Darkened sweets.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, for sure. Now I wonder.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Not like dark chocolate is a darkened sweet. I mean like what you see during Bulls games right now, a lot of these sweets that are paid for but don't have people in them and. Or not necessarily paid for.

[Dan Bernstein]

How do you think a move to Hammond or Gary, whatever it might be, impacts business relationships with people buying those suites? You think companies don't care if it's not downtown Chicago, but it's in Hammond?

[Matt DiCutalola]

Not the companies they're talking.

[Dan Bernstein]

Which isn't that far from downtown.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Bears tickets or Bears tickets. Yeah.

[Ben Johnson]

Nah.

[Dan Bernstein]

But if you're, if you're a company and you're having clients out, like it's a lot better to have them downtown. At a Chicago hotel. You go to a Chicago restaurant.

[Matt DiCutalola]

They will be.

[Dan Bernstein]

And then you go to the game that's five minutes away from the hotel.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Just like Santa Clara and San Francisco.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Nobody stays in Santa Clara. It's. It doesn't, it really doesn't change anything. All it is is that the citizens of a different state, different county, different city. Yeah. Have their hard earned money go to make the McCaskeys more wealthy.

[Dan Bernstein]

And I think, I think we misspoke to talking about the Cowboys.

[Matt DiCutalola]

They're in, they're Arlington, right?

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, they're in Arlington. I think we said Irvine.

[Matt DiCutalola]

They were in Irving. Irving, they were old Cowboys stadium.

[Dan Bernstein]

Okay. But new ones. Arlington. The new ones in Arlington. Okay.

[Ben Johnson]

Right.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, we, whatever it was, we said it the other way.

[Ben Johnson]

Yes.

[Dan Bernstein]

So, but yeah, I just. Again, so a small portion of me will care and you'll be over it really quickly, really quick. Yeah. Especially if they're good. I'll be over it really quick. But if they're bad, you know what they're going to be? They're going to be the Hammond Bears or the Gary Bears when they're bad and when they're good to be the Chicago Bears.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Yeah. But when it comes to the stadium being paid for by the taxpayers, it doesn't matter if they're good or bad, they're all going to be on the hook. And whatever services would otherwise have those tax dollars, whether it's the roads, the schools, health care, I would much rather have my tax dollars go toward those things that help people rather than just enrich an NFL ownership family.

[Dan Bernstein]

Have you seen any of the AI created, like, renderings of this, like a stadium in the middle of Gary?

[Matt DiCutalola]

I've seen the funny ones.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah. The funny ones. That's what I mean.

[Ben Johnson]

Yeah.

[Matt DiCutalola]

That have it, you know, underneath the skyway with all of the. The refinery stuff there and the little smell lines coming up.

[Dan Bernstein]

Sure looks pretty.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Of course.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Gorgeous. Gorgeous.

[Dan Bernstein]

Be a nice shot for Monday Night Football.

[Matt DiCutalola]

You know what, though? There's. There's some really good. As long as it doesn't interfere with some of the fishing waters around there, too. Because even among all of those. Those vistas there, there's. There's a lot of decent fishing around there. Don't screw it up. Just like they don't screw up the lake Frontier.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah. So I just. I don't really think that this is a threat. I don't think it's, like, leverage. I think they're really considering if a state's gonna throw all this money at them, they're gonna jump on it.

[Matt DiCutalola]

At the moment, I'm not gonna believe that yet. But the biggest issue, to me, the biggest defining issue is their amount of actual money available to pay their fair share or pay for all of it. And even if they were to sell a chunk of the team to private equity, it's not enough. They would have to essentially sell the entire franchise. They would have to use the trademark as collateral, as it'd been explained to me, to get the money they would need, which is essentially selling the team.

[Dan Bernstein]

Which I don't think they're going to.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Do, though, because they've never found a way to generate ancillary income from their ownership of the Bears.

[Dan Bernstein]

What if this ends up and it's. It's just a big. A big circle and they come back and they sign a new lease with the city for Soldier Field?

[Matt DiCutalola]

Well, they don't have to. They got the current lease they don't really need.

[Dan Bernstein]

Well, when's that up, though? Isn't it up in like, 32 or. No. Or is it.

[Matt DiCutalola]

I think that's about.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, yeah, that's. That's not that far away.

[Matt DiCutalola]

No. Well, that. That would be hilarious.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yes, it would have been.

[Matt DiCutalola]

But again, fine. Don't really care. Don't really care. Just stay out of my wallet.

[Dan Bernstein]

Well, by 32, where will Ben be coaching at? Will he be in Detroit after his contract runs out here? What team does he take over? Maybe he goes to my back to Miami where he started.

[Matt DiCutalola]

It's a good question.

[Dan Bernstein]

Brings Caleb with him?

[Matt DiCutalola]

I don't know. I think he'll still be here. He'll grow old here.

[Dan Bernstein]

No, that was a joke.

[Matt DiCutalola]

People are angry. He'll never leave the Chicago Bears when.

[Dan Bernstein]

The cheese grater hat people are angry.

[Matt DiCutalola]

We was mentioning before about what Ben Johnson has in his bag at this point with everything mattering more and what new things does he have, what has been installed that he could unveil? And I keep thinking about a lot of the post mortem that's being written right now about the Washington Commanders and about this star crossed year that they've endured with Jaden Daniels unable to stay healthy and everything else that they've been through.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, 12 and five last year, NFC conference championship game.

[Matt DiCutalola]

And I've been thinking about why the Bears won't be that. Because this is sort of the cautionary tale of every season being precious. Never make presumptions when you say you're a year ahead. There is, there is no year ahead. And I'm trying to think what's different. And there's something really important that is different and it's the fact that they didn't change. Ben Johnson did not necessarily change his goals for the passing game by making it easier on Caleb Williams. He's kept everything, kept every standard, everything he's asked of Caleb Williams. He's kept to his standard where instead of doing what the commanders did last year, which was, hey man, this, this guy was a dude in college. We know what he's comfortable doing. We're going to make our offense for the moment more comfortable for our quarterback, let him run some more collegiate stuff and then we'll work our way to what we want. That's what they did. And there's not necessarily a correct call here. This is all fluid and all, every coach has a different way of doing things. This doesn't retroactively necessarily indict Dan Quinn. So I want to be clear about that.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah. Because we don't know that that could have been an adjustment based on how they started.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Like it also, wow.

[Dan Bernstein]

We're, you know, we're this, we're, we're playing this well right now.

[Matt DiCutalola]

We are ahead of time.

[Dan Bernstein]

This is our record right now, so.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Let'S maximize what we can do right now. And they thought every season's pressure because who knows where we're going to be, right? But what I do like is that it's all part of the. They happen to be winning, but they have not compromised the goals of the offense. And Ben Johnson, from the moment he took the job and said get comfortable being uncomfortable and about the yelling at people and staying on top of every detail and what players have talked about coaching things in practice, it makes this feel like it's more of a step towards something than it is when we're cashing everything in now we're going to throw everything at this and do whatever we can do to win everything right now. They are still doing that while also keeping Williams on schedule to keep graduating to bigger and better things. It makes it more meaningful. Even if they flame out in the first game of the playoffs, which Bears teams have done in the past and surprising Bears teams have done in the past, it still feels better to me if they were to lose, for them to say, okay, well, we learned from it. And it matters that we've learned from it because this is what we do and this is how we do it. And he's going to get better at it. He's going to get even better at it. So that, that makes me feel better to know. It's like, well, we haven't adjusted everything kind of sold out for this year. We're doing the best we can. We want to win every game this year, but we're not going to borrow from next year or set ourselves back in our pursuit of something bigger just to win this year. It's a fine line semantically. I'm trying to explain this.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, no, no, you're explaining well. And it makes sense because Ben Johnson came in and I think we discussed many times at the start of this year that when he got involved, he realized it was a heavier lift than he had anticipated.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Rebuild of a rebuild.

[Dan Bernstein]

And so he wasn't going to borrow for the future to make this year, make the present time easier.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Yes.

[Dan Bernstein]

And he was in a stick with the plan. Now, it just so happened that they started winning these close games and they found themselves at a record that he probably didn't anticipate. Now, I know he said that we're going to be here, we're going to win. Why can't we win now? But he couldn't have anticipated 11 and.

[Matt DiCutalola]

4 and it would have been tempting.

[Dan Bernstein]

It would have been tempting to deviate.

[Matt DiCutalola]

From the play might have been tempting to say, you know what, Caleb, for now, let's just do everything out of shotgun. Do your clap. But they haven't done that.

[Dan Bernstein]

They haven't done that.

[Matt DiCutalola]

He's doing more under center. He's getting better at cadence because that was the plan.

[Dan Bernstein]

And he realized when he came in that Caleb's first year was a wash. It didn't do.

[Matt DiCutalola]

That's. That's being generous to call it a.

[Dan Bernstein]

Wash. Yeah, I'm not so sure it did him harm, but he didn't grow or learn anything after last year outside of having NFL experience, which you can't. You can't put a price on that, being able to play in those games. And he did win some games, had some good moments, but he realized that, I'm starting over with this kid. This is my plan. Here's the path. We're not going to deviate from the path regardless of what happens.

[Matt DiCutalola]

That's great. I agree.

[Dan Bernstein]

And that's a guy who's fully in charge and also confident in what he's doing and who he is and what his plan is. He's bought into the plan before. He sold the plan.

[Matt DiCutalola]

He sold something that he actually believed in. And too often in. In sports and beyond, it's not.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, yeah. If you look at Washington last year, Dan, they started off 4 and 1. They ended up going 7 and 2. So I wonder at, like, what point did they say, all right, we got something going here. What can we do? Like, is it. Was it. You know, was it that four game winning streak when they're four and one, they lose their first game, they win the next four. Like, all right, what can we do to maximize this? Let's see where this goes.

[Matt DiCutalola]

It may be Jaden Daniels came to them. It doesn't have to be.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, we don't know that.

[Matt DiCutalola]

It might just been their decision. It felt like the right decision at the time to say, hey, man, just let me run my stuff, let me be comfortable, and I will put points on the board and let me do what I do. And understanding it would take time for the league to catch up.

[Dan Bernstein]

Well. And also would have to be, you know, would have to go back and look at their game film to. To see it. Like, did it start that way from the beginning or did they deviate a bit from what they were doing and cut some corners. Did they cut corners after the first loss and say, this is it looks like too much right now? Who knows? You know, that'd be a really interesting conversation to have with Someone who covers the team.

[Matt DiCutalola]

I agree.

[Dan Bernstein]

And knows it really well. Maybe that's something we could do with our guy, Tim Jenkins.

[Ben Johnson]

Could.

[Dan Bernstein]

I could reach out to him and say, hey, you know, have you. Have you looked back at, like, what. Here's the conversation we're having. What can you fill in for us? Maybe he has time to, you know, in his. In his. Really, you know, not busy schedule.

[Ben Johnson]

Yeah.

[Matt DiCutalola]

No, but that also might be a good off season.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, for sure. Yeah. No, I'd like to have that conversation. That would be good. I do want to mention a couple things. Just some. Some housekeeping notes here for us. With the holidays coming up, we still have full shows. We'll have DBU the next two days, even though they're. They're holidays. A lot of people are off work. And we'll have forward progress Friday. We have Matt Miller scheduled to join us for forward progress. We have our. On DBU. We have our top 10 49ers of all time, which is going to be an interesting.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Yeah. I think we figured out how to.

[Dan Bernstein]

Do it, how to nail it down.

[Matt DiCutalola]

I think we've figured out how to do this and to keep it sort of historically meaningful. Yes. And give ourselves enough latitude for it to be entertaining.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yes.

[Matt DiCutalola]

So I think we've got this and Friday feedback Friday. What is going on with the app? And thank you for getting the app from Google Play and Apple App Store. It's free, the 312 sports app. Just search for it, grab it, and then you can be part of everything we're doing in new and different ways. I'm doing my best to keep up with all the feedback that's coming in. I'm trying, trying, trying to react to everything. If you're one of these people that sends five a day or five voice messages a day or 20 emails, I'm not gonna respond every time, but I'm trying. If it's a new or unfamiliar name, I'm trying to just say, hey, thank you. So I'm doing my best to do all of that work and keep up and try to make it. Try to correspond.

[Dan Bernstein]

All right, there's one last cut I want to play for you when we get it before we get out of here. And this is from this past weekend, the Jaguars and Broncos. And there's two clips here put together from the head coaches. So first you have Sean Payton, and then you have Liam Cohen, as you.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Look at him and you watch the tape. You know, it's a smaller market, but you see a real good team.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah. Great. Team effort. Just thankful that, you know, a small market team like us can come into a place like Mile High and get it done. Liam Cohen had a little, little thing to say about Sean Payton's. Yeah, swipe.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Little small market.

[Dan Bernstein]

Small market. But, you know, they're bad for a small market team. They're pretty good. And he was as grateful that a small market team like the Jacksonville Jaguars could come in and do. Do this at Mile High. Like, wow.

[Matt DiCutalola]

I get it. Good for him. Yeah.

[Dan Bernstein]

I just thought it was funny.

[Matt DiCutalola]

I like it. A lot of coaches like to take shots at Sean Payton just because he's, you know, he can be prickly.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah.

[Matt DiCutalola]

But Jacksonville is a small market. Right.

[Dan Bernstein]

He's not wrong.

[Matt DiCutalola]

And Jacksonville's gross.

[Dan Bernstein]

It's terrible. Oh, that experience we had there for the super bowl, remember? They had to put media members on cruise ships.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Yeah. And then send them out of crack house. And then we get out of the crack house.

[Dan Bernstein]

Well, that had nothing to do with the NFL. That was all in Zampillo.

[Matt DiCutalola]

No, Garcia. Wasn't that Andy Garcia that put us to crack house? Yeah, it was Garcia.

[Dan Bernstein]

Okay.

[Matt DiCutalola]

No, no, it was Zampillo, I think, because Garcia put us in that disgusting place in Miami that I had to get us out of.

[Dan Bernstein]

Oh, that's right.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Remember with, like, the. All the cigar, you know, burns on everything? Your cigarette burns.

[Dan Bernstein]

Jacksonville was like the King's Court.

[Matt DiCutalola]

King's Inn.

[Dan Bernstein]

King's Inn. And we ended up the front desk guy was behind bulletproof glass. Oh.

[Matt DiCutalola]

And the guy came out with a gun.

[Dan Bernstein]

And we checked. Well, no, that's when we. We said, can we check into, like, can we look at one room? So we got Doug's room.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Blood stains.

[Dan Bernstein]

And there was. Eight of us went into Doug's room, and it was terrible.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Yeah. The TV was smashed out.

[Dan Bernstein]

Walked out of Doug's room, and the guy was on the balcony cleaning his gun from the room next to us.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Correct. And the cop rolled up and said.

[Dan Bernstein]

Get out of here. That he was in the parking lot. We pulled in, he said, what are you guys doing here? Yeah, we're like, we're here from Chicago. We're checking in. And he's like, well, I wouldn't stay here. We're like, well, what do you mean? He's like, well, we just recently. This place recently reopened. We closed it down because it was a crack house and a house of prostitution. Yep. So he's like, y', all. Y' all should find somewhere else to stay tonight.

[Matt DiCutalola]

We went three exits up, and we found the Super Not Super 8 motel.

[Ben Johnson]

No.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Yeah, Super 8.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, Super 8. That was. Well, we did the Waffle House first.

[Matt DiCutalola]

And then we went to the Super 8.

[Dan Bernstein]

And you got into my. My bag and pulled out my bottle of Captain Morgan. And you were drinking in the back seat.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Out of the bottle.

[Dan Bernstein]

Out of the bottle.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Correct. It's a great night at Waffle House.

[Dan Bernstein]

You may have finished it.

[Matt DiCutalola]

I did not.

[Dan Bernstein]

There was enough consumed, though.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Oh, it was plenty consumed. Yeah.

[Dan Bernstein]

But I was Waffle House. There was the fight that broke out. Yeah.

[Matt DiCutalola]

And I wanted to finish my toast.

[Dan Bernstein]

You ordered a second plate of toast.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Yes.

[Dan Bernstein]

And Terry and I were waiting and you guys left and you were literally in the middle of the two tables that were fighting.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Correct.

[Dan Bernstein]

Eating your toast.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Yes. Yeah. I don't debate a single fact. And do you remember where I found the place to work out that I was going crazy? Because I didn't. We were at a, you know, a Super 8 motel, and I had no place to exercise. The owner of the motel gave me the tab off his car keys. The actual owner of the motel, who was going by the desk.

[Dan Bernstein]

I don't remember this.

[Matt DiCutalola]

And it was at Gold's Gym, a couple exits up.

[Dan Bernstein]

Oh, that's right. Yeah, that's right. I remember being a funny. Gold's Gym, that you were gonna go lift a lot of weights.

[Matt DiCutalola]

He said, yeah, so he said, I'm a member there. Use my personal membership.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, it was great.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Yeah.

[Dan Bernstein]

I thought you were gonna bulk up, go into Gold's Gym.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Yeah, I should have gotten a little steroids on the.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah. Jacksonville's a shithole, though.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Oh, it's disgusting. Yeah.

[Dan Bernstein]

So he's not wrong about it being a small market team. I like.

[Matt DiCutalola]

I just appreciate Sean Payton said, you know, one of those. He invoked the president and referred to one of those shithole cities instead of shithole countries.

[Dan Bernstein]

Right.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Then what's Liam Cohen gonna say? Jacksonville is not a.

[Dan Bernstein]

And isn't. It wasn't by land mass, like one of the largest cities in the U.S.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Oklahoma City, I believe.

[Dan Bernstein]

I think Jacksonville's up there, though.

[Matt DiCutalola]

It might be. All they did was keep an eye on.

[Dan Bernstein]

There's a lot of nothing.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Yeah, I think Oklahoma City by area really is the largest city.

[Dan Bernstein]

Let's see. Let's see real quick.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Jacksonville might be on that, but I. But I think it was Oklahoma City. Just because they're. Their borders just kept. Cause there's no real suburbs. Everything is just Oklahoma City. They don't have other municipalities around the outside, Round the outside, round the outside.

[Dan Bernstein]

All right, well, we Were both wrong. There's four cities in Alaska that are the largest. Yeah, I know, but no Jacksonville. So outside of Alaska, Jacksonville is number one. So number five.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Maddie.

[Dan Bernstein]

Anaconda, Montana.

[Matt DiCutalola]

What?

[Dan Bernstein]

Butte, Oklahoma City is eight.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Okay.

[Dan Bernstein]

So of the non Alaska cities, Oklahoma City is four. So we're both pretty good.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Pretty good. Not bad.

[Dan Bernstein]

Pretty good. Houston and Phoenix.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Realize Phoenix was there also been there for Super Bowls.

[Dan Bernstein]

Both cities.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Yep.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah. Houston was fun. Outside of the traffic. Houston was a good time. That's. Remember, I was walking around from our hotel and I found the Coors Light City. The inflatable Coors Light City.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Yes. That's also when we were hanging out with that really hot, nice hooker.

[Dan Bernstein]

Okay, first, listen, let's not say we were hanging. We weren't hanging out with it. We were. You and I were sitting at the bar. Yeah, let's don't say we either.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Well, no, she was just. She was there working.

[Dan Bernstein]

I know. She was next to you and you. Strike. Started up a conversation with her.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Absolutely stunning woman. And she.

[Dan Bernstein]

I just like. Let's just phrase it correctly. So we weren't hanging out with her, nor were we talking with her. Yeah, we were.

[Matt DiCutalola]

I was.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yes.

[Matt DiCutalola]

And she said, I'm in town for the Super Bowl. And I said, oh, really?

[Dan Bernstein]

What do you. What kind of work do you do?

[Matt DiCutalola]

And she said, I'm friends with some of the players.

[Dan Bernstein]

And then you're like, oh, you're a hooker.

[Matt DiCutalola]

No, I didn't. I said. I just nodded.

[Dan Bernstein]

Oh, you're a lady of the night.

[Matt DiCutalola]

I understand. I see you're friends with some of the players. Yeah. Okay, cool.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah.

[Matt DiCutalola]

This. Yeah, we're all.

[Dan Bernstein]

We say things.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Eating nachos.

[Dan Bernstein]

Well, again, we weren't eating nachos. You and I were eating nachos.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Yeah. Yeah, we're good nachos, too. It's good.

[Dan Bernstein]

Was that like a Ruby Tuesday?

[Matt DiCutalola]

No, it was a Mexican joint.

[Dan Bernstein]

No, it was. It was a chain.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Nope, nope.

[Dan Bernstein]

It was. It was.

[Matt DiCutalola]

No, nope.

[Dan Bernstein]

The Mexican joint was the place we ate at every night. The late night plates. We filled, the table of food.

[Matt DiCutalola]

That's different. That was the World Series. Different trip. That was Rucci's. That's the World Series. This was also a Mexican joint. Right next to that little hotel where we were.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, that was the World Series. Are you sure that wasn't a Ruby Tuesday?

[Matt DiCutalola]

I'm positive.

[Dan Bernstein]

They're not confusing Bourbon A with Houston.

[Matt DiCutalola]

You're thinking of the Bourbonnet Ruby Tuesday where we drank them out of estancia. Pinot Noir. Yes, I remember. The bottles.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, I know. Yes. Within.

[Matt DiCutalola]

I think it was like. Was it two night? Two nights, I think.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, we. We cleared them out.

[Matt DiCutalola]

We drank all of their estancia. Pinot Noir. Yeah.

[Dan Bernstein]

I could have sworn that was a Ruby Tuesday or like a chain place.

[Matt DiCutalola]

No, no, it was some local. It might have been a local chain. Yeah, but it was not a. Like a chain.

[Dan Bernstein]

I thought it was like a national.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Yeah.

[Dan Bernstein]

You sure it was like a chili?

[Matt DiCutalola]

Positive. I'm positive. It was something low. There might have been, you know, three or four. No, no, it was a local Mexican place. It was like Casa del Noche or something.

[Dan Bernstein]

It was Casa de hookers.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Casa of really hot hooker. But it was. No, the food was good. The bar was good. I remember that. Yeah. And then there was the one night that Terry didn't go to bed.

[Dan Bernstein]

That's Miami, wasn't it? That was Miami. That was the Miami super bowl. When he ended up at the Pink Pony with Team Lodge.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Well, there was another one in Jacksonville where he was. Wasn't with you? Oh, I don't remember that he was there.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, he was with Brian in Miami.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Well, yeah, Brian's just a walking problem. That was. He just sort of showed up there as a chaos agent. That dude, that was. That was like the guy. Do you remember in Boogie Nights when Scott shows. Is it Scott? The guy played by Thomas Jane? The guy with the mustache?

[Dan Bernstein]

I don't. I've seen. I saw it once.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Oh, once?

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah. Oh, fuck you. You've never even seen some of the classics of American film.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Jeez. Yeah, that was. That was good.

[Dan Bernstein]

Well, I know you're gonna get on me for not seeing Boogie.

[Matt DiCutalola]

I'm so pissed.

[Dan Bernstein]

You haven't seen. You haven't seen Christmas Story, Christmas Vacation, Miracle Rudy. Terrible.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Give you the overhand way.

[Dan Bernstein]

Sorry, that was a little aggressive. I apologize. Sorry about that.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Sorry. That's all good. I get stressed out by the holidays or something.

[Dan Bernstein]

No, I'm stressed out by the Bears moving the Hammond.

[Matt DiCutalola]

Is that what it is?

[Dan Bernstein]

Got me. I haven't slept in weeks.

[Matt DiCutalola]

All right, well, let's wrap it. That is forward progress. Is it? It is. And forward progress is. A Chicago Bears podcast. Forward progress has stopped. 10, 2, 19, 219.

[Dan Bernstein]

Forward progress. A Chicago Bears podcast with Dan Bernstein and MattDiCutalola on 312 Sports.