B (3:18)
What is going on everybody? John Middelkopf three and Out Podcast. A little Black Friday edition obviously brought to you by my friends at Zone Pouches. Here's the deal. We're going to react. We just watched the Chicago Bears are 9 and 3. They have a better record than the Philadelphia Eagles. Ben Johnson has just solidified his candidacy for coach of the year right there with Mike Vrabel. We'll talk about that. What a game plan today. Ran it down Tangio's throat. Just physically dominated the Eagles. Philly's just in a free fall, lost two games now in the last five days. Obviously the epic meltdown last week and just kind of got work today so that they got problems. We will dive into that. And if you're listening to this on Saturday, the the Lane Kiffin saga could be over. So I'll touch on that at the end. But I my prediction, what I'm rooting for with my brain and a little differently with my heart, but hopefully everyone had a good Thanksgiving, is having a good Black Friday, having a great weekend, enjoying some football and you guys know the drill. Subscribe never miss anything on YouTube, subscribe to the YouTube page, subscribe to the podcast and we got you covered. So I appreciate all you guys. But before we dive in, you know I gotta tell you about my friends, my partners and the official tailing app of this podcast, Game Time Game Times. The best ticketing app I've ever used by far, bar none. No close second. It doesn't get any easier if you want to go to an NFL game, if you want to go to a college football game, if you want to go to any event, you just type in the event you type in the team, they have NFL tickets for as low as $100. There are no hidden fees. So the number you see, they have tickets as low as a hundred bucks. If you see that number, that is the price you pay at checkout. There isn't these added fees and service fees when you check out like all these other apps, not how game time rolls. So take the guesswork out of buying pro football tickets with GameTime. Download the GameTime app. Create an account. Use code John for $20 off your first purchase terms apply again create an account and redeem the code johed for $20 off. Swipe, tap Ticket. Go download the Game Time app today. I didn't expect that. You know, I took the Bears reluctantly as a, as a touchdown underdog. And I said coming into this game I was expecting weird. Now I didn't know what weird was, but there weren't many outcomes that I couldn't envision. I gave a somewhat tongue in cheek but I was like, I envision. I could see the bears being up 10, three in the first half and everyone at the league link booing and that actually happened, right? And one thing with the Eagles consistently through this season, their offense just sputters. And in the first half, you know, the Bears ran for almost 150 yards. It's 10 to 3 and it honestly felt like 25 to nothing. And I think two coaches this year, you know, sometimes in a hiring cycle, you know, you just never know. And everyone felt pretty confident like Ben Johnson and Mike Vrabel. Now Mike Vrabel had a resume. He turned the Tennessee Titans, who, let's face it, are kind of a joke franchise. I mean it's going to be a lot more difficult than it should be for them to get a credible coach that they are not a well run operation. They stink. Yet he turned them into the number one seed with Ryan Tanhill. Look at him now. He has the Patriots in position to compete for the number one seed. But with Ben Johnson, we have seen so many guys and I for every McVay, for every Kyle, for every Matt LaFleur, you just never know. There, there are a lot of Pat Shermers and Ben McAdoos and guys that just like this is not gonna work. And Ben Johnson immediately had taken a franchise that hadn't just fallen on hard times, had become, become kind of a joke and has them nine and three. They just beat the Eagles on Black Friday. They ran for 280 yards. The craziest stat today is that they had I clicked off the the box score Here was the first downs. They had 28 first downs today. In contrast, the Philadelphia Eagles had 14. They doubled the amount of first downs. They were 10 of 17 on third down. They were running plays today on the touchdown pass that Caleb threw to Cole Comet in the end zone, which was just an awesome pass. I mean that's why it's like, yeah, he's got number one overall physical freak elite traits like, and that's a Trait that, you know, sometimes you wish. The crazy part about those two quarterbacks today is like Jalen, I don't give a shit what his stats are. He has not played well this year. The offensive coordinator clearly is not doing a good job. The offensive line has not played well and Jalen has just been extremely erratic. But Jalen is actually pretty calm in the pocket. You know, for a guy who's, when you watch him, feels all over the map as a player. He's not a frenetic player. He's actually, I feel like he's very, very, he's just very calm. Meanwhile, Caleb can be very frenetic and I think it leads to some of his poor passes on what should be for NFL standards. And a guy with his talent like lay up throws, he can be pretty inaccurate, but he can also make plays like that. But on that play it could have been a first down, multiple spots. He could have dumped it to DeAndre Swift who would have walked for a first down. He could have screamed at DeAndre, turned around, start blocking and Caleb could have ran for a first down. Or he had come at. Now only less than half the league could physically make that pass running full sprint to his left. But there were three different options that were going to work. And that's what happened all day long. And we talked about this on this Monday night game is when Dave Canales gave his. I don't want to call him a star, but he was having a high level season and he has had star moments in games this year. Rico Dowdle. Rico Dowdle. And he was averaging in that game like six yards to carry and he had six carries. It's like that, that can't happen. And I've had some people DM me. Do you think some of these young coaches are inclined to throw it because they grew up playing Madden? And this guy used an example with Kevin o'. Connell. And I say no, a lot of Kevin o' Connell played quarterback in the NFL. Like he was drafted into the NFL. It's just in your wiring who you are as a coach. And I think a lot of times it's at some point in time in your playing career or in your young coaching career, you have a mentor that you kind of look up to and that's what you gravitate that you want to play like. And if you look at Ben Johnson, I've been calling him the Midwest. Kyle Shanahan today is a great example. His two, they ran it 47 times. Now a couple of those are probably Caleb scrambles, but his two running backs, Manungi, who's. I didn't know much about this guy, had 22 carries for 130 yards. DeAndre Swift had 18 carries for 125 yards. His two backs had 40 carries for basically 250 yards and two touchdowns. Most of these coaches will not do that because they won't keep calling the run. You're like, john, well, it was working. It works all the time in these other games. And the coach like, well, we're going to call pass now. And it's just over and over and over. Ben Johnson dials up another run play, and he's one of the best run schemers in the league. And I don't know if it's the influence of being around Dan Campbell, if it was in him before he ever got his opportunity to be an offensive coordinator, but he's elite at his job, like, just as an offensive coordinator, let alone what he's doing as a head coach and just instilling some. I don't know if it's confidence, belief, energy into this franchise, into the city, but as an offensive coordinator, he was so good in Detroit. You just never know when a guy goes from being the offensive coordinator to now the head coach, slash, offensive coordinator. You're just dealing with so much more. He hasn't skipped a fucking beat. And if you would have told me this morning, when I'm eating my mashed potatoes, stuffing multiple servings of turkey, it was just. I was stuffing my face. I mean, I did a pretty good job on Thanksgiving. I melted today that Caleb Williams would go 17 of 36 for 4.3 yards a target and throw one touchdown and have a bad pick that would help the Eagles get into the red zone. I would have been like, eagles are going to win by 10. Meanwhile, the Bears cruise to a victory. And listen, Caleb had his moments where he was solid, and he does a good job getting him on the move. Like, Ben Johnson's doing a good job with Caleb, and Caleb has proven he's even an accurate passer, and it just doesn't matter. And obviously, you're going into Philadelphia. They're coming off this devastating loss a little bit. Like, it's not like the Cowboys are right behind them, but they have enough momentum where it's like, we need to stop the bleeding here a little bit, you know, got the packers just one. Obviously the Rams are rolling. Like, we're still in position here to get the number one seed. Like, we got to take care of business. And it's like, we're going to come into Philadelphia on a day that looked freezing cold. The wind is pumping and we are going to run it down your throat. We are going to physically a team that I would say most people just on their roster go, they have a very physical team. AJ Brown, very physical player. They have a bunch of guys on defense that you would consider very physical players. Vic Fangio is an old school tough guy, defensive coordinator and Ben Johnson worked him up and down the field. And I listen every once in a while you get to a position where it's like with the mvp. I remember when I was a kid, Barry Sanders and Brett Favre split the mvp. I think Peyton Manning might have done it one year with. Was it Steve McNair? They split the MVP. I have no problem because what these two coaches are doing is just remarkable. I mean, the Patriots have had become an embarrassment before Vrabel showed up. And the Bears had been really, really bad for a really long time. And they were in a position last year right around this time. They were, I don't know, the butt of everyone's joke. And immediately, a year later, he has them nine and three and they're in a position that, I mean, today was a great moment where, listen, their defense has had moments where it hasn't looked good, but they have created a lot of turnovers and they. The Eagles are down 10, 3. A.J. brown. It was kind of a crazy drive. He get a late hit, which was a clear late hit on. On Jalen. So they get 15 yards, they get to midfield. Couple plays later, they hit AJ Brown on just a fantastic play. Like, okay, tight game. This thing's. We got a game here. They missed the extra point. Wasn't even close. A couple plays later, Caleb throws the interception. You're thinking, God, the Eagles are going to drive, take the lead here. Maybe they'll never look back. And what happens? They fumble, a tush push and then the Bears drive the field, score, and it's the ball game. And there's something, I don't want to say magical, but when you've been this bad and you start winning games like this, you kind of start feeling that. If you would ask me a couple weeks ago when I looked at the schedule and Eagles, Packers, Browns, Packers. What do you think the Bears would do during that stretch? I'd be like 1 and 3. Now I'm in the position to go. I think they could split with the packers and I definitely like them against the Browns. So could the Chicago Bears win this division? Hell yeah, they could. Do I do I think the packers are better, yeah, in theory, because of the history, because of the resume, because they have guys who have been there and done that. But I'm watching this Bears team, how well coached they are. I'm blown away. Like, you know where I stood at the beginning of the year on Caleb Williams, and still he's a roller coaster ride. But Ben Johnson's done an incredible job with him. His impact, when you just watch them on a series in, series out basis, the. The ease in which they get first downs on, like, third and four, third and five. Herb street said something. I was like, wait, did I hear that right? He said the average third down for the Eagles this year had been 38. The average third down has been third and eight. No wonder they lead the league in third and third, three and outs. Like, they're always in third and long and they don't have a good offense. Meanwhile, I'm watching the Bears, like, be the most efficient offense in the league. It's like every time they need something, boom. And they have a quarterback who's like, under 60% as a passer. So I just have the utmost respect for what Ben Johnson has done. If I'm a Bears fan, we had fallen on hard times. Our ownership had taken a lot of shit, but they opened up the checkbook. They paid this guy a lot of money. And listen, anytime you pay a coordinator a lot of money to be your head coach, I will continue to say this year in, year out, you never know. It's very risky. And this thing, the ROI on this, he's been worth every penny and more. It looks like one of the greatest hires in, like, the history of the franchise. If they were to win this division and they are clearly in position to do so, that would be. It would honestly be more impressive than what Vrabel has done in New England, just because he only has to deal with one team. I mean, they have to deal with the Lions. And even the Vikings have a ton of good players. You get the jets of the Dolphins. You know, it's. It's. Today was really, really impressive. That. That was. There was a moment too, that Greg Olson, he tweeted during the game because on the last couple drives, the Eagles are throwing into the wind. And Greg Olson, the former tight end who calls games for Fox, tweeted, philly is throwing into the wind because Chicago won the toss and took the ball. It's not random. Ben Johnson planned for the fourth quarter hours ago. And whenever you hear about assistant coaches who go on and they talk about their former boss or guys that work for Nick Saban or just high level coaches, you know, former guys that work for Belichick. They always talk about the details and how you have meetings, days leading up to the game, about wind direction, about if you're in college, the home, the student sections where you want to go into it or away from it. And details really matter. And when I see Ben Johnson, I see a detailed tough guy. And toughness isn't about like, you don't have to look like Mike Vrabel or Dan Campbell to be a tough guy. It's a mentality in which you play. The reason, you know the Dan Lanning video that went viral that I would imagine most people watching or are listening to this have seen. You don't fake toughness. And in football, like, toughness is created in practice by the mentality and the plays in which you run in practice. It's hard to be to develop a tough team when you're running four and five wide receiver sets because the physicality in the trenches is not required. But when I worked for Coach Hill at Fresno State, who had come from Belichick in Cleveland and had worked side by side with Kirk Forens as his assistant offensive line coach, it was an old school mentality. Tight end or multiple tight ends, a fullback running nine on seven drills, which is a running drill where everyone's chin strap is buckled. Everyone knows you're running and you're just running between the tackles. The D line knows that, the linebackers know it, the fullback and the running back knows it. And it sets a tone for the team. And Dan Lanning, essentially, I'll translate it, called USC and Lincoln Riley's program a bunch of. Because in their. In his mind, the way they play and what they show on tape is soft. He never would have said that about the Pete Carroll teams. Because Pete Carroll up until this year, his mentality was always defense and run game because that creates toughness. Like, obviously the Bears have had some injuries up front, but what do you think they practice against every single day? Why do you think they weren't that scared of the Tush push? What do you think Ben Johnson's calling in practice run plays. So it creates a physicality and a mentality and a mindset that when you're playing on the road in Philly, in a cold game and in a wind pumping left to right, like, whatever, we have tough practices with this guy. And I just think you can't fake that. And Dan Landing didn't have to fake what he said to his team because he knew they were tougher. Why he's a defensive guy. He comes from Kirby Smart. Lincoln Riley's a Mike Leach guy, Rip, and I respect the shit out of Mike Leach, but Mike Leach wasn't a tough guy. He wanted to score a lot of points. Never wanted to run the ball. And I just think when you watch the Bears, there's a toughness to their team because of the way the coach calls plays. That's why I call him the Midwest. Kyle Shanahan, like Kyle Shanahan is not winning a fight against most people in a bar. But his teams historically have been really, really tough because of the way they practice. He's not calling five wide receiver sets in practice. They don't have those plays. He's putting a tight end and a fullback and getting downhill and running the ball and that toughens up the defense. No different than preparing for a UFC or a boxing match. When you spar and sometimes sparring against an individual is probably a lot tougher than another individual. No different than practicing against certain teams is harder to practice against than others. I think it was the Lions this training camp that practices against the Dolphins. And dude on the Lions, like, yeah, I'm just not quite sure what they're doing over there because what do you think the Lions, if you've played for the Lions last couple years, what are you used to in practice? You're going up against Ben Campbell, you're going Dan Campbell's mindset, physicality up front running the ball. And the Bears just out tough the Eagles. And what's the Eagles issue this year? They can't run the ball. Now, part of that is offensive line injuries. And I think in theory they. It's not like they want to do anything different than last year. But you lose Becton, that's a big blow. They've had other injuries up front. Obviously Lane Johnson is out and you just have a drop off in physicality. And there were a couple of plays today. It's like they tried to run on one. I don't know if it was like an outside zone to the left. They give it to Saquon and there were two dudes like literally standing right in front of him when he got the ball, it's like he didn't even have a shot. So it's hard to even judge. Like Saquon lost a step every time they give him the ball. There's someone in the backfield. And here's the thing, a great offensive coordinator, even if he had a worse quarterback than Caleb I think they would have a winning record. He's doing that good of a job. Now. They do have. You know, Rome is a top 10 pick. How good he is, I mean, we could debate. Loveland is a very talented player. Comet got a second contract. He's a good tight end. D.J. moore is a guy that would start on every team in the NFL. I mean, they got. They are good skill guys. They have, obviously, a couple good running backs. Like, they got good players. But, you know, you watch the Eagles, and Menungi is good, obviously. Zacchaeus is actually kind of an interesting player. I mean, they got. They got. They got guys. So do the Eagles. And I think if you flip the offensive coordinator, and I'm not blaming on the offensive coordinator. I like, something's off with Jalen. And I've been saying this for a while. If you work with someone in a close capacity, I don't care what industry you're in, if you don't like them and that, like, it's like, hey, we're having success. We'll just deal with it eventually. That I don't really like this guy can go from. I can't stand looking at this guy. I. I don't respect this guy. It's hard to function. And I do think the Eagles got to a point with this situation with a Dre. It just got weird. You go, well, Johnny had two touchdowns today. I don't know. It's like, how many times can weird things be said during the week? It's like, oh, everything's fine on game day. Like that. That just has to carry over. That just has to impact somewhat of the practice. Even though I. I defend A.J. brown because I'm watching him, they like, that's an elite talent. So if I'm playing with a guy who I think should be playing better, and I don't think he's playing well enough. And I'm sure I'm telling the coaches, they tell me, just be quiet because he's the guy making 50 and I'm only making 25. Just keep your mouth shut. Be a team guy. Eventually I crack. Like, I actually support AJ in this situation because I'm watching Jalen. It's like, his offensive coordinator is clearly a downgrade from last year, but his quarterback's also not playing that well. And it's hard to call offensive plays when you have a poor offensive line. So it's like a combination of it all, and it clearly is not working. And the defense tried. It's 10, three at halftime. They had, like, two first downs in the first half, you get to the point, like, it's why there are bad teams in college, in the NFL all the time that have like through the first, let's say 60% of the season, have a high end defense. Eventually they just tap out if they're playing with a bad offense because it goes, what's the point? This is. This is not going to happen. Even if your offense is playing bad, but you're winning, like the Broncos, right? Throughout the last couple years, it's like, listen, it's worth it for us to, we're going to the playoffs. But you get to a point where you start looking around like, is this going to work? And then eventually just let your guard down for a minute. You lose focus. All of a sudden you're down multiple scores because the margin for error for your offense is just so small. And I don't know exactly who to blame. Like, Sirianni clearly is not as dynamic as some of these other coaches because he can't call offensive plays. But do I just think he knows nothing? No. Do I think that he's had a front row seat when Shane Siken was there and Kellen Moore was there? Same with Kevin Petula. Wouldn't they just call plays that work last year to work again this year? You would think. But obviously as personnel changes, you have to adapt. And is Jalen not adapting? Are they not capable of adapting as coaches? Whatever it is, it's not working. And I don't want to sound the alarm yet, but there are. It's like a higher level version of a couple years ago when they started, whatever was it 10 and 10 and 1 or 11 and 1 and they lost every game. And then they played the Bucks in the first round and got their ass kicked and then everyone got fired, like all their offensive staff. And then that was then they brought in Kellen Moore and won the Super Bowl. And you go, they've lost two straight games. They've lost, you know, the Cowboy game where they're up 21 nothing. They got their ass kicked today. They could have a couple of weeks ago lost the Lions. They beat the Packers 10 to 7 in one of the ugliest games you'll ever see. I mean, they have not been playing well. If we just look at the offense, 10 points against the Packers, 16 points against the Lions, 21 points against the Cowboys. But they didn't score in the second half and they had 15 points today. So it's safe to say something's way off. I mean, I'm no Math major, but they're averaging what, 13, 14 points over the last month. They're trending in the wrong direction. And the defense, like when you're in this 2025, if you're scoring 10 to 15 points a game, it's going to be very difficult. Like no one has the 85 bears anymore. You got to score some points. And if I'm Howie and Jeffrey, it's like well, paying AJ or paying Devontae Smith. We're paying Goddard, paying Sakewan a ton of money. Like we got to figure something out. And it doesn't feel like they're able to right now. Now the rest of their season they got. Next week they're playing the Chargers on what looks like to be Monday Night Football. So in la it's just a long trip. Then they get the Raiders at home, which to me has got weird game written all over it. Then they play the Commanders, who we think sucks, but you never know with divisional games at Buffalo after Christmas, which is going to be an ugly weather game, and then against the Commanders. So I do think it'd be pretty difficult. Even if Dallas were to run the table, they would be 11, 5 and 1. So the Eagles at 8 and 4 could only win three more games. I mean they got three wins on the schedule in theory, but something, something just feels off. I don't really know what to say beside something's off and you can band aid it when you're winning. They did. And now you get into a position the last couple weeks you're like it's. You can't hide it anymore. Meanwhile, the Bears have kind of played a similar game most of the year. Honestly, today was a much more dominant start to finish game than they usually play. Usually they have moments a little like the Eagles where they look a little weird and then come storming back in the second half. Yet today it's like they put pedal the metal. They had their foot on their throat. They're running five, six, seven yards to carry, dominating every third and three, third and four, first down, keep the chains moving. Jalen over there in a jacket, just looking forward, not talking to a soul. Incredible win. Today's show is brought to you by our new presenting sponsor, Hard Rock Bet. There are three things to be thankful for this week. Family, food, and you guessed it, football. Thanks to Hard Rock Bet, you can easily sneak in some bets while your crazy uncle goes on his annual rant. Sign up today and you could feast with 150 in bonus bets. Just place a five dollar bet if it hits, you not only get your winnings, but also a hundred and fifty extra in bonus bets. 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