Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - The Bears are bad, which is actually a good test for the Vikings

Episode Date: October 7, 2022

Matthew Coller and Will Ragatz of Sports Illustrated dig into the woes of the Chicago Bears and whether we expect the Vikings to blow them out. Part of that formula is pressure, which the Vikings haven't yet gotten from Danielle Hunter. Will he be coming along this year?  -- For more of Matthew's Vikings coverage, head to purpleinsider.substack.com For bonus discussions, interview clips, and more videos, check out our YouTube channel! Interact with us on Twitter! @Purple_Insider Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Purple Insider presented by Liquid Death. Go to liquiddeath.com slash insider and learn about the Tallboy can, which actually has water. Find out where you can get it near you at liquiddeath.com slash insider. Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here along with Sports Illustrated's Will Raggetts to give you your weekly hardcore Vikings and Bears preview. Let me ask you this to start the show, Will.

Who is the definitive bear of your lifetime? I'd say it's Brian Urlacher. Okay. Yeah, that's a good one. Yeah. I mean, it's been a little while since he was roaming the backfield there, but that's still who I think of for sure. When you go to Chicago, they have these billboards, and Brian Urlacher's on them with hair. Ah, yes, he is.

I actually saw him. I was at a bar in Kansas once. I guess he has a kid who goes to the University of Kansas. And he was just there. And I didn't realize up until seeing him in person right there that he had hair magically somehow. So I got to hit him up. Yeah, I wasn't going to make that joke. I don't know how sensitive you are about it.

But it's sort of funny, though, to see him because he was like that was his image was the bald guy. It's kind of like Drew Brees and Jason Witten's TV hair. Like, Drew, Drew, I've seen you up close. That's not your hair. Why are you doing this? We don't have to be embarrassed. I mean, my gosh. Anyway.

What a start to this podcast. The Jason Witten hair was the most absurd. It was just clearly pasted on. Like, is there a problem with a bald former football player on television like why did you want to do this anyway uh yeah i was thinking about that today just of of like definitive bears of the last like 30 years because if you go back farther even before my time it's like j Jim McMahon, Walter Payton, Richard Dent. Like they've just got a ton of amazing names, but it's been such a mixed mash of a franchise. Like Jay Cutler cannot

be your definitive bear, but I mean, can you have like Devin Hester, a returner, but he kind of is though a definitive bear. They've got a couple of running backs. Thomas Jones was one of them that was a great player for them for a long time. But there are very few players where you say, Charles Tillman, another one, where you would say, you just say bears and you're like, oh, that guy. I mean, even with Erlacher, you have to go back more than a decade to talk about his best times. And they still don't have any definitive bears. They have a quarterback they're not sure of.

That's a shock. They have a roster that's in flux, an ownership that seems confused. But, you know, a general manager who might or might not actually have a plan. It kind of seems like he does to tear them down and rebuild them. But there are so many times where the Vikings are playing this team where you're just like so what's going on with them anyway they're they're they're in a weird spot eh yeah I mean and and they're in a very very weird spot this year where we have no idea if Justin Fields is good it's it's looking kind of more like

he might not be I can't't be encouraging, at least, what we've seen or what Bears fans have seen from him through his rookie year and now into this year. But also, it's really, really, really hard to evaluate, is your second-year franchise quarterback good when he just has no pieces around him? And that's the part of the the ryan poles i was gonna say ryan pace for a second but the ryan poles plan that on the one hand it makes sense because it's a it's a terrible roster you should tear it down and rebuild and and that that part of it makes sense but but then when you have the the franchise qb like you're you're not putting him in an environment to grow like you can rebuild while still you know giving the guy

a few offensive linemen or a couple receivers or or something like that to help help foster his development in the right way and I mean just the numbers are absurd like when you look at this team's four game start no team in the last 40 years has had fewer than 35 pass completions through four games until this Chicago Bears team and all the passing EPA and DVOA. It's just it's hard to look at. And it just it's hard to know what to expect from from this team coming into this game. OK, I'm going to look this up. I want to see like what the worst Bears passing game ever was. I'm going to look that up as we talk to see what the worst Bears passing game ever was. I'm going to look that up as we talk. But looking at this roster, I have a lot of respect for committing to the bit.

Like, we are going to be bad, and let's go. Byron Pringle, Equinemius St. Brown. Like, these are just bodies that you're bringing in. They tried with Riley Reif reef that did not work. And somebody on a Chicago podcast that asked me to come on their show, they asked about like Riley reef and like, was I surprised that he's not playing? It's like, no. I mean, how old is Riley reef at this point? I mean, all of these like patchwork bad bets that this team has made because they really had no other choice. So they're picking up guys like Amir Smith-Marset.

Like, oh, maybe there's something there. Probably not, but let's just give it a try. And I think that for a long-term strategy that they have done the right thing. They have not locked themselves into anything, including Justin Fields because of the fact that they fired Ryan pace. Now Ryan polls can be like, I don't know, not my guy. I need this guy that we're going to draft. And this team is two and two, but they could very easily end up like three and 14 for the rest of the year because they have such a miserable roster and they could be drafting in the top five.

And if they pass up on one of those quarterbacks, I think it would probably be a huge mistake because I I'm ready to say already right now that they're showing they don't trust Justin Fields and they don't think it's going to work. Like if you're not even taking a chance at passing the football, you're basically saying like nah not our quarterback which I think is fine I mean we saw Arizona do that with Josh Rosen and just say like nope it's not gonna work and maybe the New York Jets should have done the same thing with Darnold after it was clear it wasn't going to work uh that to me is like the most interesting Bears storyline is just how they feel about Justin Fields and how they'll approach that position in the future. Are they going to give them a whole other year because they know they're not going to be good, but then you waste years of people's lives with a bad quarterback,

or is there any chance that he does turn it around? I feel like this right now would have to be one of the biggest turnarounds we've ever seen from the way Justin Fields has played so far, but I don't know what your take on that is yeah it would almost have to be like a Josh Allen type of player development thing which is really rare like people love to like I saw a tweet recently where it's like when you're bringing up the Josh Allen rookie stats to talk about your young quarterback he's probably terrible because that's like the one example where you can be like oh josh allen in his first two years did this and like he was bad and he turned into a really good quarterback and that just doesn't happen very often if ever like that is not a sustainable blueprint to follow so yeah it's weird because justin fields coming out to me looked like a really really good prospect and so i wonder

how much of of the way he's played so far has been going into a bad environment but that can't explain all of it like he's he's probably underperforming you make a good point that when you're not trusting him to throw the ball at all i mean they they had their first game this past week their fourth game their first time completing double digit passes in a game congratulations it's so it was their big aired out game and he had 11 completions it's just so ridiculous to me and you're right this team is two and two but they're one of the three worst teams in the league i think and i don't think that's really in question like their first game was against the 49ers in a monsoon

they had 200 total yards of offense the Niners just happened to have like 12 penalties and some other weird stuff went on and then they beat the Texans when Justin Fields had like 70 passing yards and they were just able to run it all over Houston and barely pull out a win in that game like the Vikings and we'll talk more about this matchup but the Vikings the expectation should be to do to this Bears team what the Packers did in week two, which was they beat them 27 to 10. It could have been even a more lopsided scoreline than that. Like, I think there's real concern if you're the Vikings, if this game's even close at any point in the fourth quarter, like this should be the opportunity to come out, fix some of the things that that have

that have been problems during the last two wins which there's a lot to fix even from from two wins and kind of put a performance together and and blow this team out like that should be the expectation if the Vikings are who who they say they are is the big question here is like is this the one per year or is the one per year thing gone i mean with mike zimmer you could just lock it in at some point we're gonna have a game where we say you should not lose to this football team or you're not good and then they lose to that football team and end up not being that good uh we can name them mean, the Buffalo game in 2018 is kind of the like, oh, OK, things aren't as different as we thought they were going to be. You know, you had last year the Detroit Lions, of course, beating them. I mean, there's examples all over.

Chase Daniel beating the Vikings in Chicago when that team wasn't very good either in 2019. I did find the worst Bears offense of the last two decades the 2004 bears tell me if you've heard of any of these quarterbacks chad hutchinson craig krenzel jonathan quinn you heard of those guys i think i've heard of chad hutchinson he was the former former jet i want to say um i think well he may have played for the jets in his journey. No, that's Chad Pennington. Yeah. That's Chad Pennington. That's actually good.

That's somebody else. My bad. Chad Hutchinson, uh, played for Dallas and then Chicago. And in 2004, their quarterbacks combined for a 61 quarterback rating. They were sacked 66 times through nine touchdowns in the whole season and 16 interceptions.

And I will give you the kicker to this story, which is Chad Hutchinson, who went one and four, won one game. Who was it against? Minnesota Vikings. Minnesota Vikings. Amazing. And he threw three of the nine touchdowns in that game against an 0-4 Vikings. That was a house. And Dante Culpepper was playing MVP football.

And somehow Chad Hutchinson won a game with three touchdowns against the Vikings. This man was sacked 23 times in five games. Oh, my God. Craig Krenzel was a good Ohio State quarterback, but he threw three touchdowns, six picks, and somehow won three games with them. And this Bears offense so far is basically on pace with that 2014. Yes. Yeah, they were 32nd in the NFL in passing or in points. This team is 31st at this moment.

But going back to the question, there have been so many times with the bears where we're like they're bad they don't know what they're doing they're kind of a mess and then they give the vikings a game or they beat the vikings will that happen this time it shouldn't no i mean the thing about the bears for a while recently they actually had some decent teams um but under matt negate went to the playoffs at least one of the double doink It might have been a couple times. But they had the defense. They had a formula, right, where they had Akeem Hicks in the middle and other big guys and Khalil Mack and good linebackers.

The defense was good, and the offense with Mitch Trubisky or Chase Daniel or whoever was good enough and could move the football a little bit. And that gave the Vikings a lot of problems, especially at Soldier Field, which has been a house of horrors for them. But this Bears team doesn't have any of that, really. Like Hicks is gone, Mack's gone. They still have Roquan Smith and Robert Quinn and Eddie Jackson

and a few playmakers on defense. Like the defense, I think, is around the middle of the league, which is maybe more impressive when you consider that the offense has been as abysmal as it has been. But the Vikings should be able to move the ball and score on this defense. And then offensively, if Ed Donatel and his unit give up 20 points to this Bears team, what are you doing? I mean, they're averaging 97 passing yards a game which is just absurd they're they're running the ball 62 of the time like there is one thing that you have to do against this team and it is take away the running game and they don't even have david montgomery they're on their backup khalil herbert and and justin fields can run it as well if you are able to

slow the running game down and try to make justin fields beat you like barring some miracle surprise it's it's not gonna happen so i mean i i i should be careful with what i say because this is the minnesota vikings you're right we i it's a good thing that you know we say you it we say it can always get worse. Like, you shouldn't say it can't get worse with the Minnesota Vikings because it can or this can't happen because it can. But, man, if they get beat, like, or if this game's even close, like, that's just not a good sign at all. It's really not.

And I don't think it will be. So far, I have gone four for four predicting this team. And spoiler, I'm going to pick the Vikings. We both have. Yeah. And I'm assuming we're going to be on the same page with this one. And I looked this up yesterday, even like when the Vikings have a big advantage in terms of the Vegas line of playing Chicago, as weird as their history is, they have lost. I think one time for games that they had a bigger Vegas line than like six and a half, which means you're way better than the other team. It's interesting.

Ali Connolly, who's a really good football analyst. He just tweeted out just as we're talking about this, it's time to be concerned about Justin Fields. And I think he's exactly right and when you see the fact that they will not really um lean into him at all in a situation where they have every reason to and like these receivers are bad but it's not like they're not nfl receivers like equinemius st brown byron pringle like these guys are playing on looney is

fine supposed to be decent must be the number one mean, he is the number one. And to not, and especially when you're running an offense that's supposed to be built on kind of bootlegs and playing off the play action, those sometimes don't really require the greatest receivers. I mean, it's always helpful to have Justin Jefferson, but a lot of times it's like crossing routes and things like that. It's things that a lot of receivers could do and potentially get open. And the fact that he can't get them the ball, there's another part of it too, that I wonder about, and this could end up being like old takes exposed. I don't know in the long run, but you just don't see like a will from him, like a resilience, like a desperation to win, like a leadership. And this is just from watching on television,

like everybody else and covering the game from last year. But you see some of the physical skill and talent, but the other parts of it that like, I'm going to dive for the touchdown or I'm going to like force my team to find a way. That was what you did see in Josh Allen. And I also think the comparison of physical tools, like Allen has an all time arm and he's six foot six. And just like, that's different in the things that he can do. And also fields doesn't seem to really want to lean into the running game. Like Josh Allen, I can call this up because everyone loves to use that example. When a quarterback is bad, as you said, But his running was incredibly good from the very start. And I haven't really seen even that part of it with Justin Fields either. Yeah, I mean, he can do it.

I think his first two games were pretty slow with the run. He's averaged about seven carries for 50 yards the last couple weeks. But he's not a Josh Allen level threat with his legs he's not Jalen Hurts he's obviously not like a Lamar Jackson Kyler Murray type of speedster he's supposed to be kind of the in-between where he has he has the legs but he also has a little bit of you know a sturdier build like a Hurts or Allen but I mean nobody's built like Josh Allen that dude is a monster so yeah that part of it is going to present an issue. Jalen Hurts ran for two touchdowns on the Vikings in week two, but the fact that

they've already had that experience I think probably helps. It's not their first time going up against a running quarterback. And then what also helps is Jalen Hurts is playing out of his mind right now throwing the football and has a great offensive line and has great receivers, and Justin Fields does not have that. So you can lock in a little bit more on, like, when he does an RPO or zone read or whatever. We're going to focus on him and focus on the run, and we're going to assume that they're not going to beat us through the air

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particular. So go get Liquid Death at wherever you do your grocery shopping, 7-Eleven, Hy-Vee, wherever it might be, or check out where you can find it at their store locator tool at liquiddeath.com slash insider. That is liquid death.com slash insider. As an old, I could tell you that didn't even happen when I was growing up. I mean, if you like maybe the Pittsburgh Steelers, when they had like Neil O'Donnell and Bubby Brister or something that they would do it and they'd run Bam Morris all the time but that's pretty unusual yeah the running the running element I just looked at a comparison between Allen and Fields it's really nowhere close like Allen's first two years he had 17 combined touchdowns running the ball last year Justin Fields ran for 420 yards and two touchdowns. Like it's, it just has not been a scary element of him because I think he doesn't know

what to do. Like there's so many times where I watched the guy and he, I just think he doesn't know what to do. Do I run here? Do I cut it loose? Do I throw it fast? Do I throw it slow? Do I go through my reads?

Do I not? And by the second year, that is not something you should be seeing. So I think that, um, in, in this game in particular, if we're kind of like going micro and then macro on this, the micro element of it is do not get run over because you can lose this game if you get run over. And I mean, even though the score was pretty well separated at the end between the Packers and bears, uh, they actually may have scored a touchdown in that game that would have kept it closer, but it was ruled not a touchdown.

They were very close. They had an entire drive where all they did was just run, run, run, run, run. So they clearly have a very good running plan. And if there's one reason I think that the Saints came back in the game last week, it was because all of a sudden Latavius Murray started breaking off big runs and that kind of opened up a lot of opportunities. I think this defense is still a little soft when it comes to how they play against the run.

And then it, then it becomes on fields to just make a few good plays. You have to make him make lots of good plays with, by being able to slow down the run. Why do you think it is that they have not been able to stop the run effectively? Like they've got people that they signed Harrison Phillips for this. Delvin Tomlinson is like one of the top graded defensive tackles in the whole league right now. I mean, I really can't pinpoint exactly what the issue is. Yeah, I think I mean, some of it is just the scheme like the donatel fangio scheme kind of invites the run we've talked about this like when you're running too high

safeties a lot and you're trying to keep everything in front of you and make people sustain long drives and then just chunk by chunk and hope they make a mistake that's kind of part of the philosophy of it that that opens the run up a little bit like they're they're not stacking the box with with seven or eight guys um but yeah they have the personnel I mean Harrison Phillips has been playing really well Dalvin Tomlinson's been playing really well Kendrickson Hicks have played pretty well against the run I think some of it has been like not really setting edges very well uh and Daniel Hunter is usually good at that, and Zedaria Smith can do that.

But, I mean, there's times when it's Pat Jones and DJ Wanham in there that hasn't been as good. I mean, and they're also rotating Phillips and Tomlinson, right? So they're not playing the full game. And when you have Jonathan Bullard and James Lynch in there, it has not been pretty at all. So, I mean, the Vikings just signed a guy this week, Kyrus Tonga, who is a former Chicago Bear, but the dude's like 340 pounds.

I just saw him at practice yesterday. He's a large individual. Like it wouldn't stun me to see him thrown out there for 10 snaps this week. Maybe that's getting ahead of things, but like if you have a true nose tackle in the middle that's how you that's how three fours are kind of meant to be operated and then i mean harrison phillips has been playing well at nose tackle but the dude's like 310 pounds and like athletic like he he kind of fits the prototype of a good run defending uh three four defensive end like what

dalvin thompson's playing this year so if you could put Tonga in the middle and put those two guys next to him and maybe start to bring start to change up a little bit maybe have one high safety and start to bring Harrison Smith kind of creeping towards the box a little bit like I'll be curious to see what adjustments they make this week because there's no reason to just keep doing the exact same thing when this team is so clearly trying to run the football and that's the one thing they want to do it's the one thing they can do like successfully okay several thoughts off of that i totally agree with that point that if they play harrison smith

deep over the top again and i think it was even a little questionable at times last week where you're like come on is andy dalton beating you deep like probably not um against rogers and hurts yes right but but if you're not doing it this week then that then you are just committed to that and that's what you're going to do and i think we do question it uh if they give up a lot on the run game if they're going to play the safety back and not bring him up to the box because mike Zimmer, it was very much week to week. Like we didn't know what Harrison Smith was going to do. And the other team didn't either, which I thought caused a lot of problems for opposing teams that would try to prepare for Harrison Smith and then not know where he was going to be. If he was going to blitz all those things.

I mean, he would line up like every edge in the a gap, like in the like a linebacker deep all over the place in the slot. There certainly is a question here to say, why did you keep Harrison Smith? If you were going to use them like this? I mean, that's a lot of money in the, in the salary cap. They reworked his whole contract.

I'm certain a hundred percent certain other football teams would want Harrison Smith. If you're playing a system that can have cam Bynum and Josh Metellus play deep safety over the top, you're certainly spending a lot of money on a guy and not utilizing him to his fullest, but that's, that's a different point. And I was also going to bring up that Ed Donatel said Tonga is built like a square, which I thought was great. Reminded me of Brett Jones, squatty Jones squatty body there are guys who get compared to fire hydrants it's just the the meaty boys was last year that the two Michael Pierce and Delvin Tomlinson the meaty boys so yeah football coaches say say some funny things sometimes

that's just he's built like a square they could use some square energy in the middle of their defensive line. So that's not, that's not a bad thing. But the thing you brought up was something I'd really like to discuss, which is Daniil Hunter. Because all throughout the off season, we were like, and this happens all the time with reporters and coaches are like, so this thing you're doing with Hunter, is that going to work? And they're like, what?

What? What? Of course it is. What do you guys know? What is this, your first day on Earth? And we're like, okay, I don't know. He's never done this before, but sure, I guess you're right. And then we're four games in, and it's like, what?

Give him time. It's a big adjustment. Didn't I tell you that? Like, no. But I think it's really interesting though with Hunter because it's only, this is only two things. It's either the injuries have added up and it's not the same guy or the system isn't really working for a Daniel Hunter so far. And then that goes into two other routes of will it ever work, yes or no?

And I guess what do we think that that might be? Yeah, it's hard to know, I mean, without talking to Daniil Hunter, who I don't know that we've spoken to this season. Not in the regular season yet, yeah. Yeah. Like it's hard to know how he's feeling, although he would never say like, oh, yeah yeah man these the injuries are limiting me like so that would that wouldn't help any anyways but like the only like

real piece of speculation we can have from watching him is that the scheme is is just affecting him and affecting his production because he was so so good as this 4-3 hand in the dirt just go against the tackle every time this defensive end and he had 14 and a half sacks and back-to-back years and just physically dominant great run defender and all these things and now it's like if you look at the pff grades they still like what he's done and so there is there is merit to that but just the raw pressure numbers i was looking at this the other day are just wildly low by daniel hunter standards like he has eight pressures through four games that's the fewest he's had in a four game span where he's been healthy

since his rookie season i was looking back through all of his games where to see how many pressures he's had and there's like four games in his entire career since his rookie year from 2016-21 there's like four games where he was healthy and had one pressure or fewer he's done that in two of the four games this year so that alone is just kind of eye-popping and it's not like this it's been this drastic drastic change where they have him dropping into coverage and doing all these weird things like he's still generally on passing downs almost always rushing the quarterback but he's doing it from different alignments sometimes he's standing up sometimes he's like ask getting asked to like go against a tight end briefly and go from a really wide angle and then try to get to the quarterback

and just takes time when quarterbacks are going to be able to get the ball out and just his responsibilities have been slightly different and another big thing the Vikings aren't blitzing nearly as much and that's kind of a whole part of this at Don tell discussion is it's been kind of confusing to me that they haven't brought more pressure especially when you're going against guys like Andy Dalton and Jared Goff where they can get really bothered by pressure and there just hasn't been a lot of blitzes they've just been kind of content to sit back and that's one thing this week like Justin Fields is a young quarterback confidence can't be particularly high right now with the way the season started like go after him and when you blitz other people like you're sending

linebackers or DBs or whoever it is or you just you just bring in more that helps the Daniel Hunter and Z'Darrius Smiths because teams can't double them when you're sending six or seven guys at them. So I think that's been part of it. He's gotten some double teams. He's also gone against three really good right tackles, which is definitely part of the equation. Ryan Ramchick, Panay Sewell, Lane Johnson.

Those are three top ten, if not top five guys at the position but I saw people saying that and kind of being like oh don't worry about it there those are great right tackles well Daniel Hunter's supposed to be and has been in the past a really elite pass rusher so I wouldn't just I think it's almost disrespectful to Hunter to just write it off and say oh and he's against these really good right tackles yeah of course he's not going to do anything he should be winning some of those reps too. Yep. And so it's been weird to see him not kind of popping both live and on film the way he has for his whole career when he's healthy.

And I thought Ed Donatell said something kind of strange. Like he was talking about like, oh, if you ask Daniil. And also, Daniil is a very available player, so I don't want to make it sound like like he's not it's just you meant to the podium yeah so i just want to make that clear like he's usually very accommodating for media stuff but uh he was saying well if you ask daniel he's very happy not to be like sandwiched between a tackle and a tight end anymore but i also think that like from that three-point stance or whatever um i also think that a lot of times they would do things that would allow him to get matched up with tight ends.

And there's probably 20 tweets that I have over the years that were like, Why would you block Daniel Hunter with a tight end? Yes, and I know why. Because that's how the protection had to be shifted. So he would end up with that matchup because Mike Zimmer was playing mind games with the opposing offense. And the thing about Mike Zimmer's defense is they almost always got a ton of sacks. I mean, last year, I think they were number two or three in the whole league in sacks. We're not seeing that this year.

We're seeing them rush for almost all the time, which really allows the other team to figure out exactly what they want to do against that like when they're not confused at who you're bringing in from where as much as as zadarius smith does move around at times it seems to be mostly on third downs that he's moving around which opponents prepare for and expect so there isn't a whole lot of confusion about what's going to happen so they can do exactly what they want to do with hunter the one concerning stat to to me is Seth Walder from ESPN puts out, he's a great follow on Twitter, like a lot of really cool charts because charts are cool. And one of them was the double teams, how often defensive ends are getting double teamed.

And Hunter was one of the least in the NFL so far, which is because of those right tackles. If you have Penesul, you don't need any help for Penny Sewell, but that one, the fact that the attention is going to another guy and away from Hunter, and he's still not winning this way. I think it goes under the category of things that make you go, Hmm, not necessarily, Oh, this is, this is he's screwed or whatever else. But it also was part of the risk that the vikings took in bringing him back which was like you know what the guy's been through the last couple of years you also know you're changing a system and that he's spent he's 27 or 28 but he's been in the

league since he was 20 this guy has played in a single system for a long time you're asking for a big change and we were just like kind of dismissed on that as coaches want to do but like you could see this coming you could see this coming and they decided that they were going to go to the fork in the road and go straight with Daniil Hunter we're not going to go all in we're not going to move on from him but I think there were probably teams around the league that would have ponied up a lot of draft capital for Hunter. And if he finishes the season with five and a half sacks and a pressure rate that's 34th in the league, to me that's going to be a failure on the front office, not so much of Daniil Hunter, just not understanding that he wasn't going to be able to be the guy that he was when he was getting 14 and a half sacks.

Now, let me say this, though. He could get 14 and a half sacks now let me say this though he could get 14 and a half sacks sunday yeah against just to feel like if you want to get right game there is no better opponent than justin fields who just loves walking into sacks yeah just ask dj want him if he had yes eight sacks last year i think like four or five were against Justin Fields just from holding onto the ball ridiculously long or like rolling out and not getting rid of it, not throwing it away. Like, yeah, I, with Daniel Hunter, I still, I didn't have that much concern this off season. And maybe that's on me for not really like thinking about it critically enough, but I was just kind of like it's daniel hunter like the

dude i've watched him play his whole career is just so freakishly athletic and talented and such a hard worker and a smart player that i was just kind of betting on the player being able to you could run a two five a five two whatever like what you could run whatever scheme and i i would bet on daniel hunter being successful and four games where he doesn't have a ton of pressures and still has two sacks, I think, that hasn't changed that. I'm still bullish on Daniel Hunter's talent and on him figuring this out. I think there's some validity to what Donatello told us, which is this happens with every player when you're switching schemes. It starts slow. It's not a scheme where you can't be productive as an edge rusher as an outside line like some of the most prolific

sack seasons we've ever seen are from like three four outside linebacker like khalil mac and there's so there's so many examples and zadaria smith has been really good in the system and that has continued into this year like that that to me is probably an example of there being something to like knowing how to play in this scheme. Because Z'Darrius Smith has been racking up pressures and has a sack in three out of four games and has been really good. So there's probably something there where Daniil Hunter, as he continues to kind of get reps in this and talk to Z'Darrius and Ed Donatel and Mike Smith and all that, we could start to see him get a little more comfortable but if that doesn't happen you're right then that raises a lot of questions of what what was the plan like why why'd you bring him back if this wasn't going to be a fit for him right well it's one of the most interesting things I think about talking about football is when we're

allowed to second guess and with that particular one I think you are allowed to second guess. And with that particular one, I think you are allowed to second guess. And I agree with you that like you, you have to give Daniel Hunter the benefit of the doubt, but we also have to factor in age injuries, price tag, future price tag, all those things. And, and, and what he were going to need him to do in order to justify what you're paying him and not trading him for potentially look if another team would have given up a first or a second pick like and this is what you've gotten back with his fit in the system then then that's an l if if that ends up turning out to be the case i think there's a lot of sackable quarterbacks carson wentz could provide you with like four so we could get to the

end of the day and end up with 13 and sacks for daniel hunter and it wouldn't surprise me i put it under that category of like things that we're monitoring along the way is how this ends up working out not things that we're calling it now um on the offensive side wow it's like 34 minutes into the show and we have not talked about like kirk cousins missing reads of open wide receivers but but give me your interpretation on, on this though. They have produced a good number of first downs overall as an offense, and they are producing points fairly regularly on drives overall again, four games into the season, but there's so much that's been left out there. And the statistics for Kirk C Kirk cousins are not very good.

Like, how do we deal with all of these different things working together? Because I think there's one interpretation where you can say those open receivers will get the football someday. I promise because they're getting open or there's the, is cousins just a little overwhelmed by the system. So you're going to see the good moments and the bad and then it's going to be a typical Cousins season which way do you interpret that yeah it's I think I lean more towards the latter like it's the similar conversation that we just talked about with Daniel Hunter where there is validity to what Kevin O'Connell has talked about like Kirk Cousins is four games into this system that Kirk has talked about it the receivers has talked about like Kirk Hussins is four games into this system that Kirk has talked about it the receivers have talked about it like there was a there was a big change this offseason

it wasn't just a subtle adjustment like we've seen when they go from Stefanski to Kubiak or whatever like there was a big change there was different terminology there's all these different plays and assignments and and reads and no position is harder, not even close, than quarterback where you have to know all these things. And so, yeah, it was concerning to me a little bit to see the examples of Kirk Cousins in London in the red zone taking that shorter route when there's a guy open deeper. But what was encouraging to me was that immediately right after the game when asked

about the red zone struggles like he brought that up like so he's at least aware that he has opportunities to be more aggressive and if you do that then you maybe score on seven points instead of three and and you're not letting that game come down to a double doink at the very end so yeah this week is is a good week to I think kind of get that right a little bit because the Bears don't don't really scare you on defense Jalen Johnson their top cornerback I'm not sure if he's gonna play what his status is like this looks like it should be another week to feed Jefferson and feed Adam Thielen and and really kind of put all these things that they've been talking about onto the field. Now, another big thing is they've got to get the running game going

because I know that's like a classic football. But it's true. Get the run game going. But it's true. Dalvin Cook did not really look like himself for most of that Saints game, but it's not like he was missing open holes. And, like, Dalvin Cook has good vision. He's not going to do that.

They just weren't often there so they got to find ways to to scheme that up a little bit more one thing i saw people talking about today is like the longest run of the season for the vikings was a jalen rager end around of 17 yards like dalvin cook usually is good to break one if not for a 60 yard touchdown for like 30 yards every game or whatever so and we just haven't seen that yet and he did get tripped by DeMario Davis once pretty blatantly which was a nice subtle veteran move by the uh by the Saints linebacker but yeah I mean this is a week to kind of put all that together and it if if this plays out how we think it's going to with the Vikings getting a lead and been playing from in front then that helps you kind of get Dalvin Cook going as well okay I've got some Bears quarterbacks to

quiz you on but uh for a score I will go 27 10 I mean I think that this one is just not particularly close I think that's the exact that that is the exact score that the Packers beat the Bears by so that's probably a good one I I will go 34 to 13 yeah I just think there's no reason this should be close like there's there really is no reason it should be close this Bears team is just not good so yeah it's not I mean the Vikings win the game that's a good thing they're four and one but man if if this if this comes down to the very end and is another nail biter that might change my entire outlook on the rest of the season if it hasn't already been changed by the last few weeks okay bears quarterback quiz who is the all-time leader

in passing yards for the chicago bears i'm gonna guess it's Jay Cutler. It is Jay Cutler, and it's Jay Cutler by like 900 yards. So not by that. I'm sorry, 9,000 yards. Okay, so that is a lot. No, that's a lot. That's a lot. Over Sid Luckman, which I won't make you guess, a former Bears quarterback interviewed for the Vikings head coaching job.

This year? Jim Harbaugh? Jim Harbaugh is correct. He's third on the all head coaching job. This year? Jim Harbaugh? Jim Harbaugh is correct. He's third on the all-time list. I'm just running down the list of all-time yardage if you haven't figured this out. We already brought up Jim McMahon in the show. I would have got that regardless, though.

Okay, well, I was going to make it a little hard. I was going to say that he once wore a headband with the commissioner's name on it which was jim mcmahon okay um the next quarterback was a thorn in the viking side but almost no one else's side he was drafted over some very this is too easy it's just mitch yeah yeah okay this quiz this quiz stinks i was thinking i was trying to think like i can't go back too far Oh this quarterback This is going to be a hard one though But just as a note Was the starting quarterback the last time

The Lions won the division Which wasn't even the current division It was the central Which was 93 I think It's just funny that the Lions haven't won it since 93 So I know that But he was more known as a bear Yeah

Oh man funny that the lions haven't won it since 93 so i know that but he was more known as a bear yeah um oh man i i'm yeah i don't know eric kramer is the guy i wouldn't have got that uh the quarterback when the bears went to the super bowl against uh the colts as rex grossman rex is our sexy rexie rex is our quarterback that's a good one k. Rex is our quarterback. That's a good one. Kyle Orton in there somewhere? Kyle Orton is in here. I should have just asked how many Bears quarterbacks can you name? Chad Henney?

Did he? Chad Henney was a guy. Did he play for them? I believe he did. Let me look. Obviously, Chase Daniels. Okay, how about this? This guy is a current.

Oh, maybe he didn't. Maybe Caleb Haney might be. Ah, that's probably what I'm thinking of. There is a former Bears quarterback who currently coaches a local high school football team here in Minnesota. He's from here, played for the Bears. This is going back a ways, though. Yeah, that might not be – Steve Walsh is the guy.

Nah. No. Yeah. this is going back a ways though yeah yeah that might not be steve walsh is the guy nah no yeah there's there's there's definitely some other random like brief bears that i can't quite put my finger on right now okay from the last like the guy who caught the pass when they did philly special oh yeah nick foals it was matt barkley Nick Foles. Okay. So Matt Barkley did the play that Philly stole for the Philly special. Yeah, that's right. And then they both ended up being Bears quarterbacks, but it was against the Vikings that they did the Philly special. A legendary Pittsburgh Steeler.

No, several legendary Pittsburgh Steeler quarterbacks that played for the Bears. Like way back when yeah ish um cordell stewart and mike tomzak cordell stewart i know because he was really good in college uh i don't know the other guy. I mean, Mike Tomczak was like... When Jim McMahon used to get hurt all the time, Tomczak would come in. And he was pretty not great. This guy did Monday Night Football for a year. And it was not good. It was with Steve Levy.

Oh, Brian Greasy. Yeah, Brian Greasy. Yeah, that was a trouble. I was thinking of the. Yeah, Brian Greasy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was a trouble. I was thinking of the Joe Tessitore, Booger McFarland Monday Night Football crew, which was also not very good. How about a lefty? They had a lefty.

Lefty quarterback. Out of UCLA. First round draft pick. Oh, man. This one's going to annoy me because I can picture a Bears lefty quarterback, but I don't think i'm gonna come up with his name kade mcnown kade mcnown yep yes yep and similarly uh one guy had a legendary run very briefly as the bears quarterback then got a big contract with tampa bay was horrendous his career as a backup. Huh? Um,

gotta pick. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I'm, I'm passing on. That would be Josh McCown. That would be Josh McCown. Yeah.

Wow. Uh, a current, uh, a current quarterback in the league who got hurt last week filling in for Mac Jones. Oh, um,

Brian Hoyer, Brian Hoyer, Brian Hoyer has been like 14 different places everywhere so that's a good one uh second round draft pick longest neck in nfl history uh mike glennon glennon mike glennon's what i mean no actually he might have been beat by that by davis mills oh davis mills has davis mills has an incredible okay yeah i don't we have to go to the locker room but this could just continue uh oh how about this you would you probably wouldn't know this but like cfl legend came back with the buffalo bills had his own

serial college football legend boston college um yeah i i don't know doug flutie oh okay okay that i know who doug flutie is i did not know him for his bears flutie flakes i had them as a kid nice uh okay one more because this is a great one because this this actually made the comparison and and this again goes back into the 90s so this is a little bit tough but this made the comparison, and this again goes back into the 90s, so this is a little bit tough, but this made the comparison of when Carolina traded for Sam Darnold, and people compared it to this trade, and I believe it was a first-round pick to Seattle that Chicago made this deal, and this quarterback went 0-3 with a 60 quarterback rating, and that was his whole career as a Bear,

and they trade a first-round pick for him. Is it Hasselbeck? No. Rick Meyer. Rick Meyer, yeah. Rick Meyer, another bust. Anything before 2005 I'm not getting unless it's a big name. It is good for sure.

How about a Washington quarterback draft pick out of Auburn? This is in 2012. He played one game for Chicago. I did not remember this happening. Ward number 17. Washington. I think it was a second-round pick. He was the quarterback when they had the two great running backs,

Ronnie Brown and Cadillac Williams. At Auburn? Yeah. Yeah. Jason Campbell. yeah yeah Jason Campbell that yep Jason Campbell I that was that was somebody who I was like floating around in my brain as a random Bears quarterback but I did not know the Auburn connection I'm not doing particularly well here but it's fine these are some great names how about uh um one of the great offensive coaches I love how you said one more like four ago we're still going it's too good. It's too good. Everyone's still listening.

No one has dropped off. This guy played in the strike year and became one of the best coaches in the NFL. Has a Super Bowl ring. The strike year was that 92? 87. 87. Rivalry with the Vikings. Doesn't always come across as the best.

Kevin James may have played him in a Netflix series. Oh, Sean Payton? Sean Payton. Bears quarterback? Threw 23 passes for the replacement Bears. I'm learning a lot. And had one picked off. Good for a quarterback rating of 27.

I didn't get the recent coach rivalry with the vikings but once you said kevin james that was that was quite helpful i've tried to make these as uh blatant as possible um yeah um so anyway i guess i mean there are many many that you could go back like bronco nagurski apparently threw for 400 yards yeah as a bear and is one of the better bear quarterbacks ever so that's funny peter tom willis is just hilarious i don't really know anything about peter tom willis but that's one of the funniest names i've ever heard his last name is tom willis no his name is peter tom willis willis i thought it was peter peter tom willis yeah okay that's it that's it that's the

podcast that's the show goodbye we'll see you next week