Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - 5 On It & sharing our Bears season predictions (Hour 3)

Episode Date: September 11, 2026

In the third hour, Leila Rahimi and Mark Grote discussed a variety of sports topics in the 5 On It segment. After that, they shared their Bears predictions for the new season.

The hour is brought to you by four seasons, heating, air conditioning, plumbing, sewer, electric, for all the right reasons. Call 8664 seasons. It's time for five on it. Rahimi and Grohini and Grody. Bring you five topics on their minds today. On 1043, the score. Number one. It's a football Friday, so that means you're listening to a four seasons heating, air conditioning, plumbing, sewer electric football Friday, presented by your local Ford dealers and Advent.

Here is question number one. On a scale of 1 to 10 on the fired up meter, trade. You fired up. Trademark. How fired up are you for the first weekend of the NFL season? I am at about a 9. I'm at a 9 on the fired up meter, and it's not a 10.

I was a threat to be a 10, but then I looked at some of the matchups like Jets, Tennessee. Yeah. Cleveland and Jacksonville. Miami and Las Vegas. Does that get you going? Let's go, week one. Quite the choice for a week one. Atlanta and Pittsburgh.

But then I saw Buffalo in Houston, and what really raises the roof is we all need a Bears game so badly. Bears and Carolina on Sunday. I'm ready, man. And I guess maybe what pushes it down to a 9 from a 10 for me too is that baseball is still hot and heavy. And I'm still going to be focusing on that a lot this weekend. So it's not at a 10, but it is at a 9 for me for the start of this NFL season. on Sunday when it begins in earnest

after these first two games that we've had. I think I'm at an eight because of partly what you just said. Also, I was looking at the bear's schedule while I was listening to you. You were very focused. I was distracting myself from your football with football. Bears' paws. Yeah, so that's

where I'm at with this. My football is distracting me from my football. Part of my issue was, you know how I felt about this. I hated this stupid Australia game from the very beginning. I wanted to see Rams 40-nighters in its own place. I wanted to see a 325 on a Sunday. It's somebody's home stadium, not some other stadium across the world. Why do you hate Australia? I don't hate Australia. Is it the toilets? I need to see if they flush the other direction.

Why do you hate cricket? I don't hate cricket. That's a cricket stadium I played in. cricket takes forever to play. I don't know how people find the patience. What's up with that flat bat? I think that's more of an Indian pastime than Australia. That's what I thought too. No, you're right. It is because my buddy Fas always educates me on such things. Yeah, if you can sit through a cricket match

that lasts up to several days, you're a G. Like, baseball's nothing to you. What up, gee? And in the meantime, in the meantime, I was really fired up for this 49ers Rams game until I found it was in Australia. I was really fired up for the rematch of the Super Bowl with the Patriots and the Seahawks.

Those are the marquee matchups I was really here to see aside from bears, right? Especially since I was getting a healthy 40s, nighters team and what I thought was going to be a better Rams team. But instead, the travel became the story. I know we have another question about it, but it's impossible to talk about on the first weekend of NFL season. If we're going to do this crap, which is put one of the best matchups that will affect

the NFL season and the best division in football in another place like this, give people time to make it make sense. Kind of like the London game, at least that had a buy on the other side of it. This is ridiculous for both teams. You could have given them another game. They'd have been happy with a Jets game in Australia. Why'd you give them like a major game? Jets Tennessee could have been there.

Could have been in Australia. Would have been more entertaining for all of us. But instead you give them one of the marquee games of the season. Okay, so I ate. I feel like you should go down. I think you talked yourself down. I'm giving seven. You're at a seven.

Don't talk for me. I am. You're a seven. I'm not in your brain. I don't talk for you. Would you like my taco? No, I gave you some chips. too. Oh, you did.

Which taco did you go with? I think it's a steak taco. Nice. Traditional. Class. I think that's what it is. Yeah. No, it's chicken. That's definitely chicken. Oh, it's chicken. I just grabbed the taco out of the box. And when you asked me, I guessed. This taco tastes like chicken.

There was like eight boxes back there. So many jokes. So many jokes. My box. My taco. Pause. Barangie. Number two. I don't know that anybody should have had the Jets in Tennessee game. Do the Jets in Tennessee even want the Jets in Tennessee game?

They should do what they do in, like, pro wrestling. Like, that's not on a TV one. That's just the one they do at a show where they don't actually have the cameras rolling. Just let them play. Don't put it on TV. I miss NFL blackouts. Watch that game be the best game of the week. Like, that's just our luck.

Do you guys know that, like, there used to be NFL blackouts, even in Chicago? I did not know that. If the whole Soldierfield wasn't sold out and it wasn't always sold out in the late 70s and the earliest of the 80s, that the home games were a threat to not be on TV, terrifying for a young child like, me. A lot of fomo there. Football FOMO. Question number two.

Will the Bears take the North again this season? Yeah. Why not? I said it. I don't have a better option. Like, that's it. You tell me who the better option is. We don't know how

healthy Green Bay is. The Vikings are making questionable quarterback decisions where everyone involved. Which leaves, well, the lions who are somewhat healthier, but I don't necessarily know if they're going to be good enough. So why can't it be the Bears?

That's how I feel. I love it. I am picking Detroit to win the division this year. I've got the, because I mean, they're going to redeem themselves after last year. They are healthier. They still have all the talent in the world. That talent has not left. Maybe they have finally adjusted to life without Ben Johnson.

So unfortunately, I think, and this is a Detroit team that did beat the Bears twice last. year. I do have Detroit winning the division, followed by the Bears, followed by the Packers, followed by Minnesota. I do have the Bears still going to the playoffs, so don't worry. But I do think Detroit wins the division this year. And? I'm still thinking about it, but I don't know. I've argued with myself about this. You said Bears. I don't have a, yeah, but then I'm like, oh, am I a blind spot to myself?

I think, like I said, am I being too biased? But I don't. It's okay. I mean, I do think it's the Lions. I do. I do. I think the Lions' loss in December really got to you. You think that I'd decide.

No, it's really not that, honestly. I mean, I know I just mentioned that the Bears were 0 and 2 against them last year. Like, the band is still there. Like, all the talent in the world is still on that offense. And it's healthy on that defense as well, Aidan Hutchinson. Yeah. Healthy. And they're just good.

Like, it's not like there's anybody aging out at this point. Like, they're still... Their secondary is still questionable, isn't it? I guess. but so is the Bears. Hey, hey. We did a whole segment on the Bears questionable defense.

Yeah, but compared to the Lions. We spent a whole preseason talking about the Bears defense. You're such a homer. Don't bring facts into my conversation. Yeah, sorry. Okay, we're going to go on question number three. We did the thing.

No, no, number three. All right. Wait, is there a limit on sound effects now? No, no, we actually already did it. It's all right. Yeah, you went back and tried to answer the question. Question twice. Because I'm questioning myself, questioning myself.

Okay. And you're going to question yourself again with this question. Oh, no. This is 5-9-104-3 to score, by the way. You're going first on this one. Leila Rohimi and Mark Grotie, and it's a fabulous football Friday. But we're going to ask you about this. What was your biggest takeaway from the 49ers 27-7 win over the Rams in Melbourne,

Australia, mate? Such a buzzkill from the competitive game side. Here I was picking some sort of over-30 madness, you know, two-team score and more than 30 points. Neither one of them did. And the Niners put on a damn clinic. I cannot, I cannot say that enough.

A healthy 40-nighters defense is a ridiculously powerful one. A healthy George Kittle is an effective man. And Trent Williams absolutely neutralized Miles Garrett. If there's one belief that I had that was reinforced yesterday, it is perhaps, perhaps there is some equality that is happening between the importance of left and right tackle in the league. But at the same time, the very same time, or in the words of future, at the same damn time, Trent Williams told you what time it was. Here am I, one of the best offensive linemen in the league, a Hall of Famer, a left tackle who gets

paid when I want to get paid against the man who just broke the single season sack record on the other side, the defensive player of the year, Miles Garrett, which one was going to win the matchup? Advantage Trent Williams. And then they started running for. fancy run screen plays. I don't even know what some of those plays were. I feel like Kyle Shanahan was in his bag. Absolutely. Some of their run game concepts and fits, I'm going to be looking at that film for a minute just to see what's going on. Coach Dan Casey is a tremendous follow on Twitter and he was illustrating some of the screen blocking that was happening. Just a lot of like really creative misdirections and they could do it all because they did not care about Miles Garrett. But the

problem is that travel is going to be the story. People are going to say that the Rams lost that game because they decided to be the smartest men in the room and travel late and not do the thing that was traditional. And because of it, we didn't get the best representation of two of the best teams in the league.

And that bums me out. Might the Rams though, or the 49ers pay in week two? Might they? Because they spent all this time in a different time zone. I sure did every time I come back from Asia. I sure do. Yeah. That was supposedly part of the Ram Right.

Science. The way they're viewing it. They're thinking about the USA portion of the season. It's a really, it's a really bold, especially in a divisional game. It's a really bold choice to say we're going to risk losing game one to lower the risk slightly of losing game two. Right. And so they may not regret this. Who knows?

What stood out to me was, you know, there's Brock Purdy again, just being Brock Purdy out there and just being all efficient with his game, 25 of 34, the three touchdowns. And seeing the veterans, man, like Mike Evans, Debo Samuel. Mike Evans. I mean, come on. Come on. Your guy, Lila. I do love him.

The Marcus Robinson with a touchdown. And you know what else? It doesn't go out of style because we've seen the Bears pull off such drives like Ben Johnson. A 99-yard drive pulled off by the 49ers. I made it 24 to 7 in the fourth quarter. That stood out to me. Mediocrity from Matthew Stafford stood out to me, considering the season he had last year.

Old coat drive. I'm with you. on Miles Garrett. I kept watching him and zeroing in on him and they were doing a number on him. So those are the things that stood out to me in the 49ers 27 to 7 went over the Rams. That run game is going to break my brain for a few weeks.

You love it. I was so good. Let's get you back in the film room. Number four. Which Cubs players needs to have a big weekend in order to ensure a series win over the Pirates. Oh, this is a stressfully loaded question for me. It's not

PCA because he's been doing that. You have to have him to survive. So I don't necessarily know that you can just say all willy-nilly that it's P. Crow Armstrong. I don't think it's that simple or easy. I think it's going to, it might have to come down to today's starter. It is Showtime. Okay. Show to Imanaga.

The pirates are probably feeling pretty good about themselves. Almost had a little no-hitter yesterday against the old White Sox. Jared Jones. Yeah. But in the meantime, this is a great get-back game for a show to Imanaga. Can you face a pit-a-epid? Pittsburgh Pirates team who is not as consistent hitting-wise and not as powerful, you know, as say the previous opponent that the Cubs have based.

Can you keep, can you keep it in the yard today? And if you don't, can you keep it to a solo shot? Can you do that? And if so, winning game one of this series in particular would be so crucial for this Cubs team to just get back on track before a very stressful upcoming Brave series that has my mind on some things. All right. Here's my name who has to have a big weekend for the Cubs.

It's Daniel Polencia. It's Daniel Polencia. Is Jacob Webb on the I L? I forget. Is he hurt? I forget. You need somebody in the high leverage. And I know Daniel Polencia pitched the other day in Milwaukee

and he was victimized by an error. But he did give up a hit in that or an RBI hit in that inning. They need somebody. Somebody needs to step up in high leverage. I'm calling for Daniel Polencia to have his bleep together, to have his competence together. So it is Daniel Polentia for me. Jacob Webb, I've not seen anything about him on the transaction page for the month. And keep in mind, they recalled Javier Assad on the fifth.

What about Assad? Yeah. What about Assad? Put him an eye lover. No, it's what about Assad. Assad is the new Danks. I feel like it's the same mentality. It really is.

Yeah. Because, right, every time we talk pitching. and we leave out Habir Assad. We get like 18 texts say, what about Assad? That was the most, yeah, the most recent transaction on the page.

He's always, he's always being transacted. Yeah, it was 9-526. Jack Skilly. Yep. Five on it. Number five.

We just became a team. We've been hanging out too much. This is five on it. I want a four, three the score. Here's our final question. I'm five on it. What stood out to you from the white socks

being swept at the hands of those pirates? Okay. Number one. thank God you avoided the no hitter. Like they haven't been hitting well. We've talked about that. I know they had eight hits in the previous game, but the point is they hadn't been scoring runs,

and they also need hits. What was my angry five on a question to you guys? Wasn't it? Do you need hits to win? Yes. No, it was, do you need hits to win? White Sox. And White Sox was in all caps, and I was mad.

And then I tweeted that baseball was making me angry. And partially because I thought it was great to see Hagen Smith, quote, start, end quote, and throw two solid innings. And then how about Eric Fetty coming through? How about Eric Fetty coming through and then doing the damn job as well? So unfortunately, it was a two to nothing loss. This wasn't some whizbang, give up a ton of runs.

So you wasted the Eric Fetty performance where he gave just two earned runs, which should be enough over five and a third to win with this team. And then Hudson comes in and does his job. And then Hicks does his job. It was a nicely pitched ball game. but unfortunately, the Weizak still could not get any runs across, and that stinks. They only had three total hits or two total hits in the game, rather. Didn't have one until two outs in the seventh inning.

I got hopeful there and thought three, but no. Nope, you can't have it. Thank goodness for Colson Montgomery. Right, double, yeah. Tell you what, Hagen Smith, not walking anybody, stood out to me. Two innings for him in the start. Zero runs. Did give up two hits, struck out three.

Again, zero walks over his 33 pitches. He went full count on the first batter that he faced. And I'm like, I'm thinking, this guy is just such an adventure, but he settled in really nicely. The other thing that stood out, and yeah, Fetty was fine, but the home run he gave up to O'Neill, Freaking Cruz. O'Neill Cruz does that, though. We know this.

But Layla, it was 117.4 miles per hour off the bat, per Jesse Rogers. The hardest hit home run this season. It was a, that stood out to me. That was a blistering bomb of exit velocity off the bat of O'Neill Cruz in that game. And the socks getting swept just kind of sucked and they've lost 8 of 11 too. It still was a better Eric Fetty performance than once we had seen. I'm just saying like what stood out to me was O'Neill Cruz's home run off of Eric Fetty. I'm sorry.

O'Neill Cruz does that, though. We've seen him do that. That was the hardest hit home run of the year by anybody. I just don't keep getting to making excuse. Yeah, I know. Keep going to making excuses. That's not a saying. I'm not going to convince you.

I'm going to keep making excuses. Fair enough. I just, they could have won that game. Layla, please allow me to talk about myself now. Tomorrow, join.

I don't know why I have to read this, but I will. Because you're getting more things. No, I'm just doing something tomorrow. Join one all four or three to score. I'm always busy. I'm always available unless I'm doing something.

Join the score, Lagunitas and Hyniquin at Sluggers with me, Mark, Grody from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m., stop by for your chance to win a pair of passes to Riot Fest. That's right. I'm not coming in empty-handed while enjoying free samples of Laguanita's Hoppy Refresher and Heineken 0.0. That's tomorrow with me, Mark Grody, at Sluggers, starting at 11. We have come to the moment of truth on the show, ladies and gentlemen. That's why I was looking at the schedule earlier.

I was double-checking my work. We have Bears predictions, plural, including a final score for you for Bears in Carolina. It is absolutely next on Rahimi and Grotie on 104-3, the score. Rahimi and Grotie, midday's 10 a.m. to 2 on 104-3, the score. It's a football Friday. On Rahimi and Grotie on 104-3, the score. Moment of truth.

Bears and Carolina, we're about to with the Bears' 2026 season. And so we will challenge ourselves with four different predictions, with four different people here on the show. Leila Rahimi, Tyler Buehriba, Ray Diaz, and me, Mark Grody. Ray, you will be the master of ceremonies. You get to ask the questions, which we will all answer, sir. Yes. First and foremost, bears.

Bears. Bears. Oh, the music. Yeah, here we go. Question number one. Yes. What will the Bears record be in 2026? I guess I will start our predictions.

I have the Bears going 10 and 7 this year. And obviously that is one fewer win than last year. But I think it makes sense to me. It's a more difficult schedule. I mean, the regression areas are real. You're not going to have, probably not going to have the same turnover luck as you did last year. You cannot depend on the crazy fourth quarter magic. hopefully that will take care of itself in the first two quarters of the games this year.

But I do have the Bears at 10 and 7, not to mention a pretty difficult schedule as well. And then just the weirdness of the beginnings of seasons. The first five games always scare me in an NFL season and specifically with the Bears. 10 and 7. I double-checked my work during five on it and got distracted because I had a random football thought during my football talk. Football? Football. Bears. Yep.

Bears. What you got? And I said, self, did I really do this? Layla, did you really do this? A done did. 11 and 6 for the Bears again, even with their schedule. Wow. You were such a homer today.

I, well, Bears are winning the division. Do you know what happened? Sometimes my unconscious sports thoughts are actually the ones that hit, like the Jordan Walker home run derby. Do you remember that? I was like, why do I keep thinking he's going to do this? Okay, I guess I'm picking this.

Or at the time where I didn't know who was going to win the NBA finals. I'm like, I guess it's just going to be the Warriors. And then it was. So I feel the same way about the Bears in the NFC North. Okay. But then I got to like double check myself. And it's like, do you really want this? Are you really sure about this?

Like you're just going to go slightly unconscious and say these things. Yep, I'm doing it again. And if I'm wrong about 11 and 6, okay. But at least I tried. She done done it again. All right, guys, what do you got over there? Oops, I did it again. I played it with your heart.

I got lost in the game. Layla, I'm one up in you. I got the Bears finishing at 12 and 5. Oh, my God. Tyler Buehabil. I'm meatballing, baby. We didn't talk about this at all, and I also wrote down 12 and 5 on my schedule. I went through.

I'll let Tyler give his explanation. Go ahead. I think you're just going to see a big jump in the Bears' offense. You know, last year with Ben Johnson coming in, that was the honeymoon season, you know, because it's all exciting, the new Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams combination. Now they're serious this year. I think the offense is going to be scoring. A ton of points because obviously the defense, I'm still very skeptical about them,

but I think the offense is going to be what gets them to win these games. They're going to win the division, so Bears 12 and 5. We're the best. We're taking the north and never giving it back. By the way, you and Tyler Ferengal, I think, have the Bears. Did Baby T go, he's at 12 or he might have been 13, actually. Why don't you call your mentor and ask him? My mentor.

Your mentee. He's around there at 12 and 5. You know what I mean. You know what I mean. My protege. That's the word of looking. I got you. Okay, so here's the other thing, too, is I always do this formula where you know the bears are probably going to lose a game they're supposed to win and win a game they're supposed to lose.

Of course. Yeah. And then that's where it gets tricky. But do you guys really think that they won't be in Minnesota twice this year? I think they will. Those are some of the money makers for me in my scheduled prediction. Same. I just literally went through each game, put Ws or L's, and I ended up with 12 and 5 because I'm drunk on Bears.

It's Kool-Aid. Clearly, it's ridiculous. But additionally, okay, Jets, that's a game. That's right. Is there tequila back there with these tacos? Maybe the biggest talk. Stads where's the tequila? Maybe the biggest toss-up for me is the Buccaneers game because an extended Baker Mayfield might be a motivated Baker Mayfield,

but even that I still like the bear. I do have the Bears beating Seattle at Seattle on November 2nd. That was my signature win on the Take the North podcast. You have them beating Seattle, but you don't have them. What's it 10 and 7? Because of what we just said, that, like, you win games that you're not supposed to and you lose games that you're not supposed to. Do I have them beating the Packers twice, and that's what did it for me? We're going to have to keep it moving.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's go. I keep looking at the schedule. Got to be out at 1230, 3830, I was told. That's right. So question number two, how far will the Bears go in the playoffs? You know what? I'm going full Parkinson's on this.

Parkins and I are on the same page. I mean, it's like, why wouldn't they go to the, the, Super Bowl. No, I think the Bears go to the NFC title game and lose the NFC title game. I also said that they would lose in the NFC championship game. But I also said they had the same record as last year. We've got to audit your take. I don't know. Guys, what do you got?

Same here. I'm thinking they're going to win that. Get to the NFC championship, but they're going to fall. That's what I had as well. Oh, man. All four of us. We are all drinking the cooler. Gary, give me the tequila.

Give me the bottle. Grotie, don't ruin your sobriety over this. Oh, sorry. Oh, yeah. You just need more chips and tacos. If something would ruin my sobriety, it would be the Bears. All right. The Bears cannot ruin your surprise.

You're right. You're not going to do it to me, Bears. He did not come this far to only go this far. Well, how about this? Will Bears quarterback Caleb Williams throw for 4,000 yards this year? I mean, he threw for 3,942 yards last year. Yes, he'll have, I have him for 4,100 yards this year. Give me 4,250.

Sick. I'm betting on the showcase. On prices right. Higher. I'm betting higher. Lower. I'm not doing this $1,000. Nobody likes the $1

business. I will say yes, definitely. He's in a throw for $4,200, right in the middle. I'm not going to exceed it. I'm going to go for $4,000, be quite happy with what I'm seeing on the field. So reasonable, Ray. Yeah, yeah, so that's a yes. You've got a bear down on a daily basis.

The bears open the season against the Panthers on Sunday. So big question. Who you got? Okay. I had been a threat to pick Carolina, but Dustin Rhodes intimidated me and bullied me. Don't blame Dustin. No, no.

No, no. Don't let other people tell you what to do. You have to do what's on your mind. And it is the Bears winning this game. It is the Bears beating Carolina 27 to 24. I know weird things happen on opening day, but there's just too many areas where I think the Bears can exploit Carolina. If they get overcome the offensive line,

that is the guards, they have two tackles that are coming off the bench to play in this game, including Monroe Freeling, consider a project that they didn't want to have starting. So I think that there's that factor. And to me, there's just not a big fear factor on their offensive side of Teteroa. McMillan, McMillan, Bryce Young, it was better,

but he's still not a great quarterback. I've got the Bears winning this game 27 to 24 over the Carolina Panthers. There. Done. You said 2724? Yeah. Are you copying me? Oh, sorry.

Did you look at my page? I did. I did. I love your information. 27, 24 bears. The spread is three, and the bears are favored. And that essentially means that Carolina lost the home field. So, yeah, I think the Bears win 27, 24.

I think it can be that simple. Okay. Here's the issue is I do think it's going to be a close game because there's defense, bears defense. So that stresses me out. That's part of the sports things on my mind. You use the terminology bend, but don't break. There'll be a ton of that.

There's going to be so much betting and not breaking. And they already kind of build for that with their defense. That's what they've been doing. Yeah, you do whatever you want between the 20s and we'll figure out what happens in the meantime. But I don't love that theory either. That's actually a lot of defenses in the NFL. And I get it. And it means like your tight ends are going to have a lot of yards, the opposing tight ends.

But I think in this case, yeah, I'm going 27, 24 bears. This is one of my 11. I'm throwing another meatball out there. I think it's going to be a pretty big win by the Bears. I think they're going to win 31 to 17. I like the offense here. I think we're going to see more consistency. Nothing from like the last second.

Caleb Williams, Hail Marys that we saw last year. I think we're going to see a nice mature. Ben Johnson offense with Caleb Williams. I have a absolute beating on the Panthers, 31-2-17. My lack of confidence in the Bears defense has me thinking it's going to be a shootout, like a shoot-out type of game, high-scoring affair. 34-31. Bears, though. That felt good, guys.

Today felt good. This week felt good. Thanks to everybody who listened and watched all week here. Thanks for all your support for Rahimi and Grotie. Trust me, we are just getting rolling on this show. Can't wait for Monday already. Our first Bears Monday. And by all accounts, well, it's going to be a victory. Thank you so much to the people who supported this show and worked on this show today.

If only he had an accounted for 65% of the office. Thanks to Ray Diaz and Tyler Bueberbaugh, our excellent score video team of Connor O'Donnell, Max Curtis and Jacob Studs, the scorechicago.com editor, Cody Westerlin. We thank him very much for all the work that he is done. We thank our guests on the show today. Eugene Robinson was on the program.

We had Kevin Fishbane on the program today. Was that it? Is there any other guests that I need to thank? No, I think we should thank Hyundai, though, again. Thanks to Hyundai. You know what? Thank you to Hyundai. We are broadcasting live from the Hyundai Studios, as we always do.

Oh, and before Chicago takes on Carolina, tune in Sunday morning from 9 to noon for your local foreign dealers' pre-game show right here on 104 3. The score all includes Patrick Manley and myself, Mark Grotty will get you set for the game and then immediately following the game will have instant reaction. On the Timber Tech decking

and railing post game show presented by the Roorman Automotive Group, this week's post game show can also be seen exclusively on YouTube and Twitch. Have a great weekend, everybody for Laila Rahimi. I'm Mark Grody. Comes baseball and next on the score. Bears. Go Cups.