Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Anthony Herron: Bears have one of the most talented offenses in NFL

Episode Date: September 14, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Mark Grote were joined by Score football analyst Anthony Herron to share his takeaways from the Bears' 59-37 win against the Panthers on Sunday in their season opener.

Anthony Herron, score football analyst. The determination to run after catch. It's not only about the wiggle in the open field. Yes, he's a big play waiting to happen, but he's got that grit about the way he runs the rock. It's really fun to see Luther Burton when he's got the ball. Now Williams downfield. Oh, what a snatched out was by Luther Bird in the third for another first down.

Inside the 30 to the 29, 31 seconds left. Former NFL defensive linemen and Iowa Hawkeye. Anthony Heron receives credit for it. Anacious job by Anthony Heron number 99. Mr. Haddon, I want to compliment you doing a fine job. Big Ann Herron on 1043 The Score. It's Rahimi and Grody on 1043, The Score, and you are listening to a Plummers 9-1-1 football Monday

presented by Bucie Bank and Great Clips. Bears beat Carolina 59 to 37. You can follow Anthony Heron on X at Big Ant-Haron is the way to do. that. He is on Twitch right now as he joins Rahimi and Grotie. Anthony, what did we see yesterday? We saw one of the most talented, most capable young offenses in the National Football League who had been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to show folks what they were capable of in the 26th season. And man, did they unleash on the Carolina Panthers? There was a lot of folks, a lot of guys

on the field who I just got the sense that they've been so anxious to bring what they've been experiencing in a lot of ways in private because it's one thing to go out there and be able to view practice and to be able to see what they're going about, you know, in walkthroughs and some of the few videos, even in preseason games. But they knew that they felt like there was something special that they were capable of. And we saw it on display in Carolina yesterday. I mean, we absolutely did. And that's, that's, I think we just have to get used to the fact that this is, this is the new world order now.

Let's hope, right? We joked. I mean, we joked about it. And it is, it's uncomfortable to watch on the defensive side of the ball, but at the same time offensively. And I just, I keep reiterating it to score over 50 points in the NFL on any team. I know it happened to the Bears last year. But to score over 50 points in the NFL, the way they did yesterday against a playoff. off team at home, a team who won its division last year.

That is as big of a statement as you can make. And then to do it with the run game, to run 70 plays where you're predominantly running the run plays are working for you, I think there is an anomaly there that really stands to be appreciated today. I'm not here to tell you. I expect Carolina to be one of the best defenses in football this season, but Devin Lloyd is going to make plays. Jalen Phillips is going to sack quarterbacks.

Derek Brown is going to stuff runs and be in the backfield. We've seen what J.C. Horn is capable of. He's going to pick quarterbacks off. They've got guys who will be making plays this year for a team that will likely be very competitive again in that division. That being said, Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams made mincemeat of them. That offensive line was moving folks against their will. It was just really fun to see so much of the work, so much of the, preparation, the detail that they've gone about things with come to fruition on the field.

And even as Bryce Young was extremely impressive in his own right. And Carolina's offensive playmakers were given that Bears defense fits. So it wasn't like the Bears' offense could just kind of take their foot off the gas, throttle things down, and just sort of ooze their way to a secure win. they had to stay urgent. They had to stay vibrant. They had to stay in attack mode. And they did.

And I like the fact that there was consistently a need for them to respond. Now, some of it was self-inflicted, that need to respond to Carolina making plays here, but they did need to. And so consistently they were able to. And there was just such a control and a confidence to the way that Caleb Williams went about the task of being a pro quarterback yesterday that is extremely encouraging for Bears fans.

I'll use your word, the urgency and I'll use authority as well with which D'Andre Swift was running is so vastly different from the D'Andre Swift we saw two years ago in his first year. We saw versions of it last year after the first four games.

What did you see? You mentioned the offensive line moving people. And there is no doubt about it. They get a ton of credit for what the running game did yesterday. But what did you see specifically from D'Andre Swift and maybe even Kyle Munungai as well? He's become such a decisive runner. Kyle Munung guy has been a decisive runner since the first time he carried a football in Pop Warner. That hasn't always been D'Andre Swift. I've been breaking down DeAndre Swift film since he was in high school. So I've been watching his entire football journey since that point.

He's always been a guy who's looking for daylight, like the obvious daylight, the apparent open field opportunities are where he's always been drawn to like a moth to a flame. Now between last season, and I'd say it's even enhanced growth in what we saw yesterday, a guy who's so decisive in his willingness to attack downhill, to see the hole and see. sometimes be slow to it and fast through it,

but that burst that he gets to the line of scrimmage with and then even if there's contact on him, that willingness just to continue to power his way through defenders, he's just a very different running back now than he was earlier in his career, earlier in his NFL journey. He's always been an effective running back, but most of that has been finding essentially the finesse ways to go about it and the open field ways to go about it.

Now we see this version of D'Andre Swift with a willingness to kind of do the boring in a similar fashion of what we're talking about with Caleb Williams. DeAndre Swift is now willing to do the boring as a running back to hit the hole as it's designed, as it's assigned. But then when that opportunity is there to make something big happen, he's still more than capable of bursting into the open field and being this great open field playmaker as well. Yeah, one of my notes in my, I went with a. notebook began today.

Grody, Grody, rather I write in the notebook instead of the Google Doc. Google Doc last year was 100 pages. That's probably still winning. But one of my notes says Deont, first it says feed swift, good penetration of the middle, plus nine. CSW first down, nice block, first down, come at plus six run.

He had a very nice game yesterday. Cole Comette quietly. Had a very nice game, especially in the blocking game as well. There were a couple, I think, past plays to commit that Caleb probably wound back. And then the other note I have here is DeAndre Swift nearly killed a guy. Like the way that they were running was just,

they first of all, feed them because they and he and Menangai were doing so well. But then you're right. The way they were doing the simple stuff so well, some of the best offenses I've watched in the NFL over decades were boring. But they were boring because everybody was so good at their jobs. That right side of the line is kind of like that too. DeAndre Swift did that yesterday. It's underappreciated how much the run game needs to time up with the blocking scheme.

And that's a place where DeAndre Swift has covered so much ground in the couple of the years now that he's been here with the bears. We can all remember a couple of seasons ago, his first year here, all the moments on social media where you freeze, frame it. There's this open hole that it looks like DeAndre Swift should get vertical and go into and he's still looking to bounce the football. and I wondered very aloud here on this station and other platforms. Is that kind of the plateau for D'Andre Swift? Is that what he's capable of in this league? When you scheme him into open field, he can make a big play, but not necessarily be this down-in, down-out running back

that runs with detail. There's a detail to the way he runs the football that helps set up the blocking assignments. And for Kyle Munangai, for his running mate, It's like they've been able to sort of blend their skills because Menangai is now a more creative open field runner. That cut he made, I want to talk about these bears receivers in a second, too, but the cut he made off of some of these blocks that were being thrown by Burton and Raymond

and what we saw from Walker as he got into space. Like that looked D'Andre Swift-ish. So Swift being willing to get vertical and time things up with the footwork, that's necessary to set that up. And Menonga now, looking for those jump cut opportunities to burst into open field, we see them kind of learning from each other and combining the best aspects of what they are as running backs and all the detail of the way these things time up and block themselves up. It's really, it's talked about in more detail and more volume with the way that rhythm and timing matters in the passing attack,

but rhythm and timing in the run game with when and how running backs hit the hole to set up their offensive line, the tight ends, the receivers as they're blocking, that's a big part of how the Bears run game is successful because there's so much detail to the way they executed. That is the insightful

voice of Anthony here of 1043, the score, the Big Ten Network, Fox 32, NBC Sports, and you can catch Big Ant on the score post-game show on Sunday evening coming up after the Minnesota game this week. All right, Anthony, what would you like to talk about as it pertains to the Bears wide receivers? The personality of a football team can show a lot in certain position groups.

And it's seen most easily, I would say, on the lines of scrimmage. If you really view yourselves as a physical football team, if a coaching staff wants their film to speak to people, then yes, the offensive and defensive line is where people will turn to most directly. But how you really know if a squad is, bought in, you watch the wide receiver core. You look at the way the receivers act when they're not getting the football. It's one thing when you break the huddle and you know you're the guy at the top of the

route tree, you're going to be the number one option, and you run that route really hard, you present your numbers to the quarterback, and you hope that he's going to throw you the rock because you've really set things up perfectly, then yes, it's easier to really try and perform at your peak of effort when that's the case. but when they're handing the ball off, as much as the bears hand the ball off, and that's the film that upcoming opponents see, they know they got to strap it up

when Jaday Walker is going to be out there in the open field, teacettling folks, when the way that you have, you know, Roma Dunes a stalk blocking and driving his feet, getting his hands inside, and driving his feet on contact like he's an offensive tackle. You have Khalif Raymond, one of the smallest guys on the field

in their inserting into blockers. Luther Burden as the insertter, as a lead blocker on some of these run schemes, and they're taking pride in it. That matters so much. That film speaks to opposing defenses to let them know the Bears mean business. When you see the little guys on an offense

with that degree of intensity and integrity with the way they're attacking the game of football, that's encouraging, it's exciting. I'm confident that film room at Hallis Hall has been lighten up, just watching the way. You show that stuff to everyone on the entire team. You show that to people in the front office when you say, look at our little guys attacking the opponents in this way. That shows the personality of this football team, the buy-in of this football team more than anything else they can put on film. I couldn't agree more.

And there's technique involved with that. And our segment with Anthony Heron is sponsored by Great Clips. it's going to be great. One of the things that was most compelling to me wasn't just the fact that the technique was so sound. I flash back. I do this. I'm sorry.

But I will never forget just wanting to throw something at the TV. Flashback. When I believe it was, I don't think it was Getsy. I think it was O.C. previous to Getsy. So it was one of the Matt Negi OCs. When they asked Darnel Mooney to set the edge, do you remember that?

And Darnel Mooney was maybe a buck 50, and they had him in a position where there was a clear physical mismatch and they asked him to set the edge. And you knew at that point, you knew at that point there was no way that that was going to be a successful blocking scheme,

number one, the play was going to fail from the start. It did. And then I'm out here going, okay, oh, oh, these guys know how to block. Like, you're seeing some really nice open-field blocks from guys where there is a physical mismatch, but the technique was so sound that they were able to get it done. And even think about, you know,

from a technique perspective. Think about that play, the 61-yarder, and I'm not convinced that Kyle Manungai would beat both of you in a foot race over 60-plus yards. But Manunga, as he bursts and gets to top gear, there's a chance for him to go. And how many times have we seen in football where the other receiver who's hustling,

but then does something dumb? And here's Jaday Walker. He's hustling and he's sprinting down the field, trying to secure a touchdown for his teammate. and instead of clipping some guy in the back, instead of shoving somebody down, instead of grabbing a jersey, or maybe taking a cheap shot that could draw a penalty flag

and take a touchdown off the board, he sprints fast enough to get in front of several defenders and then just wards them off, just boxes them out, just booty blocks the defense to make sure that Managai is going to get that 61-yard touchdown run. That's the type of intelligence of intensity that this team can really thrive off of if they keep that. Now, having a dozen penalties in the game is not a good thing, but that to me, that moment is an indicator where they're still trying to think the game, one of their youngest, least experienced players in a moment like that, thinking the game at a high enough level to do something that does require effort and intensity while still having an intellect about the way he executed it.

You're listening to a Plumbers 9-9-1-1-Fubal Monday presented by Busey Bank and Great Clips. It is the Rahimi and Grotie show on 104-3 The Score. We are absolutely talking to Anthony Heron right now. What did you think about Caleb Williams' game? Man, to combine the physical tools that he has with the aptitude, the acumen that he operated from within the pocket, when I'm talking about Caleb looking comfortable in the game, I'd say a great indication of that is his leading receiver being Khalif Raymond in the game. Because from a matchup perspective, Colston Loveland coming out of the game with a couple of targets

No grabs. You put up 59 points. Your leading receiver not being Roma Dunezay, not being Luther Borden, not being Colston Loveland or D'Andre Swift, not being Colquette. But Khalif Raymond is not a guy who you say that's our matchup advantage. That's the guy who we know the defenders can't cover. But that's just Caleb letting the defense speak to him. That's Caleb letting the defense tell him, where's your weakness?

Where should I be going with the football here? And the fact that Khalif Raymond was that guy who came out on the top end from a targets and a reception's perspective, that just indicates to me that Caleb is seeing the field cleanly. He got a variety of coverage looks in that game yesterday from the Panthers and handled them all really well. But then still, when the play did break down, when he needed to get into his bag with some of those physical traits of the mobility, the open field speed, he was still willing and able to do that to that balance between the level. brain and the right brain that's so difficult for all of us who are maybe more dominant on either side to manage.

We saw him in real time in live action on a national football league field operating with both those ends of his personality and his traits at a level like we don't see all the time, man. So all the excitement that many of us have had that the football world has had with the Madden cover and everything else, if that's just the first time, we're going to see him do that at that level. sky's the limit. And I have a question to ask you after our break about a rookie who I think deserves a lot of flowers

in this game defensively, so I want to get your thoughts. So do we want to do that next with Anthony Heron? I think that's a good idea. Plus we do have to talk about the defense, which gave up 478 yards. I'm glad you have flowers. Because there were some flower-worthy defensive plays for sure, but we have to talk about some of the defensive

breakdown. So we will do that coming up next with Anthony. By the way, we'll have another caller segment after Anthony Heron right around 1140, 1145. We've got people, if you're on hold, you will be rewarded, but make no mistake about it. We will continue to keep the phone lines open here on Rahimi and Grody. 312, 644, 67, 67. More with Anthony Herron on the Bears next right here on the score.