Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Anthony Herron praises Malik Muhammad's impact in Bears' victory

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.

Rahimi and Grody The you and I are obsessed with me. Midday, 10 a.m. to 2 on the score. Still Deshawn Watson and quarterback. He'll floated for Dylan Samson and nowhere to go. And what do you know? The rookie Malik Mohamed stays right on kick. Bring me Malik Mohamed and system of a down.

Beautiful. They rocked us at Soldier Field. Can't wait to be there this Sunday. You got those lyrics right, man. That is what people tuned in for today. It is us half-singing system of a down lyrics. If you web-search the lyrics to the song, does it just say gibberish.

That does. That's what it is. It's Rahimi and Grotie on 104-3. The score will give back to Anthony Herron here in just a second. But at first I have to tell you that this segment with That Man, Anthony Heron, is brought to you by Plumbers 911, plumbing emergency. call the plumbing professionals available 24-7-1833-3-plum 9-1-1. And you did hear the play by Malik Mohamed, who I think had a fantastic debut.

What did you think of the rookie quarter out of Texas? Interception to helping the Bears yet again. When the turnover battle in the game. I was struck by the game plan that Carolina came in with because I certainly, I told you guys last week. I was thinking if you got Malik Mohammed and Dylan Thinemann out there with a couple of guys who haven't started for the Bears, even though they might be veterans and Cam Lewis and or Xavier Woods, I was guessing that's where their passing attack would end up trying to

get after. But they really didn't. It was more the veterans and that they were catching Jalen Johnson and Tyreek Stevenson in these aggressive postures on double moves, getting chunk plays over and over again. and I think it's a credit. Two things. One, Dennis Allen, essentially simplifying the coverage responsibilities.

Just making sure that Malik Mohamed is going to constantly be in man coverage because one of the toughest things for a nickel to do is to decipher so much of the information that the closer you get to the box, to the line of scrimmage, to all the big people, and to the football, then that's where you have to be able and willing to react in a moment's notice. Sometimes you have to react with physicality. Sometimes you have to react with finesse. But depending on what the scheme is and what your assignment is, there's a lot of really quick decision-making that happens

when you're defending in the slot. He pretty much had Malik Mohamed and the entire secondary. It was like an AMC defense. They were pretty much always in-man coverage against Carolina that did provide some opportunities for Bryce Young to extend the play. Sometimes you got backs turned of defenders when people are running around. But you didn't see. bus. You saw some

physical errors, but you didn't see mental errors necessarily. I thought that really put Malik Mohamed in a situation and Dylan Thinemann in positions to just be comfortable without having to overthink and over-evaluate. And it combined well with the offensive onslaught

that we saw from the Bears where they were constantly playing with a lead. So then DA could be in a position where he didn't necessarily feel like there needed to be a lot of schematic adjustments. He certainly got more aggressive in the second half of the bringing more additional pressure. But Malik Mohamed handled that really well.

That same feisty and competitive demeanor that I was talking to you guys about in the preseason, that showed up in the game yesterday. And it was really a great grab that he made on that interception to close out the first half. Yeah, he had a good weekend between Texas beating Ohio State his own murder. And then his, you know, his Bears win. That wasn't bad. That was an insane game. I know you had an eye on it.

I did. Yeah, very closely, very closely, no doubt. When I was doing post post yesterday, there were a couple of folks who were basically saying like, all right, I'm done with Jalen Johnson. He's not back. I'm so worried about him and what he's doing. And he's never going to be a great player again. I responded to a couple of them. I'll say this for Jalen Johnson, and there's a lot of scrutiny and expectation because he has been a great player when healthy earlier in his career.

What I saw yesterday from Jalen Johnson was a guy who guessed wrong multiple times. I saw a level of aggression and coverage that isn't who he frequently is. One of the reasons that the interception numbers weren't exceptional earlier in Jalen Johnson's career was because he constantly keeps himself in a position where the quarterback doesn't normally throw his guy to football. Those double moves yesterday, both with, like Tyreek Stevenson being being on a double move, that doesn't surprise me. Double moves have always been the foil for Tyreek Stevenson. For Jalen Johnson, that's not something we've seen. I didn't see a guy who I felt like had lost a step physically.

Okay, good. Good. Yeah, I saw a guy who looked to me like he guessed wrong on multiple occasions. But even that moment where the slant route gets caught, and I'm forgetting which Panthers receiver, then I don't know statistically if Thineman got credit for the force fumble or if it was Jalen Johnson. I don't know either.

I think it was Johnson, but it's a great question still. Chasing all the way across the field like Jalen Johnson had to before he peed up punches that ball out, you saw some tracing speed, some chase down speed from him having to get out of his break, be sudden in his movements, and then get into chase mode to track down a receiver. And while he's doing it to be able to have the body dexterity to punch the football out while he's trying to secure a tackle. So I didn't see anything that concerned me with Jalen Johnson physically.

And mentally, that's always been one of his superpowers is reading routes on the run. He didn't have a good day doing it yesterday, but I'm not discouraged where Jalen Johnson's at at the moment. All right, that's good. I mean, that was going to be my question. That's a relief because of what we saw last year where he clearly, because of the injury, was off a step and exposed quite a bit and good for him for coming back in the first place last year. So hopefully he will get better going forward. Defensive line, Big Ann, obviously, and Lela and I talked about Montes-Swett

with a huge sack on third and seven early in the game, exploiting Monroe Freeling, which is what you're supposed to do to a rookie tackle in this league, who I don't even think they wanted to put out there. in this game, but injuries dictated that. What did you think about the defensive line in general, though, yesterday? The Bears did what they could to sort of attack in waves as I anticipated, where they had a number of bodies rolling through. And between Dio, Dengbo and he and Montes sweat at times with flop sides,

where you'd see sweat pretty regularly rushing the left edge. In the first half of the game, we got into the second half, and he and Dio flipped assignments, responsibilities. And sometimes you're just trying to get a feel for what it's, It's like rushing against the other offensive tackle. And throughout his entire career, Montes Sweat hasn't consistently been a guy that's shown comfort rushing either edge. It really had as many opportunities to rush from both edges. So I like them at least switching that up on occasion in the game.

We saw Austin Booker get plenty of reps and more so pass rush, been rundowns yesterday where you get Diodangbo. Kind of switching down to the inside as a three technique over the guard. But Montes Sweat getting that early sack, it was nice. he got to the quarterback more consistently early in the game than he did as the game we're on. And you can get kind of tired when you're chasing a guy like Bryce Young around as consistently as that bear as D-line had to. It was hot muggy conditions. We saw Christina Pink saying it was 126 or 128 degrees on the turf or whatever. So I'm not surprised the D-line didn't look as energetic in the second half as they did in the first.

You would hope they're going to find ways to be more impactful, more effective throughout more of the game. than they were yesterday. I noted how much time in empty, no less. Price Young had to throw. That was one of those indicators for me where I wonder if Dennis Allen goes back and shows that tape because empty is supposed to be where your defensive line eats

and that wasn't the case at all. Right. You're not getting chipped. You're not getting doubled as frequently just depending on how many bodies you're showing. One of the things that's within the Dennis Allen scheme, you can have linebackers more consistently walked up into the A gaps And once you do start showing mug looks or you start having it, whether it's a zero technique, nose, you get a linebacker head up on the nose.

When you're covering the center, then you can create one-on-one matchups on the outside. When you do that against an empty backfield, you're guaranteeing that your defensive ends are going to be one-on-one with those tackles. And so that's available to the bears. One thing they started doing, and a factor in the reason that they seemingly wore down more in the second half, they began using more power rushes. Montes Sweat was getting home early in the game. You guys remember last year, I talked to you a lot about how much time Montesweat spends as a power rusher, powering through the body of the offensive tackle as opposed to just looking to turn the corner.

And that's the difference between he and a guy like Max Crosby, who spends more time beating offensive tackles in space with more finesse-based moves. Montes Sweat is more of a power rusher. But as he turned the corner a couple of times early in that game, he just utilized speed and his levers, violent hands. As Bryce Young started to run around and extend plays, the bears were more focused on condensing the pocket and just not allowing those easy escape lanes

for a really diminutive and very elusive quarterback in Bryce Young, who can be tough to sack, just because, frankly, you've got to reach down to the ground to get him sometimes with how small he is and how he can duck and dodge and dip his shoulders. So you saw the bears take more of a focus on condensing the pocket with power. but that does take a lot more energy.

It's a lot more physically taxing as a power rusher. When you're, as opposed to the offensive line in a run scheme, like with pad level, like I was highlighting on social media what Donnell Wright and Jonah Jackson are doing, just firing off the ball moving folks. When you're bullrushing and offensive linemen who frequently is bigger and heavier than you, it takes a lot of energy to do that. I think that's a part of where the Bears D line kind of wore down a little bit more in the second half too,

and they weren't pass rushing and getting free as much, but it's because they spent more time down the middle of the offensive line, just trying to condense the pocket. Anthony Heron with us here, Rahimi and Grotian on 104-free the score. Let me take you to the second quarter, Anthony. The bears are up 21 to 14. It's a fourth and one on their own 20, and the Bears go for it.

The Caleb Williams sneak is no good. It turns into a Bryce Young touchdown to tie the game at 21. What did you think about the play there? Or the decision, really, or both, really. The decision bothered me more than the play. It just felt unnecessary. And the way their offense was rolling,

I more than understand having confidence in the Bears' offense, but at your own 21, like, yeah, fourth and one, you want to convert fourth and one, but you got the ball at your minus 20, minus 21, in that area of the field, with the way that the Panthers offense had begun rolling in the game too. That to me was just an unnecessary risk.

It was kind of an unforced error, I think, by Ben Johnson. And this is certainly going to be, it's going to continue to be a part of the Ben Johnson experience. And as an old football dinosaur, I feel I've come a long way on the idea of going for fourth downs. I don't have an issue with attempting fourth downs frequently, but just the full context matters. The minus 21 with the way the Carolina's offense has just been slicing up the bear's defense up to that point in the game, to me if you don't, Don't convert that. The risk reward of that doesn't outweigh the idea of getting some field position to punt the ball away. And giving your defense a legitimate chance to try and come up with a stop.

I didn't like that decision. I didn't like the execution either. Unfortunately, we've seen Caleb Williams have a bad habit where he will turn his back to the line of scrimmage on a play like that. It happened last year. And I feel like it was something he overcame last season. But then we see it happen a couple times in the game. where he finished with his back toward the line of script. You're not going to move forward if you're floating backward.

Like this is not a pole vault. And I think we saw that too. I wonder if he's like if Caleb is pushing a boulder up a mountain. Does he, does he do it facing the boulder? Does he turn around and try to drive his legs in that way? But from about, excuse me. Oh, bears. I got you.

Yeah, bears. Bless you. Thank you. I'm going to drink water. Don't, don't you go dying on it. us now, man. I'll also point out the high jump is another case where you move forward by floating backwards

but it doesn't always work in football. I've never tried the Fosbury Flop myself. I had a track coach at Bolinburg High School when I used to try to do the high jump. He would never let me do it. He said I was too big. So if I actually landed on the high jump pole at some point, he was very worried I was going to break it at my size. So this is

an equipment decision more so than it was a skill decision. Yeah, I mean, I don't know what the budget was at that points. Like when you break a backboard, your parents have to pay for it, then that's a bit of a concern of an issue. Suppose if I were broken the high jump pole at some point, then we'd had to pay for that too. You were doing high jump? Like, it didn't have itself. Well, I was hoping to. I was attempting to, but it didn't end up working out. I was not allowed to do it because my track coach wouldn't let me. He had a big problem with the idea that I might actually

break the pulse. I would mess around with it in practice, but he never got to the point where he let me try it in the meat. Because at some point, no matter how good you do in a track meet, you're going to have to miss a high jump at some point. I wasn't a bad jumper back in the day, you know, the whole Quadzilla thing, but he never did let me actually try it in a meet. If he knew I could make certain heights in practice, he'd let me tinker around, but no, I never got to do it in a meet. Because at a certain point, you're going to miss,

and he's worried at my size, if I missed, I was going to break all his equipment. What did you end up doing in track then? Shot and disc. I would occasionally sprint, you know, do some of the big man relay type of stuff and, you know, occasionally run the 100s and 200s, because we get done with the shot putting disc really early in a track meet. Then from there, we're just sitting around for hours waiting to take the bus home. So, yeah, I do a little bit of running here and there, but mainly shot putting disc.

Anthony, you're the best, man. Thanks for joining us. Get right there, buddy. I don't want to. We don't need you coughing at the end of these segments, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, no. It's asking a lot, man. Two whole segments with you guys.

I'm trying to put up with it the best I can. We're testing my stamina. You're awesome. Thank you, man. We really appreciate you. Groves, Lail, appreciate you both. Thanks, Ann. is Anthony Heron.

I love this text message from the 847 because we came in with Chop Sui from System of a Down as our music coming into Anthony Heron. And the text says, I love that my dad just texted me. Is System of a Down a real band? And are they considered good? Thank you for forcing my dad to consult with me for my music expertise. And yes, they're a good band. Well, you don't have to ask, are the Bears good? And that's a nice place to be in.

So sure, we'll take band talk. No doubt about it. Yeah, there's a new metal revival going on right now. And the phone lines are open. We've got people that are hanging, that have been just so patient, that are still on hold with us right now. So we will get to some of those calls next.

312, 644, 67, 67. What is your reaction to the Bears 59-37 win over the Panthers? 312, 644-67. It's Rahimi and Grotie on 104-3, the score.