Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Anthony Herron shares observations from Bears' win over Panthers (Hour 2)

Episode Date: September 14, 2026

In the second hour, 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.

This hour is being brought to you by Menards. Save big money at Menards. Anthony Heron, 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 snatch down was by Luther Burden the third for another first down.

Inside the 30 to the 29, 31 seconds left. Former NFL defensive lineman and Iowa Hawkeye. Anthony Herron received credit for it. Tonight's a job by Anthony Herron number 99. Mr. Hadden, 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 football Monday

presented by Busey 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 Grody. 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 2026 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, I think we just have to get used to the fact that 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 for 50 points in the NFL the way they did yesterday against a playoff 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. We're giving 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, of 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 DeAndre 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? What was, 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 DeAndre Swift and maybe even Kyle Manungai as well? He's become such a decisive runner. Kyle Manung guy has been a decisive runner since the first time he carried a football in Pop Warner. That hasn't always been DeAndre 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 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 the notebook began today. I love her notebook. 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 9. CSW first down, nice block, first down, Komet plus 6 run. He had a very nice game yesterday. Cole Komet 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 that I have here is DeAndre Swift nearly killed a guy. Like the way that they were running was just... Laylow. First of all, feed them because 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 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,

and 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, you know, I wondered very aloud here on this station and other platforms. Is that kind of the plateau for DeAndre 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 has.

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 Menungai 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 DeAndre Swift-ish. So Swift being willing to get vertical and time things up with the footwork that's necessary to set that up. And Menungi 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 and 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 execute it. That is the insightful voice of

Anthony here of 104.3, 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 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,

and one of the smallest guys on the field in there inserting into blockers. Luther Burton has the insertter as a lead blocker on some of these run schemes. And they are 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. Ant 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. It's, 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? Yeah. And Donald 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, 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 Jada Walker. He's hustling and he's sprinting down the field, trying to secure 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 Plummers 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 match-up perspective, Colston Loveland coming out of the game with a couple of targets and no grabs, he put up 59 points. Your leading receiver not being Roma Dunezay, not being Luther Burton, not being Colston Loveland or D'Andre Swift,

not being Colquette. But Khalif Raymond is not a guy who you say that's our match-up 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 left 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, more with Anthony Heron on the Bears next right here on the score. Rahimi and Grody. Do you and I are obsessed with me. Midday, 10 a.m. to 2 on the score. Stoll Deshawn Watson at Porter Backhill. floated for Dylan Sampson and nowhere to go. And what do you know? The rookie Malik Mohamed stays right on Kew.

Bring me Malik Mohamed and System of a Down. Beautiful. They rocked us at Soldier Field. Can't wait to be there this Sunday at noon. You got those lyrics right, man. That is what people tuned in for today. It is us half-singing system of a down lyrics. That's it.

That's why you're here. Does it just say gibberish dot dot dot dot? Yeah, it does. That's what it is. It's Rahimi and Grody on 104.3, the score. We'll give back to Anthony Heron 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 Plum 911. And, you did hear the play by Malik Mohamed, who I think had a fantastic day. What did you think of the rookie quarter out of Texas? Interception to helping the Bears yet again win 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 Mohamed and Dylan Thinemann out there with a couple of the 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 Muhammad 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 Muhammad 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 and people are running around. But you didn't see bus. You saw some physical errors, but you didn't see mental errors necessarily. And I thought that really put Malik Mohamed in a situation.

And Dylan Thineman 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 game, 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. 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.

All right. 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. And 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 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 3rd and 7 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 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 than run downs yesterday where you get Di-o-Dangbo, kind of switching down to the inside as a three technique over the guard. But Montes-swet 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 is

consistently as that bear as D-Line had to. It was hot, muggy conditions. We saw Christina Pink saying it was a 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. Yeah, and I noted how much time in empty, no less. Bryce 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 MT 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, 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 Montes Sweat 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 power. 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 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. I was highlighting on social media what Donnell Wright and Jonah Jackson are doing, just firing off the ball moving folks. When you're bull rushing an offensive lineman 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 Grotie on 104, 3 of 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 bear's 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 a, you know, 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 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 yesterday where he finished with his back toward the line of scrimmage. 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 Do it facing the boulder?

Does he turn around and try to drive his legs in that way? But for about Excuse me. Bears, I got you. Yeah, bears. Bless you. Thank you. I'm going to drink water.

Don't you go dying on 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 Bolinbrook 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 point. It's like when you break a backboard, your parents have to pay for it. and that's a bit of a concern of an issue. Suppose if I had to 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 polls. I would mess around with it in practice, but he never got to the point where he let me try it into 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 put and 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 it. We don't need you coughing at the end of these segments. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I know. It's asking a lot, man. Two whole segments with you guys. I mean, I'm trying to put up with it the best I can. Testing my stamina. You're awesome. Thank you, man. We really appreciate you. Gross. Lela. Appreciate you both. Thanks, Aunt. Yeah, it is Anthony Heron. I love this text message from the 847 because we came in with Chop Sui from System of a

Down is our music coming into Anthony Heron and the texture 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. 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 but we 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? 3-1-2-644-67. It's Rahimi and Grody on 104-3 the score. Rahimi and Grody and Grody. Midday's 10 a.m. to 2 on Chicago's Sports Radio,

1043, the score. 61 yards to the house longest run by far of his NFL career touchdown Chicago Kyle Menonio just bursting to the end zone right there Adam Amin with the awesome call on Fox from yesterday

that's your complimentary football the Bears had just stopped the lions on there the lions the Panthers on their own little attempt at fourth and three nope nope and then we're going to put it right in your face after that and Manunga is going to get some nice blocks along the way and he's going to get into the end zone and the game was about to be over right there

as we welcome you back into Rahimi and Grotie on 104 3, the score. Let's go back to some calls. Are you ready, Layla, to go back to the phone lines? I mean, it is what we do on a football Monday. Is it not? A victory Monday. The chicken is going to be here soon.

Rinalis, friends. Rinalys is providing us with the victory chicken today. Layla has showed food discipline up until that point. all showing food discipline. Yeah, I haven't eaten today. Yeah. That'll be my first meal. We might have to get coffee too. Breakfast at 1 o'clock. Ooh, delicious. I already got coffee. It's in the fridge because I don't want to drink it yet. Let's go south a little bit. Let's go to Chinatown. And that's where we find Henry. Hey, Henry, thanks for calling. You're on Rahimi and Grotie on the score. Hey, how you doing? Well, first up, I apologize. I feel like I sound like Doc Rivers from

screaming at the TV and cheering at my local bar, Bernice's tavern. You're all welcome to bingo night on Wednesdays. Anyways, I wanted to say, you've talked about it, I really admire Ben Johnson being committed, just committed to the run game. We've seen, like,

offensive-minded coaches not do that. You know, spam past plays like it's Madden. So, it's just, It's just cool to see a dual running back tandem that we have. And what a week one. I mean, I just feel like you've probably noticed this, too, just going around the city. Everybody's mood is just bumping into people and Bears gear and just starting a random Packers' suck chant.

It's just awesome. And, yeah, no, it's just, yeah, finally, shout out to Lana at Knockouts for listening to me, Mark out about the Bears game and talk about my cat and video games. That's all I got to say. You guys are great. Take care now. All right, Henry. Yeah, hey, shout out to Lana. Hey, we were going to do a shout out to Lana, but Henry already did the shout out to Lana. You know, it's interesting that he talks about the running game because it really illustrates the difference between Matt Nagy. Because remember people who are like, oh, this is, Ben Johnson is Matt Nagy.

It's like the same idea. This guy is going to pass, pass, pass the ball and have these explosive offenses. But the difference is with Matt Nagy after every game, and there were a lot of wins in 2018, we're like, Yeah, but what about the running game? Where was Jordan Howard? Where was the rest of that running game? The fact that he sticks to it and believes in it and creates it himself. Like he constructs, Ben Johnson is responsible for constructing the entire running game,

which is a relative rarity for a head coach to do that. It's also just a sign that you built an offensive system and you're not just collecting plays from everywhere. That's part of that as well. Tari Cohen having only four touches in the playoff game with the double doink will never not sit with me because it showed that the offensive game plan was to just run a bunch of plays and maybe some of them work and maybe they don't. That's not what this head coach does. Jim is in Aurora.

Hi, Jim. You're on the score. Yeah, good morning. Hey, I want to plug about that fourth down play. To me, that just shows the genius of Ben Johnson. Number one, it shows his mindset, the confidence that he has in that offense that they can do anything, which is everybody. knows in sports a lot. Football, baseball,

anything is all in your mind, you know? And it sets up for the rest of the season. Defense approaches are going to have to realize the Bears have third in five, third and six, they're not going to pass the ball. They might run the box. They got two plays

to get that five or six yards. So from here on out, the rest of the teams to play in the Bears are going to have to think like that now. Third and short, third and mid, they're not going to pass like everybody else. I think we saw some of that yesterday, especially third and three. That's the question mark. That's really where you see some of the offensive

philosophy. I love it. And for them, if they don't, if they want to run the ball, or they're very determined, especially at a shotgun to run the ball on third and three, because then you're that much farther behind the line of scrimmage. You have that much farther to go. You can see why that really does actually take place. But I can't get behind going for it on four through one. That's not a good example of his genius. I don't think that. That's a good example of his risk taking and his confidence. I don't know that's a good example of his genius. I feel like the first half felt like part of the preseason still. It had nine penalties. You know, the bold choices were made. Fumbles happened. It felt very, at least to start. I was like, what? Are we still doing some

preseason hangover here? I mean, yeah, it started with a Roma Dunezay penalty on a DeAndre Swift explosive play. Just some bad discipline penalties too. Right. The fumble by by bird. It was an entire game. The first half was an entire game. It was 3124 at halftime. The bears had 315 total yards at halftime. They had 125 rushing yards at halftime. And as you just said, nine of their 12 penalties for, actually I don't have the yardage here. I have the yardage. Also, everybody asking about the meatball machine, it will happen at 145. The meatball machine never closed. It is open for you. Permanently. So the bear is committed 12. penalties total for 57 yards. But in the first half, according to my notebook, it was nine for 42.

Yeah, that's it. Yep. I literally couldn't read my scratchy writing right there. Panthers had, I think, 11 penalties in the game. It's what happens. Like, beginnings of seasons are always weird with referees. Like, they're sloppy play. I'm not saying the bears didn't deserve the penalties. Same with Carolina. But it's like, refs are always testing new stuff. I'm not sure what it was this week. Nobody wanted to call a face mask in the entire NFL yesterday. Which is interesting. You said that earlier. I don't, philosophically, I don't understand unless the rest were just literally missing it.

Sometimes it was a hand on a face mask at the end of the play. But I don't know about you guys. I saw a ton of face masks in games, multiple games yesterday that I watched. And it felt like none of them were even being called. That's amazing. We'll get to more of our NFL thoughts on the league and the North and five on it. But one more call here. Let's go to Tony near Midway.

Hey, Tony, you're on the score. Hey, what's up? I'm as excited as anyone about the Bears, but I do have a concern that I think could be pretty consequential for them, and that is we're just bad on short yardage, whether that's on the goal line or like we saw yesterday with the fourth down conversion attempt. We were bad last year, and I just don't get it because our offensive line is really good. We've got good running backs. Just your thoughts on that, and hopefully they can clean it up because it could make a big

difference as far as scoring. You're right. No, it's a weird quirk. As good as the bears are seemingly everywhere else offensively, as we were talking about, Leila, they're a little clutzy when it comes to the one yards, and Caleb Williams has got to be better at some of the quarterback sneaks. No, it's been a problem. And yes, quarterback sneak for whatever reason has been a bugaboo. But the only thing I can say is, once again, he's probably watching that film going, oh, here's something that I did last year that I shouldn't do that came back a couple of times. That was the surprising part. You just can't finish with the back, you're back to the play. You're not going to go anywhere. You're going the wrong way. And it's, I know it's scary and I can't imagine what it's like when you're a quarterback trying to do that. That doesn't seem fun to me.

But it does seem like it's part of the job. Right. And with all the people moving they were doing yesterday, the offensive line was awesome that they can't get that one yard. It's really agonizing. But that is, That is fixable. That is a fixable thing. And bears were, for the record, they were 10 of 14 on third down yesterday. It was just that one fourth down play they made. I see the thought process for Ben Johnson. Going forward on fourth down. Yeah, but at the same time, they scored a touchdown right afterward to Carolina.

That was an easy drive for them. No doubt. And I was saying, like, in real time, I kind of fold my arms. And I'm like, okay, because we all trust Ben Johnson, right? And we know that this is what he does. So I wasn't, like, mad. Like, I think a lot of people were like, what are you doing? You're crazy.

Even I think Drew Breeze was like, I thought they were just going to try to draw them, do the old draw them off sides thing. I was like, okay, Ben, I trust you. Go ahead and you blew it in now. Try to draw them off sides at their home. Like, there's that layer of it too. Well, on Bears fans. Not try to draw them off sides at Soldier Field.

How about the Bears fans, or the Bears trying to quiet down the crowd in Carolina? The Bears, hey, Bears fans are still making noise on offense. Stop making noise on offense, Bears fans. Don't do that. Oh, yeah, that was an Adam and Meem pointed out the sign, the joking signed by the Panthers. Hey, the Bears need you guys to be more quiet, aka Panthers fans, get loud.

Yeah, rack it up. Coming up next year on Rahimi and Grotie, more Bears questions and NFL questions and five on it. We're even going to slide in a baseball question as well. Don't worry. We haven't completely forgotten the Cubs and White Sox. They are of consequence this week. Five on it.

No doubt about it. Five on it is next for Hemi and Grotie on 104.3, the score.