Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Bears' offense explodes in a 59-37 win over Panthers! (Hour 1)

Episode Date: September 14, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Mark Grote opened their show by reveling in the Bears' offensive explosion in a 59-37 win against the Panthers on Sunday in their season opener. After that, they opened up the phone lines for Score callers to share their excitement about the Bears' victory.

This hour is brought to you by Menards. Save big money at Menards. Rahimi and Grody 10 to 2 on 104 3, the score. The Bears opened the season against the Panthers on Sunday. So big question, who you got? I've got the Bears winning

this game 27 to 24 over the Carolina Panthers. There, done. 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. My lack of confidence in the Bears defense has me thinking it's going to be a shootout type of game,

high scoring of bear, 34, 31 Bears though. Welcome to NFL kickoff weekend, hot and muggy in Charlotte, North Carolina. This is where Luther Burden did a lot of damage in the screen game, but he lost the football and the Panthers have it. Oh, disaster strikes on Chicago's opening drive. No, no, no, don't do it. Five receivers in the pattern. Williams, flush to the left.

And he's going to take off with eyes for the end zone. Touchdown Caleb Williams. And the Bears are able to answer them. They will run it with Swift. Patient run, bust throw. The Bears take the lead. DeAndre Swift is in the end zone. Another fake to Monongue.

Williams sets up. Brose into double coverage. It is poker. Williams 4 for 4 on the drive. Pressured. He takes the lead. He's in motion. It is Swift.

It is a touch. Ray Swift getting paid. DeAndre Swift getting into the end. zone twice today. To be slide to deliver the knockout punch for Chicago up by 20. That's a knock.

Swift, breaks through on a season opening cake for Chicago. Well, the Bears are getting the first place treatment. One of the toughest schedules in the NFL. They take a first step towards those lofty goals and expectations. A monster game, 59 to 37, Chicago.

Talk about wanting to having to have the highest scoring offense. Listen, that'll always be the goal. We want to be the highest scoring. We want to have the most wins. We want to win Super Bowls. That's what we do. We didn't get into this profession trying to be mediocre average.

I need it. I need it. Go on. Good better, bad! You're a better. We are back, baby. We are... We are back.

We are back. We are back. Mark Grody, Midday's 10 a.m. to 2 on Chicago Sports Radio. 104-3, The Score. It will not get old for me to say today. Bears 59, Carolina 37. As we welcome you in to Rahimi and Grotie on 104.3, the score. You are absolutely listening to a Plummer's 911 football Monday presented by Bucie Bank and great clips.

Welcome in. We are open 312, 644, 67. Layla, I'm just going to answer a text message right away. here from the 708. Groats, how many bears does that bear's performance get from yesterday? 59 bears. They get 59 bears.

Shout out to Adam Zensky, because he actually brought that up on Twitter. Shout out to you, Mr. Studs. But 59 bears, I think on this day, is appropriate. How are you, Layla? I'm hung over. I blacked out what happened yesterday. It's so perfect. It was, and the funniest part is,

there were frustrating moments in the game. And it doesn't even matter because they just kept going at their game plan. That second half was a whoopin. And I'm sorry. I'm not sorry. I'm not sorry. I wanted to go for two. I wanted to see the 60 on the board.

I wanted to see it. I wanted to feel it. I wanted to experience it. And I know that's not the classy thing to do. But neither was Channing Green Bay sucks during the game multiple times. in Charlotte. How good is that? All of it was on 10. We knew this day was going to come.

We joked about it. I said the game plan was going to be Big 12 after dark. 47, 42 was going to be the outcome of not this particular game, but just joke that that was kind of the mindset we needed to have coming into the season. Didn't stop it from feeling good, though. No, it did not. And in the words of Lawrence Taylor, as it pertains to the defense, y'all got to get a whole lot better than that.

Don't worry, we'll get to that. And 478 yards, the defense allowed 353 passing, 125 on the ground. I think it's hilarious listening to the five Butte open that Tyler Bueber bought together and hearing Adam Amin appropriately on Fox, along with Drew Brees, saying, in this game, think about it. Think about a game that the Bears win 59 to 37. and in the opening sequence of the game on offense, he is having to say things like disaster strikes.

Disaster struck in a game for the Chicago Bears where they scored 59 points. And it did feel awfully disastrous early on in the game when there is an explosive run by DeAndre Swift to begin the game and there's Roma Dunzee with a hole. And then there's the guy, Luther Burden, that we're all buying stock in because Ben Johnson has told us.

to buy stock in Luther Burton. He gets the ball. He does his thing. He's running up field, and he fumbles the football. And Stevenson and Thineman are missing tackles. And you're all like, oh, man, is this going to take a little while to get going? And then all they did after that, ladies and gentlemen, it's not going to get old giving out all these tidbits today. Seven of their next 12 drives were touchdowns for the Chicago Bears. Holy bleep, yay Bears. That's our segment for the next hour. Yeah, because it is. Chicago Bears team scored 59 points. A loud 37 and scored 59.

Say it again. And Chicago Bears team scored 59 points. Your Chicago Bears team yesterday. Yes. That doesn't feel real. No, it doesn't. And that's the whole point of this. We wanted to see what this offense could do.

And yeah, I feel like the first three drives still felt like the preseason. But once they got it going, they really got it going. And it was just the way they kept to the game plan, too. there were times where they weren't getting that penetration between the tackles that they wanted for the run game. Doesn't matter. We're going to keep doing it. And then we see what happens. When you've got Kyle

Menungai just running over people for that 61 year touchdown, the receivers who are blocking all day. I'm not saying this game was perfect by any means, but take the dub. Take the dub when you've put the entire NFL on notice. To score 59 points in a game in the NFL, I don't care who your opponent is. I don't care how it happens. There's a reason this is such a rarity.

And your team did it on Sunday to open the season, no less. Statement has been made. Yeah, and I love hearing things like that. This is a warning to the NFC North. And is this not 5937 necessarily? This is the template that we've all been talking about in this offseason, as in we've all expected and assumed that Caleb Williams and this offense would take the next step,

that Colston Loveland would take the next step, that Luther Burden would take the next step, that myriad of guys on this offense would take the next step, and that the defense wouldn't be particularly good. Now, will the bear score 59 points a game? No, they may not score another, well, maybe that's a good question. Will the bear score 50 again this season? Probably.

Probably. Potentially. Potentially. I'm not even going to worry about will right now. I'm just going to live in what I saw yesterday. That's a good place to live because that is not going to get old. But it's amazing that these were, by everybody, essentially, the talking points of the Bears. Offense goes to the next level. Still pretty worried about the defense. A lot of ambiguity

in the defense. And one of our great hopes, I thought, was that maybe there is one person who can make this defense better. Maybe that's Jalen Johnson. Unfortunately, Jalen Johnson did not have a particularly good day yesterday, nor did Tyreek Stevenson have a very good day yesterday. And I'm not looking at it and say, okay, there's still a problem with Jalen Johnson. He may have just had a bad day. And it's been a while since he has played, obviously, too, except towards the end of last year. But it is amazing how in one game, maybe a microcosm, maybe symbolic of what we're going to see for the rest of the year. But I can tell, I can promise you that that is exactly what you and I were saying, that's what our listeners were saying, that this was, this was the template for

the Bears, 59 to 37. Yeah, sadly. And there were moments, yes, everybody talking about the defense, our text line, you can call us, too. We're opening up the phones on this football Monday, 312, 644, 67, 67. Because we are getting texts like that. We are hearing from people about that defense. Like A15, scoring 59 points is great, but when are we going to talk about the 37 points,

loud. The offense is fire, but we can't rely on them scoring 40 points a game. You might have to right now. Sure. And you can look at the box score metrics and you can see when most of the tackles, when you're leading tacklers are in the secondary and they're not in the linebacking court to me, that's always

a bit of a red flag. And then I wanted to see, like, Cam Lewis ends up with five solo tackles, but like, for example, you would like to see your linebackers get more tackles. Like Devin Bush had two solo tackles, you know. He did have a He did recover the fumble.

Got to give him credit for that. But I did see other spots in the defense that did help with this. Montes Sweat got a timely sack when the bears needed a stop. Third and seven. Those things matter to me when I see Montes Sweat at least get a sack when the bears needed the defense in the line and the pass rush to come through. And I said, Ben, don't break. 37 points on any other day, you're probably saying, well, yeah, this is bend and break. Disaster.

But not when your offense is scoring the way it did. And with the run game, that's the part of this that I want people to really focus on, is that to score 59 points in the NFL, just based on how many plays you're running, based on how time of possession would work, based on the fact that there's a professional team, a playoff team, a division winner on the other side of you at home, you're probably going to have to sling it. Not the case.

Caleb Williams only has 29 attempts in this game. He was 21 of 29, 269 yards, and a 124 passer rating. You know, that's the other part. At one point, he and Bryce Young had perfect passer ratings at the same time in this game. Pretty incredible. Yeah, DeAndre Swift, 18 carries, 124 yards, three touchdowns,

and he should have had more. He had two plays taken away due to bad holding penalties early in the game, explosive plays, and then all of a sudden he gets that 32-yard burst. He says, you ain't taking that one away from me, and that they ended up turning that into a touchdown. yet it was Bradbury and Rome with the early holds. Yes, phone lines are open.

312, 64, 64, 67, 67 is the number. The question we're throwing out there to you, and you could take this in any direction that you would like here on Rahimi and Grotia on 104.3, the score. Are you buying what you saw from the bears yesterday? Call in 312, 644, 67, 67 is the number. We see your calls coming in right now. We'll see your text messages coming in.

Why don't we do a quickie here before we go to a? our first break, just to keep it real here. Appropriate, but I'll allow it. Brantz is in Jacksonville, Florida. Brantz, you're on Rehemi and Grotie. What you got on the Bears, buddy? Good morning, y'all. So, you know, my daughter actually trains

with Caleb Williams' quarterback trainer, and that guy does put in the work. So I think it's definitely showing, continues the work on his footwork, I've seen some of the videos. So you know he's putting the work in the offseason, which definitely showing on the field. And then my other statement was just, is the Panthers defense that bad?

offense is that good? I don't think so, man. Look, the Panthers were a middle of the pack defense last year, and in theory they've added a couple of really good players to their defense. They drafted on defense this year. They paid Jalen Phillips $30 million a year. They don't have they signed Evan Lloyd. Maybe they're bad early on, but like generally speaking, you look at the personnel, and Lela just mentioned the two big names right there. I don't think that this is going end up being a bad Carolina defense. 312, 644, 67, 67 is the number. We will take our first break. Be patient with us. This is a good time to call in, though. Get on hold. You'll talk to Ray Diaz. We will get to you. We promise. 312, 644, 67, 67. Are you buying what you saw from the Bears

yesterday? 312-644-67-67 is the number. Shout out to Ray Diaz, our executive producer, and Tyler Bueberbaugh on the other side of the glass. our Twitch producers, log on to Twitch.tv. slash the score Chicago. You can watch the show and hang out with the Twitch mob. What's going on, Twitchers? You can comment in there as well. Connor O'Donnell, Max Curtis, and Jacob Stutz,

all making that happen as we broadcast live from the Hyundai Studios, brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers. More Rahimi and Grody coming up next year on 104-3, The Score. Rahimi and Grody. I mean, I'm just going to make it happen. I'm a dog. Midday. him to two on the score.

If he could get him into field goal range. Young goes down field. Oh, it's picked up by the rookie. Malik Mohamed in his first NFL game gets his first NFL interception. We were just talking about the confidence, a confident throw by Young, but Muhammad dives out there for the pit. Heck yeah. I just laid it in Europe.

Shopping bags of a tourist. That's the opening line of this song. Oh, nice. That's Layla Rahimi right there. Blake with me, you know I got it. I am Mark Grody. We called the show Rahimi and Grotie on 1043, the score. You are listening to a Plumbers 911 football Monday presented by Bucie Bank and great clips.

The Bears beat Carolina 59 to 37. Yeah, I admit it. I was pretty worried about Malik Mohamed from what I saw. I was not. No, friends. I never wavered. I don't know why. I mean, the guy didn't play.

play the position at Texas, which makes it even more impressive. And I've had conversations. What Texas do Saturday, Ohio State? Oh, hell's yeah. We are on. How'd that go for you? And while I'm out of, how'd that go for you, Green Bay? That'll be addressed later in five on it, ladies and gentlemen.

You extended your coach who then made another fourth quarter massive failure of a mistake. Oh, let's go. You failed. Anybody else wants some? You want some of that there, Carolina? You like that. How about that, by the way? The fans go into Charlotte.

There's no surprises anymore. Another team's home stadium to chant Green Bay sucks. Well, they were big. We got you there too. There was a ton of Bears fans there. I don't think that Bears fans outnumbered the Carolina fans. In fact, they didn't because you could tell watching the broadcast, but they made their voices heard. But yeah, Malik Mohamed with that pick at the end of the first half, he had a diving PBU at one point in time past breakup.

So I thought he comported himself well. Keep stacking those days together. I absolutely love it. Are you buying what you saw from the Bears yesterday? 312, 64, 64, 67 is the number. Let's get going on these calls, Lales. Shall we? We shall.

By the way, our segment brought to you by almost free teeth.com. Save on dental implants today. How about Bob? Bob and Downers Grove. Bob, you're on the score with Rahimi and Grotie. What's going on, man? Hey, guys. How you doing?

The best. We are the best today. Oh, I am absolutely buying 100% what I saw yesterday, and I'll tell you why. That offense was absolutely on point. It was on point. DeAndre Swift was so good. Everybody saw the way he ran, but twice linebackers came free right up the middle, and they were going to ruin Caleb's day, and he just stepped in and stoned them.

And I'll tell you what, our defense isn't nearly as bad as it showed yesterday. Aulik Mohamed and Danny Thineman, they can. come from absolute stud stud programs. Malik Mohamed has every expectation of being a starty quarterback in this league. He's not going to have to worry about nickel. He's taken Tyreeks Stevenson's position

real soon. We are going to whoop the Vikings. The Packers had no running game. We're going to run it right down their throat. We're going to win. I am not worried one bit about Carson Wentz walking in here and putting up 30 points on us. Get out of town with that. No way.

We are going to score 40. No problem. We're not going to have to worry about the Blitz game because Swift and Menongai are just going to run it down their throat. It is a nightmare for the NFL to have the Bears, Caleb Williams, under center, a Ben Johnson downhill running game, and play action. We are going to destroy this. Hey, Bob, real quick question for you. Can I ask you a quick question before you go? 17 and all? Oh, I don't know. We got a tough one with the bills late in year. Oh, all of a sudden we got a tough one, huh?

Wait a minute. What was all that 40 points of game talk? Hey, stop harassing the vibe. We're not, this is the NFL. There are a lot of good teams, but we are about to whoop the Vikings there. See you later, Bob. Okay, I like that declaration. I did hate watch the Packers Vikings after the Bears game.

I watched Post game. I listen to Ben Johnson. I listen to Caleb Williams. And I was like, let me see what's going on in this here, Packers and Vikings game. And then I'm like, oh, the Green Bay Packers are up. then Malfour decided to take points off the board for his own team. And then suddenly there went the collapse again. There was.

There was two years in a row, Matt LaFleur. Two games in a row, I should say. Great first call. Let's name our calls. We'll call that call Danny Thieneman. Put that down as Danny Thieneman. I like that. I kind of like Danny Thieneman.

How about Wayne? Wayne is in Lafayette? What's up, Wayne? Oh, you're on the score, man. What's going on? My God, I finally got through to my old buddy Grottyman and Miss Layla, what a fine day to talk to you too, boy. Hell yeah.

My favorite people in the world, boy. Look forward to seeing you guys again one of these days soon. Boy, I sure do. Hey, before I get to my bear thing, me and Dustin Rose decided, since you've got your own show now, we're going to call you Mr. Tall and a Saddle Grody like John Wayne, but. Mr. What? Wait, what was it? Mr. What? Mr. Tall on the Saddle Grody.

Oh, okay, okay. You're right. You're riding tall, babe. Act accordingly. Act accordingly, people. I'm a different man now, Jack. He's telling the saddle every day when he comes to work, buddy. You bet you.

Thanks, Wayne. Hey, you guys, I think if we had our number one pickup in the office season, Mr. Kobe Brian in there, they don't think they would even score 20 points on us. And I'm buying into it big time. As long as we got Caleb and Mr. Johnson calling the plays and everybody stays healthy. We're going to have an unbelievable year this year. And Grody, all those bad years you had, you deserve a couple really good ones here, buddy,

because you stuck right in there with all that ugly stuff. And now it's going to get pretty for you, old buddy. Wayne. For you, Leila. Oh, thank you, Wayne. And how are you doing? Everything okay, health-wise? Yes, ma'am.

I want to thank Dr. Orton from the Lafayette Cancer Society. Dr. Orton. Dr. Orton? Is that Kyle? Is that related to Kyle Orton? Because he's from that area now. I don't know. Mr. Orden, he's from Virginia.

So he might be an off-breed cousin or something. I don't know. Well, very happy to hear you're healthy and doing well. I want to thank him because my PSA went from 31 to 7, and now the next time I go in, it's going to be down to zero. God bless you, Wayne. That means I got it all. So I'm going to be around to antagonize and see and give you guys all the praise

and worldly fame that you guys are going to show us all the time. Wayne, you're the best, man. Thanks so much for the call. I don't know that Kobe Bryant could have saved. Maybe it would have been 450 total yards. The problem was, unfortunately, it was the cornerbacks. It was Tyreeks Stevenson, giving up the Jalen Coker, 51-yard. It was Jalen Johnson giving up a 27-yard play.

And the Jonathan Brooks 46-yard catch and run. And look, it's not like these guys won't get better. In fact, I think both of these guys will get better and eventually look very good. They had bad games yesterday. Yeah, that's the bottom line. I didn't love the fact that Bryce Young had all day to three. growing empty. Yeah, I felt like he looks so comfortable. That was excellent use out of empty out of the Panthers offense and Dave Canales. I feel like that was a very

smart play. You know, they were able to tie the game of 21 as we saw. And yeah, there were some bad tackles too and bad contain. And Jalen Johnson, if you are Kevin O'Connell, you're looking at trying to create more mismatches. I'm surprised they didn't you slot more. Like, unfortunately, Jalen got beat several times in that game. And I know he probably wants that one back. Yeah. I was, Weirdly, like, now in retrospect, I didn't want Jonathan Brooks to burn anybody on the Bears. I'm happy for Jonathan Brooks. This guy's had a tortured career so far, like three games and two awful injuries, former second-round pick, so good for that guy.

Guess what, Leila? Yes. It's Frank in Oak Park. Ah, now we're cooking. Frank, you're on the score with Amy and Grody. I'm brilliant, and I'm almost buying into everything, but let me explain. It's good to be back for Rahimian. me and Grotie for a new bear season.

I thought it might be a bad omen when Ferrari lost one card of bad breaks in Spain and the surviving racer could only manage fourth. But the Bears' offense deodorized some shaky defense on a record day. Granted, the Panthers were an eight and nine division winner last year and played better the second half with wins against the pack and the Rams. But baby, you can't be giving up 478 yards and 37 points or close. close to it each week and get what you want to accomplish. Now, if you can get that down to 340 or 350 each outing,

and you get the three takeaways like Sunday, with this offense, you could go to the Super Bowl. Oh, dang, that was a conversational and short, Frank call. Yeah, wasn't ready. Wasn't ready. I also want to point out this. It was not just the way the Bears won in time of possession, but total plays. They ran 70 total plays. That's how you win a ballgame.

That's how you score 59 points, by the way. And I understand, yes, the defense did not look good. But unfortunately, I think a lot of this somewhat went to plan. They knew that their defense was not going to be as good as their offense. Right. They knew it. Yeah. Yeah, no matter how many.

I mean, Ben Johnson was asked questions throughout the offseason in the spirit of, are you just going to have to go out there and outscore teams because of your defense? course, Ben Johnson gave the politically correct answer, which is not to denigrate the defense. But I think we saw, again, if that is the template in an exaggerated way, it's not surprising. Yeah, 552 total yards, 291 rushing yards to go along with six touchdowns on the ground, 26 first downs in all those plays that Layla just mapped out. There's just so many things from this game that I don't even know if we'll get to all of the cool little history points and bullet points that this game brought up. Right, not to mention how this NFL opener was historic and the amount of points that were scored total.

But yes, on the other side, you have every reason in a world where we saw the Seahawks defense show you yet again why it won the Super Bowl in their first game of the season. Great point. You know, the defense still does win. But in the meantime, this is what this team was constructed to be. It was just an extreme example. I've got the numbers right here, Lail. You just talked about for an opener, the combined teams, 96 combined. in an opener is the record.

5937. The old record wasn't that long ago, of course, because this is the era in which offense is king. It was in 2018, 88 points combined between Tampa Bay and New Orleans. That was a Tampa Bay 48 to 40 win over the Saints.

How about Tony and Joliet? Tony, you're on, Rahimi and Grotie on 104. 104 to score. What up? Oh, my God, my friends. My friends, Leila. Grody! Tony. Fares Monday.

And it was the best Fares Monday we've ever had, man. Because to answer the question, it's not even close, man. Caleb is not generational. He's once in a lifetime. Oh, boy. It's like when we knew Michael Jordan was there and we had it, we never looked back. And just like a once in a lifetime player, the people before them did great things. Bird Johnson, great.

But Michael took it to a home at a level. So Patrick Mahomes, he's coming. for you, buddy. We're going to be unbelievably great. And another cool thing, too, you take Minangai and Swift together with what their production is. It's almost like having Walter Payton back. This offense is crazy. It's going to be great. And I look forward to talk to you guys. Congratulations on the new show. Listen every day. So happy to be back. Love you guys so much. Let's go, Grotie. Let's go, baby. Let's go, Tony. Take some mad. Call again. We always appreciate your Tony, you're in a promo now. You've made the station imaging. Congratulations. No, he did with the morning show. Yeah. Oh, you did. Well, it was funny. Olin Crutes did the pre-imposts with Olin-Cruits and Patrick Manley yesterday. We had an absolute blast. Those guys are just so good. And Olin-Cruits was asked a question after the game. Is this the best? When have you ever seen a better tandem of rushing backs or running backs for the Bears? And he said, he went where I would have gone. I think a lot of Bears fans would have gone as well. And that was Thomas Jones and Cedric Benson.

at one point in time. I mean, that was a nice one-two punch once Benson got himself going. It was nice. I mean, you think back to, of course, Walter Payton and Matt Suey, but quite frankly, like Matt Suey was not a prolific rusher. He was the fullback who led Walter Payton to all of his yards, and he was a terrific running back, but he was not a big time running. That was the style of football at the time.

That's how that went. You know, they were the only ones with that style of running game in the NFL. at the time oilers were like that too with Earl Campbell. So that was, you know, the bears were just tremendous at it because of Walter and Matsui. Yeah. Yep, no doubt about it. Yeah, kids, there was a time where it was a no-brainer to draft your running back number one overall in the league or number two overall in the league. And then somewhere along the line, it changed.

But we'll go through that book a little bit later on and also give more tidbits on Walter Payton, the legendary Bears running back that people don't know anything about. only I know things about Walter Payton, Layla. I'm the only one. Brody was telling Jared Payton, his son about him this morning. It was a very interesting conversation. Keep listening for your chance to win a pair of tickets to see Weezer. When the Gathering Tour makes it stop in Chicago on September 22nd at United Center,

featuring special guests, the shins and the Silver Sun pickups. Tickets provided by Live Nation. Go to Ticketmaster.com to buy tickets. Are you buying what you saw from the Bears? We'll keep these calls cooking to see you guys on a whole. We'll try to fire through as many of these calls as we can when we return on Rahimi and Grody as you are listening to a Plummer's 9-1-1 football Monday

presented by Busey Bank and great clips on the score. Rahimi and Grody and Grody. Midday's 10 a.m. to 2. On Chicago Sports Radio 1043, the score. Switch breaks through and breaks free. Iceing on a Cesar. season opening cake for Chicago. Did you say 89 total points? We got to add.

That's 64 to that. 95 point ball game. 58 points from the Chicago Bears offense. Incredible. Hey man, good for Jade Walker to get the touchdown. And some people think that he got the ball in that spot because of the blocking and the tackling that he was doing. Jade Walker.

played with purpose like so many Chicago Bears in the game yesterday and a 59-37 win over Carolina as we welcome you back into Rahimi and Grotie on 104-3, the score we get to be here talking Bears with you until 2 o'clock today. Anthony Herron for two segments starting at

11 o'clock as he will give us his insights as he always does with us here on Rahimi and Grotie. In the meantime, let's continue with your calls here on a victory Monday for your Chicago Bears and it's Mario in high Park. Hi, Mario. Thanks for calling the score.

Hey, good morning, everybody. Hello, Lela Rahimi. Hello, Mark Rohde. Mario. Hey there. First of all, if you drop a 50 burger on any team in the NFL, that's mightily impressive. I don't care what kind of defense you got. That's a feat. And I'm wondering if the Bears' offense is going to act kind of like a defense in terms of ball possession and being able to control a game and keep a good defense off the field. I'm sorry, keep a good offense from the opposite team off the field. And in doing that, the Bears could win a lot of these games that we've been thinking they may not win.

If Caleb will, first of all, that dude, man, extend, why wait, do it today, extend that man. because he is it. If the bears are able to beat Minnesota next week, that's humongous. That's a division game. They need to get as many division games as they possibly can if they're going to advance in the tournament. And then my last little thing, I like you, Mark, I don't think the defense, I think that's fixable. I think Jaylon Johnson has a much better game next week. I think Tyreek Stevenson gets coached up big time this week, and he has a better game next week, too.

It was bad, but I'm not as discouraged by that as some people might be. And by the way, Manungai, Mark Grody, remember Manungi. He gives that ball in his hands, and he gets a little bit of space. That tandem of Swift and Manungi is formidable. And I'm looking forward to this. I think it's going to be all right. Yeah, and thanks for a great call, as always, Mario. And yeah, people have been checking in on the text line, too, about other bears tandem runners.

And somebody mentioned Thomas Jones. And was Thomas Jones an A-Train? I guess that doesn't run familiar to me. I remember A-Train. I thought it was James Allen that was the starting running back that year for the Bears of Anthony Thomas, the A-Train from Michigan. And eventually A-Train took over as the starter. Shout out to Roland Harper as well, who was a better runner than Matt Sui and a good comment. combo with Walter Payton.

We talked already about Thomas Jones and Cedric Benson as well. But yeah, I mean, the Bears have a chance to take advantage. They have three straight home games now, Laila. Minnesota on Sunday. They host the Eagles and a Monday night football and then the Jets at home as well. But what did you think about the idea of

because there's that conundrum. Like when you are trying to pacify the defense or make up for the defense, I should say. You could run up a bunch of points or you can keep the defense off the field by taking your time on your ride. I don't think that 21 pilots. I don't think that they're going to take their time on their ride, though, with this office.

They want to score, score, score, fling the ball, although Caleb only threw the ball 29 times. Riot Fest on Friday, 21 pilots. I think it's twofold. I don't think that Ben Johnson is necessarily coordinating the offense and press Taylor to overcome for the defense. I think that systematically and schematically, they want this thing built in some way, shape, or form on the run. Ben Solek did a really good deep dive a couple weeks ago on ESPN.com talking about how the bear's defenses is not as run-based as you think. I don't know how that adjusts after what we saw yesterday. It was undeniable. There's an element of Ben Johnson that will take what the defense gives him.

But at the end of the day, what we saw was also what works in the NFL, especially in a hot weather game. Your offensive line keeps moving forward. It keeps grinding forward. When you can't always get the penetration between the tackles like you want. Can you get it later in the game? And that's what we saw Kyle Munungai. You also have very savvy bears blockers too. So I think it wasn't necessarily time of possession as much as this is how we develop our offensive rhythm as a team. This is what we know will hurt teams late in games. Are we keeping our defense off the field? Yes. But at the same time, we also saw the defense make some key stops. Ben don't break. They made some key stops when the bears needed them to. And there were times where I think that Panthers

offense was methodically moving the field down the ball. But then you get the Montez Sweatack, for example, and a couple other stops. And the turnovers are there. Yet again, they overcome the fumble and they even win the turnover battle yet again. So all that combined, I think it still says, like, why would you change what you know your team does well on defense? It's what your team was built for. Caleb Williams yesterday didn't have to sling it all over the field. And because it's that he was able to hit some home run balls. They established a screen game too, which was really encouraging. I don't necessarily know if it was overcoming for the defense or they just know this is what these guys do. We're going to set them up well and then the rest will follow.

Yeah. Well, and to your point about the defense having made plays yesterday, it was classic complimentary football that led to the Kyle Munnung guy 61 burst. Oh my God, the guy's running like a 4 340 on that play. But it was Jalen Johnson and Dylan Thineman who ganged up on Tett McMillan to cause that fumble. I still don't know who punched it out or who gets more... Was it Jalen Johnson or Dylan Thineman that gets

the responsibility for having caused that fumble? I don't know. I believe it was Jalen Johnson. Was it Jalen? Ultimately that credit for that. Okay. Devin Bush with recover on that and then I think it was the next play, the 61-yard burst of a run by Kyle Munnungai.

Caden Davis, active for this game. Recovered a fumble. in the game. And the Bears did stop Carolina on the fourth and three. Is that the way? Am I getting this mixed up? Was it the fourth and three stop that they had? And then it was the Monong guy or was the Monong guy after the force fumble by Jalen Johnson? I don't know that any of it matters, but it was the defense making a few stops along the way. I went with my notebook instead of a Google Doc. Yeah. That's the the the force fumble or the either way. Either way, it was a good defensive play that ultimately led to

the touchdown run by Kyle Munung. I'm just getting myself all tangled up. There was just so much that happened in that game. And I feel like we're just now starting to scratch the surface of this Bears' 59 to 37 win. And we will continue to discuss it next with our guy, Anthony Heron. Anthony Heron will be here for two segments. We'll talk offense, defense, special teams, Caleb Williams, DeAndre Swift, all things bears coming up with Anthony Heron next on Rahimi and Grotie on 104. score.