Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Bears-Panthers Postgame Show: Caleb Williams, offense erupt in a 59-37 win in season opener

Episode Date: September 13, 2026

Mark Grote, Olin Kreutz and Patrick Mannelly reacted to the Bears offense exploding in a 59-37 win against the Panthers in their season opener Sunday. The guys loved what they saw from Bears quarterback Caleb Williams, who threw for 269 yards and two touchdowns while adding 65 rushing yards and two more scores on the ground. They unpack every angle of the win and lay out why the opener might not just be smoke and mirrors from a Bears team with sky-high hopes.

Ladies and gentlemen, a 50 burger in game one for your 2026 Chicago Bears as we welcome you in to the Timber Tech decking and railing football post game show presented by the Roorman Automotive Group. Roorman Automotive Group, home with a $50 oil change. Visit them online at roorman.com along with former Bears greats, Olin Crutes, and Patrick Manilie. I'm Mark Grody, 552 total yards of offense for the Bears featuring, among other things, and we'll talk about all of it, 291 rushing yards and six touchdowns on the ground.

Olin Cruz, I will start with you, your reaction to the Bears, 59-37 win over the Carolina Panthers in Carolina. Yeah, my first reaction was in offseason, Ben said he wanted to be the number one scoring offense of all time, topping of 2013 Denver Broncos, I think it was 37.9 points a game.

I got to be honest with you. And he said it. I rolled my eyes. I think he said it in an article with Dan Pompeii, right? The great Dan Pompeii. But I rode my eyes and I was like, this guy, he thinks he's great. He might be, Pat, he might be that guy.

I mean, the things he did today on offense, and I'm sure we'll get to the whole game. But just the offense, right? When you watch the quarterback, Caleb, what he did today, keeping the defense off balance, taking the checkdowns, hitting and hit that throw to Co-Commet was an absolute laser, find his way around the pocket. The guy is can't miss TV. The right side of the offensive line, line them up, knock him down.

Derek Brown, one of the best detacles in the NFL. I think he took himself out of the game, guys. I got to be honest. I think he said, that's enough for me. I'm out of here. I don't want to play against these guys anymore. And then Ben, just the way he formations his offense, the way he sets his guys up. up to make plays, Pat. They line up and I'm like, gosh, the run games wide open. Why wouldn't you

run behind Jonah Jackson, Darnell Wright, let them move guys, Garrett Bradbury, Joe Tunney, Brackston Jones, Seale Bennett, the tight ends, Luther Bernie. Guys, take a bow when you rush for that many yards in the NFL. That's not easy to do. When you score that many points, that's not easy to do. But the way they set it up, the players they have, this is going to be a fun year to watch on offense, Pat. it is and we talked about how they're going to set up the game and what are they going to do to set their identity and they started running down the right side they were running down their throat early the next thing you know he says all right i'm going to start throwing the ball and we see caleb in complete control and this is what we were hoping for progression of calip not regression of the team and all that stuff regression progression we were talking about but i think we saw real progression of Caleb he is in complete command of this offense the checks the points in and out of the huddle just everything hitting the checkdowns when you need to hit the checkdowns finding the open man we need to find the open man but olin you're right when he said he wanted to be the greatest offense in history i i couldn't believe it i'm like come on now there's

no way but what he did today it's a start it's a start and we talk about overreacting in week one we might be overreacting a little bit but that's 59 dang points man that's you don't do that this looked like week one in college when one of the top 10 teams is playing a you know a sub level team and just putting the ball in the end zone and rolling up the score the way they did. And Ben Johnson is doing what he preached. And it's a great way to start. There is some still teaching tape,

and we'll probably get to all that stuff with the penalties and things like that. But to put up 59 points in week one, I guess an NFL opponent, where we were talking about this week, how much better the Carolina Panthers defense got with their linebackers and all the guys they added on that defense in the corners they had,

Derek Brown in the middle, Lee Hunter in the middle. They put up 59 damn points in an NFL game. Week one. It's impressive. It's just really impressive. It's a great start of the season. It's a lot better than last year. And I'm just excited to see where it goes.

And man, we saw a lot of good football today on the offensive side of the football. It's absolutely insane what we just saw. Go ahead, Olin. Go ahead. No, I was just going to say they came out and couldn't be slowed down. Luther Bird is fumble. Ah, no problem. Penalties, no problem.

Right? It doesn't matter. You're just reminding me of I think Ruben Brown told the story one time that he's in the huddle in Buffalo and Jim Kelly told him when he got a holding call. You're just delaying the fact that we're going to score. Don't try to do too much. We're going to score touchdowns here anyway. Whether you hold the guy or not, whether you block the guy or not, we're going to score touchdowns here. And that's the reminder when I was watching because I remember thinking, gosh, they fumbled the ball.

They had all these penalties. The first quarter ended. They played about as undisciplined as they could have played. and they were up 14 to 7. Because as soon as they got the ball, they're going to put the ball in the end zone. The offense was that efficient that if you make a mistake,

you're just slowing things down, then they're inevitable down today. Now, today we don't want to overreact like this is versus every team. But as you mentioned, Pat, the Carolina Panthers thought they improved on defense. They thought they spent all that money. Imagine spending all that money on defense and giving up 59 points.

That's got to be frustrating for the general manager up there in the box. And if you are, watching our postgame show right now on Twitch or YouTube, and you have a specific comment or question for Patrick Manly or Olin-Cruits or myself, Mark Grody, that you want to put in there. We will get those questions out to the guy. So throw them in the chat.

We will hopefully get to some of those comments because it's just amazing what we just saw here today. 5937, the Chicago Bears get the victory. And yeah, it's pretty amazing. They played an entire game in the first half today, for that matter. It was 31, 24 bears at halftime. And as Olin was just highlighting, guys, Romadunze, with a hold on their first play, negating a massive run by D'Andre Swift. You mentioned the fumble by Luther Burton.

He catches the ball and he's off to the races and then he fumbles it. Penalties by Dio Dengbo, Montez Sweat, Bryce Young with the 26-yard play to Jalen Coker where Jalen Johnson is burned, Tyreek Stevenson and Dylan Thineman, back to back, missing tackles. And you're like, what the hell is going on here? And then the bears got it together. This is like, this is what we've been talking about all offseason on the score.

And anybody who's at a microphone or a pen talking about what the bears are, that the offense should go to another level, but the defense may still be a little bit of a liability. I don't know, guys. This might be Chicago Bear. football or at least a sample of it. I'm not anticipating 50 points a game nor 37 given up, but it's kind of a microcosm of what we've been talking about for what the bears

might be like in this season. Yeah, we talked about, you know, with all the money on the offensive side of the ball, right, we talked about it in the pregame, that this is what it should be and this is how it should be because of all that money, and they went out there and did it. And, you know, Colston Loveland had, what, zero catches? The team's leading receiver last year at zero catches. And that's just, it's incredible. how they can get through a game like that,

distribute the ball the way they did, and figure out ways to get first down with your quote-unquote leading receiver from last year without catching the ball. Khalif Raymond is a heck of an addition. How many times did he catch on 3rd, 5, 3rd, and 6 and convert first downs that he and he and Caleb have something going, which is trust

and which is great to see for a new receiver on this offense. It's just, I think that's what it's going to be. It's going to be different for all of us, Bears fans. I think all of us sitting on the the couch or at a bar wherever we were watching this, we're all in awe. And we just, never seen this before. And I think this is our expectations for the rest of the year. Defensively, I think we're going to see this for the rest of the year. But again, guys,

they had two takeaways. Special teams had a takeaway. Special teams blocked a PAT. That's how you win games. And they keep preaching those takeaways. And that's what we're hoping for because we kind of saw it. They're outmanned, I think, on defense. I believe they are. So this is the game plan. This is what we've been preached to all offseason. And they went ahead and got it done. Yeah, they did, and I don't, that J.C. Horn's fumble. Some things are takeaways and some things are turnovers, right? That was a turnover, right? I mean, but give the pun to credit, Pat.

I mean, you heard Drew say when he hit it, it was a good pun and kind of a weird pun, and you know more about that than me. I thought about you immediately when Drew was talking about that. I just thought we're going to ask Pat what Tori Taylor did on that punt to make it hard on him. Yeah, well, there's just different ways they drop the ball differently instead of this traditional like the nose forward. They'll drop it a little more inside or outside or turn the ball. I guess you call it sideways.

Would it be untraditional? Just to make the ball spin the way it does that it'll come down a little differently that the window will affect it. When I saw Tori Taylor react the way he did, that was on purpose. He hit a certain style of kick that was going to spin that way. And obviously Drew Brees saw it. We couldn't see it on the TV copy. But I want to see or talk to somebody of what it is.

Does he have a name for it? Because all these punters now have names for these kicks, watermelon kicks, tornado kicks, cyclone kicks. You know, does he have a name for that? Is that called, it's probably called on the sideline, hey, I'm going to kick it straight down the middle as high as I can with that weird spin, be ready for a fumble. And that's on Tori Taylor.

That's a great job that he did of causing that because that's a decent returner who had no clue what that ball was doing when I was coming down from the apex. So a lot of credit to Tori Taylor and what he did. And that's just part of special teams now. These kickers and punters are so good. They're getting so specialized. and now they're trusting what they can do with the football off their foot,

stuff like that happens. Yeah, and you know that early fumble and then look like, I don't know, communication problems on the backhand. We saw a lot of that today. I was actually texting with the great Mike Brown just asking him what he saw on defense and what he saw from the secondary and things like that. He just thought that, you know, first game, a lot of communication errors with like guys are confused sometimes.

Carolina goes right down in scores and you're like, oh, man, but you forgot that these are the new bears, right? These are the Ben Johnson Bears, and the Bears are going to come back, and they're going to score their own points. And it just, it's amazing when I watch the Bears. Now, this was just today against Carolina, but today it seemed like Carolina had to be perfect, Pat. They couldn't make any mental mistakes on defense,

or if they were going to get burnt for big plays or first downs, Caleb's touchdown run, right, the defensive end, just bull rushes a little too far on a cage, rush and lets Caleb out of the pocket and he's gone. Like he's not going to get five, ten yards. When Bryce Young gets out of the pocket, he'll get five or ten yards or maybe hit a receiver. Caleb gets out of the pocket with his speed.

And you're looking at 20, 25 yards or maybe a touchdown or he's going to layer or a ball to somebody. And it just seems like they put so much pressure on the defense with the calls, with Ben Johnson, with Caleb, and with the weapons that they have. And obviously the run game with their offensive line, they're running back. It seems that guys are going to make mistakes, right? You see Derek Brown, their best player on their defense, make two critical errors today, right, for the Carolina Panthers.

The roughing the passer and in the line-up off sides on the interception by the defense alignment down there in the end zone and in the Carolina guy, what was he doing taking out of the end zone? Where's he going? How to hold him? Where is that big deal? It was a dream. He had a dream last night.

He ran one back for 100 yards. But I attribute that to you say like these guys are making mistakes. would you do that? I attribute that to the amount of pressure that they put on people today they did on offense. And listen, we say going on in the pregame, we all said Ben Johnson top two or three play caller in the NFL, formations, motions, attacking certain parts of defenses, the way he sets up the run game. I mean, Pat, that was the way they drew it up today. That's what they did besides the bird and fumble. Yeah, and Olin, you mentioned teams have to play perfectly against you. We've been talking about the Bears the past few seasons before last year,

that that's what we were hoping for that they would do to win. This team offensively, just through week one of what we've seen, you have to play perfectly against him. You have a great play caller, a great quarterback, and a lot of weapons on offense, and he's going to expose you. Whether it's Caleb making plays with his legs, making the right read, or Ben formationally beating you, and helping Caleb with calls and scheming guys wide open,

to the right side of the offensive line, just dominating one of the best de-tackles in the league, and Brown, that run on the goal line, it looked like they were blocking like a little high schoolers. I mean, to take that and push them back like they did, and Darnell Wright's perfect technique. Jonah Jackson is setting him up. The whole thing, you have to play perfect against this offense.

It looks like after week one. That was just obviously with 59 points, a very impressive representation of hopefully what we see in the future for this Bears team. It's amazing. That's Patrick Manley right there. You see Olin Crutes on the video chat as well. I am Mark Grody, and we have.

have the honor of talking about a Bears 59-37 win over Carolina and week one. Game two will be at home next week Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings as you are listening to and watching the timber tech decking and railing football post game show presented by the Rorman Automotive Group. Rorman Automotive Group home of the $50 oil change. Visit them online at Rorman.com. We appreciate you watching on Twitch and on YouTube on this live feed right now. your questions are rolling in. And let's get to a couple of the questions right now for the guys. And just to preface this first question, DeAndre Swift today, 18 carries, 124 yards and three touchdowns, featuring a 32-yarder and a 28-yarder. Kyle Munung guy, according to these stats that I have finished with exactly 100 yards on the day, featuring that 61-yard blast after Bears made him pay, after Carolina went for it on fourth,

three on the 39 of the bears. The bear stop it. Menungai makes him pay, showing some speed that maybe I didn't necessarily know Menungai had as he broke away from everybody. It made it 45-31 bears in the third. But the question I have, guys, from our Twitch chat is, and it says specifically, Olin, do you recall a better rushing tandem for the Chicago Bears than these two DeAndre Swift and Kyle Menongai?

Not better. comparable to Thomas Jones and Cedric Benson. I thought they were good and obviously you could go as Tom Thayer to go farther back. I don't know if Walter Peyton and Neil Anderson played together and I'm sure you could go even farther back and there's a guy

historians who watched the Chicago Bears in the 60s and I'm sure they had really good running backs back then but this is a really good tandem right now. We talked a lot about Swift in the pregame show just because the contract he got pat and that we thought he deserved it and we thought that

He fit this offense perfectly in the way he got his shoulders lower last year and started running downhill on people. And then Monong guy is a nice change up there, tough running back. That touchdown run. That was a beautiful cut getting outside. I think it was Luther Bird and Oromo Dunes. They had a nice block on that too. And obviously, again, Darnell Wright and Jonah Jackson is just clearing out the road there for these running backs to get downhill on people and get them to the second level. And once a running back gets to the second level with a full head of steam, man, they are a problem.

So this offense completely bought in, man. Completely, I mean, when you watch them do the details, right? And I hate to say that because it's, you know, a coach speak, right? But when you watch them do the little things right, fight, compete Jade Walker, man. I mean, that guy blocking out there on special teams. He earned a fan from me today. I was holding on that guy. I was like, that dance is killing me, right?

That dance, I don't know. This guy dances and talks a lot for a wide receiver. But if you're going to do the hitting, he does, Pat. dance and talk all you want and do the things you want to do on the football field. So that culture we talked about in the pregame show, would it still be there?

Would you see that on film? And like you guys know, I only go by what the film and the game says. And it looks like Pat, that, you know, obviously the defense has a lot to work on, but offensively that culture is strong right now. Yeah, and you said details. Just little things of breaking the huddle, watching

them line up, you know, just watching the whole line with the exact same time. All these little things, that go into practice, you talk about, you coach on film, they're there. But I want to go back to Kyle Mununga. The 61-yard run, I didn't know he had it in him. I didn't know he could outrun those guys. Is this some new speed that he had last year? It didn't look that way.

So when you're talking about the greatest tandem, and that's who I was thinking about, Olin, with Cedric Benson and Tommy Jones and our long run or whatever it was, but to see him take it 61 yards and not get touched, you know, and not get run down, excuse me, that says a lot, because we've seen DeAndre Swift do that. Now you have two running backs who can do that, that they're home run hitters. And that's going to go a long way for these guys.

And that put me, I was a Kyle Menungai fan for all the short yardage and all that kind of stuff and the switch up style running back compared to DeAndre Swift. Now you see the home run potential. That just puts them up another notch. Did you see his, crazy too? Did you see his blocking and pass pro too the way he came across

and struck that lineback or the blitzing nickel back? I mean, yeah. I'm sorry, Grotty. I was just, I thought of it. No, it's go back to, it's Eric Studeville, right? The coach that was there and we're a rookie year. They've got a lot of great coaches on the staff.

Eric Studeville was a, you know, coached in this league a long time. So Ben Johnson, again, to the details, has put together a staff that is as good as the players, you know, that teach the details and coach these guys up. And we always talk about standard that put guys at a high standard. And all the Blitz pickup was great by the running backs. Oh, and I was just going to mention that,

Last year when you and I, and I think it was James Big Cat Williams, filling in for Patrick Manley that day, we did the game from the movie theater from the wall at Gurney Mills. The wall. That was the last time that the Bears had had two 100-yard rushers, both DeAndre Swift and Kyle Menongue guy. And that was the first time in that case that it had happened since the 80s. I believe it was either 84 or 85 when Walter Payton and Matt's. Sui had done it, the now great late Matt Sui. Now typically like Peyton and like Suey was not a did not rack up the yards usually. That was kind of an outlier game. But I think it's funny that in this era, this new era of offense, here we are, you went all that time without two 100 yard rushers.

And here now they have done it really in a calendar year. They have now done it again with the two 100 yard rushers, which is just amazing to think about. It really is. And maybe it's you grody. Maybe it's your, you have to do the pre and post game show. And then they'll have 100 yards rushers. But yeah, just really is an impressive against the Eagles that day, right, where they, they rolled it up against them and really looked good on offense. And the same thing, right? Same kind of plan. Run behind the right side of the line. They're attacking Jalen Carter, actually. And I think he was out for a few games after that with shoulder injuries. the really good defense attack for the Philadelphia Eagles. But that right-sided offensive line, we talked about in pregame, Pat, that they are a problem. But they are the Lynchpin, man. They are the reason that you can go downhill over there.

But the details from the tight ends, right, the Co-Commet, what a catch he had today. Coase 11, Roush out there. We talked about Sam Rouse. We saw him on the field a lot today, right? And then we talked about how Braxton Jones, Theo Bennett, and Garrett Bradbury would benefit from having all those good players around them. And Caleb, the way he's seen things, and, you know, every time that zone cleared out,

and that receiver would sit down, a little snag route or whatever you want to call that, a little sit route, the ball came out right away, Pat. So it was just fun to watch that offense today, and I was out there, and I even put on Twitter. You guys, give me a little time to get used to this shootout thing. I'm trying to adjust all my notes on my computer and trying to figure out what, you know,

what am I actually watching here? to readjust that you're thinking when you're watching the Chicago Bears football team. It is interesting, Olin, because like, you know, third and six or wherever they're on the field, all right, they're not going to get it. Where are they on the field? Where are they going to have to play defense from? And special teams wise, where's this punt got to go to and all that kind of stuff? Now I'm thinking, who's going to get the first down?

How are they going to convert this? And it's just, it's a completely different thinking. I'm thinking field position after this third down compared to how are they going to get this first down. So the belief is there in me. I think the belief is obviously though in those guys. And it's just a different way to watch this game. And when they get the ball now, just that whole game,

now just this game, you're expecting them to score. And not field goals. I'm expecting them to score touchdowns. But they only had one field goal the whole game. And it's just it was just a different way of thinking, different way of watching the game. And I think it speaks calls them couch noises. A little bit different couch noises than what we're used to of all the excitement,

the big plays and touchdowns being scored. Guys, we have so much more. that we're going to do here in about the next hour or so on the timber tech decking and railing football post game show presented by the Rorman Automotive Group, including some great questions that are coming in from our YouTube and Twitch audiences. We're going to talk about the rookies.

We have a question about that. We have a question about left tackle. We have a question specifically about Roma Dunesay. And there's just so much more to pick through from this game. I don't know if we'll have time all week to get to everything that went down in this base. There's 59 to 37 game. But I promise you we will work on that throughout the rest of this postgame show.

We'll take a quick break right now, along with Olin Crutes and Patrick Manley. I'm Mark Grody. More postgame show is right around the corner. Welcome back into the Timber Tech Decking and Railing Football Post Game Show presented by the Roorman Auto Group. Rorman Automotive Group, home of the $50 oil change. Visit them online at roorman.com. We've got Olin Cruz, Patrick Manley. I'm Mark Grody.

Thanks for joining us here on the score YouTube page or the Twitch page. Wherever you are watching us, we appreciate it. And we will be here until about 5 o'clock talking about this Bears, 59-37 win over the Carolina Panthers. In week one, we're taking your questions. Keep them rolling in on the Twitch comments or the YouTube comments. We are gathering them, and I will be asking the guys' questions. like about Rom Adunzei, who was questionable for the game because of the calf injury.

We all know about the foot injury, but he did play in this game today. Romadunzee two catches for 52 yards, including the 47-yard play in the first quarter, where he makes that unbelievable Randy Moss-esque play over the rookie Will Lee, where he was just waiting for Caleb to fling it to him downfield. but one of our Twitchers guys would like to know what you thought about Roma Dunezay's game today. Yeah, I'll take it all in real quick. Just that catch. I mean, that's what we were waiting to see, right?

We heard about that all in college. You know, he's had some, I kind of say a little up and down just from where he was drafted, but that's what we wanted to see. The big play catches where he dominates guys, Moss's guys. Unfortunately, it seems like he got banged up a little bit, was in and out. But overall, what I saw with that catch, that's what I want to see going to the future. that gives Caleb Williams a lot of confidence in them to make those throws and say, hey, I can just throw it up if I'm under stress or we need a big play at a moment.

Hopefully it's either he catches it or knocks it down. But that big play went a long way for me because I'm waiting to see that. We know he's had some drops in the past in big moments, but I'm excited for him, and I think it's time for him to take that step. You know, he's at where he has, where he is at his career, that's the kind of plays we want to see going forward. But I just hope he can stay healthy and get that injury healthy. but here's the other thing, guys, with all the weapons they have right now,

as a coach, it's kind of a luxury. You can say, hey, take another week off or take another day or too off at practice and stuff like that because we have other guys that can step in right now because we're going to need you later in the season of the playoffs. Yeah, he just, like Pat, you said it perfectly. Right when he caught it, I thought to myself, that's exactly what they said when he came out of college

as the number nine pick in the NFL draft. That's the kind of player. He was, right? I go up and get it kind of. guy, a big wide receiver, a guy you can throw two down the field into 50-50 ball. He turns that into maybe an 80-20 is what we heard about him when they took him that early in the NFL draft. And it was good to see him go up and take that off of the rookie cornerbacks head at that

moment because like you said, we've been waiting for that, especially with the injuries and the things that we've seen him do out there. And I thought he blocked well today. And some of those, I thought, you know, some of those things where you thought guys got nicked up today. I think that reporters were saying on the sideline, it was a hundred twenty-six degrees, right? So someone at is like, man, we are cooking down here on the field. So, but it was good, it was good to see Romo Dunza out there. It's good to see him start the game, finish the game, because we didn't even know he was going to play today, Grody, and then to see him make the

play that we all been waiting for him to make today was just a good day all around on offense for a lot of people. And Pat's point, I mean, we're going to the game, if you were to told me, Olin, they're going to play the Panthers. What do you think they score if Coastal Loveland doesn't catch a ball, right? Or does it look great playing out there with the holding calls and the things that were going on with him today? And, you know, Caleb thought he was going to sit down in the zone and he kept going and just kind of a miscommunication there between the quarterback. I said, man, no way they would have scored 59 points, right? No way. I wouldn't think that would happen. So good to see Romodunze out there competing and making the play we've been

waiting for him to make. You know, guys, there were so many positives in this game, and it's almost overwhelming to think about the Bears scoring 59 points in a game, let alone the opener in a season in which we all talked about when we talked about in the pregame show, that for Caleb, it's not going to be regression. It's going to be progression. But there's a couple of things here, and it's ironic that we have to talk about a potential Ben Johnson mistake in this game when he is, you know, in part responsible for putting up

the 59 points and all the innovations that is Ben Johnson. But I got to know what you guys thought about the second quarter. It's 21-14 Bears, fourth and one on their own 20-yard line. And Ben Johnson, he'll do this. He goes for it in that spot early in the game. First half, Caleb Williams, no good on the quarterback sneak. And Carolina turns that into a Bryce Young touchdown, 21, one of the points in the game where it didn't feel particularly good.

And what I was saying to people that I was chatting with on a separate Bears text chat was, you're going to live with Ben Johnson doing that and you're going to die with Ben Johnson doing that at times. But what were you guys thinking in that moment when Ben Johnson went forward on their own 20 in the first half of the game? No shock at all, right? Ben's going to do what Ben does. That was my exact thought when I was watching it. Before, Grody, being an old school football guy, I am. I was like, what the hell is he doing?

But I didn't even budge. I think I just sipped my drink and watched the play. You know, because I just, that is like Ben, Ben is, you know, like you're saying, you're going to take the full package, right? Just say anything you told your friends and the same thing. I'm sure Pat told his friends, the same thing we're all saying now, like, he's going to go forward here and you would just be sitting in a bar, say you were traveling somewhere saying, yeah, he's going to go forward there on the 30-yard line.

Oh, are they just trying to draw him off? Nope. He's not trying to draw him off. is going to go for it here and people are going to think you're crazy right no matter where you are if you're not in illinois if you're not in chicago if you're somewhere else where they don't know ben jonson and someone says he's not going to go for it here and you'll be sitting there you said oh yes he is he's he's going to he's going to go for that quarterback sneak there and i'm sure that he wants him to execute that quarterback sneak a little better but uh he thinks he can overcome it

he thinks his offense is that good and and you know it's hard to argue with him after today Yeah, that's true. And that's just one thing when it happens and they don't get it. You know, I'm like, oh, no, this is going to be a talking point in the post game. It took us, what, till the second segment to get to this? We're in the past or other teams or any other team in the NFL. This would be the first thing. What's he doing going on fourth and one?

Because they only won by three points or one score, and that could have changed the outcome of the game. But they put up 59 points. And Ben is going to bin. That's what you said. I think you said it, and Joe Johnson from obvious shirts went out and put on whatever your tweet was, you know, that, you know, Ben is going to bin. and whatever it was, but that's what he does. And you just know it.

When they lined up, I'm like, he's going for it. I disagree with it. That's not what I would do, but that's what he does. And he knows better than me, obviously. And I'm just glad that's not the first talking point. I'm glad they won by what they won by that it didn't come down to anything like that. Honestly, I completely forgot about it until you brought it up, Grody. But the whole first half, I was thinking about it,

that we were going to be talking about it in the post game. And on my notes, I was right now on you know those kind of the thoughts of what we're going to go down at the end, It's actually my last note of like eight or nine things that I figured we would talk about. That I was like, well, we don't have to worry about that now. We're not really going to be talking about that. So it's just who he is. And, you know, he's going to be aggressive. He's going to lose some of those.

And he's going to win a lot of them. He's going to outskim teams to win a lot of them. We just got to get ready for it and get used to it. Yeah, I'll be curious to hear what Ben Johnson says about that in the post game. As we know, he is just as critical about himself as he can be. about his players as well. So I'm going to be curious to hear the thinking when it comes down to that.

Another question here from YouTube and or Twitch and we thank everybody who is tuning in here on the postgame show, the Timber Tech decking and railing football postgame show presented by the Rorman Automotive Group. Rorman Automotive Group, home of the $50 oil change. Visit them online at rorman.com. Here is another question.

We could all kick this one around, but I'll let you guys get it started here. What did you think about the rookies in this game here today? And maybe why don't we start with what did you guys see from Dylan Thieneman? I thought he played well, Olin. I thought he did what he was going to do with the big play with Jalen Johnson causing the turnover and the takeaway. He knocked the ball a little loose and Jalen Johnson punched it out. There were no big glaring errors that I saw.

I'm sure when we watched tape, maybe you'll see some other things. but I thought he played well, played special teams as well. That's one thing I wanted to get to in the pregame, and I didn't, was the number of players this special teams unit has. They have five or six core guys that have been in the league for a long time, and then we were going through that list of rookie guys. All of those guys can play special teams as well. They've got a lot of snaps that I watched in the preseason,

that they're solid guys, and Richard Heitauer has a heck of a unit to work with. So overall, I thought he played pretty good. Yeah, we were talking about, Pat, I don't know his name, number 81, Felipe Franks, for Carolina, not on air, but off air, about how he played physical brand on special teams and enjoyed watching. Hardy now for the Chicago Bears, that guy. He is hitting guys. I mean, I would not want to see him on special teams.

And like you said, that unit, Jaday, Walker, Hardy, I'm sure you can name them better than me. But they're a fun unit to watch. Go out there and compete on special teams. and he's got those guys who are setting the temple every day for him out there for the Chicago Bears when they come out on special teams. So they are fun to watch, man. So it's just as far as Thinaman goes, I thought he played a really good football game. I thought he was flying around.

I thought he was making tackles. I thought he was covering guys. He got beat for that touchdown. Wasn't a touchdown. They called Waller for past interference, missed a few tackles. But he didn't come up with a cause a fumble. and played really overall good football, and I thought he played physical,

which is something kind of watching him all year, Pat, right, how his body holds up in the NFL, right, flying around hitting guys, the speed he plays at. You know, he's kind of like a Kyler Gordon guy for me, right? He asks his body to do things. Not a lot of people ask their body to do, and he moves at a speed. Not a lot of people move at it.

We had a safety like that before. Everybody went by the name of Mike Brown. I mentioned him earlier. And he flew around. of speed and he threw his bite around and that's what I saw a little bit from Dylan today. And that's why I enjoy watching them play football. But kind of watching him as a year goes on here, week eight, week nine, I think that the Bears would be smart in their ability to already start to get him ready for week 80, week nine and make sure you're keeping him healthy and keeping him

durable because that's going to be one of the biggest things he has to do this year. And I got to tell you, Patrick Manali, I, you know, I wasn't zeroed in on Malik Mohamed the entire game. But for the most part, I thought he comported himself pretty well, too. He had an interception in the game. He had at one point a diving pass breakup. So I'll admit, like I was pretty. And I guess we all kind of expressed it in the pregame show. I was very worried about.

They had to move them from nickel. They had to move him from nickel to corner during the game when Lewis got hurt. So that, that says a lot about that young man that they trust him to do that, that he's very versatile. That just helps the team out, helps him out. I thought they all played pretty well. You can talk about Sam Roush. I think it was on the third and one. He missed that cutoff block goal and he was laid off the snap count.

He was kind of the left side wide tied in. I mean, that's maybe the only mistake I saw with him. He didn't get a whole lot of offensive snaps. But overall, I thought they played pretty well. Well, Beauregardner had one little high snap on a field goal, but he had other than that had a lot of attempts at it. So it did a pretty good job. But overall, I thought the rookies played pretty well.

Yeah, that, you know, obviously there was a blitz. coming from the strong side of formation. So that guy that Roush had, he was stunting, what they call stunting inside towards the center. It's going to be a tough block. And he'll learn in college, you can grab a guy and turn him out in the NFL.

You don't, right? You get your head across. You got to drive him farther than he wants to go. I have to learn that the hard way a few times in the NFL because these are not college guys anymore. You're not just going to out muscle them and throw them out the club most times, right? So, you know, as far as Malik Muhammad,

like you're saying, He made a few good plays on the ball, and obviously Bryce Young. He did throw for 360 yards and three touchdowns, right? There are things to be corrected. There are things that they have to do, and there were receivers open a lot of time on the field for the defense. And the defense has, you know, I'm sure we'll get to it eventually. But they have a lot of work to do, and we thought that this unit would struggle. But it's the first time Coach Allen, who I think everyone thinks is a really good defense corner.

It gets to get them on film and discover what he has. has from this unit. A lot of new guys out there. I didn't really see Montes sweat. I saw him on that one sack, but didn't see him enough for a guy who was going against a rookie right tackle. I want to see him wreck the game at some point and didn't look like I was, you know, when they gave up that sack, I was noticing they didn't give that guy much help. And I was okay, well, here's your chance to go out there and wreck this game. But the Carolina Panthers move the ball a lot of times. The bears do get their takeaways and turnovers to turn this game around. But the Carolina offense was moving the ball at will. I'd have to watch the All-22,

obviously, to see Malik Muhammad in coverage, but he did make the play on that ball and got his hands on another ball for a guy. His rookie season was asked to, like Pat is talking about, he was asked to do a lot today, man. They put him at the nickel back, moved them back out. They asked him to do things. And I love that little story. Drew Brees and Adam Amin said that he said, day, man. Good, come after me. I get a chance to be defensive rookie of the year. I like that. Do like that kind of attitude, and it does look like he is playing with that kind of attitude where he is competing out there

and going out there to make plays. Let's talk a little bit. Well, real quick. Let me just say, because we're talking about defense's a back play, and we're not talking rookies, but Jalen Johnson didn't have a great game early. And that was a little discouraged. I was about to bring up. Yeah, gave up the two big plays on demand coverage. You know, we were talking about how excited we are to have them back full speed

and healthy and all that kind of stuff. And, you know, what we've heard on the score radio waves and all that kind of stuff, and the way he talks, he's going to bounce back. You know, he just one play at a time and all that kind of stuff. He did cause the fumble, but a little disappointing to see him get burned twice the way he did. And hopefully he can't figure that out and come back. But that was, to me, just a little disappointing when we were talking so highly of him. We're expecting so much about him out of him to come out and not play his best game.

Yeah. Yeah, I got a beat on that double move, right? Sorry, Grody. Go ahead. I'm sorry. No, it's all good. No, I mean, I thought Tyreek Stevenson a couple of times got burned, and I know he left the game for a little while with a shoulder injury. But the fact of the matter is, guys, I mean, we talk about the fact that the Bears put up all the yards that they did. 552. Carolina also had 478 total yards in this game.

They had 353 passing yards to what we're talking about right now. They also rushed for 125 yards. in this game. So, so as what we're talking about with the secondary, even with the defensive line, these are areas where, look, it's fun to talk about the 59 points that were put up, and maybe this is Bears football, but we talked about it. Like, get to middle of the pack as a defense, and maybe that's the compromise. You've got a deal. You've got plenty of time to get this right. And hopefully, hopefully Dennis Allen in his second year is able to better adjust to his defense and figure out how to, again,

meet the Bears' offense halfway at some point in time this year. That is going to be very, very interesting because if they do that, we could be watching this team make a long run, right? That's what we saw today, right? We saw things like holding call on third and one on Gary Bradbury, right? We saw them go back to them third and 11, and guess what? First down, right? Does it take Caleb?

Caleb just, it becomes a multiplier, Pat. We talk about him being a multiplier, picking his teammates up, and he picks up Gary Bradbury there, and the drive continues. And then even later, in that drive, he scrambles for their first touchdown. And the guy, when he gets out of the pocket, and he starts running, man, I don't know why everyone else looks slow. It's just crazy to watch. He just starts running, and it's like no one can get to him.

So it's this team, if the day, defense like you're talking about, Grotty, if Dennis Allen can get them moving in the right direction, playing good ball. Now, their receiving court, Drew Brees was saying today that he thought that was one of the better ones in the NFL to go against, right? And they got good tight ends, too. And, you know, Tramble and Waller were making plays, Pat. And they were doing a nice job out there. And then you go against, you know, all those guys that they got. And Bryce Young playing pretty good football. And the defense did struggle today for a lot of that game. For a lot of that game, the defense really did struggle.

Now, obviously, we get takeaways, and the Bears start to put that game away, and Derek Brown gets his personal foul. And then, you know, obviously the line-up off-sides, which seems to be an emphasis. You can always tell what the emphasis for the referees are going into the season, right? So it's defense-alignment lining up off-sides is one of them. That's what we see now. And hopefully the Bears know that, too. And I think they got Montez sweat for that today also.

But that defense, as you're saying, Grody, if we can get them going, If you could get them to top 15, top 14, man, this team could be scary. Yeah, to the point of the penalties, the Bears penalized 12 times for 57 yards during this 59-37 win, while Carolina 11 penalties for 84 yards. It is typical. The referees are just getting going. Sometimes they try to set a precedent early in the season for what they're going to call more of throughout a year. And we've just seen it since as practices.

and full padded practices have declined. We see sloppy play in the beginning of NFL season has been going on for a while. So I guess I'm not completely shocked, as horrible as the first five minutes of the game felt with all the penalties and all the sloppy play. It's something that I think we've grown to expect in the beginning of not just bear seasons,

but everybody's seasons because just the nature of the game and the hitting that doesn't exist. We've got a lot more to do here, including hopefully we're going to get a chance to hear from Bears head coach Ben Johnson, quarterback Caleb Williams as well. We will have our hit of the game. And we actually guys get to do Who's Hot and Who's Cold with a game being played, as opposed to just guessing like we did in the pregame show.

So you guys be thinking about your who's hot and who's cold guy. We also have more questions coming in from our YouTube and Twitch audiences, which we appreciate. So we will get to all of that in the next half an hour or so on this. the timber tech decking and railing football post game show presented by the Rorman Automotive Group. Rorman Automotive Group, home of the $50 oil change. Visit them online at Rorman.com. Olin-Cruits, Patrick Manley, Mark Grotie.

More coming up next. We came out of that one relatively unscathed, which was good to see. You know, the heat was a big deal here today. Proud of how the guys were able to battle through that. I thought our preparation did show up in that regard. It was not easy by any stretch of the imagination, but things like the long drive drills we went through over the course of camp. I did think that they showed up in a positive way today, which was great to see. You know, just a few notes of what I saw during the game.

You know, the takeaways are a huge deal for us. We talked about the banana ball that Tori was hitting all throughout camp, and so for them to muff that punt and us to capitalize on that, that was huge for momentum. and then got a couple more there on defense, which were big plays for us. Dilling with the top-down punchout, thought that was huge as well. Then offensively, you know, we ended up with, I don't think I called a really good game there in that first half, and those guys were out there and able to make plays regardless. I thought Caleb came out pretty hot in this game, but I think really when you look at the

stat sheet, the story of the game ended up being the rushing. And so offensive lines, shout out to them. But it was collective with the tight ends. The receivers were blocking their tails off as well. And Swifty and Menangai both were able to do a great job there. Caleb added quite a bit with his feet also. But I'll go ahead and open up from there. And for DeAndre to get the extension on Friday and then come out here and play the way he did,

what's just continued to tell you about what he's meant to this group. Yeah, he's had a good week, huh? I mean, he earned it every step of it. He's, you know, we really value what he brings to the table. He's had a great spring, a great training camp, and so I don't think anybody in our building surprised that he's out of the gate in a strong fashion. The way Caleb played, it looked like as advertised,

like as you had been expressing confidence in how he was playing in camp, just on time, on target, what did you see that looked like confirmation for you of things you've been seeing. Well, yeah, I think to see him on a couple plays get quick to the checkdown for catching runs from our backs, that always excites me because that means he's seeing the field and he's able to anticipate where he needs to go with the ball and he's not trying to hang on to it. The throw to Cole in the end zone was he couldn't have put it in a better spot, and Cole made a heck of a catch there too.

So, yeah, I mean, he came out high. I'm sure there'll be a number of things that we see on tape that we need to address and we can continue to get better at. But I thought it was a good start. I mean, there's a lot of information going into a game week, and yet his process was really good throughout. And then I could kind of tell last night we do our quarterback meeting one last time. And, I mean, he was on top of it. He just everything he was rattling out, just where my eyes need to be, what I'm thinking. And so I went to bed.

up really well with that in mind. You can talk about your, like, I guess, view of what the offense could be. Is this kind of what, I know it's just the first game. Is this kind of what you envisioned with the way the running game kind of controlled everything and then you've got a lot of explosives? Yeah, yeah. Once again, I mean, I got to look at, I got to look at it from start to finish. There were still a number of things on there that I didn't love just from the sideline perspective.

and yet, you know, some of these guys came out, and they played hard, man. You see a guy like Rome go up and make that catch on the sideline. I mean, that's who he is and that's what he does. And so that was really encouraging to see. I thought these guys just, they really rose to the occasion. They played hard for each other. And, you know, we talked about weather in the storm there early on. We have some adversity on that first drive, and yet no one blinks, you know,

no one bats an eye. And so that's probably what I'm most proud of there. Yeah, it seemed like, you know, normally you have a lull at some point of a 60-minute game. But when you look at the stat sheet, it seemed like we kind of evenly spread out point distribution. So I can't say anything off the cuff right now. You talked about wanting to have the highest scoring offense bear's history. Did that play into, like, going forward on that fourth and two? I mean, just to kind of set the tone instead of aggressive tone for the game and for the season?

Listen, that will always be the goal. is we want to be the highest scoring, we want to have the most wins, we want to win Super Bowls, we want to, like that's what we do. We didn't get into this profession trying to be,

trying to be mediocre average. And that's every NFL team. So that is what it is. You know, we make decisions over the course of a week what's best for our football team to win the game. That's the most important thing

and that goes into everything that we do. Well, it's the first thing for that one, specifically from the 21. From what I can tell looking it up, that's the deepest in your own end you've ever gone for it unless it was... Yeah, yeah. I felt pretty good about it.

Yeah. You talked a lot about focusing on the end of the first half. And today, obviously, you got one touchdown drive with 22 seconds left and you had an interception with five seconds left. I thought it nice was up to see both the offense and the defense finish like that. Yeah, yeah, no, that was big for us because that enabled us to go into halftime with that seven point, you know, upswing. So that was huge.

It was great to see. Manny really get going. That was good to see. And then for us on offense, there's a little bit, I think, we can clean up over the course of that drive. But I think we started off that drive at the end of half with a sack on the first play.

And then we needed to overcome that. And they were able to get some explosives to get us in position to score the touchdown. I know you said, you know, you obviously have to look back at everything to get a conclusive look at. Just on the sideline was your favorite play at the day with all you.

You know, all the explosives you have. I don't know. The long one there, was that Kyle, that broke free. But I see things like Jadae out in front, and he's over here butt blocking, trying to spring them loose, you know. And so that's the stuff that gets me excited. When I see the little guys block

and I see the O-line getting around the ball and pushing the pile, that's the stuff that gets me going. A couple more here, guys. We've talked for months about end of half. You guys were really good. there today getting a touchdown and then take away? What were your thoughts of that sequence there in terms of what it meant to be? Yeah, no, that was huge for us.

That was huge force. You know, credit to those guys. Like, we were just talking about that. We started with a negative play to start that series and yet able to overcome it, have a couple explosives mixed in there. There's some things we can clean up just from an operation standpoint. But I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. As you mentioned, Jadae, and some of the work that he does,

it might not go, that maybe not everyone sees, for him to catch that touchdown at the end. Is that a nice thing to just show, for example, everybody, like, you do the work here to get rewarded here? Yeah. I mean, I think he practiced his tail off this week. He was, you know, one of our more consistent receivers. I thought he did a heck of a job. And so to see him get some benefit from it, I think it's a beautiful thing.

Coach that fourth and two, I mean, not getting it, would that deterre you from doing it again? It depends on the game, depends on the situation. In the moment, felt good about it. You know, you look back. In hindsight, whenever a play doesn't work, they always question the play call. What's your approach this week as you into the defense to trying to problem solve some things defensively with Dennis? Well, we talked about with the team find a way to get to the plane with a win. And we did that.

We accomplished that. Now we're in a race to improve in all three phases and collectively as a team. That's what we've got to do. And so we'll take a look at the tape. What can we get better at? You know, it only gets harder from here on now. And yet I told those guys, you'd like to think in a long season like this, we're playing our worst football early on and we continue to get better and better and better.

And so that's really the message right there. All three phases, we all got to get better each and every week. It's never linear. There's some dips along the way. And yet, as long as we're doing whatever we need to do to try to find a way at the end of the game to get the victory, that's what it's about. Bears head coach Ben Johnson after the Bears 5937 win over Carolina as we welcome you back in officially to the timber tech decking and railing football post game show presented by the Roorman automotive group. Roorman Automotive Group home of the $50 oil change. Visit them online at roorman.com and Olin I'm starting to think you would love to have played for this Bears head coach Ben Johnson. Quite frankly, you'd be his type of guy as well.

But you just nod your head while he talks, right? And you do love the fact that they win the game the way they won the game, and he has an edge to him. He wants to go on. He wants to think they're playing their worst football, Pat, after scoring 59 points, right? And hopefully that is true for the defense. Hopefully they are playing their worst football right now.

And we're in a race to improve, and you hear all these things that he's saying and you can't help while he's talking about. nod your head, and then he talks about the little plays, right? The pushing of the pile, the wide receiver butt blocking somebody, people hustling down the field. These are the things that get me excited. And to me, that just says, because those are the things that wins football games, man. And that's a guy who understands, you know, I said on Friday, Pat, on my hit that, you know,

in the old days, they used to call guys seers, right? You go see a seer, they would tell you your future or what's coming your way. And that's very important in an NFL building to have someone who sees things, who sees problems before they happen, who can watch film and predict the way a defense is going to attack you, the way the defense is going to try to slow you down,

and the way you can just explain to somebody, look, number 29 is going to be right here on this run play. I want you hitting him at this moment, and then we'll score a touchdown. And it looks like, I could be wrong, but it looks like that's what he was in control. I remember, I think it was the first or second quarter a receiver didn't go in motion, he stuck his leg way back,

so the receiver could see him basically saying like, you got to go in motion, man. And I'll take a picture of that. And he was in control of where the offense had to line up, where guys had to be lined up, the checks, and he was getting him in and out of plays. And that's the thing that I thought coming out of college, people worried about with Caleb Williams.

I thought he did a really nice job with that today. Yeah, the two things I took from that little press conference there was one, he said he didn't call a good first half. They had 31 freaking points. I mean, and to me as a player, and I hear that, I'm like, wait, we had 31 points, but he's setting a standard this high.

We keep talking about the standard. He's always wanting to get better. You know what I mean? He's saying, okay, 31 points is what we score, but he didn't do a good enough job. So if I'm a player and my head coach is saying, I'm like, what did I do wrong when we put up 31 points? And that's just, that's a great message to have.

and I love to hear that from a head coach that is instilling that in Hallis Hall that we've got to get better. 59 points maybe isn't good enough, guys. There's a lot of problems. He said there's a lot of problems on tape we can coach off of. The other one was he slept well after the QB meeting. I wonder how well he didn't sleep last year. You know, now you talk about Caleb Williams, understanding this offense, being able to communicate back and forth between him at those night meetings before,

where he can put his head on the pillow and sleep well and say, all right, my quarterback's got it. We're ready to go. So that says a lot to me if probably what he didn't sleep well last year or as well the nights before games, because maybe Caleb was, you know, hiccuping on some of these calls or things they were talking through. But now he slept well. And that just, those two things hit me the hardest when he was talking there that, you know, his standard is super high. I still can't believe he said he didn't call a good first half with 31 points. When Olin and I both said, what, 24 to 21 was going to be the final score. and he did that in two quarters. And then, you know, sleeping wells, that just says that, hey, Caleb's got it. He's ready to go. He's on the same page with Ben. So it was an encouraging press conference, and it was also funny to hear him talk about the fourth and two call, fourth and one call, like, come on, guys.

That's me. Yeah, and the fact that he said correctly kind of with a little exasperated laugh, that's been a heck of a week for D'Andre Swift. And I like to mention this because of the cynical nature sometimes of fans and sports radio talk show host that when a guy gets paid sometimes maybe he does he's done he's got his money he's all good and all d'andre swift did was go out there and just completely blast off right from the very beginning and like if there wasn't the early he had a couple of explosive plays taken away by a penalty and who knows if he would have been able to run as far as he had without the penalties by the bears

but it was just so good to see him do that and the connection that ben jonson and dandre swift have had since Detroit is really starting to sprout more than it ever has. Yeah, and DeAndre, like you're talking about, man, I mean, just we talked about in the pregame, just a perfect fit for Ben Johnson. He can see how he wants to use them in the offense and then the kind of guy he is, right? Always ready, detail-oriented, running that ball downhill, and the things they can do with this offense, with a mind like Ben Johnson, Pat, and then the run game is hard to stop for a lot of reasons, right?

They have good running backs. They have a good offensive line. They have a great right side of the offensive line. But don't also underestimate the fact that Caleb Williams could touch every part of the field. And when you have a quarterback who can do that, you can't overplay the run. And defenses know that, right?

They know he can boot. Not a lot of quarterbacks can boot out, eat both ways, Pat, and throw every pass on that route concept. Right? Caleb can touch every receiver out there and maybe get it back across the field and by the way, you can all run your D.N.

So go ahead and stack the box if you want, you're going to pay. Right? So you can see teams. I'm looking at it. I'm like, man, that is a light box for the run game the Bears have. And that's respect to Caleb. And the fact that Ben Johnson is still going to call shot plays no matter what the score is. So this is a dangerous offense, guys. I don't think what we saw today was smoking mirrors at all. I think when you watch the game, when you watch the film, I think this is going to continue.

and I think they put the league on notice today, the offense did. And you know you had a good game on offense when you didn't get one question about your defense in that press conference. No doubt about it. No doubt about it. That said, we got a couple things that we have to accomplish here. Let's start with who's hot and who's cold, sponsored by Plummers 911 plumbing emergency.

Call the professionals. available 24-7 at 1833 Plum 9-1-1. Mr. Manley, would you like to get us started with your hot and your cold? Sure, I got to go hot. It can't be a player. It's the O line. Listen, they ran for 234 yards. The running backs did.

291 yards total, but 224 yards rushing. You know, the running backs run the ball, but that's the O line. That's Colquemette. That's the tight ends at Colston-Lveland as well. So that's the hot. cold is Jalen Johnson. I mentioned him earlier, struggled earlier in the game. We have high expectations. I know he does for himself, and I'm sure when he watches the tape, he's upset getting beat twice like he did early in the man coverage. So my hot is the O line. The cold is

Jaylon Johnson. You concur. Oh, I'd like to add some to the party. Yeah, you know, Pat took the hot there with that offensive line, the way they performed today, especially after losing their center, which was a surprise for everybody, right? In the way they went out there. and dominate this football game. Obviously, Caleb Williams. You can pick him as hot. I thought the way, you know, Ben said it all there, right? Just the progression in his quarterback,

lining guys up, making the checks, knowing where everybody is on the field, knowing when to check the ball down to Monong guy and still get 10 or 15 yards because the defense is dropping back. We didn't see that last couple years. We saw him holding the pocket. He wanted the big player.

Today is very decisive, checking that ball down. I think Drew Brees talked about when he was 70% at some. point during the game, which a lot of people thought was there was no chance. This guy could have a 70% completion rate. I don't know what he ended up at today, but maybe it was close to 70%. You know, in cold, I thought Devin Bush, the linebacker for Chicago Bears, a kind of a signing this year that I was watching. And I thought it was now that could go to the whole defense,

right? You could pick anybody you want on that defense that was pretty cold today. You know, Dillianman leaves them in tackles today, you know, good safety. But that usually means your front seven has to make a couple more plays out there. Absolutely. I agree with that. I'll give an honorable mention on the hot side to Khalif Raymond, who had a nice game, eight catches for 84 yards on the day. And then the cold, just because he didn't get involved, and we know that he will. I'm not saying he had a bad game, but Colston Loveland had no catches, just a couple of targets in this game.

But I guess that's a good thing. If you can win a game and put 59 points up and your supposed star-type end, Colston Loveland doesn't do a thing that's in the right direction. How about it's a it's a gutsy pick by you. It's a gutsy pick after the way to defense played to pick an offensive player for cold. You know, it's kind of the guts is a gutsy pick is all I'm saying. Is it really the word? Radio business.

Yeah. Oh is gutsy really is is. Is gutsy really the word that you want to use? Yeah. I don't want to use anything else. No. I don't know who's watching. I like to give hipster picks.

I was just trying to think outside the box, man. Do a little something different. You're a midday host now. You got to throw those hot takes out there. Don't you worry. I'm going to audit my take. I'll do the take audits my first year. I might make a lot of mistakes in my rookie year.

Hey, you're doing a good job, Grotie, man. Thank you, all. And hit of the game is sponsored by Estwing professional tools. made in the USA for over 100 years, swing.com. Who you guys got for hit of the game? Olin will start with you on this one. Hit of the game. Well, the rookie safety, right, he causes the fumble there.

For me, that's the hit of the game. He hits T-Mack. You know, Panthers really good wide receiver and jars that ball out. And that was a point where the Carolina Panthers were still in the game. So for me, that would be the hit of the game. Yeah, I'm going to go, Jade Walker. I just, you know, I'm liking what I'm seeing out of him as a receiver, but also special teams and just the effort he's getting. Ben Johnson mentioned him blocking as well, but just John A. Walker's hit.

I think that was the one for me. But, you know, it's just, it's just fun to watch this team this year, guys, so far. And I can't wait to see what we get to talk about in the future. But, yeah, Jada Walker is my hit of the game. I'm going with Jad A Walker as well, no block, no rock. And these guys have bought in just another area where they are buying into Ben Johnson. and it was good to see Jada Walker get his hands on the ball as well. It can be interesting to see his progression throughout the year.

Guys, this whole day has been an absolute blast from the pregame show, right through the post game show in a 5937 win. My adrenaline, Olin, it's starting to wear off. It's not popping as much. So I think this is as good at time as any to wrap it up. Any closing thoughts from you guys on this day? Olin will start with you. We'll go to you, Pat, and then we will close it down for week one here on the score.

Yeah, I think what you guys ended with, and we're talking about Thineman, and we're talking about Jaday Walker, and you're talking about this football team and the way they play football, and you hear the coach talk. And it's a likable football team for someone who likes football. But I really do like football, and I spend a lot of my time watching football and coaching football and training football players. And that team I watch today is competing out there. They're hitting guys. They get after people. The defense has to play better. My takeaway from today is that this is not a team.

I don't think that was smoking mirrors today. I think this is a team that will compete every week in the National Football League. Pat? Yeah, mine is. I just have to relearn how to watch the Bears, you know, watching the team that we're watching to see them outscore teams. I just, it was a different experience today for me to watch this team. And, you know, there were high expectations of this offense

and talking about being the highest scoring and the highest output offense in history. And it's a heck of a start. So I just have to relearn how to watch this Bears team and expect him to outscore, you know, just to, you know, the defense is going to be the defense and hopefully they can catch up. But just to watch this team and learn how to watch this offense and expect on third and six that they're going to convert, not worry about field position and the defense trying to get them stop and all that kind of stuff. So it just I've got to learn how to rewatch this team. Yeah, and is it the new normal? And I'll just say, like, what do you do for an encore? That's what's on my mind now.

The Minnesota Vikings will be at Soldier Field. on Sunday at noon. You start to get into the division, the most important parts of the schedule. So I just can't wait to see how that goes down. Both of these gentlemen, Patrick Manley and Olin-Cruits, will be appearing on the score. Olin, are you on Hawn Payton tomorrow morning?

Do you know your schedule yet on the score for this week? Yes, I'm on at 7 a.m. tomorrow morning. Okay. And Pat, when's your next appearance on the score? It might even be on that new midday show. Yeah, Tuesday at 11. Yeah, I heard some guys on there, yeah. new guy.

Brody! The all new Rahimi and Grotie show. Shout out to my partner, Layla Rahimi, and be listening for the Take to North podcast,

which I will record with Dan Weeder, the weed man in just a little bit, and I'll be on Fox 32 tonight at 10 o'clock. I'm going to be sick of me by the end of this day as well, so you guys don't even have to say it.

That is going to wrap up our postgame show. Thank you so much to TimberTech decking and railing for sponsoring the football post game show presented by the Roorman Automotive Group. Roorman Automotive Group, home of the $50 oil change. I took care of one of those myself, as a matter of fact. Visit them online at roorman.com.

And big thank you to people who help make this broadcast possible all day, including Connor O'Donnell. Max Curtis has been doing so much work for us here on the post game show. Love the work by those two guys. Ryan Porth as well. Mitch Rosen is back. He's back tweeting. He's been out of the country, but he is,

He is back and helping out today. Ray Diaz did a wonderful job. Ray. Was that all? Oh, man. You know, I don't know where we would be without all these guys, man, you know? We would not be on the air. We all had technical issues.

No, we wouldn't. No, we wouldn't. And they took care of them and they were smooth for us. So we appreciate all those guys. And everybody for watching and listening to the score throughout the day, Pat and Olin will be doing all these pregame shows. I'll be in intermittently with these guys. So thank you so much to everybody who watched and listened

wherever you took in the score on this day. And so for Patrick Manley and Olin Croutts, I'm Mark Grody saying, have a great day and just enjoy the thought of a Bears 59 to 37 win over the Carolina Panthers. Have a great rest of your weekend, everybody.