Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Bears shift their attention to the Vikings | Take The North

Episode Date: September 18, 2026

From 'Take The North' (subscribe here): The focus up at Halas Hall has shifted to the Vikings, the Bears opponent in Week 2. Of course, Dan Wiederer and Mark Grote are still marveling at that 59-point explosion by the Bears offense against the Panthers. What more can we expect against the Vikings? It will be a different test, as Vikings defense coordinator Brian Flores has a tough scheme to diagnose. How is Bears head coach Ben Johnson preparing for that test? Also in this episode, Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner had interesting perspective about grading quarterbacks after Pro Football Focus didn't have the best grade for quarterback Caleb Williams' performance against Carolina.

The Take the North podcast is brought to you by the Rorman Automotive Group, home of the $50 oil change. Visit them online at roerman.com. Bears fans, this is Take the North. What's the reason, Duck? It's here with your host. All these guys. Dan Weiderer and Mark Grody.

We're going to take the North and never give it back. Hello again, everybody, and welcome back into the Take the North podcast, along with Dan Weiderer of the athletic. I am Mark Grody of 1.1. 4-3 the score. Danny Boy, who is at Hallis Hall right now. How are you? How has the day been at Hallis Hall so far? It's been a Wednesday, a regular season Wednesday, and you know how that is. You kind of feel like a ping pong ball for a bunch of hours, and it's all good. It's excited locker room right now, obviously. They feel like they're building towards something more

meaningful. And so, yeah, it's just, it's been one of those days inside one of those weeks that leads up to a pretty fun game for you and I on Sunday at Soldier Field. Yeah, we got lots to talk about the show we got some great audio from ben jons and kurt warner was on the score i want to play some of that and evaluation of caleb williams what i was just thinking here before we came on the air and having done the show on the score today the rehemi and grody show would you get here every day starting at 10 a m we talk a ton of bears on the show it's like like it's normal to talk about games all week long that occurred on sunday it's it's the nature of a game once a week you continue to talk about it. How long can we hold on to this game, though, man, because it feels like I don't want to let

this go. The Bears 5937 win over Carolina. It was just so decisive. And there are, obviously, we will move on. And some of that will occur today as a matter of fact. But it has just been, all I want to say is it just been so delightful in these first few days post Sunday to be able to continue to talk about this. I know there's problems with the defense. I know that that heart was not delightful, but I just, I want to savor the 59 points as long as we possibly can. There was a big pack of reporters in Charlotte leaving Bank of America Stadium at the same time on Sunday night, and we were walking back toward the hotel there in downtown. And we were just joking about how unfamiliar this is. Like the bear scored eight touchdowns, all right, in one game on Sunday.

That used to be a full month in certain seasons. And I was joking with Sean Hammond, my former colleague at the Tribune, and said, like, there have been games. where it's like you're outside the elevator is getting ready to go down the locker room afterwards and you're like yeah I'll write about the touchdown the touchdown right you know I mean like and then there were eight of them and Grady one of the things that that kind of jumped off the page to me when I was kind of going through all the notes and stats and everything else on Monday and Tuesday is that the Bears did uh the touchdown parade on Sunday in all ways they had a two-play touchdown drive or one play touchdown drive

a four-play touchdown drive that's some quick strike stuff and then they had a 13-plus and a 12 play. You know? So it's like, you want to do it quick? Here it is. You want us to take a little while? Here it is. And so like I think that's where a lot of this excitement is rooted where you just,

they can do it in so many different ways, right? And they did it in the first game of the season. They showed you like, good luck trying to figure out where you want to put your focus to stop us. Yeah. Yeah. And what the focus will be next week because I got a feeling it's not going to be the same every week.

Kaleaf Raymond, you know, somehow, some way had more catches than any bear. And we've talked about it. Colston Loveland had two targets and never got his hand on a football. So it really, Zavian Thomas, you know, it's like all these different parts like what gadgets, what plays, what personnel packages will Ben Johnson break out this week against Minnesota? And that's the part of all of this. The other theme is what was left on the field. And it was great. It was fantastic.

I went back and watched it again. and the Cole Commet play continues to stand out to mean on play action, the 22-yard play in double coverage and the checkdown before that to Kyle Menungi. But who is going to get the ball this week, a different animal when we start to talk about the Minnesota Vikings and that Minnesota defense. And we all know who it is led by Brian Flores, will obviously obsess over the different blitz packages that he puts together. A pretty good one-two punch, actually,

when we talk about Kevin O'Connell running the offense and Brian Flores running the defense for the Minnesota Viking. Yeah, and we'll get into the Ben versus Flores matchup today. We'll get into it again in our next episode when we're preview in the game. I have a feeling that might find its way into our game spotlight for our next episode, just because there's a lot to talk about. But yeah, I mean, look, man, like this is fun to have a matchup like this early in the season with a little bit of a little bit of juice to it.

And so, you know, dive right in and figure out what angles you want to take on it. Yeah, we will. As a matter of fact, let's do a little bit of business here as we record this on a Wednesday. Let's fire through the bear's first injurer report of the week and then we will react to it. Our guy on the score, Neville Gallimore, a regular on Rahimi and Grotie this year. Neville Gallimore pops up with an illness, did not practice on Wednesday. Grady Jarrett resting. He's older. So he did not practice. Darnall Wright with a knee injury, did not practice. Anything you could tell us about that day? Dan. Well, I'll tell you two things about that. You know, nowadays, it's a race for content out here at Hallis Hall. So there was a drill happening at the start of practice where it was the receivers and the quarterbacks, both going through a line where they'd catch a pass and then go through, you know, that little battering ram machine that they've got people punching at them. And so everybody's got to run over. You've got to get yourself when I get in there. And I pointed out to somebody I said, down over here to the left, 58's not around. Everybody's got their eyes over here looking at this. And by the way, you're starting right tackle's not practicing today. We get the word out.

after practice that it was a knee issue. The second nugget to that is I did see Darnell in the locker room. He was walking around just fine. You know, no braces, no nothing on his leg at the time. I would put it at a low level of concern at this point. We'll see if he's able to get back out on the field Thursday. But certainly this is one of those guys who's earned the trust that he's going to get himself ready as soon as possible. He doesn't let injuries linger in a way that it keeps him off the field.

and so I'm not really fearful right now that this one will. Yeah, and at every turn, when any time he's been banged up, he is back in short order, appears to have that injury toughness that many players in the NFL have. So we'll continue to monitor darn all right. Moving on with a few other players that pop up on the Wednesday injury report, Kyle Munn guy with a hamstring issue. He was practicing in limited fashion out there. All of these guys, I don't have mentioned, were limited.

So they did practice, but they just kind of took. it easy. Malik Bahamah dealing with an ankle. Dio O'Dangbo shoulder limited again. D'Andre Swift, the star of last week. We'll talk about him here in a second because he was awarded today, right? Ankle and knee

limited. Hey, Ozzie Tripillo. It's going to be there every week. Every week. We're going to see. I love that he pops up there because it's just, it's still a breath of fresh air that he's even healthy enough to be on the injure report. Yeah. And And look, like, we're going to have to be very, very alert for the day that his name isn't on there.

Because it's like, wait a minute, not limited. Like, that means he's full. And if that means he's full, that me, you know, that's, that's the day that we're kind of, you're going to have to just have the radar on. That's such a great point, man. You're absolutely right about that. And I anticipate that, like, any moment now. And I know, like, it would probably be too early now.

Obviously, it is. But who knows with this guy? The fact that he's back in any way, shape, or form is just amazing. But he does show up on there with the knee, injury limited and then Xavier Woods who missed the game, the opener against Carolina, stealing with the groin. But back on the practice field, he was limited. And we mentioned DeAndre Swift.

And there's anything else you want to mention about these injuries, Dan, feel free. But it was good to see what a week. The great week continues for DeAndre Swift. He gets a $33 million extension. He then goes out and has three touchdowns and well over 100 yards in the first game. I'll be more specific, 18 carriers, $100. 24 yards, three TDs. He averaged 6.9 yards per average,

had that big 32-yard explosive runs, even had two big runs negated due to penalties. And today, Wednesdays, we're recording, he gets awarded with the offensive player of the week in the NFL, which is just, what a week for DeAndre Swift. I don't know if there's much more to say about it, Dan. I think he also got the Nickelodeon player of the week stuff. You know how they, there was a big box.

and Nickelodeon stuff hanging out in the hallway between the media room and the locker room. I think that was headed for DeAndre so if somebody can triple check that and figure out where it ultimately landed. But obviously more, more exciting as the NFC Offensive Player of the Week award that he got and well deserved and well earned. Right. Like earned is a great adjective to attach to it because this guy, as we talked about, he just put himself in position to have that type of start to the season. And so to have it, it was great. And I thought it was notable today by his locker. where he was just really talking about the receivers and what they did to help turn some of those runs into bigger runs,

just by doing their part, by getting in there, getting dirty, blocking the way the coaching staff asks them to, when you're surrounded by people that are invested in your success with those little things, it's going to be a huge snowball that gets to start rolling forward. And I think D'Andre Swift is very appreciative of the environment he's in right now. It's pretty genius that somehow, some way, Ben Johnson gets these things out into the DNA of the public.

The whole no block, no rock thing. Like, really. That was the first day he was here, right, that he said that at the introductory press conference, I think. Yeah. But it really sticks. Like, and the fans have now grabbed onto it. We all have. We're talking about it on the radio.

It's like this trite, cliche thing, but it's a full buy-in. It's pop culture. You know what I mean? And like, if it's pop culture, then that gets into the locker. I'm like, oh, this is pretty cool. People dig all of a sudden the NFL world and the bears have opened up. Everybody loves a good block now all of a sudden. We're all looking at the All-22.

But that's it. And like that's what I'm loving about this whole momentum swell that the bears have going right now is it's just it's results that then enhance the credibility of what the teaching was to get the results in the first place. You know, and so that like that's that's where championship teams start to become championship teams. You know what I mean? It's just it's like, this is a way of life and this is what it gets. And when it gets, then we go back to the way of life. And then the way of life gets us these results. And then it's just this whole thing that that will be an amazing thing to be part of if they can keep it rolling. Like we anticipate them keeping it rolling. And like that's, I think, Grotie, and you tell me if I'm off on a euphoric high here or whatnot, but it just feels like this is very sustainable, given what they have established here. That is so unfamiliar for us, you know, who have watched the Bears forever and see these flashes of success. And you go, I don't know how real that is. I don't know how real it is. Right now you're staring at, you're like, that's fucking real.

Yeah. Yeah, for the first time in a long time. And it's still a long year ahead of us. But there's too many cues. There's no, too many pieces of proof to show that this is sustainable. Okay. So you like doing your own oil changes. It's got to be cheaper at home, right?

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available on virtually every make and model. See our website for exclusions. And then back to the theme of, and maybe this is where we start to play some of our audio here. the theme of it was really great like what the Bears did it was really great but there but there's more to come and I think that we're going to find some of that in what the Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner has to say Kurt Warner was a guest on the score on the Spiegel and holmes show and he was on the other day and he gave a full grading of what he saw from Caleb Williams let's take a listen to that right now talking about it today because it got into a little bit of debate because I know PFF had Caleb ranked whatever 19th or 20th in the league, which again, I think the problem is when we start looking at a grading system and think that that means it's a comparison to every other quarterback because everybody is playing different game. You know, everybody has different plays. It's not apples to apples. And so because one guy's graded lower, doesn't mean he was worse as a quarterback on that particular week.

But I thought there was, you know, a number of reeds where he missed kind of the initial part of the read to go along with a few of those throws that you were talking about. But, but again, you know, it's how do you grade it? You know, there was one where he had a deep over that was coming for a huge play. And he ended up checking the ball down and getting a completion and, you know, picking up whatever, eight or nine yards. So how do you grade that? You know, do you call it a negative? No, I wouldn't necessarily. call that a negative because he went through a process and he got a positive play,

but also wouldn't necessarily a positive because if you read it out, there's the throw. You know, that's what it was designed for. It's right there in front of you. And, you know, and some of them are, you would say, is a little easier to see. Like, this guy I thought was wide open by NFL standards, and he just missed it. And so did he come off a little bit early? So it was things like that. I fully agree with you is that there wasn't a bunch of egregious plays where it was like,

oh my gosh, I can't believe, you know, he did that over and over again. There was the two misthrows, as you said, kind of behind the tight end. It was almost like back-to-back throws for him where they were open and he just missed them. But outside of that, it was, yeah, a mistrow here and a misthrow there, which are going to happen, but still, in a grading system, if a guy's open and you miss the throw, that could be considered a negative. Or, you know, one of the plays, I think, came on the 47-yard, credible play where he's running out of bounds and he throws it up there to Rome and Rome goes over the top of the guy and makes the play.

And so you got that at the end result, but he missed the first three. They have a little bit of a choice or something, kind of an angle route that I thought was wide open. And he was looking at it and didn't throw it and then had to go through the process, which again, how do you grade it? Because that could easily end up being a throwaway or it could be a sack. And then does it become a negative? yet if you run to the sideline and whip it up and Rome makes that catch, now does it become a double positive? Like, it's tough.

And so when I think about grading, I think of it from a standpoint of if I'm in a room with a quarterback and I'm trying to help him get better, I'm trying to take him through each play. This is your drop. This is your read. This is where your eyes should be here. I should be here for this long.

So we need you to take a little bit more of a drop. So your timing is set up so you don't miss that second throw. And those kinds of things. you might look at it a little bit differently from a negative or a positive or you know what I call just a circle of zero just doing your job but I fully agree really really good game by Caleb I saw a lot of stuff I've really really really liked yet room for improvement on some in some of those areas and again that's to me is what excites me I don't want to be a finished product necessarily right away I want to continue to grow and show that I'm getting there but I still have room to become the best version of myself that is the Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner on the score with Spiegel and Holmes. Dan, your reaction to that. Yeah, well, I've got a handful.

I'm going to start here because you know that going back to the Justin Field Zero, I do that weekly emoji grading scale for every pass play that bears have. I love that. And so what's fascinating about what Kurt's saying there is like this is a really difficult exercise with Caleb a lot of times because you have a passing play and sometimes there's two plays within it. Yeah. And there's the play that was called. and then there's the extended play.

And so you're like, which one am I actually reacting to here? The Rome play from Sunday is an absolutely perfect case in point example here where watching it back myself, Kurt echoed what I saw. I was like, oh, God, Khalif Raymond is there for you. First read right over the middle where your eyes are. The ball doesn't go there. Now you get outside to your right. Rome's got his hand up. You throw it.

It ends up being the biggest gain of the day on a day where you score 59 points. And so you can't say bad play, but inside the room, I'm sure the coaches are saying, look like, you know, like the ideal play here is let's hit Kleeve Raymond for 12. But how can we be mad at you? Caleb, you just got us 47 down inside the five yard line and we scored a touchdown right after that. So it is really, really difficult to juggle those two things, the play that was called and the extended play, because Caleb is so damn good at the extended play that to discount that is ridiculous in any grading scale that you're using. Yep, this is, that's part of the wild card that you get from Caleb Williams, the stuff that they can't coach. The stuff that will make the coaches, and Ben Johnson has said versions of this, make them look better at times, clean up mistakes. And that was not a mistake on the coaching staff part on the play call. It probably was a pretty sound first read that Ben Johnson had intended.

But this is the stuff that we're all the beneficiary of Caleb Williams that we can. can't explain that we can't perform, that nobody could perform and, you know, a few other quarterbacks, obviously. So agree with you on that. And then, then there's just some plays like you talked about, I assume when he was talking about throwing behind the tight end, he was talking about Colston Loveland on the two targets that he had had. You're going to still miss some plays. Caleb Williams is not going to be perfect every single week. Now, you want to see those plays made. You want that chemistry to rebuild between Caleb Williams and Colson Loveland. That's going to happen. You're going to miss some open plays as well where he talked about the deep overplay that he missed it, no-go, checks down for eight or nine yards.

This is still the learning process for Caleb Williams as well and sometimes his conflict of wanting to check down and wanting to make the big play. The other part of this that's really fascinating is there's been a lot of talk since last week, really, about the production meeting that Caleb had with Drew Breeze, who was on the call for Sunday's game. and Drew kind of telling him, look, like the difference between 60% and 70% in this league is three more completions per game. Caleb was asked about that on Wednesday afternoon, and his point here was, that's not necessarily just all checkdowns. Just three more completions a game doesn't mean I just got to try to find three more checkdowns. It's just find three more completions. He says sometimes that is the deep ball. That is a shot down the sideline to Rome where it's like, I know he's a good contested catch guy.

I'm going to go give him a chance to make a contested catch. And then Roe makes that catch. Sometimes it's I got out of, you know, out of the pocket. I extended it. Well, now, what did we work on all spring and summer with scramble drill? How do I apply that to making sure that this play isn't a throwaway, but I find a completion? There were a couple of those on Sunday as well. And so I think you've got a quarterback just truly, truly engaged with trying to find all of the extra little production that's inside of a game.

And we saw it on Sunday. And we saw it to historic levels, to record setting levels. some ways and it's really fun because you're just really kind of entering a new frontier, honestly, with where the quarterback and the entire offense can go. Well, let's start to get into some of the specifics of the Vikings game now. And Caleb Williams versus the Minnesota Vikings defense and specifically Mike Flores, excuse me, Brian Flores, the defensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings. And we'll get to Ben Johnson.

on talking about Flores. We can start there, Dan. Is there anything you want to say right off the bat about Flores and that defense before we played the audio? We could also use the audio to launch the conversation, if you'd like. Look, I would just say this, that Ben and Brian are very similar. They are both very elite at what they do in terms of calling plays. They are also both very driven to not only have an identity for their units, but to be

able to kind of morph. That's the word that Ben always uses, and Flores is really good at it, where it's like this is what you're expecting. Oh, guess what? I'm going to throw a little something else at you and really keep you off balance. And so this is like this, it's people calling it a chess game all week. That's a fair description. But it also is like a mind game and a mind bleep for both of these guys trying to figure

out how they can get inside one another's heads, you know, in the days leading up to the game and then within the game to create some stress. And that's going to be fun to kind of watch that evolve during the preparation. And then obviously Sunday when they're playing for three hours at Soldier Field. I compare it. I like a baseball analogy I was thinking about earlier when it comes to Brian Flores and the unpredictability of when he's going to blitz. There was a time in Major League Baseball when you knew on 3 and 0 the batter was probably going to get a fastball. Nowadays, all bets are off. You could get a slider. You could get a curve ball. You could get something to off speed. He will blitz at any time. Don't try to predict it. Yeah, there are predictable counts and third downs where, yeah, he's going to bring the noise. But this guy is going to be blitz happy. He recorded a historic 82.1 overall blitz rate in the first game against the Green Bay Packers, a 39 to 22 win over the pack. And then back to the unpredictability, Dan. You never remember what happened last year.

We were having this conversation leading up to game one. Oh, blitz, blitz, blitz, blitz, blitz, blitz, blitz, blitz, blitz, 35% blitz rate. Yeah, we dropped back and we played a lot more coverage than the bears were expecting. and then, you know, you kind of say, okay, how are you going to adjust to this? And then bears by their own admission took a little bit longer than they wanted to to adjust to it. So I think it's fun. And we've got some audio from Ben to walk us through parts of this field trip.

But I do think that there is genuine admiration that goes back and forth between these guys. They faced each other enough over the last several years, that it's truly like heartfelt admiration for what they're going against. And I think they're both very excited to be able to have this kind of little rivalry within a rivalry. Let's listen to it. So here's Ben Johnson on what makes Flores' blitz so effective. This is blitz so effective. What's the key to neutralizing it? Oh, yeah, it comes from all over the place.

He'll hit you in the A-gap. He'll hit you from outside the tackles. He likes to bring zero more than any other coordinator in this league. And so there's in any situation, normal downs, second and long, third downs, red zone, it really doesn't matter. He keeps you on your toes. And so you just, as coaches, as offensive coaches, you take a lot of pride in giving the quarterback and the offensive players answers and solutions to whatever problems could unveil themselves on game day. Well, when you go against a guy like this, you got everything.

You got everything. So that's where it's a lot. And for our players, they have to really dedicate themselves over the course of the week to have success on. game day. And fortunately, I do think that our guys, like the way we train them is very demanding and very detailed with teams like this in mind, because you got to have a certain level of detail to your play and know what's going on, awareness to you. I think to give yourself a chance against a scheme like this. How do you assist in the...

Have you been for the anticipated change of? Last year, week on, something plus a lot. I'll meet them all in that. When you guys face them later, Minnesota, it was really good points. You don't. You try to have answers for everything. So, yeah, I mean, it's, it's, he's been in this division three years now.

And, yeah, I mean, you'd like to think he's put everything he could possibly do on tape until you play him next and you realize he hasn't yet. And so it'll be something new. There always is with him. And that's what makes him such a good coordinator. It's a great challenge. It really is. You have a lot of fun.

on game day. Now the week of preparation is not so much fun, but you know, there's a lot of back and forth that goes into it. Get out of here. He loves every second of preparing for this guy. It's like both. It's like you do love it,

but then there's just like, oh, this is really hard. This is really hard to find answers. And so it is in there. We'll have an extension of that conversation again coming up in our game preview episode the next time we get together. Some more of the humorous sides of that, but you could feel it from Ben the day

where he's definitely immersed in it at this point in the week and like, and he's feeling it, you know, and this is not unfamiliar to him, as he said, this is years that he's been doing this in the back and forth with Flores. So be fun to see what comes out of this. That's amazing. And I should point out

too, the opener last year, 35% blitz rate by Flores against the bear, a loss. Everybody remembers the 21 points in the fourth quarter for J.J. McCarthy and the Vikings. And then in the November 16th game, which the Bears won. Flores was like, you know what?

I'm going to double that, 66% blitz rate. So it truly is not predictable. Dan, I want to throw some numbers out at you. We had Clay Harbor on the show today. And he brought some really good information. He talked about, Ben mentioned how Flores has been in the division since 2023. In those games, Ben Johnson is five and one in six games against Brian Flores since

2023. His offenses have outperformed the league averages against the Minnesota defense. His, and I'm going to get into the weeds a little bit here, but I'll zoom out. His EPA per play, and that's, again, expected points added EPA, basically the amount of successful plays that you have percentage-wise versus the Vikings on the overall, this is again since 2023, plus 0.07. everybody else minus 0.04. Successful plays when blitzing. Ben Johnson, 46%. The rest of the league, 41%. Points per drive. Again, since 202023. Ben Johnson, 2.33. Rest of the league, 1.77. Explosive play rate, Ben Johnson, 15.3%. Rest of the NFL, 12.7%. First down rate and TD rate combined. Ben Johnson, 37%.

Rest of the league, 27%. And then he is also talking about literally what Ben Johnson does to be good against Brian Flores and those types of blitzing defenses is the quick snaps getting up to the line. Don't allow them to disguise things, at least in the theory, that's the idea. He did 18 of those in week 11 against Minnesota, the second time the Bears played the Vikings last year.

17 times he did that in week one. Get right up to the line, get the quick snap, can't disguise, don't have time to do things. And then something that we've seen, nothing new with defenses. We've seen our offenses. We've seen plenty of it through the years. The condensed formations as well,

did it more against Minnesota than any other team in the league. So to say that Ben Johnson doesn't get off on this or doesn't prepare for this is absolutely. something. Yeah, I think what you read to me is a conclusion, the conclusion that is drawn is Ben Johnson's above average at what he does. And that's what you're right. Like, this is what you're dealing with now. I was talking to our good friend Cassie Carlson at Fox today. You know, and she asked, you know, what makes you feel good about the bears in this matchup? And I said, every week going forward now, when you pose that question to me, no matter who the opponent is, I will say,

it's Ben in this offense that makes me feel good because they are, they are acquitted. from play caller to quarterback to offensive line to skills guys to take any test that is thrown at them. And it's such a weird place to be in as a Bears observer, that headspace of like there really isn't much to be afraid of. Now you've got to go pass all those tests and you've got to put it out there when when it's game day. But like they are equipped now, Grotie, to handle just about anything. And it's truly wild to say that out loud. It is pretty amazing. There was kind of a funny.

I don't know, funny is the right word. maybe classic Ben Johnson moment, I guess you could say. Yeah. In the media room, maybe you set the stage on this particular Ben Johnson. I think it's the last Ben Johnson quote we have here. Yeah, well, you know, I mean, look, like a lot of people riding high in the city of Chicago after a 59 point outburst. Certainly the guys at Chuggall riding as high as anybody, right?

Like, they love, they love a good 59 point outburst. And so it was Mark Carmen that started the exchange with Ben's with Ben. And this next sound bite is very, very short. But you listen to it for yourself and then you draw the conclusion that you want to draw. Yeah, I think you. I put up 59. Like guys might feel like, you know, you're in a great place we got this. Do you sort of feel like you have to guard against any level of?

We haven't put up any points this week. That's it. The end. No follow up. Not necessary. Interrupted. Don't even finish your question. We haven't put up any points this week.

Right. Like, again, it's what you talked about before. It's just, it's this messaging, right? And you know that messaging was said either in those exact terms or something very similar inside the meeting room with players. Like, guys, we don't get to carry any of those 59 forward with us, right? Like, they don't give us 14 to start this game just because we played so well last Sunday. We've got zero points against the Vikings.

We've got to earn every single one of those we get. Ben was asked subsequently by Patrick Finley about his potential urge for going for a two-point conversion to get it up to 60. and he quickly matumbowed that question too being like, you know, I mentioned that other people might have been interested, but like he just wasn't interested in living back in that space of way back when, you know, 72 hours ago on Sunday, which is great. It's a great thing to have and very, very on brand for Ben to be able to vocalize it in the way that he does.

He's a real heartbreaker, I tell you. He would subscribe to Ditka's one of Ditka's favorite quotes, The Past is for Cowards and Losers. And when I say the Past, I mean last week. Yeah, right. Yeah, yeah, three days ago in Carolina. It was all the messaging was we got to find a way to get back on the plane with a win. They got on the plane and it was like, we don't care about that win ever again.

You know, like we got to go get 14 more of these to put ourselves in positions to do what we want to do. And yeah, I mean, it's really cool. You know, I wrote something for the athletic on Monday about that 2013 Broncos team that that been vocalized earlier, 37.9 points per game that they averaged. Obviously, the bears are way ahead of that pace right now, Grody. You know, mark it down on the take the north tracker there. the Bronco meter that we're going to have going on there. And, you know, Cole Komet had told me when I asked him about that during the summer.

He said, we want to be unforgiving. And that starts with who? That starts with the guy at the top who wants to be very unforgiving with how he goes after opponents. And it's just, it's this is, again, this is the brands now, you know, and there's a lot of people here inside these walls at Hallis Hall that believe in the brand. Did anything stand out to you? I know Dennis Allen will speak on Thursday, so we'll get him to be accountable for the 478 yards given up against Carolina and the 353 passing and all that.

Ben is anything that stood out to you about the defense during his talk out of Hallis Hall? Yeah, I mean, look, he thought that there were a couple individuals that played well, but collectively, you know, basically in his own vernacular, this is not anywhere close to the championship level that we need to play at on that side of the ball. So there's clear marching orders there to get better and get better fast. And so, you know, again, like I think DA's voice will be very important the next time we get together. But look, like, they understand they gave up a lot of yards, a lot of points, a lot of explosives.

And it's, you know, a group that's going to have to pull more weight than that. Like, we know this is going to be an offensively driven team, probably the entire season. Defense is going to have to pull more weight than that. To their credit, they did get the two takeaways. Yeah, I think things that stand out to me about people that I talked to this week who are experts at reading the all 22 and I can name names even. Patrick Manley specifically talked about the linebackers had a horrible day that Devin Bush and T.J. Edwards, that seems pretty consistent with people. Obviously, the corners.

It was a bad day for Tyreek Stevenson and Jalen Johnson. And I'll give you one guy, too, Dan, that from all accounts from the people again that I trust that graded out really well that you may not have expected to have graded out really well was Grady Jarrett. Grady Jarrett. It graded out very well for those who study and are experts in the All-22. It was heartening to me to hear Patrick talk about the linebacker play because, you know, there were some things that I saw. I was like, oh, that doesn't look quite right. And one of the reasons that Dylan Thinemann winds up as your leading tackler is because

these backs were getting past the second level, you know, and all of a sudden he's got to make some tackles and run support that you prefer T.G. Edwards or Devin Bush to take care of. And so there's going to have to be some cleanup there. They have to figure it out. look like Devin Bush is here because the Bears not only wanted to get faster on defense, they wanted to get cheaper too. And so they let Tremaine Edmonds go. You know, and that was a salary cap move at the time.

And he's in New York. And I watched him make a play at the goal line the other day. And you're like, it's a pretty good play down by the goal line. That's a guy with some range and some speed. And so like some of this is just going to be like, how does Devin Bush find his niche in this defense enough to make an impact where you feel like he's a, you know, quality start for you. You're not expecting him to be an all pro, but he needs to be a quality starter for you every week. And it wasn't good enough on Sunday in Carolina. There's a play

on the All-22 that I was shown where he's blitzing and he just melts basically at the feet of the blocker. Like it's a really bad thing. Oh, yeah. It's almost looked video gameish the way he bent, right? Yes. Yeah. Like that didn't even look like a human body. Like you got me. Like he is a small guy. And like especially relative to his predecessor, Tremaine Edmonds, who was as big as any linebacker that's played with the bears. So it is an interesting juxtaposition between those two guys. Dan, anything else, any of their notes and nuggets or anything else out there at Hallis Hall that we've left out on what I think has been a pretty thorough episode of Take the North

episode 529 here. I'm just going to give you one last little nugget. And this comes from outside of Bank of America Stadium on that walk that I was talking about earlier as a bunch of us were leaving the stadium there. Scott Fowler is the columnist that the Charlotte Observer covers the Panthers very closely. and I know him going way back to my days in North Carolina. And the first thing he said to me as we were walking out was Caleb Williams. And his eyes were wide.

And he's like, you might need to start planning for a really deep run in January. So this was, you're like this is opposing eyes on this of people watching this and going, man, like that felt really hard to stop because he's really, really talented with his arm. He's really, really dangerous with his legs. And like, they're just, I don't know what you do, you know. And he seems to be getting better at playing the position at the NFL. level. And that's why I think you and I talked on Monday. It's like the floor is significantly higher than we've ever experienced. We can't even see the ceiling yet. I love that kind of stuff.

I love those sort of genuine, authentic testimonial. So that that's, that's really good to hear. One last nugget. So plan for a deep run in January. I'm just talking about you right now. I'm ready, man. We'll, we'll, uh, we'll get the score to travel so you and I can eat together again. There we go. Yeah. We'll go out to L.A. I'm actually looking forward to being out. I will be out at Soldier Field, work in the locker room with everybody else. So that'll be a blast to see everybody on the beat once again. But one other note here, Studs does confirm for us that Swift did win the Nickelodeon player of the week for multiple B reporters from inside the locker.

So there you go. Great, great, great confirmation there. Glad we have that for all intents of purposes. And look, I'm so eager to see you inside Soldier Field on Sunday at a low reunion. We'll go share like a mediocre egg sandwich over there by the. by the troughs of food in the morning and maybe get orange juice or something and catch up like old times.

I can't wait. I can't wait to just embrace you and embrace all that it's older field on Sunday. Actually, we'll talk about, I know we'll talk about this more on the preview episode, but that place is going to be jacked up, man. First time we've been there since the playoff game. That's right.

I mean, obviously they played a preseason game there against the Browns, but what does that matter? That's a little different. Yeah, you and I were walking through the tunnels doing the podcast together walking towards the locker room and embracing each other. That wasn't happening. That'll do it for today. For that guy, Dan Weiderot of the athletic and frequent and very important score contributor for our executive producer, Adam Zitzinski.

I am Mark Grody of 1043, the score saying thank you so much for watching and listening to The Mighty Take the North podcast. Great talk. See out there. Thank you, everybody.