Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Best of the Bears on 104.3 The Score: Reactions to Week 1 win at Panthers

Episode Date: September 15, 2026

In the best of the Bears, Score football analyst Olin Kreutz joined the Haugh & Payton Show to share his observations from Chicago's offensive explosion in a 59-37 win against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday; Leila Rahimi and Mark Grote opened up the phone lines for Score callers to celebrate the Bears' victory; and Matt Spiegel and Laurence Holmes reveled in the Bears' win and expressed their excitement for the partnership between quarterback Caleb Williams and head coach Ben Johnson continuing to grow.

Good Monday morning, Chicago. Welcome to the Hall and Peyton Show. Chicago Sports Radio 1043, The Score. Welcome to our Chicago Sports Network audience out there on the simulcast until 9 o'clock. And now it's a pleasure to go to the plumbers. 9-1-1-1-8-33 plumbers. Call 1-833 Plum 9-1. Local 130 plumbers get the job done right the first time. You know what that music means. It's time to bring in Olin Crutes. Good morning, Olin. How are you? I'm good. Living in the epicenter of offense in the NFL. I'm doing real well. Congratulations. It's first time you brought me in to you and Jared on your guys new show. It's the first time I've been on. The Hall and Payton show, obviously, Mully was a legend in Chicago. Legend on the Airways taught us all what Chicago radio should sound like.

Jared's been used to feeling big shoes. So I'm excited to be on your guys show this morning and especially with the offense dropping 59 points on a team. And watching that game yesterday. to myself, where am I? What am I watching and how do I analyze an offensive shootout? And I heard you guys talking about Ben saying, look, man, we're going to

score, you know, we are going to break the 2013 Denver Broncos record. That is my goal. I want to score, you know, 40 plus points a game. And I heard that and of course I rolled my eyes and thought this young coach he's getting a little crazy here. And then he does that last night. And now I'm

believing maybe he will. Maybe they will break this record. And I I know you guys stopped, Jared and David, but when I watched that yesterday, and I kind of rewatched it last night, watched it a little bit this morning. The crazy thing about what they did yesterday on offense was it wasn't smoking mirrors.

They are that good. They are going to be that hard to stop with all the weapons they got and the level their young quarterback played at last night. I feel like we should start there, Olin. When you talk about the quarterback, right? I mean, just to take a, another step. Everybody was

looking for Caleb and what was he going to do going into this year and second year with Ben Johnson. And his command of that offense, you can just see from the beginning. He is comfortable in his game. And that's what's scary about it, Olin, is that he's getting

more comfortable and we know how athletic he is, how gifted he is. He's got the arm talent. Now he's starting to understand Ben's scheme and how he wants his offense to run, almost becoming another version of him on the football field. There was a play there, Jared, early in the game where he wanted Luther Burden to go in motion.

And he was giving him the motion where you lift your leg up. And he stuck his leg way back. So Luther Burden could see it. There was no panic, right? There was no. And then Khalif Raymond, obviously, I heard you guys talking about the game he had, and he was telling Luther Burden to go in motion.

But his command and control at the line of scrimmage again, the guy's in and out of the huddle and checking the offense, in and out of what play they wanted to run and what play they didn't want to run and giving them the advantage at the line of scurbinger, and running the offense, the way Ben Johnson wanted him to run it, and you heard Ben say after the game that he slept well, because Caleb knew all the details of what he had to do that day, and that showed up in that game.

And then, you know, it's like on the first touchdown where, like, you know, if you're a defensive player for the Panthers, and you want to go ahead or another, football team and you want to boo rush Braxton Jones for just a second too long. Well, guess what? Caleb's going to roll out of pocket and he's going to run. He's going to score touchdowns. Just like at the end of the half, right, the two-minute drop.

Same thing. They had the old line a little beat there, a little bit of a muddy pocket. Caleb gets out and guess what? He's gone. He can touch every part of the football field and like you guys know better than anybody else. When you can do that at quarterback, when you can threaten them with boots and jets and hit the passes, and hit the checkdowns. And they had a delay a game, right?

And you're like, before it'd be like, oh, man. Not this, no, I'm sorry. It was third and one. There was holding on Gary Bradbury, right? Third and one, it is third and 11. Kayla Williamson, no problem. Let me hit Luther Burden for 14 or 15 yards and keep this drive moving. So those kind of things to threaten a defense where this offense is, they can overcome

penalties. They can overcome early fumbles by Luther Burden. and it looked like the two teams that Peanut Tillman play for, they want to use the peanut punch to honor Peanut Tillman, right? And early on the game, Panthers linebacker punches the ball out from Luther Burden, but no problem. And in the first quarter, all those penalties, all the fumble, guess what, we're winning 14 to 7.

The second with the Olin crew, sponsored by Bucie Bank, building business, growing wealth, since 1868. Olin, you could look at the Bears Off season, and it started with Drew Dalman retiring, and I thought that was a huge void that they needed to fill. But that decision to retire set off a chain of events, which brought us to yesterday. Garrett Bradbury is here.

They made a lot of other decisions because of that. Logan Jones was drafted, all those things. Game one, I know it's hard to maybe ask the question after the game 291 rushing yards. So everyone in the offensive line probably played at a very high level. But did you notice things about Garrett Bradbury? How would you evaluate his play? from somebody who knows the position as well as anybody in Chicago. Yeah, I thought he did what he would do when you come here,

Gary Bradbury, a veteran center, play between Joe Tunney and Jonah Jackson, reminds me of went to New Orleans and had Jari Evans and Carl Nicks, retired from New Orleans and they put another center and then the thing just kept rolling, right? When you have the two best offensive guard combination in the NFL, stick a guy in there who knows what he's doing, stick a veteran center in there who can do his job. and he will do his job, right? And that's what Gary Bradbury did yesterday,

made all the calls, processed information at the pivot there in the middle for the Chicago Bears and kept that offense rolling downhill. And I say downhill because you talk about Swift and Manungai and, you know, Swift went out there and he looked like Monong guy early on, putting his head down, running guys,

spinning off blocks, running for big games, running behind Darnell Wright and Jonah Jackson. But yes, David, not, did he slow that down? at all yesterday. Now, if you ask me, I think as the year goes on, as we face maybe better defenses or better fronts, not Derek Brown. I mean, gosh, I thought that guy was going to be a big problem in that game and the Bears' offensive line took care of him in the run game.

Derek Brown, one of the best defensive tackles in all the NFL, playing for the Carolina Panthers number 95, who got the person to follow last night to extend that drive and then got their interception taken off the board by lining up offside. That must be an emphasis for the referees, right? We saw a lot of that yesterday calling baseball. defensive players lying up off sides. But as far as Gary Bradbury goes and that offensive line, they were rolling yesterday, almost 300 yards rushing. It was fun to watch them. It was fun to watch

the designs of the plays and the receivers entering the B and the C gap and acting as fullbacks and Coquemette kicking guys out and, you know, close and Loveland driving guys off the ball and, you know, Luther Burden making big blocks and Jada Walker and all those guys buying in. But it starts right there like you talked about in the middle of that offensive line with Joe Tuning, Gary Bradbury, Jonah Jackson, guys. He gets his pad under pad. He gets his hands low to high. And he drives his legs.

And this guy is an absolute monster with Darnell right there. Darnell right. Give him another $50 million. That guy watched people. They throw, they drive. He drives guys. You know, there was a play last night. I think, you know, the pass rusher came inside on him and he shut that,

moved on. I came off my couch because I love little things like that by an offensive lineman who can move like that. That offense, I mean, the defense was a problem, but that offense, I hope Chicago enjoyed that performance last night. Like I said, man, the details, the offense play with the design of the plays, what Ben Johnson was doing with his motions, with his fronts, with his shifts. And then the way Caleb Williams played and Garrett Bradbury and all of them,

I can just hand out flowers all day long when you watch. that offense yesterday who scored 59 points. And I heard Jared say they left some points on the field. And I thought, man, he's right. They did. I went through the film this morning and they could have scored more points. And, you know, the coaches has 45 points and he's calling, you know, fake counter quarterback reverse, wildcat, fake reverse to the quarterback.

This is what fun offense looks like in Chicago, I guess, for one game. Hey, man, Chicago Bears, do us all a favor. Do it again. Keep doing it. Olin, I love it, man. You get me so excited just talking about the offensive line. Jonah Jackson doesn't get enough credit on that offensive line. And should.

He's like the unsung hero of that right side of the line. And I understand when Darnel writes over there as well. But what they do together has been phenomenal. You look at the points that they put up yesterday. And his historic day, Olin, and all that. You would think that they were thrown all over the yard. the ground game was the biggest attack for

this team yesterday. But if you would have asked yourself before the game that they would score this many points and that Colson Loveland would not really be involved, what would you thought if I would have told you that he would have no catches on a day where the offense exploded? Yeah, I would have thought you were crazy.

You're right. Remember when Coston Loveland, I think it was the third quarter was his first target and he didn't sit down in the zone, right? He kept moving through the zone and the ball flew by him and looked like there a little bit of a miscommunication between him and Caleb, and I'm sure they'll go over that. That's what Ben was talking about after the game,

that there are things to correct, even when we drop 59 points on somebody. But that just tells you, like we're talking about earlier, when you really go through the film, when you watch it, there wasn't a lot of luck involved. There was a lot of execution, which is surprising for 59 points, right? You would think there were takeaways and turnovers and huge plays, and Carolina was, you know, they had a lot of mental mistakes in their secondary. No, the bears are beating them.

The bears are beating them like you said with the run game and you would think, okay, if they scored 59 points, posted 11 and must have just went crazy, right? No, we were spreading the ball around. We were hitting Luther Burden. We hit Roma Dunes. There's ticking guys a ball off the top of someone's helmet, right? We were just doing things that the Chicago Bears do, right? To hit run the ball, Caleb Williams, if you over rush him, if you don't page rushing,

if you don't keep him in the pocket, it makes you pay him with his legs. but guess what also he does now? It's a little spot route in the middle of field, back to back to get a first down, right? Luther Burden, Coquemet, easy first down. Seems like we're in second and long. We've got no chance here, not anymore. Not anymore with that offense I saw yesterday, and it's one day.

It's one day, but guys, you got to say after one day, how good they did play that one day. And when you watch it, and I'll keep saying this, when you watch it on film, it was not luck. This offense is pretty damn good, man. are good. That young quarterback, if he plays at that level, they're going to be hard to stop. I don't know about you guys, but I already got my spot picked out on the couch for Flores versus Ben Johnson next week. I'm already waiting. I can't even wait. When is the last time

you felt like that with Chicago Bears football? Well, you can't wait to next week. I want to see Flores versus Ben Johnson. I want to see this heavyweight title fight we're about to have here at Soldier Field next Sunday. We are talking with a very excited Olin Cruz here on Hawn Payton. And the segment is brought to you by Plummers 911. Plumbing Emergency, call the plumbing professionals available 24-7 at 1833 Plum 911. You're exactly right. What Brian Flores did yesterday to the Packers is going to be something that will keep Ben Johnson up at night. He may not sleep that well until maybe Saturday night when he sees Caleb Williams and he'll feel good about everything. But Olin, I think after this 59-point explosion, I found it interesting that a couple of players mentioned

this, that Ben Johnson told his team, this is the worst you're going to play all year long. This is the worst you're going to play all season. And was he trying to guard against a lot of things coaches worry about from week one to week two? Do you worry about the bears getting too full of themselves this week? I mean, you've been a leader in those locker rooms. I don't know if you had many 59 point outings to celebrate,

but how do you come back from something like this to have that sharp edge still? I appreciate you being nice. David, and said, you don't know because I know you know. I did not have a 59 point explosion.

Why in the NFL, maybe back in St. Louis High School and Holland and Hawaii or University of Washington. We probably put up a 50 plus, but not here with the Chicago Bears. But I think what he's saying is you guys saw all those penalties.

You guys saw the turnovers. You guys saw the things that can be corrected. And in Ben's mind, they can look a lot better. And you can look good. You can be better. You can have,

everyone says, regression. You can have progression and not score that. many points, right? You can have progression this year, watching young quarterback, and not win as many games as you won last year. So there are ways to get better. Now, from our eyes and stuff, where you think, oh, man, 59 points, how do you do better than that? Ben will see things like on a third and one guys getting beat by stunts inside, like the young titan rouse got beat

yesterday, right? You'll see things like that. So, okay, let's work on our footwork here. Let's do things a little better, and you can score, you can win 24, 21. And like you guys know, a football coach will feel like, hey, man, we play better here today, though. We may not scored 59 points, but we didn't have nine or 10 first half penalties, right? We did not have a takeaway there. We did not give the ball away on our first drive on a little bubble screen, right? So those things are the things that can work on. And he's probably talking a lot to his defense, right?

Like, this is the worst. I think that you guys are going to play. I think you give Dennis Allen some film on what he has. and what he has to improve on and the things they got to do on defense to get more stops in the first half because there wasn't a lot of stops there, right? There was not a lot of stops. We had those to take away and we had to stop. I think it was fourth down late where Malik Mohamed was on McMillan covering him one-on-one and McMillan was in like a little stat formation. And you could tell it was man coverage.

And I was thinking to myself, we are dead in the water here. But, you know, Malik Mohamed yesterday plays a pretty damn good football game, hard to see. say that about the performance you watch on defense, but did a lot of things for the Chicago Bears yesterday. But I think that's what he means, David, and he says, look, we can play better and a coach like this. You tell him, man, Jared knows this. He's been in a lot of locker rooms. Don't drink the poison. Don't drink the poison. We're all out there. I'm going to, Olin Troots is on the radio telling you how great you guys are. Don't listen to him. Oh my gosh. He's just an old retired center, right? Don't listen to that, moron. He doesn't know

what he's talking about. You guys have not done anything yet. So don't drink the poison. make sure we keep improving. Make sure you keep that chip on your guys shoulder where everyone told you you're the number one regression candidate in the NFL. Keep that chip on your shoulder. Keep listening to those things. Don't listen to how great we are.

Olin, I've been in those locker rooms. I hear you, man. I feel you. The hardest part is when you're in locker rooms where one side of the ball is holding up there and the bargain and the other side isn't. And sometimes that can create some type of friction. I don't see that happening, but we're all over here talking about how good this offense is.

But the concern is this defense. I mean, you're putting a lot of pressure on Caleb Williams in this offense to outscore everybody. Do you have concerns about this defense getting pressure, the back end of this defense? What were some of the other takeaways or maybe bright spots that you saw from yesterday? Yes, yes, and yes. I have a lot of concerns after watching that film last night, right, the way they went the Panthers went down the field so easily the way our cornerbacks got beat on double moves, right? Tyreece Stevenson by Coker, the way Bryce Young found his way.

Drew Grady, Jared, on that first touchdown to Tribal Hubbard in the corner and then pit him there in the corner. The way guys are wide open, the way they ran the ball a little bit. As you know, they did have a rookie tackle. I thought we didn't see Montez sweat enough on a rookie tackle Monroe Freeling, but we did see him get a sack, right? You worry about when they're backed up defensive tackles coming in a league. Like you guys know, preseason can lie to you, right?

I thought they struggled a little bit. The young D tackles, when they came in there to try to stop at Catavia Street, I thought he did show up sometimes, right? Devin Bush, T.J. Edwards, Dylan Thineman, now they do, you know, Kobe Ryan is not coming back. Is Kyler Gordon ever coming back? Do we have any reinforcements coming in there? Because also what was as real as the offense being good, right?

And look, man, like you said, you worry about all the locker room having some problems. Like I should tell Earl Acker at M.A. Look, man, the head coach's defense, you guys are getting all the money, make the stops, right? The defense had a ton of money. Same on the offense for the Chicago Bears now. They pay to get a $13 million year best play caller in the NFL. They got the number one pick. They spent all that money on the offensive line. They got Luther Bird in.

They say, hey, man, we want a luxury draft at tight end. And we want a luxury draft at a speed wide receiver, Xavier and Thomas. So all the assets right now sit over there on the offensive side of the ball. They got to carry a big part of the load to keep this team moving. But as real as the offense was good, the defense man, when you did watch the film yesterday, like you're saying, where do we look for the answers? Where do we look for guys to raise their level of play and make stops? Dennis Allen doing a lot of switching up last night,

whether it was double a gap, cross dog blitz going to cover one, whether he was trying to drop back in coverage. He was trying to give them any answer. could to make it. They were opportunistic, right? We got that banana ball from Torrey Taylor on the punt that horn did fumble. We did get a couple of takeaways. Dylan Thineman came downhill. Hit McMillan. The ball popped out. Jalen Johnson punched it out. But like you're talking about a lot way too many guys running wide open on the field, way too many yards, way too many movement. You know, it's kind of a tie game when Derek Brown does get that roughing the pass.

that they're late in the third quarter. That's what you don't remember, right? I think it was 31 to 31 late in the third quarter. And Derek Brown gets that rough in the pass. We end up scoring a touchdown. And then, you know, the takeaway that the turnovers come and bears get three touchdowns in a row and expand their lead. But hopefully we don't have to score.

Hopefully it's not 31 to 31 in every third quarter, right? So it's just going to be an interesting thing to watch the way Dennis Allen goes back in this unit, tries to get their legs back under them and get some stops there on the defense. side of all. Great insight, Olin. Have a great week.

Look forward to talking to you next Monday and every Monday after that. Appreciate you guys. Have a good day. Rahimi and Grody. I mean, I'm just going to make it happen. I'm a dog. Midday, 10 a.m. to 2 on the score. If you can get him into field goal range,

goes down in his first NFL game gets his first NFL interception. We were just talking about the confidence, a confident throw by Young, but Muhammad dives out there for the pit. Heck yeah. I just laid it in Europe. Shopping bags and a tourist. That's the opening line of this song. Oh, nice.

That's Layla Rahimi right there. Blake was me. You know I got it. I am Mark Grody. We call the show Rahimi and Grotie on 1043, the score. You are listening to a Plumbers 911 football Monday presented by Bucie Bank and great clips. The Bears beat Carolina 59 to 37. Yeah, I admit it.

I was pretty worried about Malik Muhammad from what I saw. I was not. I never wavered. I don't know why. I mean, the guy didn't play the position at Texas, which makes it even more impressive. And I've had conversations. What Texas do Saturday, Ohio State? Oh, hell's yeah. We are on.

How'd that go for you? And while I'm out of, how'd that go for you, Green Bay? That'll be addressed later in five on it, ladies and gentlemen. You extended your coach who then made another fourth quarter massive failure of a mistake. Oh, let's go. You failed. You want some of that there, Carolina? You like that.

that, by the way, the fans go into Charlotte. There's no surprises anymore, Lelah. Another team's home stadium to chant Green Bay sucks. Well, they were big... We got you there too. There was a ton of Bears fans there. I don't think that Bears fans outnumbered the Carolina fans.

In fact, they didn't, because you could tell watching the broadcast, but they made their voices heard. But yeah, Malik Mohamed with that pick at the end of the first half, he had a diving PBU at one point in time, past breakup. So I thought he comported him self well, keep stacking those days together. I absolutely love it. Are you buying what you saw from

the Bears yesterday? 312, 64, 64, 67, 67 is the number. Let's get going on these calls, Laels. Shall we? We shall. By the way, our segment brought to you by almasfreeteeth.com. Save on dental implants today. How about Bob? Bob and Downers Grove. Bob, you're on the score with Roheemi and Grotie. What's going on, man? Hey guys, how you doing? The best. We are the best today. Oh, I am absolutely buying 100% what I saw yesterday, and I'll tell you why. That offense was absolutely on point.

It was on point. DeAndre Swift was so good. Everybody saw the way he ran, but twice linebackers came free right up the middle, and they were going to ruin Caleb's day, and he just stepped in and stoned them. And I'll tell you what, our defense isn't nearly as bad as we, as, as it showed yesterday. Malik Mohamed and Danny Thinemann, they come from absolute stud programs.

Malik Mohamed has every expectation of being a starting quarterback in this league. He's not going to have to worry about nickel. He's taken Tyreek Stevenson's position real soon. We are going to whoop the Vikings. The Packers had no running game. We were going to run it right down their throat. We're going to win. I am not worried one bit about Carson Wentz walking in here

and putting up 30 points on us. Get out of town with that. No way. We are going to score 40, no problem. We're not going to have to worry about the Blitz game because Swift and Menangai are just going to run it down their throat. It is a nightmare for the NFL to have the Bears, Caleb Williams, under center, a Ben Johnson downhill running game,

and play action. We are going to destroy this. Hey, Bob, real quick question for you. Can I ask you a quick question before you go? Yeah. 17 and 0? 17 and 0? Oh, I don't know.

got a tough one with the bills late in year. We'll see. All of a sudden, we got a tough one, huh? Wait a minute. What was all that 40 points of game? Stop harassing the vibe. We're not, this is the NFL. There are a lot of good teams, but we are

about to whoop the Vikings there. See you later, Bob. Okay, I like that declaration. I did hate watch the Packard's Vikings after the Bears game. I watched post game. I listen to Ben Johnson. I listen to Caleb Williams. And I was like, let me see what's going on to this

here Packers and Vikings game. And then I'm like, oh, the Green Bay Packers are up. And then Malford decided to take points off the board for his own team. And then suddenly there went the collapse again. There was. There was two years in a row, Matt LaFleur. Two games in a row, I should say. Great first call.

Let's name our calls. We'll call that call Danny Thieneman. Put that down as Danny Thieneman. I like that. I kind of like Danny Thienman. How about Wayne? Wayne is it Lafayette? What's up?

Wayne? Oh, you're on the score, man. What's going on? My God, I finally got through to my old buddy Grody man and Miss Layla. What a fine day to talk to you too, boy. Hell yeah. My favorite people in the world, boy. And look forward to seeing you guys again one of these days soon.

Boy, I sure do. Hey, before I get to my bear thing, me and Dustin Rose decided since you've got your own show now, we're going to call you Mr. Tall on the Saddle Grody like John Wayne, buddy. Mr. What? Wait, what was it? Mr. What? Mr. Tall on the saddle Grody. Oh.

Okay, okay. You're riding tall, act accordingly. Act accordingly, people. I'm a different man now, okay. He's tall on the saddle every day when he comes to work, buddy. You bet you. Thanks, Wayne.

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

you deserve a couple really good ones here, buddy, because you stuck right in there with all that ugly stuff. And now it's going to get pretty for you, old buddy. Wayne. Thank you, Lela. Oh, thank you, Wayne. And how are you doing? Everything okay, health-wise?

Yes, ma'am. I want to thank Dr. Orton from the Lafayette Cancer Society. Dr. Orton. Dr. Orton, is that Kyle? Is that related to? Kyle Orton, because he's from that area now. I don't know. Mr. Orden, he's from Virginia, so he might be an off-breed cousin or something.

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

are going to show us all the time. Wayne, you're the best, man. Thanks so much for the call. I don't know that Kobe Bryant could have saved. Maybe it would have been 450 total yards. The problem was, unfortunately, it was the cornerbacks. It was Tyreeks Stevenson, giving up the Jalen Coker, 51-yard. It was Jalen Johnson, given up a 27-yard play, and the Jonathan Brooks 46-yard catch-and-run.

And it's not like these guys won't get better. In fact, I think both of these guys will get better and eventually look very good. They had bad games yesterday. Yeah. And that's the bottom line. I didn't love the fact that Bryce Young had all day to throw an empty. Yeah, I felt like he looked so comfortable. That was excellent use out of empty out of the Panthers offense and Dave Canales.

I feel like that was a very smart play. You know, they were able to tie the game of 21 as we saw. And yeah, there were some bad tackles too and bad contain. And Jalen Johnson, if you are Kevin O'Connell, you're looking at trying to create more mismatches. I'm surprised they didn't you slot more. Like, unfortunately, Jalen got. beat several times in that game, but I know he probably wants that one back.

Yeah, I was weirdly like, now in retrospect, I didn't want Jonathan Brooks to burn anybody on the Bears, but I'm happy for Jonathan Brooks. This guy's had a tortured career so far, like three games and two awful injuries, former second round pick, so good for that guy. Guess what, Leila?

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

bear season, and I thought it might be a bad omen when Ferrari lost one card a bad break in Spain and the surviving racer could only manage fourth. But the Bears' offense deodorized some shaky defense on a record day.

Granted, the Panthers were an 8-9 division winner last year and played better the second half with wins against the pack and the Rams. But, you can't be giving up 478 yards and 37 points or close to it each week and get what you want

to accomplish. Now, if you can get that down to 340 or 350 each outing, and you get the three takeaways like Sunday, with this offense, you could go to the Super Bowl. Oh, dang, that was a conversational and short, Frank call.

Yeah, I wasn't ready. I also want to point out this. It was not just the way the Bears won in time of possession, but total plays. They ran 70 total plays. That's how you win a ball game. That's how you score 59 points, by the way. It's how you do that. And I understand, yes, the defense did not look good. But unfortunately, I think a lot of this somewhat went to plan. They knew that their defense was not going to be as good as their offense. Right. They knew it. Yeah. Yeah, no matter how many, I mean, Ben Johnson was asked questions throughout the off season in the spirit of, are you just going to have to go out there?

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

But yes, on the other side, you have every reason in a world where we saw the Seahawks defense show you yet again why it won the Super Bowl in their first game of the season. Great point. You know, the defense still does win. But in the meantime, this is what this team was constructed to be. It was just an extreme example. I've got the numbers right here, Lail, that you just talked about for an opener. combined teams, 96 combined in an opener is the record, 5937.

The old record wasn't that long ago, of course, because this is the era in which offense is king. It was in 2018, 88 points combined between Tampa Bay and New Orleans. That was a Tampa Bay 48 to 40 win over the Saints. How about Tony and Joliet? Tony, you're on Rahimi and Grotia on 1043, the score. What up? Oh, my God, my friends.

my friends, Layla. Grody! What's up, Tony? Bears Monday. And it was the best fairs Monday we've ever had, man. Because to answer the question, it's not even close, man.

Caleb is not generational. He's once in a lifetime. Oh, boy. It's like when we knew Michael Jordan was there and we had it, we never looked back. And just like a once in a lifetime player, the people before them did great things. Bird Johnson, great.

but Michael took it to a home at the level. So Patrick Mahomes, he's coming for you, buddy. We're going to be unbelievably great. And another cool thing, too, you take Menongai and Swift together with their production it's almost like having Walter Payton back. This offense is crazy. It's going to be great. And I look forward to talk to you guys.

Congratulations on the new show. Listen every day. So happy to be back. Love you guys so much. Let's go, Grotie. Let's go. Let's go, Tony. Take some, man.

Call again. We always appreciate your calls here. You're in a promo now. You've made the station imaging. Congratulations. No, he did with the morning show, yeah. Oh, you did? Well, it was funny.

Olen Kruits did the pre-imposts with Olin Kruits and Patrick Manley yesterday. We had an absolute blast. Those guys are just so good. And Olin Kruits was asked a question after the game. Is this the best? When have you ever seen a better tandem of rushing backs or running backs for the Bears? And he said he went where I would have gone. I think a lot of Bears fans,

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

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

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

featuring special guests, the shins and the Silver Sun pickups. Tickets provided by Live Nation. Go to Ticketmaster.com to buy. tickets. Are you buying what you saw from the Bears? We'll keep these calls cooking to see you guys on a whole. We'll try to fire through as many of these calls as we can when we return on Rahimi and Grody. As you are listening to a Plummer's 911 Football Monday presented by Bucie Bank and great clips on the score. Official adventures of Spiegel and Homes. Afternoons 2 to 6 on Sports Radio 1043,

The Score. Welcome, welcome, welcome. It is the Spiegel and Home show. We got a full boat for you today and we are locked in on what it is that the Bears did yesterday and what they had to say about it. There's a lot to get done. Kevin Fishbane was in Charlotte. He's going to join us at 4 o'clock. Jonah Jackson is going to be on the show. He got the game ball yesterday. The offensive line just pushed people around. We will talk with him at 5. We want you here for that. The whole crew is in the house. Alex is here. Tanny is rocking his bear. cap today. That man is Matt Spiegel. Hello, boys. How you doing? Man, Ben Johnson made them wait for it, made them beg for it.

I need it. I love that. He was like going to walk away and they were like, wait a damn minute. As the NFL is back and week one has happened, there are certain things like we were talking about in transition that are just part of your media diet that you need to make an NFL Sunday and maybe an NFL Monday feel complete. And one of them is to watch Ben in post game if there's a Bears win. And maybe one of them is for people to hang out with us, which is awesome. And if that's the case, then welcome back in to a Plummer's 911 football Monday presented by Busey Bank and great clips.

It is exciting as hell to get to be here and hang out with the listeners and with Jonah, as you mentioned, and fishy business this year and break down these games. as the Bears are an absolute juggernaut. Quickly checking NFL team total offensive stats so far on the season, Lawrence. We're going to win many games. Yeah, I see the Bears at 59 points, number one in scoring so far through one week. Number four in Bears history, correct, with that 59 that they put up? Is that number four in terms of season opener, all time?

Like all time. All time, any game. Yeah, like, that's a lot of points. I know it's the most in a season opener by any team since 1973. any team in the NFL. They're also number one in yards in the NFL. They're only... Number one.

Yeah, that's right. They're number seven in passing yards. That's too bad because they're number one in rushing yards as well. Because they were like, we'll just run it. How about that? Got it. Let's run it. I love how much they run it.

I love how physical they are. It sets up everything. The identity is established and it just lets a quarterback just read the defense and do what he's supposed to do. And that's what Caleb did yesterday. He was phenomenal in the game yesterday. It was, the thing is about it, like, looking at it statistically, there's a lot that you really like. When you were watching it, if you were actually watching the game, I know there are some people that say that that performance wasn't one of the best performances yesterday.

One of the best quarterback performances? Yeah. It's idiotic. It was incredible. But if you watch the film and you actually watch the film. Yes. Or if you were watching it live, you don't even need to watch the film. You saw it.

You saw pocket presence. You saw him understanding when to leave the pocket and him being decisive in those moments of when to leaving the pocket. Getting up to 21 miles per hour on touchdown runs. You saw him make, like the ball placement on the Cole Komett touchdown. Man. Was absolutely elite. All those years where we learned, and that's part of our understanding, I feel for us is like a Bears fandom and a Chicago. media populace is that

we lived through Mitch Trubisky and Justin Fields. We learned a lot about what was supposed to happen, what didn't happen, what you dream of, what you need a young quarterback to have, how you want to see it develop. So you know better than most

fandoms in the sport what you're looking for. That was NFL open. Like I was sitting with somebody yesterday and said, well, Cole Komet wasn't even open. I was like, oh yes, he was. He was NFL open. He had half a step. and he had the space because the safety wasn't coming over just yet. That's NFL open.

If you've got elite ball placement, he's open. Justin was afraid to throw that ball. He would have hitched. Yeah, he would have hitched. He would have tucked and run the other direction. And he might have got eight yards or he might have got 30. And it might have been exciting as all hell. We now have a quarterback who's like, oh, yeah, that guy's open.

I'm going to throw it right now. I'm going to throw it right now. And I'm going to time it out and I'm going to nail it. They had so many guys that were such a big part of this. Welcome to Chicago, Khalif Raymond. I thought his impact on yesterday's game was immense. Jaday Walker on special teams. My God, was he just out there just looking to make plays?

And on offense too, making big blocks. Absolutely. The one, there was a Khalif Raymond, like little bubble screen to the left side. And Jade made the block. And then he flexed and stood on top of the man. It's powerful, strong stuff. And then you block, you get the rock. Yeah.

All of the receivers yesterday played. played a big role in the run game. Rome was out there using his size and strength as a blocker. They did it all. Like, here are the only complaints that you can have about the offense, the penalties. That's the only complaint about the offense. Sloppy stuff early on. On the defense, there's a lot.

But for now. Any other complaints on offense? The Luther fumble is just a good, that's a good peanut punch by Bobby O'Caric. It's funny how that guy's name gets mentioned every single week. It's almost like he should be in the Hall of Fame. You know, and Breeze didn't say it. He said punch. He didn't say peanut.

They went back to it later on when they were doing the highlights. We got peanut punch. We did get a peanut later on? Okay, good. Because, yeah, it deserves to be mentioned. But I'm thinking, no, I mean, there really wasn't, there wasn't much that got missed. A little sloppy early on. And that gets negated because of their penalties.

Yeah. Carolina's penalties. And then you make them pay for their penalties of allowing your third downs. to not get off the field, then you make them pay by scoring touchdowns. I think Richard Hightower and Carver Santos have some work to do. Yeah, they got to get their dirty kicks back. The Dirty Santos has got to make a return. That's disgusting.

I can't believe you can say that on the radio and feel good about yourself. Oh, the Santos. That's what you said. The Dirty Santos. Oh, yeah, no, that's fine. No, that's totally fine. Because, you know, I think it's something else. You've got to make sure that you are getting that ball into the kicking zone.

Yes, yeah. Otherwise, you're giving them the ball up at the 40. and that ain't right. And you want to make it a little difficult for them to catch. And as long as we're mentioning, Carolina kicked it away from Xavieron Thomas every single time. Like from the get-go. I probably would too. Well, so you know what that means?

That means Josh Blackwell is returning. And it means Xavieron Thomas is your lead blocker. And they were attacking Xavieron Thomas. Like Felipe Franks made the big play late, but every one of those kickoffs kind of got blown up because they were attacking. So that's where Richard Hightower has got some work to do. He does. I'm sure I have a hot 10 for everybody on Thursday. The Chuck O'Hutt has some stuff. He'll get it all straightened out.

This connection between these two guys. Yeah, man. You've got Ben and Caleb and them being on the same page. Everyone is noticing it, including Howie Long. Hi, I'm Howie Long, and I'm noticing this connection between the two guys. This was Howie on the Fox pregame or on halftime or post game, one of the three. A lot of excitement in Chicago. Caleb Williams, you know, to make it kind of relevant, it's for Michael and me, when we came out as rookies,

I think we thought we knew what it would take, the kind of work, it would take the kind of commitment, kind of attention, the detail that Earl Lager was our defensive line coach, and I am going to tell you, it was hell. And we both did this. Without Earl Leggett, there's no Hall of Fame, There's no Super Bowl ring. None of that. I think Chicago feels like, and I believe that Ben Johnson is Caleb Williams, Earl Leggett. And I think he's taken him to another level.

He's challenged him. He's held him accountable. To his credit, he's bought in. He's all in on this. And his improvement, I expect him to make another leap this year. And I think in the future, they're looking at maybe a kind of an Andy Reid, Mahomes.

Mahomes kind of partnership. Yeah, and they stay together for a long time. See, there it is. That's been the dream. I didn't realize that Howie even said it, but that is forever the dream. Maybe you allowed yourself to think it was going to be Negi and Mitch Trubisky or Negi and Justin Fields.

No, I never thought I was going to be Negie and Justin Field. I didn't really, because they didn't really, yeah, no, it was not. Sent that guy out there to get destroyed in his first start. But the dream has always been for me, the offensive-minded head coach who lets offensive coordinators get plucked up and hire away and move on, but stays there stable with a quarterback who thoroughly believes in him. And we have seen this relationship develop where they now believe in each other. And yesterday was your best data point yet because of the space command with which Caleb had

in charge of that offense. I believe that the Bears have their version now that we've been dreaming of. of Bill Walsh and Joe Montana, or Mike Holmgren and Brett Favre, or like how he says, Andy Reid and Pat Mahomes, that you could be set up for a decade of extended excellence and partnership. You know, Belichick wasn't a defensive guy, but he evolved. It wasn't an offensive guy, but he evolved that way. So him and Brady counts.

Don Shula was a defensive guy, but he evolved. And then it was him and Marino, like these kind of pairings that you dream of where the head coach is in charge of all the big decisions and everything he makes is with the quarterback in mind and he knows he's got that guy. And that partnership, I think we're right here beginning an era that should be a decade of excellence. And that's crazy exciting.