Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Clay Harbor breaks down why he liked Bears' approach in win over Falcons (Hour 4)

Episode Date: October 21, 2026

In the final hour, Leila Rahimi and Mark Grote were joined by Chicago Sports Network analyst Clay Harbor to reflect on the Bears' 31-23 win against the Falcons on Sunday and to preview Chicago's game against the New England Patriots on Thursday Night Football. Also, should the Bears be interested in bringing back edge rusher Khalil Mack in a trade?

Yes, sir, it is Rahimi and Grotie on 104.3. The score. Clay Harbor is the co-host of the big pro football show. The Chicago lead and pro football weekly on CHSN co-host of BetMGM Game Day, Sunday 7 a.m. On 104 3, the score, and maybe most importantly, game analyst for Illinois State and for Northern Illinois. Clay Harbor joins us in studio. I'm going to be at ISU this weekend for that game for ISU Indiana State. Will I see you? I had to cancel on the ISU because I'm.

I have Northern Illinois this week. Northern Hawaii. Hawaii, yeah. So it's honestly that they've got their one in 12 combined. So it's going to be quite the barn burner. I'd rather probably be Illinois State. But, you know. So much for getting to invite you out to our tailgate

and introduce you to be my cool friend that I can introduce to you to all my other ISU friends. Not going to happen now. That's cool. That would have been fun, man. But it probably wouldn't have been great because I probably would have had a beer before the game. And then, you know, you're out there

and you're trying to focus. That's true. And you're not given the best analysis, Grody. Fair enough. For a second, I thought you were trying to say Northern Hawaii, and I was like, I have not heard of that school. No, Northern Illinois versus Hawaii this week. Yeah, I realized I was like, because it doesn't exist.

It's a newer type of situation. It could be. Lots of fun one on the schedule. Yeah, man. Well, Clay, it's good to see you. Thanks for being in studio with us. You look extra handsome today. What happened to your facial hair?

It's gone. Yeah, you know, it got a little nicked up. with by the barber today. So I just had to take it all off. And, you know, sometimes it's good. You know, it's about to be no shave November. So before you just let the beard grow and, you know, you go full mountain man. Yeah.

You know, let's just see the baby face. You can see what you actually look like for a while. What about the November mustache thing? That's still a thing, right? Movember. Movember. I like the full beard, November. You can do mustache, Movember or no shave November.

I'm more of a no shave November. Just let it all go, you know? I like it. just be mean looking. I love it. We've been talking about Caleb Williams a lot today, and Caleb Williams named the offensive player of the week today. Well earned, well deserved.

And now, as Ben Johnson said, keep it going, keep doing that, keep stacking back to back to back. Do you think he's past the worst parts of his career at this point? The real developmental parts of his career, is he ready? Is he ready for a blast off now hereforth? I think this was actually a blessing in disguise, Caleb, with the hamstring, because he got to sit back and watch a couple guys work in the same system as him.

And even with the hamstring, you know, you could tell he wasn't quite as explosive as he usually is. He's so good at the play after the play, just extending and doing that. I think he had to take that out of his repertoire, and now he had to play more quarterback. So throws under 2.5 seconds, 15 of 15. Obviously, we know he started the game 10 and 10. and just everything was able to do so efficient. And I hear these guys on Twitter saying, average depth of target, average depth of target.

He was taking what the defense gives you. And here's the game plan. You know, people don't put the full context into, you know, when they're making these takes, right? Bajon Robinson was leading the NFL in rushing, rushing yards per carry, and rushing touchdowns. What's the best way to stop Bajon Robinson? is a concise, a possession style offense where you get completions and you keep them on the sidelines.

He had four carries in the first half of that football game, and that was what Ben Johnson circled. When I'm looking at the tape bolties team, that's what I circled. That's what the Bears did. They weren't trying to go downfield and make these explosive plays. Give the ball back to Atlanta. Keep his on the sidelines, score 14 points in the first quarter, and win the game. They had different games last year against the Bears, but the Packers basically had that entire game plan last year. They led the NFL in time of possession.

That was what they were trying to do. They definitely found their mismatches against the Bears in some of those games just regarding different type of passing profile. But it's been a successful plan for a lot of teams previously. It reminded me of how the Packers tried to control the games in the league last season. They're not the same now. they don't do it as much, but last year that was kind of the M.O. You're saying the ball control style type offense. Yeah. Yeah, when you have Josh Jacobs, I mean, that changes things too. And I think that's why this NFC North is going to get even more

interesting because Josh Jacobs comes back. The Packers are the worst rushing team in the league. One of the worst rushing teams historically in their first six games, right, five games. So when they get Josh Jacobs back, that should change things. And obviously, Michael Parsons. So it makes NFC North so much more interesting, but I think there's something to be said for having the full context to a game plan. When you're looking at an offense, if this is an offense you think that you're not that worried about,

you're not that scared about, or they're going to try to control the game, maybe you will take some more deep shots because you know you're not going to get that many opportunities. So it's an all-encompassing thing. You can't just look at the average depth of target and say, oh, he's just taking the checkdowns, man. Put me in.

I can throw the ball over the mountains. Yeah, okay. Well, I'm old enough to remember when taking the checkdowns, Uncle Rico, was called the West Coast offense. So there's that. And it was pretty damn successful. But I think there's a bigger picture to be had in this, too, Clay, is that what's stopping the bears from just doing this from here on out? If their best defense is a combination of all of this, it's a great way to motivate a team. Seems like a replicable game plan. Yeah, absolutely. And a number I thought was interesting. We know Ben Johnson loves EP. He said, EPA is the most, the stat that you look at that is winning. You know, it's the most correlation with winning. And the Bears' defense is 29th on downs 1 and 2 in the NFL, EPA per play.

They're fifth on third down. So they're a team that's been really good, but it's just getting to the third down. That's the problem for the Bears. If you can get to the third down, Dennis Allen does a lot of good things where he can just manipulate the pressures. he does the simulated pressures where he's putting the guys all up at the line of scrimmage and they don't know who to block.

And you saw that with Kyler Gordon on that holding call and a couple of these calls, they took a bad step because they're seeing that do we have to slide inside or do we go out to Kyler Gordon, you're a step behind? Now he's so quick and twitchy, he can get underneath them and get to the quarterback. So I think there's something to be said for each style there.

And I think each game is an entity in itself. How are the matchups? Where are we strong? Where are we weak in this matchups? matchup and do we like their defensive backs? Do we like their defensive line? Can we run it? There's so many things that go into a plan. Well, and we before we turned on the microphones and we were just chit-chat and with you, the name Matt Pryor came up, who used to play for the Bears. He is a depth piece offensive

linemen for the Patriots. They could be without, what, three offensive linemen? How much does that change what Dennis Allen could or should be able to do against the Patriots? Yeah, yeah. So we'll call. Campbell, Walter Roos, Jared Wilson, Matt Pryor, Morgan Moses is still questionable, or Caleb Lomu, the rookie who's been banged up a bit too, but hasn't been excellent in the snaps that he has gotten, is going to be a starting line for the New England Patriots. That's not good for them. Obviously, we know the Bears don't got the strongest defensive line, but I do think Grady Jarrett, even last week. He's been showing up every game, and I think he can take advantage of some of these

interior rushers there. I don't think Matt Pryor can block Grady Jarrett for four-quarter. orders, I think that they can get some pressure up front there. And then just the confusion that causes when you have to fill in five guys that aren't used to playing against each other, you're not used to, you don't have the same center that's making your calls, you're not getting the squeeze call, you're not familiar with their steps. That's going to be something that they could take advantage of. And I thought a guy that stepped up on the defensive line that we really haven't seen much, he hasn't played much, but Daniel Hardy, I was really impressed with him. He's a special teamer. The guy comes in, he plays more snaps and he did all last.

season in one game this game. So he comes in, he gets six big pressures, he gets the strip sack, he was playing hard all game long. He's still playing special teams. I think he had 50-something snaps, had 30-something on offense, on defense, but the guy was very impressive. And it just goes to show you that effort is a talent. Yeah. He's got the right motor. We just talking about motor. He's got the motor. He was impressive getting some pressure on the quarterback there too. Austin Booker, not the best game, but you did see him show up against the run. No, I actually, we talked about Daniel Hardy. We showed out some of the special teamers who were also backups like Elijah Hicks, Daniel Hardy,

Josh Blackwell, who also had a good game. It was great to see those guys shine. Hardy has shown, even in the limited time he had last season, when he was backing up on the D-line that he can make some stuff happen. He can be a disruptive presence. Monta's sweat is making 20 times more than Daniel Hardy. Daniel Hardy just had the highest pressure output of any Bears defensive end this year. I mean, that's kind of telling. When you, in one game, you get six pressures. Montes Sweat has 12, 13 on the entire season. So I think that that's telling you two things. Obviously, we need more from Montez when he gets back from his suspension for the PEDs that don't seem to be working. And then Daniel Hardy is a guy that you can start

throwing into this rotation because he's a guy that just plays hard. He knows the opportunities are limited. And those guys are going to give you everything they got on every single play, chasing down on the backside. You saw him never give up on a sack. He got a a couple of disruptions on extended plays, got his hands up that were big in completions. Well, what do you too also think about the snap count? Because you mentioned how high it is. I can't see him being able to pull that off on a Thursday night after doing that on a Sunday when that hasn't been his normal amount of time. He's a pro. I mean, he's a guy that's been doing a lot of special teams and they'll probably

limit them pulling back a little bit on special teams. I'd say, and recovery is huge during these Thursday night games. I mean, I go back. We used to play a lot of these, surprisingly, Jacksonville and Philly. But I used to like Thursday night football games because you don't have to practice so you're not doing anything physical during the week. It's all mental and it's just recovery mode. You're in the weight room.

You're hitting the foam rollers. You're in the ice tub. You're getting massages. You're just doing everything mental and then getting recovered. That's the name of the game. Digest this game plan. There's not going to be as many tricks. The coaches don't got as long to come up with these tailored plays

this game plan. have some of the first day install in there. So it's really who's better, who's more recovered, and who knows the plan. Yeah, I mean, Ben Johnson even said yesterday, I struggle with that, scaling it back. And then Dennis Allen was talking about sticking to your rules. I mean, that's just playing football, right? Here's what we taught you in training camp. Stick to your fundamentals, play football, because I don't have time to put together a bunch of fancy stuff.

Here's a usual week, Grody. You play on Sunday, right? Then Monday you come in. you make the corrections, you watch the tape, you get a workout in, Tuesday's your off day, and you'll probably get the plan, you'll get the base package on Wednesday. That's a day before the game this week. Okay, so that's, you're going to have the plan in starting right after the game on Sunday. You're probably getting sent the plan that night, and you're going to have to start looking through it,

and just to digest it, because what you do is you do base package Wednesday, you do third down, Thursday, and then Friday is red zone. you don't have the ability to do that this week. So you've got to condense all of that into a few days. And if you can do that, the bear's got a mature veteran team. I know we do got some young guys there, but these young guys aren't your typical young guys. These guys are Benjamin Button maybe. I don't know.

They're aging backwards because they're playing like some veterans. So I think whichever team handles that better is probably the team that's going to get the W. Well, I think it's also important that this game is at home and not on the road in New England. and they've been a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde team. You know, Clay, what do you make of just the season the Patriots have had, especially beginning? That was not the team that I think we're seeing right now. Absolutely.

And I think there's a couple of things that do scare you about the Patriots team. I think Drake May is really finding his stride. Ten touchdowns, one interception, you know, three and oh since the Jacksonville game. I think we've all saw that. And he's doing a good job of hitting deep passes. We know the Bears. We saw the Green Bay game when Jordan Love just hit him deep. I thought this was an interesting number, and it's what shows up on tape.

Drake May is first in deep passing touchdowns with five. He's first in deep passing yards with 487 and deep passing completions with 14. So this guy loves to throw the ball downfield. Josh McDaniels, a former offensive coordinator of mine, is really good at picking spots of getting guys in troubling situations to where they've got to decide, do I jump this flat route, do I jump this mediate route, or do I jump or do I stay with the deep round and you got to keep everything in front of you so drake may early in the season you know you look back to the seahawks game they're playing the shell he's he's taking with the defense

taken with the defense given them then he's going to throw you an interception he's done a good job of taking what the defense is given him now and sticking to it and then eventually these deep plays will pop and a j brown came back last week and i mean he looked like he had feet for hands man he was dropping everything and i don't think that's going to happen again they beat the jets but AJ Brown did not look like the AJ Brown. Romeo Dobbs had a solid game. I think he might be injured. He's out.

I think he's out. But he caught the big touchdown for him last week, but I think he's out. Romandre Stevenson is a guy that runs hard that the Bears are going to have to show up and tackle every day. He gets his pad leverage down. He's got good contact balance. And they're going to try to get him going too. Travion Henderson, too, is on that team.

And I was mentioning him because I remember he was heavily mentioned for the Chicago Bears is a potential second round pick. Oh, yeah, I thought that would have been a great potential Bears pick. Yeah, I was... If he wouldn't have been gone right before, you know, the Bears picked, I think they might have went with them. Yeah, no, no, that was the whole controversy that the Bears weren't moving up to go get one of these guys

and everybody else was snagging those running backs. Well, all along, it was DeAndre Swift, I think. And maybe that's a good name to bring up right now. It's been a weird season for DeAndre Swift. I feel like Leila and I come in here after every Bears game, win or lose, and they'd be like, What's going on with DeAndre Swift? Are they just trying to preserve him?

What's going on? I'm so curious about this, too, because he does look good when he gets the ball. But you see him in the first half, it feels like he's getting a bunch of carries. And then the second half, it kind of tails off. And he saw it the end of that game, who was a closer? Rochon Johnson. I did not expect that. But you do got to take your hat off to Rochon.

No doubt. He had some nice runs. He had a couple of nice catches. Obviously, he was a guy that caught that lateral. He had the flat route that went for an explosive play. So Rochon Johnson showed up. Obviously, DeAndre Swift is much more explosive. He's faster.

He makes Reads better. And Rochon was a guy last week that I criticized a little bit. I thought he looked slow. I don't think he made great decisions. Obviously, the Bears weren't blocking great for him. But he stepped up. But the DeAndre Swift conversation is interesting because it kind of seems like Ben has lost a little bit of confidence in him.

And this is conjecture. This is just my thoughts. It seems like he's lost a little bit of confidence in him. If you're down the stretch in the games within the bounce, You want to give it to your best guy, your best option, the guy you trust the most. And if that's Roshan Johnson, I think that's telling. I can't see it being him, though, just because of the fumble that he had. Like, don't talk to me about D'Andre Swift fumbling and then show me Roshan Johnson,

who's getting like two yards of carry and then he fumbles. But what about the play, the really super smart play? We're at the end of the game where he didn't go into the end zone. That doesn't make up for it. No, listen. That's not a smart play. That's a dumb play. Give me the points.

You get a teedy. Honestly. Yeah. I mean, but that's how I feel about it, is tell me why one is bad and the other one isn't. No, no, seriously. Yeah, that's interesting. You saw he called the D'Andre Swift Fumble egregious, and I know DeAndre really didn't get hit. And we look at the Roshan Fumble.

It was one of those peanut punts. The guy hits the ball right on the tip of the ball there, and it comes shooting out. But, you know, still, a fumble is a fumble, and you got to have both hands on that thing, especially at that point in the game when you had taken your starters out. All he needed to do was position. possess the ball and you're going to win the football game. Thank you. Yeah, that's as important as anything in all of this. He's Clay Harbor of CHSN and just about everywhere else around town as well.

And we will have, we get to have him for the whole hour so we will continue talking to him. We have some audio that we want to play for him about a potential Ed Rusher being associated with the Bears. Luther Burden is saying interesting things about Ben Johnson. We're going to share with Clay Harbor next on Rahmian Grove. on the score. Rahimi and Grotie, Midday's 10 a.m. 2 on 104 3, the school.

On 3rd and 10, bears getting home for Chicago. And they get their first sack at the day, knocking them back to the 45. Oh, we all know that name. It's Rahimi and Grody on 1043.

The score. Clay Harbor is in studio with us. Khalil Mack with the sack, a highlight, which is courtesy of Fox. You remember that guy, don't you? Are you kidding? Yes. I didn't love the trade away from the bears to begin with. You wanted him to never go away. He could still be here if you had your way, Leila. I don't know that I would have kept him through a rebuild, but I probably would have tried to get a little more in return.

But that's so hard because of contracts, you know. So I get it. NFL. I get it. That's me. Yes. I am Kyla Run, minus the power and the abilities and the talent and the Jedi part. But other than that, yeah. Bears. yeah exactly so that's we have been saving this clay as we talk to our NFL veteran friend

Clay Harbor the big pro football show in CHSN the the the Kaleel Mac discourse has gotten larger and larger since the Chargers keep losing oh they're bad just bizarrely bad at this point

so Kyle Long and Russell Wilson were on CBS yesterday and they tossed around the idea of which edge rusher if there should be one could come to the bears at the deadline. But the one guy who I played with in Chicago in 2018 who changed the entire course of our season was Khalil Mack.

Now, Kalil Mak is on arguably the worst football team in the National Football League, and even at the age of 30, whatever, he's still playing a high caliber level of football. Not only that, the intangibles of this guy, the ability that he has to come into a room and lift others up. I think Kalil Mack's one of the hardest workers, most prepared guys.

He's the vet that's lifting heavy on Monday, setting the tone for the rest of the guys. Look, I love the trade. Bring him home, man. Bring him home because also, too, Khalil Mack, what he's done for the NFL, he's winding down to the end of his career, but also, too, the idea of what he brings

to the locker room, the weight room, like you said, you know, the professionalism that he brings. I remember being around Khalil Mack early on in his career and, you know, in the middle of my career early on, too, for me. at the Pro Bowl together and just being around him, just that aura that he has, you know, and I think he would be tremendous person to go get. If I'm a Chicago Bears, I'm trying to win it this year. And you know Ben Johnson's trying to.

They have a chance. Okay. What do you think? Because they're not the only ones who have talked about this. Every other text, I feel like we get these days as a go-get-Kale-Mack discussion. I like Kill-L-Mack. I think he would be a help if you can get them for a decent price. Yeah, you're a team.

That is legitimately a contender. Let's look around the NFC. The Niners look great. They don't have any healthy bodies at this point to put out on the field. I'm not sold on them. Obviously, the North is tough. But you've shown that you came in the North like you did last year. The Rams don't look like a team that's unbeatable.

The Seahawks are three and three. Not looking good. Sam Darnold, second in the NFL and interceptions. He's played four football games. Other teams have played six. So this NFC is wide open. If you think you can get Khalil M. Mac, and if he came over, he would have the most pressures on your team right now.

He's got 16 pressures. He's got three sacks. He's a guy that still has juice. He's got bend. He's got get-off. He can play against the run. I think it would make sense. Khalil Mack to the Bears would be a big help, especially when you see the depth that they have

there. Obviously, we see Austin Booker improving four sacks in the year. Montes Sweat. I think he can move in with those guys. Dio's been playing a lot more inside. Shemar Turner played seven snaps yesterday. I don't think you're Sunday. think you're going to get much from him this season. He played 74 total snaps last year. He's

still an enigma. You don't know what you're getting. Kalil Mack would give you more certainty at a position of need so you wouldn't have to take guys out of the defensive backfield to try to blitz if you end up playing a guy like Jordan Love again. What do you think is more of, if we're like looking ahead here to the November to trade deadline, was it November 10, 12, 13, something, somewhere in the middle of November. Is defensive end edge rusher? quarterback, sacker, more important, or is corner, oh, it is the 10th. November 10th is the trade deadline. Thank you, Leila.

Cornerback or edge rusher, more important for the Chicago Bears. If we look ahead and we look at the Bears as a playoff team, what would be more? If you could have one, good cornerback or good edge rusher, what do the bears need more, do you think? I would take edge rusher. I think cornerback, I like Malik Muhammad, seems to get better every week. I know he gave up the touchdown, but he did have some good plays there. I think we saw a little bit from Jalen Johnson. We saw improvement there.

He had a solid game. He gave up a couple catches. But overall, I liked what I saw from him. Even a guy like Clark Phillips said, we haven't seen all year. He comes in, and I thought he had a solid game. And then Kyler Gordon get back in the mix. Can he stay? I want to see him do it for two games in a row, three games in a row, four games in a row.

I don't know if you want to trust him right now. But we saw what he's able to do. So cornerback, Tyreek Stevenson will get back too. I think you can get by with Ed Rush, I think when you get into playoffs, you want disruption, you want to be able to stop the run better, you want to be able to have more flexibility than defensive line to move guys around. And what Dennis Allen does with all the confusing looks he gives you guys dropping, guys coming, I think an edge rusher would give you more value there.

Yeah, I think that's trying to piece it together is it's funny that they trade away a guy like Javon Dexter, not known for being a quarterback pressure, becomes one in Atlanta. and then they've still got the issue of the need on that D-line. The other part of this is, I don't know how it would work mid-season, but because of the PED suspension of Montes sweat, they have the potential to have some real flexibility, don't they? That becomes non-guaranteed money, but I don't know how the cap-hit would work if there is still a cap-hit there.

Yeah, it becomes non-guaranteed. So to my understanding, if it's not guaranteed, that means you're not going to have a cap-hit from it because it's not guaranteed. So that leaves the door open for a lot of people. Yeah, I don't think that they would release Montes' sweat or get rid of him. He is still an NFL caliber edge rusher. I mean, unless you could trade someone for him, maybe his value increases because they know his contract is not guaranteed, maybe you can bring someone else in. But I still think that would be taking away some of the strength from one-year position.

And I'm not saying Montes-Swed is great, but he is still a NFL caliber, edge rusher, defensive end, which is something that the bears need. And, you know, I said this the other day, you know, as a guy that's played in a lot of teams, you know, like the Bears, say, if I'm on scout team for the Patriots, and we're playing against the Bears' defense, right? You know, scout team. The other side, the defense, the scout team defense that's emulating the Bears, that's giving us their looks, their pressures, their everything, that you give jerseys to their best players. To the best players from the other team gets jerseys. okay, we got to watch this guy, we got to chip this guy, we got to block that guy, and you put pennies on them, so we have their number.

The Bears, to me, don't have anybody. Now that Kyler Gordon's back. I think they got one guy that you could put a jersey on, on scout team. If you bring Kalil Mac in here, I think you'd have two. So that's a way to look at it. It's like you have a guy that you have to account for, and for the bears right now, I don't think they have that besides Kyler Gordon. He's definitely getting a jersey on the scout team.

Uh-huh. Yeah, well, I guess we can, man, and that, And that's just it, man. I would love to see him continue to be schemed up. But I'd also like to see Kyler Gordon play more cornerback in this game. Do you think he gets the over in this game? I think so, man. After you see what he's able to do, the Patriots are going to have a plan for him.

Like I said, he's going to have one of those jerseys. They're going to be so aware of where this guy is coming off the edge. We're going to say, okay, we're sliding out to this guy. They're going to have a check when he's near the line of scrimmage. Guess what? That doesn't, Lawrence out here, looking at me funny because I shaved. He's like, what's going on?

And the jacket, all the stuff. We might have a similar look, me and Lawrence Holmes. And I lost my train of thought. Tyler Gordon, snaps. Lining him up. His disguise will not work as good. When he comes in against the Falcons and he hasn't played, you don't know what this guy is.

You see his disguises he's able to do that? Do you think when the Patriots see this guy get near the line of scrimmage after what he did last week, they're not going to say, hey, hey, hey, watch Gordon, watch Gordon, watch Gordon, watch Gordon. They're going to have eyes on them. So it's going to be harder to scheme them up. It's going to be harder for him to get those pressures.

I know. You knew when you had a player like him that would blitz from the slot, that would move all over the place. You have eyes on him. We had to play against Troy Palomalu. I'm not saying Gordon's Troy Palomalu, but you knew where he was every single snap. I don't care if he was starting deep in cover too. You still had to account for him in pass rush because the guy was just everywhere. Yeah, that's quite the designation, Troy Palomalo.

that really was his superpower. It was unbelievable, Layla. Like we had no idea. Like, what are your responsibilities? Like, what rules do they give you on this play? Do you have a gap? Do you have a part of the field? Are you just gone out near freestyling?

I just never knew. Well, that's because he was so damn fast, too. Like, that was the other part of it. He might be a one-of-one type when it came to his style of play on the field. He was a guy that, like, usually you can beat players or you can, can have a chance to be players because you know that they have rules. They have their gap responsibilities. You beat them to the gap.

Like a guy like JJ Watt was a guy that like he has the freedom to maybe get out of his gap because they know he can get back in it. If he wants to go back door, if he wants to go around, you know, guys like that. And Palomalu just had no rules. But Kyler Gordon is a guy with his quickness, his change of direction. Like I liken it. I know he call him Spider-Man. I liken it if you've ever seen like the speedsters, like the Flash or like on X-Men.

like the really fast guys when everybody else seems to be moving in slow motion and the one guy's is just like sprinting around the room. That's Kyler Gordon. His quickness is really incredible and his physicality to go with it, his bend, how he can dip and rip. I mean, it's something that's actually really special. Now let's just stay on the field. Well, and I think about that game Drake May had against the Raiders, different defense, of course, as we know, but he's a threat in the air. You know, that was a very good example of that thrown for what, 370 some yard? So you might actually need your secondary to be in the secondary. Yeah, he can throw the ball.

And the other thing is he can run too. Like Drake May's got legs. He and Caleb, but he can run the football. And he's a guy that always picks up a few big first downs every game. He's not afraid to lower his shoulder. But like I said, the most deep passing yards, deep passing touchdowns. Like he's a guy that you really got to watch. And after watching what Jordan Love was able to do to the Bears on those similar situations,

it's a little concerning. And this is the other one. Most deep passers, most deep pass yards a season, 20 plus air yards. Drake May won, Jordan Love 2. So we saw Jordan Love what he did to us. Now you got Drake May who's actually doing more deep passes. That's a concern. And that's Clay Harbor.

It's Raheimian Grotie on the score. One other thing, matchup-wise, bears offense versus the Patriots defense. And specifically what Caleb Williams will be seeing. it was a pretty talented secondary, too, for the Patriots. What have you seen from them defensively? Am I right to say that that might be one of their strengths defensively, Christian Gonzalez and company? Yeah, Christian Gonzalez, obviously, we know Kevin Byard well.

I mean, they got, Christian Gonzalez locking down one side of the field. But with Ben Johnson, I'm not just saying the answer to every question is Ben Johnson, but he knows how to motion his guys to put him in bunches, to get the shifts in, to make sure that Christian Gonzalez has to back off. he's not going to be able to just sit there and press your best receiver. He's not just going to be sitting there one-on-one with Rome or Luther Burdenol game. Ben is going to motion. He's going to shift.

He's going to give him different personnel groupings. He's going to do some misdirection things to get them off their game. But this is a very talented defense. I think their defensive line is actually really good. And they don't got a bunch of big-name guys. They've got a bunch of guys that are very stout, physical, hard-n-nosed guys, good linebackers, really good defensive backfield. So this is going to be a tough act for the Bears' offense.

to get the ball moving here. Well, this is interesting. Just right as we're talking about their secondary, I think that Carlton Davis is their nickelback, starting cornerback is the way it's listed here on the injury report. It looks like that he is out for the game. Another one, DJ Callet. Yeah, yeah.

Five players are out for Thursday's game, according to Mike Reese in New England. Starting left guard, Elijah Vera. I think you mentioned him, Tucker, Elijah Vera Tucker. starting right guard. Ben Brown is out as well. Carlton Davis the third is out. Reserve cornerback.

Karen Prunty is out with a hamstring injury and a reserve cornerback. Man, their whole secondary is damaged. Channing Canada is out with a hamstring injury as well. So they are hurting right now on both sides of the ball. That's tough. Especially going up against an offense like the Bears, obviously you're able to throw for 300. We know what they can do on the ground.

And I mean, that's tough, tough sledding for them. And they have to come to Chicago. Take care, take advantage of it. That's what the bear should do on Thursday night, man. This is what we knew was going to happen. That is the voice of Mark Grody and Clay Harbor in studio on Rahimi and Grody. And Remy Martin, VSOP, is giving you a chance to attend the score's exclusive football after dark event featuring Jonah Jackson. Come out to A&S beverages at 1461 South Blue Island Avenue in Chicago tonight from

5 to 630. I'll be hanging out there with your chance to register to win a pair of passes to football after dark with Jonah Jackson at Wildfire on November 17th. It is all brought to you by Remy Martin, VSOP, my call. Mark, you've been waiting to tell this story and now you've actually I think brought in an expert to tell the story too. Yeah, we got our dating expert in here. I'm going to share my dating catastrophe with everybody, which sounded out a very expensive restaurant right here in the city of Chicago. So we will, we've put this off long enough. I will share next on Rahimi and Grotie with Clay Harbor in studio on 1043, the score.

Oh, yeah. It's Raheimian Grody on 1043, the score. A little bit of Matchbox 20 on the big one here, too. You like that, Clay? I do. I'm a Matchbox 20 guy. Absolutely. I was singing it back there.

I know. Ray wasn't lying. Clay is what we call it in the demo. You also like the Nickelback giveaway? Guys, I was born in 1986. Wait, I'm an 80s baby. Okay? I'm embarrassed.

I'm 40. You're a man. I'm a man, I'm 40. Come after me. Speaking of which, Mike Gundy. Just saw this news crossing here from the Chicago Sun-Times. The Bears, of course, won a Super Bowl in 1986. The head coach of that team was Mike Ditka, who unfortunately recently we lost.

And according to our friend Patrick Finley from the Chicago Sun-Times, breaking the The Bears will hand out fake mustaches to fans tomorrow night as part of their plan to honor Mike Ditka, who died earlier this month. And the first 10,000 fans will also receive a Bears knit headband inspired by Ditka's trademark sweater. There you go. That is going to make some good cutaways for the broadcast. Are you going, Clay? Do you get a mustache and a headband? Well, I'll need one now that I shaved my mustache.

I was like rocking a mustache for the last month. I know. And I shaved it before the Bears' home game where they're giving out mustache. It's just terrible timing. Unbelievable. Terrible timing. Yeah, you are. We were just talking about it.

You're thinking about going out and hanging out with us in the press box tomorrow. Yeah, it'll be my first time going to the press box. I've always got the invite this year at least and never made it up there. David Haw, Ruthie Polinsky, they're going to be up there. So I'm like, hey, I'm like, oh, come hang out with you guys. The luminaries? Yeah. Yeah.

Well, you'll be the top luminary if you do come through. So, all right. So here's the story. Let's go. Here's my sad, sad, sad. Wait, let me get some popcorn. Yeah, yeah, you might want some popcorn here for this particular show. So a while back, I was dating a woman.

And for background, there was a point during our relationship where for some reason it came up that we were talking about fancy restaurants. Okay. And we were talking about the restaurant, Alignia came up, okay? And I mentioned to her that, oh, yeah. I've been to a linia. I actually went to a linia with a former girlfriend. I told the current girlfriend, okay? Mistake one.

Yeah, not really thinking. Mistake one. Not really thinking. And she let that go for like a little while. But eventually later on the day, she said something she said to me, of course. She said, why don't you ever take me to some place like Lenny or something that nice, right? Naturally. And that causes a little bit of an argument.

It didn't like end the relationship or anything like that. But the relationship was. headed down a bad path. And like maybe a few months later, not because of that, the relationship ended. Like, essentially, she had ended it. You know, she's, we're just, this just isn't working.

She was right, by the way. I was kind of in denial. I didn't want it to end because my ego was hurt because she was the one that did it. So, so I'm like, I'm feeling all the pain and all the hurts and all the stuff. And like, there's, I'm in denial. There's no way this relationship is ending. So I, so I, so I say.

said to myself, I know what I'll do. I'll get her. Yeah, exactly. So this is not about like you to each other anymore. This is just about who's ending what and win. Because I was heard and because I knew it. Like we weren't a match. We weren't. We did not. It was not a good relationship. Therefore, what did you do?

So I was like, I'm going to save this relationship. You didn't even get her a reservation at a line. That's exactly what I did. And as you know, I think Clay, because you shared with us that you've been there before for people who don't know, this is one of those places, at least back then, this was a little while back, you did have, obviously have to make reservations, very difficult to get reservations, and you got to put money down. It's like $2,500. Yeah, you got to put big money down, and I wasn't making the kind of money that one could

put $2,500 down, but I had credit cards like anybody. We work in radio. I know. So, and this is a little while back. I was really not doing that well financially. But again, we all can qualify for credit cards. So I put, I was like, I know what I'm going to do. Made the reservation, put the money down on the credit card.

Oh, no. And exactly. I was like, I sent her like a nice note. I made reservations for us at Alinia. And she was just like, ah, no, no, no, no. And then I called Alinia, tried to get my money back, couldn't get the money back. And it just added to the heartbreak. Did you end up maybe finding a backup plan?

I mean, like, you and Rodney? Yeah. Like, if it's what to say, Ronji on a lovely band day at Illiniia. I'm calling my best friend. If I put the money down, bro, we're going to a romantic date at Alinia. We're going to have a great time. I'm not wasting that money. Man, no, because it hurt, Clay.

It hurt. It just would have reminded me of her. It was all so dumb when I look back on it now. And the happy ending to the story is I am friends with this woman now. She lives in Arizona now. She's happily married with children. We have a nice online relationship. like she's wonderful and she was right.

Like we weren't right. But boy, then I make a desperation move because my ego was hurt. Alenia. Alenia, Leila. Where you didn't even get your money back for the deposit. No, I tried. I called there and they were rightfully, didn't give me my money back. You know, I don't pull rank very often.

Yes. But I feel like this is a time where we should try to work with Alinia to get you your money back or. All these years later. Or you should go. Oh, okay. And I know there are rules and I typically do not break them as you guys know. But I feel like this is one of those

cases where maybe we could at least ask. With my mind, man. We could go together. No. But the answer is always no unless you ask. I don't think it was a terrible idea because you knew that that was a point in the relationship, that was a contention that she thought.

Like maybe you probably didn't feel the same about her because you took this other girl, this amazing place. So I see where you're coming from. You know, good thought, poor execution. This is an excellent stat from 847 on our text line. Yeah. My best friend worked the house at Alinia for years, and she broke it down that each bite cost $55.

Little bits of foam and whatnot. I don't even know. It really is good. I obviously did go there one time, and I enjoyed it. I loved it. My experience at Alinia was amazing. I loved the whole, I mean, it's an experience. So it's like you're going in the back.

They're changing the room around by the time you get back. You're sitting with people. Then you're sitting alone. Then you're switching seats. You're going down. It's like a full experience. And it's definitely something that, I mean, obviously if you can, that is something I still remember to this day.

It's like my favorite restaurant experience of all time. Wow. Well, that's a wonderful endorsement. Yeah, I'm not in a linear person, I don't think, but I don't knock these things. Like, the whole point is customer service. Like, it's a brilliant experience. But I just wonder if there's something that can be done. And if we can craft source that.

Wow. Money, Lubowski. We should make it right. No threats. No threats from the Nylists. Lism my money, man. The rug really brought the room together, but I feel like out of this heartbreak, there should be something to make it right. Yeah, especially during this time when my heart is vulnerable from watching the Hallmark Bears story. Have you watched it? Oh, Lawrence, you watched it? All right, man.

I can't. I can't do. I'm not in an emotional place right now to do so. I got an idea. I haven't watched it, but I got an idea. So there's a show called The Golden Bachelor. What do you know about all that? You know, I once went on The Bachelorette. Oh, really? I'm thinking I'm looking right across it a good person for the Golden Bachelor Mark Grody right now. Aren't we already having to take the North takeaway or whatever we called it?

A listener suggested TTG take the Grotie where he'd get set up with somebody. Man, I had to take it up another level, though, if I was to be the golden. I know the producer still. I got my cousin on and he became a superstar on social media. Yeah, Layla knows him. See, Clay is pulling rank now on behalf of Mark. Wait, who do I know who's your cousin who's on? Andrew Spencer. Oh.

Yeah, my cousin, Andrew. He's, uh... I didn't realize that was your cousin. He's my first cousin. Yeah, I know everybody thinks, all, you guys all say you're your cousin, you know. The real, real. He's my actual cousin there. But you know what the problem is.

I don't watch the show. And neither do I. What? No, but I mean, I'm serious. I'm, like, the only episodes I ever caught up on were just people I knew. If you had to go on one, like, love is blind. that's the most crudy show. I was so bad.

I don't watch any of them. You've never watched any of them. The last love reality show I watched, and this is dating me. I am in the Nickelback Matchbox 20 demo, was probably Rock of Love Bus with Brett Michaels. That was a good show. And I think I went out on top, so. That was a good show, honestly.

We got to go. But Clay, you're the best. Thanks for coming in. You look great. You're going to tape Pro Football Weekly right now. Pro Football Weekly, Charter Podcast. Yeah. Awesome, man.

Hopefully see out at Soldier Field tomorrow. and thanks for coming in studio like you do, man. You're the best. I'll bring you a six-pack. Thank you. Oh, that's so nice. Appreciate you, buddy. It's Rahimi and Grody.

We will transition with Spiegel and Holmes next on 104-3, the score.