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Examining the state of the NFC North as Week 7 winds down

October 26, 20260 comments♥ 0
00:00 That is Dan Weeder right there from the Athletic, from the Mighty Take the North podcast. I get to co-host that show with him. I'm Mark Grody. It is Rahimi in Grotie. Layla Rahimi with a well-deserved day off. She will return tomorrow here. It's the mini-bye week we were bearsless this weekend. Did that feel okay to you to be bearsless this weekend, Dan?
00:22 Oh, do you have no idea how good that felt? We're in like a weird pocket of schedule where because of all the primetime games, There's going to be like this coming weekend is going to be Bears list. You know what I mean? They don't play the next Monday. So it's back-to-back weekends without Bears games, which is very odd, but it does help you in my personal world just get stuff done. No doubt about it. Like the simplest thing is like just appointments, calling people back, making time for friends, all the stuff.
00:50 Took me about five hours to hang a window treatment that should have probably taken about 12 minutes yesterday. So that's one of the things I got to do with my free Sunday. Oh my God. I've got compliance test. I'm behind on. Right now I am noncompliant walking through the halls of Chaudency. Can you feel that? I can tell I'm noncompliant.
01:07 Some of the stuff coming out of my mouth in the pre-show meeting today. Yes, I am a risk. People should just, it's like I'm uninsured. You should stay away from me right now or else I'll get everybody in trouble. It was an interesting day around the NFL as it always is. But I was glued to, and I'm sure you were as well, to the Detroit. We'll get to Minnesota. as well. The Detroit Green Bay game, which was a Detroit 20 to 17 win over the Packers.
01:35 Jake Bates with a walk-off field goal in the game. I love the Jemir Gibbs, the slides to stop himself from going into the end zone to run the clock out. I mean, I get it. That's the logical, strategic move, but it's still got to take some. Every player's instinct is to get into the end zone. Rochon Johnson did that last week as well. In Atlanta, yeah. Right, where he was like, I got to keep the clock moving. And Gibbs had to do it twice, right? Twice.
02:06 Twice. The first one, it seemed like he was a little bit more perplexed by it. You know, like, oh, I guess I should sit down. The second one, he looked like he almost like hurt his leg. Yes. He walked off, but it was like, oh, dear. That would be a bad way, right? Yeah, right.
02:20 They mentioned that too. Like Tom Brady was like, man, that is not a natural way to have to stop. But you're right. He did it twice. The strategy was absolutely perfect. I know a lot of people have been down on the strategy of Dan Campbell for going for it on his own 20-yard line. But I don't know, Dan. I don't know how to take these games in.
02:38 I don't know what I root for, what I want. Green Bay's role was slowed a little bit because they had won three in a row. Detroit all of a sudden has won two in a row. They're four and two to the Packers, four and three. But it was entertaining to watch two of the better teams in the league in the Bears division yesterday. No question. And it's a high-level game, right? And to me, it was just the reminder of, like, every one of these division games for all of these teams, the rest of the season is going to be a high-level game.
03:04 And that's why it's fun, right? There are no garbage teams in this division. And so, man, the Bears stack a lot of these games at the end of their year, and you realize how important that's going to be down the stretch of December and January when they're finishing the year off. You better be ready to play when you've got a division game this year in this division. Yeah, and the Packers get Josh Jacobs. back they're going to get might what's the what's the micah parsons sit is he the week to week at this point like could he is he a threat to return any game now it feels like we got to be getting close doesn't it i mean yeah i
03:37 don't know where the packers buy falls and all this uh you know i here's another one for you gritty what do they do with their kicker yeah well i'm like keep on looking to the seat missed two kicks yesterday so missed a couple against the bears you know they get those were some of those where it's like, okay, you blew out the bear, so nobody's going to be talking about this, but be careful. If your kicker stinks, you got problems. Chicago can attest. They are on kicker watch right now, no doubt about it.
04:05 I was impressed. I know Jordan Love is not your favorite, Dan. I got to admit, I was impressed with him on at least three-fourth down plays that he made explosive plays out of both quarterbacks look pretty good yesterday. When Jordan Love is on and he's thrown that deep ball well, I got to respect it a little bit. I fully agree with you. Yeah. When he's on and he's throwing the deep ball.
04:26 He's really good. But then there are moments where you're like, can you win big games consistently? There's a moment in yesterday's game where he just throws an absolutely ridiculous pass to no one in the end zone. And it's almost picked off. The Lions dropped it. But it was one of those moments where you're like, what are you doing? Like just put the ball in the fourth row of the seats. And he just flung it up there.
04:46 And if the Lions DB comes down with it, we're having a different conversation about Jordan Love today. Yeah, no doubt about it. Speaking of that, speaking of weird throws in the end zone, watching the, I don't know if you watched every minute of Seattle, Kansas City last night. You did, so then you're going to know exactly what I'm talking about here. Seattle beat Kansas City last night, 20 to 3. Obviously, the Bears played the Seahawks a week from tonight on Monday Night Football. I think it's the end of the first half.
05:12 There's a throw into the end zone by Sam Darnold where both the Seattle's... It ran into each other. And it was at that point, too, that they were just... glowing and glazing, as we like to say, glazing Sam Darnold, and then he makes that throw. It's intercepted in the end zone. But that's a, for a great wide receiver in Smith and Jigba. That's a bad, weird moment in that game. I think it was Rashid Shaheed was the other one.
05:37 But it was, like, as you mentioned, it was like an hour of like, Sam Darnold's doing everything right. I can't believe how well Sam Darnels play. Look at how crispy is he's doing everything right. And then you're like, oh, God, interception in the end zone, particularly in a game where the flow was like Seattle is controlling this thing and they've got a chance to just land an uppercut here and then you give Kansas City life with that. You're like, oh, God. And I think that's going to be part of the Bears path to victory is
06:01 getting Sam to make a mistake or two that gives you life. That is the path, man. And I'm sure you thought the same way I did. I'm sure Bears fans, I know Bears fans were because, my God, the Jalen Johnson'sness of the Bears right now, Bears fans are almost more angry about Jalen Johnson than they are elated about the last couple of wins. Who is going to stop Jackson, Smith, and jig?
06:25 So, yeah, right? Dennis, this is a Dennis Allen game, man. It has to be. You just watch the quickness, right? And the speed and just, like, man, I don't know. Like, this is given the Bears problems here recently, and they've got to find an answer there. That's one of those last night where you're like,
06:42 I could see, you could see the Bears losing this game by double digits if they're unable to find an answer for JSN, right? Yes, and good luck running the ball. I mean, and I know they, you know, Kenneth, right, Ray? I mean. Oh, my goodness. That's a scary defense, man. Yeah.
06:58 Yeah, Kenneth Walker, what did it? Ended up 30-something yards. 14 carries for 36 yards. That's not a good average. I mean, that's that's two plus yards per carry. Right. My fantasy. Oh, I'm sorry.
07:09 No, it helped my fantasy. Oh, it did. I actually had a chance of winning now. Oh, good. There was nowhere to run. There was nowhere to run. And that's what's most troublesome about this. And this is not just some middling offense.
07:20 This is Kenneth Walker. It's Andy. It's Patrick. You know what I mean? So, like, this is going to be a tough challenge for the Bears. And look, like, they didn't have their best game against Minnesota. The last time they faced, you know, a really good defense, like the Vikings brought in week two. Conditions were obviously apart.
07:39 But you're going to Seattle. It's going to be really noisy. You're going to have to pay attention to a lot of the different things that Mike McDonald throws at you. This Seattle defense scares the crap. That said, I can't wait. I mean, I cannot wait for that showdown Bears and Seahawks on Monday night. Part of it's because the Bears are 5 and 2, right? All of it is because of it.
07:58 Like if they're 4 and 3, you might have a little bit more like, oh, God, I don't know if you want to take this test right now. That is such a great point. You're right, you're right. It's like we would be in fear of falling to 500 at 4 and 4. And this, a championship season for the Chicago Bears. That's right. I said it.
08:15 Anthony Heron is going to join us next here. on Rahimi and Grotie with Dan Weeder sitting in for Layla today. We didn't even get into the Minnesota game. Maybe we could ask Big Ant about that or have a discussion with the three of us about what Minnesota is doing. They are 6 and O.
08:30 They ain't doing it with offense. We know that. And there were some other surprises around the NFL too. We can get into all that with Big Ante. But you know we will talk a lot of bears with Anthony Herron like we do. We're doing it next on Rahimi and Grotie on 104-3, the score.