Bears vs. Chargers Game Preview Week 8 | Bears, etc. Podcast

Right justin middle of the field forty five fifteen. Bring Russ in front of a leading Lions in this way. I am Jeff Jonahacklitsu on dot up.

What was like playing for coach Gooddom.

I don't want to answer any questions like that.

Sixty one yards? What's Sunday strow for?

Justin field? Ye Bears et Cetera With the voices of the Chicago Bears Jeff Joniac, We're off to La Sofi Stadium with the Bears. Visit the two and four La Charges Sunday Night Football with Super Bowl winning Bears Guard Town Player. I'm Jeff Jonahack, and welcome into episode twenty eight of the Bears et Cetera podcast. Good to be with you each and every Tuesday and Thursday of the regular season. We always have a special guest or try

Well?

You said it perfectly introduced a lot of the listeners to the past so they can get more introduced to the present. And when you talk about Dan Fouts and his experience in the NFL and the development of passing offenses with a lot of it what we see today.

He played for some remarkable coaches.

And even though he had a slow start to his career, it had a remarkable ending which concluded into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Then he went onto the broadcasting business and I knew a couple of the offensive linemen that he played for, and they talk about his toughness, his dedication, his desire to be great, and it's been proven.

Yeah, So we'll enjoy that conversation coming up. First, let's get the status at hallis a couple of things. Injury wise, there is no change in justin fields right now issue and they're getting to it. Nate Davis did not practice, Jakwon Brisker Ill did not practice. Treuelle Smith working through mono no practice, no practice for Donna right now, I want to pick up the conversation here because going back over the tape watching him that shoulder, it was bothering him.

You know, it's inspirational when a young guy has such high desire to be on the field with his teammates that he's willing to play at less than one hundred percent. But I think you're going to have to go back and take out what shoulder was bothering so the enemy doesn't listen to this, and then you know it going forward we watch the tape, but you know, Jeff, there was a lot of times during the broadcast that you looked at me with the headset off, saying, hey, look at Darnell.

He's really rotating his shoulder.

And then he had a play that he got fell on and it kind of looked like his you know, his lower leg some portion was bothering him a little.

But he worked through it. And I think whenever.

You get into this stage of the season, probably all the way to the end of the year, you're going to be less than one hundred per But again, he went out there and played a winning game.

Well, it looks like it's a toe. Toe that's also on the injury report, so shoulder in toe for right Dan Feenie limited with an e Eddie Jackson limited Braxton Jones. The clock starts Tom the left tackle as a twenty one day window to see if he can get back from a neck injury. Limited today. Where do you look at that situation with an injury like that in that window? Could he come back sooner than that? Can he come back this week?

Yeah?

You know, well, I think he could, depending upon the severity of the injury. And I went through a pup list to start a season when I had my back surgery. And there's a couple of proving points that you want to make to yourself rather than make them to your teammates or your coach, going, Okay, I'm ready for hard impacts. I can absorb big hits from linebackers. I can make executed blocks downfield if I have to leave my feet.

Good new Chicago United Airlines is getting brand new planes with all the bells and whistles, like Bluetooth connectivity screens at every seat and room. From Everyone's Rollerbag United Proud to fly the Chicago Bears and you too Jeff Jonieck and Tom Thayer on the Bears et Ce podcast. Tyson Beaijing went to the podium today, this time as an experienced starting quarterback by virtue of his first game. The

I think he's gonna handle it well. I don't think any stage is too big for him. However, this is the one and only national televised Sunday night game where the world of football will be watching. When you talk about him having a home game against the Raiders, it only shows in the portion of the country. But now

And then you're going to see other young quarterbacks.

Around the league that maybe have been picked much higher than him to saying, Okay, what is this guy seeing, how is he preparing, What is he doing to give him this successful of an opportunity so early in his career.

Here's Beijing from the podium on Wednesday. N If he's less nervous.

This week, I have the same nerves every week since I've been playing football. Just usually I'm just nerved up throughout the week, unless we're in practice or unless until we get to the pregame. You know, time I'm on the field, good that we I don't feel it, but you know when you're in the room thinking about it, studying it, I am nerved up in those moments, but at stays pretty consistent no matter what.

As we are nervous preparation. You know, are you ready for your game mentally? And I think that's probably what he what he refers to.

You know, Listen, I watched Jay Hilgenberg throw up before every game, and he's a seven time pro bowler, and that was even late into his career. When you're a football player and you're driving up to whatever stadium you're playing in, whether by bus or by your own car, there's a certain nervousness that's in the pit of your stomach, and it's going to last until you get your second win, and then you get into the flow.

Of the game.

So it's it's nothing, it's something that's never going to leave him. It's just part of the game. But you know, I think Tyson was raised around a father that had a lot of notoriety and experience and camera lights and action, and you kind of get used to seeing that from from afar, from somebody you're really close to.

And no question, that makes total sense. It's not that far away from a major metropolitan city. Even though you think, oh, he's a country kid or whatever, No, that's not the case. The Potomac River ran right through the back of Shepherd University or whatever, and he was out there using it as a cold tub with his buddies. I mean, it's crazy stories of how he prepared for each football season

Yeah, for me, it's wild to think about. You just think about, you know how long the NFL has been, you know how long they've been playing in the NFL. How many people have gone through the NFL. So when there's still when they're still when you can still be the first to do something in this league that's been around so long and had so many people come through it, it's definitely an honor in something that's really crazy to think about.

You know that he congratulated him even more. You know, he's not a guy that grew up on green acres where he's climbing a telephone pole to make a phone call. It's just the fact that he's from a small school and he's got a ton of belief in himself, ton of belief in his development and that his experience, no matter how small the school it was, it's relatable to developing into an NFL quarterback. We'll see where it goes from here. You know, we're not placing the crown on

Now, the other big question, I think people are thinking that he has not enough arm strength to push the ball down the field, and he pushed back on that today. Granted, the game plan was horizontal, it was a short passing game. It was the little toss to Deontay Foreman, it was the I sweeps, it was everything inside a twenty yards, nothing beyond twenty yards. That doesn't mean he can't do it. He did take with the Raiders defense allowed to take.

You know, I think it's kind of silly to base your evaluation of Tyson Beagent on his first performance, because you're talking about trying to protect against Max Crosby. You're trying to protect against multiple level blitzers from the inside. So now you get an efiicient seventeen yard screen to Deontay Foreman, you get a nice screen over to Marcedes Lewis, you get another touchdown pass to Deontay Foreman that he's able to score in the red zone. Listen, I'm not

To me.

Thing can be more maddening for a defense than a fifteen play drive where they just slowly move the ball down the field, get in chunks and eat up the time of possession and they can't stop it. And that's what happened against the Raiders on three occasions. And as an offensive lineman, doesn't that give you more energy to have a drive. You would think it tires out an offense as well as a defense, And maybe it does. You tell me, these long drives, you know, more mistakes

Well, you're kind of answering your own question without asking a question. They have one hundred and seventy three yards rushing. They have these exterior jets, sweeps and passes to the outside. Now even take these rotating defensive tackles, and you make those guys run from hashmark to sideline or center field to sideline, and now all sudden, by the third quarter,

Which leads us to our conversation with Pro Football Hall of Famer Dan Fouts. Fouts joined us from his home in Oregon for a good half hour, talking about all things, including president and past offensive systems in the NFL, and a bunch of other great stories. Hope you enjoy it all right, Welcome to Everybody to Our Bears, Etc. Podcast. Our special guest this week, Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Fouts, a legendary figure for the San Diego now LA Chargers,

I think we did play him in a couple of years later because I became friends with Ed White, one of his offensive linemen, through my friendship with Jim Lche, who was one of their offensive tackles. I think I was on the field one saying hi to Dan Fouts and got yelled at by Coriel for coming over and saying hi.

You know, it was like fratnizing with the enemy or something.

Well, he hated every team and everybody associated with the team that we were playing, he would work himself up into a ladder and we found it quite humorous at times. But he was just so focused and his hatred is what really drove him a lot.

So when you look at the offenses of today and you look what you guys were doing back in the day, I mean it was the most high powered offense on the NFL market.

At that time.

Is that offense transferable to the modern day NFL?

The RPOs and that style of game.

I think it has more of an influence on coaches and their willingness to throw the ball.

The example that was set.

By the air coriol offenses, where you know, it's easier to pick up eight yards throwing the ball and it is running the ball unless you got Walter Payton. But you know, the thing was is that I always like to go back to Don Shula and when they won the Super Bowl with their tremendous season that they had. When they went undefeated in that Super Bowl, I think Greasy threw like eleven passes. So you pass forward maybe ten years from there to where now Shula drafts Dan Marino and Marino's throwing.

For five thousand yards.

So here you've got a coach who relied on Zanka and kick and Mercury.

Morris to run the ball.

But he saw the effect that our offenses had on the league in a couple of great games against his defenses and his teams. Now he's got a great quarterback of Marino. He's willing to throw the ball, and now everybody's willing to throw the ball.

Dan, you touched on Walter Payton. You touched on Don Shula. Tom had the rare I guess you'd call it the rare hat trick. He played for George Allen in the USFL, Don Shula in the NFL, and Mike Ditkin in the NFL. All hall of famers and just incredible coaching, and you

It's the most humbling experience you can imagine to be a member of the Hall of Fame and to go in with that class.

When they hall turned fifty back.

A couple of years ago, about ten or twelve years ago or so, actually it was ten years ago, they had a vote on what was the best Hall of Fame class of all time excluding the very first class, which you know Jim Thorpe and Red Grange and Bronkolndgirski and all those George Hollis and all those great people. But it was the other forty nine classes that they ranked, And surprisingly enough, they ranked the class of ninety three, the fellas you just mentioned as the number one class.

I love it. What impacted you about this year getting your coach in there, a guy just so synonymous with great offense, and his induction into the Hall of Fame, it all came full circle for you?

Well, I really did. I mean, I owed Don Coriel everything. I mean, you guys wouldn't be talking to me now if he never was hired by the Chargers and gave us such great offense to work with and great players to play with. I'm a selector on the Hall of Fame committee, and so I've been beating that drum for as long as I've been on that committee. And finally I got smart and I told the other selectors, don't listen to my.

Opinion about Don Coriel.

Listen to the men you've already put in to the Hall of Fame. So I had quotes from Don Shula, I had quotes from Tom Landry, and I had quotes from John Madden. But what I also did is I found a letter in my desk about six months before the meeting, and it was a letter that Bill Walsh had handwritten to Don Coriel, and it was just sitting in my desk, and Bill had sent me a copy because he wanted me to know what how he felt

This time I got to say he did.

I was reading a lot of articles about you overnight, and it seemed like every article started Dan struggled the first couple of years of his NFL career.

Is that true? Did you struggle? And then number two? What was the turning point? And I almost looking for advice about what you would tell young quarterbacks up today, What was your turn point to a Hall of Fame career?

Well, Tom, my first five years were you know.

I was already fitting myself for a white belt and white shoes in a gold century twenty one jacket because I was going to be out of.

Football at a big hurry.

I had had four head coaches and five different offensive coordinators in those first five years, so that part.

Of it was a little difficult.

One of the coordinators, though, was Bill Walsh, and I only had him for one year and then he went to Stamford and then the forty nine ers.

But once once, you.

Know, we played bad enough to and I played bad enough to get Tommy Prothrow fired. That Don Coriell was just sitting at his home in San Diego having been fired by the Saint Louis Cardinals the year before, and he wasn't doing anything except, you know, collecting his paycheck. But the Chargers were smart enough to pluck him and put him as our head coach. And that is the

And I'm talking to you guys this morning when you.

Look at the quarterbacks up today, because Jeff and I have been doing the Bears games now for twenty seven years, so we kind of pay attention to the draft, pay attention to the lineage. But guys like yourself and then I came out in the eighty three draft with Marino

There's no question, and I think you know, the college experience is so unique. It's where you've really become independent. It's where you become a man, if you will. And at least that's the way I looked at it. I had a great time at the University of Oregon. I learned a lot, both academic and athletically. But you're absolutely right when you talk about the experience of going into

Dan Founts our guest here on Bears, Etc. Our weekly podcast, We Get Ready for the Bears in Chargers Sunday Night Football in LA's Sofi Stadium. We're brought to you by Miller Lite, the official beer of the Chicago Bears. Tastes like Miller Time Chicago in that vein. You know Tom and I and I'm totally agree with Tom on this and yourself Dan with the experience factor, So we only look at what our little bubble here at Hallis Hall is right now. And because of injury, Justin Fields could

Yeah, I think you know, you want to build confidence, okay, and you want to build on that success of the short passing game and it works. Bill Walsh made it very famous. The West Coast offense is basically a you know, horizontal sideline to sideline with an occasional deep throat to Jerry Rice for Tom Taylor which worked out pretty good too, and having great quarterbacks like Montana and Young. So, you know, I think that what the Bears did against the Raiders

Nobody really knew how the kid would perform.

Well, you know, then I think about what Justin Herbert's going through when you look at the oh if they got a defensive minded head coach Dan and you you developed under an offensive minded head coach, do you think there's a better relationship if you have an offensive minded head coach that is calling the plays or spearheads the direction of the offense, i e. A Bill Walsh type of guy, or can a quarterback succeed if there is that change over if an offensive coordinator is successful at

I think that the offensive coordinators is more important than the head coach basically for a quarterback, because he's the guy he's talking to all the time and putting the game plan together and all those things.

In Herbert's case, if you look back at his.

Career at Oregon and he was there for five years, he had three different head coaches, and he had different offensive coordinators. And now with the Chargers, Kellen Moore is now their offensive coordinator. Well, that's like the fourth offensive coordinator and new offense that Herbert's had to deal with. He's a brilliant kid. I mean, he's as smart as a whip, and you know he can handle it. But the problems aren't on the offense with the charges right now.

Horrible in the second half. They couldn't put it together or they might have upset the Chiefs.

In the Miami game backed up by the Cincinnati game. There's a degree difference of one hundred and forty seven degrees from the Miami game at eighty eight degrees to the minus fifty nine game in Cincinnati.

Have you ever been as cold as you were in.

Cincinnati or have you ever been as exhausted as you were in Miami?

Get this question a lot.

There was a major shrinkage in Cincinnati and a lot of exhaustion and cramps in Miami.

But you know that's that's the game, though, right, You got to play with the elements whatever they are. And you know, I tipped my hat to Kenny Anderson and the Bengals on that cold day in Cincinnati because he played great and I did not.

But you did play very well when you met the Bears on December fourth, and it was a Monday night match up forty to seven win over Neil Armstrong's Bears. Virgil Livers did have a sixty yard interception return for a touchdown, but you hit John Jefferson forty two yards. Do you remember anything about that game that time ago, back in nineteen seventy eight.

Yeah, I remember that game very well because that's right where we felt that Eric Coriel was taking off. We had played the Seahawks the week before and put thirty seven on them.

Now we come and we beat the Bears. We put forty points there.

Then we end the season in Houston and I think we put forty five on the Oilers at the time. So that was the last three games of the year and they were all tremendous scoring games for us. We knew that we really had something going into the following seasons. So, yeah, thanks for bringing that memory up for me.

That's a good one.

And yeah, yeah, better than Tom. You know that Freezer game.

Hey, you know, Tom and I talk about this all the time too, because Tom's had two careers. He played for ten eleven years in the National Football League and he's three decades deep here into a broadcasting career. You did the same, the son of a famous broadcaster in the Bay Area, and was your father the voice of the forty nine ers for a time as well. I know he was a legendary figure in that area. And how do you feel about having two careers associated with this great game?

Yeah, my dad was the play by play announcer of the forty nine ers.

Back in the.

Fifties and sixties, and so that gave me an opportunity at times to be in the press box sitting next to him keeping scores for him. Then I kind of grew out of that, and I was a ball boy on the sidelines for the forty nine ers. You know, look at Johnny and Nidas, or see Gail Sayers and Budkinson.

He always had to run behind him.

That's an awesome story.

Sofi stadium Chargers being in LA, what do they have to do to get a home field advantage, because even when the Bears played there against the Rams a couple of years ago, it was probably sixty five percent Ram or Bears fans. Is it going to be something that they're going to have to get into a playoff type of push where.

You know they're they're going to go deep into the playoffs.

Well, that's a really a good question, Tom, because it's the Rams, the Chargers, and the Raiders that all have this problem now because people want to go to Vegas to watch the Raiders play and their home team, and they also want to go to shows, and people from back east in the Midwest George, December November, they want to go to LA because the weather's great, there's a lot of good things to do in LA, and they want to watch their team. Because a lot of teams

By the opposing fans.

So you know, if it takes a playoff, Bush, maybe, but remember it is Los Angeles and it is Las Vegas. There's a lot of distractions in both those places.

Dan, did you run a lot of shotgun offense back then or where you directly behind center? Because you know, there's so many differences in the count nowadays because of the RPO because of the motion, because of where they line up in the different offensive formations.

Now, we never used the shotgun.

Our offense was based on timing routes that were tied to my drop, to the receiver's depth on his routes. You know, three step drop was a quick pass, five step was a medium, seven step was a little bit deeper. And the other thing was is that although I did fumble once in a while, from under center, I could keep my eyes downfield. I could keep my eyes and

All right, Our remaining moments with Dan Foutz, the Pro Football Hall of Famer and a remember the nineteen eighties All Decade team of the National Football League led the league four consecutive years in passing Hue time first team All Pro, six time Pro Bowler, Offensive Player of the Year in nineteen eighty two. All this by a third round pick out of Oregon in nineteen seventy three to

I don't know.

Today we often hear the playbooks, you know, two years in they haven't even touched the surface of getting to know the details and the concepts in the passing game of the offenses of today, and we often think maybe it's too complicated to usher in these inexperienced quarterbacks that come in with so much success, as we alluded to earlier, and then you know, the expectation is year two, you got to be greater. You know, we're moving on to

Well, it was not super complicated because there was a basis of the offense when Coriel first got there, but each game and each season we would add to it. But we always had that foundation to go back to if we were struggling. So you know, we'd come out run the same play four different ways, four different formations, but it was the same play. We would just ask a guy, you know, like a Winslow, Hey, go out wide and let's see who covers you.

Okay. That was the beauty of Coriolis. He could see and he would study.

A guy's past, a guy like Little Trained James, Lionel James was a quarterback in high school and he could throw the ball, and so we would put in half back passes for little train Kellen Winslow. He can throw a ball one hundred yards, so we throw, you know, have a double pass for him to throw the ball. Pete Holahan was a quarterback at Notre Dame with Joe Montana. Montana of course beat him out, and Halahan went to tight end a wide.

Receiver, but he could still throw these things. He would research, as Coriel did find out. You know, this guy was an option quarterback, so let's run an option with him.

Not without spouts, can't do that. So anyway, that was the beauty of Don Coriel.

So you're on the Hall of Fame selection committee. Devin Hester is a semifinalist range. Again, how do you feel about Devin Hester and the Hall of Fame giving it the uniqueness of being a return man first and foremost.

I think it's about time because he was the best, and you know, one of those guys that you hold your breath. I'm sure you guys did every time he was back deep to return something because you were about to see something special. And so you know, the word special teams is starting to get a little bit more more weight to it when it comes to voting. And as I said, Hester was the best. I think it's about time.

You know, Dan, My last question kind of goes to college.

You got USC, you have Oregon, you have Washington with three dynamic quarterbacks. I know you're an Oregon alone, but do you see any one of those three guys that you like and that you think could maybe be at the top of the draft next year?

Yeah, I think I think they'll all be number one picks.

Williams obviously won the Heisman last year and they've been struggling a little bit this year, but he's a very talented guy. Pinnix from Washington is very accurate. You know, he's left handed, so it looks a little bit different, but not when the receiver catches the ball. And with both Nicks you've got kind of a mixture of those two.

He's extremely accurate.

As you can see, he's completing almost eighty percent of his passes. He's a smart kid. He's played more games than any other player in college football, I think, I mean, I know as a quarterback he may have. He's played like fifty four games, started at at Auburn and then transferred to Oregon, and so he's got that experience that we were talking about at you know, a couple of minutes ago, where you stay in college and you learn, you know, the ups and downs of colleges.

Bo Nicks has done that. But I like all three of those quarterbacks. I think they're all outstanding.

What do you think of Justin We haven't talked about him.

Well, you know, I think that again. I think he's a guy that's got a lot of talent. But it's gonna take some time. You know, running quarterbacks, guys that expose themselves, you know you're gonna I always look at it like a quarterback's kind of a gunfighter. You're gonna you know, you're gonna win some you're gonna lose some you're gonna get, you know, nicked every now and then a bullet's gonna catch you. But if you look at who wins Super Bowls aside from Patrick Mahomes, they're basically

All right, Well, this was wonderful. We could literally talk for hours with you because you got a great depth of knowledge and wonderful. Loved watching you play in those exciting Chargers teams. Somebody who grew up admiring John Brody. I liked him from Afar as well. And then you get drafted and you're with Johnny Unitis. That's nuts. What a career you've had. Dan, thank you so much.

Well, let me just tell you one Unitis and one Brody's story. Get out as a ball boy.

For the forty nine ers.

But I was always on that point of sideline and I at the end of the game, he goes out to shake Brodie's hands, and John Brody has his helmet on and Johnny Unitas does not, and they're walking off the field and Brody tells Unitas, Hey, John, if.

You're walking off the field with me, you better put your helmet on.

That's awesome. And did you ever introduce yourself to mister Hallis?

No, I never did.

I regret that I never got to say hello to him and really tell him thank you, because it's men like George Hollis that built the game.

Surely that is the case. Wonderful to talk to you. Congratulations on all your success, and we love that you're still heavily involved with pro football with the Hall of Fame Committee. And enjoyed talking to you very much.

Thank you, Thanks, thanks for having me on. Guys, talk later, good luck.

All right, good luck.

Thanks. You talk about a Hall of Fame quarterback. You had two hundred and fifty four touchdown passes, and now today you know you really are concerned about interceptions and you want complete completion percentages, hopefully in the upper sixties. His career percentage and that was fifty nine percent. He threw for two hundred and forty two interceptions, so you know, things were different then. Obviously, no one wants to make

It's pretty cool, right, third round pick is amazing. And you know, Ed White want to help his offensive lineman. He's a sculptor and I have a series of his sculptors that he gave me that are hippos that are doing different things, lifting weights and stuff.

And he also used to make the John Madden trophies.

Wow.

So yeah, this guy is an incredible guy. And I got to meet him through mutual friends and we went on a sailboat a couple times, and so it would have been fun to even pick his brain about DONNYE. Masakis, center, Ed Whyte, and just some of the other guys he played with.

For all your journeys ahead, go with a partner who's been on your team from the beginning, the one members and communities have trusted for over eighty five years. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, always standing by you, with you, for you through it all. All Right, let's dig into the Chargers matchup. They're coming off back to back losses. You know what that means, a third straight loss,

You know, super competitive, he's a great athlete. He's a big guy. He can take punishment, he can deliver it. He's got a Josh Allen type fasik. He can incorporate receivers from fifty yards downfield to at the line of scrimmage. He's got an offense that's got a lot of versatility

There's also a talian I think probably too losing Mike Williams. He suffered us he's in any knee injury in week three, and so they have had less success since that point, even though they have one of and now he's a veteran of course, he's been around a while now, but Keenan Allen is still a very dangerous player at the receiver position. And of course Austin Eckler he missed a

I'm glad you asked that question, because to me, he's a different version of McCaffrey from San Francisco. When you look at Austin Eckler, Jay Jeff, he rarely takes a step backward, He rarely takes a lateral step. His vision is going forward, and he's going at such a quick rate that he makes it real challenging for tacklers because he's not a big guy, but he's willing to deliver

And another undrafted player, I mean Western State and Colorado Austin Eckler. Great story. So two undrafted free agents will be grabbing some of the headlines one way or another on Sunday night. Take a chance download the bet rivers app today. All right, let's flip it over to the defensive side of the ball. And Khalil Mack had six of his seven sacks in one game against a rookie Aidan O'Connell of the Raiders in Week four, still highly regarded.

You know, I'm not gonna let either of those guys go unblocked or have a free rush. But to me, I can never get that Raiders game in London out of my head and how they attack Khalil Mack.

So you know, I think one thing.

That was a little bit of concern was that cole Comet wasn't targeted, but he did a great job on the offensive line being more than a chipper with the tackle. So if you have a guy like Carrie blasting game a cole Comet the offensive tackle position, that they can get physical with Khalil Mack, I think you can take a toll on him and then having productive run yards at him.

The thing about it, though, is is that you can't let.

Just Bosa run up field and chase from behind because he's got recognition, athleticism and he can close the distance quickly. So I need to win the point of attack battle at Khalil Mack and then get up field before Bosa can come in and interfere.

And he's still one of the best guys at force and Fombos. Those strip sacks for Khalil Mack add up interesting. Why not use a jumbo offensive line, add another offensive lineman attacker if you're going to go big and use that to try and slow down Mac and Bosa and get Cole more involved in patterns not just blocking.

Well, they just have it yet, so I don't think unless they insert it this week and they try to get it in a couple times per game, then they can use it. But if you look at the tight end position, you look at Marcedes Lewis, and you look at Cole Kmet, and you look at Robert Tanyan, all

Hey Bears fans want to me to Bears legend, then head to the Verizon store at three seventy five East Palatine Road in Arlington Heights this Saturday, October twenty eighth, between twelve and four from meet and greet, food, fun, games, and more. Get ready for an unforgettable day with a favorite Bears player. I know who it is, now who Matt Forte? Oh, one of the all.

Time legends and the greats and one of the nicest guys we've ever come across in our time with the Bears. And you know you go get inspired by how good in shape that that guy still.

Is at this stage of his afterlife. He sure is the afterlife of football. Yes, one of the more my definition professional player, professional NFL players I have ever come across, that is for sure.

So you'll get to meet that one right there. Matt Forte.

Bring you twenty two Jersey, get him to sign it, take a backer with them, and you have it for perpetuity.

Tom. You know he took the podium Wednesday, don't you. It's an annual. It's just an annual. It's no more than that. Tony Medlin.

Yes, I was going to make sure you brought it out.

Head equipment manager. I think what you say. Thirty two years, thirty five years of the coach Drive. This one extends into February. So juel Osco and the Salvation Army partnering on this with the Bears, and it's always a major important thing, Tony. It's a labor of love to befronting this. DJ Moore was the player helping out this year and talking about it. So get those coaches, gently used, new, whatever whatever you could spare and help out shivering Chicagoans

Listen, I bring coats every year up to Hallis Hall and I put in the contribution box up there because there's nothing that kills me more on a winter day driving downtown and see anybody shivering to death without the

All right, So you got Bosa, you got Mac, and we haven't talked about Derwin James. As we wrap up our preview of the LA Chargers, and the Bears on Sunday Night Football. We'll have it for you, starting with a five o'clock pregame, the kickoff coming up at seven point fifteen on Sunday Night. Derwin James, he is the prototypical New age safety who basically can be deployed as a big nickel dime linebacker. He's a very, very impactful player.

Well, you know the thing about it, with other than Khalil Mack having that big game of sacks, you know, Bosa was injured for a little while Khalil Mack only was credited with one tackle last week. They just don't have the consistency of fast pressure against the quarterbacks they're playing against. So these defensive backs, including Derwin James, can jump routes quicker, and Derwin James is only one man.

So he can only do so much.

So if you get the creativity by Luke Getsy again and you put these guys on the defensive where they're either backpedaling in the defensive backfield or the ball is out of the hands of Tyson Bage and quickly to the exterior you know, I think all defenses would have trouble being successful against it. But you know, they put a lot of emphasis on their pass rush game in La Chargers and it just had doesn't come through like they at.

Hope, Bears, etc. Is brought to you in part by PNC Bank, Official Bank of the Bears. Let's talk Bears defense to wrap us up here, because it's been really good here in the last three four weeks, certainly stopping the run, starting to take the ball away. Sacks are increasing. They're making things difficult on opposing offenses and to maintain that, do you think they've got the momentum to do so?

TJ.

Edward's still one of the top tacklers in the NFL. Hoping Jakwan Brisker is going to be okay with whatever illness he has and missing practice today because I don't say now, I'm not saying he is Derwin James, but he can play like that type of player. Line him up as a linebacker, blitz him, do what he did last week and be very disruptive. I see a lot of great things happening as the secondary continues to get healthy. It's still not one hundred, Eddie Jackson, still already, Kyler

You know, I think Janik and Gotway, DeMarcus Walker, Justin Jones, Rashien Green are really good positive influences on the young guys. So when you talk about Javon Dexter and you talk about Zach Pickens, these guys are playing at a higher level as the season winds on because I think there's some motivating, some leaders on the defensive line, and then I think the linebackers are getting to understand the defensive

Let's keep going in that direction.

And I think that's important, just like Deontay Foreman's was as well.

Tom. This is a dynamic offense. This defense is going to face though, because you got the dynamic quarterback, one of the best in the league, justin Herbert at the outstanding running back Austin Eckler, which we touched on, and then you got Keenan Allen. So is this the biggest test that the faced here in recent weeks? Then, with all that, because Justin Jefferson wasn't playing for the Vikings either.

It is.

But here's my dark horse contributor. The Bear's crowd. The Bear's crowd when the Bears are when San Diego or the LA's on offense, the Bear's crowd has to be loud. If they can make the offense one half a second behind time, that is going to be an incredible advantage for the Bears defense. So I expect it to be a heavy Bears crowd in Sofi Stadium and they can be a major contributor to slowing down, you know, functionable offense if you can take the verbal count out of Justin Herbert's mouth.

All right, last thing, we always wrap things up with something kind of funny. So I was looking on YouTube, couldn't sleep the other night. I saw a preseason Bears Packers game at Milwaukee Stadium with everybody on the same sideline. It was nineteen sixty nine though, so you were just you know, over there and Enjoliet working eight years old. Yeah, eight years old, already starting to do push ups and curls. So, uh,

Yeah, we did it as well, But it's just about getting some contact before the first contact against your opponent, get a little bit of you know, shake inside, You get on your understanding what it's, what you feel, what it's going to feel like, whether it's super hot weather or cold weather. So you know there's always a couple of suff But you know, when we warm up against offensive defensive linemen in the end zone before the game,

I just thought it was kind of funny because I remember, you know, it happening obviously growing up watching football, but I haven't seen that in a long time. But these guys were thutting up each other on the sidelay, they were paired off. It was very funny. Anyway. It's always that YouTube is dangerous, man. You can go down very deep rabbit holes in finding all these old videos of football. But I can't get enough of it.

What can I tell you?

All right, that's why, that's why you can't go back to sleep, because you're watching football at three in.

The morning, exactly exactly. I got a problem. All right. That's gonna wrap up our podcast big time. You nailed it again thanks to our special guest, Dan Fonce, the Hall of Fame quarterback with the Chargers and coming up our next Bears et cetera. Podcast will drop on Tuesday morning after we get in late from LA. We will knock out that podcast in the review of the Chargers game. Stay awake, Tom, stay awake, no sleeping on the plane.