Right justin middle of the field forty five to fifteen, bring Russ in front of all leaving Lions in this way. I am Jeff jonihacklits us on Don gud Up card.
What was like playing for Coach Good? I don't want to answer any questions like that.
Sixty one yards what's Sunday stroll for justin Field? Ye Bears, et cetera.
With the voices of the Chicago Bears Jeff.
Joniac For the second time in three games, it's Bears Lions, this time Sunday at Soldier Field Noon showdown. Not sure about the weather because the threat of snow appears to be diminishing or changing every day. Who knows, but conditions right for a Bears upset. We break it down with Super Bowl winning Bears guard Tom Theaya. I'm Jeff Joningak and We're ready for another good old fashioned black and blue battle. And that's exactly what I'm looking for on
this game. Tom. We know the Lions are gonna come in with that attitude because that's from their head coach down. They're winning. They haven't won like that in sixty one years. At ninety three, the Bears at four and eight but arrow up.
Yeah, but I think the Bears showed them an example when they are in Detroit from the very first drive what they are capable of being. But it's about the finish of the game that they have to show them who they are. And that's kind of been a point of that has been preached about a lot since the end of that game, through the Minnesota game now leading
up to the Detroit game. So if the Bears can play this similar version of game that they played in Detroit with favorable conditions in terms of playing outdoors and support of crowd noise, and they finish it, you know, the Bears should prove something to themselves and to the rest of the division coming up.
We visited White Sox play by play anouncer Len Casper, a born and bred Lions Van, for some good hearted conversation and discussion about the NFL, MLB, the White Sox, and his amazing career as a veteran baseball announcer heard on ESPN one thousand. The flagship for the Chicago Bears on the Chicago White Sox the Status at House at
a Tommy Costs for cleats. It's been rolled out several years now and it's expanded in the Bears building to include one hundred employees and they're all milling around here today. They got their Nike sneakers all painted up for their personal causes, and so they've really expanded it. It's a nice thing. The art is amazing to cause more impactful. It's very cool.
But you know, Jeff, I was thinking about you and I if we're involved in that, and where would our cause for cleats go. Because there's a lot of things that have crossed our life in my sixty two years that I would like to pay personal tribute or personal
attention to. So when I saw on the Bear's website the version of the employees on the inside painting their cleats, and even Kevin Warren taken a part of it, I think everybody has a concern, has a cause that they would like to amplify, to get just just more notification of it. Right.
Mine would be for scleroderma, a disease that killed my father back when he was just fifty three years of age, So that one always rings true. It's an awful disease and no cure, but a lot of research being done on that. I'm sure you've got a whole bunch, whole bunch big.
I mean, I would go orgon donor because important people in my life have got organ donorship and that's extended their life and it's made him a better life. But I was also part of it when we tried to create awareness for organ donorship after Walter Payton passed away. So there's a lot of different avenues you can go, and so I'm happy that the NFL has expanded the opportunity to talk about the different causes.
And we got to give a tip of the cap to Justin Jones. He is the Bears Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee among the thirty two that are now in the National Football League. It's certainly something very close to our good friend Jared Peyton's heart, obviously in the Peyton family and they take great pride in it every year at the Super Bowl when it's rolled out. So Justin, I haven't talked to him much this year. I went in the locker room today just to congratulate him.
And he works with VAM program for inner city youth. He lit up, it's important to him. That's a lot of work.
You know what. I didn't find out until yesterday that if you're an active player and you win the Peyton Man of the Year award, that you wear a patch on your jersey that you know that you are a Peyton Man and you know, I think, of God, what an honor it would be to wear a patch like that on your jersey, just because if you qualify for the opportunity to win the award, then you do win the award. You're doing some fantastic stuff in your outside life of just your playing career.
Normal week with a noon kickoff on Sunday out of bye week, and that mean's justin fields on Wednesdays at Halis Haul. A couple of things that really stuck out, we're going to start with. One is just what we were talking about in the earlier podcast this week time. This is episode forty. That was episode thirty nine. Check it out. We talked about what you do with the turnovers after you create the turnover, and that's punching the ball on the end zone. And the haven't done that
much with this a recent rash of takeaways. Overall, they're about middle of the packing yards after takeaways points after takeaways, but they really like to see that elevate and that's part of the job is when you get the sudden change guy like Justin Fields lead the team put him in the end zone. Let's listen.
I mean, the mindset is a score.
You know.
Of course, the better we play complimentary football, you know, the better we give our chance, our team a chance to win. So you know, of course we want to capitalize on those moments when the defense does give us a short field or you know, we do have a sudden change moment where they get a turnover or something like that. But yeah, definitely want to start turning those into you know, touchdowns and you know for at least you know, three points. So yeah, definitely got to do a better job of that.
For sure. Was there one of those since there were a couple in the Detroit game that stand out since that was just three weeks ago, now that you know really you felt like that one.
Could have been a big capital I mean, at the end of the day, I think, you know, every opportunity you know, we get, we got to capitalize on it. So not really just one in particular, but you know, every time you know that does happen where we get a short field or a sudden change in our mindset to go out there and score.
All right, The key to that you just got to take advantage of your opportunity short field, get stick it in the end zone.
Well, you know, Jeff, there's so many titles to segments of offenses nowadays. Oh, this is a four minute offense. This is a two minute offense, this is an offense with tempo. All these different titles you want to put up. You should have an offensive game plan. You should have a script that is immediately used after a turnover and take advantage of your opponent when the defense may not expect to go back in the game, if they're sitting on the bench and all of a sudden, there you
got a defense in we got a turnover. So, as much as you want to emphasize all these other segments of the important role of the offense, I think offensive coaches should start having a script that's featured in immedia turnovers.
Inevitably, this was going to be a topic eventually. Justin asked about his future with the Bears, given the team's position in the draft, with which could wind up up with the number one pick that's his own right now by the Carolina Panthers at their record but the Bears get it because of the DJ Moore trade, a lot of talk about what's next. Potentially, if not Justin, he's
heard it, he's aware of it, he knows it. He was also asked if it's a fair to say, hey, these next five games are part of the evaluation of your future. This was a great answer. Let's listen.
Life isn't fair. So you know me personally, I'm just focused on what I can control, and you know, the rest is in God's hands. And you know, I mean really, you just put everything in God's hands. You know it's going to turn out good for you. So you know, wherever, if I'm here next year, if I'm not, football doesn't define who I am as a person. My happiness will still be in the same place, will still be in God and really just football wise, life stuff in general.
I think my faith in God is just my hoping. God is just so much more than you know, anything that can be thrown at me on this earth. So yeah, I mean that's why I don't I don't really stress over stuff, that stuff that I can't control. I know that guys got me in and I'm gonna be good. So I'm very blessed in the position I am, and and you know, I think a million people would love
to be in the position I am right now. So really just you know, not taking that for granted and just just taking every each and every moment I have every day up here, you know, uh to the Phillies.
So taking fact from the injury, do you feel any personal momentum?
I don't know. I think I have a different mindset in terms of that personal momentum. I'm really just trying to be consistent. I think that's the biggest thing. You can play good one game play back to the other. So I think me personally just trying to be consistent and trying to be better than I was yesterday. So just trying to continually improve, get better as a person in the player, and you know, just better myself each and every day.
Take that perspective of some of that's had to have broken through to you, hearing about other quarterbacks and all that kind of stuff. So was there a point where you're just like, all right, I got to take a deep breath and.
Just have some perspective on all that.
I don't think there wasn't a point. I mean, shoot, since I gotten in Chicago. I mean, I don't hold back. Shoot, I mean, I hear from y'all. I hear from you know, fans and stuff like that, so you know, I don't I don't take any of it personal because I know, you know, everybody's entitles to their opinion on, you know, certain things and stuff like that. So that's one thing I try not to do is not take anything personal. Yeah, I mean, just go about it that way. I mean,
I've I've had things in my life. I've had moments in my life to where I've wanted things to happen and it didn't go that way and it ended up going another way and it worked out better than I, you know, ever could imagine. So that's really why I just you know, don't stress about stuff that happens, and just controlling what I can control in like I said earlier, just being the best person I can be and you know, striving to be the best player I can be.
And that's the right answer. Focus on just you focus on what you have to do to lead this team to victory in the final five games, and it will all play out the way it's supposed to play out.
I hate the question, and I'm sick of it because there's not an other player that goes up there at the end of their contract and they ask him the same question, and whether you're a tackle that's not playing well but you're at the end of your contractor whatever position you want to pick out, and I'm tired of the questions repeatedly be an answered because Justin is not in control of that. He goes out there with the ten other members of his offense and they play the
play called regardless of what the scenario is. And to me, you know, if the press wanted to do some justice and stop asking that question and start asking questions that pertain to the next game, because Justin is not in control of that.
It is an end of the season, look at things for a team that's four and eight, and you know, those things get put in the pile, so to speak. But I'm I'm, I'm and I saw him in the hallway. I said, Justin, I'm gonna tell you what I told coach, You're a dangerous team right now. His eyes are open, and I think this is a very dangerous team with Justin being a dangerous quarterback right.
Now, right you know, you know, Jeff to me, I would look at one down specifically. So in the last game, Detroit was eight of eleven on third down and the Bears were five of thirteen. So now you decrease Detroit by three conversions on third down and you increase the Bears by three on third down, that changes the whole game. So now you're talking about three more possessions, three more first downs that keep the ball into your hands. They
contribute to the time of possession. You think forty minutes time of possession, and they were only five of thirteen on third down. So to me, the biggest picture us is how can the defense do better on third down? And how can the offense do better on third down?
Tom I saw an old video the other day of a game at the LA Coliseum. It was UCLA against Ohio State nineteen seventy five ish, and Keith Jackson was on the call with his color men at the time, the softspoken former Oklahoma co which Bud Wilkinson, remember Bud Wilkinson, of course, And I was I wasn't watching it, he was listening to it. It's just it's I'm working on the game and I like listening to these games, right, it's history. I like history coming back to life, and
I don't remember all these things. So as a kid you watch the football, but now you're seeing it as adult. It's different. Anyway, long story boring is this he said something and I turned I turned. I turned around because Bud Wilkins had said, Keith, this game is about first downs. And that is what Tom Thayer has said forever. The game is about first downs. It's keeping the drive alive. First downs lead the touchdowns. You get a touchdown, it counts as a first down. I mean, hey, the game
is about first downs. And that Tyler Scott play in the game, and I'm not just saying not picking on the kid for not making the catch, but again, that's a that's a first down catch in the future when he gets that opportunity, and that game is probably over and we're looking at a very different situation for the Bears potentially here at this record right now with Jesus four and eight. But the game's about first downs.
Right you know, there's only a couple of Tyreek Hills in the league. And when you talk about a guy that could possibly win the MVP this year with two thousand yards where you're receiving and the explosive touchdowns he has. That's all good and well. However, if you want to go out there and be a team that competes for your division championship, into the playoffs and ultimately a super Bowl, you're a team that wins the amount of first downs and teach your offense on the field and fights for
time of possession and gets in the end zone. So you know, I've said it, you know, our whole career, did Teith Jackson ever say oh, Nelly.
Not as used to saying not in nineteen seventy five. I didn't hear it, but.
Yeah, that was one of his trademarks.
Well, that was the voice of college football, you know when he did He did though, I believe he was the first guy that did Monday night football Browns Jets game at Old Cleveland Stadium. But you know, he's got the football voice. That's all there is to it. We're brought to you by PNC Official Bank of the Bears. All right, let's dig into our conversation with our friend Lencasper, one of the great announcers in a city of great announcers and a history of great announcers, especially in that
baseball vein. Len Casper, the voice of the Chicago White Sox, kind enough to spend some thirty six minutes with Tom and I here around the Bears Etc. Podcast. Well on December fourth, twenty twenty stunning decision by the veteran TV voice of the Cubs to join the White Sox radio both working with Darren Jackson. And it's been a fun ride all the way through. And we've got the man.
My good friend Len Casper joined against a long time Major League Baseball announcer not just here in Chicago, but also in Florida with the Marlins working with the Green Bay Packers pre and postgame show. And Tom he is a Detroit area in Native but I guess it shouldn't really say Detroit area. You're a Detroit fan of sports growing up, Len, but you grew up three hours away
from Detroit in a small town. We brought you on for this Detroit preview because I know you've probably been a long time waiting for something like a season that the Lions are putting on the table. Thanks for joining us on the Bears, Etc. Podcast. How you doing?
You got it?
Jeff tom By listen to you guys every Sunday. You do a terrific job. And here's the backstory. So my dad was born in nineteen forty seven, on the same day Steve Stone was born, exactly the same age. And a little history lesson. The Detroit Lions won the NFL championship at nineteen fifty seven, and that was a long time ago, and since then they have one playoff win and that was against Dallas back in the early nineties. So my dad has not missed a Lions game in
some form or fashion since the fifty seven championship. So my fandom kind of came from rooting for him to have a little fun with it. And it's interesting. After the Thanksgiving game in which the Ackers beat up the Lions, my dad literally said after the game, I don't think they're going to win another game.
So he pulled the late midninet early nineties did guy. I don't think.
That's what it's like to be a Lions fan these days, is you lose a game, to go eight and three and you decide that that's it. Season's over.
I've seen the passion of the Detroit fans turn around in abundance. Is it exciting for you to see? Because listen, when I meet people from Wisconsin. I want them to be Green Bay fans. When I meet people from Michigan, I want them to be Detroit fans. So we hold no grudges. But how is this run Ben for you in watching their build up to where they're at right now?
Well, for my money, Tom, this is the best Lions team I've seen. And again you go back to that in ninety one ninety two kind of Erawayne Fonce and Barry Sanders, they were a pretty well rounded team. But I think offensively in and off defensive league right now, this is the best Lions offense I've ever seen. So that's fun and exciting. And they play a lot of close games. I like their coach. I'm just kind of enjoying the ride no matter how it plays out. And
I know we'll talk about Sunday. I think this is a very dangerous game because of the way the Bears played in Detroit a couple of weeks ago and then the win in Minnesota. Defensively, they seem to be right now at their peak. And the one team I think we can all agree we'd like to see lose a
little bit is that team up north. The Packers' schedule down the stretch is not particularly difficult, and you know, the Bears could be in a situation the Lions were in last year when everyone assumed when Seattle eliminated them that they would get steamrolled at lambeau Field, and in fact the opposite occurred. When Dan Campbell said, this is our super Bowl. I think it's possible, guys, the Bears could go into that game to maybe knock the Packers out of playoff contention.
You know, one last remark about that championship run by the Detroit Lions back in the late fifties. Our offensive line coach Dick Stanfeld was a member of the Detroit Lions back then, and we fortunately had a lot of lessons about that team, about that era, about that type of football, either some of the video we watched of him or that team. So it's interesting to see these
guys have their next go around. But you know, there's you think about the generations that have come and gone since the eighty five Super Bowl team and the generations that have come and gone since the late fifties championships in Detroit, that it was neat for us to get a little bit of a Midwest lesson from a guy who had a personal attachment to those teams. Yeah.
And you know the other thing that I think of the Bears and the Lions rivalry. You go back to Briggs Stadium, which became Tiger Stadium, and then Wrigley Field. Those were the two home parks right for decades and decades bygone era. For sure. I never did see a football game at either place, but I wish I could go back and do so.
Oh God, wouldn't you love to be on a time machine for that? Hey, listen, I mean those fifties Lions teams, and I've I've listened to some of those games. I've gone on YouTube and watched them and listened to them and just what kind of passion the fan base had during that era. They were it. Sixty two is the last sam of the Lions were nine and three. I was born in sixty two Lens, so I.
Was one years old. So I think about that all the time.
Yeah, I just I you know, I for the NFC North, the old Black and Blue Division. I'm not putting Tampa in there. They were in a late comer, but I really do get up for these games. I love going to the respective cities. I've always set told in Tom knows and my listeners know, our listeners know that I never liked indoor football. I hated going to Ford Field
when the Lions were a mess. Those suites were dark, there was nobody in them, and it was not a real fun place to play, a late arriving crowd with no juice. And now it's the polar opposite. You always love going to Lambeau. You know it's going to be an angry affair from the booth down to the field because Tom's inconsolable most of the time. And then Minnesota now with a Sparklink Stadium beautiful, and that place is loud,
and it's it's a great call there. You know, you get these twice a year games and it just becomes a fabric of your soul a little bit announcing these games, lanth.
Oh, I have no doubt. I'm a big hockey fan. I think it's like an original six matchup for sure. You know, White Sox, Twins, Cubs, Cardinals, you know, Yankees, Red Sox. You have all that stuff in baseball. But I agree, and you know it's weird now though, only six division games, so they kind of take on a little more importance six out of seventeen. Now one other scheduling note, as you guys know, you know, Bears and Packers.
At the end of the year, the Vikings and the Lions played twice in the final three weeks, and if it happens that the Vikings were to get in and play the Lions, that could be three games essentially in four weeks. Tom, have you ever had a year where you had maybe three games in four weeks against the same opponent. That would be insane?
You know, it's more of a midseason type happening. You know, now that the NFL has rekind of configured, they're scheduling to make sure there's a lot of division games at the end of the season. It's kind of taken on a different flare towards the end of the season, which I like, you know, and I like the fact that there's a lot of division games because it can tell you a lot about the Bear season. You know, they should have been beaten Detroit at Detroit, so they've beat
Minnesota at Minnesota. If they could beat Detroit at home, then go on to beat Green Bay. That's proving a lot to the locker room going forward, saying Okay, we can go into opponent's divisional stadiums and win games, because the only way you're ever going to compete for playoffs if you can accomplish that. Yeah.
Yeah, that's a great point. And you know, again, I know the Lions are favored in this game Sunday. The weather could be a huge factor. Detroit has got five wins on the road. That's one of those things where they're a dome team and you kind of assume, well, they'd rather play on the turf in a neutral situation.
But in a weird way, I feel like they've kind of been better in those pressure packed road scenarios with wins at Kansas City, Tampa Bay, Green Bay, and then you know, hanging on for dear life against the Saints.
Well, you know, Kansas City to open up the season. I think that was like, you know, opening a can of worms for the league because everybody assumed, Okay, Kansas City at home, it's a four gone conclusion, they're going to win. And then Dan Campbell early in the game goes for a fake punt on fourth down and then they go on to win the game. So I think that kind of set the ball in motion going Okay, okay, everybody better take this Detroit team seriously on the road and as well at home.
Yep, no, good.
Point well nine to two over the last eleven road games dating back to last season when they started a surge at the end. We're with Len Casper, the voice of the White Sox on ESPN one thousand and the White Sox Radio Network with Tom There, Jeff joniak here on the Bears, et cetera podcast. A treat for us to have you on, Len, so appreciate it. I know this is this is your downtime, right even though the baseball meetings are underway and all that going on, and
we love talking a little football with you. And it even goes back further for Len because he was reimpost game of the Green Bay Packers and got to be a part of Yeah, Tom, Yes, yes, yes, but you were on the air when they won a couple of Super Bowls or went to a couple of Super Bowls.
Happened to be in Milwaukee working on with the flagship station there and Jeff and I compared notes back then and you were always incredibly helpful, which I'll never forget. But you know, Ron Wolf, Mike Holmgren Brett Farv that was it was quite a run they had and it was the beginning of that big quarterback run. And the other thing too that you know, I mentioned the Packers
if they get in and play in Detroit. I think that's kind of the Alabama Michigan scenario, right, you know, the reaction of the Wolverine fans when they announced they would play Alabama. I think that's the last team the Lions want to face right now because of all the historical stuff that for whatever reason will pop up.
We're scarred. We're scarred. I mean, I think about that. Lant like you said it up perfectly and I and I brought it up on this podcast with coach I Eberflus on Tuesday. Everybody listen to that one. We appreciate it. But I said, hey, you guys are a dangerous team right now. You can be. And he didn't go for the bait. He said, oh, we've got it, we got We've got to deal with Detroit. But in the big picture, you got five outdoor games. Frankly, they're all winnable. They're
not going to be easy at all. The backup quarterback scenario in Cleveland gives them a little bit of hope, but they have the number one defense and a killer in Miles Garrett. You've got the Atlanta Falcons, they are the division leaders in the NFC South that maybe no one will want to win at six and six. Not sure what they're all about just yet, but we played them a year ago in Georgia. And then you've got
the Detroit the Green Bay and of course Arizona. So five outdoor games and I'm just saying, ball up your fists, make it ugly. You know you're not gonna win pretty anyway. This team is not that built that way. You're gonna have to win ugly, and so just be the team that you want to be a physical, nasty team. But then you got that Packer game up at Lambeau and it just we're all scarred about, oh my gosh, gotta go play the Packers even now. And Jordan loves playing well, right Len.
He's playing great, He's playing great. And you know, Tom, you mentioned the division games at the end of seasons. If you're the Bears right now, first of all, you're not out of it, right you run the table and see what happens. But I like the fact for them that four of their last five games have playoff implications for either both or one of the opponents. That never hurts right to stack up against a team that might play deep into January.
Yeah, I like that too. I like the emotional attachment and the importance. I think they'll land. It would be different. So the Bears have Carolina's draft choice and they have their own draft choice. If they only had their own draft choice, I think there would be a lot of people wishing for the Bears to lose so they can
keep a higher draft choice. So I think that has a little bit of the narrative to the closing of the season that they still want to see the Bears do well but Carolina not do so well.
Let me add to that though. You know, the Lions didn't make the playoffs last year, but I think winning at the end of the year was more important than maybe moving up a couple of slots in the draft. Is it possible, Jeff, that the Bears are in a similar spot as the line that culture, the winning and all that stuff you're trying to establish.
Issue all we've been talking about about this team's inability to close, to finish, to have that mindset of learning how to win because a lot of these guys and I went through the exercise early in the season. I gave up after a while. But there were about four or five guys on the roster that ever had a winning record in the NFL. So it's not like these guys have experienced a ton of success. So you just hope the woe is Me doesn't kick in over a
period of time, especially with these young guys. But you know, Kyler Gordon was micd up last week or before the bye week at Minnesota, and Tom and I were doing our Bears Game Night Live show and we ran that and I was encouraged and kind of excited because his genuine enthusiasm and everybody around him was legit. It was there, and that's a good sign with a young team. And is it not crazy? It is not this way in Major League Baseball with one hundred and sixty two of
those bad boys. Isn't it nuts? Tom and Lenn that one twelve to ten win against Minnesota and the whole complexion of the final five games changes because now you hit the bye week, you're you're really healthy, healthy as you've been all season, and you have a five pack of games to try to finish the job. And yet if you run the table, you're in the conversation. It's nuts how this league works. It really is a week to week league. It's not just a cliche. It's nuts.
We're with Len Casper and Tom Thayer here and the Bears, et cetera podcast. All right, Marquette grad pr degree that I didn't know, but it certainly helped you pave the way to where you thought you wanted to go, and that was becoming a Major League baseball play by playing man and volunteering your time in Beloit. What was the name the Beloit Snappers? All Right? The path the paths for play by play guys is insane, and yours is unique as well as anybody's.
Everybody has their own path. I always wanted to be Ernie Harwell when I was a kid. He was a long time Tiger's radio voice. And when I went to college, I figured I'd get experienced broadcasting out of the classroom, but I thought a public relations degree would help its communications. And it's on the other side of the business, so to speak, from a team perspective. And when I was a freshman nineteen eighty nine, I got an internship with the Milwaukee Bucks. That was huge for me as an
eighteen year old. And this is in the late eighties, so Jack Sikma is still a Buck.
You know.
Sydney Moncrief was there, Michael was in the prime of his career, and I would go get quotes in the other team's locker room. So I got to sidle up to Magic Johnson and Isaiah Thomas and Larry Bird. What an experience for a teenager. And that was immensely helpful for me because I made a lot of those broadcasting contacts that later would would help me tremendously.
Heylenn, I have a question for you, because you know, unless you're California, Ohio, Texas, rarely do you have two teams in the same state in football. Seldomly do you broadcast for two teams that are only separated by miles. Can you still enjoy the Cubs and work for the Socks or is your love so one sided that the other team is in your rearview mirror.
Well, it's a very nuanced question and answer. The Socks are my team. When you get in the middle of the daily one sixty two grind, you're solely focused on what your team is doing. I still have a lot of friends with the Cubs, for sure. I'm glad they're not in the same division. It's kind of like when the Red Wings went over to the Eastern Conference, because I like the Blackhawks a lot, but it was really tough for me when they were in the same division.
But now they're kind of in opposite boats. It's a little easier to be okay with them doing well. But the Socks are my focus, and if the Cubs win, I'm happy for them, but it's not priority for me because, yeah, I'm now nine miles to the south, as you mentioned.
All right, well then, so we got that all cleared up. And like I said, of people from Wisconsin, be a Packer fan Detroit. When you look at the game Sunday noon kickoff, you're sitting there getting ready to watch the game, your heart has to be and I listen, there's no shame in saying it because you're a Michigan person. Yeah, your heart has got to be with Detroit considering what Detroit has suffered through for so long.
No question. And you know my thing is, obviously I hope they make the playoffs, which they should be able to do, and the bar is probably a win in the postseason, and then you take your chances at that point. But again, I hate to do this, and Jeff, you're gonna last with what that quarterback up in Green Bay is doing. You know, the window is not as open for the rest of this division that it maybe appeared
to be a couple of months ago. So I'm not necessarily of the mindset that all the Lions are going to be a ten to thirteen win team here for the next five straight years. These things change so fast, and it goes back to Jeff's point. When you only have seventeen of these style points don't matter. It's all about wins and losses. And you know, I just assume that when you're on top of the world, that other part's coming, and I guess when you're at the bottom, good times are right around the corner.
Yeah, never apologize for one win. It's so difficult one hundred percent of the time. Let's dip in a little bit too. You know, my color man is unbelievable, all right. He has taught me the game. It's like going to grad school every week. Every time I think I learned something, I learned something more or I hear another story, because this guy's got zero degree. He's got separation of just about everybody. Was that seven degrees of separation, He's got
zero degrees of separate. He's got everybody. So your color man become I'm so part of your life ingrained, and you've had several obviously some great ones, and Bob Branley and Jim Deshay and working with Pat Hughes and Ron Komer and growing up as you said, listening to Ernie Harwell, also Paul Carey up there in Detroit, and now Darren Jackson and Jason Bennetti now off to Detroit. So you've had a bunch of people to work with. I've had
one guy. I've had hub Archisian in the early part of my career of course as well, and now I've Jason McKee on the sideline. So how important is it and how do you how do you how do you how do you all piece it together?
Well?
With baseball, it's every day. So you know, DJ and I do spend time together when we're not at the ballpark, but we don't overdo it because I really like a lot of our conversations on the air to be the first gut answer. Maybe you know, I don't prepare him and say, hey, I'm going to ask you about this, because I'd rather have his unvarnished reaction. DJ's awesome. He's a great teammate. Someone said to me the other day, and the White Sox lost one hundred and one games this year.
It was a.
Brutal year on the field, and they said, you guys had your best season of the last three and I took that as a great compliment, and I would pay you guys the same compliment. I've listened to some games over the years and it hasn't gone well for the Bears, but you guys always make it entertaining and it's our job to do that. But it is hard when the on field product is not always great. But it kind of forces you as a baseball announcer to dig a little deeper. And I give DJ all the credit in
the world for not giving up. When the game is ten to one in the seventh inning. We still have three innings to cover, even if people have already turned off their TV or the radio. And I thought we had a really good year, and having a great partner is what I think is part and parcel to people complimenting you. You know, if you work in a situation where you don't have chemistry with your partner, it selfishly reflects on you. So you know, you want to be
a great teammate for a lot of reasons. But even if it's about yourself, it makes sense to let your partner shine because it just makes the broadcast better as a whole.
Hey, Lenn, So you know, Jeff and I we have to watch a lot of tape because that's the way football rolls, and you have to pay attention to your opponent as well as you do your team. You have to pay pay attention to the segments of positions. So what is prep like for a baseball season? Is it going to the batting cage? Is you know what? What is your description of preparation?
Yeah, in some ways, guys, it's almost the opposite for opponents in terms of the White Sox. Yes, I think it's our job to be around the batting cage.
Talk.
I talk to the manager every day, kind of get the big picture stuff, get biographical notes from the players, and just kind of chat with them about whatever's going going on. And you never know what small little piece of information that might be really interesting to you that might not be interesting to them, but you can bring
into a broadcast. But in terms of the opponent, you know, we have series, so I don't try to overdo it with the other team beyond kind of the basic stuff, and then over the course of three days, you really feel like you get to know a team and a player. So I try to have a little bit of a blank canvas. The more I've done this, the more I realize that if you over prepare, you end up missing the stuff that's right in front of you, if that
makes sense. Whereas football, the preparation versus game time is what a million to one. Yeah, in baseball it's a little more even, and you know every day there's something new to talk about and you kind of build on that as the season moves along. If that makes sense.
Oh, my great respect for every baseball announcer out there. I don't care what level, because the grind is the grind. The travel is unique, It wears onya but you do love it. You gotta love it in order to do it, and you call it like you love it. And Lynn Bramer once said the same thing about me, that calling it like he's loving it. That's how I feel about it, and we feel about it as broadcast crew here for twenty seven years together in twenty three in the booth.
But it's interesting because as the deeper I've gotten, and Tom has told me to do the same thing. In fact, he made me. He shamed me into reducing my board information on the team playing a few weeks ago. And you know, I'm never too old to take a little bit of advice, and so I took the advice and it's made it an immediate difference because I had too much in there. I don't need it. And like you said,
when you lose sight of what's important. I just talked to Kevin Harlan about it at our game in Minnesota, and he goes, Man, he goes, I've gotten away from all the minutia, and it goes people want to know the score at the time of the game and get a feel for the moment, and if there's something big that's going to happen, I'm going to have that in my list, which I do too, And I think that's true.
I think that's true. You can sometimes overprepare, but you never know when something you're looking for is going to be pertinent, and so you hope to have it. You hope to have it, in hope to have it in the holster, so to speak.
Baseball is non linears, so you got to be paying attention. There's just a million things that can happen that if you don't see, you end up not talking about. And I always try to keep my eyes on the field as much as I can. I actually have a question for you guys, maybe more for Tom than Jeff. Do you guys always have the windows open regardless of the weather unless it's raining.
Only at the stadium doesn't allow it to be open. There's a couple like we when we played in Tottingham and London, or we played was it Kansas City.
Kansas City, Miami. They don't have that, and I hate every second of it. That window's got to be open. I don't care. Then it can be. It could be seventy five below zero. Windshield time's going to be bundled up. I'm going to be in a light sweater and I'm going to call the damn game.
Yeah. The only time I need the window opened. It The only time we ever closed the window we were in Kansas City a couple of years ago in August, and Kurt Hassler, the White Sox bullpen coach at the time, had a thermometer out in front of the mound. It was one hundred and thirty six. WHOA, I can deal with cold in April, and having worked at Wrigley for sixteen years, there was some bone shilling days. But it's really hard when it's one hundred and seven and you're
swimming on your shorts. That's no way to work, you know.
Last question for me is we've we've had two rain delays in our time, and you have multiple rain delays during the course of the season. How do you how do you fight through that time?
Yeah, we had a tornado against the Baltimore Ravens. I'll never forget that one. You know, the ex meteorology major got to be a weather man for a couple of hours.
I have two quick stories about weather delays, both on the road and I invariably there's a conversation during a long rain delay where the broadcasters have this chat how many hours of your life have been wasted sitting during a rain delay? And I don't even want to contemplate it. But final game of the All Star Break two thousand and four, I think or three Mets at Marlins and Miami played four or five games on Sundays. Due to the heat, so this is middle of July. We had
four rain delays. The game ended at about eleven thirty that night, and because the All Stars it all missed their flights. Mike Lowell, I believe, and maybe another Marlin had to fly on the Mets charter to the All Star Games. So that was pretty cool. And then we were in Cincinnati when I was with the Cubs about fifteen years ago, and it was a one o'clock start and they kept announcing game will not start on time,
we will update you in a half hour. Well, the game got called at five thirty and never started, and it probably had about four hours of no rain. They were anticipating the rain. So that's always fun when you're at the ballpark from nine in the morning till five thirty in the evening and it doesn't rain for about half that time and you don't play.
Yeah, yeah, it's it's it's a challenging sport. And I had the good fortune to do a half a dozen games at Wrigley with the help of Len Casper, no question setting me up, and there was a long rain delay before I had to go to I think we left the stadium at one thirty in the morning. I had to drive to bourbon A to do training camp the next morning, but it was about seventy five pitching changes and I'm like, how do these guys do it
for one hundred and sixty two plus exhibition season. So it's it's it's a unique position, and that's why that's why it's such a big deal when baseball announcers get the Ford Frick and they go on the Baseball Hall of Fame. It is a fabric of our lives. Just sitting here, we're on zoom watching each other. But Tom it's almost like I'm listening to a ballgame because they have the time to sell stories and here's the pitch, but the stories, and that's something that is crafted over
a lifetime. It's going to continue for the rest of your career. The stories that you'll be able to tell twenty years from now, as long as you want to do it. Because baseball announcers last forever are what makes it so great, and we help pass the summertime with the voice on the radio. It's different than and that's probably what your draw was too, painting the picture for radio the story time, right, I love it. It's what I love. I love it.
Yeah, I love it. And you know we'd be remiss before we finish. Guys, we're now teammates, have the same flagship in Chicago, ESPN one thousand and welcome to the family. As I told you, Jeff, when this all came about, great situation, a great group, and really good things are right around the corner for the Bears, and you guys are in a great spot on the radio.
We appreciate that very much. It's been a wonderful experience with good Karma brands. And hey, we'd like to say the same for the White Sox too. You know, a new stepping stone, a new platform to build from, and we're kind of in the same boat here because you know, we're still building here. The Bears are still building and when it actually happens and you construct the house and put the roof on and have multiple championship runs, that
that's what we're all looking for. And it was Tom I don't even remember, but the New England Green Bay back to back games in the Trustman era when we got blown out, I get a phone call from a guy named Led Casppar says, Hey, remember what you're doing here. You're calling the game because I went into tank after we're down forty two nothing at halftime and things aren't good. But I often retell that story lend because it did
recalibrate me. You got to remember what we're doing. We're in the homes, we're in the cars, we're in the radio, we're in the phones of people's lives and they're looking for a little reprief from their lives. And I get it, I get it. That is partly our job as well.
Yeah, you know, you want to be a fan, you want your team to win. But you know, my thing with rules and you know your league has all kinds of crazy stuff with replay is you know, yes, the former player wink wink can say, oh that was a terrible call. I hate that call. But the play by play job is to explain why right, even if you don't agree with the call, and Baseball has a million of them. You know where my partner's saying, you know that's not interference. You know he's in Well he wasn't
in the lane. That's why they call it. So you kind of have to play both sides of it a little bit. But our job is to tell the listeners and the viewers here's why the umpire or the referee made this particular call. Then you can go off on a math.
Tom and I get into this all the time sometimes that God, you know, I know you're right, Tomkife, but you know there's another side of the story he gets all. I mean, it's interesting because the I'm grateful to have him because the guy played for a decade and he's been a part of it ever since in some form or fashion. So it is deep in his soul, no different than Ron Santo was, or different than any X player that has lived a lifetime of this town. And so his raw passion comes out. And and Tom, I
think you'd agree. We also believe save it for the radio, right. We don't go over a plan ever. And it's funny when we do our TV show, you know, you have all these other people, directors, producers, and they want to know what your role cues are and all this because it matters, and we just kind of chuckle because we don't do it that way, like everything's wrong. I don't want to know what questions you're asking me.
I want to react camera.
We'll figure it out.
We'll figure it out. We'll figure it out. Indeed, lastly, for me, the craft of the call. I know, we all have influences from the time we were little kids, even before we knew we were going to do this for a living, and so they come around and it. You know, I study the old guys, the people that came for us, all the way back to the forties and fifties, because I get a kick out of it. Right, they didn't have color commentators, they didn't have a tent there,
they didn't have it. Darren Jackson, did it come natural your craft of the call of your call? Or do you feel that a lot of those influences are what you enjoyed, so you're assuming your listeners are all enjoyed the same.
Well, yeah, Ernie Harwell certainly has influenced me. What I liked about Ernie was he was always the same a matter of the score. He was very even keeled on the air, and he kept it simple, like you say, where's the ball, what's the score, what's the inning? Where the base runners? But he found a way to kind of repeat the same information with different verbiage, and a lot of his play by play really reads like poetry
to this day. But I try to avoid the big words, and I want to make it as obviously explicitly playing what is happening, because if you try to get too cute, people are going to miss what's going on. And that's the cardinal sin in our broadcasting world is for someone to go, what just happened. That's the last thing you want to hear as a radio announcer. So I've really dug in on the details. And I just like I
told you earlier, guys, I try to see stuff. And I did it on television where we could actually shoot it, and I would say, Hey, there's a conversation over here, could you get a shot of it. On the radio, I might just say DJ, why is the umpire talking to Eloy Jimenez right now? And he might go, well, he might be asking him this or that, or he might say I really don't know, but it's interesting. We'll
keep an eye on it. So those are the things that they only happen on the radio if you say they happen, And it's our job to see the stuff that other people don't see, and I can ask a guy who was down on the field in those moments to get his feedback on it, and that, to me is the greatest part of his job.
Hey, Tom, can I give you a question, because I know you always ask everybody now analytics, like you know, for baseball, it's it's it's a part of the fabric of it, all right, and we we are getting exposed to it. Tom's got a grin on his face right now, So ask him how he uses it or if he believes in it.
I know.
I think analytics are much more usable in baseball than they are in football because there's a certain, you know, process to the game of baseball that analytics can come into play, whereas in football, I think it's more of a reactionary sport and it's unpredictable, and it's there's eleven guys trying to accomplish one goal and within the structure of a play called in the huddle. I just think
there's different than a batter picture. You know, how often the pitcher throws this type of pitch and what is a batter susceptible to throughout the course of his career. So I think analytics are relatable.
In baseball, it's much more quantifiable than other sports. For sure. I'm kind of like Kevin Harlan and I do way less than I used to. And the quick short story example is, for instance, there's a defensive analytic. It's a team defense number. It's called defensive efficiency. It's number of balls in play that turned it out. So it's a bit of a math thing. The bottom line is you just look at where a team ranks and you go, they've been really good defensively. That's all you have to say.
You don't have to talk about what the analytic is. Just compare a couple of different numbers and you go, this team has been really good on defense. And I think that's all people really want to know right at the end of the day. And I think for football it's the same thing. How many points do you give up? How many points do you do you score? And you know, that's really all people want to know.
Yeah, there's so much to it. It's interesting. Everybody has a different flavor for it. But you're right, when we're on radio, if somebody turns away to yell at their kid in the back seat of the car, they miss something. So you got to constant leave you.
Ready to go.
Well, hey, this has been fun. We could talk for another half hour and forty minutes. We promised fifteen to twenty. We're hitting at thirty six. So we appreciate giving us all your time. And enjoy your call every week, every day in the baseball season. I should say, so, enjoy these final weeks of your off season because it'll fly by fast.
Guys. I will be listening to you on Sunday. I'll be traveling on Sunday, so I will not be in front of a television, but even if I were, I would sync it up.
That's right, that's the only way to roll, right, Big.
Tom, awesome man, Thank you very much.
Len Casper, the outstanding voice of your Chicago White Sox on ESPN one thousand. All right, So, what we didn't get into Tom is his hometown Mount Pleasant, Michigan. But then he grew up in nearby Shepherd, a rural town about fifteen hundred people. So Len was small town USA, loving sports like you did. I love the journey because we all have a good one. We have a good
story to tell. But he dabbled in just about everything to get to where he was and I know I read an article about a guy that he met along his journey coming from Marquette that said, you needed to do like five hundred games of minor league baseball to be seasoned enough to be even considered for a major league baseball job. And he never reached that number. But he did what we some of us have done, and that's you take the tape of corder and you go and practice, or you do things for free, and you
invest in yourself. You pay yourself with that equity of experience, even if it's not actually on the air, actually doing a game. And I respect the way he's done gone about his career.
Well, you know, whether it's you or Len Casper, whomever you meet along the way, and you talk about these guys that come from a small town, the first thing that pops into my mind is a transistor radio, absolutely, because I still have a transistor radio that's powered by batteries that my mom and dad and I. I you's sit in the living room or sit in the backyard and listen to sporting events. And when I think about you guys grown up, that's what it was back in the
day when all you guys were kids. It was transistor radios that introduced you to play by play whatever sport you listened to, And so.
Duck it under my pillow at night and listen it through the pillow strow. I wouldn't get in trouble for having being up late because they had the transistor listening to a game. So yeah, well it was awesome.
Earlier in the show, you had a story about Keith Jackson and listening to it, So I just want to
tell you a quick story. So my freshman year of the first game I got to travel, I ran into the locker room at Notre Dame because they put up the traveling squad, and I was so happy that I made the traveling squad because we were playing Michigan at Michigan and so I walk out early and I come out and I'm snapping practice punts and I'm out in the field early and Jeff, I look over there there's Keith Jackson, and I go, oh, my god, Keith Jackson.
And then I look up in the sky and it's the Goodyear blim and I just remembering the impact of those two instances is in my football life. Of seeing Keith Jackson in person for the first time, of my life, and then seeing the blimp above and we went on the last play of the game, Bob Crable blocked the
field go by Ali Haji Sheik and we won the game. So, whether you're listening to Keith Jackson in a rebroadcast of the past or whatever your first experiences in seeing him in person, you know you kind of don't forget those landmarks of your sports life.
Never asked you this, but you know you have always said football or nothing as a career. Clearly you loved sports. If you didn't make it in football, or you got injured and you couldn't play, what would have sports broadcasting be something you would have gone into.
I had never thought of. I was not going to not make it. I just I had no second option, and I never even you know it's people always talk about what happens if you would have got hurt. I never thought about getting hurt because it never entered my mind. My only was to get better in this game, get back into the weight room and get better next week, and never have a second option. My second option was I wanted to get a diploma out in college, and
that was what I wanted a lot. But I wanted to make I was I was going to make it in the professional football.
Well, you certainly didn't mess around sees get degrees, but you got one from Notre Dame, and then you went and played for the charter franchise of the National Football League, of which now you continue to be their broadcaster for some thirty years. I mean, come on, right, you didn't you didn't go You didn't. You didn't go small? You want you thought big? You're one stubborn son of a gun, aren't you.
Yeah? Oh yeah, I had to be. I'm the youngest of my family, you know.
Oh, thank God for them, Thank God for them to help you all right. Injury report today at Hallisaw. We know what was going to be light coming out of the bye week. They felt very good about it. Busy Heart Celtser, the official Heart Seltzer of the Chicago Bears. Larry Borum back from his illness, Deyonta foreman Tom back from his ankle injury, and he was starting to really
get some things going. He was feeling it. He's a guy you need to give the ball to and get lathered up over the course of a game and for that matter of season. So I hope his return means that they will share that backfield and spread out and give it to the hot hand, whoever the hot hand is, and that could be Deontay Forman of what I believe is going to be a very physical game against Detroit.
Well, he's I think he brings a real physical approach to the point of attack running game, and I think he's committed to it. He does a really nice job and I think with the backs they have, it's going to be a difficult choice and who gets the most. But I also think going forward, Roshawn Johnson is a guy that's delivered and he deserves more snaps, whether it's catching balls out of the backfield, pass protector for blitz pick up, or a ball carrier.
I'm not gonna I'm not going to forget about Killo Herbert too, because Khalil Hibbert is a game he can he can rip off some big gains for you, and he's a patient runner and can catch the ball out of the backfield. Tyreek Stevenson good to go full go with that ankle. Noah Sewell limited with his knee. I'd love to see him play against his brother Pine. It would be kind of a cool story.
I agree, But the thing about him, you don't want to have, you know, competitive family getting to the way of making sure your knee is one hundred percent, because I think Knowle's got a long, healthy career in front of him. So be healthy, get healthy, and then get on the field.
For the Detroit Lions, the biggest injury is a significant one. I don't know if it's going to keep him out or not. Frank Ragnos first half of the game last week left, it says here, knee back in tow He left what he appeared to be bent back in that game against the Saints on that astroturfa or whatever they're calling it there in New Orleans. But he's important they've had so if he doesn't play, that's nine different combinations of starters, much like the Bears this year. They've weathered it,
of course, winning nine games. But Frank Ragnow is legit. He is an outstanding center and that would be to me a step no, no disrespect to Gary Glasgow, uh, but this is uh, this is a very good player.
I mean, you know rag Now, you know he's got a reputation not only in our division but around the league. He's instrumental in the success of that offensive line, and he's he's been there through the building process of this offense and this offensive line. So yeah, you know, I don't know what's one of those three injuries that you describe are the most significant. But if you have a bad and you can't push equally to your right or to your left, that can really affect your performance.
You've always said it. I knew you were going to say it when I put toe on there. I knew you were going to weigh in at it.
And Walter Payton missed whim in his entire career because of a toe injury that kept.
Him out and he didn't want to miss. He didn't want to miss right Aurora of Native Graham Glasgow filled in last week. He could be the guy. Alex AZELONEI had a hand injury, he had to leave the game or didn't play in the game rather against New Orleans. He is a full go as well, and he had fifteen tackles against the Bears. You can't miss him with the long, flowing blonde locks. He's a very good player and a key member of a defense that is kind
of under a siege right now. Tommy as was pointed out in the media sessions up at Hallis Hall on Wednesday from Stacy Dale's rom NFL Network. The lines have given up the second most points in the NFL since Week seven. That's a significant for the Lions. They lost Alee McNeil, their best interior defensive lineman. He has five secs and he's a terror in there, so that doesn't help them. They're trying to create a pass rush outside of Hutch. What do you see as vulnerable for the Bears to attend.
Something I would do. I would look at Angeloni and see if he's got his hands significantly taped or wrapped in any way that will interfere with him fighting off blocks, and then I try to have offensive formations that I put him on the same side as Irvin. Here's a thirty six year old defensive end that just came aboard who to me, I think he should be suspended for what he did to Car in the New Orleans game,
but we'll talk about that at the later podcast. He did have a second get yeah, But if I could get those two guys on the same side, and I knew one linebacker didn't have one is able to fight equally with both hands and I had a guy that I knows not in one hundred percent game shape, I would get him on the same side with the formation and I would attack them repeatedly.
You got a level with me because we've had a much so many different players have come through, even in the last few years. All Right, if we had a game a quiz about guys that have been on the team or not, I wonder how we do because there are certain guys I do not remember being on the team, and all of a sudden, you look, but Bruce Irvin, Yeah, scared completely forgot about it. I'm doing is his chart, and I'm thinking, why does it keep saying bears? This
has got to be a misprint. I do not have any recollection in twenty twenty one of him being a bear.
Well, you better go to the health food store and get some of those mind enhancing drugs that you know.
I would you know it would be one of these, because I'm often accused of also being stubborn and thinking I know what I think I know. And if you would have challenged me, I would have said, no way, he wasn't on the team.
Yeah, that was just twenty twenty one, and I heard he was a really nice guy in the locker room, so it's nothing against him. But when you see the type of hits that they review and try to kick players out nowadays in the NFL or in college football. For what he did to car last week and he came back with a back injury, a neck injury, and a rib injury because he purposely drove him, you know, into the ground. That should be reviewed as well.
All right, So you can't replicate the game plan per se, you know, just do like a carbon copy, or can you?
Why not?
Can you?
Yeah? I mean I would. I would take that first script of plays and say, okay, we went down and we drove down the field in a hostile environment. How can we make that script better? Because you're going to be able to ignite the get off of the offensive line, because you're going to be able to be in control of the snapcount. You have put justin Field's in a position of success and confidence. And I think that if you've had success in the plays that were successful, you
know you can use them again. You can have a little bit of different window dressing. You can have receivers in different positions or maybe you know, a half back in place of a fullback or a tight end in place of a fullback, however you want to use them. So yeah, you know, and that's what Ditk always used to say, is we're going to run this play until they stop us. And I think you have to have that same mentality as well.
Justin pointed it out, and yeah, of course this is the case. Detroit will have a little something different that they haven't seen on tape or you know, un scouted looks or whatever. What is it they possibly could do to prevent what has been happening to them by Justin's legs. He has run for almost four hundred yards against him in the last three games.
You know, they could have exterior defensive back and outside linebacker rushers. They could have more contained and more contained upfield. They could try to have a rush that tries to keep Justin in the pocket. They could take Hutchinson and move them to the inside and have them rush against the guard with a little bit of more immediacy of a tall guy pressure. They could run a couple more
line stunts against them. So you know, there's a variety things that they could do to try to control Justin. But if they get away from what they've been doing successfully. Then you know, it's a little late in the season to try to be someone you haven't been.
Yeah, they don't have that other rusher right now to pair with Hutchinson, and I believe those corners they can be tested, especially with speed on the edges, and that's where I'd continue to focus and let Justin do his thing. I think this is a wonderful opportunity for the Bears to beat a really good team. Do it at home, get the crowd engaged early, don't let them off the hook, and just play a bloody knuckle game. I know this was like, this is how I mean, I'm acting like
the tough guy, right. Yeah, I just come on that, you know, relentless, you know, as Jim Kriner, the former head coach at Ioway stayed, alwa, Jeff, we're going to play with reckless abandon. I'd like to see that, and they do play. The Bears do play like that, especially defensively. But I want that whole thing adopted from special teams on over.
Who's the guy that got Lucas Patrick?
It is one of the aqoras.
How yes, I would have I would I would go after him and I would say make sure you keep your head on a squibble because some way, shape or form, we're going to get crack back on you. We are going to trap you, We're going to have a guy pull and hit and cut you at the line of scrimmage. Just to make sure that you know we're not going to forget about that.
Well, let me tell you I did talk to Lucas Patrick that following Wednesday, and he kind of flashed the damage done and it was significant in terms of a way. I don't mean to laugh. I mean that was as dark and nasty of a bruise and it wasn't little. It was He left the game with what they call the bat. It wasn't a back. It maybe affected how he walked and how he could play. But this bruise was lower back, all the way down the left side. I think it was the left side of the right
side of his cheek down through the thigh. It was nasty. I said, whoa, it was nasty.
Oh man, I would I would just you know, put him on notice that you better keep your head on a swibble because somebody is gonna come at you in an awkward direction. And you know, well, I.
Feel differently if CJ. Gardner Johnson was in the game because that guy would be chirping all day and he'd be trying to draw the Bears into trouble. That guy, they miss him. He's a tone guy on defense.
They signed him for that specific purpose that he's a good player, and he's a little bit of a chirp.
A little bit.
He got hurt.
He's in all of it.
Yeah, well we've seen it. You know, there's evidence of it playing against the Bears when he took a couple of uh, well you know, late punches.
Yeah, off the sidelines. Yeah, who did it again? Javon Whims Yep. That's still the most unbelievable thing I've seen in an NFL game, come off the sidelines to purposely colcocka guy, tap him on the shoulder, and punch him in the face.
I mean, this modern day NFL.
Oh my gosh, I can't believe it. All Right, a couple of nuggets now, as you wrap things up here on the podcast, we have many different sponsors including Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois. 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,
and take a chance. Download the Bette Rivers app today. Jake Browning Jake brown put on a show on Monday night for the Cincinnati Bengals in for the injured Joe Burrow three point fifty four a touchdown and a touchdown run. He's the AFC Player of the Week tom and the tenth player ever ever with three hundred and fifty plus yards and eighty five percent plus completion percentage in an
NFL game. I mean, the backup quarterbacks that have come in have really made headlines this year all across the league. And now you're going to see Tommy DeVito is going to remain the starter in New York with the Giants. You saw what Tyson Bagent did here the Joshua Dobbs run with the Vikings. He is back as a starter again for this week's game. I mean, we can go on and on crazy.
You know. The most impressive thing about Browning is in the first quarter he had negative point ninety yards passing per attempt, and then in the second quarter it was over ten yards per attempt. So they went to that lateral screen game because they were a little worried about threatening downfield with him, and then when that didn't work, they said, okay, we got to start going downfield and then he blew up. So he had that amount of
yardage in three quarters. If they would have given him that first quarter to actually throw downfield, the record would be even a bigger number.
One time, I saw something too, you touch something here, touched upon something about the screen game because everybody was, you know, apparently unhappy the way the screen game was implemented against Minnesota to try and mute that pass rush, and people didn't like it. It wasn't fun to watch. Whatever, it wasn't effective, whatever, the Bears won the game. You know, Rock Perdy and the forty nine ers are the number one screen team in the NFL and production. I mean,
the screen can kill you. Let's be honest, it can kill you. So don't go away from it. You don't have to do what every play, but don't go away from it.
Well, you know, it's really valuable on the road because if there's an offensive lineman that gets off of eighth of a second late and you can get the ball out of the quarterback's hands without suffering a sack. So you have to look at the reasons behind it, and then you have to look at the type of guys you're throwing to. To me, DJ Moore, Darnell Mooney and Cole for that matter, are some of the more creative
guys with the ball in their hands. DJ is a tough tackle, Cole is a tough guy, and Darnell is one of the more creative guys with the ball in his hands.
Tevin Jenkins against the Lions in pass Pro re Revisit twenty nine pass blocking snaps, no sacks, no pressures. Again, he's really good right now and just stay healthy and good things are going to continue to happen to him. Nate Davis has also been very good. So the two guards can you can you do more damage against Detroit with those two guards, say than maybe running on the outside.
But you know that's a staff that they've come up with and now they talk about it. But as an off linemen, you don't have the luxury of giving up a sack per game. So Tevin, that's what I expect out of him, not only against Detroit, I expect them that out of him weekly. So if you go through a season and you think that you have the right to give up six seventeen sacks goal, I only gave
up one stack game. You're not playing for me. So when you talk about what Tevin and Nate are doing, that's that's why they're here and that's what we expect from them. So yeah, I'm I. You know, I believe that Tevin should be playing equally as well as he did in that game and each week. And I think Nate should be playing better because he missed a little bit of time in the middle of the season, miss training camp, and I think he's a good player.
Good news, Chicago United Airlines is getting brand new planes with all the bells and whistles, like Bluetooth connectivity screens at every seat and room for everyone's rollerbag. United Proud to fly the Chicago Bears and you too, Jeff Time of the Bears, etc. Podcast CJ. Stroud leaving the NFL in passing yards. He's the top vote getter at the quarterback position for the upcoming Pro Bowl, which I know how you feel about it, and I feel the same
way as you do. But this one caught my eye and there's a reason why I'm saying this, and I want your perspective as an offensive lineman. So he is second in the NFL in passing yards and touchdowns on first and second down play action. Okay, but the Texans are twenty ninth in the league in success rate on first and second down runs. I can't remember what that means. Is that three yards or more on the run. It's
something like that. So what basically they're doing. They have to do something they're not good at setting up what they do best. Why is it still effective If it's not been productive and he is feasting on that play action pass.
Because it's a more aggressive, easier block for the offensive line. If your offensive line, which seems evident by the numbers you're telling me, aren't a good run blocking offensive line,
then you don't do well with the run game. However, if you can go out there and keep your helmets low and give the deception that you're running the ball, and you can be super aggressive at the line of scrimmage and be deceiving to what the defense thinks they're seeing, and then you have a quarterback that can turn that into a completion, then you're playing right into the hands of an offensive line that you want to make them better rather than try to beat your head into the
wall and do something that they don't do very well.
Repeatedly, find it very interesting. This sport is something else. It's not so simple. This sport is not simple.
I love play action means and if you want your offensive line you talk about screens and stuff like that. If you want, if you want your offensive line to be one hundred percent aggressive, but they don't have to sustain it block for a long time, then run play action passing and that's going to help your offensive line develop in your offense to be more explosive.
All right, lastly, before we go, and we want to thank Ticketmaster Bears fans. You can be there for live NFL action all season long as the official ticket marketplace for the Bears and the NFL. Ticketmaster as a white selection of tickets available for every game. Find tickets today at ticketmaster dot com. Slash Bears Special Teams. I want it to be really, really, really good these last five weeks.
I'm not saying they haven't been, but need better net average on punts it's still the lowest in the NFL. The return game is really not giving a lot by choice sometimes, but you're not enhancing field positions so far with the return game. And I don't know if Vayalas Jones will be up in active, but if he is, if it's seven yards deep, bring it out. I just want, I just want something to happen, a busted tackle that
leads to a forty yard return. Something on special teams and error free special teams in the last.
Five games is that the weather deteriorates. The special teams never become more of a bigger point of emphasis than they do during the beginning of the season. Hot weather kickers kick them out of the end zone. Hot weather punters have a softer ball, they get a higher hang time. Now when you get to these cold weather games, it affects the flight of the football. Kickers don't kick it as far. You get more returns. Punters don't punt it
as far because of the temperature of the football. So you're going to have an opportunity to either stop returners or return the ball yourself. And they will play a significant role in each one of the outcomes of these games. Extra point and field goal protection or kicking I don't care about because it's usually close enough to the goal
line that you do it. But if there's a deciding factor kick that's maybe fifty one yards or back, then it is into the mind of the kickers if they can make it to depending upon the direction of the wind, the footing, or the type of climate you're playing in at that moment.
And don't get me wrong, Cairo Santos, so I'm not talking about Cairo. Cairo's outstanding, right, he's having a Pro Bowl season six for six fifty.
When you bring in a kicker, an indoor kicker from Atlanta, Are you bringing a kicker indoor kicker from Arizona or you know, Detroit, those types, those types of player are kickers. They're not used to these conditions and they don't like banging that football, you know, frozen football off their foot when they don't have to all year round.
All right, Tom, that's going to wrap us up. So look forward to it on Sunday. Come check us out on ESPN one thousand. You got the pregame coverage. We've got Mark Silverman, you got Lance Briggs, Elbogie and Dion Miller from Channel seven with a pregame at ten we're on shortly before noon and we'll have the entire call for you. Thanks for listening, everybody to our podcast here today for timp there and White Sox Radio announcer Lynn Casper.
I'm Jeff Joniak. Please subscribe on The Bear's official app, Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcast. Tom give me one. Will you give me one the way I send it off, give me some emotion. This is an NFC North gowl. Oh, I got my dog scared, scared, Blue popped up in a hurry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Sweet Lou. I'll take care of it for you. Bear down, everybody,