Bears, Case Keenum cruise past Eagles in 27-7 victory

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2:10Robert Mays: Welcome to The Athletic Football Show, brought to you by the U.S. Bank Smartly Visa Signature Card. I'm Robert Mays. What a night for the Chicago Bears. Me and Derek dug into it, but just an immensely satisfying performance from somebody who has watched this team for a very long time. What we saw from Case Keenum, Ben Johnson, Dennis Allen, that entire group. A huge win for the Bears, a win with their third string quarterback that I'm sure not a lot of people saw coming. Let's get to that conversation with me and Derek right now.

2:52I was thinking about this late in the fourth quarter and going through all of the other potential options.

2:58Robert Mays: I don't know if that's the most satisfying win I can remember from a Bears team, but it's in the conversation. Not exciting. They had more exciting wins last year, but just satisfying. When you think about the performance, the plan, how everything was put together considering the circumstances, I'd be hard-pressed to think of a game that was more satisfying top to bottom. when you watch the people that are in charge of the football team that you root for and feel that level of simultaneous pride and comfort in the job they are capable of doing than what just happened tonight for the Chicago Bears.

3:39I mean, if Case Keenum, their third quarterback, by the way, who was like 40 years old, has started four games since COVID happened. He's 38. Take it easy, mister. I'm 29. I'm going to round up. It counts. At least in football years, that man is 40. for him to like, if that particular set of circumstances started a game for the Bears at any point before the last two seasons, it would have been a shit show. I've seen that game a hundred times. That's what I'm saying. We've all seen that game a hundred times, like third quarterback, second or third quarterback coming off the bench against what is supposed to be a good Eagles defense.

4:16And we can talk about whether or not that is true or not. But again, all of those circumstances for him to not only them like get by in the game, Like, I could have imagined a scenario where they get by and the run game looks good. And, you know, you just get a couple of cool plays from Luther, Bird and Colson, Loveland, whatever. Case Keenum made like five or six like genuinely really good throws, especially under pressure. And so got away with some stuff in terms of the tight window stuff. But like, that's what his entire magical 2017 season was. Like, that's just kind of what he does.

4:45Robert Mays: I, if you had told me the Bears would finish with a plus 50 % success rate and win this game by multiple scores. the first place my mind would have gone is they ran the ball extremely well. It looks like it did against the Eagles last year. And to the Eagles credit, and they talked about this all week. If you heard the guys on the Eagles, Jordan Davis, everybody, they talked about having to rewatch that film of the Black Friday game last year over and over again in order to account for how they were going to try to stop this team. And they were ready for it. And to their credit, that was true.

5:14Robert Mays: In the first half of this game, the Bears had 13 carries for 27 yards. They had a 23 % rushing success rate. and you could see why. The Eagles did a fantastic job in the first half, mixing up fronts. We got some 5-1 stuff. We got some 6-1 stuff. How you watch Makuba specifically, when they're running the ball, he was flying off the roof, and the Bears really had no answers for how the Eagles were trying to defend the ground game. But if you're going to play it that way, you're going to leave vulnerabilities on the back end, and that's exactly what happened. I mean, how many times in this game are they're using play action, and you feel Raymond on some sort of crosser and you're watching Makuba trying to sprint backwards to get underneath those routes.

5:57Robert Mays: And so they weren't able to run the ball, but their ability to throw the ball off of play action was a byproduct of how the Eagles were trying to account for that. In this game, Case Keenum finished 11 of 12 for 128 yards on play action throws. It was automatic. And honestly, I don't even blame Philly for trying to win the football game that way. Of course you're going to make Case Keenum try to beat you. like why would you not do that and I think it's more even it's more than just the calls that they're in right it's more than just the fronts it's that this is a team that like yeah when you have the experience of having played the Bears last year the way that they ran on you and you now have a 38 year old third string quarterback in the game who has not started I think since 2023 you're kind of think and run almost every single play or you're at least like more ready to stop that and say ah he can't make that many throws under pressure he can't make that many throws under tight windows and then obviously you know ben johnson schemes up a number of really impressive plays in this game but he made enough of the throws that they did not think that he was going to make to actually go and win this game there's no doubt and i think that the his performance is a huge part of this i think that a lot of the schematic stuff that they did was really impressive i when they when they decided to keep him as the starter when i when i heard that today knowing Baygent was healthy.

7:14Robert Mays: There was part of me that was like, interesting. Like if Baygent's healthy enough to play and the thought process was, and they sent essentially said this through the media, Baygent hadn't practiced enough for them to feel good about his control of the game plan. And you, and the credit to the Monday night football broadcast, you heard it crystal clear via the field mic from the first time he was out there. He's calling out, he's doing everything at the line of scrimmage, 11's the mic, we're doing this, check, like, his command of that offense, he's a coach, like, that's his day-to-day job, is that he is a coach of this offense, and you saw that, and you felt that throughout the entire game, and you felt it from the moment that this thing started, and so you combine that sort of command, him making the handful of throws like you mentioned, including a couple where he has to make somebody miss in the pocket, and I think the Bears just having a really good plan of how they wanted to attack this team, the play action part of it stuck out, but The way that they were using motion to play with some of the match coverage rules.

8:14Robert Mays: I mean, the touchdown to Raymond is just a dropped coverage, right? All gets snapped when he's still the number two receiver. And that plays with the Eagles ability to pass that thing off. They did a really good job of on the burden dig. And then there was a Khalif Raymond comeback early in the game where on that rail motion, they're taking that thing wide and vertical, but they're either running intermediate in breakers off of it or sitting it down against those zones. I just thought overall, it was such a good game plan. And even in the second half, I was, I appreciated so much his ability to eventually figure out how they needed to run the ball because what they started going to is they started using some more two back stuff.

8:55Robert Mays: They started spreading things out a little bit more. Eventually he found how he was going to have to do it. But the fact that they were able to not run the ball that way in the first half and still move the ball as consistently as they did. It's just such a credit to that staff, to the quarterback. And it's just a reminder that one game last week against Brian Flores in a rainstorm does not mean this guy forgot how to do this job. No, it doesn't mean a whole lot. And like, I was so impressed by, yeah, some of the motion stuff, like you said, they run that motion and get them to drop the coverage on the big touchdown.

9:25I also thought one of my favorite plays that they had in this game, and this is something obviously they can do because they play out of 12 personnel 13 personnel all the time it was second and 12 when they were in like the high red zone or uh late in the second quarter and yeah they were in a second 12 and they break in 12 personnel they break out into two by two and the two tight ends are on the outside and so the eagles are in kind of heavier personnel and bond gets stuck as the slot man over i think it was kalief raymond and raymond just runs his shake route and he like bond's a really good coverage player i don't expect him to cover a guy like kalief raymond and they just like pick up a ton of yards in there.

9:59Now they're in a good position. It's just like the little stuff like that where I thought they were consistently able to pick up yards was really impressive in this game.

10:08Robert Mays: And that's a perfect example where you always have to compromise something. If you're going to play base to 12 personnel and the other team has the ability to do that, you're going to get put in compromising positions every once in a while. That's the best example. That's the best win by design example other than the Raymond touchdown from the entire game and I just incredibly impressive performance by everybody involved and it wasn't without its frustrations I mean I early in that game I was losing my mind like the the Roush punt where that ball is downed on the one yard line and he for an inexplicable reason decides to sprint up and dive on that thing and put that foot in the end zone you watch Bears games with me all the time for I very few things incite an actual reaction for me when I am watching the game I was screaming at my television like I could not believe that he did that and then you have the fourth down where you have the sequence where Dunze drops the ball in the end zone they don't get the fourth down and there's part of me as I'm watching the Eagles offense in this game which we can get into that I understand why Ben Johnson goes for it on fourth and one from the goal line It's a toss up.

11:21Robert Mays: You're getting absolutely bludgeoned on the other side and you're about to get bludgeoned on the other side for the entire first half of that game. They go for it. They don't get it. The Eagles drive down. It takes an Andy Dalton entry into the game for them to get a turnover in that sequence. Like it, they got a lot of breaks defensively in the first half when the Eagles were moving the ball just at will. Things changed in the second half, and that's worth digging into. But there was a stretch in the first quarter into the second quarter of that game. I mean, what was it? It was 10-7 at halftime, right?

11:53Yeah, and I think, yes, it was 10-7 at halftime. The Eagles scored right before the half. And I think why that is important is that this Eagles team, and this has really kind of always been true of them, they are a team that is like they are really good when they are front running and they can play the game that they want to play. And when they start to get behind in the game that they want to play, they struggle to throw themselves back into it or make the plays that they want to on defense. And so that was a point of the game where Jalen Hurts goes out. He obviously gets the lead up, think it might have been concussion on the late hit, all that sort of stuff.

12:24Andy Dalton comes in and puts them in a bad spot and throws a pretty egregious interception. Coming back to the middle of the field that late in the red zone is like, I know you're three plays into this, but you're 15 years into this. I just thought that that was a crazy mistake to make, but that flips the game. And so I think that is where...

12:43Robert Mays: But it was still 10-7, and they were moving the ball at will. I'm sitting there at halftime being like, I can't believe they're only up 10-7 after the way that that half went and after all the opportunities that they missed. They get a fumble inside the 25. They get the ball down into it. The fact that they were only up 10-7 and the Eagles were moving the ball that way, I went into halftime afraid of how this thing was going to go, and then the Bears defense just decided to show up in the second half. They played an incredible second half. And the Eagles, I think part of this is because the Bears did start to stop the run a little bit better.

13:14But the Eagles completely got away from the run game. Like Barkley, I think his first carry in the second half was a seven yarder. And then it was like one yard, one yard, zero yards. Like he was completely shut out for a lot of those other runs. Some of them getting behind the sticks is like penalties. They're trying to do first and ten like play action stuff. And they're getting sacks and like negative plays and stuff like that. And so like the game script kind of fell away from them. but they were running the ball exceptionally well in the second half or in the first half, especially with all their wide zone stuff.

13:41Like the Bears linebackers were getting lost in the B gap. Like they could not get there in time to get to Barkley. And that just didn't really happen in the second half.

13:50Robert Mays: The Eagles in the first half per next gen had a 70 % rushing success rate. They were averaging 0.51 EPA per carry. That's obscene. In the first half. And they had one get called back on a bullshit holding penalty. Yes, that was an, and that, again, that's important too, because they get the penalty, and then two plays later, or it might have been the next play, is the fumble inside their own 25, and that starts to, like, the game just, the Eagles obviously did not play super well in the second half, but they also did have a lot of weird shit that got away from them in the first half. I, going into the half, and they got bludgeoned on the ground.

14:26Robert Mays: Like, there's just no way around that. Like, they got absolutely bludgeoned on the ground. It is hard to get pushed around more than the Bears were pushed around when the Eagles were running the ball in the first half of this game. They come out at half. And Dennis Allen just does this. Like, there are so many games. The Packers game in the playoffs last year where they get bludgeoned in half number one. They come out after the half, make a couple adjustments, and the defense just kind of clicks into a different gear. And that's exactly what happened in this game. They came out on the first drive and in the first half, guys are sitting there.

15:02Robert Mays: They're in like four man fronts and the linebackers are sitting three or four yards off the ball. It's totally static and they're just getting blown off the ball. The first play of the second half, they trigger and they run a run blitz on first and 10. They get an unsuccessful run and it's like, all right, well, that's great. I'm glad that you've adjusted to this. Why were you just sitting there in the first half and letting them kick the shit out of you? So it was nice to see because they really did start forcing the issue in the second half run blitzes mixing up the fronts where they're just shifting the front all the way over.

15:33Robert Mays: There are plays where like James Lynch is in the B gap in on the right side as the defensive end. And so they're overloading the front to that side. And what I was surprised by, and I'm wondering if you saw this, the Eagles in the first half, they had a lot of successful runs, either running to the weak side or they had spread things out and they're kind of doing like old school Eagle stuff where they're in the gun, they're running zone from a really, really light personnel grouping and just really utilizing the fact that there aren't that many bodies. And then the second half, they're running a lot of to the tight end outside zone and into all that traffic and away from the space that they created in the first half.

16:13Robert Mays: and the Bears did a really good job of slowing that stuff down. It was just a different version of the run game than we saw in the first half, and I'm curious as to why. My only thought is because this is supposed to be the offense now where we're under center, we're trying to set up plays, maybe they were trying to set up a particular play action call and they just had too many negative runs. Because another thing that I actually did notice the Bears did in this game that I thought was really interesting and it led to a number of negative plays, anytime the Eagles were under center, the Bears blitzed the shit out of it.

16:44They were bringing corners. They were firing linebackers. They were like, we are going to, when he snaps his head around, he is going to feel uncomfortable. Jalen Hurts was one of six from under center today and zero of three when there were five or more pass rushers. Like they just were immediately getting people on him. And one of them was early on in the game where he could have popped the ball over to Saquon Barkley and he kind of under throws it. And that could have been like a huge explosive play that would have bailed them out there. I think that was on the same drive that they ended up fumbling a couple of plays later.

17:12And so I just, I do think the Bears did some interesting things. The run game stuff, I really don't know why the Eagles went away from it because in the first half, like you said, it was weak zone. They were getting whoever the tackle was to that side. He would just take the C-gap player, move him away. B-gap's open, linebacker's getting lost and isn't getting in there. And that worked six or seven times in the first half. And in the second half, they just weren't able to get to it.

17:33Robert Mays: And again, the Bears deserve credit for making a mess of things in ways they didn't in the first half. And that's how this team is going to have to play. You just don't have the personnel to sit there in static four-man fronts and try to play like read and react four-down defense. Like, you're just not good enough to do that. You're going to have to force the issue with stunts, run blitzes, blitzing on or passing downs, period. Some of the simulators that they were bringing, some of the dropping out. I mean, TJ Edwards got an interception eventually. He almost had another one because of one of the pressure looks that they were in.

18:03Robert Mays: That's how this team is going to have to live, especially because the secondary continues to relatively struggle. I thought the front played fantastic in the second half, but, and the one play that Devontae Smith makes in the first half, that's just an incredible thrown and incredible catch by Devontae Smith. But Dontavian Wicks absolutely broke Jalen Johnson off at one point in this game. Like the secondary still leaves me a little bit antsy, but I thought that the front and the plan with the front was excellent in the second half of this game for the Bears. I mean, yeah, and Jalen Johnson had that one, the screen that he blew up.

18:35That was really nice. I think it was Zach Ertz was trying to block him, and he didn't seem like he was ready enough to get over there and go and do that. And so I thought that that was an impressive play. The last thing I want to say, too, and I do think that this made the Bears night easier to some degree, and I want to go back and watch the film and see how much they were doing to influence this. Jalen Hurts was Jalen Hurts again. And what I mean by that is he did not throw the middle of the field at all in this game. He had, if I'm looking at the true media chart correctly, you can generously say he had one completion 10 to 20 yards between the numbers.

19:08If I'm not going to do that, I don't, I'm remind me again to never this season do the Jalen Hurts is throwing the middle of the field. He's not like those are aberration games. And like you get more games like this than not. And again, again, like you're kind of saying like against the Bears secondary that is has its flaws and is gettable. Some of those throws are going to be open. The fact that they are not getting to them is continues to frustrate me.

19:32Robert Mays: Yeah, and it's the Bears defense. Again, they had a great plan in the second half, but you in theory if you're a good offense, you should be able to move the ball relatively consistently against this team and the fact that the Eagles passing game and just the Eagles offense period in the second half was essentially DLA. They finished with a 39 % drop back success rate. The Eagles did in this game and the it's been up and down like I think Hertz has played pretty well in stretches and we talked about it last week. I think that he's played pretty well in stretches, but this was another game where the offense looked really out of sorts.

20:07Robert Mays: And there's a chance with more time on task. Again, we're three weeks into the season with a new play caller that everything falls into place. But it's been really hit or miss. In moments where he's played well, the offensive line and the run game haven't played well. And now in a game where the run game was incredible in the first half, the passing game completely stalls in the second half. And the run game kind of did too. But I just, it's been inconsistent. And I think that's maybe not surprising considering it's year one of a new system, but that's where the Eagles are right now. Yeah. And the last note I want to put on the Eagles offense in general feeling like a really annoying unit.

20:45Some Eagles beat reporter posted something like this during the game and it got me thinking. The Eagles on first down this year have generated a first down on 13 % of plays. That is tied for the lowest rate in the league with the Miami Dolphins. They are just below the Cardinals, Titans, Commanders, and Giants. And Vikings, by the way. You're just not, even if you have stretches where you can run the ball, and every now and then you can hit Devonta Smith on that deep ball, not being able to just move the chains and consistently keep the defense in downs and distances you want, it's going to make life hard.

21:19They are still a team, even honestly in that Titans game from last week, I know they converted a lot of their third downs, but those were a lot of third and longs. You don't want to live like that. And I just think that it feels again like this offense is going to kind of get back there.

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24:38Robert Mays: How do you feel about the defense right now? because now we're two weeks in a row where cam warden that offense moved the ball as well as you might expect them to do it at this point and then they just got completely outmatched by a third string quarterback in primetime like is there any part of you in year three of this with a lot of the same players that has any concern about how they've looked in the early part of the year i think there's absolutely concern like i almost feel i mean probably like a worse version of what the conversation that we had about the Texans, where it's like this was supposed to be the unit that was going to give us time for the offense to get wherever it needed to go.

25:18And whether or not they do is kind of beside the point. But this was supposed to be a unit that could hold you up there. And I still think by the end of the year, this Eagles defense will come along like Jihad Campbell is probably going to get more comfortable. I think the safety play, hopefully just with those guys getting more reps, especially Makuba being still a young player, that that helps him out a little bit. But this still feels like, and even last year, It felt a little bit like they were not always able to generate quite as much pressure as they wanted. And it's not that they can never do it, but they just don't generate as much pressure as the typically elite defenses do.

25:51And I do feel like they are a little bit stuck in the same scenario where like they have some depth. Carter at his best is really good, but they're just not a team that is like, oh, shit, they're going to get on you every single time you're in a passing down.

26:03Robert Mays: And I think you saw that today. I think the Bears did a good job. Again, it was a lot of play action. It was a lot of extra bodies and protection. Some creative protections where they're running some dash protections and creating angles and pass pro. I just think the plan overall was very good. But the fact that you're playing against a third-string quarterback who can't really move, even though he had two or three decent moments of pocket maneuvering in this game, the fact that the pass rush did not show up and you didn't really feel it, I do think is an important observation. on the bear side of this again i leave really satisfied with what that game looked like my unfortunate like byproduct of the of this game looking like this i'm so annoyed they lost last week they should be on top of the division i'm so i'm so annoyed that they lost last week because i now i'm sitting there at three and oh with and the offense is going to look like this or not even look like this.

27:00Robert Mays: I'm not asking him to look like this every single game. If the offense can be functional and at least dangerous and capable for however long Caleb Williams is not going to play, it would have been really nice to hit that stretch at 3-0 instead of sitting at 2-1. But even at 2-1, it's kind of like, all right. I mean, if they can tread water here, they play the Packers and the Jets over the next two weeks. If you can leave that at 3-2 before the quarterback gets hurt, before the quarterback comes back. And the defense has these stretches where they have the right plan, they have enough, and the offense can be what I still believe the offense can be when he is healthy and when this guy is calling plays.

27:44Robert Mays: I don't know. It's a weird year in the division. Like the Lions are flawed, especially on defense. The Packers are obviously a mess. The Vikings are 3-0, but their offense has really, really struggled this year. and so I mean there was a moment when Caleb gets hurt and it's like all right this is going to be really hard to dig it dig yourself out of this hole and even coming into tonight you would expect that they'd be one and two after this game is over and they're staring down a pretty tough road back if he's going to miss three to four weeks and now right or wrong I don't know it's you watch what happened tonight and it kind of shifts my expectations for what this next stretch of the season might look like.

28:24I think it really, because honestly, it's funny. The Bears are the exact team. I think I kind of expected them to be coming into the year and it's everybody else who is not, which has kind of allowed them to rise to the top. Like backers are not the team I want. I guess the Lions in a lot of ways are the team I thought they were, but not to such a degree that I think they are so much better than the Bears. And then the Vikings are like, they're three and oh, the defense looks great. If the offense doesn't get their shit together, I don't think that they're going to be like a serious runaway with the division sort of team even with this lead the Bears do I think are in like a really good position um if Caleb gets back and so yeah like you said if they can split the next two games or if they want to be safe and he misses three and they can just stay at 500 that's probably enough because I think when he's out there they're

29:08Robert Mays: going to win more games than not the the difference between the Lions and the Bears at this point if you're looking at it you're just looking at purely the numbers over the first three weeks the Bears were seventh and off and it's super small sample size obviously but just a broad strokes here the Bears were seventh in offensive DVOA coming into this game I assume they'll be better after this game is over I would think the Lions were eighth the Lions are down at like 28th in defensive DVOA the difference they're very similar teams in terms of their relative strengths the difference is the Lions play an awful schedule and the Bears play a much more difficult schedule like that's probably the key difference between those two teams right now but in terms of overall quality why can't the bears have as good an offense this year as the lions do i if anything if caleb comes back i would bet that they will be better over the by like by the very end of the season man what a crazy place to be in real pendulum swing between how it felt last sunday and how it feels right now and again it's it's a credit to that entire group to the staff to the players just a fantastic performance uh in difficult circumstances and like i said at the top among the more satisfying wins i can remember as a bears fan because like you mentioned it just felt so different than what it would ever feel like in years past and even it's funny because coming into the game ben johnson's never coached a game with a backup quarterback they were making the point too that like I I didn't really occur to me but the broadcast was like every game he's coach has had the first overall pick at quarterback and I was like yeah that never really occurred to me because like obviously Jared got Jared never gets hurt Jared never gets hurt and like obviously he's really talented but I don't necessarily always think of him in the same way as like the just absolute like in like the Cam Newtons and the Andrew Lux and the Trevor Lawrence's that go first overall and then you remember like oh yeah he is really talented and he did go first overall And then obviously Caleb didn't.

31:07So it was funny. I just never thought of it. But it was like, yeah, it's the first. That's that is the other impressive thing. The fact is the first time he's ever had to do it without the guy he wanted. And it looked like that. Just another feather in his calf.

31:20Robert Mays: Well, I said this. I joked about this as soon as the game started. And they did that in the first drive. One of my favorite things is watching a great offensive coach who is shorthanded. And that can mean a bunch of different things. Sometimes, you know, it means your backup quarterback is playing. For last year, Matt LaFleur had Malik Willis for those couple games. Those are some of my favorite games that Matt LaFleur has ever called in terms of him having to do what was necessary with the pieces in order to win the game. Last year, when the Rams didn't have Puka in that game in London, when they played against the Jags, they have not only the right plan for that moment to blow out the Jaguars, they have a plan that eventually reshaped their entire offense over the course of the year.

32:01Robert Mays: Think about what Kyle Shanahan has done in stretches when Nick Mullins has been his quarterback and the numbers that Nick Mullins came away from that stretch with. These really great offensive coaches, some of their best work can come when they have to get deep into the bag because circumstances have pushed them there. And we never have had to see Ben Johnson in that sort of situation. Today is the first time we had to see it, and it was pretty good. good it was and it's funny yeah you mentioned that because with all the other play callers I have like so many games you mentioned the Matt LaFleur last year I still vividly remember a game he called against the Cardinals like four years ago where they were just like completely decimated with all their receivers and Aaron Jones caught what felt like 50 passes that's right that's right I remember that for some reason that is always like that's one of my like I don't know how he got away with that sort of game plans and I don't think anybody had any doubts that Ben Johnson could do it but the fact that he now has one of those games where it's like okay he's he's got that like did it shorthanded in his in his bag uh it's nice to see like it's he now has not that he didn't have everything that all the other guys had but he now truly has like all the stamps that all the other guys have and on the other side the last thing i'll say if the defense is going to be a unit that doesn't have difference making stars which it doesn't you need to have a defensive coach who can throw these sort of kind of mid-game off-speed pitches and find the right plan over the course of the game.

33:26Robert Mays: And to Dennis Allen's credit, he has consistently shown an ability to do that in really big moments over the last year, especially in the back half of last season. He deserves a lot of credit for that because tonight was another really good example of it. It's the same formula as the early Mahomes Chiefs, where like Spagnuolo is getting there and they're like the 25th most talented unit. but you just do some weird shit at the right time. And like, like especially last year with, with Alan, the Rams game where he just like, they were like, ah, we're going to live in cover zero. Like to just throw that out in the playoff game to have some of the adjustments that he has in the second half.

33:59Like I almost think that them going into some games, not being a hundred percent sure what they want to do, I think is like a calculated, like we're going to see what we have to do in the second half and like, not like we're going to remain flexible and try to make enough second half plays to win the game.

34:16Robert Mays: maybe let's try to do it a little bit earlier moving forward. Let's try to not halftime would be good, but you know, yeah. Let's try to walk away from some of these games without a 70 % rushing success rate from the other team in the first half. That's I'm not asking for the world here. I just think it doesn't have to be quite as draft stick from half one to half two, but I'm being silly about it. It's a really, really impressive second half coaching performance, a really impressive second half performance from the defense and an incredibly impressive performance from the offense and the offensive staff for four quarters.

34:49Robert Mays: Credit to Ben Johnson. Credit to Case Keenum. It's, you hear it in my voice. I mean, it is potentially a kind of season, season outlook shifting is what I'll call it. It's not a season shifting win, but I think it does reframe the outlook for this team over the next couple of weeks and how much they might be able will hang on when Caleb Williams is hurt. It rekindles the hope, and that's all you need with a backup quarterback win. I was talking to my brother today. My brother called me when I was in the car on the way home from the office, and he was just talking about... My brother's just very much just a sports fan.

35:25Robert Mays: I enjoy talking to him about this stuff because he just has perspective that I'm way too close to it to have. And we were just going over the feeling of coming into the season the way that they did, having that week one go the way that it did, And having so much collective excitement to watch your team play each week. And that just hasn't always been the case when you've rooted for this team, like especially on offense, it's very rarely been the case. And so for Caleb to get hurt and have that kind of ripped away two weeks into the season, even if only for a couple of weeks and change what it feels like to prepare to watch your team play, it was a bummer, right?

36:03Robert Mays: I mean, it was just a sad place to have landed. And so for them to come out and do this for anyone who might have been feeling that way, not a bad way for your day to change. No, and because like the thing with that is like we know Caleb's coming back. We knew it wasn't going to be a season ender. But the the way the NFL works being so ritualistic when you are going to be there on Sunday, and it is such a week to week league that you like you have six days of excitement to build up to watching your team. It's not like basketball or baseball where shit they play every day. It feels like it. You just don't build up the same over the course of the week excitement to have that having been ripped away.

36:41And like Caleb is truly one of the rare players to where like Bears fan or not. You would be lying if you were not saying that that is one of the most five most players you are ready to watch on Red Zone every single Sunday. And so the fact that he went down was like brutal. But hopefully we get him back, you know, fairly soon. And he looks as good as the as we want him to.

37:00Robert Mays: Or we could just add Case Keenum to that list. Keep him rolling. Case Keenum is the sixth player that you want to watch on Red Zone every Sunday. Maybe. Hell of a night for old Case and the Bears. We've got plenty of stuff coming your way all week. If you are watching this on YouTube on Tuesday morning, our Monday Hangover show should be available for you guys. If you're listening on the podcast feed, it's already available. We hit three games on the Hangover. Chatted Browns, Panthers, Bucks, Vikings, and regrettably, Giants, Titans. Did those three today. Please check that out. If you're watching this live, please like and subscribe to the YouTube channel.

37:36Robert Mays: I have plenty of other video-specific stuff coming your way this year. I have a weekly YouTube series that we're doing. Derek has one called How It Happened. Dave has a new one this year called That Rocked. Please be on the lookout for all that stuff and everything else coming on the Athletic Football Show this week for now. That's all we got. Appreciate you guys listening. We'll talk to you very soon. Thanks for tuning in. Make sure to hit that subscribe or follow button so you never miss an episode. If you enjoyed what you heard, please like, comment, and leave a rating. We'll see you next time.

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