the vibe, like begin the team.
Chicago always like that. They like to talk trash.
Get us that our game a little bit.
That's, that's what they do.
You know, we just play our own game mind, our own business,
keep playing football
again
to talk, just to talk sometimes. But I mean, I like
that.
Light energy gives me more fired up
so they won't keep doing it. Go ahead.
Justin Jefferson got his Pro Bowl Jersey before the game.
The NFL announcing, some of the members of the Pro Bowl rosters
the day before they announced all of them. I think we care
less and less about the Pro Bowl a year without it and we
hardly
missed it, but we'll be hearing everyone who's made it to
the Pro Bowl coming up late day, including Justin Jefferson
the Vikings trying to get to the playoffs with a 8:43 Victory.
It didn't come down to the last play. Although there was
a score on the last play that but for the 2018 ruled that
dispenses with the Extra point on a final play touchdown. If
it's irrelevant to the outcome
ended up preserving the Vikings - 7 which is what the final
spread became because the Bears had a bunch of guys on
the covid reserve list, but, you know, it was just kind of
a weird sluggish. It was like the Vikings, you know, when you
have one of those dreams and you feel like everything you
try to
do is in slow motion. I feel like everything the Vikings
were trying to do was in slow motion, but they were still
doing what they needed to do. Their defense was
opportunistic. Again door lucky, but the offense just
always felt like it was off Me, Kirk Cousins, had
87, passing yards, the lowest total
of his entire career Chris. And
you know, if I'd have seen his stat line going into the game.
I just said, here's another one of those Bears, beat
the Vikings at Soldier Field. Well, yeah, I mean,
you're right Bears should have beat the the the Vikings at
Soldier Field except there are a dumpster fire of issues. So,
I mean, that's where it is.
Like that, you know, Mike in all honesty. I think they
outplayed the Vikings in a lot of ways last night, but I mean
it two fumbles blocked, field goal, penalties everywhere,
you know, I mean, dropped upon,
you know, bad fourth-down calls.
A horrible Challenge on a touchdown where it was like,
we're going to commercial break. The guy didn't catch it.
He doesn't even have. He didn't catch the ball. Let alone. He
definitely wasn't in bounds. He didn't catch it. It. I mean
chin was down but he didn't. I think he got so caught
up on the shin-bi. Yeah, exactly. He missed the
ball. Was that the ball? Exactly 100%.
I mean, it was I feel like again, the Vikings won
the game, right. But I feel like a little bit like I felt like
with the Raiders in the last conversation. Do we really
gotta talk about
them? Just because they won the game. Did we really got to talk
about him? Like please? I don't want the Vikings are on another
one of those teams that I will classify and the Chris Simms
CIA files to go.
I don't want to see you in the playoffs,
please. I don't want to see you. Oh my gosh, and I mean
just a weird game altogether.
Yeah, I mean they won because they're a little bit more
battle-tested. They got a little more maturity on their
football team and the Bears have a propensity
to screw things up. Like no other team I've ever seen, but
just dumb penalties, turnovers stupid management of the game.
It's it was unbelievable.
And that that to me would be my take. Take away from the game
more than anything. Mike. I'm sorry to disrespect your
Vikings or anything like that. But yeah, the fact that we were
sitting there, you know,
and it was still a game in the third quarter to me was was,
you know, almost laughable at some points
in this holiday season. Why would you want to spoil
the dreams of the nine year old version of me who can't wait
for the Vikings to make it in as the seventh seed? Yeah, and
lose 41, did nothing to the number two seed. Why would you
want to kill that?
I'm trying to save them, some scars. So they're not edgy like
you, and they grow up
embarrassment because we know what's coming. If they get into
the postseason filled, they are going to be and I know that
I'm, I'm running the risk of being old takes,
don't want to be on Old takes exposed. I know I'm running
the risk of that and trying to have an opinion on something, but
I believe that they will be destroyed
in the Wild Card round,
unless they get lucky and get to go back to Arizona where
they almost won the game. And I, I don't know. I think
I don't think that I don't think a card is going to be the two
seed. I think the Vikings going to have to go to Green Bay
or Tampa. If they end up in the playoff field and they will get
destroyed in the Wild Card round. So
what's the point other than the hope that maybe Mike Zimmer
saves his job. That's it.
I know. I mean you you're right. I mean again,
I don't know what else to say. There's a lot to respect about
the Minnesota football team, you know, the way they fought
I know they've they've
Hung in there with some of the better teams in football and
one some Heartbreakers and and all of that we certainly could
discuss it. But yeah to me, there's certainly,
you know, an element of the team that
that is not playoff worthy.
It really isn't.
There's things about it. Like I said that I do respect and
I like but I just think they're a team that's yet on the outside
looking in. They're not one of the teams that deserve to be in
the big dance
and last night even though they won 8:43, and I know that
just it's Showed it to me, you know, there you are. You got
a team.
That's just that's trying to mess the game up. Trying to let
you blow them out and win by 30 and they don't even take
advantage of it at any point and let them hang around and
hang around and hang around,
you know, and of course the Bears,
if you took the Vikings off the field, they'd probably find
a way to still mess up the drive and not score points, you know,
and they did that for the Vikings, they screwed up
opportunities, to make it a game over and over and over
again
on a night where
Yeah, I mean it just was
this is crazy. I really was that's another game where I'm
a little conflicted on what to say. To me, what more jumps out
is the team who played better also is the team that screwed
it up and constantly made mistakes.
No. And at that reflects a course on the coaching. And there's,
that's where there's issues in Chicago.
I'm like the Viking seas and now it's seven and seven.
They've LED every single game of the year there. One
signature went, there is no signature win that. While
beating the Packers. That's her signature win.
4:31, right. They have one game where the final score was more
than one score and that was the Seahawks back in week 3, but we
didn't realize how bad in comparison to their past
performance is a Seahawks would be. It's just up and down
roller coaster.
And I guess it's odd that it didn't come down to the final
play of a game. Any game where the Vikings played as poorly,
as they have, in any game all year long, because they really
did their offense was not good.
Their defense was opportunistic more than dominant. Although
they have become the first team since the 1974, Raiders have
two or more. sacks in each of the first 14 games of a season
so they got that going for them, which is nice
the Bears though
Chris, I sent something from that Nagy last night with
When we go back for weeks to the noise that was kicked up
about him, possibly being fired after the Thanksgiving game and
we add that to
the rule. That was passed last week. That I really don't think
we've yet to get our arms around. The idea that teams are
going to be able to interview coaches
with two weeks left in the regular season.
Two teams already have a head start on that, the Raiders and
the Jaguars,
but you're going to have to fire the coach you have or tell
him it's over after the season. I don't think anybody's gonna
say to a guy.
You're fired in your the interim coach. I think if
you're out, you're out and they'll give someone else
an audition down the stretch because who knows? Maybe they
find somebody in-house. They like, but
I'm not going to be shocked if Matt Nagy gets fired this morning
or
at least, if he believed if you attach them to a lotta tector
test, he believed last night that that was his last stand
because he was acting like a guy agrees, didn't. I mean,
I thought you were gonna go with this. Yeah. I respect that
right.
He was going out in a blaze of glory. Yeah, and if you're
going to, you know, throwing the red flag down and yelling
at the official fischels and doing everything he could to
try to will his team toward Victory
because I think he knew
that this was it if you lose this when there's a good chance
you're going to have to go see George McCaskey today and
you're going to have one last conversation with him before
they clear the decks and begin their search for a new
coach starting officially next Monday. Here's Matt Nagy,
talking about last night's experience at Soldier Field.
Nine, total penalties,
five personal fouls one, including myself. So
that was an emotional game
and I think that
it sucks losing.
But when I'm, you know, talking to the guys and just knowing
for me to understand where they're at and to see their
fight, I appreciate that
was your conversation with Terence Mi
about and what was it about that situation? That pushed you
over the edge to give a plug. Yeah. I just
And I saw, I saw what I saw happen and you know, our guys
are fighting their asses off to get off the field
and I saw what happened.
So I just explained my opinion on it. And
you know, I don't regret it.
That's a voice of a guy who was yelling and screaming for three
hours and it may have been his last stand and, you know,
the other side of it to Chris. And
it occurred to me last night when you see all the, all of
the various personal fouls committed by the penalty, at by
the Bears. Excuse me as the game got chip ear and ship ear
when your head coach gets one early.
It's kind of an implicit green light to everybody. Yeah, no
doubt. Exactly, right, you know, again, you know, you talk
about what, Matt? Nagy was talking about 9, /. You know,
nine penalties all the personal fouls,
that's That reflects coaching right there. I mean period,
when you get into that type of stuff let alone.
Hey the careless play on the field,
you know, the little lack of attention to detail, would you
know certain plays or you know certain management of
situations? No just seems to come up a lot
let alone. Hey turnovers blocked field goal can't catch him
pun, you know the all of that there's just it's not a good
look,
you know, it's hey the Steelers game. You know, on Monday night
for weeks ago. They line offs. They line up offsides like,
like,
10 out of 14 plays in a row. The referees, can't even call
the penalty enough because they're like, wait, are they
that stupid? They're lining up offsides again. I mean, it
literally came to that. It's just
there's too much of that in Chicago. I don't know any other
way to say it. It really is. You know, and again
I look at Chicago
and I don't think the talent on the field. Is that horrible?
I don't know. I understand the GM and the coach are probably
going to get fired their maybe both. But I look at the some of
the players on the field and go,
what's wrong. What's wrong with that? I don't understand that
players. Good, you break down their front seven. I go. It's
good. They got a corner and Jaylen Johnson who I know he
didn't play last night. He's really good. Safeties are
pretty good
ol. I need some work, but they can run block a little bit. You
got two pretty good receivers and Robinson and Mooney, you
know, we saw in the even though you came,
you came Grant. Yeah, right. That was him last night, right?
Yeah exactly.
Cole combat and to me, that's where I look at it and we are
in a weird way. I know they're probably both tied at the hip
but I look at it more of the coaching. Be an issue in
Chicago. That anything else. I know this take
isn't going to be very popular in Chicago because they're out
for blood. But is it not the height of dysfunction for
the Bears to have made it to the playoffs in 2018 when they won
the division? Yeah. And were ousted by the double doink made
it
to the playoffs last year and I know it was eight and Aid and
it was the first year of the extra spot, but they still
made. Made it. They made two out of the last three years
and they went all-in for Justin Fields. When what see
the message that would be sent by a normal functional football
organization, when they traded up from 20 to 11 in April,
was
we're getting a quarterback here. We're taking Justin
Fields. Everybody's safe for at least two years,
because we're not dumb enough
to give up. Next year's first round pick. Yeah, on
a quarterback knowing that we're Thinking about getting rid of
the coach of the GM and bringing in somebody else and
hoping that they really want to work with that quarterback
because it's such a personal decision and you have to be
a Justin Fields guy
and good luck. Finding a Justin Fields guy now because they're
not going to tell you the truth when they're trying to get
the job as the head coach of the Bears, they'll come in with
their own agenda. Once they have their contract is fully
guarantee. They're going to take over, that's what football
coaches
do. But but the Bears are dysfunctional
and it's not a slap at PACE and Nagy.
They're just the symptoms of the deeper problem in Chicago
and I keep saying
if look, if anybody's going this time around, Ted Phillips
has got to go because he and I don't know why
the executives with these teams
who aren't part of ownership. Yeah,
who are the ones who are deciding who gets hired and
fired to be the GM and the coach. Why are they
Untouchable? I don't know. And why is it considered bad form
to talk about? They need to be fired. All that's bad form.
Why? Yeah, why I know this Ted. Ted Phillips doesn't own
the team.
I've been there.
22 years, they've won three playoff games.
If Nagy and or Pacer gone, it's time for Ted Phillips to go and
Bears fans. That's what you should be demanding because
until Ted Phillips has gone cuz he's the common link all
the way back to 99.
Every disappointment. You've had. I know you went to
the Super Bowl once but it's kind of the aberration. It really
is.
It's all, it's all Ted Phillips. He's the guy that
brought you fill Emory. He's the guy that brought you Marc
Trestman. He's the guy that brought you what you currently
have that. You don't like, although I think you're being
a little unreasonable and I think you're scarred
by what has happened in the past. I think, if you wipe away
everything that came before pace and Nagy, the fans would
be more inclined to be
patient with pace
and Nagy. They went to the playoffs two out of the last
three years. I this is astounding to me that it's just
become become a given
that the Bears are going to clean house
below. Ted Phillips, if they're going to hit the button,
the eject buttons, got to be Ted Phillips first
and then everybody else after.
Yeah. I'm I'm not going to disagree with you there. Mike.
I'm not You're right. It is weird that, you know, people in
that those type of situations, or job titles seem to get
a free pass more times than not. Certainly
it isn't the one constant in there.
Yes, things are, you know, again somewhat of a disaster.
I know they made the point, you know, to me, this is to where
I, they made the playoffs two or three years. We get that
they, we get that
but really like that first year. They were a phenomenal
football team and they lost in the first round of the playoffs
to an Eagles team that I know. Oh, is the defending Super Bowl
champion and all that. But
they lost to the lesser team in the playoffs,
then don't go to the playoffs. And then last year,
you know, yes, eight and eight. But man, to me again, where I'll
the talents better than eight.
They've had a
unbelievable like top-tier playoff, type defense the last
few years to and and again that that
it just, it hasn't translated into the winds. Let alone
the Mitchell Trio Biscay and how Went and you're an offensive
coach and,
you know, of course, the offense is horrible. There's no
other way to say that either. So that's where it just, it
doesn't line up in the favor of anybody there right now and
you're right. It's time I think to just clean house
and I don't know if that happens here in the next few
weeks and they've just wait out the year, but either way,
I think it's inevitable
as far as the coach is concerned. Now, we'll see with
Ted Phillips and and you know, Ryan pace and see where it goes
from there, too.
Well, again that ability to get a head start when others are
having a head start, and I think it may be kind of
a domino effect to. As some start, others will jump in
because you're not going to want to be the one team
that Waits until the end of the regular season, right? And
everybody else is already had their virtual interview with
a smattering of candidates or more.
I will say this to, on the way to break. After seeing what
the NFC North has to offer between the Vikings and the Bears last
night. And we know what the lions are, although they did
beat the Cardinals,
when the Packers,
One on Sunday in Baltimore and they're wearing these
run, the north
t-shirts, very proudly. It's like have you looked around?
I don't want to take anything away from the Packers, but you
haven't exactly conquered the Soviet Union here. I mean,
if
it's the Bears, the Vikings
and the Lions, I know if you can't win that division by week
15, something is very wrong with the Green Bay Packers.
Yes. Well, at less than they can help the rest of the
The teams and their division.
You're right. I have a, you still wear it like a badge of
honor. You do. I mean whether the other three teams are good
or not.
Who cares you? Let him know that you're still the damn
Kings. That's for sure. I mean, II know that. But yeah, it's
just
again right now Minnesota's in the playoffs. I just, I can't
even believe it.
I'm sorry. I mean, I'm going to be rooting hard against them
down the stretch here and it's not trying to. I just don't
want him to. I don't, I mean last night explains. So,
I mean the Bears
I it's again, it's so similar to the feeling I had with
the Raiders. I just go like the Bears did they were missing
the whole football team and practiced one day the whole
week
and you couldn't put him away.
And in fact, they outplayed you for most of the night and just
mess things up all the time. I mean literally like pee down
their leg consistently throughout the game. They
really did. Is the only reason the Vikings went in there. They
are seven and seven
and the playoffs right now,
you know, so for Part 2 of breaking a game down. We're gonna,
I mean, that's what that is. I can't believe they're in
the playoffs. I cannot believe it.
Rams, Packers Bears for the Vikings, please Ram the Rams.
They get the Rams coming off of us, surely with shorter window
Viking. I know it's unbelievable. What? These play
Monday night and they get more of a break than the Rams and
the Rams gonna have to fly to Minnesota for this one, but
I think the Vikings have to run the table to get in. And I hope
they look
I want good exciting, playoff games. And if the Vikings are
in the playoffs, it is not going to be a good game. It is
not going to be an exciting game
because it's going to be seven seat against somebody like
the Packers of the Bucks. And it's going to be like, okay, get
this one over with and bring on the next one.