Full Show — September 9, 2026

0:00Wake up! Wake up! Come on, guess Wake call, man. David Ha! David Ha? You muted in. Sorry about that. Hello, George. So, that was one of the best questions you've ever asked. Yeah. I'm sure it's going to get an answer just as good. This is Ha. Yeah. Okay. Ha. Check me out, man. Jared Payton! Me, we want you to see this Jared Payton wearing his father's number number 34. I hear my name again, and I'm like, who's calling me? So, I look back at the people working, and it's not them. It's this guy that's sitting down right by the door, and he goes, Jared, man. Man, I love you on the score, man. I was like, I'm going to be off doing it. The hot and Peyton show. Let's go out to the phone lines. Eric is on the road. Eric, welcome to hot and Peyton. Hey, how you guys doing? I'm kind of heartbroken right now, because I'm mad.

1:02But Jared, I loved your dad so much that I named my son Peyton. I'm sorry, I can't nervous. That's okay. That's okay. But that Western Michigan. What? What are you talking about, man? I was getting sore. Eric, I thought you were getting the heavy drink. I was going, we were going deep in this one. You were in my heart. I was like, oh, man, it's all coming. And then you threw out that Western Michigan, man. It's exactly what I needed this morning. Get up in the morning with the hot and Peyton show. Mornings 5.32.10. On Chicago's sports radio. Good morning. Hey, Jared, I have a bone to pick with you. Uh-oh. What's up, Brian? No. 1977. I'm a five year old Vikings fan going to my first NFL game. My dad brings me there. What does your dad do? Just runs up and down the field against my Viking. That's the record. Crushes me. Thanks. I'm sorry, Brian. What oh, 4-3, the score.

2:02So hard got to get up here. Good Wednesday morning, Chicago. Welcome to the hot Peyton show. Chicago sports radio. 104-3, the score. David Hodg, Jared Peyton. Live from the Hyundai score studios. Brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers. Yes, we are here until 10 o'clock. Talking about what maybe everyone wants to avoid. And that is a baseball crisis in the city of Chicago. Last night, qualified as a long one. Good morning, Jared. How are you? Good morning, D.H. Yeah, it was a rough one last night. I do got to shout out my boys behind the glass. Dustin, Brandon, what's going on, fellas? Always good to see you guys. They keep this shit moving over here. It's going to be a phone one today. Yeah, but how about saying Dustin walking in your wave and saying good morning? He's like, no, it's not. No. No, it's not. But guess what? Dustin sets the vibe here in the morning. That's the mood that most cup fans are having right now this morning. Well, it wasn't a good night.

3:02It was a long night. It was a restless night. It was one of those nights that is going to leave a mark. It's turning into a nightmare for the cups. Wow. When you've got pleasant, hall of fame, or Pat Hughes, labeling the happenings in front of him, the descriptions, if you will, the way Dustin likes to describe the descriptions, calling it a nightmare. You're not sleeping if you're a cup fan. You're not sleeping well. No. And it was a restless night. Yeah, but it's what we've been seeing. This is who this team is. Oh, is it? Yeah. This is who this team is. This is who this team can't be in October. Well, I mean, they have two sides. But as of right now, this is not what you want to see from the night. I want to see from a team that had a lot of dreams and aspirations of making it, making it deep. The thing of it is, and this is what I'm struggling with, and this is what we were going to talk through on a day that will feel very cathartic for every cup fan who watched that.

4:03And listen, listen, we're not going to leave White Sox fans out of this conversation because they had their own issues when the ace of your staff, Sean Burke, goes out in an inning and a third, gives them eight hits and seven runs, and gets yanked. You are suddenly feeling like you're in a crisis mode yourself. Dave, David, I think Sox fans might want you just to leave them alone. Okay, I'm okay. Just, just, just, they would hold them. Just skip over. I want one thing at a time. You're going to stay out of our business. He better stay out of White Sox, Betty. I'm sorry, Kenny. All right, Kenny, for now, for now. Because we got enough to worry about here because look, this is the thing about what we watched with the cubs and the brewers, which could have qualified as, I think, we're prisoners of the moment. I see the bars right there in front of me. This was the worst loss of the season because it was the latest one, because it was a familiar one, and because it's September 9th. And it was to the brewers in that stadium in their ballpark. But the worst part about it was there really wasn't anybody to blame this time.

5:06There wasn't anybody that you looked at like, oh, you know what? That was a terrible move. Oh, you know what? That was bad strategy. Oh, if you would only have done this, you would, that would have happened. This is just what happens when you have the brewers being the brewers. And the cubs not being able to execute at high at that high of a level. This is the difference between the two teams. The brewers get a paternal pad on the chest of one of their players, Luis Lara, before the bigot bat and Pat Murphy is a literally coach to tell these guys, just hanging their guys and Craig Consul's guys, siding at reporters after the game because he lost another close one. Yeah. And you're on the road. You had the miz on the mound last night. We didn't, you and I had the conversation yesterday. What were you going to get? Was he just going to go crazy? You kept this thing close. He did what he had to do, but you kept this thing close. And there was still an opportunity, a late game, bullpen lets you down.

6:07Offense doesn't do what they need to do. And what makes me so mad is that that Carson Kelly at bat was so amazing. It was so good. It was so good that we're going to forget about it because of everything that happened after it. Did you see that he doubled? Two runs come in, they give a three to one lead. And the best part, Jared, was he's standing on second base and he gives a fist pump. Yes. And that's Carson Kelly. He's not exactly the guy that you see a ton of outward exuberant emotion. And he knew that he knew that it meant as much to him and he knew how clutch that was. And then in the back of your mind like, well, I hope they don't blow this one. You know what they did? They blew this one. They blew this one. And there's a lot to unpack. There's a lot to unpack, but it came down to what I described. And let's get to Craig Council post game trying to put all of this into some sort of perspective. This is how you got to win games in the bullpen.

7:07You got to get out. You got to get out. So I mean, it's our job. They're going to do it. You know, it hurts when it happens. It hurts when it happens consecutively. But, you know, we got eight guys down there. They're the guys you're going to rely on. We're nine guys. And we got to figure it out. We got to figure it out. Jacob Webb could figure it out. You look at it. You're watching. I'm looking at my watch. Like, how much time do you have? Things are getting close. Stop looking at your watch and look at the calendar because I think when they flipped it, Craig Tember was supposed to arrive in his never arrived in Chicago. He came here three years ago. He came here with the promise of Craig Tember. Remember, that's what they used to call it Milwaukee. You said, drive us a little bit nuts, right Dustin? You remember Craig Tember? Craig Tember. Oh, just a little bit nuts. Yeah. There's been no Craig Tember. There's been no Craig Tober. There was no Craig Tober Milwaukee either. No. Do you remember the very first night of Craig Tember?

8:08So, let's go back to the cocktail. Well, let's go back to last night. Craig Tember, eighth. Craig Tember, eighth. In the ninth inning, Jacob Webb was summoned. And so, here we go. Bottom of the ninth. What do you think you're going to get from Jacob Webb? What would you expect to get from Jacob Webb before you saw what happened? How did you feel when he came in the game? Nervous. Little nervous because there's been blown seas before and opportunities where for me, I don't know if I don't have confidence, how is Craig Council having confidence? But he does. He has to go with the guys that he has. And yeah, a little bit nervous, but still thought there was an opportunity. Does he have any other choice? Did he have any other choice, really? That's where I get to. But there wasn't really another choice for him. I don't fault him for going to Jacob Webb because there wasn't a better alternative. But at some point, don't you? They keep talking about confidence and building confidence.

9:09And you don't want me to look at my watch, but we're looking at the calendar. You have to have confidence and build confidence in these guys. So, giving them opportunities in these high leverage situations, it's the only way to do it. Injury-related ineffectiveness, do you think that this is related at all to the big knot he must still have on his four meaty forearm? Good thing he has meaty forearms. I don't think he deals fast. I don't think so. But is he really healed? I think he's okay. I just think they're running out of gas down the stretch here. So, Jacob Webb, he wore after the game. He held himself accountable and this is how he described what's going on with him and what happened last night. I'm tired of letting the team down to be completely honest. Well, we're tired of seeing it. Short cut, Brandon. What else did you want him to say? I just wanted to hear him go on just a little bit more. I always give you credit when you take the blame. It is very, very hard. I think we see it with quarterbacks in the NFL, but it is rare that you see it.

10:12Someone say, listen, that's all on me. I feel bad. And people like to hear that, but they also love results. They want to see you change the things that are going wrong or how you're playing and become a little bit better at what you do. They don't want to just hear the excuses. At some point, that just falls on deaf ears. You want results? Okay, I'll give you results. These are the results of Jacob Webb's last three save opportunities. We had a two run walkoff home run with two outs in the ninth. Oh, does that sound familiar? Back to back. And then we had last night, a two run game tying home run with two outs in the ninth. This is the only major league pitcher to allow a game tying or go ahead home run with two outs in the ninth in three straight save opportunities. Since they started keeping track of saves in 1969. Thank you, Optistats, for ruining my morning. And Cub fans everywhere are nodding in agreement. Oh, I thought we'd never seen that before. You know why you haven't.

11:13You haven't. So what do you do tonight? Doesn't matter. They're not going to get a lead. They play tonight, right? It's not today. It's tonight. Back at Ampham. Can I get it done? It's a roof. It's a roof closed or open tonight. Well, there might be some participation. It was just a roof closed. It was a roof closed or open tonight. There might be some participation. It was supposedly very humid up there last night, according to Pat. I know. Drink a lecture like this. Don't start. Don't start breaking bad on Pat here. I'm not breaking bad. I'm just I'm always listening. He was describing it. I was I wondered what it was like indoors because the it might rain. It didn't rain until much later. He's so Dustin. Since we walked in the door today, you were it's not a good morning. How are you feeling back there? Not great. Not so I feel I'm sore. I slept like crap. I was tense as I laid in bed.

12:14You know, it's one thing when you stay up past 10 o'clock and they win. It's another thing when you stay up past 10 o'clock and they lose. You didn't get much sleep if you're part of the 5am club. We're still in the 5 o'clock hour. Not today sleep at all. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm very little. It's an it's an it's an unhealthy. It's an unhealthy lifestyle. It's unhealthy. It's incomplete. It's unsatisfying. And you have now watched the cubs play the breweries six times. The cubs have lost four of those games. You know what all four of those games or at least three of the four? No, they were all four of them haven't common. What? They blew lead. The cubs have led in every game. In in the second game, they blew a three to nothing lead against the brewers. In the fifth game, they blew a lead with two outs in the ninth. They were cruising along and I even think on the marquee broadcast. Boog, Shambi, reference the cubs bullpen coming through just before Christian Yellich got on base with two outs.

13:14Two outs is three to one. You get ready for like, you know, this is going to be all right. I think I get what sock I get my socks out. I'll start to make it my shoes and get my shoes. And get ready to go to bed because I'm going to get up early and feel good about a cub victory. Boom goes to dynamite. I knew there were problems. Louis Lara starts to come to the plate. And Pat Murphy. Papa Murphy. Tap them on the chest. Hey, son, I need you to come through right now. Let's go. I thought I was watching the Little League World Series. I'm going to be a little bit more focused on the game. I thought I was watching the Little League World Series. Because Lara looks like he's about 14 years old. And Murphy is like the grandfatherly guys go over there. Hey, come on son. Hey, you can do it. You can like, he's whispered something in his, you can do it. What did he say to Lara? Nothing great. You know, I don't think that's much of a thing.

14:14I was just trying to, you know, get him to take the emotions out of it. And, you know, just be kind of a clear head. It's not about you. It's about the ball club right here. The ball club needs you to stay level at it. Yeah. I don't think that had any difference in the at bat. That's, that's what Craig Council needs to do to Jacob Webb before he starts pitching. Pat, he shouldn't pace, right? I'm curious. You guys both played football at big time college football. Jared, you played in the NFL as well. When, when your coach, when you, did you ever, did you ever get a bad vibe off of coach's body language? I'm sure you got a good vibe when they were positive. When they gave a good half time speech, good pre-game speech. When the week went smoothly or they were able to navigate some potholes. But when the clock is ticking down and like there's, if they're showing off nervous energy,

15:16does that affect you guys as players? It's an interesting question especially with baseball. Yeah. Football and baseball. I mean, in baseball, it's confined space and, and a dugout, right? So you can kind of see what's going on on the football field. A little bit different, but yes, there were certain times where, of course, like, butch Davis, who, when he got upset and he looked flustered and his face started to get red. It made everybody tense on the sidelines. When he was calm, cool, collected, everything else was good. That's a thing about baseball though. You're always going for, it's a long season. You got to keep an even keel. We reward and compliment Craig Collins will be full because he does have the temperament that is conducive to those kinds of things. And, and I applaud that because of his perspective. But I have to admit, I had the same reaction last night wondering, could I envision, let's say it's Matt Shaw going up to the plate with the bases loaded. Could you see Craig Collins going over to Matt Shaw, smiling, kind of looking paternal,

16:21patting him on the shoulders, say, come on, kid, let's come through. It just doesn't seem like it'd be his thing. You can barely get him to lay down a bun properly, let alone, I mean, you want to talk a moment with something that's going to get overlooked. Was that the most miserable at bat you've seen all season? Maybe that example. We're at Shaw. I'm just saying, I know the matchup bump was botched. But I'm saying stick into the point that you asked about. No. Craig Collins doesn't really manage that way. Does he? That's not the way he leads. He leads very stoically. Not lately, David. Mark Key, and I wonder sometimes because it's the Cubs network, right? He has been pacing. He's been taking his hat off. He's running his hand through his hair. Did you see him last night after the Homer? Yeah, I'm just putting, I mean, saying, like, I'm, if I'm Jacob Webb and I happen to like glance in to the dugout and I see my manager, my skipper, running his hands through his dyed hair and pacing back and forth inside the dugout, while I'm supposed to be the outgetter. Am I feeling the vibe that you got confidence in me?

17:21Not really. Socks Hans will remember this. Remember when Ricky Renteria was the manager and they were in, I believe, Oakland wasn't that the playoffs, whatever year it was. When he's standing like, he's looking like a linebacker. He was half bent over his hands on his hips. He's grabbing his white knuckle in it and he's like, he's got these young pictures on the mound. Like, just relax guys. No, your manager wants to like hit somebody. So it's a point we'll take. Hi. I'm going with Dustin's point. I think there's something there. I think where if I am Jacob Webb and I look over and I see my manager stressed out, looking like he maybe needs a, I don't know, smoke a cigarette or something just to relax. Like, it would make me nervous, especially if you've had issues in your last times on the mound. Like, there's a lot of, this is such a mental game, such a mental game that you need everything that you can get to be able to survive. And if you don't have that confidence with, it seems like Craig Council is trying to preach,

18:26well, I got confidence in my guys by keep bringing them out there. But then you look over and he's looking a little stressed out. I don't know what else he can do right now in terms of bullpen option. I'm not there's nothing. Unless you revive Palencia, that idea, I don't think Theo Barr, Rawlison is your best option in all likelihood. But you are stuck right now. You're stuck. So how does that make you feel good or cost fans feel good? You can't. No, you have to hope for luck and hope is not a plan. Hope is, you need some major outings from your starting pitching. Long outings and your offense has to be more consistent. So put more pressure on the offense. Put more pressure on the offense. Yeah, make it, like if that's the case. We don't usually take calls between 536, but we apparently have a special situation here being told to go to Melody who's in Chicago. Melody, welcome to the score. Good morning guys. How you doing?

19:27Good. Hey Jared. Congratulations on being at the score. Even though I still miss seeing you on Channel 9 at night. Hi Melody, thank you for switching over here to the score. I appreciate you. Okay, I just want to say one thing about the Cubs loss last night. Do you guys remember that Bears Eagles game with the infamous double joint field goal kick? I forgot what year it was. Yeah, 2019. I try to take that out of my memory. Yes. January of 2019. Okay, yeah. Well, you know what? That's how painful the Cubs loss was last night. Wow. Seriously. Wow. That's really the first thing that I thought of when the Cubs lost last night. That's like, I don't know why, but I mean, like, you know, painful games, you know, like that just coming to your mind. Melody, I get it. Melody, thanks for the phone call. I'm called. I mean, the fact that you thought about Cody Parky in that moment, you know, wow.

20:28Dustin, you want us to take another call? I do. It's the one's the group therapy aspect of this. I think this is good. Our next caller, Mark, he's on the opposite side of Melody. Mark is on the road. Mark, welcome to our group therapy session on the Cubs loss last night. Hey, David, you got to get off the ledge. This is one of 162. The Cubs played playoff baseball yesterday. Yeah, they lost. They're going to come back and went today. They're in the playoffs. You can't look at this loss. Is. Oh, the sky is falling. Fair enough. I'm not saying the way I'm reacting to this is right, recommended or has any sort of rationality attached to it. Okay. I am allowing myself to feel things. You're in last night. I felt demoralized watching Jacob Webb do it again. What a tangled web. He has woven. I don't think you're jumping off of the ledge. I just think that you're frustrated. You are frustrated. Okay.

21:28I was just like to thank Dustin for wanting us to take those two phone calls. So I feel better about my misery. It's funny too, because normally you tell Dustin to relax when it's just one game, you know, but we're in September now. This is the playoff type atmosphere. And you're talking about playoff teams. This is a team that you got to play in the playoffs and you've already lost back to back games with these two teams with this team. You can't beat them. You can't beat them. It is what it is. It goes back to what counts as saying. When you play the best teams in the league, you got to do a lot of things right to beat them. That was great. That was playing over and over in my head last night. That's all I was thinking about. That was all I was thinking about. Is there a reality check here then? Okay, Chicago needs a reality check. This is a reality check. The Cubs are 81 and 65. Okay. They are in second place, a half game back to the Phillies in the wildcard spot. If the season ended today, they'd be going to Philadelphia and probably getting swept because they're not gonna beat those pitching staff.

22:30All right, let's go to the American League, the White Sox. Whose ace was a Joker last night? Sean Burke with due respect. One in the third innings, I said about seven earned runs. Wasn't good. Sox lose. They can't afford to lose many more because even though they're feeling very good about the special season, will Vennables put together on the South side? They are still, okay, they're 75 and 69, but they have a two game lead in the division. They are clinging to. This goes back to what Dustin was talking about last week when he was talking about that bet to put in maybe if both teams missed the playoffs. $50. That was $70. $70. Venn I made to make almost $600. It's looking pretty good. Brandon, I said it, I said it's real. Your bet. I was like, when Dustin said, that's a good idea. I'm gonna try to do that. I thought that was the worst decision because I thought you're gonna speak this into existence. And a week later, you guys have spoken this into existence. So don't do that to me. I'm gonna ask that. We're all as club and side fans, yes, it will hurt.

23:32You gotta find something to kind of ease the pain. We gotta squeeze in one more call because Kevin from Palatine, I know he has thoughts because I know he was locked in last night as well. Kevin, welcome to the score. Welcome back. Hey, good morning. And David, that last guy, yeah, he's a way to come for me. Thank you. So I'm at work already, no sleep. I was up watching US Open 10s, which I've never watched in my life till three o'clock in the morning because you know, never, this is, I read this this morning, never in the history of baseball. Has someone given up that many two run homers in a row with two outs. I mean, these aren't like getting blown out. That's one thing. There is nothing more excruciating in sports than blowing a lead. And games you should have won. They played great for 99%. But guess what? Did you, if you guys can,

24:32look at the video of Cheerio walking up, the brewers, the brewers announcer even said he goes, he knows something. He literally said ahead of time. The grin on his face, walking up there saying, get ready because I'm gonna hit this 7,000 miles an hour off the facade. He's lucky he didn't kill someone. He hit it so hard. What has to be done? I have no sleep. I'm exhausted. I am praying we still make the playoffs. That bet. Oh my God. The bet they both don't make it. Good Lord. Have a great day. Thanks, Kevin. Thanks, Kevin. The brewers are playing like they have the answers to the test. Yeah. They knew that was gonna happen. It seemed inevitable. It really did. They really did. All right, we have to break because we have some other things to talk about. Besides this misery that the Cubs put, they're fans through last night. We'll get back to the Cubs. We'll get to the White Socks. The Bears made some news on Tuesday back to work at Howl Solve. They played this week. Hey, the NFL season starts tonight for goodness' sake. Oh, that should make you feel better.

25:33And we're gonna make our NFL predictions. Thankfully, the changes subject during the pick six. We got all that and more. We've got Dan Weeter today with Bruce and Shelley and Stacey Dales. It's gonna be a great Wednesday here. It's Hawn Peyton, Chicago Sports Radio 1043, the score. It's pick six with Hawn Peyton, where we debate the top six sports stories of the day and then open it up to you, the Chicago Sports Fan. Call us at 312-644-6767. Or you can tweet your thoughts at Howl Peyton. Pick six with Hawn Peyton starts now. How bad was the Cubs' extra inning lost to the Brewers? And where do you even begin assessing blame or responsibility? Or is that an easy question? It's not as easy as it sounds, because responsibility or blame for the meltdown in Milwaukee. You could look at Jacob Webb, who made history by having another walkoff in his third straight.

26:40Save appearance that he has blown. And that's the first time to to run walkoff homer, to run walkoff homer than a game tying homer. Nobody has done that since they started recording saves. You could look at Craig Council, just because he's the manager and all things fall at his feet. You could look at a lot of different things. Say, Asizuki, over-sliding third base being aggressive. You could look at a couple other things. But two things are obvious to me after last night. Number one, the Brewers are just the best team in baseball. And we don't need Craig Council to remind us of that. We saw it with our own eyes. And this is what happens when you have a team that's gonna win over 100 games. They do the little things right. There's nobody to blame. There's nobody to look at and say, well, you know, if you only had him, they just execute. They don't have the payroll, they don't have the star power, they don't have a lot of things. Maybe you look at the cops and you say,

27:40wow, but they do have an approach, and a manager and everything that just fits together perfectly. And you just knew when Pat Murphy went over and tapped, Luis Larr on the chest and smiled and whispered in his ear, sweet nothings that it was going to happen. And we were going to be miserable this morning as a Cub fan base. So that's one thing, you know, the other thing you know is that, you know, the Cubs are, they just are going to be that team. And this is going to be something you go into, the playoffs with reasonable expectations. You're not gonna beat the Brewers and you have a, your bullpen is limiting your ambition. So yes, that was, I believe, recently biased the worst loss of the year because it happened in September in a game that you needed to win because of the Phillies more than the Brewers, but the Brewers won because they are just better

28:42in every single aspect of baseball than the Cubs. Except for one, except for one. And this is why I think you can put a finger on Craig Council last night if you want to assess, blame for this loss. The one thing that they don't do better than the Cubs is slug. And they don't do it better than many teams. They don't slug. That's how they- The ball dented the scoreboard. But the one, but the, and it was given to the one guy that does slug on that team. Jackson Churio, who, oh by the way, oh by the way, already had three hits against you. There are two outs. There is a runner on and you decide to pitch to him. Why wouldn't you want, Craig, please explain the difference. Why you pitch to Churio in the bottom of the ninth and then you walked Contreras in the bottom of the tenth. Please break that down for me. Please, please break down the mindset. And for a guy who's already got three hits against you

29:42is coming up. You don't put the run. You don't bring the winning run to the plate. But you know what? No, no, you know what? I am suspending. I'm not going to argue with you because I think that any emotion and any reaction you have is correct. So I think that's a valid point. Now, the other negative was, and this was the pillow talk going on at my house last night after that game ends. My wife leaned over and said, I'm sorry. They cannot beat this team. And then she rolled over the other way. That was it. And she's a maniac of a cup fan as I am. She is a maniac. She slept behind. maniac cup fan. It was absolutely awful. But David, you broke down those seven games. You guys broke down the seven games. The seven game stretch they just had. Is the good news is that they were actually able to stay with the Miz? Like, I mean, did the cup stay with them or did the weather get to them in the game at Riggly? I mean, they stick around. They should have gotten another runoff of him in the first inning. I know they didn't.

30:44Is that a positive this morning that this guy who's throwing 1,000 in 10 pitches over 100 miles an hour? That they're able to at least hang with them? No. No. Not at this time of the year. No. It's Dustin. Thank you for energizing me just a little bit. I didn't know about the pillow talk. But anyway, I'm going to move on. I'm going to go with the collapse in the ninth Jacob Webb. I mean, you have an opportunity to win this game. That right there is to me is just to moralize. And because you needed him to build some confidence, that was an opportunity. It didn't happen. The other thing that got me was in extra innings with the base running with Sass Suzuki. And I was just thinking just oversliding the bag. I was like, these are just these moments where you've got to be locked in. Little things. It's the little things. And that's what Milwaukee does. So good is that they're the best at just being good

31:45at the little things. I think the bigger picture too is just that bullpen when it comes down to it. This is not just a one night thing. This isn't this is an issue that has been plaguing this team and that they need to be able to figure out. And Craig Council, I know is probably staying up late, just really trying to figure it out. And offensively, I'm going to with Dustin. Yeah, they need to get they need to be better offensively. And I think that was another issue last night. So it's a whole bunch of things with this team. No consolation prize for being able to keep it close with the mist though. That's a question for Ryan Polz and his team to get their arms around. That is the voice of Dan Wheeter, 725 talking bears with this show as Kyler Gordon Saga goes on. The latest came Tuesday when Ian Rappaport, the rap sheet reported that Gordon will be away from the team to accelerate his recovery from a calf injury with his own trainer. How does this affect your view of the situation

32:47and expectations for Gordon season? This is a disaster. This whole entire situation, disaster. I've been talking even last week, my first week here on the score. This was the conversation about Kyler Gordon. And I told you, if you are dealing with your own medical staff and your own medical team outside of the building, this is not a good look. It does not bode well with what you're trying to build and what Ben Johnson is building. And for your GM and your head coach to come out and show frustration, and especially with your head coach, his frustration is if he doesn't talk about you, he's upset with you. If he's only using like three words, not sure where he's at. He's rehabbing. That's when you know he is frustrated. So I don't know if you can even what, he's coming off the pub, the first four games, you can't even count on him anyway, because he's gone.

33:49But I don't know if that trust can be built if you're away from Hallis Hall. That's the biggest issue here that Ryan Polz was talking about. He wanted to have, he wants to be able to trust you. And if he can't trust you, the head coach ain't gonna trust you. And that means that this is going to be his disaster. And I'm agreeing more and more with David Hall. I don't know if he puts on a Bears uniform again. I really don't. I'd be surprised. So that's my take. This report conveniently, I believe, Brandon and I were just trying to do the timeline, came out like either at the very end or right towards the end of Ben Johnson's speaking in Hallis Hall yesterday. He was not asked about Gord. And I'm sure it's because he would have had like the same reaction we had from Craig yesterday. Like are you kidding me? We're not talking about this guy. But wouldn't have been, like, do you think the Bears should have told us that, do you think Ben Johnson should have told us, meaning the fans and the media

34:51that he was away from the team? It's not their responsibility to do that. I totally disagree. So should he have been asked about it? Well, that's a different question. Right. If you're asked the question, I don't feel like he needs to come out and say it. But yeah, if he was asked, I'd hope he would say. Yeah, he's not here. But he's not with the team. I mean, that's a big story. And it feels like there's more to it when they're not being honest about it. When you are an injured player, out of sight, out of mind. And if the soonest that Kylie Gord, you come back is in four weeks or whatever the case is, I don't think that you're going to ask those questions on a regular basis. And one thing that I want people to think about, I know we keep talking about the front office and head coach and a player. But there's also guys inside that locker room. And I can bet you all the money in my pocket that some of these, those dudes inside of that locker room, it is split of guys that want him back. And some guys are to probably like, ah, move on.

35:52Move on. Yeah. He's not here with us. I love that you told us that, but I got, I'm surprised that it's split. I bet you would say this. I would think it's like 80, 20, especially on the offensive side, they could give a rats rear end of deck I ever shows back up. I wonder if there's a divide that way too. Players just want to win. But just to answer the question, this is not good news. Yeah. That he's not with the team. And I've heard like, well, maybe he trusts these guys more. And maybe he's using the plan that the bears gave him and they're implementing it. A bunch of hogwash. Be with your teammates. Be in the building. Get the vibe. Get the juice that's going on at Hallis Hall. There's nothing to be gained by separating yourself from your employer to the degree that Kyla Gordon just did. So this was strategic by him. Now, I also will say this. I said last week that the best thing Kyla Gordon could do for Kyla Gordon was to publicly make a statement. I thought it would be verbally. This is a statement.

36:53This is telling everybody how things are and where you stand. He's rehabbing. He wants people to know that. He showed that in the video. And now he's telling people that he trusts his own rehab team more than he trusts the bears. This is Kyla Gordon trying to control the message, finding an agent friendly journalist to spread it for him in the enraping port. And that's the way it works. Transactional journalism is a fact of NFL reporter life. It just is when you are a national reporter. So he found a friendly outlet. He made his statement. And now the bears can respond or not. But also the second thing it does, it underscores that the trust has been destroyed between the two sides. It's very hard to repair that once it's broken. That's why I said last week what I said in saying that wasn't trying to be dramatic or anything like that. But it would be hard for me to envision Kyla Gordon repairing that fast enough for them

37:56or well enough for them to play. The last thing though, desperate times do call for desperate measures. And Jared, you know this. If the bears are in a situation where they're injured at that position, they're down to a couple healthy defensive backs, they will quickly try to repair that trust and get him back in the field and back healthy in their building. Nice. It just seems like these are all moves. But you don't want to be here. You don't want to be here. That's when you're leaking out stuff. And but he's probably upset at the organization for the way they've handled it as well. So true matter in the relationship that I would call healthy. No. I can't answer that question. Chris Sheldon is going to answer a couple questions coming of it 844 this morning. Ben Johnson clarified that Rome, Adunzay's leg injury wasn't related to the foot injury that plagued him last year and lingered this off season. How is Rome doing health wise? He's more day to day right now.

38:57So I don't believe he'll be out there today. But we're hopeful he'll be ready to go on Sunday. Did you reactivate the foot injury? No, no, some before. Is that good news? Bad news? And what is your concern level? We are Wednesday week one of the NFL season. So we'll get an injury report today. That is the plan and that is procedure. So I am trying to make a vow of not overreacting to any premature injury concerns. And I'm going to make an attempt to look at Rome Adunzay in a more positive light. Because I do think that his injury prone status last year got in the way of his potential. And I think it has prohibited. It's really made it easier to have questions about his growth. And I do have questions about his growth. He was a ninth overall pick. And I think when healthy, you could see some reasons to believe that he's capable of fulfilling those expectations. But bad health combined with some questionable hands

40:00at times have made me wonder about where he is on the pecking order of bear wide receivers. Right now, I expect more out of Luther Burton's third this year than Rome Adunzay. I don't think this latest injury is a reason for concern. He'll have a lot to prove though. If he's out of practice the next time the bear's practice, we'll see how he looks and those type of things. But this not being the same foot or same injury last year, to me, that's good news because you don't want that to become the new normal as Rome Adunzay called it himself. So this is probably progress. I guess it's the only thing that's good is it's not the foot. So that's the it's not recurring. But this is not good news. You want him out there. I think he wants to be out there. I think they worked out a lot in this off season. So I don't think if he misses practice yesterday, he missed practice.

41:00They're not practicing today. Today's their built-in day off. If he can at least get back out there by Friday, I think he can contribute. But this is not good news in any way, shape, or form, except that it's not the foot. Yeah, I'm with you. I think it's good news that we got that clarification. It makes me feel a little more at ease. But I'm going to say this. It is the injury part of it, whether it's the foot or something else, for how his season ended last year, I was just hoping for more consistency and a little bit of fire underneath him as he goes into the season, just to prove himself. I got a lot of faith in Roman Dunes, but I also know that a lot of people are skeptical, especially because you have some young skill position players that kind of took a leap in year one last year. So now where do you fit in? I'm hoping that he can be a part of week one,

42:03but if it's the case where he is still injured, and something is not right, do not rush him back faster than he needs to. Let him take week one. You figure it out with that wide receiver room of being able to bring somebody up. Jody Walker is in there, you know what I mean? We got my cousin in there, so you can figure out ways. Cuts. Kind of maneuver around, but don't rush him back because I feel in my heart that at some point you're going to need Roman Dunes this season to be able to make plays. It just wouldn't make sense. Cubs ET. Yeah, you come Cubs ET. Cubs ET. We've been, hey, we've been texted. Okay. I'm not trying to, I'm not trying to drive a wedge in your family or anything. We just, it just can't find time to talk. We're going to figure it out. Have I asked the question? That, of course, the voice of Bruce Levine. He was with the socks last night. He'll have Cubs thoughts as well at 8 AM on the White Socks Talk podcast with our guy Chuck Garfine. The socks skipper, Will Vennibull, reflected on the season

43:06as, quote, special. It has been special. And, you know, we have our on the finish line here and we understand we have a long way to go. But just to look back, I think it is okay to say this has been a pretty special summer. And you just think about, you know, really from the beginning and this team coming together and playing with the energy that they played with, the fans showing up, bringing energy. And that energy is just kind of growing throughout the summer and all the special things that have happened here in front of big crowds. It's been really cool. I think it's one of the most memorable seasons that I've had in my career and for good reason. It's a bunch of special guys doing special things, a fan's event, special. It's been amazing. Now, you might agree with Vennibull, but are you at all concerned that maybe he spoke too soon or are you surprised he spoke at all? Before I saw the final score last night, I was like, yeah, you know, Vell, talk, well, talk your talk, man. Just, you know, you put your chest out a little bit. Talking to Garfine, I know it feels comfortable

44:07in that situation, having a conversation, you're feeling good. Then I saw the score last night and I was like, yeah, maybe he talked too soon. I'm not going to knock him for, you know, showing his feelings and I can't ding him for that. I just can't, but if over the next two weeks, don't go well and this team just got to start falling off a cliff, then that to me is where you can start saying something and going, man, what are you doing? You talk too fast because me, when I think about special, special is, yeah, going into the season, the whole entire journey. That's what's special about it. You learn so much about it. But man, winning the division, that right there, that shows that this is who we are, this is proof that we should be here. And yeah, I think you got to be able to do that. You can be, have a special season and talk about it. Yes, and right, but still you got to finish. You got to finish strong.

45:08Got to finish strong. And next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. So that's the 14th, 15th, 16th of September, White Sox at Guardians. And it could be, they could be tied at that point. They could be up three, they could be up two, they could be up one. The White Sox before that have the pirates and then they go down to St. Louis and take on the Cardinals. That's what they've got before they match up with the Cleveland Guardians. So it's right there. And it's got to be unbelievable to be a White Sox fan right now because it's been so good, but now all of a sudden, it's getting really, really uncomfortable. I understand what he was saying, and I understand how comfortable he is in that environment because it is easy to win. This has been such an enjoyable season. But when he said that, the tone was and the content seemed like it was somebody talking

46:10after they had clinched a division title or a playoff spot or something that stamped this season as a success. And the way that they have raised expectations, now if they don't get to the postseason, you wonder if it will be a qualified success. They almost have to get, the turnaround has been amazing. And it has been special in many ways. But you got a two game lead with 18 to go. You've got a three game lead over the Blue Jays for that final Wild Card spot. Don't look now, but the Rangers are three and a half back. So suddenly things are getting very tight. And oh, I don't know if you've noticed, the starting pitching for the White Sox is evaporating in front of our eyes, disintegrating thread by thread. And Sean Burke is supposed to game one starter. Wasn't very good last night. So these are issues that I think are concerning moving forward.

47:10The Sox have shown resilience all year. You hope that they can find it again, that kind of resolve. And will Venable, you hope doesn't have to look back and regret sounding satisfied with 19 games left because that was where they were before last night with a three game lead and Cleveland keeps winning and dusting your right. They can take care of business and separate themselves from the Guardians next week. Huge series, but they can't look that far ahead because they've got business tonight and Davis Martin needs to get it done. All right, that is the first part of the pick six. And you know what the next part will bring? Our predictions, it is the beginning of the NFL season tonight. The Seahawks take on the Patriots. We have to be on the record. We're going to go division by division NFC and AFC. We're going to go conference championship game by conference championship game. And then yes, we will pick before seven o'clock our Super Bowl champions right here. It's Hawn Peyton Chicago Sports Radio 1043, the score.

48:13Welcome back to pick six with Hawn Peyton on 1043, the score. More questions than answers. We're going to have Stacy Dale's nine o'clock. Talking Bears and talking NFL with the NFL season. Oh, officially starting tonight. It's prediction time. So please share who you think will win each NFC division and who will be the three wild card teams. All right, let's start there. The season kicks off tonight right here on the score pre game six o'clock. Kick off 720. Seahawks and Patriots out in Seattle. So in the NFC, let's start with the West because we're starting with the West tonight. I've got the Rams. No big surprise there. In the South, I have the Bears Sunday opponent, the Panthers winning the South. In the East, I have the E-A-G-L-E-S, Eagles, Eagles, Eagles. And that defense. And Jalen Hertz better without AJ Brown

49:15winning that division. In the North, drum roll, please. I've got the Lions winning the division. The Lions winning the division. But my wild card teams, one, two, and three, doesn't have to be in any order, but the three wild card teams will be the Bears, the Seahawks, and the 49ers. So I have Eagles, Lions, Panthers, Rams, and then my wild card Bears, Seahawks, Niners. Now we're pretty close. I'll try to follow your lead on the division's West. I have the Rams, South, I have the Bucks, the East, I have the Eagles. And in the North, I have the Lions as well. My wild card teams in no particular order are the Cowboys, the Bears, and the 49ers.

50:16Okay. All right, I'll be quick with mine. In the East, I got the Eagles. In the West, I got the Rams. The North, I also have the Lions, South, I got the Bucks. And then my wild card teams are Bears, Seahawks, Cowboys. I do not have the 49ers because I feel like it's gonna be too many injuries. How about them Cowboys? Ooh. All right, I'm on the same train as Dustin, I think, if I'm not mistaken, the West. That's your problem. Hey, Dustin, I'll roll with you any day, Doug. That's my homey. Hey, in the West, I got the Rams. South, I got the Bucks, in the East, I got Philly. And in the North, I'm with you guys. I got the Lions when the division. My three wild card teams are the Seahawks, Bears, and I'm going against Brandon. I'm gonna go 49ers, the Cowboys, I just can't do it. I don't know why. I'm not a big believer in Cowboys either. I'm surprised that all four of us have the Lions

51:17in the North because of the fact that, I think it underscores, like Dan Campbell feels some urgency there and that we think he's gonna respond to. Well, that's just it. It's like, if now, this is it. I think their window is a sliver. And looking at their schedule as well, to what the Bears are going to have to go through in that gauntlet, I think the schedule plays well for this Lions squad. That's the reason. And I'm surprised you get the Lions. Why do you mean, what did you think he was gonna go in? He knows. You know, he's, he's Michael Parsons. He loves Michael Parsons. He thought of you. There's no way. No. I think the Packers the Winner all last year. You did. Last year, he picked the Packers. Yeah, just because Michael Parsons. How do you look at yourself in the mirror in the movie? Like how? I think I didn't pick the Packers just because I didn't want to hear that clip. All season long, thrown in my face. Mainly. This will be a pick six. There's your ball game. All right. All right. Now do the same thing for the AFC Ford Division champs

52:18and three wild card teams, please. All right. Oh, it started with me. OK, I'm going to, we're going the same way. We're going to go to West. So chiefs, I got, you got the chiefs winning the West. Yes, I got Texans in the South. Ravens in the North. And bills in the East. And I wrote it down wild card teams, Patriots, bangles, Broncos. Interesting. Yeah, I am almost in lockstep with you, Jared. I just, I'm wondering about the Patriots. I like this is going to sound weird. I like the Patriots tonight. I like, especially like with some points. I like the Patriots tonight. There's just that long standing Super Bowl loser hangover. Yeah. Kind of a thing. And I'm wondering there are my on the edge. The East, I've got the bills. The North, I have the bangles. The South, I have the Texans.

53:19The West, I have the chiefs. And then I've got the Ravens and the Steelers. Can we get three out of the North? And then the Broncos? Hmm. You got the Steelers making the playoffs. I just, you know, one last. You just love airing Rodgers. One last run of airing Rodgers. And Mike McCarthy, you know, it's not, I think it's going to play. I think their defense, I think their defense is really good. Always high real. Always giving credit there. Self in the mirror. Good play, Brandon. Good play. Good play, buddy. That was awesome. OK, so here's my real quick. In the East, I got the bills. In the West, I got the chiefs. The North, I got the Ravens. The South, I got the Texans. That defense is just really good. And I think CJ Stroud is going to bounce back just a little bit. To prove it that he deserves more money. And then wild card, I got bangles, chargers, and the Jaguars. OK. The Jaguars. Wow. OK. You are Liam Cohen. No, I don't put no respect on the Jaguars. Well, because Liam Cohen. I didn't get him to the playoffs.

54:19I need to stop checking his phone and start building some, calling some plays. Dooboo. OK. All right, so I have the bills in the East because I think I picked the bills for 20 years in a row now. I have the Ravens in the North, Deco and Doyle doing special things with Lamar Jackson, and plus I like Jesse Miner. The South, the Texans. That may be a super bowl defense. Really? That defense could carry them the only thing that gives me pause. And we'll talk about it later, CJ Stroud. Yeah. He melts in January. That's a bad question, Mark, to have. The West, I have the Broncos and Bo Nick's shortest name in NFL history. I think the Broncos will win that division because I trust Sean Payton. Bo Nick's got to stay healthy. I'm surprised I'm as high on him as I am this year. The wild card teams will be Patrick Bahomes in the Chiefs, Mike Vrayble, and the Patriots, I guess, Drake Mays in there,

55:21too. I'm not a huge Drake May guy. I think I need to reexamine that. Why am I not as sold as Drake Mays? Some people are. I still see some limitations. I think it's the most recent sample size. The playoffs wasn't good. But I think a bounce back. He's a good quarterback. He's a good quarterback, thank you. So the Patriots, the other wild card team, and the third team, I think the Bengals are going to be better than people think, and their defense with Dexter Lawrence. They got a real defense. They're going to improve a lot. And I think all you need to do is keep Joe Burrow healthy, and they will score points. There are some similarities between, in terms of the reliance on the offense to offset weaknesses on the defense in the Bears and the Bengals. The Bears don't have their version of Dexter Lawrence, but they do have an offense that they're going to be heavily reliant upon. And I think the Bengals are similar in that way, so they can sneak into the playoffs. I do not have the Steelers and Mike McCarthy

56:24getting to the playoffs. Wade Dustin rode his love for Aaron Rogers to make that prediction. I don't have the Steelers making the playoffs. And I'm a little surprised I did not pick the Colts to make the playoffs, because I think I do that every year as well. But I don't have much faith in Danny Dimes. I think Danny Dimes is out of luck. He's an Indiana boy. So he takes Pat. But no, the Colts will miss the playoffs. So Bill Ravens, Texans, Broncos, Chiefs, Patriots, Bengals. All right, those are our playoff teams. Now, when we come back, of course, we're going to pick the Conference Championship games. And who will win the Super Bowl all in the extra point, Peyton Haw, Hawn, Peyton, Chicago Sports Radio, 1-0-4-3, the score? In with the extra point, Peyton. It's time for the extra point with Hawn and Peyton. Come out for the extra point. On 104-3, the score. Set up this extra point. All right, now that we've got your playoff qualifiers, how will the Conference Championship go and who will be enjoying a confetti shower

57:27and so-fives stadium on Valentine's Day? Think about that for a moment. Tonight begins the NFL season. It doesn't end until Valentine's Day. That is a fun thing to consider. It's September 9th. We have got to February 14th football everywhere, just everywhere. All right, so we know our division winners. This is what's going to happen in the AFC. And this might be the least surprising thing that you hear from me today. Because I think I'm going to back to 2000 and probably 12. And then maybe 2017 and 2000. I picked these two teams a lot, but this year, they're not going to let me down. You hope so. I think the AFC will be the Bills and the Ravens in the AFC Championship game. In the AFC, the Rams don't have a weakness, guys. They do not have a weakness.

58:27The only thing about the Rams is if they stay healthy, if they do stay healthy, they've got the best coach in the NFL. They've got the best roster in the NFL. They've got two Hall of Famers playing defensive line. They got the MVP at quarterback, two receivers that are lights out. If they can stay healthy and out of trouble, the Rams will be in the AFC Championship game. And they will beat the Chicago Bears. They will beat the Bears in the AFC Championship game. The Bears will get hot in January. They will beat whoever they need to and go one step further than they did a year ago. That will imply progress after disappointing, not disappointing regular season. But the regular season will be tough because of the schedule. There'll be a better team than last year overall because of Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams, the win 10 games. And they will get to the AFC Championship game where they will lose to the Rams. And then the Rams and the Ravens, who will beat the Bills, will play in the Super Bowl match up between two MVP quarterbacks, Lamar Jackson and.

59:31Josh Allen. Matthew Stafford in the Super Bowl. Oh, in the Super Bowl. Lamar Jackson, Matthew Stafford. OK. And I got to pick the Rams. I hate going chocolatey-chock-chock. I'm already ready for Dustin to say that. But I got the Rams over the Ravens in the Super Bowl. And that is the way it's going to unfold. Now, as part of this Ravens thing that I'm not on board with this here is this like this a personal connection, right? It's a personal connection. For you. And there's nothing wrong with that. Well, you don't like that clandoil? I'd not personally collect connected to this. Oh, you mean my personal connection to Jesse Mentor? Yes. Because of his dad. Is that part of this? Probably part of it. I have blind spots. OK. That's fine. I'm just asking if that's what part of this is all about. All right. We're tight on time. And somebody needs a big, huge, Trenta drink. AFC, AFC, Bills and Chiefs. No big surprise there. Eagles. And I guess the Rams, I'm just worried about that.

1:00:34AFC West that they're going to beat they ever living hell out of each others. And that's why I've got the Eagles and Rams. And I've got the Bills and the Eagles. And it's the Bills finally. Because if not now, when DJ Moore, a major, major factor. Oh, I love all of this. I love that. DJ Moore, the missing link, the good guy wide receiver, connecting with Josh Allen, who probably, even though this wasn't part of the question, probably the MVP of the league this year, Josh Allen. And you know what DJ Moore's going to do at 8 o'clock on February 15th? Call our show. Not call us. All right. I'll be quick as well. I have in the AFC, I got the Bills and the Bengals. So I'm going to have Joe Borough if he stays. So that's what I'm going to have that healthy year. I love that. And I think with the better defense, they're going to get there. But they're going to lose. So that means the Bills get into the Super Bowl. And on the NFC side, I got the same as you, David. I got the Rams and I have the Bears.

1:01:34And I'm probably biased because I'm a Bears fan. But I have the Rams beating them. And then it will be a Bills, Rams series, and Super Bowl. And I think you're going to have like DJ Moore having a great game, but it's not going to be enough because of the final drive when he's trying to throw it at DJ Moore in the end zone. He gets sat by Aaron Donnell and Malzgarit. And that would be the end of it. Point after ring. OK, I'm going to make my quick. NFC Bills and Ravens. Ooh, you got the same team title like it. With the Bills winning. OK, don't like that. Going to the Super Bowl. And the Rams taken on dubbers. Rams winning that came though. And then it's going to be Rams and Bills and the Super Bowl, Rams hoisting the Lombardi trophy at the end. It's almost their destined to do that because of the way they put this team together and responded

1:02:37to the last year's loss and the NFC championship game. Yeah, this is there on a mission. And if they can stay healthy, that roster is because of the defense. Yeah, it's a defense. And you have the quarterback and head coach combination. I also think that even if they had not added Aaron Donnell to the mix, still, I think I would have picked the Rams to win it all. The Miles Garrett move was the big one. McDuffy was another big one. Those are two veterans though. They have to stay healthy. Provided they do that defense will be a problem. And the offense speaks for itself. They can do whatever they want. And even Stafford's health with a guy, a 30-something. Yes, you have to wonder. Quarterback with back issues, you wonder. Got a question. Because he's getting older every single year. It gets harder and harder to be able to get your body ready to go. Or it's just stay healthy for the entire season. What is this year? I wonder what you think? That's why I'm surprised that they treated the back-up quarterback situation the way that they did. They have Stetson Bennett and they drafted Ty Simpson.

1:03:40Now I know Ty Simpson, you could say the first round reaching all those things. He's still a rookie. So if Stafford misses two to three games in the middle of a season, you're turning things over to untested quarterbacks, you don't have that proven veteran and the depth chart. So that to me is almost like one of their most… I think it's a real… I don't say it's a careless risk, but it's a surprising risk on the depth chart. Surprising to me, but it's also Sean McVeigh. So he's got a resume, so he probably knows more than I do. But I would feel like if you have an aging quarterback that you'd want to have some type of insurgency policy for if something does happen to him, that you can have a veteran to be able to kind of push you along a couple of games. Alright, so those are our predictions. We have the Bears having a very good season because if they end, Dustin did not have them in the MC Championship game did he? He did not. He's the one of the four of us that did not.

1:04:41We have them going against the Rams. That would be a successful 20-26 that begins Sunday against the Panthers. The NFL season starts tonight right here on the score pregame between the Seahawks and the Patriots at 6 o'clock kickoff at 720. It is football season, everyone. It is the start of the NFL calendar. They start tonight. They don't finish until February 14th. And we'll talk plenty of football with Dan Whederer and certainly Stacey Dales in the program, but next, Cub fans, how bad was last night? Socks, Ben, you can wait in two because your night wasn't much better. It just felt a little bit more catastrophic for the Cubs up in Milwaukee, the way that they lost, how it unfolded, and how familiar it felt. Let us know 312-644-6767. Heck, we've already taken a couple of phone calls when the show started at 530. We'll take some more. When we come back, it's on Payton Chicago Sports Radio 104-3 this score. Cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha.

1:05:45Get your morning started with hot and Peyton on 104-3 this score. Get his chance once again. Have Murphy. Bring him this to court or out. There's a strategy discussion here. Maybe a squeeze, maybe something along those lines, a little bit more difficult with a force. Theobar deals it. The Brothers beat the Cubs. They welcome off in teneties and see your Lana come through. Good Wednesday morning, Chicago. Welcome to the hot and Peyton Show. Chicago Sports Radio 104-3 this score. Hello to the Chicago Sports Network audience. Thank you for simulcasting until nine o'clock. I will begin the morning on this glorious Wednesday in Chicago asking the question of

1:06:47our fine friend, Brandon Fryer. Tell me again why we played Brewer's television and the highlight of the Cubs' loss in extra innings. I think it was important because they really broke down with Peyton Murphy was talking about in that Pepp talk. I think that was just a key to it. I remember. I know. You told me that beforehand, but it just never gets easier to hear or listen to because it takes you back to last night. And for a Cubs fan, last night was hard to watch and endure and relive. Because yes, Luis Lara, after getting the pad on the chest from Pat Murphy, that's why they call him Patrick. It's named Patrick Murphy. They call him Pat, you know what? Patten on the chest. Patten on the chest. Make sure his guys are all good. And then he hits the base hit to bring in everybody and he has the Gatorade bath afterward. They do all the celebrating. That wasn't as bad as the three to one lead the Cubs blew in the ninth inning with Churio going deep against Jacob Webb.

1:07:50Jacob Webb, Jarrett, isn't this an amazing statistics? We need it bears repeating, right? It does. Because we did it in the 530 segment and we had callers who wanted to commiserate with us. It doesn't usually happen that early. Jacob Webb's last three safe chances according to Optistats. Two run walkoff homer with two outs in the ninth. A two run walkoff homer with two outs in the ninth. Then a two run game tying homer with two outs in the ninth. And that is the first time that has happened. These are the only major league pitcher to allow a game tying or go ahead homer with two outs in the ninth. And three straight save opportunities since saves became an official stat in 1969. Yeah, I mean there's always things you can work on every single day. But yeah, I'm tired of letting the team down to be able to be honest. It's pretty tough to wash every time I give up a homer. So yeah, it's about it. That was Jacob Webb last night.

1:08:51Take, hold himself accountable. Love that he's holding himself accountable. But man, where's the confidence at? It shattered. It shattered. But I don't know how this is what Craig has to work with moving forward. And so trying to build confidence there, given his guys, those high leverage situations and those opportunities, and especially for Jacob Webb last night was the opportunity for him to really gain some confidence and really put it into all this. But it just adds on to the misery right now that Cubs fans are feeling. And for those stats, you just read that's crazy. You know why it's misery? You know why it is misery besides the obvious. It's misery because you handled the Miz again. You withstood the Miz. You faced the Miz and you were tied knotted up. You were right there. And then you got the clutch hit from Carson Kelly.

1:09:53Carson Kelly comes through. He gets that's one of the best of bats he's had this season. That is one of the best of bats I've seen all season. And it gets overshadowed now by everything that happened after that. His fist pump at second base, every cup fan was like, yes. You love it when Carson Kelly gets excited. So they have the three to one lead. Jacob Webb's cruising along. It's the ninth inning with two outs. You're like, all right, this is going to happen. And then it didn't. And then Turio had other ideas. And he dented the scoreboard. It seemed like what didn't have bounced off something? Did you see the confidence that he had walking up to the plate? I mean, he knew he was about to do something. That's right. That's that's when you know, like, all right, I'm in this moment. This is my moment here. We're going to tie this thing up. I got this. Don't worry about it. Cubs brewers pregame tonight, 605 Kevin Gosman, Logan Henderson, and they matched up last Thursday night. It was a good one. And I think that this is another big one because the Phillies are a half game ahead of

1:10:54the Cubs. And that's what you're worried about now. Forget the brewers. I mean, that's really ridiculous. They're at a different level. They're going to win 100 games. That was their 90th victory last night. David, you know, they're a good baseball team. Yeah. Okay. Thank you, Craig. Thank you, Craig, console for reminding you. You can play the best teams in the league. You got to do it. You got to do a lot of things right to beat them. You got to do everything right to beat them. And the brewers out executed the Cubs in every little detail. But that's the one thing about this brewer squad. They do all of the little things when you need them to. Yeah, they're not hitting crazy home runs. Jackson Cheerio, he is the dude that you know has that power. But everybody else, they figure out a way to grind this thing out and come back in games. And that has been what this Cubs team has been all about, losing late games, blowing late games, especially against the brewers all season. So it was in the 10th inning, I believe, where there was a strategically placed blooper.

1:11:56I call it a blooper that fell between a diving match. Shaw who had to play left field in place of e and half. I can in half left the game with an injury and Nico Horner playing shortstop. Now these two guys have played a lot together when Nico's at second base and match. Shaw's in right field. Communication should not be as big of a problem. But this was so perfectly placed. You know what would be. I mean, what the brewers do, they seem to aim their hits. And it fell right between Nico Horner and Matt Shaw who both made really, I thought, valiant efforts. Yes, they did. There's really no fault to be placed on any, but this is just baseball. It happens, right? You get seeing eye singles all the time. Crit Council was asked about this. I think nerves still a little raw. Emotion still very fresh. And this was post game inside Crit Council's manager's office. And then on the ball that fell between Nico and Shaw's, did you think one guy had a better

1:12:58angle or just right place? Are you serious? You didn't think they were going after it? No, no, no, no. I meant like, did you feel like Shaw had a clearer angle? I think it's two guys just going after the ball. And there are balls that you're just going for and you don't know if you're going to get it. It's the situation that the game's on the line and they're just going hard to try to get it. Craig Council, crossy Craig. I like crossy Craig. I mean more of that. I didn't more of that, right? I mean more of that. You're serious? I mean, why do you want more of that? I just know how he is and his managing style. It's just a little bit different. I don't, you won't see him pat one of his guys on the chest and give him a pep talk before they go out in a big huge high levered situation. That's not who he is. He kind of, he manages in a different style. It's different, but at these moments where every pitch matters, everything matters, I just need a little bit, I like fiery Craig just a little bit more. I think they need to see some more of that.

1:13:58Yeah. I don't want, see, we're asking a lot though, Jerry, because we just talked about previously when Craig Council runs his fingers through his hair in the dugout and paces and makes everybody nervous watching him, including maybe the pitcher on the mound, because that's what happened last night. But post game, you do want to see him a little bit more fiery because you don't want to see him take everything so well. So I do think sometimes last night was an emotional loss. So I think we're going to have react to it like people hard this morning in a very cathartic way. But I don't want to be unrealistic of the demands of Craig Council either. He's a guy that you would like to see show more emotion, but not to the extent where it makes everybody nervous. Is that thread in the needle a little bit? Yeah, it is. But also too, I think it's a weird situation because I don't want to see him looking nervous inside of the dugout when things are going wrong, running his fingers through the hair that I wish that I had.

1:15:00But I also too, behind the scenes, how is he? How is he with his guys? I'm sure he's very good with his guys. And I think you have to be, but at some point, like they got a... But see, the cups have a bunch of guys who are like Craig Council. And that may be the bigger, so issues that they are, they have a great offensive lineup. They've got a tremendous professionals in that clubhouse. They're all kind of wired the same way. So the only way that they're really getting fiery Craig is by going through and looking at the post game pressers. That's the way they're getting because I don't feel like he's doing that inside of the clubhouse. It's not doing that that way. I wonder, I wonder about that. Yeah, so that's where they're seeing it because he's got a lot of guys in that clubhouse that are kind of like him. 312-644-6767. What do you think about the Cubs' loss last night? And do you like that version of Craig Council? Like are you serious? Are you serious? I think you got a little crusty and I don't really mind it. Here's 630. Jared says this.

1:16:00The bottom line is the front office has screwed this bullpen up from day one of the offseason last year. Where are all of the power arms? Okay, I think the bullpen is a valid point of contention. It's not been consistent. Down the stretch, it's been worse than that. It's been a liability. Here's 815. Gentlemen, if all Cubs fans everywhere myself included are going to sing the praises of PCA for MVP, it's only fair to also point out that he failed last night with second and third one out late in the game. For sure it doesn't mean he's not good, just means one at bat wasn't good and is part of the Cubs team loss. All right, PCA can't win every night. No, you can't. And yeah, if you are the man, you've got to be able to step up and come up in big time situations. But he's done that for this ball club though. I look at last night. Savale was excellent. Savale, he definitely in two winnings he struck out four. Trent Thornton, who I wanted banished to Iowa or somewhere else, he was better.

1:17:06Ryan Rollison came through. This was a tight crisp talk game, one to one. And then the Cubs take the lead and Carson fell it. Kelsey, I can't get me all going. Carson Kelly, not Kelsey. Don't worry. This is pump. He was emotional, emotional, hyped up. Some of you don't normally see from him. I just don't know what extent you trust Jacob Web again. But I also don't know what other choices you have. How would you feel the next time they're in a safe situation? Maybe it will be tonight. I'm nervous. I don't even have nails to bite anymore, Dave. I don't have it. I'd be nervous. And so if I'm nervous, I know the correct council has to be nervous. Let's go out to the phone lines 3126446767. Eddie is in Logan Square. Eddie, welcome to Han Payton. Hey guys, good morning. This morning, gayness, they overall, I think, Craig House of those that have the bullets number one.

1:18:08But why are you leaving Daniel Palencia, our fireballer, in the bullpen? And he tented us to use overuse his pitchers, and he leaves them in too long. We got a band in our first and second. We need some, we need the right pitcher at the right time. I think he's just not using our bullpen correctly. Eddie, thanks for the phone call. I understand where you're coming from. It's frustrating, but Daniel Palencia hasn't been the answer. Nope. There hasn't been an answer. Unless the question is who's been the most volatile reliever lately in terms of predictability. He's been all over the place. Yeah, so that hasn't been... Cubs fans are searching for answers in rightfully so. But I don't know if there is an answer at this point. 317 has one. Texting in, the brewers play situation on baseball, old school. They're a better team than the Cubs. They have been for the last five years. They might be the last team in the league that plays old school baseball. They do the little things right.

1:19:08They move runners over, they get them on, they get them over, they get them in. And they don't make too many defensive mistakes either. So I think that's definitely something that you look at and you have respect for the way that they have done that consistently. Back to the phone lines. Dan is in payload. Dan, welcome to Hawn Peyton. Hey guys, how are you? Thanks for taking my call. Just wanted to talk about the ball penalty a little bit. I feel like it's one of those things that the ball pin seems like it's maybe more designed for, you know, on 162 games season, rather than these like high leverage, right? You know, three games like where you kind of got to buckle down and win against really good teams, right? I mean, like it seems like a guy like Jacob Webb, he's been awesome for, for, for a huge portion of the season. There are other guys that have stepped up, you know, and done really well. But it's like when you get down into like a three game, five game, seven game series, you just look at it a little bit differently. And I'm wondering if that's kind of the root of what the problem is. Great phone call. I agree with Dan.

1:20:09I just think that it's, it's to a point where it's not built for these high leverage situations. But didn't you have dreams and aspirations of going to a world series? I said that they are world series team. Not you, not you. I'm just saying in general, that's, that was the mindset of this ball club. Yeah. I know. It still can be the mindset. They're a second place team with world series aspirations. They still believe they can get there. Dan's response is coming back. That's a good set. Maybe Justin Steele's coming in. Maybe Edward Cabrera's going to help. Maybe somebody else at Iowa. There's a lot of babies. There's a lot of babies, Jared. Too many babies for September 9th. All right, let's go back to the phone lines. Clint is in Northbrook Clint. Welcome to Hawn Peyton. Morning Clint. Good to be with you this morning. You know, we got to stop blaming Craig Council. These, this bullpen is decimated. We've had pitching injuries all year. And these guys just aren't doing their job. That's the bottom line. Glenn she is not doing his web since he got hit in the arm hasn't done his. And the brewers are doing to everybody what the cubs were doing at the beginning of

1:21:13the year coming back and late late in games. The thing that we were celebrating is being done to us right now. We got to stop blaming council. He's doing absolutely everything that he can to win games for us. And he's the reason we're winning. Thanks for the phone call. I understand, Craig Council is not the biggest problem. It's okay to nitpick some of the lineup decisions and in game decisions. That's just frustration more than anything. But it's a good point. I think the bullpen hasn't been addressed adequately. But it's because the inconsistency and volatility that you see, not just on the cubs, but throughout the league. But I get the frustration. Let's go to John. John is in Darian. John welcome to Haun Payton. Thanks. How's it going guys? Good. I think my topic, you know, with the closing role, I think they really need to go and push to get Edward to wear in the bullpen. I watch Edward compare a pitch all season. I know he's battled injuries, but when he comes back, he throws so hard and has different

1:22:15pitches that I think will work in that ninth inning role. And also gives them the utility in the playoffs to be an extended closer where he's throwing more than one inning of need be. And also Justin Steele coming back. I mean, you see how he is when he's lights out is the electricity, the stadiums always with them. I think that's another option that they can definitely use since we have so many starters that aren't getting the innings that they need. Thank you, John. Yeah, I agree with Edward Carrera though that he was going to be supposed to be a big part of this this season. So yeah, if you can get something from him, I love that he does, he does throw the ball hard. So you get an opportunity, he can mix it up here. Because he know where he's throwing it. Does he have command? We don't know. We don't know, but you got to try him now. Why not? Answer to, my two word answer to his question about the open is why not? Because nothing else seems to be working. Paul is in Valparaiso. Paul, welcome, Han Peyton. Hey, good morning, fellas. Yeah, it's just a couple of things in regards to last night specifically.

1:23:18Why not just stick with Savali? I mean, Web, I mean, he did have a great two months. You went, you know, two months without giving up a run. But I mean, I think he's obviously that either the league's caught up to him. He's lost confidence. He had to arm. And he could hit by a ball the other day. He can't trust him. I didn't keep throwing him out there saying these are our guys. These are typical Craig. These are our guys. These are our guys. We're going to stick with them. Why not go to the minor leagues? I don't understand how long it's going to take for them to get Shelby Miller ready. He's coming. He's 37 or 38 years old. Paul, that's a good phone call. Shelby Miller could be a guy that helps. I'm desperate times call for desperate measures, Jared. You want to do whatever's necessary to try to hang on and to win that first series. But for all hands on deck to answer Paul's question, I think it comes down to you. Yeah, he's trying to get that confidence back in Jacob Webb. But at some point, you do have to say, did I tell you about Jacob Webb? What history he made last night? Oh, yes, I have at least three times this morning. It's 7.18. We're still early. It's still very early. It's still very early. It might tell you again before 10 o'clock, just because that's the kind of history that

1:24:21makes an indelible impression in your memory. And you just don't want to forget as badly as you want. You wouldn't know. You want to forget it. You just can't. All right. Let's close out the phone lines with John in Milwaukee. He was at the game last night. John, welcome, Mahon Peyton. Good morning, guys. Yeah, last night was definitely devastating seeing that two-run bomb with two outs to go. But now I'm kind of getting worried that Arizona might come back. We still got a series where the braves and the red socks. Obviously, we had the tie breaker, but it's very possible, a 16 gauge to go. They could come back, too. So I'm hoping that the cups can put it together, even though the bull tide has been struggling. John, thanks for the phone call. Wise man, the Diamondbacks lurk. And they are 78 and 68. So I know that the Phillies are the third playoff team right now. They get a half game lead over the Padres. And they... Things are tight. Things are tight. Things are tight. It's only September 9th. Come on. It's Craig, September 9th.

1:25:22And the cups are feeling the effects of losing and blowing another game in Milwaukee. All right. We got enough cups for now. We'll get back to it later. We got Bruce today to clock. But we're going to shift the beer. We're just shift the beers and bears. This early? Why not drink? Let's go. Dan Weeder. We'll join his next. We'll talk to him about the Panthers matchup week one and the start of the NFL season. It's on Peyton's Chicago Sports Radio 104-3. The skill. Dan Weeder. I mean, the dude is a tone setter and that's undeniable. And I don't even think Ryan Polk and anyone in that front office would deny that. On air contributor for 104-3, the score. Listen, we're not going to accept this status quo. We are going to push for more. We are going to strive for more. Co-host of the Take the North podcast. We're going to take the North and never give it back. Dan Weederer with Haim Peyton on 104-3, the score. Bear it down, baby. Welcome back. It's Haim Peyton, Chicago Sports Radio 104-3, the score. Time now to go to the plumbers 9-1-1 hotline.

1:26:24Coming emergency call 1-8-3-3-plum. 9-1-1, local 130 plumbers get the job done right. The first time Dan Weederer is from the athletic and he joins us now. Good morning, Dan. How are you? I'm terrific, fellas. It is game week. We've waited a long time for this to come to our doorstep. It is here. Getting ready to go to Charlotte this weekend. The locker room open yesterday. A lot of good vibes going on right now. You're going back home. The way Ben Johnson's going back home. You once worked in North Carolina. The way he did. He attended school there and grew up in the state. Dan, I think that when you look at where we are, it's exciting. Today's the first injury report and everything hinges on health in the NFL. How healthy are the bears as they get ready for the Panthers? Yeah. Today's the first official injury report, even though the bears tell their first practice yesterday. Today there will be no work up at House Halls, so what you'll get is an estimate of what today would have looked like versus what it looked like yesterday. I think the one that you're keeping the closest eye on is Roman Dunze, who Ben said on

1:27:26Tuesday was day to day this week with whatever injury ailment he suffered late last week and the final practice of the preseason. Beyond that, they seem to be an overall decent shape. We don't need to spend much time on the color Gordon saga today. That's the, he and Kobe Bryant are obviously the two big July, August injuries that we've dealt with. But other than that, I think they're ready to roll and it should be fun to get this first testing Carolina. Dan, I think, you know, talk about the injuries and guys that Dunze is a big one, but I think also in that backfield with Swift and Menungai, both back on the field, how big is that going to be for this ball club? If they're both healthy, ready to go as they go to Carolina. Still curious to see what Menungai looks like coming back from that knee issue, but again, as you say, JP, to have him back practicing is promising. I think you guys have probably heard me for the last month and a half talking about what the Andre Swift looks like and how primed he seems to be in Benzone eyes to have a big

1:28:28year for them running the football. So I think it's going to be fun, I think, for this Bears offense to get to the starting gate of the season with a better idea of what they want to be as a rushing attack than they had last year. Remember the month of September last year was a feeling out process and it wasn't very good in the running game until they got beyond that week five buy that they had. So I think it's going to be a really nice test on Sunday to see if they can get that established and start to loosen things up for both the play action game and for everything else Caleb wants to do. Speaking of tests on Sunday, the Panthers, I think a lot of people looked at that schedule release and they were like, all right, well, it's at least it's the Panthers and it's noon and there's not a huge primetime element to it and all those things. And this is a playoff team with two defensive linemen that can wreck your game plan in Derek Brown and Jalen Phillips. How well equipped you think the Bears are with their offensive line. Wasn't the most rousing endorsement for Braxton Jones yesterday for Ben Johnson. And I just wonder how you see that match up their defensive line, the Panthers and the

1:29:29Bears offensive line going. Yeah. And it's more than the defensive front too. I think Ben has expressed great respect for what they have on all three levels of the defense. You mentioned Phillips and Brown up front. I think Devon Lloyd is a big time playmaker at linebacker that can do a lot of things, whether that's in coverage or coming as an extra rusher. You've got JC Horn, who's a pretty good corner on the back end. So they've got some things to deal with. Now, whenever you ask me these questions during the Ben Johnson era, I'm going to say I think that they're probably pretty equipped to handle it because Ben is so good at studying an opponent and finding their vulnerabilities, matching them up with the Bears strengths and trying to put together a game plan that makes this offense one of the best there is in football. The jump last year from dead last in the league in total yard is up to sixth. That was a huge jump in a year that was really essentially a feeling out process for everybody involved. And so now you put that together with the continuity that they feel like they've got inside the building with the jumps that they're going to get from their quarterback and some of their young playmakers and you feel like this Bears offense is set up at full strength

1:30:32to take any test that's thrown at them and succeed. And so Sunday will be a good one for sure. I'm going to flip it to the offense of the Panthers. Dan, do you think that the Bears defense is going to have to worry about the mobility of a guy like Bryce Young? I think what you want to do, first and foremost, is figure out a way to keep that ground game from getting going. I think Chubu Huberger is going to get a lot of volume early and the Bears are going to have to try to stop that and turn it into a game where they can go after Bryce Young a little bit on their terms. So look, Bryce has got similarities to Caleb in a lot of ways. He's really good late in games when you give him an opportunity to try and go steal one. He can do that improvisational stuff that makes him very dangerous. They've got receivers now. Tempest Millen, obviously a huge rookie year a year ago and there's a lot of optimism in Charlotte for where Jaylen Coakers going. And so look, I think this secondary, particularly if you're leaning in to two rookies, is going to need the veterans, the Jaylen Johnson's and Tyree Stevenson's of the world to do their

1:31:37job and do it at a high level to make sure that you're not beat by like UCJP, you know, a play where it just becomes an extended play and you don't have the answer and they hit you for a big one and all of a sudden you're looking up the scoreboard and they've got some more points. We're talking with Dan Weeder from the Athletic here on Hawn Payton on Chicago Sports Radio 1043, the score. So Dan in the Athletic this morning, excellent story posted in the headline is have Bears Ben Johnson, Caleb Williams found the key to unlock a new level of explosion. And in the deep dive, you referred to a couple of things they did over the summer in the off season to try to unlock a new level of explosion. One of them was showing Caleb Williams studying video of Aaron Rogers. Yeah, not just Caleb Williams, but the entire offense and it's, you know, Pete Aaron Rogers in Green Bay was as good as it gets in this league as extending plays and making you pay, right? And so we've all lived that in various capacities over the years of watching.

1:32:40The Packers be so good at their first playing out working and then Aaron figuring out a way to make something happen. And so what Ben was doing there with the entire offense was just showing the purpose that the Packers had on all those plays that, you know, there's a belief in Aaron Rogers's brain that this could be a dagger. You know, what we call didn't work now watch me. Okay. That requires a buy-in from everybody involved. It's the quarterback understanding what his responsibilities are, but then it's also the the pass catchers out in pattern knowing, quote unquote, the guidelines, press Taylor likes to call them guidelines rather than rules because there's feel to this and also understanding the stamina involved. Like you may be involved in a 10 second play. You may be involved in a 14 second play. So you've got to have your brain ready. Even if you're the fourth read on the play that was called to come alive when that play breaks down understanding what Caleb's capable of and be, you know, conditioned and mentally sharp to get to where he needs you to be and to unlock this new level of offense. I think Ben pressed Caleb. Everybody involved there feels like this could be a huge, huge catalyst to passing game

1:33:41production. And hopefully the first test of it on Sunday in Charlotte comes alive. Well, I'm all up for another level to this offense. I'm waiting for it. And I'm excited for it. I can't wait to see it. See what Caleb Williams in this offense is can have the ability to take it to another level. But am I wrong for looking there on Sunday, just not for the spectacular plays, but just to watch him maybe make the easy plays, the check downs, all that stuff that was kind of an issue last year where you saw the hero plays, but taking what the defense was giving you was something that he needed to work on this off season. Well, that's why I love the juggle of this because what we just talked about with Scramble drill is something that the bears feel like is something that is going to lean into Caleb's greatest gifts. Now in reciprocation, they want the quarterback to understand that when we call a play and the first read is open, throw the ball to him, right? Like get that guy the ball in space and let him go do his work. If your first read's not there and we've gotten available, safety, valver check down there

1:34:41for you, get it to him. Let the guy get the ball in space and go to work. Make sure your ball location is sharp and that he's got an, you know, a runner's ball to go, go get the maximum gain out of that play. There's a lot here, Jared, to what you just said about just doing the simple better and understanding the routine mundane stuff of the quarterback position that takes good quarterbacks to great. And so Caleb's going to have to do that all season. You should have your lens on that every single game that they play from Sunday through the, you know, the early parts of January when we get to week 18. So yeah, that's, that's a big, big box on the checklist for Caleb is to make sure that he's capable of doing the things that they've hammered into his head since they came back into the building in April. Dan, it seems that Ben Johnson and even Dennis Allen, when he spoke last week, talk about Jalen Johnson differently this training camp, then what we heard last year. Maybe it's just me, maybe I'm reading into it, but it does seem like they, if not going out of their way to be overly complimentary, they have been very complimentary of not only

1:35:43his skill set and what he brings to that defense as a lockdown corner, but his leadership, which is something that I think is a new phase or element of his game in his seventh season. Have you noticed the same or how would you describe that dynamic? There's no question, particularly as of late that that bold Ben and Dennis have been very complimentary of the way Jalen made his presence felt down the stretch of training camp. And there was a moment in practice a few weeks ago where the whole team gathered up and it seemed like to be an animated discussion. Everybody thought initially that it was Ben getting the group together and relearned after practice that it was Jalen. And Jalen talked about this with us a little bit yesterday, saying like, I didn't want to wait until practice was over to say, guys, that wasn't up to our standard. We weren't doing it. It was time in the moment, in real time, to call it out, to bring everybody together and say, we're capable of more than this. This standard's got to be higher. And so I think that level of passion that Jalen brings, that competitiveness he brings, the coaching staff wants him to be more outward with that. To not be keeping that to himself.

1:36:44And so a guy that has this level of talent that can now have his voice be heard and get people to respond is a big, big deal and look like the fact that he went through this entire camp without any sort of concern about where he was health wise is a huge deal. Again, we can contrast that with Kyler Gordon. Both guys missed a lot of time in 2025. Jalen fought to get back. He fought to get back in the season last year. He fought to get himself back to 100% this year. And I think the coaching staff has respected that investment and that level of competitive tenacity he has. And I think they know they've got something they can work with. What about on the other side with Tyreek Stevenson, Dan? Are they confident in him as well? Yeah. Good conversation with Tyreek in the locker room yesterday. And Al Harris said something to me. I think it was in the spring about how some of the things that he teaches, which is play the system rather than the man. Sanders takes the second season for that to fully sink in. We've seen the ball production and the guys that have worked under Al Harris have had. I think Tyreek understands that opportunity is there for him.

1:37:44If he takes the coaching that's being applied to him, we all understand the discussion on focus with him. But I think he understands what's at stake for him this year financially and personally and what it means to the team. And so I think it's going to be fun to see what kind of jump Tyreek takes in this next stage. Dan, 30 seconds. Can you make a prediction? Are you qualified to do that yet? I am qualified. Yeah, certainly. Am I? I mean, are you prepared to? Are you willing to? I know you're more than qualified to. I think I can do this. I haven't gotten a score yet. I think I'm probably going to take the bears by four. Then they're going to qualify. Then give me a score. All right. I subject to change by the time we get to our official take the North score. But I'm going to go 27, 23. All right. That's good. That's good qualification. I love you, Dan. I never doubt it. Thanks, Dan. Appreciate you guys. Dan Reader from the athletic. Yes. You know what I meant. I know what you meant. You were always qualified. And so is Dan. Does a terrific job. That's a really good story.

1:38:45People should check out Dan Reader in the athletic this morning talking about the offseason and the Bears offense and Caleb Williams and Ben Johnson. And certainly another step forward they plan to make. So does Jalen Johnson? And there's been a lot of conversation as we just alluded to about what he did at training camp to assert himself as a leader. And he spoke yesterday on Tuesday as to why he feels this season is different his seventh year as a Chicago bearer. We'll hear from him next on Hans Peyton Chicago Sports Radio 104 3 the score. Welcome back to Ha and Peyton on 104 3 the score. Honestly, I would say we had a talk and I would say of my years being here. I've never had a talk of a close and we got a chance to win the Super Bowl. So I think when he said that it puts him things in perspective for me and we have the opportunity to do something special. So I think for me it just sparked a different level of my competitive nature that I haven't had since I've been here. So you're just going out there and competing and then one of the guys would be better, one

1:39:47of myself would be better and then just holding us to a different standard, a higher standard. And then we're just going for new. Welcome back it's Ha and Peyton Chicago Sports Radio 104 3 the score. Caitlin Johnson talking about the conversation he had with Ben Johnson that was unlike any other he had had with any Chicago Bears coach because it included the words Super Bowl and they were used in a way that represented the main goal. I find it almost inconceivable that Jalen Johnson and I'm not questioning that that he could have this is seventh years of bear. So he played for Maddie or Fluce. He played for Ben Johnson. He played for Matt Nagy. Did Matt Nagy never mentioned the Super Bowl as an objective? They probably did. Okay. But he didn't believe them. He didn't believe it and people inside of that locker room probably didn't believe them.

1:40:48Now they actually have a chance. I love that he's giving voice to it. I love that he's stepping forward and I love that we're talking about Jalen Johnson in these terms because you remember the first day of training camp the first time we heard from Jalen Johnson this off season really was when he proclaimed that he was playing for 31 other teams and that there was basically a contract year which he's under contract. And I think he's got another year. But basically he was out there and it sounded to me I interpreted that as somewhat selfish. This is the opposite of that and the way that he's been described in the last week or so by Ben Johnson and Dennis Allen depict a player that's taking his leadership role seriously. I love all this because I believe Jalen Johnson is closer to being at the top of his profession or his job than anybody on the defense. I think him and Caleb Williams are the closest to being to the top of the interpretive rankings

1:41:52at the position. Jalen Johnson is a top 10 quarterback. Caleb Williams can be a top 10 quarterback. So if Jalen Johnson can have the kind of year that he's capable of having the bare defense is going to be much better off and this super bowl talk will be more than just folly. Well, it's funny that we can have listened to someone speak at the podium David and have different interpretations of what that message was. What did you hear? What I heard was a dude that was hungry and just wants the ball. That's how I took it. I was like, oh. At the beginning of camp. Yeah. When you said that 32 other teams, it's just like, yo, I'm here to prove myself not just from where I'm at but for everybody else to see what I can do and where I can get back to. Last season was tough. That was tough. I mean, to battle back but to figure out a way to be able to not be yourself but still be on the field and you are you are paid as one of those dudes that play that position. To see him come into this camp and then to hear the words of his his head coach talking

1:42:57about him and I I'm going to I'm going to save this a lot because if if you're if Ben Johnson is talking about you, he respects you and there's something that you're doing that he truly, truly likes and that it's making a impact on the team. If he doesn't like you, it's not saying that much. He'll be really short. So there's I think there's something to this grind that he put himself through the mindset that he has of being a leader on that defense. Know what his responsibility is and especially with the defense that we know is at the moment. We don't know really how they're getting after the quarterback. So that's going to put a lot of pressure on him going up against opposing teams. Number one receivers locking them down to be able to say, all right, but listen, at least we got this covered on this side of the field. Starting with that. And Sunday and it's not that's not yes, not going to be easy, not going to be easy. Big big big receiver. But he took a good year. But he loves those challenges. I know you both you love the challenge, but you can't you you can't help certain things.

1:43:57You're going to first of all, it's not all on one guy to stop on the receiver. No, it's that's unrealistic. Even if you travel with them, even though the Bears don't do that all the time, but the challenge exists because there's going to be a receiver like technical every week. Yes. Look at the schedule. I thought it was interesting, Jared, that Nick Lavery, the green beret, US Army green beret spoke to the team and it had an impact on Jalen Johnson. And Nick, Nick Lavery is a guy that Ben Johnson last year during a team meeting read from a book and it was very powerful and had an impact on him. But Jalen Johnson, wherever he's finding the motivation, it seems like it is resonating within him. And it's getting through to him and he's treating it seems this year as a year that if he can stay healthy, he can do special things. It's kind of the opposite of one of the other cornerbacks that are in that room alongside of him, right? That are that that seemed to be and not listen, we can only go off of what we hear and what is being reported.

1:44:59But you have one guy that's all the way bought in who is trying to find a way to be dominant again at his position to another guy that we still we don't know where he's at and what he's doing. Do you think that Jalen Johnson, it's impossible to know this, but do you think that he could help bridge that communication gap with Kyla Gordon? From the sounds of Ben Johnson and how they're talking about him, yes, he's one of those guys inside of that locker room that could maybe mend this, but I told you, I dare sometimes when a guy's not on board, the way that everybody is on board and everybody's bought in that sometimes you become an afterthought and I hope that's not the case because a healthy collar Gordon could help this team out immensely, but some guys might be like, hey, you're not here, out of sight, out of mind. We'll go back to Bears Talk later in the program. Stacy Dales is going to join us at nine o'clock. She'll have plenty of thoughts. Chris Chalios is at 8.45, but when he come back, we're going to talk Cubs, we're going to talk White Sox, we're going to talk baseball because Bruce divine will be with us on the

1:46:02hot patent show Chicago Sports Radio 1043, the score. Bruce Levine has great to talk some baseball, score baseball insider covering the Cubs and White Sox for more than 30 years. That's a really good question, bro. You win, bro. You win. Inside the clubhouse co-host alongside our own David Hawke. Inside the clubhouse, Saturday mornings, 9 to 11, award winning show, not yet, but you know, close Bruce Levine. Bruce Levine has the first hard question with Haim Peyton on 1043, the score. Good Wednesday morning. Welcome to Haim Peyton, Chicago Sports Radio 1043, the score broadcasting live for the Hyundai score studios. Hello to our Chicago Sports Network audience, I'm a casting till nine o'clock and it's time now to go to the plumbers 911 hotline. Plumbing emergency call 1-833, plum 911, local 130 plumbers get the job done right the first time. Bruce Levine is our baseball insider here at the score.

1:47:05He joins us now. Good morning, Bruce. How are you? Good morning, guys. Can the plumbers emergency guys help you with the Cubs bullpen at all? While who can get the Milwaukee fastest? The plumbers are you because you need to provide some levity. Craig Conzo could use a laugh. Wasn't doing much laughing last night, Bruce. That one left a mark. Nothing is funny when your bullpen is not getting the job done. The Cubs bullpen no matter who it is right now other than Aaron Savali is not getting the job done. It's hard to watch. I know a lot of people are repointing the finger at council, at the front office. They didn't do enough. Look, Zuffer Jan was a dynamite closer and back end pitcher for the angels. They made the move to get him. He hasn't been close to who he was before. He's just a guy that had 33% strike out rate is now in the low 20s and it's just not

1:48:08getting it done. They lack the power arm at the end of the game that you need for swing and miss. Anybody will tell you that right now. If you get to the end of the game and you got big hitters like Milwaukee had last night, you've got to be able to strike people out and the Cubs, they do not have that right now. Bruce you mentioned the name Aaron Savali. He was excellent last night. But do you believe he could be a guy that this team can lean on the rest of the way? Well he's been a bridge guy mostly jurid and bridge guy usually means mop up time one way or the other. He comes in late in the game when you're when you're leading and your starting pitcher goes out or you're you're trailing by two or three runs and you're hoping to get back into a game after four or five innings and he comes in and throws two or three. He's been terrific. I mean, you know, here's the guy that used to be a high quality starter in the major leagues

1:49:12with the guardians back in the day and he's been bouncing around the last few years. He was with the White Sacks last year, he was with the Cubs last year, he's back with the Cubs this year after Stin Elsewhere. You know, again, the term outgitters right now Craig House, so doesn't have any people are writing stories and talking about Shelby Miller. God hasn't pitched in over a year who's at AAA, we having Tommy John surgeries, getting people out. When you start looking at desperate moves, I'm not saying Miller at his best isn't really good. He always has been. But when you start looking beyond reality of what's going to help you right now, it's a troubling thought and certainly the Cubs are in that mold right now. It's not beyond reality. This is the reality you're facing. These are desperate times. Bruce, Jacob Webb made history for futility essentially, for giving up two or three two out home runs since he's the first guy to do that since they started keeping track

1:50:18of saves. So I get it. I know what you're saying, but Shelby Miller. Don't keep track of those anymore. Don't keep track of those anymore. Shelby Miller, Justin Steele, Edward Cabrera, all three of those guys may be in play before the end of the season. It's September 9th. The Cubs are, you know, they have some days off, but they're not so, forget about the Brewers. They need to position themselves to maybe stay to get the first playoff spot in the wildcard spot. And then to have a bullpen that you can maybe trust in these high level situations in that series. So if those guys can help, you have to, you have to mention those as possibilities. So the, in their last 20 games, they were eight and 12. In 10 of those games they lost, they had a lead. Okay. Those are the numbers that they really heard. The idea is they can't hold on to leads.

1:51:20And they've had some outstanding starting pitching. Even Peterson's born a third yesterday or four and two thirds, whatever it was. Four thirds, yes. It was good enough, okay, because Thornton came on and got out of that inning. It was unlike the week before where Peterson was in the exact same mode, the exact same inning and Craig Council couldn't get him through the fifth. And that game blew up. So I don't know if you look at, you can't look at Council because he's got the guys who he's got on that roster. If a whore and Hawkins decide to bring up some of the guys from the minor leagues and they decide to put them in there and hope beyond hope that they can help, you know, I'm all for it. I don't think you want to continue to repeat failure, but at this point of the year, there's a very little that you can do other than switch some guys around.

1:52:21You want to put Savali, like Jared said, in a higher leverage situation, not a strikeout pitcher. You want to bring him in the eighth or ninth inning, save him for that. You can do that, but honestly, the Cubs don't look anything like the team that were three weeks ago in. And we've seen it all year. Let me ask you a question. Let me ask you a question. Let me follow that up because I don't, I understand what you're saying about Council. This does sound like nitpicking, but after last night, everything's fair game. We kind of give him a pass the way he handles the fifth inning. I believe like he goes to the mound. That's like the fifth inning is a magical inning. I have kidded the his managerial manual would be called the 15th out because he always takes starters out after four and two thirds. Last night, it was after four and a third. There was a walk. There was a single 83 pitches for David Peterson. Was the bullpen really the way to go in that situation, Bruce? Do you think that sometimes this bullpen problem is exacerbated by going to the pen a little

1:53:25too early? It's who it's who's coming up and it's and it's what they see as far as his velocity and location. Like I said, the week before David, he left him in in the fifth inning and he got torched. Okay. They lost the game right then and there's so is he is he reacting to the past? Is he dealing with the present of what he's going to try to do to get out of those jams? I think you know, great counsel is not standing baseball man but he's human. You know, there's human responses to teams losing, right? He doesn't feel good about his bullpen right now but he's a positive thinker. He doesn't think if I bring this guy in, he's going to give up more runs. You can't think that way in baseball. You have to think, hey, we've had this guy in this position before he's done okay. I mean right right now, you know, you have to think about going back to Daniel Polencia

1:54:28late in the game whether he's been successful or not. He does have a power arm. He can't strike people out. You need swing and miss in the late innings. I mean Bruce, last night we heard it from Jacob Webb just about how he's he's frustrated with his not just last night but also other outing. His last two previous outings before that. I mean, how do you have confidence in a guy like that? And I should say how does Craig Council have keep confidence in a guy like that when the issues and the numbers show you something different? Well, you know, he went to almost two months jurored without giving up a run, right? He was one of the best relievers not just for the Cubs but in the game, you know, going over a stretch of 24 innings over almost seven weeks and not giving up a run. So, you know, he goes from that to what he is right now. Now he's coming back from an injured arm. We got nailed on the arm a week ago and he's been pitching with a swollen arm. He's not used that excuse.

1:55:29The Cubs are not using that excuse but nonetheless, it's not getting done. So, I think we can talk about it over and over again and we are because it seems to be happening every single night. Unfortunately, right now there's a new division. Okay, the Cubs are no longer in the central division of the National League. For the next two and a half weeks, they're not there anymore. What their division is, Philadelphia, San Diego and Arizona. Though, that's the division the Cubs are in. They have to win that division now. Okay, they're a half a game which really doesn't mean anything. It's the lost column right now. That's what they have to accomplish. They don't win their new division, the wild card division and be on top there to have those three home games. That's the new goal. That's a great way to look at it Bruce. Meanwhile, the socks have their own issues because they have a two game lead in the AL central

1:56:31and they're still looking at the wild card spot themselves because don't look now but the blue jays are lurking and the Rangers not far behind. They have to pay attention to all those comers and now it gets even tougher because the ace of the staff did not look like himself last night. Sean Burke, inning in a third, eight hits, seven earned runs, two walks, frustration everywhere and he showed it post game when you were there Bruce. Let's listen to Sean Burke after the socks loss on Tuesday night. Sean, was it mostly location tonight? Yeah, I just missed spots, pitches. What do you test that to have it for lead to not being able to locate your pitches? I don't really know. I'll show you an answer for you. I think just get behind some guys and even while I was ahead of guys, just not making good pitches within the zone. Because there are different sets of frustration feeling like your last start you took a big step forward and then coming out and getting out your best up tonight. Yeah, I think more just with the position of where our teams are and where we're at coming

1:57:35down the stretch more than like myself feeling like I've built off anything. I think just pass around away again like that's what I down the stretch is frustrating. Bruce, he's very accommodating typically. He sounded frustrated as he should be. What did you take away from the Sean Burke, outing last night? Well, myself and other people continue to ask him the same question and he would he continue to get more frustrated. He went on for another 45 seconds or so. Again, a very great guy stands there like a pro after his worst outing maybe of his career and took the same questions over and over again. I don't know. He seemed really lost after this. He came back before. He had a better outing last time out. It's a problem for the White Sox and that's why I was on the midday show with the Layla and Mark yesterday and I'd mentioned that Jim Bowden of the MLB network had said

1:58:36on his Sunday show that he doesn't think the White Sox are going to make the playoffs at all. Not as the winner of the central, not as the wild card. He looked at the Cleveland team. He looked at the schedule and the three games. The White Sox played there next week. That type of thing frustrates Chicago fans to hear but the reality of who's going to get all the outs right now. It's very difficult to see without Burke pitching like he did for most of the year. It's frustrating to look at the sax rotation and go, how are they going to pull the magic out tonight? Will the wizard be there with the wand at the end getting those outs? That was Friday, Bruce. That was magic one night Friday. I don't know where they're going to find the magic now. Bruce, go ahead. Go ahead, you finish. Go finish. I'm just saying, look, the season goes all the way to the end of the year and what you're

1:59:41watching right now is teams that are mostly below 500 that the White Sox is going to play the rest of the year here, except for Cleveland. They don't know they're supposed to lose. It's preordained here that the White Sox have a softer schedule. They're going to win just half of their games. They should be okay. It still looks like that but with two games ahead of Cleveland, three in the lost column, with 16 or 17 left, it doesn't look quite like it did over the weekend. Well, David always tells me, Bruce, not to kick a guy while he's down, but it's hard every single night when you're watching the White Sox and not look at Mooney and try to figure out when he's going to bust out of this slump and striking out four times last night. Listen, it's becoming a problem in that middle of the order and it's just hard to watch because you, at some point, you're hoping that he breaks out of this.

2:00:45There's a tendency in baseball, Jared. And I'm glad you brought that up. It's a really good question. There's a tendency in baseball and counsel and men about both do it. That if a guy is slumping, you'll leave him in the spot. He's in no matter what. And we've seen it with the Cubs, we've seen it with the White Sox, you know, a guy that is slumping, stay in the two spots, stay in the five spots. They don't move them around. Whether it's perceived punishment if they move them down in the order or not, or somebody else is hotter and you move them up. That's the conventional way to go about it. But you don't see it right now. Mooney shouldn't be batting second at this point, right? Should be down in the order and someone with a hotter bat should be up there, you know, batting second right now. He is, I talked to an executive during batting practice and I said, look, it's only a couple rounds of batting practice, but he's hitting pop-ups here.

2:01:48He's not hitting the ball hard. Do you think that the injury that he had to his hamstring back, you know, three months ago is still impacting his lower half and part of his swing, the executive said, you know, we don't know. He did agree, said, look, he does look lost right now, but this is a professional player. Whether he's a rookie, he's a major league baseball or not, which he is. He's a seasoned player. It's played seven games, seven years in professional baseball. So trying to work his way out of it, it's frustrating to watch right now. It's even frustrating, even more so for him. First, we've got a minute left, but I got to ask you about this. The socks are struggling for starting pitching consistency. Drew Thorpe has pitched nine times in the minors on his injury rehab. And last night, he pitched five scoreless innings, struck out four, walked one, one hit, 68 pitches, 42 strikes for the Charlotte Knights.

2:02:50Is his next start in a socks uniform? He could be, I mean, they're looking for guys to get out, right? And, you know, if I tell you he can throw four innings and give up one run, does that sound good enough to you right now? Yes. I know. That's where we're at in baseball right now. It's, give me the four best innings you got. Keep us in the game. Our bullpen, which is one of the best bullpen's in baseball, the white socks for sure, will get the rest done. And let's move on from there. But nobody said, guys, no one said it's going to be easy for either team. The delightful thing is that with a couple of weeks left in the season, both teams are looking like playoff teams. And we haven't been able to say that very often in the last 120 years. Thank you, Mr. Sunshine. We'll talk to you tomorrow. See you, Bruce. All right, guys. Have a great day. Bruce Levine, our scores baseball insider telling us that to keep smiling. Always puts a smile on my face. This morning is not the morning that I think that you feel good about that statement.

2:03:55You feel a little bit shaky about it. Or maybe you don't. Socks fans, what do you think? You saw Sean Burke. You still believe in Sean Burke? Would you want Drew Thorpe up here? How about David Sandlin? Three, one, two, six, 44, 67, 67. And did you hear Will Venable? How satisfied he sounded before last night's game. This was before Sean Burke's outing. We'll hear that next on Hawn Payton, Chicago Sports Radio, 104, 3, the score. Hawn and Payton in the mornings on 104, 3, the score. It has been special. And you know, we have our on the finish line here. And we understand we have a long way to go. But just to look back, I think it is OK to say this has been a pretty special summer. And you just think about, you know, really from the beginning and this team coming together and playing with the energy that they've played with. The fans showing up, bringing energy. And that energy is just kind of growing throughout the summer and all the special things that have happened here in front of big crowds. It has been really cool.

2:04:55I think it's one of the most memorable seasons that I've had in my career. And for good reason. A bunch of special guys doing special things. A fans of this special. It's been amazing. Welcome back to Hawn Payton, Chicago Sports Radio 104, 3, the score. That was White Sucks Manager, Will Venable. Sounding relaxed, pretty content. He was talking to Chuck Garfine, the White Sucks, talk podcast. Chuck has a very good rapport with everybody in that clubhouse. And it shows in conversations like that one. And I wonder if that contributed to the whole level of satisfaction that you heard in Will Venable's voice. Because I think you could look at it two ways, Jerry. And I'm curious what socks fans might think. 3126, 4467, 667. On one hand, you're nodding your head in agreement because the White Sucks have been the best story major league baseball in terms of rags to riches, worst to first. All those things that have made this such an enjoyable summer on the South side.

2:05:56I go to the rate all the time for home games. We do the CHSN shows there before games. And it's just an atmosphere full. There's a lot more smiles this year. A lot of people are excited. So you understand that. And then there's the other part of it is like, that's a great point. Will, I love you. You're a bright guy. You push all the right buttons this year. You're probably going to be the manager of the year. You got 18 games left. Yes. And you got a two game lead that feels very perilous right now. And you've got two teams nipping at the heels with the Rangers. And you've got, you can't discount anybody in this race and the blue jays. And you don't want anybody to exhale and relax just yet. So there's a balancing act. And I wonder what socks fans feel and how confident they are in this team being able to show the resolve and resilience that they have all season long. The general is now they're playing the pirates for two more.

2:06:58Cardinals Cleveland, which is the key series. That's huge. And then Tigers, Royals and Rockies to wound up, wound up the season. Just don't fall off the cliff. That's where the conversation that he had with Chuck, I think when you're sitting down with that in the report that they have, you feel comfortable. So you're going to, you're going to give off all the feels about just everything that's that was going on probably this season. My thing is, is before last night's game, reading this question on the text chain between all of us, I was like, yeah, you know what? Go ahead. It's special. Enjoy it. Enjoy it. Baskin it. But then after last night, the game was like, I was like, yeah, let's just, let's slow this thing down. My feeling is, is have that feeling if you're well venable. That is your right. It has been a special year with not a lot of expectations coming into the season. You talked about from rags to riches. It has been phenomenal. The only thing is is that over the next two weeks, you've got to be able to produce.

2:08:03You've got to be able to stay as of right now. I said, what is special is the journey. The journey of getting to this point and where you're at is the journey, but winning the division, that is, that's proof that you should belong here. So because pro sports are still about the destination, not just the journey. Yeah, it's not. College sports, high school sports, youth sports, that's all about the journey. Yeah. This is the destination matters in professional sports because it is what it is. And I go back to what we're talking about with Dustin and Craig Council earlier in the program and the way that Craig Council pacing and running his fingers through his luscious hair and showing signs of anxiety that may have an effect on his team. I don't want to put words in your mouth, Dustin, but that's one of the concerns that you have when you see a manager or a coach that involved in that way. So I think likewise, I don't want to dismiss that possibility.

2:09:04Will Venable is the coolest customer in the clubhouse. Hey, this has been a special year, guys. Stay positive. Stay up, beat. This is what he's projecting to make everybody else around and feel like, hey, you know what? I can see you, Cleveland. Oh, I know what September is all about. I feel pretty good because this has been a special summer. We are about that. That's we produce this. This is who we are. So yeah, I feel good. I feel great. And you should too. Chase my draw. You should too, Sean Burke. He's setting an example with the way that he handled that question. But just the way he feels about everything. The white socks have been the white socks all season long. This team that we've been seeing, this is who they've been. And I think that's the way that Will Venable has been managing this ball club of like, you know, the way that he's handled it with these guys and even through the ups and downs throughout the season, that is his style. And I think I'm not going to knock him for his style to be like, hey, you're right.

2:10:04We're here. I can't do it. I can't do it. This is what got his team here, but now you have to finish. You have a seven, three texture, Jared, as a socks fan, I am in full on doomer mode with this team. One reason I was reluctant for months to embrace the hype around them is I've watched enough seasons where the white socks do well, March to August, only to lay in Aegon September. 319, the socks are a couple years away. They have a loaded farm system and some great prospects will come up the next few years. 630, white socks are playing with house money. That said, if they give up the lead and lose a playoff spot, the good vibes from the season will be diminished. I think it's something that Bill Don. I believe so if this is the floor, like right now, this is the floor of where coming into the season, this was not in my being on my bingo card at all for the South. But admit it, you got to feel a little greedy. Yes, you should want to hear your socks, if you're a socks fan, you should. Yeah, one October. Yeah, you do not want to this thing to end. Yes, it would hurt.

2:11:06And I still think that it's building to something even bigger. 312, 644, 67, 67 will start the socks conversation with John and Ottawa. John, welcome to Han Payton. Hi, Dave. What's your comment on Jim Bowen saying that the white socks won't make it to the playoff at all? Do you think that's accurate? I think Jim Bowen's an opinionated guy with the respect for his experience and he's in a pinniness like a lot of us who do this for a living. He has his reasons for looking at the socks and seeing some weaknesses. I understand why you would doubt a manager who has never been here before in this penit race and a bunch of players who haven't been through this before. So I don't look at that and say, oh my gosh, that's out of town stupid. I think that's comes from the vantage point of an former executive who values experience in penit races that the white socks frankly do not have. Yeah, but I'm not going to knock the white socks for how they got to this point.

2:12:09I always said that if some of the Texas is talking about playing with house money, yes, that is right. But also they don't know any better. And I've been saying that all season long. So I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt that they're going to close this thing off on a strong note. I just feel like there have been so many times this season where we have gone into stretches. And I go back to like early June after May with season started pretty well. And then like, well, you know, wait till they play these guys. Then they did. And it's okay. Then there was your life, well, wait till they get through this stretch. And then they did. And it was okay. So I understand skeptics like Jim Bowden. And I don't think that I have as much confidence in the socks going in with momentum or doing damage in October as maybe a dead two weeks ago. But I think that they have earned the benefit of the doubt to make you think that they can overcome some of these obstacles. A lot of things have to happen though, Jared.

2:13:09You have to get better pitching. You got to get moonay back getting hot. He needs to just just get out of this slump. This strikeouts are just killing you. But this team, they are who we thought they were, David. And that is who they are. Okay. How they got off team, I'll play off team. Mike is in Northbrook. Mike, welcome to Hawn Peyton. Mike is jamming out on hold. All right. Mike. Sorry to catch you off guard there, Mike. The socks are who they thought we were. Well, I think they have exceeded expectations, Jared. But I don't think that you want to settle for that now. They have, they have raised the standard. And now you've got to meet it. Still in first place. You just have to take care of business. And most of the time come up next few weeks. You got to take care of business away from the rate. Can you, can you do that? The thing about the white socks that is very intriguing is that the starting pitching

2:14:12has been disappointing of late. Last night was the latest example. Luis Castillo, disappointment since the deadline. Davis Martin goes tonight. Maybe he can duplicate his last effort, five and two thirds scores very solid in his return. But Eric Fettie and Anthony Kay, those are guys that are spot starters, bulk relievers. But the socks, if they can just get to the point where they rely on their bullpen, they're going to be in great shape. Because this is a bullpen that is well equipped for these high leverage situations. And I think Bras Abon might be coming back and I know he's not been what you thought he would be. But Grant Taylor and Hagen Smith and Hudson, these guys have exceeded what you thought they would be. Sean Newcombe has been worth his weight in gold. So you get to the bullpen, but getting there has been the problem lately.

2:15:14Yeah. And it's going to take a full team effort to do that. The offense has got to find ways to spark it up because that's the way we know this team can mash. They can hit. So if you start finding a way to get some good starting pitching, your bullpen hold you up and your offense starts to click, then anything's possible. It says here's a text from 815 or 630. The fact that these players don't have pen and experience may be a plus because they don't know what they don't know. Yes. Back to the phone lines. Jeff is listening on the Odyssey app. Jeff, welcome to Han Payton. Hey, good morning, guys. First and foremost, as being a Western Michigan grad, I got to say that the Packers and the Big Ten replay officials suck. Now I have stuff for both teams. For the white socks, what we're really looking at David and Jared is we have guys that are starting pitchers that really aren't aces and any staff. They're more four or five pitchers in the rotation.

2:16:17They've never gone as far as they're going. That's what concerns me. Yes, I want to see Sandlin up and yes, I'll see four up because I want to see some fresh arms up there. For the other side of town, you guys inspired me when I listened to the problems you were having with the bullpen. I wrote a little bit before it. Here it goes. Here's a little song I wrote. The Cubs bullpen can't stay up. Look, be worried. They're crappy. Can't get an out. Can't hold a lead. Another blown save has dust in peed. Don't worry. They're crappy. First dust single. Then a double when Craig grubs his head. You know there's trouble. Be worried. They're crappy. Hey, you guys have a great week. I'm just going to get a little bit of a good weekend. Thanks Jeff. Thanks Jeff. Jeff did it again. What just happened there? He was serenading me.

2:17:17I went to a whole other place. What just happened? Well, Jeff is a guy that also regular listener, frequent caller. He wrote a birthday song for me, I believe. And so it was very tailored. Jeff comes up with the songs. He's a lyricist. That's good. Yeah, he's definitely. I was hoping that Brandon screened that call, man, just to make sure. I know where we was going with that. That was Dustin over there. He knew it. He knew it. Do you know that was coming Dustin? I didn't see Dustin in the morning. Oh, yeah. That's I knew that was coming. Good morning, please. Scared me with that. That's no fun. I know. That's fine. I've been doing this for a hot minute. Jeff can be trusted. 7779, Noah Schultz is down in Charlotte with a 0.89 whip and 2.25 ERA. Might want to bring him up. I think if you look at Noah Schultz, Drew Thorpe and David Sandlin, if they can help, why not? What do you guys laugh at?

2:18:19What's Brandon laughing at? Brandon, what's so funny, man? Jeff gets you all cracking up. Jeff is a very Jeff has a unique way about him. And so I think, yeah, we have heard from him many times before. And I'm sure we'll hear from him many times again. We also have heard from many times before Chris Chelios. Chelry. Chelry joins us next on on page Chicago Sports Radio 104 3 the score. Our crappy team, why should we care? Chris Chelios, up the boards to Chelios with room. He shoots and scores. That MGM ambassador, make it legendary. Nice play by Chris Chelios. Hockey Hall of Famer. Chris Chelios is not human. I'm just convinced of it. Not only will he go on the Hall of Famer, I think he should go on the Smith Sonia. Black Hawks legend. Chelios will end defense, but he'll also head off into the Hawks. Chelios move again. Chelios. Who won?

2:19:19Chris Chelios has won it for Chicago. Three times Stanley Cup champion. He's got a competitor. Chris Chelios has been over the years and he's been a winner of every place he's ever been. Chris Chelios with Hikem Payton on 104 3 the score. Welcome back. It's Hikem Payton. Chicago Sports Radio 104 3 the score. Time now to go to our plumbers 911 hotline. Plumbing emergency call 1-833-plumb 911. Local 130 plumbers. Get the job done right the first time and joining us now. Head MGM Ambassador Chris Chelios, make it legendary gambling problem called 1-800-Gamber. Good morning Chris. How are you? Good. Love that Pearl Jam intro. Nice. Just for you. Yes. Thank you. Waking you up this morning. All right Chris. So we made our season predictions a little bit earlier in the show. How good do you think the Bears will be this year in terms of record and what do you think happens in the season opener Sunday at Carolina?

2:20:21Well after last year your expectations are pretty high. Winning those close games right at the end. Really great year exciting. Took a step forward for sure. I guess the big question is the defense. Everybody keeps trying to count them out but they had a pretty good year last year. But I'm going with Bears. You know that. I'll never bet against them. Williams hopefully takes that next step. I love the coach playing as simple in the whole three tight. And I've been whining about throwing them all to commit. Well now you've got two more targets. Make it easier on Caleb. Just seems like that tight ends usually a bigger than who's covering them and they find a way to get open and they always seem to make the big plays in all these big games. So hopefully you know that seems to be the case this year and they think at least their offense hopefully explodes and continues to improve. Kelly last time we talked to you we were having a conversation about the young stars and the advice you would give them here in the city with Caleb Williams and PCA.

2:21:24But since that last time we talked you know you had Caleb and all the young guys pulling up to watch PCA at Riggly how cool is that and also did you ever do anything like that pull up on somebody else and go to another game with with some of the young stars when you were here. Yeah I mean we were close with the bulls obviously and then that run MJ and that group of guys didn't in the 90s so we hung around a lot. You know with the white socks the cubs now that my age obviously that's not going to happen. But it's cool to to you know socialize with those guys and especially when things are going well we got two baseball teams look like their playoff found and all the excitement for the Bears Black Hawk. This is a year hopefully they become a playoff contender and you know as you mentioned a lot of possible candidates to be MVP's and it's you know Pete Crow has been great to watch you know watching him but sure Conor Bedard is going to be the same Caleb that remains

2:22:25to be seen you know this year a lot of pressure on him but yeah we're lucky we have those marquee players and hopefully lead us to that promise land and we can win championships and Stanley Cubs and enjoy it. So Chris we know you root for both sides of town Cubs and white socks and but maybe identify with the south side a little bit more. What was your reaction when you saw the renderings if you saw them of the potential white socks ballpark in the south loop called the rail yards downtown off by canal street. Well I love the fact that I can pull my boat right up to it that's going to be great. How's that for selfish reason? It's great. No but watching them I drop it down the river we go down to Chinatown pass by it you know two three days a week and it's a for me I love the location. I don't have a problem with rate field I really don't. The area I'd like to see it become more of an entertainment district like a lot of these cities are doing is almost like you know building Las Vegas and and picking spots and then

2:23:28building around it and and making it a fun place to go by earlier and that's not the case over by by rate field you know there's not much to go on but wriggly you know it's second to none when it comes to entertainment around the fields and what the rickets have done but yeah it remains to be seen I can never pronounce they've just in the new part of the white style ispia I saw him the other days at a lot of games with his kids it looks like he's got big ideas and that's that's going to be interesting to see if they could pull it off it doesn't look like there's a hole on a room but you know on the river I'd much rather see him utilize that space you know by old McCormick there whether it's going to be the bears or the white socks it's such a beautiful lake front and it seems like they got plenty of property to pull something out there. Shelley it's almost time to do that hockey man how excited are you about that and with another year of growth for this black hawks team what are your actual kind of standards it for this group and expectations before Bidard gets back on the ice.

2:24:28Yeah well since Bidard's been there two years ago it's taken steps in the right direction their points have increased with coach Blaschill again I feel like they have to get off the good start get some confidence if they're going to try and you know get into playoffs. I was there yesterday at the rank it's great to see can you're back in the black hockey uniform that's going to be exciting they've added some toughness they got some young kids some size I think that's what they've lacked a little bit too much is one thing is never a good thing so it's going to be interesting you know that again they got the gold tender and night I think they got the right guy there and that's a great start so like I said I really think a quick starter a good start is going to be so important to these guys and then when Bidard does get back it looks like he's going to be back sooner than later he's been skating no no sense rushing him obviously it's going to be a long year so hopefully when he gets healthy we're going to see some amazing hockey with you know canar Bidard they're the front L so yeah I'm looking forward to it and see if it's one of these big

2:25:29these step up by him's going to be the key you know it's a good power play guy that was a great acquisition too great stuff Chelly we appreciate your time and enjoy the weekend all right guys you too take care Chris Chellyos but MGM ambassador joining us here giving us his predictions and also just recollections of when he used to run around with the bulls can we can get the infight on the boat I mean that's the one thing I took away from talking to Chelly he can just pull up his boat anyway I'm thinking remote right like a like a live a live Wednesday morning and paint and show someone's in the boat all right I think we can do that Dustin anybody can send it on you but I don't think that he wants to get up at 5 30 in the morning can we be honest there I don't think that she wants to we can get someone to charter the boat for that I'm guessing that boat's got a bedroom on it he can stay asleep wake up whenever he wants to come to the boat as well or somebody kept in the boat for these are questions for next week yeah we'll try to do that but when we come back we're going to switch the bears and we're going to talk to Stacy Dales right here keep it locked

2:26:32at one of four three of the score this is haunt Payton we'll be back with Stacy Dales Stacy Dales doing great good morning everybody breaking down the bears be the news around the NFL then made a comment last week in our production meeting that you can make him right now yeah what's that like for you yeah it's it's fun typically he's not wrong former WNDA stop and the ball's going away didn't see her coming in Perkins gets the clean steel over the Dales easy lad Stacy Dales off a beautiful feed from Elaine Tom Stacy Dales with hot and Peyton and I live in Chicago and I do the score radio a little plug there on 104 three the score I love this segment welcome back it's on Peyton Chicago's books radio 104 three the score on this Wednesday morning in Chicago time now to go out to our plumbers 911 hotline plumbing emergency call 1833 plum 911 local 130 plumbers get the job done right the first time joining us now

2:27:34as she does every Wednesday during football season is Stacy Dales from the NFL Network and ESPN good morning Stacy how are you good morning doing great how are you guys this morning as we kick off week one in the NFL season we're ready excited we made our predictions we're all ready to go looking forward to Sunday happy belated birthday by the way uh we know you celebrated a birthday and now we're celebrating the arrival of the NFL season tonight in Seattle Patreons and Seahawks Stacy looking at the bears looking at how many expectations there are and how this off season has been as exciting as any in a very long time in Chicago what could get in the way what do you think is the biggest concern from from your perspective seeing them throughout the preseason at all the games being a lot of the practices and seeing this team what what are they most concerned about I think first of all I don't think Ben Johnson is looking at it David uh in terms of anything getting

2:28:39in the way I think they're going into this all guns blazing if you will I think that there is a better sentiment than there was last year when he took over there was a lot of uncertainty last year because we didn't know what to expect from Ben Johnson would these players buy into the culture the expectations the standards within the walls at Hallis Hall they clearly did that last year and to be quite frank with you uh I didn't even feel like there was an off season I feel like it's it's almost like the Rams game happened and they wanted to get back on the field the next day and so there there was almost this this sort of um angst to return to action again and we are finally here so for all the time that has passed since that playoff lost to the Rams at home in overtime I feel like there's been a sense of urgency the day after with Ben Johnson and it all starts with him as you enter this season as with any start to the NFL calendar and you both know this uh we don't know the identity of a team until we get through September and and

2:29:42that is something Ben Johnson alluded to and talked about yesterday so they've got to figure out who they are there's going to be a lot of unscripted action on Sunday in Carolina at which is a team that looks entirely different and there's a whole level of layers to how different they look uh but it's certainly going to be a you know learning curve week one jump uh to kick this thing off. Stacey I want to piggyback off of David's question because I think about this team they have super bowl aspirations and dreams of what they're going to try to build on from last year and then sometimes you got to stay focused and one of the hardest things is having distractions and as a right now the Kyler Gordon situation seems to be one of those things that is a distraction for this team as they go into the season I just want to get your take on what do you think the real temperature of that situation is around Hallis Hall? Yeah um Jared I I think it's become rather untenable to be quite frank with you uh in my professional opinion and having been around the team

2:30:45and just sort of my observations over not just the last month but but several months I think in the NFL you naturally see a lot of players invest in their bodies and they have their own teams and then they have their NFL franchise that they represent and uh I do think there has been some disconnect I think it's been very frustrating for Ryan Poles and his team uh I have no doubt and belief in my mind that they want Kyler Gordon and their building and you know I saw the report come out yesterday from my buddy Ian um I this this this is not an optimistic situation I in my opinion because uh frankly he you have a guy who isn't going to play obviously for for four weeks he can't essentially do anything with the team he's not with the team and you know the projection of okay so he because is he on PUP? Yes yes yes yes so he's on the pub so it really makes no difference to me whether he's on IR or the pub uh the new rule by the way in the NFL is they get

2:31:47to practice after two games with their team so that's an interesting layer as well because he's not in the building he's not there to practice with them after the first two games so uh you know I don't know when his plan is to return I I don't have that intel but obviously he has a team of people that he's working with and I'm just there's a disconnect knowing some of the things I do the layers to this there's a disconnect uh there by his team with this injury that he's been ongoingly dealing with um and that's all I can really infer on it uh to be honest with you what I do know is you're very likely going to roll out a nickel uh a a rookie nickel cornerback in Malik Muhammad we'll see if Cam Lewis is that guy uh given the journey he had there in Buffalo and sort of the hybrid nature of all the things he can do and all the hats he can wear but as of two weeks ago Dennis Allen specifically told us if if if the game started today Malik Muhammad would be our starting nickel and I think they want to figure out if that young man a fourth-rounder is going to be

2:32:52serviceable he's going to have some mistakes but serviceable right away and I will say this about Malik the eye test down on the field with him he looks the part he is long he is powerful he is fast and the biggest thing that he talked about with me uh Jared and David is uh just you know just the run fits and that's the hardest part of transitioning from a boundary corner or a standard cornerback roll to a nickel cornerback roll it's what is happening at the line of scrimmage what are the linebackers doing and how are you fitting the run and making those fast reaction decisions which is something that I know Dennis Allen has also talked about so we'll see how quickly he adjust and we'll see if he starts on Sunday in Carolina join by Stacey Dales here on Hawn Patent on the score Stacey so much has been discussed about Kayla Williams in year two under Ben Johnson year three as an NFL quarterback we've seen all the lists in this off season and Kayla Williams has been represented well a lot of those lists include him as a potential top 10

2:33:55quarterback where do you think we will see the biggest sign of improvement in Kayla Williams game oh my goodness accuracy one thing recurrently that he has talked about is you know putting that ball on the money to his playmakers I mean he said it twice two or three times in his press conference yesterday I don't know if you guys caught that but you know we talk about the completion percentage and you know in my experience in this league for a long time you know there is this evolution of quarterbacks right different brand of quarterbacks over the years you have fewer you know stat U S pocket passers then you you know now then you did even just five years ago and and Caleb is one of those breeds and he's a special one because when you're on the move and you're off script which is something I know the bears have spent substantial time doing those wrote those throws are more difficult obviously I mean that's common sense but because he knows his personnel better because

2:34:56he trusts them and they trust him at a different level just through this off season I think you're going to see some on the money throws from him and just the intermediate game just all over the field spring the football and I think that's going to be an area that is going to be strikingly different and all the special talents that come with him Stacy do you see this team kind of maybe expanding the run game early last year it took them a little bit of time to get that run game going do you see them kind of set in the tone early in the season starting to care line on Sunday absolutely absolutely this run game is the bread and the butter for these Chicago bears I can't wait to see all the different additions they they they bring schematically because you guys know Ben has been in the lab and you guys know he puts that thing together alongside Dan Roshar the offensive line coach but this is Ben's baby and as I said it over and over but when you have a head coach and play caller who is that invested in where this engine begins and it starts with

2:35:59the run game and I love that Kyle Monanguys back on the field that Deandre Swift had the best camp of his career arguably and I hate all those cliches but anybody I talk to you know he's always been in great shape Deandre Swift but again the I test with him he looks extraordinary but the other thing to it that conversations I had you know just that you go through a two hour training camp practice in the middle of August and we had a hell of a weather season didn't we like it was annoying actually it's either reigning or it's like a hundred degrees this guy goes two hours and it's like he could go another three he could go another four like he is in fantastic shape and so when you got those two in the back field you can change things up a little bit with Rocheon Johnson if you need to certainly helps in the blocking game I think and by the way this offensive line I know there's been so much talk about Braxton Jones I don't know if you guys heard his comments yesterday but you can't help but love the guy okay he's just a great dude

2:37:02but that's gonna be your left tackle for now and everybody that we see outside of Garrett Bradbury has been there and done that so I like the continuity with this offensive line and Ozzy Trapilo is waiting in the wings to come back and be serviceable and supportive as well that was interesting though the the comments have been Johnson yesterday Stacy just about the the left tackle position it seems like it's Braxton's job for right now but that's not for certain yeah and you're right JP like he Braxton cares at such a high level how can he handle the bull rush how are you handling Derek Brown on Sunday or some of these you know Jalen Phillips on Sunday like this is an overhaul defense that they are going to see in Carolina I mean I think there's just again a number of interesting storylines but but up front as I look at Carolina I mean

2:38:03it's not just how Derek Brown impacts and plugs and moves it's I mean he had I think seven battered balls well last season Caleb's gonna have to be these guys are long they're athletic they're powerful up front you got the big rookie Lee Hunter in there out of Texas tech now and I mentioned I mean the additions of Bobby O'Carrickay and Devon Lloyd and Jalen Phillips they look entirely different um Jero Everose has gradually gotten them better one interesting thing I took out of our research notes that I'm actually going to be interested in watching on Sunday is last season the Panthers played in zone coverage 85% of the time on opponent quarterback dropbacks that was by far the highest mark in the league Caleb Williams was just a hair under 60% completions on against zone coverage last year so I'm just like interested in what Ben Johnson is cooking up right in terms of what if what if we see a defense in Carolina now they look

2:39:06different personnel wise with the base three four but what if we see a defense that is once again heavy zone and what Ben dials up for Caleb against that and like I said I think Caleb's gonna be like leaps and bounds ahead of where he was last year his pre-snap recognition his processing at the line of scrimmage the communication with his line everything's gonna be faster and I think you're gonna see the results of that in productivity. Since before let's go I think you know the division and the league so well I'm curious we all four of us we did our predictions this morning and thought that the Lions would end up being the NFC North champions we do have the bears making the playoffs and going uh a a ways in the postseason but how do you see this division unfolding and do you think that's overstating how good the Lions are going to be? Yeah it's an interesting conversation right because David no team fell below 500 in this division which is why you saw two of them go to the playoffs and the Packers and the Bears.

2:40:09The Vikings are to be determined because of Kyler Murray's relationship with Kevin O'Connell and how that develops new quarterback new play caller for them they're in Minnesota their defense is incredible and I think will be their bread and butter to start this thing but Detroit is fascinating because and that's my week one game by the way the Saints at Detroit so I will be headed there this week and uh I'm always curious with the quarterback and the play caller how it grows drew petzing is somebody they really love it it's been you lose Ben Johnson right to the bears and you lose that that sort of brain behind all of what what was happening there to the point where last year Dan Campbell took over a play calling no disrespect to Johnny Morton um drew petzing is really smart and he has had an interesting collaboration with Jared Goff and it's gone very well and it's it's back a back and forth for a guy who's been now what 11 years whatever Goff is in the league of saying I like this I don't like this um here's the playmakers that we have here's

2:41:13this offensive line we have we have new combinations at tackles on the bookends um so that's what I'm super interested to see um as they kind of lay out what their offense is going to look like with drew petzing we know there's a lot of motion we know there's a lot of tight end usage but I think the to your point David the Lions they feel really good about where they are and they could easily climb up once again in this thing um the packers start with the Vikings so we'll see uh how things go for them and whether Josh Jacobs see you know um how how long his suspension because I think that's a huge one uh is or excuse me the commissioner's exempt list is going to impact their offense um but Matlow Flores one of the best at adjusting so we'll see Stacy great stuff have a great time and Detroit really appreciate your contributions every week it's gonna be a fun season great to be with you guys Stacy Dales from the NFL Network and ESPN she's gonna be out put Detroit and I think that uh the Saints and the Lions very interesting opener because the Saints could be a sneaky good

2:42:15team and you never know about opening games yeah but I the Lions should take that game they should they should they should well the Bears should beat the Panthers too but will they she made a couple good points to about the defense that is for the Panthers yeah that I don't think gets a lot of it has gotten a lot of attention in Chicago and we got a lot of scrutiny because everybody's worried about this offense and we're worried about our own problems at the moment that's the reason why I know season starts tonight in the scores kicking off football season the right way with circus sports in Miller light Rahimi and Grody broadcasting live from Cody's public house in Lakeview tomorrow 10 to 2 tomorrow 10 to 2 and then Spiegel and Holmes with Lawrence Holmes and Carmen Vitale lie from Timothy O'Toole's in streeterville from two to six all brought to you by circus sports sports betting the way it should be with no bet fees and by Miller light the official beer of the Chicago Bears we made our predictions earlier three of the four of us had the Bears going to the NFC championship

2:43:16game I'm curious out there how much optimism is there in Chicago who else you got what predictions do you have to make as a season kicks off tonight in Seattle patriots and Seahawks but what do you think 3126446767 call us Texas show us what you think about the NFL season because it's here and it's not over until Valentine's Day this is the beginning of a great phase of our lives Jared Peyton let's get it fellas back the better fellas back baby a haw and Peyton Chicago sports radio 1043 the score welcome back to hot and Peyton on 1043 the score and we did our totally normal routine I'm not sure because we're like I said we're a little confused with when I look at my clock and it says the time and then I try to see my family's time and it says the time but it says yesterday I don't even get how that's possible so I feel like I'm in the future and then also when we play on our Friday which I think is the Thursday in the US where such creatures have it so I call today Tuesday no wait sorry I call today Wednesday which is the first day we put in a game plan but I think it's

2:44:20Monday however though it's Sunday and the present so like I'm gonna mess that up all week if you guys ask me but today is just our first day of the game plan which is a Wednesday and we'll put in some month or Thursday Friday is the final part of the game plan Saturday we walk through when we play on Sunday which is a Friday in Australia and a Thursday in the US so don't ever make me do that again well I think it's the Rams as well as it confused us they're gonna win going away welcome back it's on page your call is sports radio 104 3 the score that was Kyle Shanahan the 49ers head coach and he's in Australia and they've got a game tomorrow or is it Friday or is it yes it's tomorrow Thursday it'll be Rams 49ers they're playing a division game in a season opener which is bad enough Jarrett yes but a division game in a season opener in Australia this is one of the biggest games on the on the schedule and it's got kind of a gimmicky feel to it yeah just because

2:45:22it's not here and all that goes with it for these guys to travel over there to to get things to play this game and God forbid something happened with injuries and that flight all the way back you have some swelling a bad ankle all that stuff just imagine how that must feel like come on it just feels good to have football back and that is tomorrow with the 49ers and Rams tonight it is Seahawks it is Patriots it will be a game that you can hear on the score so get this tonight we got the Cubs and we've got the Brewers certainly so tonight the Cubs conclude the series against the Brewers pregame coverage at 605 first pitch 640 on 104 3 the score and the Northwestern Medicine Cubs radio network then on 670 only you can hear Patriots Seahawks in the NFL season opener the lid lifter if you will pregame at 6 kickoff a 720 you can listen to both games going back and forth if you want what else do you need it's beautiful we got you covering here we got

2:46:26you covered and we got everyone covered with our predictions we made them earlier as part of the pick six so people might not have heard them to revisit those I had my final four AFC championship game bills and Ravens Ravens beating the bills anyone who knows me knows that those are two teams I've picked most consistently over the past decade so not a huge shock for me but I have the Ravens beating the bills in Lamar Jackson going to the Super Bowl which would be a first for him yes in the NFC I have the Rams big shocker and the Bears playoff rematch for the winter goes to the Super Bowl the loser goes home and I have the Rams going to the Super Bowl and I have the Rams over the Ravens in the Super Bowl okay remind me of yours aFC I had the bills and Ravens with the bills taken down the Mar Jackson company Josh Allen going to the Super Bowl and the Rams and the

2:47:28Bears NFC with the Rams beating the Bears and then going to the Super Bowl and guess what the Rams taking it all home yeah the Rams beating the bills yes okay Brandon remind me you're final four I had bills and bangles and then I had Rams and Bears bangles are surprised that'd be a surprise I'm hoping that they stay healthy this time and they defense is better if Joe borough plays 17 games I think that's that's not an outrageous prediction speaking about outrageous predictions what was yours Dustin that's your guy though Joe borough I love Joe borough I know he's my favorite parts are Joe borough I don't know who you love more um I have bills chiefs Eagles Rams even though I'm wavering on the Rams a little bit and it's uh bills and Eagles and if it's not the bills this year they're never going to win it what is about the Eagles that you like so much I got the way to division ALES that's part of it because we can play some less drops God rest and sissle missy and less every day um

2:48:28I that division is very weak yeah I think the Eagles have a very nice schedule we look at schedules I think their defense is pretty darn good you like big fans you the the quarterback is always a question but he seems to be a gamer when he gets into big games and I think Barkley will have like one more year this offensive line is kind of like it's now or never for them as well I think that from that standpoint it's a little bit of an hour and ever I just don't think they're going to get beat up as much I think that the Rams and the 49ers are going to kick the hell out of each other plus the sea ox it's a tough tough that's a tough NFC West yeah so say come on Barkley got a big gear in him Jared yeah I still feel pretty well right I know I'm a little bit had some conversations with him he yeah he's still top of his game he can figure it out if he finds gets holes to be able to run through he can still do a lot of damage he goes to be dangerous they've got the experience you know the and I think Jalen Hertz is somebody that is underrated didn't have the greatest year last year but

2:49:32he's ready for a bounce back and he doesn't have the distraction of AJ Brown but it to me it's about their run game can they establish to run everything work off of that it needs that needs to be the main focus let's get a couple predictions out there what about tonight's game though I mean this is a you know tonight's game and Thursday nights game these are like massive games based on what we picked like the those four teams are in like we're all playoff teams three of four of our all of our yeah predictions they're like he teams are massive and I can't I'm shocked that Aaron Donald is not with that team I can't believe they wouldn't they can't find seven to nine snaps for that guy I don't I don't get it ease him in slowly she's a man so I'm a little surprised to though they don't want to hurt him they don't want him to have anything that gets in the way of him you are surprised you're not surprised I'm a little surprised I'm not I didn't think you would be I didn't think you'd be ready yet not 25 snaps or anything crazy but like seven to 10 like a treat it like a pre-season game for him yeah I think though he'll it'll be a worthwhile return he's got to stay healthy they

2:50:36got to play the long game and with him that means sitting out the opener giving him a little bit longer of a ramp up period or maybe he's that much scarier and we too by not having to make the trip right possibly he'll be well-rested the other guys would be jet lag three once you six 44 sixty seven sixty seven in and out David in the Bob is on the road Bob welcome to Han Peyton hey guys how you doing good David how are you Jared nice to talk with you hi Bob uh it's gonna be great year I'm so excited oh my god it's been you know what wake states he said I think every fan was ready for a rematch immediately with the Rams so for me it's been just an unbelievably long long obseason I'm so ready to go uh I'm excited bears are looking really good I'm captain and Ben Johnson bears are going 12 and five they're gonna sweep their division they're gonna win a huge Christmas day game in Buffalo 32 to 30 and then they're going to Seattle

2:51:36for the NFC championship and Caleb is going to go on the road and feel his uh reputation as a great quarterback and the AFC it's gonna be bills bangles with the bangles so bangles bears super bowl is my prediction and of course the bears win the Super Bowl thanks Bob for your phone call thanks that's a long way to go for the NFC championship game that's a tough place to win the game of that magnitude oh my goodness a47 cowboys rams Texans Broncos cowboys over Texans in the Super Bowl that must be a Texas native all that Texas Texans defense is legit the Texas defense is good enough to win the AFC see a stride I think CJ stride is a problem I don't know he's playing for a contract though he's in a big right he hasn't gotten paid yet he's gonna want to get that kind of big money that the franchise quarterbacks get can he be can he needs to be more consistent that's

2:52:38what that's what the season is for him laid an egg in the postseason unlike any other that's ever been laid in the postseason it was pretty bad see we could be on the totally other side here with a defense really good in the offense he's just trying to figure it out that division is tricky Jags Colts Texans yeah and who picked the Jaguars was that Brandon I think it's Brandon I picked the Jaguar is a wild car team wild car team okay but I got Texas winning that division I think the Texas might be the team to beat there I'm surprised where's all the the typical charger love where's that I was shot by that for me where's that court is everybody finally coming down to earth that that quarterbacks really just like a very dispoena myself well that didn't done Brandon didn't you have them in as I had yeah I had him I'm the only one we had the charges yeah you normally David loves the charge I know I love just I'm checking myself you know what it is I'm not a big fan of I don't know that this is valid or fair I'm not a big fan of Mike McDaniel and I think

2:53:43that he's there and I think their old line is still pretty beat up there be enough upfront a good thing and I'm starting to wonder about Herbert a little bit myself I all these all the noise I'm paying attention to it a little bit I like Jim Harbaugh I think he's one of the better coaches in the NFL still but I just don't know that they have as a complete enough team that's a tough division too what's the toughest division of football NFC West isn't it or is the AFC West you can make that argument the North the North I heard a guy I heard it that's provincial saying the Vikings the Vikings were going to win the Super Bowl what somebody thinks paid money to do Paul Allen Paul and I mean what what was in their strawberry acai extra caffeine extra caffeine purple purple past I've never seen I've seen a lot of predictions I've not seen the Vikings predictions I've not seen that at all no I don't I'm not sure I think that

2:54:49they might finish last in the and I have them last in the NFC North I've got Lions Bears Packers Vikings that's me same same I mean it's gonna be it's going to be rough that's what you that's what you want to do if you can get out of the North I mean we don't have them getting out of the North on top but if you can find a way to do that and the schedule for that Lions just get to the playoffs a lot easier this is gonna be a this is gonna be a dog fight for and we're not talking about what the Bears might do during the season to address the roster insufficiency yeah your grime weaknesses well we move you know Paul's cooking up move some money aside I'm just saying I don't want to get you down from the head but I know where you're going there are trades to be made I know where you're going to be you need a past pressure I'm just saying Marcus is on the road Marcus welcome Han Peyton hey morning fellas looking like the brewers given the the clubs the end riders we

2:55:50owe you we owe you we're talking football Marcus keep it keep it on the tracks hey man what was your expertise lost the book in this year guys for the great morning he just called the district the college he did well I don't know for Austin Booker I mean coming coming into the season healthy would he be healthy I mean they were they're looking for him to expand on what they saw at the end of the season last year and I think for Ryan Poles he really believed that without going out to making any big moves that that Austin Booker was going to be a big part of getting after the quarter back in a big part of that defense pre seasons full of misdirection you don't know who's healthy who's not and what packages are going to be on the field at what times but one would think that tell me if I'm wrong I'm passing downs you've got Montess wet you've got Grady Jarrett you're going to kick Dio inside and you probably use Austin Booker is part of your nickel package correct yeah he's going to be your ed rusher opposite Montess wet if Montess wet gets the attention we think

2:56:52that he deserves or we'll get Austin Booker might be left in many one-on-ones that it will be up to him and come but upon him to win he'll have his chances he'll have his opportunities to sack the quarterback if he comes through like he did against the Packers last year you're going to be laughing he's built for this like when you look at him like he like everything he's made up he's at that perfect age too come on man coming of age season could be upon us I want this for him so bad if you can stay healthy he's got to stay healthy six three oh this is for me I guess people have been picking the chargers to win it all since I was in college I'm 40 I get it the chargers are not worth your investment I've learned my lesson I think I had the charge to win the division the last 10 years in a row no more eight one five Bengals 49ers in the Super Bowl and yes I agree the Vikings do make the playoffs as the NFC North champs get out of here is that purple passion again Dustin they they sipping on it no Bengals 49ers that'd be super bowl rematch all right we

2:57:52got to let people know what we have in store we're not predictions these are declarations we're going to have this is our lineup for the week because we're going to break down the bears like we do so well here on the show and it's going to be even more fun when they're good it's a lot more fun so Monday through Friday this is our lineup Mondays after games typically after games all recruits in the seven o'clock hour Brad Biggs in the nine o'clock hour Biggs time whatever and then in between TJ Edwards is going to join this show for the second year in a row TJ Edwards veteran linebacker for the bears hometown guy made good he's going to join us at eight o'clock every Monday morning down with that you feel good about that yeah that's that we got TJ we got Biggs time we got old in he needs to stay healthy TJ Edwards needs to stay out there talking about Brad or holding I hope they stay healthy too I do too man because we need them need that are we are we

2:58:53going through let's go Tuesday yeah let's go to the what I've got Tuesday Tuesday we got Dave wants dead in for two segments on Tuesday at 725 at 825 we got Biggs time and at nine o'clock we got the man the myth the legend Mike Floreo joining us these are the other people mixed in along the way but these are the staples on Wednesdays then 725 Dan Wheeter from the athletic joins us as he always does like you did this morning and states he dails in her typical nine o'clock time slot and then Thursday Brad Biggs at 725 at 825 our man Clay Harbor is going to join us he'll be in studio he's in a coming studio he's gonna talk you know what that means I gotta do more pushups before he gets here he he walked in he walked in the other day and I was like I haven't touched the weight and like three weeks I think he's gonna be wearing shmidiums in November I think maybe Clay will though I don't know arm's days today then yeah I'm curls for girls yep getting right and then Fridays Fridays will be familiar we're gonna mix it up we're

2:59:55gonna talk to some obviously depending on who they're playing any given week we'll talk to maybe some people that cover the opponent of that week but it's Biggs time at 725 and they can't miss segment of the week Joe Fortenbaugh as he has been what does he say on these 16 years in a row on the morning show at the score Joe Fortenbaugh 740 every Friday morning his segment can drive he says I can see that Joe's the best he's got great energy great information yeah and we're looking forward to that one before two one me some money too Joe did well yeah I mixed him match dabble in a little bit yeah already yeah dude Dustin and I don't we don't stop guys don't mess around week one it is here it arrived tonight looking forward to that game Seahawks and Patres what do you think tonight I'm gonna go the Seahawks on this one until you're the defending world champs I'm

3:00:56back in you senior building too it's in your crib because that's gonna be that place is a hard place to play yeah it really is it's loud what are the louder more difficult venues in all of the NFL all right when we come back night never goes good for the champions oh you're just gonna go there's something I'll take I'll take the three I'd like I'd like it to be three and a half I feel what but banner night usually doesn't go well for the the home team so alternate spread you get that three and all yeah all kinds of things it's I wonder what they let it mark think Rahimi and Grody are next on it's home Patent Chicago Sports Radio 104 3 the score