Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show
Anthony Herron shares takeaways from Bears' heartbreaking loss to Rams (Hour 2)
19 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What were Anthony Herron's initial reactions to the Bears' loss?
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Anthony Heron, score football analyst.
I was in the green room at the Big Ten Network last night, and then when the moment happened that Caleb Williams went deep through the bomb to DJ Moore, at that point I was all yelled out. I was just exhausted by then with all the different screens and the stimulus and the notes, and just seeing that, I was actually quiet at that point.
The touchdown at the end of regulation, I let out the big yell. The touchdown that closed the show... I let on an exhale because I didn't know what else to do.
Former NFL defensive lineman and Iowa Hawkeye.
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Chapter 2: How did the Bears' defense perform against the Rams' offense?
Anthony Heron receives credit for it.
Tenacious job by Anthony Heron, number 99. Mr. Haddon, I want to compliment you. You're doing a fine job. Big and Heron on 670 The Score.
Anthony Heron is truly never scared of talking about the Bears. He joins us on Mondays here on Rahimi Harrison Grody.
Chapter 3: What were the pivotal moments in the Bears vs. Rams game?
This one no different. It is a Plumbers 911 Football Monday presented by Bucy Bank. Ant is an analyst for the score, Fox 32, and the Big Ten Network. Anthony Heron, I think we saw a defensive performance that was beautiful by the Bears. Unfortunately, it slipped through this team's hands. What do you think?
A thing of beauty is a joy forever. That was a really nice way for Dennis Allen, for the Bears defense, to close out the season with a performance that you can wonder, what if you would have gotten more of that from throughout the year? Because I certainly didn't predict, and I think most of us probably didn't, that the Bears defense would be able to stymie
the number one offense in football for the bulk of the game in the way that they did. And there was certainly some assistance I think they got in that where Sean McVay just didn't seem to call a great game. maybe the top offensive mind in the sport, he basically just kind of gave up on the rushing attack for chunks of the game. I feel like there were some reasons for that.
It seemed to me like whenever the Bears would stem to a five-man front, get Tremaine Edmonds off one edge, I think that Matt Stafford seemed to me – and I'll go through a second viewing of the game at some point, but my impression just kind of watching the TV copy live in real time was Stafford was making some adjustments to go –
to some pass plays as opposed to running into a five man front that the Bears showed on occasion but McVay and the game plan going in didn't necessarily seem to suit the opponent that the Bears had they've been dominant lately in 13 personnel they weren't using that early in the game either just running a bunch of tight end bodies at a Bears run defense that hadn't been great but for what the Rams threw at the Bears and what the Bears needed to do they forced the Rams hand in some of these situations and between
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Chapter 4: What caused Caleb Williams' interception during the game?
The two QBs, Matt Stafford was the one to me who did look more uncomfortable, who seemed to struggle more with the conditions, whether that was the weather, the playoffs, the crowd, whatever it was. The Bears had the quarterback in Caleb Williams that at least seemed to me to be playing within himself, who looked comfy in a way that Stafford did not.
So a lot of credit to DA and the Bears defense.
Anthony Heron joins us on the Circus Sports Illinois hotline. Download the Circus Sports app today. And he's on Twitch, twitch.tv slash Chicago 670 The Score.
And I watched this game thinking about how we expected it to look and how it didn't look anything like what I expected it to look. I thought it'd be a little more shootout-y, if that's a word. It's not. I just made it up. But it wasn't. Shootout-ish. Yeah. Shootout-esque. Yeah, shootout-esque.
Chapter 5: How did the Bears' offensive strategy impact their performance?
Like, however you want to turn that into an adjective. But I got to tell you, man. The decision before the game even started to move Joe Tooney out to left tackle for what it was designed to do, I think it worked because Caleb Williams, as you said, was not as uncomfortable as Matthew Stafford from a pressure situation. It set them up to be able to pass the football.
The problem is I just don't think the run game was quite where Ben Johnson expected it to be based on the move. Yeah, that's the tough spot that the Bears were in because it was obviously an attempt by the coaching staff to make the best of really difficult circumstances. The left tackle position with now four different starters at left tackle when you're looking at the football season.
And Joe Tooney has been there before. All of our mutual friend, Lou Kanellis, he was asking me about it on Bears Game Day Live yesterday when we were doing our pregame coverage. I had a hard time wrapping my mind around the Bears doing that for the first time this season because that question has been presented to me previous times this year. Might the Bears just pop Joe Tooney out to left tackle?
And my response was consistently. In the Hall of Fame career that Joe Tooney has put together, the only time that he's struggled has been when he's been at left tackle.
So if you've spent all these resources to have him play guard and Jonah Jackson play guard and Drew Dallman play center and you feel great about right tackle, then just get left tackle figured out with one of these other bodies and supply a bunch of resources to make sure your left tackle doesn't get exposed.
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Chapter 6: What were the challenges faced by the Bears' offensive line?
And I thought the Bears did that so much.
throughout this season so it did surprise me the move yesterday what didn't surprise me was that Joe Tooney held up Joe Tooney against a physical Rams pass rush he held up well at left tackle on passing downs but in evaluating some of the rundowns I think that's where to your point Marshall the Bears run game didn't look and it's you know even before they had to make this move the Bears run game hasn't been nearly as dominant as it once was and
for yesterday's game was part of that because of having McFadden in at guard, Tooney out at tackle. Did that contribute to some of the run game being a little bit off base? I think that's possibly a factor.
Talking to Anthony Herron, analyst for... 670 the score and the Big Ten Network right here on Rahimi Harris and Grody and the Bears' overtime loss to the Rams last night. All right, Big Ant, let's get into it. What was your view, your take, your analysis on the Caleb Williams interception, the Cam Curl with the interception intended for DJ Moore?
It's too bad that between Caleb and DJ, so much of this season, like the early portion as we watch, and it feels like eons ago, but we think back to the early part of the year where a big topic of discussion was Caleb and DJ not being on the same page. Some of the side adjustments. And some of that was in the red zone where just trying to figure out where is Caleb trying to go with the ball?
Why is DJ just a little bit off center from where he's trying to deliver it? And then we've just seen so many special moments from the two of them together, especially late in the season. And times where DJ Moore seemingly gets knocked out of the game and he's splayed out on the field or laying down on the opposing sideline.
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Chapter 7: How did the weather affect the players' performance?
He fights his way back into the lineup and makes huge plays. For that to be the last offensive snap of the season for the Bears is disappointing, is unfortunate. It looked like another similar scenario where the two of them are seeing things just in a slightly different manner. I'll be curious to hear Ben Johnson in more detail about it at some point.
But these situations just come down a lot of times to kind of these Miller moments where you're looking at the leverage of a defender. And that defensive back... DJ Moore is thinking he's going to have an opportunity to take the route a little bit more vertical. Caleb is expecting, seemingly to me, it looks like Caleb is expecting DJ to fight across that defender's face.
And, you know, you've got Roma Dunzay running a vertical route. And where Caleb delivered the ball, he delivered it. with timing, with anticipation. It looked to me like he threw it exactly where he wanted to throw the ball.
That doesn't mean Caleb was right and DJ was wrong, but I was confused that DJ not necessarily whipping his eyes around to appear to be somebody who's looking to declare himself as a pass receiver. It just seemed like for whatever reason there was a little bit of hesitation for DJ to get his eyes around to address the football. I'm not clear on that part of it.
Chapter 8: What are the future implications for the Bears after this loss?
I don't know why, but The effort on the Post Post show last night, I had some callers, a couple of them, a lot of them very positive, but a couple of them kind of asking about the effort of DJ. To me, it's not necessarily an effort thing. I just don't think DJ Moore has ever been the most precise and the most urgent person.
route runner at all times and that's kind of who who he's been throughout his career i've described him as a running back to you guys in a lot of ways for his playmaking ability with the ball in his hands but he's not sort of your traditional statuesque you know long striding ball plucking wide receiver that that you know some of the other bears pass catchers can present themselves to be
We're talking to Anthony Heron on Rahimi Harrison-Grody on 670 The Score. This segment with Anthony is sponsored by Plumbers 911. Plumbing emergency? Call the plumbing professionals available 24-7 at 1-833-PLUM-911. And I think that brings up a better discussion then because...
If you know that's the case, and you know that Colson Loveland and Roma Dunze have had trouble dropping the balls, which makes sense when you consider the weather. Now, that is also an excuse. But that leaves you with not everybody who you can trust. You know, that's the hard part, is game flow is dictating who's available in the game based on the coverage you're seeing.
And that doesn't give you a lot of options in that case.
And that's where, right now... This is the end of innocence, where at least for me, based off of this season, the expectations I had for the team coming in and them going well beyond that, I'm in a really positive frame of reference for a lot of these things. And I've been talking to you guys, as we all have, about the development of Caleb Williams at all these different touch points.
And when you look at. Even the interceptions, especially the last two interceptions yesterday, where the Bears now have a quarterback who consistently, as he stands in the pocket, confidently delivers the ball with anticipation and trust. And touch. That wasn't the Caleb that we saw in August or in September for much of October.
And so that to me, I'm still at the moment willing to view even those last couple of interceptions. The one where he's trying to figure out, you know, he throws it up the sideline and Loveland's nowhere near the football. You know, who's the guy he's trying to deliver it to? Interceptions number two and three are Caleb.
cutting the ball loose like the first one it's a fourth down he's going and sails the football the two last week both fourth downs where you know dj falls down defenders are running free and he's just trying to sort of loft the ball to at least give the bears a chance to make a play those last two interceptions yesterday were not on fourth down we're not in sort of moments of desperation but to me at least it's a bears quarterback who is now showing the growth where in
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