Chapter 1: What is the significance of the Bears-Packers playoff game?
Thanks, everybody. The Bears.
Brad Biggs. Biggs time. Biggs. With Mully and Hall. Biggs time. The Biggs Report with Brad Biggs. Biggs time. Biggs it. His name is Brad Biggs. Brad Biggs talks football with you.
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Chapter 2: How has the Bears' defense performed leading into the playoffs?
David, you work there, you know the place. And we are delighted to welcome in our guy, He is the football man from the Chicago Tribune. He is a man that needs a little introduction. He's always a guest on this network, on our station, and he is a beautiful and wondrous human. Brad Biggs joins us on the Plumbers 911 hotline. Plumbing emergency, call 1-833-PLUM-911.
Local 130 plumbers get the job done right the first time. Biggs, hey! Morning, Brad.
Morning, boys. What's going on?
Well, there's an awful important football game, and we talked to some people this morning about what it says about this season. I think a lot of us agree that it's been a very successful season for the Bears, but lo and behold... Something about the Green Bay Packers coming to town on Saturday night makes this game of utmost importance.
Chapter 3: What predictions do experts have for the Bears-Packers game?
It could really send a message. We know the Bears in danger of going 2-5 if indeed they win. They do not win this game. I'm talking about in the division. How important is this game for the franchise, for the city? Is that different than just the football team?
You know, it's an important game because opportunities like this can be fleeting. They shouldn't be as fleeting as they have been for the Chicago Bears for a long time now. But you can't take... Opportunity is in the postseason for granted. They've got one of 14 tickets, and they need to pursue it. And I think they're in a good headspace.
I think they've got the right mindset despite dropping the final two games of the regular season. And it's going to be interesting to see how they come out and play because it is the Packers, because they played the Packers yesterday. twice since, what, the second Sunday in December.
Chapter 4: What factors contribute to the Bears' home-field advantage?
Like, this is a big game. I don't think Packers adds a lot to it. If it does, you're overlooking what the true goal of each season is, and that's to get into the playoffs and be competitive and give yourself a shot. I think the... rivalry in the upper Midwest takes a back seat when it's playoff football. If that's the case, and I don't disagree at all, Brad, well put.
If you look at the tape, remove the rivalry aspect, you mute out the trash-talking that's going on maybe in the Packer locker room. When you just look at the football part of it, where do you think the Bears have an advantage? Well, there's a lot of elements to this game where if you said to me, this could go one way or the other. Caleb could play well.
Caleb could struggle in his first playoff appearance. Jordan Love could play really well. Jordan Love could look rusty after some time off because of a concussion. The Bears could get back to their ways of getting some takeaways.
Chapter 5: How important is the Bears' offensive line for their success?
They could really struggle getting the takeaways, which they've done a little bit against these better quarterbacks. I don't see a way that this Bears offensive line doesn't play well. So I think that's the strength.
And I say that while acknowledging that they did not run the ball nearly as effectively as they needed to last week against a Lions defense that's ā I mean, that Lions run defense is okay, maybe, right? Like, there's nothing super ā special about that. So they should have been better there. But I would expect the offensive line will play well for the Bears.
I think that's the strength of this football team. But they've got to take that advantage and turn it into points. The Bears have one field goal in the first half of two games against the Packers. So in four quarters, three points of the two first halves against Green Bay, that's not going to cut it.
You can't keep trying to play catch-up and wait for your quarterback to throw his cape on when there's four and a half minutes left in the game or something of that nature. They've got to get off to a better start. You don't want to allow the Packers and what's going to be,
Chapter 6: What are the potential impacts of player injuries on the game?
a very challenging environment to come in and build some confidence right away and, to a degree, take the crowd out of it, right?
I think when you sit back and look at the Bears in the last couple of games and you look at where they're at at this point of the season, you've got to ask yourself, is the defense good enough? to make a playoff run? And I think that's a legitimate question.
I think that the magic we saw earlier in the year when they had all the takeaways, and they've had a takeaway in each of the last couple games. It just doesn't feel like they can plan on that and they must get them in order to win these games. how do you look at that element of their team? Is it luck of the draw? Has that luck run out?
Do you believe they're going to win the turnover battle, and do they have to?
I sure think to give themselves a shot, they need to win it. They've got to be plus one, preferably. If they go plus two, they could win every Sunday, or in this case, Saturday, right? But Of the 14 teams in the playoffs, the Bears have the worst scoring defense, right?
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Chapter 7: How can the Bears improve their performance in high-pressure situations?
They're 24.4 points per game, which league-wide was 23rd for the regular season. There's not another playoff team in that range. I think the next closest is the Steelers, who ranked 17th league-wide. So, can they get on a run? Yeah. I think if they, that defense, if it can, uh, if it can get them to plus two, I, yeah, I think they could, could go on a run, but I've made the point to you guys.
I think at the beginning of this week, maybe even last week, you look at the takeaway totals here, um, since about the start of December and they got three interceptions from shooter Sanders against the Browns in a total blowout. Um, You know, they ran over him with the train.
But against these other quarterbacks, and that's two games against the Packers, that's Brock Purdy, that's Jared Goff, it's kind of been a single takeaway each game. So we'll see where that's at. You know, Will, what's Green Bay's plan going to be? Because there was a period of that game, the Week 16 meeting at Soldier Field, where the Packers really got that ā running offense cranked up.
Chapter 8: What are the final predictions for the Bears-Packers matchup?
And some of it was zone read with Malik Willis after Jordan Love was knocked out. But they were running Wilson like right up the gut. Josh Jacobs probably shouldn't have played in that game with the knee injury. So what's Green Bay's strategy? Do they want to hold the ball for a long time like they've had some success doing against the Bears? From a coaching perspective in terms of
What are the top two or three goals that LaFleur has? What are the top two or three goals that Ben Johnson has? I think it's going to be fascinating, and then it's going to come down to execution.
i know you don't spend a lot of time dwelling on this stuff brad but i just wonder how you would compare what you've heard from both teams this week and what if anything has stood out to you about the bears approach publicly or their approach mentally the mindset that they're bringing into this game yeah you know i i think that um
I think Ben Jensen did a good job of turning the page after that Detroit game. And that was a bad game for the Bears, right? And we know that they rallied there in the fourth quarter. But your offense is at home, and you get zero points going into the fourth quarter. There was reason to look up, okay, when's the last time the Bears were shut out at Soldier Field? When you've got to do that.
at the start of a ballgame in Week 18 for a playoff team, there's some things amiss. But they turned the page quickly. They got the focus right on the Packers. I think they're able to have some confidence because they beat Green Bay last time. Of course, everyone knows it took a whole series of quite ā
Huge plays there at the end, and you can't convince me that an onside kick doesn't have an element of luck in it, but it was a great kick by Cairo, and then Romeo Dobbs was using those frying pans to try to field it. So we'll see, but I think mentally they're probably in the right space. Again, we've talked about that all year. Ben Johnson has done a really good job on it.
week in and week out basis of refocusing the team immediately because quite frankly you don't go on a stretch where you win nine to ten ball games if you're not doing that it's not like the bears had this um you know roster that that would stack up against 85 bears where you could some weeks you could roll out the ball and and you knew they were going to go out there and kick ass um
And I'm not saying the roster isn't good here, but they had to get refocused and get back to business, and they've been able to do that.
We should let you know that this segment with Brad Biggs is sponsored by Estwing Professional Tools, made in the USA for over 100 years, estwing.com. And Brad... As you look at the reaction in game two of this series, again, three games in 34 days, but in the second game, the Bears came out. Ben Johnson talked about it yesterday. Their emotions were not in check.
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