Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show
What game solidified Bears quarterback Caleb Williams' progress for you?
23 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is Rahimi Harrison-Grody. On this Friday, we are happy to come to you from our Hyundai Score Studios, brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers. And with the Bears season wrapping up, and since we have the host of the Take the North podcast with us today.
That's right, TTN.
Who's the new sponsor, by the way, of the breaking news we have here.
Which I appreciate.
Says us.
Yes.
Yeah. I mean, that can change. That can change.
Ooh, we don't want to see that change. Pay your bills, Mark.
We can be bought. Yeah, we can be bought. But right now the sponsor is TTN.
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Chapter 2: What game solidified Caleb Williams' progress in the 2025 season?
So number one is, what game was the Caleb Williams is good slash showing progress game for you and why? Marshall Harris is on the ready. He's looking at me with a face.
Whoa!
So, because of that, I defer to him. I've talked enough so far today.
My opinion of Caleb Williams was already strong before the season started, but let me tell you what made me say, okay, I see this is going in the right direction. How about... Caleb Williams versus his old nemesis slash head coach. I'm going to the Dallas Cowboys 31-14 win over Matt Eberfuss in which he threw for 298 yards, four touchdowns, no picks.
And give me that 142.6 passer rating and a QBR of 88.3. That's when I was like, oh yeah, Ben Johnson and them, they about to do things.
You know, that was a flashpoint of a game for many reasons. Number one was the fact that they were 0-2 after that game against the Lions. So then the Cowboys were still more respected at that time. And I don't think that anybody thought they would finish the season out of the playoffs at that time.
So even though the game was at home, I feel like the Bears weren't getting a lot of credit in that game. I'll never forget Erin Andrews saying, Matt Eberflus knows Caleb Williams well. And Erin is relaying the information that she had been told by Matt Eberflus. And it sounded real confident.
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Chapter 3: Which game showcased the biggest offensive surprise for the Bears?
It was the first game in Caleb Williams' professional career where he was never sacked. That was also why it was, I think you saw the realization of what could be with the Bears offense in that game. For me, it was also the Cowboys game. 19-28, as you mentioned, the 298 yards.
And also, that was the, if we want to get into this side of it as well, that's where the Caleb and Luther Burden connection started to blossom.
Mm-hmm.
Luther had three catches, just three, for 101 yards in that game. Roma Dunzay was your second leading receiver with 62. Then it was DeAndre Swift and Colson Loveland.
But that was a game for me where I started saying to myself, this is a team that not only answered with an offensive performance where they scored over 30 points in that game, especially after that Lions clunker, but then to be able to do so where Caleb didn't even get sacked, that's how you know it was good. What was it for you?
Just for the heck of it, Tremaine Edmonds had two interceptions in that game. Hell yeah! I know we're not talking defense right now, but just for the hell of it!
Now, give Tremaine the credit for that.
Yeah, that was good. No, that's a great one, and I did consider it, but just to change it up a little bit, I am going to go with a certain Week 9 game, a 47-42 win.
over Cincinnati where first of all you start to see that the Bears have the quarterback who can keep up in a shootout we saw that later in the year even more impressively I guess against San Francisco even though you lose that game but Caleb at 280 yards in that game three touchdowns as well including and this is really why I did it
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Chapter 4: What were the biggest defensive surprises in the Bears' season?
Grody will help me out with this. We're like back from DeAndre's switch. It was like, no. Okay, okay, it's good.
I'll be through it.
Chapter 5: What were the standout moments from the Bears' season?
Yes.
It's like a bad three-pointer, right? No, yes.
And at some point you're like, thinking it's a movie, you may be wondering how I got here.
Yeah, no, I think specifically with Caleb Williams, there's many points you can point to where you could say, you know, this is when I believed and everything else. But I think that the bigger point is, knowing that there are expectations, but understanding it's a reset year of sorts for him and to come through the way he did and to show the progress.
That's really what it is because you can have flashes of moments like that Cowboys. If you look at the first six games, let's say of the season, the Cowboys moment is obviously the biggest and best for him because he didn't look great in some of the games following that. But then to see the end of the season where it ends up, you're like, all right, we're good. We are Gucci.
Yeah, for me, that was something that I was, like, watching for. So was that the play for you, Mark, or was there another one that stuck out?
I mean, that one is the one that stands out right now.
All right, so we thought that we would have, what, six or seven questions get us through an hour?
Oh, actually, yeah.
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