Monday, November 17th, 2025, welcome to first place in the NFC North. I'm going to take a real brief pause and just make it very clear that there was no scenario, none, where I believe the Chicago Bears would be in first place in this division as we approach the Thanksgiving holiday. I didn't see it coming. But I also didn't see coming what's happening around them in the division. I did not know J.J. McCarthy would be this bad. And if you watched that game yesterday, yes, he was good late in the fourth quarter, but every quarterback against the Bears is going to be good late in the fourth quarter because the Bears can't really cover and they have no pass rush. So when teams go to that all out, have to throw it mentality, they're going to throw it and they're going to be successful. So that's why Flacco was so great at the end of that game. That's why McCarthy was so great at the end of both games. They don't have a pass rush. And I said this a million times, pass rush is it's most important in the role of closer. Pass rush is how you end games. And in this league where you can move the ball so quickly, you have to be able to get quarterbacks off their spot and you have to be able to get them to the ground. So don't overrate what McCarthy did yesterday. I happen to think Minnesota is the best team in this division, but they are so, they are so shorthanded at quarterback that it is, they're incapable of winning most of these games. Detroit, Detroit's good. We saw Detroit kick the shit out of the Bears, but Detroit is showing you something now that we all talked about a year ago. Remember the 2024 Detroit Lions played like 90% of their games indoors. That's not going to be the case for this group this year. If this Detroit Lions team wants to be a factor in the post season, they're going to have to play better outside. They're going to have to show that their quarterback can actually go in conditions and play. And I don't think he can. And for as one sided as the first Bears Lions game was, I do not expect the second one to be anything of the sort. So if you're starting to think about this division being in play, you can start thinking about that game against the Lions and saying, if it comes down to that game, the Bears got a shot. They got a real shot. I don't know what the Packers are. The Packers befuddle me. I thought that offense was quarterback proof. LeFleur does as good a job as anybody of scheming wide receivers open. Love is perfectly capable of hitting those receivers and he's accurate, but Love hasn't but Love hasn't been particularly good this year. And the defense, which has been good, has not been elevated to the point that I thought they would be by having Micah Parsons. If I'm betting on which team I think wins the division this year, I'd still put money on the Packers, but I am far less confident in that group right now than I was coming into the season. And so because of this myriad of factors, the Lions outside, inconsistent Packers, terrible quarterback play in Minnesota, the Bears find themselves in first place in the NFC North on November 17th. This is the kind of thing that happens when you have a genuine culture change. But more to the point, this is the kind of thing that happens when you finally solve the most important position in team sports. Do yourself a favor today. If somebody writes in their space, maybe even the Chicago Tribune, that Caleb Williams didn't play well yesterday, you can, moving forward, write that person's opinions off. Because already this morning, I re-watched the condensed version of this game and yes, Caleb Williams missed some throws, especially early. By the way, go watch the condensed version of Bill's Bucks. Josh Allen missed about 20 of them. Quarterbacks miss throws. It's part of the game. But if you think those missed throws outweigh the remarkable things he did for 60 minutes, keeping drives alive, avoiding sacks, pinpoint accuracy on laser throws, drops again from this offense, holding them back. Formation penalties, again, holding this team back. And he just keeps dealing. And the most important moment yesterday, the most important moment of that game for me, as a fan of this team my whole life, was I didn't have any doubt, 50 seconds remaining and three timeouts, that he was going to give them a chance to kick a game-winning field goal. Now, the Duvernay return, they run the ball, all that. He didn't need to do anything on that drive. But I had no doubt in my mind that he would make the plays necessary to give them a look at the game-winning field goal. In my lifetime, the Bears have never had a quarterback I have felt that way about. Not Eric Kramer, not Kate McNown, not Jimmy Miller, Shane Matthews, Cordell Stewart, Chad Hutchinson, Craig Krenzel, Henry Burris, Mitch Trubisky, Justin Fields, Jim McMahon even. In my whole life, I have never had such belief in a player. He's not perfect. He's very young. This is the first year in a complicated system. But I really do hope fans are taking account of these sort of emotional swings, because the Bears got one of those guys now, and that's why they're never dead in these games. That's why 50 seconds and three timeouts, which a year ago, two years ago, would have felt like an impossibility. We all know how that final drive would have gone two years ago. But now, because we've got one of those guys, we don't think we're ever dead in these games. And the league is starting to take note of that very same thing. I have been reticent to talk about division titles. I have been reticent to talk about the playoffs at seven and three, and leading the NFC North, and figuring out that we've got one of those guys a quarterback. Let the conversation begin.