Friday, September 19th, 2025, audio preview, week three against the Dallas Cowboys. And you know, I've had a lot of conversations this week with folks who cover the Bears online, podcasters, newspaper guys, and we've all come to a similar conclusion. We just get tired of writing and saying and reporting the same things year after year after year after year after year after year. But you, at least early in the season, can still find interesting things to focus on. And Cowboys-Bears on the lakefront Sunday is interesting. It's not important. Neither of these teams is going to win anything in 2025. The grand scheme of NFL 2025 will not be impacted by the events at Soldier Field on Sunday. But it's an interesting game, especially from the perspective of the Chicago Bears. And I've got four storylines, and all four play pretty brilliantly into Sunday. And storyline one, and that's the storyline that's the most important this year, and that's Ben and Caleb. We're just coming off a game where the Dallas Cowboys allowed the corpse of Russell Wilson to throw for half a thousand yards. This is a get-right-show-off game for the Bears passing attack. And there's no excuse if we come out of Sunday and Caleb's got one of these 18 of 28 for 167 one-touch-one-pick games. That should not be possible against this Dallas defense, this horrible Dallas secondary. And Ben Johnson should be able to scheme guys wide open all over the field. And the deep ball should be there all game long. If they can't pull it off this week against the Cowboys, good luck down the stretch because they're not going to see an easier group to attack the rest of the season. The second storyline I think is also important. I don't think Ben Johnson went out this week and questioned effort for no reason. So usage is going to be very important to start keeping your eye on. Why is Colston Loveland no part of this offense? Why is Luther Bird no part of this offense? Both of those guys provided a spark this summer that the team desperately needed. And instead of embracing that spark and embracing the excitement and enthusiasm that surrounds young talent, they've completely abandoned it early in the year. Now it's only week three. And we're not going to judge the team on two weeks. But right now you've got to say, get those guys into the offense. And if that means less DJ Moore, that's fine. If that means less Cole Komet, that's fine. You have to move in a new direction as a franchise. You've got young talent to do that. Put them on the field. And Caleb's got to throw them the ball. Another key to this process. Third storyline, also going to be very interesting to watch. No Jalen Johnson and very little pass rush. This is a good Cowboys passing attack. Dennis Allen has got to figure something out because if he doesn't figure something out, they're going to allow 50 points. They don't have anybody to cover CeeDee Lamb. They don't have anybody to cover Pickens. They don't have anybody to cover anybody. I said this in the summer and I got criticized for it when I said one of my biggest concerns outside of pass rush was corner because they were one injury away from being real deficient. Well, they've had two injuries now because Kyler's still not playing. They're only two viable, better than mediocre corners are not on the field. The rest of these guys are scrubs. They are throwaways. They are guys on, if they were cut by the Bears tomorrow, would stay on the street for weeks. This is not a professional secondary right now. The safeties are okay. They're not great cover guys though. So this is a very dangerous game and Dennis Allen has got to manufacture something. This is a week where you embrace the notion that you're going to allow points. You're going to allow yards. Send the house and try to make Dak uncomfortable. The last thing is something that's tough to measure. My last storyline. But I watched that game Monday night between Tampa and Houston. One of my, that's going to be my favorite game of the year. I can tell you right now. You can have your Buffalo Baltimore 41 forties or whatever the hell it was. Give me an old school game that's 1410 in the fourth quarter where the defenses are flying around and where the team that wins is the team that in the fourth quarter, Tampa decided we're going to run it down their throats. That was the way football for you younger folks. That's the way football was in the eighties and nineties. The team that showed the most toughness in the fourth quarter almost always won the game. It wasn't about 400 yards passing. It was sometimes about your quarterback scrambling for a big, big first down late. Two good football teams showing a lot of guts, showing a lot of toughness. That's my fourth storyline. I need to see guts and I need to see toughness. I've seen a lot of quit through two weeks. I hear a lot of complaining from these players. It's time for this team to show some guts and it's time for this head coach to tell the guys who don't show guts and don't show toughness, you're gone. Nobody on this roster, nobody outside of the young players who we're going to watch develop should be entirely safe. And let's start seeing Caleb and Joe Tooney and DJ even, if you're going to be part of this, get in that locker room and start to fight and say to those players, this season is not over. We need to go onto a field and show toughness. If they're soft on Sunday, if they get behind 14 nothing and fade again, the project is in disarray. That falls on the head coach. And I hope this week is about guts and toughness. So Caleb and Ben exploit this terrible defense. Ben, let's see the usage. Let's see Loveland. Let's see Burton. Slide DJ to the bench if you have to. Dennis Allen, you're paid a lot of money and you're brought here to try to make do with what you've got. You don't have a lot right now. There's always so much you can do, but you've got to start to get in the lab and manufacture pressure and manufacture some coverage from guys who probably can't do it. And let's see guts. Four points. Four points for a game preview. And I think they're all going to be on display Sunday afternoon.