Case Closed! Recapping the Bears’ MNF Win, Plus Raiders and More

Mina Kimes (0:04)

Welcome back to The Mina Kimes Show featuring Lenny. Monday Night Football Recap Edition. Also picking Winners & Woofs from the weekend. Raiders fans, your time has finally arrived. Talk about them. Patriots fans, try to discuss what went wrong. Some other teams will be mentioned, but first we have to start with last night's upset. Got back from Chicago at 9 p.m. My Eagles fan mother-in-law was sitting on the couch. I didn't tell you this, Ben. She's here for my son's birthday, wearing her Eagles sweater. The facial expression when I walked in the door.

At two, Vic Fangio, at two.

Ben and I had an exchange because I posted right after the game. I'm so mad at myself for not seeing this upset coming. Sicko play caller with a backup quarterback. It truly is the formula. But Ben, you saw it coming. Before we dive in, I want to ask, what was the number one reason why you thought the Bears would win this game before we talk about why they actually won?

Ben Solak (1:03)

Because Ben, with a very different stylistic quarterback, meant that the offense was going to be very different. It meant it was going to be pretty unscouted. It was going to kind of take the Eagles up by a drop. And then typically when you see backup quarterback in, in the first couple weeks that the backup's in, the defense gives you a really impassioned effort, right? There's a big conversation in the room that week of like, we're going to have to do special stuff. So you tend to see when backups play their first or their second game kind of in a mid-season stretch, the defense tends to have above-average performances. That's what you got here, Eagles-Bears, right? Keenum and the quick passing game very clearly got the drop on the Eagles early. Then as they started trying to fire and blitz Keenum up a little bit more, because they couldn't get him down, he's getting the ball out so fast.

They basically challenged him and they said, we're going to load the line up, we're going to stop the run, we're going to pressure you, we're going to make you make throws, Case Keenum. Case Keenum said, well, watch this. I'm watching some Caleb Williams film. He made the throws he needed to make.

I don't think 27 to 7, I'll tell you that, but I thought there's a pretty good shot in this one.

Mina Kimes (1:56)

Let's talk about the offense first versus the Eagles defense, which in some ways was the more disappointing side for me, if you're an Eagles fan, because the Eagles offense we know is inconsistent. We know that they have struggled for, like they have actually been up and down through the first few weeks, they've gotten bailed out by Hertz and some third downs. But this Eagles defense was supposed to be a top five defense in the NFL. And this was, I thought, humiliating is a little strong, but this was a brutal performance for them.

Now, a lot of that had to do with what was going on the other side of the ball for sure.

Ben Johnson, I want to talk about what he did and how he depanced Vic Fangio's defense. But I do want to mention like some of these throw, it wasn't just Case Keenum sitting in a clean pocket throwing to wide open receivers all day. Like I'm looking back at some of my notes and because I was watching it on delay on the plane, on tape.

Ben Solak (2:48)

Which is an extremely fun texting experience, by the way. Because you'd be like, this was awful. There's about to be three more awful things you haven't even seen yet.

Mina Kimes (2:55)

Yeah, I texted you before the Hertz interception and you were like, just wait, just wait.

I wrote down, am I hallucinating or did Case Keenum just hit a fadeaway crosshair to Luther Burden with Jonathan Grenard in his back? Like did that happen? Did I just, did I? Look, I'm in the play and I'm like, this can't be real. I'm like, this isn't, it happened. He was actually excellent under pressure. He was throwing, like it wasn't, again, I just want to mention and praise Case Keenum for this game because he was phenomenal. Like this is, this wasn't just easy mode all game long. And there were things that were in easy mode, but like this, he hit some genuinely difficult throws in this game.

Ben Solak (3:37)

And Johnston said after the game that the thing about Case is that he had been playing 15 years in the league. He just knows where everybody is supposed to be, pre-snap, out-of-snap, post-snap. And so, he got to his answers so, so, so quickly against pressure looks when it was first relative to coverage. They had the dig throw to Roman Dunzey where Troy Aikman said like, this throw should not be opening against this coverage, right? It's quarters. Andrew McCrubb of the quarter safety just has his hips a little bit too far open to the three receiver side, it's a little bit too deep and Keenum with zero hesitation, with zero fat, third string quarterback out there for the first time in almost three seasons, just says, all right, there's a whisker of a window here and rips it, right? No pat, nothing, just balls out and it barely beats Zach Bond, barely beats Rick Bowlin, or excuse me, Queenie Mitchell, barely beats McCrubb. It's just, he trusted it, he saw it and he ripped it.