Bear & Balanced: On field fights, re-signing Hicks, Fields’ day, and more

Is it weird how excited I was to watch the depleted Chicago Bears defense against Kirk Cousins and Justin Jefferson? I just assumed it’d be a train wreck, but I was genuinely looking forward to what the defensive coaches would come up with to help their secondary out. Sure the Bears ended up losing, but if the performances from Robert Quinn, Akiem Hicks, and Thomas Graham Jr. didn’t at least put a small smile on your face, then you may as well not even watch the last three games.

The Bears are “mathematically” out of it, but they’ve been realistically out of it for weeks now. I’m just looking for some young players to make an occasional impact. I want to see them develop and learn from their mistakes. And if a few records can drop along the way that’s just a bonus.

Jeff and I dove back into the Bears vs Vikings game, and for us talking about a team that has lost 8 of their last 9 games we were surprisingly upbeat.

Here’s a bullet point outline of our latest Bear & Balanced show.

• Intro: We get started with some quick basic thoughts about the game before diving right into our weekly categories.
• Trench Tribute: Our weekly pick for lineman of the game has us once again going offense/defense for our selections, but Jeff had an inkling on which way I was going after I wrote this; Grading Bears’ rookie Teven Jenkins in his first start
• Sweet Tweets: We’re both active on social media — so be sure you’re all following us at @gridironborn & @wiltfongjr — and we highlight one Twitter interaction/Tweet each week. We occasionally have some crossover in this category and the next, but we think fast and audible when need be!
• Caught up in a numbers game: This segment has us featuring one number/statistic that caught our eye from the game.
• The 3 Bears: You know the story of the Three Bears, right? In this porridge-themed portion of the show we give our picks for the hot, cold, and just right from the game against the Vikings.
• The Fields Report: We wrap up the show each week spending some time talking about Bears rookie QB Justin Fields.

Check out our podcast right here:

For those of you that prefer to consume your Bears content in video format, we recorded the podcast on Tuesday night, and you can check the show on JB & EJ’s Bears Over Beers YouTube Channel.

h/t to Robert Schmitz for producing the show!