Bears fall in Green Bay but spark a rivalry reload | 1st & North

This week on 1st & North, the Chicago Bears stumble, but reignite a rivalry as a chill runs through a post game handshake. The Green Bay Packers have their work cut out for them the rest of the way, the Detroit Lions get their groove back, and the pride of LaGrange Park shines for Minnesota.

01:25 THE BEARS ULTIMATELY FALL BUT SHOW THEYRE NO PUSHOVER IN GREEN BAY
02:24 THE BEARS LOSS COULD BE WHAT THEY NEED TO WIN OUT THE SEASON
03:33 THE HANDSHAKE HEARD ROUNDF THE WORLD
04:22 A LIE DETECTOR FROM DETROIT
06:08 LIONS FACING A MUST-WIN WHILE JAHMYR GIBBS IS A TOUCHDOWN WAITING TO HAPPEN
08:38 JJ MCCARTHY COMES TO LIFE FOR MINNESOTA
11:31 THE LIONS AND THEIR BATTLE FOR TURNOVERS
13:54 BRANCH GOES DOWN IN DETROIT. WHO WILL STEP UP?
15:21 KYLER GORDON HURT AGAIN IN CHICAGO
16:18 HOW MUCH JORDAN LOVE MISSED CHRISTIAN WATSON
18:18 WILL STARTERS SIT FOR THE VIKINGS
19:30 THE HONEYMOON IS OVEER FOR JUSTIN JEFFERSON
20:48 DETROIT’S DAN MILLER GIVES PLAY BY PLAY… FOR A CARTOON?
21:50 THE BEARS IN A TRAP GAME
22:26 THE GOING GETS TOUGH FOR GREEN BAY
23:01 DETROIT FEELS THE PRESSURE
23:41 THE VIKING SPLAY SUNDAY NIGHT… LOU ASKS WHY?!!!?

Hi everyone, welcome to First and North. My name is Luke Canelis, Fox 32 in Chicago. Joining me this week on First and North from Fox 2 in Detroit, he’s also the playbyplay voice of the Lions, Dan Miller. From Fox 6 in Milwaukee, where they are still celebrating, Tim Vanvorin. And from Fox 9 in Minneapolis, Pierre Njam. All right, NFC North standings following week 14. Packers move into the top spot. By the way, Green Bay has not won the NFC North since 2021. Bears now second in the NFC North after Green Bay halted their five-game win streak. Lions with a big win over the Cowboys. Minnesota whacked Washington, but who hasn’t this season? Vikings looking ahead to next season. All right, Rams at top the NFC at 10 and three. Packers fall to the two seed. Bears the seven seed. Eagles remain third despite losing to the Chargers on Monday night. wild card led by the Seahawks, Niners, which had the bye-week, and the Bears who again fall to seven. Detroit and Carolina are on the outside looking ahead. Tim, I’ll start with you, and I mean this with all sincerity, buddy. It was a great game. It was so good to see the Bears Packers rivalry heat up again. It’s been too long, man. And I really like that second half for the obvious reasons I’ll get into. But first, how did you like the way the Packers played in that game? I think the Packers have to be very happy with the way they played. And I’m with you, Lou, on just people being happy to see this rivalry come to this state again, this state of excitement. Uh used to be, you know, took Aaron Rogers smack talk and the fans at Soldier Field to put a little juice into things. It is back. The coaches are backed with their little uh you know little sparring going into this thing. Uh the teams played a very even football game. You can see the Bears are on the come as a football team. The Packers are playing better late in the season. Lambo Field was alive and they do it all again in less than two weeks. Great stuff. Packers happy with their win. Matt Laflur told them in the locker room afterwards, guys, stay humbled. We haven’t done anything. You had the stats up there. They’re second in the NFC. Guess what? They haven’t even clinched a playoff birth. They could be out of this whole thing if things go wrong over the next month. I hear you. By the way, Toyota thon. Good to see. Toyota is back with Jordan Love as well. And it continues to be a thing. Uh I’m a believer, big believer that in life, guys, most of the time things have a way of evening out. And it did on Sunday because I want Bears fans to hear me when I say this. The Bears now know how the Raiders, Bengals, Vikings, Giants, and Commanders felt in those down to the wire onepossession wins for the Bears. First half, uh-uh, not fun if you’re a Bears fan. 32 yards passing. That was embarrassing. Very little on the ground and they were burned by the big play. Football’s leader in explosive plays. Yeah. Had the big plays blowing up in their face. That’s okay. I believe this is a really good wakeup call for the Bears with four games left. They showed they belonged on the same field with the Packers in their house. And now Ben Johnson and his players, uh, especially the coach, all right, has the players undefed attention this week before a so-called trap game against the 3-in Browns. I want to go back to you, Tim, before I bring in Dan and Pierre. Don’t know if you saw the interaction between Matt Laflur and Ben Johnson. You referenced it. It was an icy exchange there as Tom Brady called it and I love it. Here’s what both coaches had to say about it after the game. I know Matt Laflur was asked about the quick handshake at the end. We didn’t ask you about it. Uh did you make anything of it uh or not? That feels like every handshake I have at the end of a game. Oh, it’s just I think quick handshake. I mean, we’ll see him again in two weeks. So, you know, it’s um because it’s not often where head coaches a head coach will call out another one. Um any extra satisfaction with this? No, absolutely not. It was just I mean it’s Packers Bears. It’s a great rivalry. Hey Tim, you’ve been around long enough over there at Fox. He’s lying. He’s lying. I know he is. Dan, I had him hooked up. Look, this is my lie detector. That thing’s going crazy. Look at that. He’s not telling the truth. Come on, man. He can’t wait for that game, Tim. Tell us. Well, I don’t know about that much about Ben Johnson, so maybe he’s lying, too, Dan. I don’t know. But, uh, Matt, what? I’m just going with Laflur. A quick handshake. What? What are you talking about? An enjoyable night. Doesn’t mean anything. Oh, absolutely. Those coaches were talking about this thing ever since Ben Johnson made that comment in his introductory press conference almost a year ago. They kept it all internal. They said, “Let’s not make a big deal of this.” There’s no question that there was an incredibly high degree of satisfaction in that Packers coaching room about this victory. Partially because of what Ben Jones started to stoke way back in January. You know what it reminded me Tim and Dan and Pierre, but I know Tim and Dan were around for these battles. The old Forest, Greg, Mike Ditka battles. They hated each other, right? Absolutely. Knock down, drag them out. No question about it. Literally had just pure disdain for each other and that fed into the rivalry and that really built it up for the fans as well. Uh I have a feeling this is not the end of Ben Johnson versus Matt Lafleur. It won’t be in the media, right? We’ll all just keep this thing going for at least a couple of weeks and probably add nauseium thereafter. I’m telling you, I’m going to milk it for a decade. Dan, America loves the Lions. I can’t believe this. Their win over the Cowboys last Thursday, it was announced on Tuesday. The most watched regular season and Thursday night football game in Amazon Prime history. I know we’re only talking about a couple of years, but I didn’t realize Detroit was such a draw on TV. I get it. I thought the Cowboys were America’s team. Hey, Jir Gibbs and that Detroit defense, they were special in that game, weren’t they? Yeah, I mean, let’s give Dallas some credit, too. Obviously, there’s fans all around the country that like to watch the Cowboys, but I will tell you, it’s been a fascinating thing to watch, to see a team in the Lions that nobody wanted to see. And frankly, a lot of people were wondering, why do we have to watch them on Thanksgiving every year to now they’re a team people love having on in prime time? Because they’re exciting. You just mentioned a couple of the big playmakers that they have and they’re good and they’ve played a lot of exciting games in prime time. So, it doesn’t surprise me that look, you got a captive audience and this was a huge game, a must-win for both teams. And I think people bought into that. And it’s not always the case this time of year that you have a game that has a lot on the line, but this one did. So, yeah, it’s been fun to watch. Obviously, look, we just enjoy the team being better, but it’s also fun to see the rest of the country buy into something Detroit’s doing and the way they’re doing it because for a long time that obviously wasn’t the case. Hey Dan, I’ll tell you what, I like watching Jirro Gibbs. That guy’s lightning quick. He is gonna break the bank this off season. He’s eligible for a contract extension, isn’t he? Yeah, two more years on his contract because he’s a he was a first round pick, so he has five total, but they uh look, he’s he’s uh extension eligible. I certainly think he is a guy that is going to be here for a while. Um but he’s a cheat code, as has been said around here. He is a guy that is much like JMO a touchdown waiting to happen. You get the ball in his hands where he has a step on somebody and anything can happen at that point. And I mean you go back to that win over the Giants, another one that they had to have. That was basically three drives that were driven by runs by Jir Gibbs. So we love watching him. It It’s also kind of interesting the fact that the Lions caught a lot of grief for drafting a running back 12th overall in the first round. I don’t think anybody’s questioning that pick right now because he has been a big part of what has happened here in Detroit. You are so right, Pierre. The message from Kevin Okonnell this week was to play for your 16-year-old self. Now, be honest with me. Did it work because the Vikings played free and easy with nothing to lose? Or did it work because the Commanders are just bad? Can it be just a little bit of both? I would have to imagine that it’s a little bit of both, but either way, uh either way, the result is the same, Lou, as the Vikings are back in the win column for the first time since week nine. And it seemed to have worked for Minnesota. And of course, everybody wants to focus in on JJ McCarthy, who played mistakefree football, and that’s certainly a great sign because we haven’t seen much mistake football from JJ McCarthy. But yeah, it absolutely did work for Minnesota as they railroaded Washington 31- nothing to get back into the win column. So, I’m not really going to argue with the message as long as the result is the result that we saw on Sunday. I’ll tell you what, Andrew Van Ginko, he looked like his old self from last season. I want to get to McCarthy before I let you go. Got his first career win at home. First time this season, look comfortable. Everyone now in Minnesota back on the McCarthy bandwagon. I I I wouldn’t even say that they jumped off the bandwagon to begin with. I think everybody is just a little upset on the bandwagon with the results that we’ve seen so far from J.J. McCarthy because really the Vikings don’t really have any other choice but to continue to ride this bandwagon with JJ McCarthy. But yes, everybody is still on board with his potential and what they expect him to be in the future. What bothers me a little bit is he finally put together a full 60 minutes of football. We’ve been waiting weeks and weeks for JJ McCarthy to put together a full 60 minutes of football and then people want to poo poo it because they played Washington. Well, for 40 plus years, I’ve been told that it’s any given Sunday in this league and every team has good players on it. So now when JJ McCarthy finally puts a good uh performance together, we want to kind of excuse it away just because he played Washington. Stop it. Let’s I mean, you got to stop it with that. He put together a great 60 minutes of football. It’s the best we’ve seen him look in a Vikings uniform. Finally, we see something that gives us some encouragement and something to build off of moving forward with number nine. Tim, give me 30 seconds. Just a year ago, Packers were 1 and5 in the division last year. Now 4-0. Keshan Nixon said that their goal is to go undefeated. You think they can do it? Uh, it’s set up for them. They talked about this repeatedly. I do think and Lou, you and I have talked about on in your other shows that it’s going to be tough for either the Packers or the Bears to sweep this season series. So, I’m expecting a split. Uh, and that would make them not unbeaten in the NFC North, but a major step up over last year, which was an embarrassment to all involved. All right, Dan, real quickly, I want you to close out the segment. We’re going to get into Brian Branch’s injury in the next segment, but Dan Campbell spoke to the media yesterday. Here’s what he had to say about the Lions stretch ahead. It really is the same approach. Nothing is nothing has changed um just in that regard. You got to win. You know, we had to win last year. That’s that’s the way it felt. Um you know, you never felt like you could uh take a breath last year. You you’re you’re constantly trying to you know, it was for something different, but yet you’re you know, you’re trying to get the one seed, you’re trying to get that home game, you’re trying to get the throughout the play, all this stuff. And now it’s no different. It’s just we got to win. Dan, over the last nine games, Detroit’s had a tough time stacking wins. Why? inconsistent play. I mean, give some credit to the opponent as well, but look at something that came back in this game against Dallas. They had not scored a point off a takeaway in seven games. That’s bread and butter for this team. But in this game, they scored 14. What was the winning margin? It was 14. That part of their football team came back complimentary football. Take the ball away, march it down the field with a high-powered offense. That’s what they did against Dallas. That’s got to be part of the recipe going forward. They’ve got to take the ball away, give the other team empty possessions like this week against Los Angeles, and find a way to then turn that into points going the other way. So that that’s Dan Campbell right there. That was a question I asked him about the difference between last year when they were being chased and this year where they’re trying to chase teams down. And he just said, “There’s no difference. We just have to find a way to win every single week.” And they do. They don’t have much margin for error left in this playoff race if they want to be in the postseason. So that recipe you saw against Dallas, that urgency, that’s got to be there the rest of the way. They didn’t play well for about a month and a half, Lou, outside of a game against Washington, which we’ve all beaten up now to this point. But they they got to be better than they were during that sevename stretch. Great nugget, Dan. Great nugget. We need to take a timeout when we come back here on First and North. Dan is going to talk about the Lions and how they were hit with another injury to their secondary as we get the latest on the injury front around the division comes again right after this on First and North. It’s Bears. What a day for football. It’s game day. No better way to start off the season than right here at the wall. It’s live to be out here with the Bears fans. They are ready game day live Sunday at 9:30 on Fox Chicago. We’re back here on First and North. Luke Canelis at our Fox 32 studios in Chicago. Joined by Dan Miller from Fox 2 in Detroit. Tim Vanour at Fox 6 in Milwaukee and Pier Newam at Fox9 in Minneapolis. I’m going back to Dan Miller here. Awful injury, Dan, for Brian Branch in that Dallas game. Torres Achilles tendon. He’s out for the season, but the Lions went right to the Steelers practice squad for help. Tell us about it. And how’s Kirby Joseph doing? Yeah, and and the hope is that Kirby might be able to play this week. We’ll know more once he gets out and gets a couple of practices in and they see how he reacts. He’s got a knee that they’ve talked about. He’s just not going to get much better. So, it’s something he’s got to learn to deal with. Uh maybe it improves a little bit now that they’ve shut him down for a couple of weeks, but uh they’re saying he’s going to have to play with some pain. And Kirby has seemed pretty down about it, but we’ll see how it reacts this week when he gets a couple of days in of work and maybe he’ll be ready to go against the Rams. They’ve really missed him. back to what we talked about with the takeaways. That’s their number one guy when it comes to being a ball hawk. So, they certainly need him out there. Whether or not Damonte Kazy can be a contributor. He’s the one that they signed uh at safety, we’ll have to wait and see. He’s a guy that in 2018 led the NFL in interceptions. Um right now, Avante Maddox is the guy that’ll probably take over one of those safety spots. And you hope that they can get Kirby back this week. But, uh listen, you feel terrible for Brian Branch. He’s a terrific young man. and he’s a chess piece on that defense that they move all over the field because he can do so many different things. And that is, as we all know, a brutal injury that is going to take him probably into next year before he’s able to play again. So, you just hate to see that for anybody. Yeah, for sure. Uh Bears defense still trying to get healthy every week. Linebackers TJ Edwards and Noah Su came back. Nickelback Kyler Gordon injured his groin during pregame workouts in Green Bay, so he missed the meeting with the Packers. By the way, Gordon’s had all kind of injury issues. He’s played only three games this season. Ben Johnson said he’s just stuck in a rut with all these soft tissue injuries. And what’s even more aggravating for the Bears, Gordon got rewarded with a nice contract extension this off season, making him the highest paid Nickelback in football. And in four years, he’s missed 30 games. Jaylen Johnson still working his way back to 100%. Tmaine Edmonds can’t come back for the Browns game this weekend, but he can come off of injured reserve for the Packers game. So, we will keep an eye on Edmonds. Tim, what a full circle moment for Christian Watson on Sunday. This guy tore his ACL against the Bears last season and then against the Bears this weekend. Two catches. The guy has five touchdown grabs the last four games. I think this is me. I think the Jordan Love Christian Watson relationship matchup might be the most important on that Packers team on their run to the playoffs. You might be right. He’s he’s a unique player. They run that crossing pattern. Back in his rookie year, uh Jordan Love came in and filled in for Aaron Rogers and they ran a play like that and Christian Watson just took off and ran down the field. It was very reminiscent of that. Uh he said going into this Bears game, Lou, uh he didn’t want to think about the injury having occurred against the Bears last time around in the same scenario. As the game went along, it did kind of dawn on him. Uh and he said, you know, he was reminded of things. Uh he’s just been a terrific player. You look at the numbers over the last four games, and the Packers gave him a one-year contract extension while he was rehabbing the knee injury, and there were some doubters about that. Now, my goodness, that’s one of the best investments the Packers could have made. Watson very comfortable in Green Bay and he’s going to have a whole lot more than just one mirror to go with this football team. He’s got speed. 6’4. He’s got size. What else do you want from a wide out? Uh, by the way, Packers got Jaden Reed back. Snap count. It’ll keep going up. I assume Matthew Golden, Dantavian Wix, they’re dealing with injuries. You think they’ll play at Denver, Tim? Uh, you know, maybe. Uh Golden’s just been kind of banged up the last month or so and hasn’t really been able to make an impact as a rookie first round draft choice. So, you know, there’s a guy if you say look what he could do. Uh he’s deep on the Packers depth chart right now. Bo Melton is listed as a cornerback. He had a 45 yard touchdown catch against the Bears. So, uh the Packers with their diversified receiver group are getting a lot done right now. Yeah, Melton’s first touchdown grab since 23. Pierre, how’s the health of the Vikings? Two questions. Give me the health status of the Vikings number one and uh with them needing a miracle for any postseason showing. I mean they’d have to get in at nine and eight. Will Kevin Oonnell get a look at some of the younger guys and sit the vets? Well, first and foremost on the injury front, clean bill of health. That’s certainly the good news for the Minnesota Vikings. Kevin Oonnell after the game didn’t have any injury updates to provide. Didn’t have any updates as well on Monday. So clean bill of health for the Vikings. And Lou, to answer your second question, no, not necessarily. I don’t think so. I think everybody wants to continue to go for it as long as they’re not mathematically eliminated. And really, when you look at this team, in particular, the offensive line, they all the starters, all five starters that started in that game against Washington, finally finished the game. First time all season, those five started and finished the game. We saw them start all five from left to right in that game against the Packers a few weeks ago. However, Christian Darasaw and Donovan Jackson left the game with injury. So, I still think that Minnesota, as long as they’re not mathematically eliminated, Kevin Oonnell is going to try to get every last ounce of energy and effort from these guys, and I don’t see any younger players cracking the lineup anytime soon because they want to go for it, even though it’s a long shot to get to the postseason. Last minute of the segment, I’m going to end it with you, Pierre. Justin Jefferson’s numbers awful again. Didn’t take kindly to sitting in the fourth quarter. Number one, tell us what happened. This guy’s got a $140 million contract, but it’s basically been a wasted season for Jefferson. Has his relationship with the Vikings deteriorated at all during all this? That’s not the impression that I get right now. I’m I’m certain that there has been frustration from Justin Jefferson’s perspective because last week against Seattle, you saw he did not speak with the reporters uh at the end of the game. That’s certainly uncharacteristic for him. He was all smiles after the game. Even though he only had two catches for 11 yards in the game against Washington, he was all smiles because Justin Jefferson, to his credit, is all about winning and the Vikings did just that. But as far as the relationship goes between Minnesota and Justin Jefferson, the relationship relationship there is just fine. The production just has to get there. I don’t blame Justin for being perhaps a little impatient, especially with the development of JJ McCarthy because yeah, Lou, as you said, it has been a lost season for Justin Jefferson and these Vikings. They’ve had to kind of wait around to see if JJ McCarthy can mature in a hurry. That did not come to fruition this week. So, yeah, there’s certainly frustration there, but as far as a relationship goes, nothing is sour just yet. Dan, before we uh close out this segment, you know, Jeff Jonia’s my guy. We’ve grown up in the business together. You’re my second favorite playbyplay guy, and I’m going to put you to the test right now. How about doing some Monday night playbyplay for us, the Monsters, Inc. edition last night. Did you see this? I did not see that. I was not on that channel, but that’s pretty good. I like that. We got a touchdown for the Chargers there. Oh, that was the uh was that the fake uh tush push there? And there they go down the left sideline. Saquon Barkley for the touchdown, but I don’t think it lasted. I’m going to say that the Chargers came back and won this game late. Oh, I love it. I want a little Dan Miller playbyplay here on the show. All right, we need to take our final timeout. We’re going to preview week 15 around the division when we come back here on First and North. [Music] It’s the final word for Chicago sports fans. This is what we wanted to see from the Bears. Chicago Sports Tonight covering the big plays. Touchdown Bears and the next moves. Join Luke, Cassie, and Tina. Chicago Sports Tonight, week nights at 9:30 on Fox 32 Chicago. All right, here are the matchups for week 15 in the NFC North. Bears look to bounce back. They come home, take on Shador Sanders and the Browns. If they lose this game, if they overlook Cleveland because they’ve got Green Bay on their mind, and they miss the playoffs, they have no one to blame but themselves. Uh the Packers head to Mile High, the Mile High City to take on the red hot Denver Broncos right here on Fox America’s game of the week. I’m excited to see this one. Jared Goff back to LA looks to keep the Lions playoff hopes alive. They’ll take on the one seed Rams who with a win could clinch a playoff birth and the Vikings look to play spoiler. They go to Jerry’s World to take on the Cowboys Sunday night. Tim, boy, tough game in Denver for your Packers. Yeah, no doubt about it. Packers have a very long level of futility uh in Denver. They had the one memorable overtime win to Greg Jennings right out of the shoot, but otherwise they don’t win at Denver very often at all. Now the Broncos are very good. So a tough one. And just a word of caution, they know Cleveland can be a winner in a trap game. Lou. All right, Dan. Lions win in LA. Boy, that would really boost the Lions playoff odds. Yeah, like we said, they don’t have much in the room of of of wiggle room right now to lose games. I think you got to go three and one to to finish the season. You don’t want to burn that one loss here. It’s going to be a tough game. Rams this year have played as well as anybody at times. Stafford is redot and against this secondary, the Lions are really going to have to step up and try to find some way to put pressure on him. Otherwise, he could have a big day. So, offense needs to be out there. If it’s a shootout, then bring your guns and let’s go. They got to be able to win a shootout against the Rams. It’s going to be a fascinating game. Lions have won the last two against LA. We’ll see where it goes from here. After the Rams, Lions have the Steelers. Then they’re at Minnesota and they finish up the regular season schedule here in Chicago against the Bears. Pier, why are the Vikings playing the Cowboys on Sunday Night Football? Well, I I kind of would go back to Dan’s point a little bit earlier and just kind of say, how about them Cowboys? I mean, the Cowboys are really the reason that are kind of dragging the Vikings on Sunday Night Football at this point. Yeah, I’m a little surprised it might have gotten flexed out, but as long as Jerry Jones is around, I don’t want to be the one to have the conversation with him explaining to him why I’m taking his team out of prime time. So, we can thank the Cowboys for keeping the Vikings center stage on Sunday night. You’re right. Packers Broncos would have been a better match up in front of the world. Even the Lions and Rams would have been great, but we’ll take the Vikings and Cowboys. That is it. Great show as always, guys, for Pierre, Tim, and Dan. I’m Luke Canelis. Exciting weekend of NFC North football comes your way again right here on many of the Fox stations. Till then, I’m Luke Canelis. Thanks for watching. We’ll see you next week here on First and North. [Music]