After Tuesday’s practice, new Bears receiver Keenan Allen observed of the Bears defense:
“They look like a top-five defense,” he said. “They sound like a top-five defense too.”
The music and the cicadas aren’t the only things that are loud at Bears minicamp practices.
“Defenses are annoying, especially at practice,” Allen said. “You just hear them every time they make a play. It’s a hooray celebration. These guys are running up and down the sideline. So it’s annoying. Offense, we get a first down. One guy just trots around. He comes back to the huddle. Everybody is like, ‘OK, what’s the next play?’ … Their energy, the way they communicate, the way they get lined up, definitely high class.”
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There was more of that hootin’ and hollerin’ at Halas Hall on Wednesday, most notably when middle linebacker Tremaine Edmunds picked off Caleb Williams in a 7-on-7 situation and returned it for a touchdown.
“It’s intimidating for other people,” Bears cornerback Kyler Gordon said of the team’s confident, yappy defense. “People constantly getting hit. Constantly running to the ball, all 11 hats. Loud. Communicating loud. So I love it. Everyone’s saying something every day.”
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The more things change at Halas Hall, the more they stay the same. As the offense uses this practice time to grasp coordinator Shane Waldron’s system and Williams prepares to run an NFL team, the defense is tenured.
When Bears coach Matt Eberflus was asked about Williams holding onto the ball for seemingly too long during drills Wednesday, he admitted it isn’t just about a rookie QB learning on the job.
“Sometimes it’s really good coverage,” he said. “There are guys who have been around and been with each other for a while. So they understand our coverage concepts and how they complement each other and they’re on point in terms of that most of the time.”
GO DEEPEROne pressing question for every new NFL offensive play caller in 2024With that experience, Gordon said they’re setting lofty goals.
“I feel like the biggest thing for me and what we all talk about is takeaways, more takeaways,” he said. “We have the goal of 20 and 20 — 20 INTs and 20 fumbles. However we gotta get it, we’re gonna get it. That’s just kind of the standard that we’re putting ourselves to, that we all hold each other to.”
That’s no small ask, especially because of the difficulty of getting fumble recoveries. When was the last time an NFL defense got both 20-plus interceptions and fumble recoveries in a season?
Well, it was in 2012 and both the Bears and Patriots turned the trick. Lovie Smith’s last defense had 24 interceptions and 20 fumble recoveries, and the Patriots had 20 and 21. Smith’s Bears missed the playoffs with a 10-6 record, and the Patriots lost to Baltimore in the AFC Championship. (The 2019 Steelers were close with 20 interceptions and 18 fumble recoveries.)
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As much attention as the offense is going to get this season with Williams and his posse of stud receivers, no one on that side of the ball will complain if the defense steals some headlines along the way.
“We know what we want to be,” Gordon said. “The expectation is high for ourselves that we put our standards all the way up there. You can just feel that every day in practice.”
I’m starting to feel bad for the White Sox.
Two blown leads against the Cubs. Two 7-6 losses. And now the Sox (15-47) have tied the franchise record for consecutive losses at 13. They have a very good chance to set the record Thursday at home when they face Boston and starter Tanner Houck, who comes in with a 1.85 ERA. The White Sox, meanwhile, are starting Jake Woodford, who will be making his second start for the team.
To paraphrase the late, great Les Grobstein, “I’ll be there.”
With the losses at Wrigley Field, the Sox are now 5-26 on the road. Sparkplug Tommy Pham went on the IL with a sprained left ankle before the series and the team fell to 3-27 (!) when he doesn’t start. That is why I would give Pham a down-ballot MVP vote.
Of course, the Sox offense showed up early in both games and Pham doesn’t pitch. The pitching staff blew leads of 5-0 and 5-1 in the two-game set at Wrigley Field. It wasn’t much of a surprise considering the White Sox bullpen came into the game with a 4.57 ERA and has now blown 15 saves, the most in the majors. Sox relievers have given up leads in five straight games.
Tuesday marked the MLB-worst 21st blown lead loss for the White Sox. They’ve blown a lead in 46% of the games they’ve lost this year, per MLB Gameday Notes.
— Scott Merkin (@scottmerkin) June 5, 2024
How bad is it? Former White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, who fills the Charles Barkley role on the team’s postgame show, said he’s getting heckled by a Cubs fan working at his local McDonald’s.
"Unfortunately, I am a White Sox fan" – Ozzie Guillen pic.twitter.com/6TfU6IyoQY
— White Sox Talk (@NBCSWhiteSox) June 6, 2024
“Unfortunately, I’m a White Sox fan,” Guillen said during Wednesday’s show. A lot of Sox fans can relate.
The Cubs thrilled their fans with late rallies in both games against the White Sox, with Wednesday’s coming on a walkoff homer from Mike Tauchman off Michael Kopech.
Pat Hughes on the call 🎙️ pic.twitter.com/1brSLX9l8Z
— Cubs Home Runs (@Cubslongballs) June 6, 2024
I’m sure there’s some kind of value to these gritty, come-from-behind wins for a Cubs team that came into the series in a major slump. But I also don’t think you can take too much from them considering the context of their opposition.
The Cubs have a lot of issues and one of them is starting pitcher Shota Imanaga. Mark me down as officially concerned for the 30-year-old “rookie.” His unreal start is in the past and the present is murky.
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In his last two starts, he went just 8 2/3 innings, giving up 12 runs on 15 hits, though only eight runs were earned. In that span, he has given up three homers, including a two-run shot by White Sox infielder Lenyn Sosa, who is now tied for second for career homers at Wrigley Field by a guy with the surname Sosa. (Sammy is first with 293 and then come Edmundo and Lenyn with one.)
Against the Sox, Imanaga struck out five in his first three scoreless innings but in the fourth, his location was spotty, and with his velocity, that spelled trouble. He only induced two whiffs in that inning.
“He had some misses kind of along the thigh line,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said after Tuesday’s game. “A couple balls he was trying to go away on he just pulled to the middle part of the plate and not up. He pulled them to the middle of the strike zone. They did a nice job. Shota, he has to make pitches as well. He’s not immune to that. He has to make pitches and if you don’t make pitches, they’re going to get you.”
The Cubs thought he was tipping pitches against the Brewers, who hit him from the start last week, and it looked like the Sox were ready for him the second time through the batting order. He’s slated to start again Sunday in Cincinnati.
While gambling talk isn’t for everyone, I did find two betting angles interesting from the crosstown series.
For the bad beat angle, Imanaga’s strikeout total was 6 1/2. He struck out three in the first and tacked on two more in the next two innings. He got his sixth strikeout to end his otherwise disastrous five-run fourth inning. But with two outs and two strikes on Luis Robert in the fifth, the game was delayed by rain. Imanaga didn’t return when play resumed and, well, that’s why the house wins.
On a more positive note, I’m guessing a lot of live bettors took advantage of what 670 The Score host (and Sox fan) Laurence Holmes calls the “Holmes Maneuver,” which is simply betting against the Sox after they take a lead. I didn’t check the odds Tuesday, but I remembered to on Wednesday. The Cubs were +450 on one site after the Sox took a 5-1 lead and I’m betting (pun intended) that a lot of Sox fans made a little money off their own misery.
(Photo of Caleb Williams: Quinn Harris / Getty Images)
Jon Greenberg is a columnist for The Athletic based in Chicago. He was also the founding editor of The Athletic. Before that, he was a columnist for ESPN and the executive editor of Team Marketing Report. Follow Jon on Twitter @jon_greenberg
