Bear & Balanced: Young Bears make a statement in San Francisco

That game didn’t go as hoped, but I, along with many others, came away feeling pretty good about the Chicago Bears. They fell a play short against the San Francisco 49ers, but rookies Colston Loveland (21 years old) and Luther Burden III (22) combined for 14 catches, 233 yards, and two touchdowns. Caleb Williams (24) had 348 total yards. Darnell Wright (24) flew in on Sunday morning and played one of his best games this season. Austin Booker (23) had Chicago’s only sack.

And they’re led by 39-year-old Ben Johnson.

The Bears are 11-5 and the NFC North Champs in Johnson’s first year, and this season still feels like they haven’t even come close to reaching their full potential.

Join JB and me live at 6:00 p.m. CT in the embed right here, or head over to our YouTube channel to join in on the show.

Podcast version right here:

Here’s our usual bullet point outline of Bear & Balanced.

• Intro: We’ll both share some general thoughts about the game.
• Trench Tribute: This is our weekly pick for the best Bears lineman.
• Caught up in a numbers game: This segment features one number or statistic from the game that we found interesting.
• 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’re both on Bluesky here and here as well.
• The Caleb Corner: We talk about quarterback Caleb Williams before we take our commercial break.
• The 3 Bears: You all know the story of the Three Bears, don’t you? In this porridge-themed portion of the show, we give our picks for the Bear that was hot, the Bear that was cold, and the Bear that was just right in the game against the 49ers.

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