Rick and Steve preview Sunday night's Bucs-Bears game at Soldier Field. Rick says Chicago (6-2) has beaten both of last season's Super Bowl teams in the last two weeks, including a win in Seattle, and calls the Bears a real NFC contender with Caleb Williams getting better each year and Ben Johnson among the league's best play callers. Rick calls it a different weight class for the Bucs but says he still believes in Todd Bowles' defense. Alex Anzalone was named NFC Defensive Player of the Week, and Tampa Bay leads the league in takeaways. They talk about what Chicago's trade for Jeffery Simmons does to that defense, the Bears being on a short week after Seattle, and a schedule Rick says is the third easiest in the NFL the rest of the way. They also look ahead to the bye and then Detroit.
The big question is the passing game. After 11 attempts in Carolina and none in the rain against Atlanta, Rick and Steve wonder how quickly Baker Mayfield (no glove on his healing thumb anymore) and a thin receiver room can get back in rhythm, with Emeka Egbuka possibly missing another game. Steve asks whether the offensive line, which has dominated as a run blocker, can handle pass protection against a defense coming at it. Rick credits Zac Robinson's heavy two- and three-tight-end looks and the blocking of rookie Bauer Sharp, and both hosts say the Bucs can't be one-dimensional against Chicago. Along the way Rick tells the story of how he once covered the White Sox in Chicago when it looked like they might move to the Tampa Bay area, until the Illinois governor stopped the legislature's clock and a new Comiskey Park was funded.
After a Breitling Boutique sponsor read, Steve runs through a stacked college football Saturday, including Alabama at LSU, Miami at Notre Dame, Georgia at Ole Miss, Kentucky at Tennessee, and Texas at Missouri, with USF at ECU on Friday night and the Gators hosting Oklahoma. They mention the loss of Miami's Malachi Toney to surgery and say it is too early to worry about the first rankings. The mailbag covers why Coe Keefe is playing mostly on special teams, Rick's B-minus grade for the Bucs' 2026 draft class (Rueben Bain, Josiah Trotter, Keionte Scott, and Bauer Sharp), and whether Stamkos or Mike Evans was harder to lose (Rick says Evans, and Steve adds the Bucs never really replaced him). They wrap with a Lightning doubleheader, at Minnesota Saturday night and at Winnipeg Sunday before the Bucs kick off.