Wild Card Saturday Recap: Rams and Bears Leave With Clutch Wins
The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL
The Athletic
4.6 • 3.3K Ratings
🗓️ 11 January 2026
⏱️ 63 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Robert Mays, Derrik Klassen and Dave Helman recap the first games of the 2026 playoffs. Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears take down the Green Bay Packers after yet another improbable comeback. The Carolina Panthers gave the Los Angeles Rams a scare, forcing Matthew Stafford's squad into a close fourth quarter. What's next for the Panthers after being eliminated in Bryce Young's career postseason debut? And should Sean McVay be concerned about his team's flaws going into the divisional round?
Rundown (timestamps are approximate)
0:00 Welcome to the show
0:05 Packers-Bears
11:30 Caleb Williams & Bears offense
13:07 Colston Loveland
14:20 Packers defense
18:00 Should Packers loss result in firings?
27:55 Bears outlook
32:00 Caleb Williams pt 2
35:36 Rams-Panthers
39:03 Panthers defense
41:21 Matthew Stafford & Rams offense
50:20 Panthers offense
53:20 How concerned should Rams be?
59:42 What's next for Panthers?
Host: Robert Mays
Co-Hosts: Derrik Klassen and Dave Helman
Executive Producer: Michael Beller
Video Producer: Katy Duffy
Audio Producer: Michael Beller
Social Producer: Scott Krinch
Follow Robert on Bluesky: @robertmays.bsky.social
Follow Derrik on Bluesky: @qbklass.bsky.social
Follow Dave on Bluesky: @davehelman.bsky.social
Follow Robert on X: @robertmays
Follow Derrik on X: @QBKlass
Follow Dave on X: @davehelman_
Theme song: Haunted
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the athletic football show. |
| 0:04.9 | I'm Robert Mays. |
| 0:06.5 | That was one heck of a day of football. |
| 0:08.2 | We're recording this and recording this intro after we just did a live reaction to Bears Packers and Rams Panthers. |
| 0:14.1 | I'm doing a little bit better now than I was at the beginning of that show. |
| 0:18.0 | I mean, just an unbelievable night. |
| 0:19.9 | Just an unbelievable night. I still can't believe |
| 0:22.6 | that happened. It just seemed like it was over halfway through that game and somehow the bears |
| 0:27.5 | claw their way back. An insane football game. We dug into all of it with me, Dave Hellman, and |
| 0:33.4 | Derek Classen. And then the first game today was excellent. |
| 0:39.3 | Panthers are 10.5 point underdogs. |
| 0:43.0 | They give the Rams all they can stand in that one. So just an amazing opening night and opening day of the NFL playoffs in the wild card round. |
| 0:50.5 | Everything you could ask for for guys sitting in our chairs. We had one heck of a time on |
| 0:56.6 | this show. Let's get to it right now. I don't even, I don't even know what to say. That was one of |
| 1:07.2 | the craziest things independent of my personal investment in that game. |
| 1:12.4 | Just one of the craziest football games I have ever seen in my entire life. |
| 1:17.0 | All anyone wants out of playoff football, unless like, again, like all you want is for your heart to be bumping at the end of it. |
| 1:23.8 | I don't really care about either. |
| 1:25.4 | Like, I'm not a fan of either of these teams. |
| 1:44.3 | And my heart was going for the last, like, once we got inside the two minute, I was like, oh my God. We saw this on the horizon like six weeks ago, Bears, Packers in the playoffs. But I didn't see it on the horizon at the end of the first half. I thought this was gone. That's worth pointing out. But just for a game that we had five, six weeks to joke about, to be even dumber than our wildest dreams, it just, it was so good. |
| 1:53.6 | And it speaks to who the Bears have been this season. |
| 1:56.8 | Of course they came back. |
... |
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