Game they had no business winning became a game they had no business losing. Push. On to Arizona.

— DaBearsBlog (@dabearsblog) October 28, 2024

Is Jayden playing?

Braggs says game time decision.

Bears win, either way.

Chicago Bears 27, Washington Commanders 23

Before the season, I broke up the Bears schedule into three distinct segments:

• Segment One: Weeks 1-6, leading into the bye.
• Segment Two: Weeks 8-10
• Segment Three: Weeks 11-18, wherein six of their final eight games are against division opponents.

Segment one was a success. Could the Bears have beaten both the Texans and the Colts? Absolutely. But they also could have lost to the Titans and Rams. 4-2 is a fair representation of the performance we’ve seen from this team over the first six weeks of the season, and 4-2 gives the Bears an opportunity to be playing knockout football in January.

The next evaluative moment in this season will come at the end of Sunday, November 10th. (For those of you not on Twitter, I’ll be presenting one of my favorite films, Sweet Smell of Success, at the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, NY that morning.) After these next three games, the Bears will have played (essentially) half their schedule, nine games, and will be able to establish clear win/loss goals for the second and far more difficult half of their schedule.

So, how do these matchups look?

Sunday 10/27 – @ Washington Commanders

General feeling: Toss-up.

The Commanders have been one of the real surprises of the 2024 season, mostly due to their rookie quarterback’s inspiring play. (The Bears fans on Twitter that seem to resent the success of Jayden Daniels need to grow up.) But Washington still doesn’t play much defense and, with two weeks to prepare, the Bears should be expected to (at worst) make this a shootout.

[Side note: I will be in attendance for this game, which essentially guarantees something abnormal will take place.]

Sunday 11/3 (NYC Marathon Sunday!) – @ Arizona Cardinals

General feeling: Lean Bears.

Arizona is a feisty team, but they are awful defensively, and that building in the desert will be at least half transplants from Chicago.

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It is Thursday night,

…and up comes the Riverboat!

Let the Fields wind blow!

We’ve reached the “moral victory” part of the season. So that begs the question…

Why Do I Like the Chicago Bears This Week?

I.

Always.

Like.

THE.

Chicago. 

Bears.

Thoughts: Commanders vs. Titans

This was a tough watch, but it provided something of a preview for Thursday night. Here are some things that stood out.

• Washington’s center Nick Barton had a nightmare, rolling several shotgun snaps to the feet of Carson Wentz. He also hit the motion man once. How are those mistakes still happening in the fifth week of the season?
• Both Washington and Tennessee consistently buried themselves beyond the chains with penalties and that allowed both pass rushes to essentially control the action. If the Bears find themselves in obvious passing situations, the Commanders will find themselves in the backfield quite a bit.
• While I have been as critical of Wentz as anyone, he threw a gorgeous deep ball in this game. He still makes 3-5 throws a game that make no logical sense but his touch down the field was there Sunday.
• Derrick Henry earned every yard against the Washington defense. It takes hard running to find success against this group. (Generally came away impressed with the unit from the TV broadcast tape.)
• Curtis Samuel is hell to deal with right now, and it’ll be surprising if the Bears don’t struggle containing him on third down.

Three Stats with Potential Value

• This is the first matchup for the Bears where the two teams have a significant gap in turnover differential. The Bears are at 0. The Commanders are at -7. If the Bears win the turnover battle, they’ll win this game.
• The Commanders allow opposing QBs a passer rating of 103.7. Justin Fields is going to have another opportunity for success in that category because Washington will gladly allow him the underneath completions to protect against the deep shot. Fields needs to take them.
• The most boring stat you’ll ever read: both the Bears and Commanders have a season-long punt return of 19 yards.

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