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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I like Ron Rivera.

I root for Ron Rivera.

I greatly respect Ron Rivera as a human being and a leader of men.

But my respect for Ron Rivera as the CEO of a professional football team no longer exists.

Because there is no possible rationale for giving up ANYTHING, let alone MULTIPLE third round draft picks, to acquire Carson Wentz as your starting quarterback. Carson Wentz, whose signature play has become flipping the ball casually to defenders on his own goal line. Carson Wentz, who two franchises, in two years, have been desperate to ship to Anywhere That’ll Take Him, USA.

I give you three tweets from Chris Trapasso of CBS Sports:

Text from a friend: “Lol why do ppl keep trading for Wentz”

I have no clue

— Chris Trapasso (@ChrisTrapasso) March 9, 2022

Carson Wentz was pretty good in ’17. But him going No. 2 overall in ’16 is an integral part in his maintain reputation as a player *some* teams believe is capable of being a high-level QB, despite much evidence suggesting the contrary.

Draft position matters, for many reasons.

— Chris Trapasso (@ChrisTrapasso) March 9, 2022

15-minute cool off period is over for me seeing the Wentz news, and I still can’t believe it

— Chris Trapasso (@ChrisTrapasso) March 9, 2022

There is enough data around this league to prove unequivocally that NFL teams are not run by competent individuals. And NFL personnel departments are nothing more than a collection of football junkies doing educated guesswork. There is no longer reason to show deference to these individuals because moves like this one for Wentz prove they simply don’t know what they are doing. Rivera has been in the league 40 years. His personnel department have 60 years or more of experience. How on earth could they have reached this inept conclusion?

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