Windy City Gridiron
Going into Sunday, the Chicago Bears had a chance to rid themselves once again of the demons that haunted them in 2024, breaking through a (4-2) start with an additional win to match their 2024 win total seven games into the season. Instead, the team will leave Baltimore with many more questions than answers after being thoroughly dominated from the second quarter on. In many ways, it was the same team with the same mistakes we’ve seen all year. The most significant difference on Sunday afternoon was that their ridiculous streak of takeaways ended, and the offense still couldn’t find the endzone consistently enough to keep them in the game. With mistakes persisting and quarterback Caleb Williams’ development stalling (if not regressing), the Bears will be tasked with figuring things out over the next six days before another winnable road game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Before we close the book on an altogether disappointing Week 8 loss, let’s dive into our weekly installment of 10 Bears Takes.
1. The Way The Ravens Handled Lamar Jackson’s Injury Status Went Far Beyond An Attempted Gain Of A Competitive Advantage. I Would Expect The NFL To Look Further Into It And Eventually Levy A Punishment.
There are many layers to what happened between Friday and Saturday. None of them are excellent optics for a league that has prided itself on public transparency regarding the accuracy of injury reports, in the wake of a pair of NBA gambling scandals that landed both Terry Rozier and head coach Chauncey Billups in federal custody. Now, I’m by no means suggesting that this deception had anything to do with gambling, in fact, I would say the bigger issue is the opposite: It was an extremely tone deaf decision by 17-year head coach John Harbaugh and the Baltimore Ravens organization to try and pull a “quick one” when it impacted the betting lines as much as it did. At one point, the Ravens were favored by as much as 7 points. That line quickly shrank to 1.5 for most books by mid-afternoon on Saturday.
Despite the Ravens’ (1-5) record, the stark differences between Jackson under center and any other backup during the Harbaugh era have been notable. Baltimore is just (4-12) in the Jackson era when he’s not the starting quarterback, while averaging just 15.3 points per game. Suffice to say, the difference between Jackson and Huntley (or Rush) under center is worth at least a full touchdown, if not more.
In Baltimore, they claimed that they thought they could label Jackson as a “full participant”, even if he only took snaps as the scout team quarterback. Despite that flimsy claim, the rules are clear, and no one should be convinced that a 17-year head coach magically forgot (or didn’t know) the set of rules that have been in place far longer than he’s been in the league. It seems clear that the Ravens intended to keep the Bears guessing, but in the process, they were dishonest, and...
