Bears vs Raiders One on One: Week 4 Matchup to Watch

The Chicago Bears and Las Vegas Raiders have a few similarities:

• 1-2 Records
• New Head Coaches (Ben Johnson and Pete Carroll)
• Young Offensive Talent (Caleb Williams, Rome Odunze and Brock Bowers, Ashton Jeanty)
• Bad defenses (Bears have allowed 31.0 ppg and Raiders have allowed 24.7 ppg)

However, this past week could prove two teams moving in different directions. The Bears are fresh off of their most convincing victory in at least a calendar year, beating the Cowboys 31-14, while the Raiders got pummeled by the Jayden Daniels-less Commanders, 41-24.

There are a lot of key matchups we should be focusing on, including who keeps Bowers/Jeanty from their respective breakout games, if Wright/Jones can shut down Maxx Crosby, and whether the Raiders can exploit the Bears beat up secondary with their upstart duo of Jakobi Meyers and Tre Tucker.

But I think the biggest matchup this week will be between young, lanky players on the outside: Darien Porter, Raiders CB, and Rome Odunze, Bears WR.

Rome Odunze vs. Darien Porter

Darien Porter is a 2025 3rd round pick out of Iowa State. To this point, he has played very little, notching his only 16 snaps of the season against the Commanders in Week 3. Still, with the Bears running personnel groupings of 3WR or more 54% of the time, it’s likely that the Raiders will need to utilize a combination of Stokes, Porter, and Blu Kelly often. This rings especially true as Blu Kelly (NB) will frequently need to cover Kmet, Loveland, or Zaccheaus out of the slot.

While Porter’s professional tape is light to this point, his 6’-3” size and 80” wingspan suggest that he will need to matchup with the Bears lengthy Rome Odunze.

In the other corner is Rome Odunze. The 2nd year pro is already proving his lofty draft pedigree to be well worth it. In three games this season, Rome has already notched 16 receptions, 227 yards, and a league leading 4 TDs. With a 14.2 yards per reception average, Odunze has emerged as a legitimate downfield threat.

If the Bears are going to waltz into Las Vegas and earn a second straight victory, it will be crucial that Williams and Odunze exploit the rookie just as they did the feckless Cowboys’ secondary. I expect the Raiders to build on their best offensive performance of the season against the Commanders and force the Bears to score in bunches.