Windy City Gridiron
The Bears lost a heartbreaker that they may not have deserved to win in the first place.
Sunday was such a frustrating loss for the Chicago Bears.
Coming off the bye week, winning three straight, so many good vibes, it seemed like things were finally improving for the team. It looked like the offense and quarterback Caleb Williams were hitting their stride.
But it all came crashing to a halt against the Washington Commanders. The offensive line looked like the first two weeks of the season. Williams looked like he lost all of the touch he’d shown during the winning streak and head coach Matt Eberflus made some baffling decisions.
The season isn’t lost but the loss brought back a lot of bad feelings about the coaching staff and the overall future and direction of the team, specifically the development of Williams.
Stock up
D’Andre Swift, RB - Swift was great against Washington. He broke a 56-yard run to get Chicago back into the game. Then he hurdled a guy. Overall he had another great game.
Montez Sweat, DE - Sweatfaced his former team for the first time and played quite well. He notched a sack, two TFLs and three QB hits.
Tory Taylor, P - Taylor had another strong game and it helped the Bears tremendously as they needed to play the field position game often. He pinned five of his seven punts inside the 20 and had zero touchbacks.
Stock down
Matt Eberflus - It was a disaster of a game plan, especially on the fate-sealing Hail Mary. His excuses, starting with defending the 13-yard completion on the play before the final play as “not mattering.” Then he stood by the decision to rush just three with a spy and said we need to execute better. A good coach reminds his players of small coaching points to avoid getting caught in those moments. Or taking a timeout. There are just so many little things that demonstrate he isn’t a good head coach. He’s 3-17 on the road as head coach and he’s 1-2 after a bye week.
Caleb Williams, QB - I’m not down on him longterm, but he did not play well Sunday. I don’t know if he gets too juiced in certain situations, but the touch he demonstrated before the bye was gone. 10-for-24 is horrific and there were some bad missed passes in there. His fourth quarter was way better, but this is a game he’s going to want to learn from.
Tyrique Stevenson, CB - There were chances for Stevenson to really be a hero in this game. he saved a touchdown to Zach Ertz with a really nice play on the ball. But his unnecessary roughness penalty followed by the entire Hail Mary saga and apology on X after declining to speak to the media was just all bad. I think Stevenson is a good player and I like his swag, but he clearly needs to learn to control his emotions better in...
