NEWSLETTER
The Chicago Bears are making their debut on Amazon Prime’s Thursday Night Football as they host the Washington Commanders. It is the Commanders’ first trip to Soldier Field as the Commanders. The Bears will be sporting their new orange helmets with the orange alternate jerseys that they brought back a few years ago, and they’re going to look crispy under the lights at Soldier Field.
Coming off his best performance of the season, Justin Fields has a great opportunity to replicate it (and hopefully put on an even better show) against Washington.
The Bears enter the week at 2-3, but they’ve been in the game to the end of the last two weeks against the Giants and Vikings. Hopefully, they can clean it up a bit this week. If they can, they’ll head into their Monday Night Football game next week at .500.
Game Info
Washington Commanders (1-4, 4th NFC East) at Chicago Bears (2-3, 3rd NFC North) – Amazon Prime Video and FOX-32 (Al Michaels, Kirk Herbstreit, Kaylee Hartung); Westwood One (Ian Eagle, Jason McCourty); Spanish Broadcast (Miguel Gurwitz, Ronaldo Cantu, Mayra Gomez)
Kickoff Time: 7:15 CT
Site: Soldier Field; Chicago, IL
Referee: Adrian Hill
Odds: BEARS -1, O/U 38 (via DraftKings Sports Book)
We Got $5 On It
Note: Patrick’s listed bets were placed on Draft Kings Sportsbook, while Luis’ were made at BetMGM.
Lu’s Plays (Season Record & Net Winnings: 2-3, $19.25)
Patrick’s Plays (Season Record & Winnings: 1-7, $-16.50)
You can get in on this action at DraftKings:
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But there are a number of other official gambling apps you can use (with some juicy promos) right here.
Starting QBs and Projected Game Stats
Commanders: Carson Wentz: 24/38, 265 passing yards, 1 TD, 1 INT; 3 carries, 15 rushing yards
vs.
Bears: Justin Fields: 13/21, 156 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT; 3 carries, 33 rushing yards
Week 6 projected stats via ESPN projections
Bears Projected Starters
Offense
• QB Justin Fields
• RB David Montgomery
• WRs Darnell Mooney, Equanimeous St. Brown, Velus Jones Jr.
• TE Cole Kmet
• LT Braxton Jones, LG Lucas Patrick, C Sam Mustipher, RG Teven Jenkins, RT Larry Borom
Defense
• LDE Al-Quadin Muhammad, LDT Angelo Blackson, RDT Justin Jones, RDE Robert Quinn
• SAM Nicholas Morrow, MIKE Joe Thomas, WILL Roquan Smith
• LCB Jaylon Johnson (he’s back!), RCB Kyler Gordon
• FS Eddie Jackson, SS Jaquan Brisker
Specialists
• Cairo Santos (kicker), Trenton Gill (punter, holder), Patrick Scales (long snapper), Velus Jones Jr. (kick and punt returns)
Commanders Projected Starters
Offense
• QB Carson Wentz
• RB Antonio Gibson
• WRs Terry McLaurin, Dyami Brown, Curtis Samuel
• TE John Bates
• LT Charles Leno Jr., LG Andrew Norwell, C Nick Martin, RG Saahdiq Charles, RT Cornelius Lucas
Defense
• LDE James Smith-Williams, LDT Daron Payne, RDT Jonathan Allen, RDE Montez Sweat
• WLB David Mayo, MLB Cole Holcomb, SLB Jamin Davis
• LCB Kendall Fuller, RCB Rachad Wildgoose
• FS Bobby McCain, SS Karmen Curl
Specialists
• Joey Slye (kicker), Tress Way (punter, holder), Cameron Cheeseman (long snapper), Dax Milne (kick and punt returns)
Three Bears
Cole Kmet entered Week 5 with an uninspiring line of 8 targets, 5 catches, and 56 receiving yards in four games, but delivered his best game of the season with 4 catches and 45 receiving yards against the Vikings.
As Justin Fields gets more comfortable, Bears receivers should start to see more success. So, with Fields and Kmet having their best games of the season against Minnesota a few days ago, I am once again begging to see this connection make some progress.
Darnell Mooney has succeeded almost exclusively as a big play artist this season, so Justin will still need someone in the short-medium range and over the middle, and I’m hoping that guy is Kmet.
Justin Fields turned in his best performance of the season on Sunday against the Vikings. Fields completed 15-of-21 passes for 208 yards, a touchdown, and no interceptions. Fields’ 118.8 passer rating was the best of his career, and he looked calm and confident for much of the game, really starting when he hooked up with Darnell Mooney for this spectacular catch.
Fields even looked good on the game’s final drive before Ihmir Smith-Marsette acted as a double agent for the Vikings (I kid, but for real …) and coughed up the game in a momentary lapse in judgment.
In October (two games), Fields has completed 26-of-43 passes (60.5%) for 382 yards, a touchdown, and zero interceptions with a 97.2 passer rating. No, those aren’t amazing stats, but they’re much better than September’s numbers. Playing against the Washington secondary, which sounds like a Madden NFL auto-generated draft class (save for Kendall Fuller), Fields has a chance to continue the October trend against the Commanders.
The Commanders secondary, led by the less good Fuller brother and something called Rachad Wildgoose has allowed 235 passing yards per contest and their defense as a whole has allowed 25.6 points per game, so there’s an opportunity for Fields and the Bears offense here.
Jaylon Johnson is on track to make his return this week, and the Bears secondary desperately needs his help. Johnson missed the last three weeks with a quad injury, and the Bears’ passing defense has taken a hit.
Johnson ranks 9th among cornerbacks in PFF position grades this season, while Kindle Vildor, Kyler Gordon, and Jaylon Jones rank 38th, 88th, and 99th, respectively. Justin Jefferson cooked that Bears secondary last week, hauling in 12 passes for 154 yards, and I’m just happy that the Bears will have Jaylon back to handle Terry McLaurin this week.
