Chicago Bears vs. Washington Commanders Preview & Prediction | PFF

Chicago Bears vs. Washington Commanders Preview & Prediction | PFF

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. October 10th is World Mental Health Day and this year we are saying thank you to therapists. BetterHelp therapists have helped over 5 million people worldwide on their mental health journeys. That’s millions of stories and millions of journeys. Behind each one of them is a therapist who showed up, listened, and helped someone take that next step forward. Moments in therapy like asking the right questions, having a safe place to get emotional or cry, or small wins that can change lives. This World Mental Health Day, BetterHelp is honoring those connections and the therapists who make them possible while showing how easy it is to get guidance from a licensed therapist online with BetterHel. I’ve been doing therapy for over two years and I couldn’t recommend it enough. It’s helped me so much with relationships with my friends, families, even myself. It’s helped me understand myself better and it’s just made for such a better life. It really has. With over 30,000 therapists, BetterHelp is the world’s largest online therapy platform, having served over 5 million people globally. And it works with an average rating of 4.9 out of five for live sessions based on over 1.7 million client reviews. This World Mental Health Day, we are collaborating with those therapists who have helped millions of people take a step forward. If you’re ready to find the right therapist for you, BetterHelp can help you start that journey. Our listeners get 10% off of their first month at betterhelp.com/pf. That’s betterhelphp.com/pff. The second Monday night, the second of the Monday night double header, I should say, is the Chicago Bears traveling to Washington to take on Jaden Daniels and the Washington Commanders. You want to talk about the Bears or the Commanders here for this one? We get another Hail Mary in this game. Is that what we’re doing here? Back back in back at the scene of the crime, man. This is where it all this is where it all turned for both of these teams. I hope so because that’s where uh that’s where me and my buddies hit the uh biggest part the biggest six-legg parlay we’ve ever had. I think I’ve told you this is that I’ve got a group of six of us and every single week we each just pick a a random NFL bet and we we pull it all together. We don’t talk to each other about it. We don’t influence each other. It’s just like I think this is going to happen. It goes, okay, all right, here it is. And it it was it the odds were stupid, whatever it was when we had it. And and the last play that we needed for that parlay to hit was the Jaden Daniels Hail Mary because we had the command I think we just had like commanders money line in that game, whatever it was. And so I’ll never forget that for as long as I live, the the Jaden Daniels Hail Mary making that happen. Oh no, what a what a play that was. I mean, for sure. Absolutely. But I I think you know the Commanders, we talk a lot about them running the football and their success and how much that correlates to them winning ball games, right? And we know on defense, you know, they’ve struggled in coverage, but I think a big factor in their success this year has been Bobby Wagner and their run defense up front. They’ve actually been outstanding. They are second in the NFL in run defense grade right now, Trevor. Second most run stops, 10th in yards per carry allowed. They’ve been outstanding up front. So, for as much as they’ve struggled, Marshon Latimore and those guys have at corner, they’ve been giving up points and and yards on the outside, they’ve been really darn good in run defense, man. Bobby Wagner’s got that the highest run defense grade in the NFL among all linebackers. So, you look at what they’ve been doing and then you look at, yes, the Bears, they want to run the ball. They re they rebuilt the offensive line naturally. Ben Johnson wants to run the ball, but they have the fourth fewest yards per carry on designed runs in the NFL. Can the Bears get DeAndre Swift going at all in this run game or is it going to be a one-dimensional game for them again? Now, can will they have success throwing the ball in this game with Roma Dunay with DJ Morales guys on the outside? They should considering the Commander coverage unit. I think Caleb Williams could have a lot of success in this game. But if the Bears are onedimensional, can they win this football game? That’s the real question for me. If they can’t run the ball, if they have no balance and Caleb just has to drop back and throw it 45, 50 times, can they do it like that? Can they outduel Jaden Daniels just throw forth throw on top of the fact that they still have to stop Washington’s run game? Because if the Bears are being kept off the field by the run game and Bill Crosky Merritt running hot right now, I think is he the highest graded running back in football that I see right now? Because he’s one of them. I can look I could look that up because he’s got to be one of them because I know there’s a bunch of draft Nicks right now that are going to celebrate the hell out of that if if he is. But I I mean, you just talk about the Commander ability to be two-dimensional and the potential for the Bears in this game to not really be able to run the football if they didn’t figure something out over the by-week. That could be a real problem for him. So, I think Caleb Williams can have success, but it would be nice to have some balance. He is the highest graded running back in the NFL through five weeks. He has a 90.1 rushing grade. Next is Kenneth Walker with an 83.7. And so he is the highest rushing grade by a lot. You draft scouts are just running laps right now on that one. I already know you are. It’s what it’s what you do. You got to take every every win every week, man. You know, I I’m I’m looking forward to seeing who Jaden Daniels is this week specifically over the middle of the field because it was an area where he was very confident passing the ball last season. He had I think it was a 78.7 passing grade over the intermediate middle of the field last year. Really high time to throw. So, to me, seeing that passing grade and also that low or sorry, low time to throw, I should say. Uh, seeing both of those things combined tells me how confident of a passer he was throwing it over the middle of the field. This year, he’s even better. 90.7 passing grade with a very similar low time to throw. He has the third best passing grade in the NFL when targeting the intermediate middle of the field. So, that’s 10 to 19 yards down the field. It’s where, man, if you can get good at attacking this area, you put st such a stress on the defense. You force the safeties to look over the middle of the field constantly. You force the linebackers to not creep into the flats and help on the outside, outside the numbers. It is just it’s tough sledding when you are giving up a lot of yards over the intermediate fe of the field. It’s a defeating thing in coverage. Chicago Bears haven’t been super great at the linebacker level when it comes to coverage. Uh T.J. Edwards reportedly gonna come back, but from a hamstring injury and he was even struggling a little bit when he was out there covering over the middle of the field. Tummaine Edmonds has struggled himself. Uh Noah Su has has struggled mightily when covering in that area of the field when he has been out there um with TJ Edwards when he was hurt. So I I’m I’m looking at that area specifically along with of course everything else like Bill Crosky Merritt still playing well. You know, obviously the diversity of the receivers that Jade Daniels has to throw to dbo Samuel. Um I can’t remember what’s Terry McLuren status for this game. I was just gonna look at that right now. Is I I don’t even remember if he he was like leaning towards playing in this game. But obviously the Commanders look good without him last week. And so to me it just it it only comes down to how confident Jaden is as a passer and obviously if they’re able to run the football really well. I talked about this last year when the Commanders were going off. Everybody’s, you know, freaking out about Jaden Daniels. Jaden Daniels, everything like that. And obviously, he’s a big reason why, but the Commanders were a good rushing football team last year. They were a lot more balanced than people I think were giving them credit for. So now we’re sort of having that conversation again with this team is when they run the ball really well and when Jaden hits over the middle and when he’s a factor in that run game, this Commander team is just really difficult to stop. Does Chicago have the players to be able to defend Jaden Daniels the way that they need to on some of those super confident throws that he has over the middle of the field? I think that is the X-actor part of this game. I think the Commanders and Jaden Daniels win it. Think it’s close game. I’m going to say Commanders 27, Bears 24. I I’m I’m with you. I think you’ll see a good amount of points. I have Commanders 30 and Bears 23. I just think Jaden Daniels came back last week and he was in such command of this offense even without Terry McLaren right now. Uh Noah Brown is practicing today. Terry McLaren is not. The other story to keep an eye on too. Um Dan Quinn says Sam Cosby, the right guard recovering from the knee injury is getting a full week of practice in. Not sure if he’s going to play Monday, but what a boost to their offensive line that would be on that right side also. You get a guy like that back in there. He’s going to be back in in the next couple weeks. it just a question of whether it’s going to be against the Bears or not, but you get Sam Cosmi back in there and then you’ve got the full picture now on this offensive line. That’s going to be a big boost as well. Um I I’ve got the Commanders, too, though. I think a high-scoring game, their ability to run the football. The only thing I’ll say for Jaden Daniels in that middle of the field, watch out because Kevin Byer’s always sneaking around in there somewhere. But the fact that they went into LA against that Charger defense without Terry McLaren and found a way to put up 27 points and really dominate the last three quarters of that game, that’s big time stuff. I think Daniels makes the difference in the run game. I think Krosky Merritt makes a big difference in this game as well. Give me the Commanders in a high-scoring one. Good shout out for Kevin Bard who has had some really big moments for them already this season and uh he is playing some good ball. He could definitely be an added bonus to that Bears secondary when it comes to defending those middle of the field throws. So,

PFF’s Dalton Wasserman and Trevor Sikkema preview the matchup between The Chicago Bears and The Washington Commanders.

Get 25% off your PFF Subscription!:
Code: PFFNFLSHOW25
Link: https://go.pff.com/nflshow25

Dominate your fantasy league: http://fantasy.pff.com/
Download the PFF App: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pff-fan…
Join our newsletter: https://forms.gle/maqTaBKcmdPR5Vma6
NFL/NCAA Player Grades: https://www.pff.com/grades

Thank you to our sponsors. If you’re interested in supporting our shows, please reach out to sales@pff.com