Love to watch football! What a fun treat that was! Hope everyone's ready to start their week!
That was the worst loss of the Bears season. There might be more impactful losses still to come, but you can't tell me that it's ever going to get more infuriating than that. Even losing in Green Bay at the end of the season will feel more acceptable than what happened in Landover on Sunday afternoon. I'm not going to get into a recap of what happened because no one's interested in ever talking about this again. Let's get to some winners and losers before blocking this out from our collective memory forever.
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2 Winners and 2 Losers from arguably the worst loss of the Bears' season
Winners
1. Caleb Williams
At the risk of sounding like a homer, Williams was impressive in a different way than usual on Sunday. His stats were awful until the fourth quarter, and the way some of his throws sailed – especially early in the game – made it seem like he was probably a little too juiced to be back playing in his hometown. He ended the day 10/24 with 131 yards, which is admittedly underwhelming without context. The reason Williams is a winner today is because he did something that Justin Fields never seemingly could: lead a 4th-quarter, game-winning drive. Obviously it wasn't technically, you know, a game-winning drive, but that's obviously not on Williams.
If this season still ends up being way more about his development – and given how the NFC North looks, I sorta think that ends up being the case – Sunday was as good a lesson as they come. The signs are encouraging, even on "off" days.
2. D'Andre Swift
A lot of people, myself included, were pretty wrong about Swift. He had another huge day – 18 rushes, 129 yards, one touchdown – and now has 90+ rushing yards in three of his past four games. The Bears' offense was anemic before his 56-yard touchdown run, and it was honestly a little infuriating that he wasn't getting fed more. Given how the Bears' offensive line played, it's even more impressive. The Bears' running game is starting to take a little bit of shape over the past month – once they figure out who to hand the ball off to on the one yard-line, they're going to be unstoppable.
Losers
1. Shane Waldron
What was that?! Seriously though, what was that? Waldron's playcalling was about as bizarre as it's been all season, which is saying something. Giving the ball to a backup offensive lineman on a goal line dive with the game on the line was the headliner, but Waldron played plenty of his greatest hits as well. Two straight QB draws? You bet! The most ill-advised and disastrous looking wide receiver screen on 4th and 1? Light work. Williams would start dealing and they'd call a bunch of runs, then Swift would start dealing and they'd call a bunch of passes. It was so egregious at times that you almost wondered whether he was trolling us all. (Not really. But also maybe a little bit?) It'll get lost some in the flurry of the Hail Mary, but Waldron was a disaster on Sunday.
2. Chris Morgan
The Bears need a new offensive line coach. There's just no other way to put it at this point. I know some of the advanced stats are a little kinder to the line, but I don't know how anyone can be happy with what they're putting on tape. The Commanders technically only sacked Williams twice, but he was uncomfortable in the pocket all day and was constantly having to either run for his life or get the ball out quicker than he wanted to. The line overhaul that's coming to Chicago this winter probably includes more than just a coach, but that's not a bad place to start.