3 things the Chicago Bears must do to beat the Commanders

The Chicago Bears must develop a pass rush

This is not going to be easy. Not because the Commanders have been able to prevent sacks. In fact, it has been quite the contrary. On paper, the Chicago Bears should be able to generate pressure on the Commanders and Carson Wentz. Washington has allowed 20 sacks — the second-most sacks to this point in the season. The problem isn’t that Washington is good, it’s that the Bears’ defense has been bad.

The Chicago Bears are 25th in the NFL in sacks with an average of fewer than two sacks per game. The Giants have given up pressure, yet the Bears only got to the quarterback once and it was their safety Jaquan Brisker who generated the sack. The front four has been relatively ineffective outside of a few flashes by rookie Dominque Robinson and third-year player Travis Gipson. Each game has essentially the same outcome in this regard and that isn’t good enough. They may need to blitz more than the 18.5% the defense is averaging this season.

Even if they don’t get to the quarterback, at least creating pressure can lead to mistakes. This is especially true when talking about Carson Wentz. If you allow Wentz to sit back there and have all day to throw, then he will throw for over 300 yards. Putting pressure on Wentz can lead to takeaways for the defensive backfield as he’s thrown six interceptions (more than one per game on average) already this season.