3 things we need to see when the Chicago Bears take on Washington Commanders

The Chicago Bears are coming out of their bye week and now have a big game against the Washington Commanders who have a 5-2 record. The Bears are coming off of a couple of big wins and they were playing their best football before the bye week.

What do we need to see coming out of the rest?

3. The Chicago Bears defense should handle Washington, regardless of the quarterback 

This seems more like a bold statement than an expectation, but the Bears' defense needs to show that they have the upper hand here. If Jayden Daniels plays, the Bears will face arguably the best offensive attack so far this season. However, even if Marcus Mariota plays, you see how he torched the defense of the Panthers. Daniels left very early and Washington still put up 40 points. 

Still, the keyword from that last statement is that he did it against the Panthers' defense. There are going to be tougher tests for Mariota, and the Commanders offense in general. So far this year, they have not had many. 

They had moments, but overall, they struggled against the Bucs in week one. Since then they have faced the Giants, who rank 21st in expected points allowed. The Bengals rank 24th, the Cardinals rank 29th, the Browns rank 17th, the Ravens rank 27th, and last week they faced the 31st-best defense. 

The Browns are the only unit with some life, and they have been lying down due to DeShaun Watson. The Bears rank 3rd in this defensive metric. 

As dynamic as Daniels has been, there is something to be said about not playing any defense in the top half of the league so far. The rest of the offense still has questions.

The Bears' defense has some questions in the secondary, but their pass rush looks great and they are coming in rested, whereas Washington is not. There is no reason for Washington to have success, even if the rookie sensation plays. 

2. Caleb Williams should tear apart the Washington Commanders secondary

While Washington is stepping up in class and facing a strong defense, the Bears are stepping down, or at least playing a similar defense to the past few weeks. This means that we need to see more progression from Williams. They started with the Titans and Texans, who rank 11th and 9th in EPA per play allowed. Then, they faced the Colts, who rank 19th, and Williams found life. 

Since then, the Bears have faced the 26th-ranked Rams, 31st-ranked Panthers, and 32nd-ranked Jaguars. Yes, it simply cannot get worse than the defenses they have faced. However, the Commanders do rank 25th. Some of those metrics include Jonathan Allen and Dorance Armstrong, two pass rushers who may miss Sunday. 

The Commanders are trying to bring their struggling former first-round pick Emanuel Forbes back onto the field. Whether it be D.J. Moore, Keenan Allen, or Rome Odunze, the Bears need to remind the Commanders why Forbes was benched in the first place. 

There will not be too many more matchups that are this juicy for Williams moving forward. He needs to take advantage. 

1. The Chicago Bears need to get their other receivers going

When the Chicago Bears added Rome Odunze and Keenan Allen there was talk of this being a three-headed monster at wide receiver. The talk was that D.J. Moore may not be the number one. So far, Moore has been established as the number one and the other two have been sprinkled in at times. 

Odunze is a rookie, and Allen is aging and was injured, so this is more about expectations being too high than these two being an issue of any sort. Still, it is time to get these to be more involved. 

As noted, there will not be too many defenses with a secondary this weak. Both are healthy and coming off of the bye, both should be well integrated into the offense with much more time spent with Williams. 

Forbes is coming back to start across from Benjamin St-Juste, who has been up and down. This slides Mike Sainristil into the slot. He is a rookie who was expected to play the slot, but he has been on the outside with Forbes out. There is a lot of shuffling going on in the back end, and they have two young players involved in this. This is the type of secondary that these receivers should be ready to take advantage of.