2025 Week 6: Chicago Bears 25, Washington Commanders 24

Money. [Photo: Brian Cassella, Chicago Tribune]

Player Grades

The grading scale goes from -2 to +2, in half-point increments, for each play. Screens are graded as runs. Penalties are counted in whatever phase they were committed. Pre- and post-snap penalties are in the “Misc.” column. “Short” throws are less than 15 yards, “Deep” is over 15 or more. Everything else (scrambles, throwaways, reads, etc.) is under “Miscellaneous.” Parentheses in a column denote grades/snaps from the opposite side of the ball and are not included in grades/snaps from the player’s usual side. Snap counts are from Pro Football Reference. Box score and other relevant info can be found at that link as well.

Note: Clearly, I’m behind on the game review blogs. I’m going to try to have the New Orleans one up early next week and then get the Baltimore one up by the weekend, at which point, I’ll be caught up. I make no promises on that. As I told you a few weeks ago, this is a one-man operation. This becoming a full-time job is a dream scenario. This becoming a part-time job is more realistic, but we’re not even there at this point. If you would like to help me get there, send payment to $KSchroeder312 on Cashapp or Venmo. If this starts paying at least a decent amount, I promise to have film posts up on time as well as weekly What’s Going Ons and ideally, even some Blackhawks stuff again. If you guys are really generous, I can probably even find a Bulls guy. You can help by following Qwality Sports on social media, subscribing on YouTube, and watching the channel. All that’s free. If you feel like donating a few bucks, again, my Cashapp and Venmo are $KSchroeder312. If you have a business and would like to advertise on the blog or the channel, hit up @Q3_Media on Twitter. That concludes this week’s pledge drive.

Hello, run game.

It was the line all along. Grading clearly showed this, but when a tweet made the rounds on Bears Twitter showing the Bears among the top of the league in yards before contact, folks swore the problem was D’Andre Swift. My guess is that the sample was skewed by runs that were into open space that were long enough to throw off the data, but not long enough to be excluded from the sample altogether. Swift wasn’t missing many holes; there just weren’t holes there. The staff clearly made good use of the bye week, though, because now, all of a sudden, there are holes! And guys are getting to the second level! Well, most of them, anyway. Lookin’ at you, Jonah. Anyway, if you watched the Lions while Ben Johnson was there, you know that the run game was the engine of that offense. While we all saw big pass plays and guys wide open and fantasized about having something like that here for once, the foundation of all of it was the ground game. That the offense had functioned as well as it had here without that great run game was impressive. If they can consistently run the ball even 80 percent as well as they did here, this offense could be really dangerous sooner that we expected.

So Benedet was the key?

I don’t think Braxton Jones was the problem in the run game. Nor did I think he was truly awful in pass protection. However, he wasn’t nearly consistent enough, and that appears to have cost him his job. Theo Benedet in his first career start at left tackle was already better than Jones. So it appears Benedet being in the left tackle competition in camp wasn’t just a matter of the staff trying to not start Jones. It does beg the question, though, “why had they been starting Jones?” File that under “questions I would like answered but I know aren’t going to be.”

The run defense looked better, too.

Yep. Also in the file of “questions I would like answered but I know aren’t going to be” is “why did you not try Shemar Turner on the edge if you didn’t think he was a better tackle than Chris Williams and your edge defenders mostly suck?” Better late than never, though, and now it appears we have a viable edge defender. In the run game, at least. I’d like to see him get some more pass rush snaps to see what we have there. The run defense, though was awfully good. When he was playing inside, Turner was just getting moved too easily. He didn’t appear to have the strength to hang inside and stand up to double teams, but he was fine on the edge. He set the edge well, a task Odeyingbo still can’t handle, and made some nice plays. Looking forward to seeing more from him.

Monsters

All offensive line persons whose name isn’t Jonah Jackson were awesome. Jake Moody was clutch. Swift carried the ball well and had a huge TD reception. Kyle Monangai looked good when given the ball. DJ Moore showed he wants the rock, because he made some good blocks. Odunze ran good routes and made plays when given the chance. We covered Shemar Turner already. Gervon Dexter was solid. Kevin Byard had a very good game.

Chipmunks

Jonah Jackson, Dayo Odeyingbo, and the idiot who brought those guys in and paid them good money.

Four Stars of the Game

The offensive line, minus Jonah Jackson

  D’Andre Swift

  Jake Moody

Kevin Byard

Twitter, Bluesky, Threads: @312sportsguy