Washington Commanders Vs. Chicago Bears – Studs and Duds

What an embarrassing performance by Ron Rivera and the Washington Commanders Thursday night against the Bears. It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone to see a Rivera-led team lay an egg in PrimeTime. What should be a surprise is who it was against and how that egg was laid.

Washington got absolutely shellacked by an 0-4 team who had one of the worst defenses in the NFL to date. That poor defense held the Commanders to just 20 points – just three in the first half!

Defensively, Washington is now allowing a WHOPPING 32 points per game over their first five contests.

Ron, Jack and Eric preached this offseason about fast starts… Well, it looks like their go-cart has been strictly governed yet again!

Below are my Studs and Duds, followed by some notes.

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Studs:

Chase Young – Young was very disruptive all game, collecting a half sack and multiple pressures. He had what should have been another sack, but Justin Fields, who was still in the pocket while being in Young’s grasp, heaved up a pass to the sidelines that the refs didn’t call intentional grounding on.

Logan Thomas – Thomas was Steady-Eddie on the evening, hauling in 9 receptions for 77 yards and a touchdown. He did have a key fumble, but I will let him slide on that for this article, as the guy was literally fighting his ass off all evening – which is more than I can say for half the team.

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Duds:

Kendall Fuller – Fuller was playing really well to start the season, but he put up a big dud in coverage against the Bears. I did think he had decent coverage on the last D.J. Moore touchdown, however he just missed deflecting the pass and Moore took it the distance.

Emmanuel Forbes – Forbes had another rough game and was benched in the fourth quarter for Danny Johnson. He can’t seem to tackle either! There were two plays in the first half where he missed tackles; once missing two tackles on the same play.

Darrick Forrest and Percy Butler – The safeties, who both play as free safeties in Del Rio’s cover 2, have looked slow and indecisive to start the season. Although Butler is not a starter, he gets playing time back there, and neither have been good in coverage.

The Commanders Offense – Eric Bieniemy and the offense sputtered during the evening and were only able to put up 20 points against one of the worst defenses in the league at home. It was inexcusable to come out this flat and perform the way they did (minus a few bright spots). Charles Leno, Saahdiq Charles and Nick Gates had rough evening along the offensive line.

Cody Barton and Jamin Davis – For two coaches who were former linebackers to have this bad a linebacking duo is simply disgusting. Cody Barton has been a liability all season, and although I thought Jamin Davis had taken some steps forward, he definitely took a few steps back Thursday night. Rivera and Del Rio should be ashamed.

Joey Slye – The Commanders were showing some late life Thursday night, but Slye’s miss, on a pretty routine 46-yard field goal where he pushed it wide right, was the final nail in the coffin. Yeah, the snap was high (and Cheeseman should be cut), but Way handled it just fine and placed it perfectly: laces out.

Jack Del Rio – Through five games, Del Rio’s “vaunted” defense has given up a whopping 32 points per contest and has continued to come out flat to start the games. Jack continues to try and bring pressure with just four on too many plays, while sitting in a weak cover 2 most of the game. It may be time for him to go.

Ron Rivera – It’s pretty easy to see, for even the most casual fan, that the game has passed this dinosaur by. He constantly has the team unprepared early in the season, and struggles with teams he should beat. His personnel moves are literally embarrassing and his loyalty to underperforming players is nauseating. Now that we have adults in the building, one of them should fire Ron.

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Notes:

-Although Montez Sweat had a nice stat line (6 tackles, 1.5 sacks, 1 TFL), I didn’t see him making as many impact plays as his counterpart on the opposite edge.

-Terry McLaurin looked very frustrated out there. He did have a play down the right sideline where he was clearly interfered with and it was initially called a penalty, but the refs picked up the flag. The next play he caught a nice pass on the left side of the field for a chunk gain.

-It’s time to start St-Juste at outside cornerback and play our SECOND ROUND PICK Quan Martin in the slot, where he shined in college. Forbes needs to sit and gain some confidence back while working on his tackling skills during practice.

-Curtis Samuel is becoming an underneath threat in Bieniemy’s offense and should be targeted more. He’s outperformed first round pick Jahan Dotson to this point.

-Fire Ron Rivera!