Bears Limitations Must Be Stressed

In a short work week, the Bears need to stick to what works and use measured risk against the Commanders and Carson Wentz.

The Bears on Thursday night will wear orange helmets with the letter "C" on the side instead of the traditional navy with the letter "C" on the side.

It's not likely to fool anyone.

They're still the same team with the same issues they've had in the first five games because of their lack of overall talent at receiver and on both the offensive and defensive lines.

The chance they'll look even worse than they have so far is even greater because quarterback Justin Fields has never started an NFL game on a short work week.

What the Bears have working in their favor is Carson Wentz is Washington's quarterback, and even if he has a big arm he also has big problems avoiding mistakes while playing with his third team in three years. 

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Now he's  a quarterback with his third team in three years trying to prepare for a game in a short work week. 

He's still Wentz, whether he's wearing an Eagles, Colts or Commanders helmet, just like the Bears are still the Bears whether it's an orange or navy helmet.

Here's what the Bears need to do in order to avoid looking like a bunch of pumpkinheads Thursday night, even though they'll look like a bunch of pumpkinheads no matter what. 

Here are the three keys to the game.

1. Mixing in Defensive Risk

After last week's disaster in the first half, Alan Williams said he should have been a little safer in the first half.

"With that, I probably should have called a little bit of two-high (cover-2) a little earlier to help the guys out before they scored and we got down," Williams said when asked about regrets from last week.

Williams can't live in the past. He needs to be aggressive because Wentz is in freefall now.  However, he can't just throw the defensive playbook at Wentz.

Wentz has made mistakes in every game and rapidly loses his comfort level. He gets frustrated easily, throws things around in a fit on the sidelines, and then coach Ron Rivera says things about him he later regrets. Washington has committed more turnovers than their opponents in all five games.

Confuse Wentz early, harass and frustrate him then, and he'll have a hard time getting his footing. Turnovers can follow.

However, they can't be too exotic in their looks and try to force these mistakes because they've had only three days to prepare for the game. It can't be too complicated because they haven't had a proper week of defensive preparation.

Wentz can be a deadly quarterback when in rhythm and has an excellent group of receivers with Curtis Samuel, Terry McLaurin and Jahan Dotson. Washington is second in the league in completions over 25 yards.

Taking too many defensive risks early can open the door to big plays allowed against explosive receivers and with the handicap of only three preparation days.

Measured risk is the best way to put the approach the Bears need to facing Wentz.

2. Booting Up

Fields found he couldn't execute the bootleg pass plays the Bears wanted to use coming out of the blocks this season because teams were sending defensive ends straight upfield to cut off the edge for the quarterback, then relying on their linebackers to fill the big gap caused by taking this approach.

It's time to restart the bootleg because Washington's linebackers have been a liability but they do have excellent defensive linemen, like Montez Sweat. The Commanders can't afford to overplay the bootleg because their linebackers don't react fast enough and have struggled, in general. 

The bootlegs should work well. RPO plays should work well like they did at times against the Vikings, whether it was Fields keeping it and running or letting the back take it.

Washington has had problems defensively at just about everything. The Commanders gave up a huge passing game to the Philadelphia Eagles by overcommitting to stopping the run. They went the opposite way against Detroit.

They have forced one turnover for the entire season.

They're having the same problems defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio had when he was with the Raiders and that's after leading the defense to a big jump in productivity, they've rapidly tailed off.

The Bears need to continue Fields' success established last week and, to some degree, the previous week, by running the plays they thought would initially be their calling card this year because now they've shown they can hurt teams with different types of plays. They need to put pressure on Washington's struggling linebackers.

3. Go Back to the Well

The Bears had two players in particular foul up last week and both are receivers.

Ihmir Smith-Marsette and Dante Pettis produced four bad plays between them: Smith-Marsette a questionable illegal block on a TD run by Fields and losing the ball after he refused to go out of bounds and Pettis two dropped passes one week after another dropped pass.

The Bears need to go back to both and use them with confidence, and count on them to make up for their mistakes from the previous week.

They went back to Velus Jones Jr. right away and he redeemed himself with a 9-yard TD catch off a shovel pass one week after his muffed punt cost them the game.

The reason they need to count on Smith-Marsette and Pettis in this is there have been only four days since the last game to the next one and not much time to prepare alternatives, and also because the other option isn't ready yet. 

N'Keal Harry has been activated for the 53-man roster but he hasn't much training camp or preseason, arrived in Chicago just before camp so he doesn't know the playbook as well, and is coming off surgery. They'll need to work him in slowly. It means for now they lean on two players who fouled up last week and give them chances to redeem themselves after they struggled.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven