Thursday night against the Chicago Bears is the Washington Commanders' best chance to get a win since the opening weekend against the Jacksonville Jaguars over a month ago. But this is the Commanders and with them, a win – and even a complete performance for 60 minutes – is far from an assured outcome.
So is this the game Washington gets itself back into the win column?
"I want to say yes," former NFL tight end Logan Paulsen tells Kevin Sheehan. "But I kinda felt like [what we saw against Tennessee, the offense performed better, but they obviously still lost the game. The defense played really well against Dallas, but the offense was basically nonexistent. In any of these matchups when I felt the team should do well, they've struggled. Here I feel even more strongly that they should do well if they can limit their own mistakes" on offense.
"They need to protect the football, if they can do that I feel good about it. And then, defensively if they can kind of contain [Bears quarterback Justin] Fields in the off-schedule stuff, the offense, I think, kinda dies for Chicago. I think they can win the game, they can win that matchup," he said.
However, Paulsen says if the defense struggles to contain Fields during off-schedule plays and allows him to get outside of the pocket and create when plays breakdown, that is where things could go wrong for the Commanders.
"If you look at the defense of the last couple of weeks," Paulsen said of the Commanders, "they've struggled mitigating big plays. And this [Bears] offense is not a big-play manufacturer, but Fields is a big-play manufacturer. And they come sporadically, but they are big plays and they are for touchdowns."
Paulsen also went through the tape and evaluated the Bears' defense and called what they run in coverage as "pretty simple" so that should help quarterback Carson Wentz execute a game plan put together by offensive coordinator Scott Turner.
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He also said the Bears have "one of the worst pass rushes in the NFL" and they don't get pressure often, which should be a big help for Washington's under-fire offensive line.
Technically, you do the "football math" and come to an answer on-paper that says Washington comes out victorious, he added, but there are these other variables that make picking the Commanders for an easy-win over the lowly Bears hard to do.
"If they turn the football over its gonna be hard to win and if they can't keep Fields relatively contained that's gonna be a long day, too," Paulsen told Sheehan. "I'm gonna say yes [the Commanders win], but I have my reservations."
Listen to Logan Paulsen on Burgundy & Gold Gameday coverage tonight here:
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