Commanders quarterback Sam Howell finished with 388 passing yards on 51 attempts (7.6 yards per pass), logging a pair of touchdown passes and one costly interception at the end of a lopsided first half against the previously winless Chicago Bears.
But coming off a promising rebound performance against the Eagles, Howell showed flashes of good and bad and piled on most of all his yardage in garbage time after an ugly first half in which he had just 71 yards passing and was down 27-3 at the break. Howell was also sacked five times for a loss of 29 yards.
Given the situation, while taking the totality of the work into account, The Sports Junkies gave Howell mainly mediocre grades for his Week 5 performance against a lackluster Chicago defense.
Here’s how the grades shook out:
JP: C
Bish: C+
Cakes: C+
EB: B-
"Ultimately the quarterback is responsible for the team," JP Flaim said. "What did they do in the first half? Nothing. They did nothing. So, F in the first half. An A in the second half, I thought he threw some really beautiful balls. Some that weren't caught... some really nice balls."
Howell finished with a 99.1 passer rating and a 46.0 QBR. Both numbers were bested by the Bears' Justin Fields who threw for four touchdowns and 282 yards on 29 attempts and posted a 125.3 rating and 77.1 QBR.
“I think it was a lot of empty-calorie yardage and numbers,” Cakes said. “Kirk Cousins was killed for years for basically putting up gaudy stats in meaningless time. And for me, when you’re down 27-3 at the half, you’re basically done. The game is over at that point…the 388 [passing yards], it’s nice, it looks good at the end of the year, but that’s a lot of empty-calorie yardage as far as I’m concerned.
"Couldn't get out of the pass rush was sacked five times. I don't know how many of those are on him, how many are on the line, I'm sure it's probably down the middle. I can't give him better than a C+ even though he passed for almost 400 yards."
Howell has heart and made some plays with his legs, but he threw the ball late and took a ton of sacks, Flaim added. The full conversation can be heard on the audio player above.
