The Takeaways, Week 8: Chicago Bears at Washington
October 29, 2024
by Steve Thomas
Wow. I guessed in both The Hog Sty Podcast and in our written game preview that Washington would win this game in a fairly low-scoring affair, but I never thought that it would end in the most fantastic and improbable of all possible endings. Washington has now finished the second quarter of the season with a 6 – 2 record and in first place in the NFC East – which, let’s be honest, is a very unexpected result. The bottom line about this week’s game is that it was a struggle on both sides of the ball at times, but the were able to tough it out and get the victory. It’s time now for everyone to catch their breath and revel in an amazing victory. Not too long, though, because more work needs to be done. This week’s Takeaways are below.
Fantastic Finish
The final, game-winning hail mary pass was certainly exciting and not the kind of thing that karma ever let happen during the prior owner’s tenure. The actual pass completion itself was more just dumb luck than anything, as the ball just happened to get tipped backwards, not forward, directly into Noah Brown’s hands. It’s never possible to predict if and when something like that can happen in a scrum situation at the goal line on a last-second hail mary. What is worthy of discussion, though, is that Jayden Daniels made the hail mary attempt possible at all on the prior play. Daniels made a brilliant 13 yard completion to Terry McLaurin on a square out pattern that took just 4 of the remaining 6 seconds on the clock. If that pass wasn’t completed, then the hail mary is probably pointless. Then, on the final play, Daniels was able to scramble and extend long enough to create space to allow him to finally step up and make the throw. Those two events are what made the highlight reel finish possible. This moment will be a classic Washington play that we’ll all remember in the years to come.
Daniels toughs one out
Speaking of Jayden Daniels, I think it’s worthwhile to note that he really toughed out a difficult game. It wasn’t his best effort from a statistical perspective; he was 21 for 38, which is a 55.2% completion percentage, for 326 yards and the 1 game-winning touchdown, for a 92.7 quarterback rating. He led the team into the red zone several times, but had to settle for 5 field goal attempts. It appeared as though his rib injury was somewhat limiting at times, and he missed some passes that he normally would complete. To be fair, his receivers didn’t help him at times, with multiple dropped balls, and a couple penalties at inopportune times also hurt. The big picture here though is that Daniels got the job done, in miraculous fashion, in spite of his injury and having to face the NFL’s stingiest defense through week 7. I can’t imagine that Daniels isn’t the runaway favorite for Offensive Rookie of the Year honors right now. The more relevant question is where he falls in the league MVP race. Stay tuned in the second half of the season.
Terry McLaurin strikes again
McLaurin did drop a ball on a fairly long pass in this game that he normally would have come down with, but he still finished with 5 receptions in 8 targets for 125 yards, which is an average of 25 yards per reception. This included what the television broadcast team claimed was Daniels’ longest completion of the year, 61 yards. This is McLaurin’s third game of the season with over 100 yards receiving, and he was just 2 yards short of a 4th one last week against the Panthers. After a bit of a statistical downturn amidst the franchise’s difficulties last season, McLaurin seems to be returning back to the elite receiver that we all know he can be. At this point, it seems likely that he’s probably in the running for his second Pro Bowl spot. The fact that he and Daniels have gotten on the same page after a difficult first couple of weeks of the season ought to be encouraging for the fanbase.
Washington holds down Caleb Williams
Williams started the season very slowly, with three bad games to start the season. Since then, though, he’s been very good, albeit mostly against competition that was less than stellar. Washington was able to make things difficult for Williams in this game, as he completed just 10 of 24 passes, for a completion percentage of just 41.7%, 131 yards, and no touchdowns, for a 59.5 quarterback rating. More than that, though, he was just 3 for 8 for 33 yards at halftime, which is downright terrible. Washington only had 2 sacks, but put good pressure on him throughout the game, and the secondary didn’t have any of the major lapses that we’ve seen this year. I’m not sure whether the secondary is rounding into form or if Williams’ poor performance was just a confluence of circumstances, but either way, it worked. Williams has talent, and in my view is going to be a franchise-level quarterback if the Bears handle him right. Today, though, Washington got the better of him.
Bobby Wagner’s big day
In this game, Wagner had 7 total tackles, including 5 solo, plus 1 quarterback hit, which isn’t necessarily an off the charts performance. He wasn’t even the team’s leading tackler, an honor which belonged to Quan Martin, who had 11 total, including 9 solo. Regardless, I wanted to use some space here to praise Wagner, which I haven’t had much cause to do so far this season, because he really made an impact at times this week and, at least for one game, looked like the Wagner of old that was part of the Legion of Boom in Seattle. Wagner made life tough on Caleb Williams, and that’s a good thing. Congrats to him on a job well done, and here’s to hoping that he can repeat this kind of impact in the second half of the season.
That’s it for this week. Next up to start the second half of the season are the division rival New York Giants up in the Meadowlands.