Two straight road wins, yet the Bears' impressive turnaround and turnover-hungry defense are still overlooked. Washington claims a higher rank despite fewer wins.
For some reason, the Chicago Bears are not getting the respect they deserve after a 3-2 start under head coach Ben Johnson.
The team enters Week 7 on a three-game winning streak. Two of those wins were on the road, against the Las Vegas Raiders and, most recently, the Washington Commanders on Monday Night Football.
Chicago beat Washington 25-24 on a 38-yard game-winning field goal from kicker Jake Moody, who was called up from the practice squad in relief of Cairo Santos. Santos was ruled out of the game with a quad injury.
Even though the Bears have a better record than the Commanders and beat them, NFL.com's Eric Edholm ranked Washington higher than Chicago. Chicago came in at No. 18, while Washington is ranked No. 12 despite having a 3-3 record.
"Well, that's one way to make up for last year's debacle at Northwest Stadium," Edholm said. "With everything seemingly going against Chicago after a fine start at Washington on Monday night, the defense got two huge late stops, and D'Andre Swift took over. The road team really had an ideal game script, running the ball well, taking an early lead, winning the turnover battle 3-0, and getting quality kicking from Jake Moody, who was just added to the active roster to replace the injured Cairo Santos. But the whole operation threatened to blow up after Rome Odunze's TD was nullified and Moody's FG try was blocked. Thankfully for Chicago, Moody redeemed himself with the game-winning kick -- after a huge assist from Swift, who set up a much shorter try with one last chunk gain on the ground. That's two straight 25-24 nailbiter wins for the Bears, who seldom make it easy on themselves."
The Bears are behind the Atlanta Falcons (4-2), New England Patriots (4-2), San Francisco 49ers (4-2), Los Angeles Chargers (4-2), Jacksonville Jaguars (4-2) and Commanders.
While some of the teams deserve to be ahead of Chicago based on record, Washington being ranked as high as it was is puzzling.
The strides that Chicago has made this season deserve some recognition, especially under first-year defensive coordinator Dennis Allen. The Bears are currently second in the NFL in turnovers forced, with 12 heading into Week 7. The only team with more is the Jaguars, who have 14.
It'll be interesting to see how much the Bears move up the rankings if they beat the New Orleans Saints on Sunday. Kickoff is at noon CT on Fox.