Commanders coach Ron Rivera can sympathize with chaos, struggles Bears are going through

Ron Rivera understands what the Chicago Bears are going through.

In his first three seasons as coach in Washington, the former Bears linebacker and assistant dealt with one off-the-field distraction after another, from the NFL and Congress investigating owner Dan Snyder’s dealings to the Drug Enforcement Administration raiding the facility and home of trainer Ryan Vermillion.

Earlier this season, Rivera relished a line of questions about the long snapper situation because if that was the Commanders’ biggest problem, it’s good to just be worried about football.

“Things have changed, and it’s been different,” he said. “It’s been refreshing.”

Not so much with the Bears, who are mired in chaos off the field and winless on it. They visit Washington on Thursday night with a player in exile for undisclosed reasons, their defensive coordinator gone for what he said was health and family reasons and little reason to believe they’re primed for their first victory in nearly a year.

“When you lose, we’ve lost a couple games here this year, for me, everybody has frustrations,” said Matt Eberflus, who has lost more than a couple of games — 18 of 21 games, actually — since taking over as Chicago’s coach. “But you got to be able to control your emotions and focus on the task at hand.”

The task at hand is a prime-time matchup against the Commanders, who are 2-2 after back-to-back losses, but are feeling better about themselves after pushing defending NFC East champion Philadelphia to overtime. Moral victories don’t amount to a hill of beans in the NFL, but players see the upcoming schedule starting with the Bears and know this is the time to stack wins.

“We’ve got a lot of games in front of us that are, for sure, winnable,” second-year receiver Jahan Dotson said. “We should do pretty well during this little stretch.”

Commanders wide receiver Jahan Dotson, shown pulling in a 10-yard touchdown catch against Philadelphia on Sunday, says his team has “a lot of games in front of us that are, for sure, winnable.” (Jonathan Newton/Washington Post)

Upcoming for Washington are games at Atlanta and the New York Giants, who have been outscored 94-15 in their three losses. But first the 0-4 Bears, who are coming off blowing a 21-point lead to lose to Denver.

And that’s just the start of the problems at Halas Hall, where receiver Chase Claypool is no longer welcome to work at. Eberflus declined to say why he and general manager Ryan Poles asked Claypool to stay away from the team.

“We feel right now this is the best decision for us,” Eberflus said.

The drama surrounding Claypool comes after defensive coordinator Alan Williams abruptly resigned earlier this season and franchise quarterback Justin Fields suggested he was being overcoached, comments he tried to walk back later the same day. Fields on the field has rebounded; he’s coming off throwing for a career-best 335 yards and four touchdowns against the Broncos, which is one glimmer of hope for the Bears, who last won a game on Oct. 24, 2022.

“You want to win,” Fields said. “I’d rather throw for 50 yards with three picks and we still win the game than what happened this past Sunday. At this point, winning is just the No. 1 thing on my mind.”

Same for the Commanders, who because of their favorable, last-place schedule could be in the mix for a wild-card spot if they get on track. Despite FanDuel Sportsbook setting Washington as a 5 1/2-point favorite, receiver Terry McLaurin insisted he and his teammates aren’t taking Chicago lightly.

Slingin’ Sam Howell: Even in a losing effort, Commanders starting quarterback Sam Howell bounced back in a big way against the Eagles. After throwing four interceptions and getting sacked nine times in a blowout loss to Buffalo, Howell had 330 yards combined in the air and on the ground and avoided a turnover at Philadelphia.

Howell goes into just his sixth pro start looking to build off that performance.

“The more games that we play collectively as an offensive unit, the better we’ll be,” Howell said. “The more we get more comfortable with (first-year offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy) calling the game and just everybody, — the whole process, players, coaches, everybody included — the more we can do that together, the better we’ll be.”

Up next

Bears (0-4) at Commanders (2-2), 8:15 p.m. Thursday (Prime Video)