He hadn’t lined up for the Chicago Bears in almost 50 years, but on Thursday night, the Bears honored Dick Butkus, their former linebacker, arguably the franchise’s most famous defensive player and Pro Football Hall-of-Famer the best way they could, and in the way he’d likely have most preferred: they won a football game.
Hours after the announcement that Butkus, one of the league’s honest-to-gosh icons, had passed at his home at 80 (Butkus passes at 80 | The Football Beat), Chicago rolled all over the Washington Commanders, winning 40-20 and claiming their first victory of the 2023 season (Fields and Moore lead the Bears to their first win of the season, beating the Commanders 40-20).
Receiver D.J. Moore had an incredible night, collecting eight catches from recently-beleaguered quarterback Justin Fields for 230 yards and three touchdowns to help put the Commanders away. And they wouldn’t go away quietly: coach Ron Rivera’s team trailed Chicago, 27-3, at halftime, roared back to cut it to 30-20, but missed a field goal late in the fourth quarter that would have gotten them within a touchdown, and then the Bears scored the game’s final 20 points.
The Bears broke a 14-game losing streak with the win, and might have saved coach Matt Eberflus’s job: reports for the last 24-48 hours had Eberflus on the (extreme) hot seat, some even going so far as saying that if the Bears lost to Washington Thursday night, in a game streamed on Amazon Prime, that he might be done as their coach.
Fields finished with 282 passing yards, almost all of it to Moore, and then rushed for 57.
Butkus, though, might have pointed out that the Bears’ defense did its part, too, with five sacks of Commanders’ quarterback Sam Howell and two turnovers.
On the other side, it was Washington’s third straight loss; they had taken unbeaten Philadelphia to a 31-all tie before losing in overtime, 34-31, on Sunday.
The Bears are 1-4 now, and are home against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, Oct. 15. Washington is off until then, as well, and will be on the road at Atlanta.
