Chicago Bears vs Oakland Raiders: NFL Week 5 Pre-Party Livestream and Open Thread

Good morning. Or I guess good afternoon if we’re going by London time.

Today’s game brings several layers of intrigue. There’s the impact of Chase Daniel starting today in place of the injured Mitchell Trubisky, there’s the revenge of Eddy Piniero against the team that traded him... Nope, can’t think of anybody else that fits that description, not in the slightest.

In all seriousness, the 2-2 Raiders have been a mixed bag this year, twenty games removed from the trade of their defensive superstar Kahlil Mack. Running back Josh Jacobs, the player picked up with the Bears’ first round pick, has looked very good in his first four games, a small bright spot in an offense with not very many. And defensively, Benson Mayowa has three and a half of the Raiders’ five sacks on the season.

While that doesn’t seem intimidating, for the Navy and Orange to cross the Channel to their fourth victory of the season, the defense will likely need to keep to their stellar pattern of work. The Chase Daniel offense looked a bit smoother last week en route to scoring all of one touchdown and three field goals, but we’ve expected better of the Bears’ offense through the first four games and thus far in sum, they’ve failed to deliver. Maybe this week contributes to getting everybody on track.

As they say in London (or really anywhere else): Bear down.

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Our plea for wins at the end of the last WCG Sunday Livestream brought back a pair, but at what cost.

• How comfortable do you feel about Mitchell Trubisky going forward?
• Will the Bears’ run game ever figure it out?
• Without naming London Calling, what one song gets stuck in your head when the Bears play in London?

If you want to get in touch with us during the stream, there are several ways to do that:

• Check the comments down below. Maybe with tea and crumpets. Ok, I’m done with jokes.
• Chat over on our Twitch side, over at SJS_illini
• And of course our Twitters exist. I’m at @SJS_illini; Sam’s at @SamHouseholder; the main handle is @WCGridiron.

We’ll be live at about 9:30 AM CT. See you then.