Stock up, stock down: Bears-Raiders

The Chicago Bears have a .666 winning percentage.*

That’s really impressive, on its surface. They have a .500 record in the month of October.

It’s a small run of success, but one that’s welcome to Bears fans, who have struggled to have any winning lately.

The Bears got the most out of their backup QB, put him in a position to win, relied on their ground game and had a defense that came up with stops.

Sure, it was against a bad Las Vegas Raiders team, with a very bad head coach, but nonetheless there were positives.

Let’s get to it.

*in their last three games

Stock up

Tyson Bagent, QB - Bagent was good. He was unspectacular. He was exactly what the Bears needed. He did what was asked of him and nothing more. That is an NFL skillset. We’ll see where it goes from here, but I think the Bears may have found themselves a decent backup QB, if nothing else.

Jaylon Johnson, CB - It’s no secret that Johnson wants to be paid. He’s set to be a free agent after the season and the subject of trade rumors. I understand that he has injury concerns and he hasn’t been a true lockdown corner. Plus, he hasn’t had a ton of takeaways. Well career interceptions no. 2 and 3 came at just the right time. For his first career touchdown he iced the game with over five minutes to play. He followed it up by picking off Aidan O’Connell on the next drive, too.

D’Onta Foreman, RB - Running backs have it tough and in some ways, Foreman has had it even tougher. He was inactive for two of the first three games. Once the running backs room was depleted by injuries, Foreman was called upon. He answered emphatically Sunday with 120 total yards and three receiving touchdowns.

Stock down

Larry Borom, T - It’s tough for me to get down too hard on an offensive lineman on a day where the line helped pave the way for a strong running game and only surrendered two sacks. But Borom was flagged twice for holding.

Yannick Ngakoue, DE - I know that the expectations are low for the defensive line, but the Bears only managed one sack against the Raiders’ backup QBs, neither of whom are known for being especially elusive. Ngakoue notched just one tackle in the contest.

Kyler Gordon, CB - I don’t want to get too down on him, because he was hurt, but I would’ve thought we would see more from him by now. By all accounts, he had a strong camp and then his unfortunate hand injury. But in the two games since his return he’s had zero passes defensed and just tackles on his box score, plus a QB hit. Hopefully, he can get it going soon.

Who do you have on your up and down lists this week?