Yesterday on Twitter, The Ringer equated the NFL's Thursday Night schedule we've been handed thus far with The Office's Michael Scott forcing Kevin to eat broccoli. It's apt; these last couple of games have been tough to watch.

I wish I could say things will get better, but it's not really the case. Three of the next four are New Orleans-Arizona, Philadelphia-Houston, and Atlanta-Carolina (really?). The fourth (Baltimore-Tampa Bay) looks good. But Amazon Prime has not made out well in terms of compelling matchups. Financially I'm sure they're doing just fine, though.

QUARTERBACKS:

Predictably, you didn't get much if you started Carson Wentz. Washington's first three plays went Run, Run, Sack. Their next series went Run, Run, Pass!, Run, Incomplete Pass, Sack. Wentz deserved better; he had a nice throw over the middle in the red zone that should have been a touchdown but Curtis Samuel dropped it. But it was a run-heavy game plan, wisely, and Wentz himself was playing through a biceps injury of some sort. He also had his hand crumpled against a defender after one pass that seemed to bother him. The final numbers, 12 of 22 for 99 yards. But for some drops it could have been 150 and a touchdown. Still not good.

One thing I do have to mention is on Washington's short touchdown, the previous play was a 5-yard run down to the 1-yard line where Wentz threw one of the better blocks you'll ever see from a quarterback on Roquan Smith. Without that block, Washington wouldn't have been at the 1 the next play and maybe wouldn't have scored. Washington isn't going anywhere this year and I don't know what they'll decide to do with Wentz long-term. Ron Rivera threw him under the bus earlier this week, and maybe there's no coming back from that. But he's not the worst starting quarterback in the league, and if Washington dumps him they won't necessarily have a better option next year.

Justin Fields passed for 190 yards and a touchdown (inches away from a second one to win the game) and ran for 88 more. If you started him in fantasy, or in a FanDuel lineup like I did, you made out pretty well. Fields is just 23 years old, he's got plenty of time to develop as a starting quarterback. He threw a pass at the end that should have been a game-winning touchdown, had his receiver caught it right away (instead, he was short of the goal line when he finally managed to secure it). His receiving corps is weak and his offensive line is worse. He got sacked 5 times and it could easily have been 7-8. And it's not his fault his punt returner gift-wrapped his opponent's only touchdown, seemingly losing the ball in the field lights or something.

But Fields is also at fault on some of failings. Most notably last night, the Bears ran a clever goal-line play that gave Fields an easy little toss to blocking tight end Ryan Griffin for a touchdown. Fields put too much air under it and it fell incomplete. A throw that's got to be made. He was also intercepted near the goal line on a throw that bounced straight up in the air off a defensive lineman's helmet. To be clear, this was not a play where the lineman got his hand up and tipped it. The ball clanged off his forehead. Ultimately, the Bears made three trips inside the 5-yard line and came away with no points.

It's tough to jam in touchdown throws down near the goal line. We've seen it repeatedly this year, and with better quarterbacks (Russell Wilson, most notably, but even Aaron Rodgers struck out down there against the Giants). Teams who seem to come away with touchdowns most often are Kansas City, Buffalo and Baltimore. Why is that? Because they roll the quarterback out or just run him on draws, and with 3-4 such plays, they usually get in. I'm aware that Washington was watching for it, but I believe that if you run Fields or roll him out on most of those plays rather than asking him to jam in throws to receivers or make perfect touch passes, more trips down there will result in touchdowns.

Final thought, at least Chicago is letting Fields throw it a little more the last few weeks. Three games in a row he's finished with at least 50 more passing yards than he did in any of the first three games. Nice throw on the touchdown to Dante Pettis (which I'm still not sure he actually secured with both feet in bounds). Maybe there's hope for him yet, and with that rushing production, he merits occasional starting consideration.

RUNNING BACKS:

You got a little lucky if you started Brian Robinson. Washington did come out trying to run it, but Chicago came out loading up to stop it. Robinson's 17 carries went for just 60 yards, and he wasn't targeted in the passing game. He had a 16-yard run, but most were short gains. I'm not trying to rip the guy, I'm aware he got shot 6 weeks ago. Just saying he looks like a meat and potatoes runner who won't be getting the kind of blocking that's going to turn him into the next Alfred Morris. He's a starting option, but unlikely he'll be a top-15 or 20 running back -- not in this offense, not this year. That was a good matchup; maybe Week 7 (home against Green Bay) will be too. But two of three after that are the Colts and Eagles. I see some good games up ahead (Texans, Falcons), so there will be some good weeks. But clearly last night would have not worked out had Chicago not muffed a late punt near their own goal line.

Antonio Gibson carried 5 times for 35 yards and caught 3 passes for 18 yards. It can be argued that he'd have done better than Robinson with a larger workload. But he's not going to get it, so it's a moot point. J.D. McKissic didn't catch any of the 3 passes thrown his way, with one clear drop. I had to start him in a league where I've got a couple injury/bye situations, which didn't work out, obviously. Washington will play some higher scoring games against better offenses, and that will yield a couple of 5-catch games for McKissic. But no one is going to feel good about putting him in a lineup, and Gibson is borderline droppable in some leagues -- he's basically a backup running back.

David Montgomery played about three times as many snaps as Khalil Herbert, but Herbert had the lone big play, a 64-yard run where he had a sweet cutback to burst into the open field. He then remained in the game to try to punch in a touchdown, where he of course wasn't successful. But he finished with half as many carries (15-7) and Montgomery's single target was the only one either back saw. They've combined for 15 catches in 10 combined games. You kind of need touchdowns for either back to pay off, and the Bears aren't going to be winning a lot of line of scrimmage battles near the goal line (and when they do, it might be Fields carrying it).

Chicago's next two are against New England and Dallas, which won't be great for the ground game probably, but then there will be weeks to use Montgomery: Miami, Detroit, Atlanta, the Jets. So patience is in order, and I think Herbert is still worth rostering, on the chance Montgomery gets hurt or it's more of an even committee at that point.

WIDE RECEIVERS:

Lots of people probably got burned starting Curtis Samuel, but if you watched the game you know it was at least very close to working out. Samuel saw a team-high 5 targets and dropped 2 of them, including a walk-in touchdown. The other drop, I don't know, it looked like he tried to catch it with his wrists. What can you say? The first five games he caught 32 passes, averaging over 6 catches per game. He certainly should have caught 5 and a score last night.

Terry McLaurin caught 3 for 41, with a couple of end-zone throws. One was broken up on a really nice defensive play where the defender got his arm up to block it without even turning his head, he just knew where the ball was, seemingly, by what McLaurin was doing in trying to haul it in. Nobody was particularly excited about McLaurin in fantasy drafts, and I think we can see why. It's not a great passing game, not a great quarterback, and there are other good or at least serviceable receivers here. If McLaurin ever has a 6- or 7-catch game, well, it's in the far future probably. And this was with Jahan Dotson inactive. Washington's three other wideouts combined to catch 2 passes for 11 yards.

Darnell Mooney is coming around, what with Chicago passing the ball more. Mooney in his last three games has 13 catches for 194 yards. He was thisclose to catching the game-winning touchdown last night, one of the ultimate bad-beat losses. Throw was there, Mooney couldn't secure it until he was just short of the goal line. At least he's usable.

Equanimeous St. Brown and Dante Pettis were the other wideouts to play throughout, not to similar effect. St. Brown wasn't even targeted. Pettis was thrown to 7 times, and had an impressive touchdown grab (though it can be debated whether he got both feet down and the catch secured). Pettis also might have got hurt on the last series, but regardless, no one should realistically be starting the Bears' No. 2 wideout. And the other two guys who played (Velus Jones, Imhir Smith-Marsette) combined for 1 catch, and Jones' horrific muffed punt.

TIGHT ENDS:

John Bates seemed like a sneaky cheap start in salary cap competitions, with Logan Thomas ruled out. Unfortunately Bates somehow injured a hamstring in pre-game warmups -- what are they doing in warmups that produce injuries? -- and was held out. Rookie Cole Turner had a sweet leaping catch over the middle of a high throw that got him blasted after (a hospital ball, it's sometimes called) but just 1 other reception. Cole Kmet had an early 15-yard reception and that was it for his night. I want to believe, but even the flicker of life from Chicago's passing game hasn't made Kmet usable just yet.

MISCELLANEOUS:

Is it too early to talk about the wide receivers the Bears passed up to draft Velus Jones in the third round? Here's a couple, Romeo Doubs and Khalil Shakir. Jones has played in three games and caught 2 passes. One was a touchdown last week, so there's that. But more critically he's lost fourth-quarter fumbles, one that prevented the Bears from maybe making a late drive to tie up the Giants, and the other that handed Washington a gift touchdown (at no point last night did it look like Washington was going to drive the field for a score). Last night's fumble looked like what would happen if you put me back there to field a punt; it was like he'd never seen a football coming to him before. Jones has some skills on returns, but he's not going to ever get the chance to show it with game-losing plays like that.

Both defenses, combining for 8 sacks, an interception, that fumble recovery and very low points allowed, paid off in lineups in most fantasy leagues. Matchups count, and we'll keep on endorsing defenses facing Wentz and Fields the rest of the way. Especially in points-allowed scoring systems.