Biggest problems the Bears need to address during the bye week, including a struggling run game on both sides of the ball
Great time to reassess some things.
Welcome to the early bye week. The Chicago Bears will be off the game field until October 13th when the team faces the Washington Commanders on Monday Night Football, giving Chicago tons of time to reassess the first four weeks and plan out the final three quarters of the season.
Having the earliest possible bye is a double edged sword. It gives you a early period to stop and look back over some things before bad tendancies become bad habits, but the final stretch of the regular season becomes a long drag to the finish.
For the Bears, having the early bye actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise for how this team currently looks after the first four games.
“It actually works out well for out team right now,” head coach Ben Johnson said on an interview with ESPN 1000’s Jeff Joniak. “We’re going to have a lot of clarity as a coaching staff schematically where we want to go and then physically we’ve been dinged up a little bit here early in the season. I think we’ll be able to get some reinforcements back real soon.”
Beyond the reinforcements, the Bears have a lot of major areas to look at a clean up during the bye week. Here are the Top-5 areas of concern the team is currently dealing with.
Top-5 Areas Of Concern To Address During The Bye Week
1. Offensive Run Game
Offensively, the biggest problem is with the run game. The passing game is spreading the ball around at a high level, the offensive line is keeping the quarterback clean, but the run game struggled to move the ball efficently week in and week out during the first month of the season.
The easy target to blame is D’Andre Swift. Swift leads the team with 56 rushing attempts with the next closest back (Kyle Monangai) having just 17 attempts. With that heavy share, Swift is averaging 3.3 yards per carry, which ranks 33rd among all RBs with 25+ attempts. Yet, Johnson doesn’t believe the blame should fall on Swift’s shoulders alone.
“I don’t think our running struggles are a reflection of D’Andre Swift,” Johnson told reporters on Monday. “I think he’s a guy that continues to run the ball very hard, even though the yards per carry aren’t where any of us what it to be right now. He’s as frustrated as anybody right now. He’s very prideful in what he can do and what he brings to the table.”
Johnson previously pointed to the offensive line not creating the proper running lanes and struggling to hold blocks, which is true as well. But, until the Bears start getting another back more involved, it’s going to continue to look like a Swift problem.
2. Leaky Run Defense
The same thing goes for the defensive side of the ball, the run game has been a consistent struggle on a weekly basis. Outside of the Detroit Lions meltdown, Dennis Allen’s defense has held up pretty well across the board outside of defending the run.
Through four weeks, the Bears have allowed 658 yards and 6.2 yards per carry, each are the most in the entire NFL. Granted, the team has basically played the entire season without starting linebacker T.J. Edwards and nickel cornerback Kyler Gordon who can help improve the unit in that area, but being without those two isn’t an excuse.
During training camp, the Bears were more physical and active with tackling than most teams tend to be during that time of the year, yet the problems are all fundmental issues and not being able to tackle in space. Even though the coaching staff is okay with the final results, it’s still a concern.
“At the end of the day, the most important thing is limiting the opposing offense and the number of points scored. And so, if that means that we’re giving up some rushing yards but yet we’re keeping them low on the scoreboard, we’ll manage with that,” Johnson explained. “No one likes seeing six yards – seven yards – per carry. That’s not what Chicago Bears football is about. That’s not what we want to be about. And so, we’re working very diligently on getting better in that regard.”
3. Offensive Tackle Situation
This is something that was bound to take place based on how the first three weeks were going and in Week 4 changes were finally made at the offensive tackle position, some not by choice.
Right tackle Darnell Wright, who’s struggled with penalties this season, was ruled out for the game with an elbow injury and the team turned to Theo Benedet to start the game. Toward the end of the second quarter, the Bears weren’t pleased with the performance of left tackle Braxton Jones, replaced him with Benedet, and put rookie Ozzy Trapilo in the game at right tackle.
With that new tackle combination, the offense started clicking a lot better in the second-half, which will lead to some hard conversations about how the position looks after reviewing all four players.
“We need to look at all 4 games as a whole. We’ll get a feel the next few days schematically what are we doing well what are we not doing well. It’s too early for me to tell you that,” Johnson said. “We need to go through the process and find out what’s best for us and our team. We have a lot of talented individuals and I believe in our coaching staff as well.”
4. Consistent Lack of Pass Rush
Lost in the struggling run defense and improved play of the secondary has been how inconsistent the pass rush as been as well on the defensive side of the ball over the last two weeks, especailly considering it was two favorable matchups to get after the quarterback.
This season, the Bears have a total of 44 pressures as a team (11 pressures per game) with Montez Sweat leading the way with 12 total pressures. Five different players have recorded a sack, but no one has recorded more than one so far this season.
After calling out Sweat for not winning his one-on-ones, the team’s top pass rusher has totaled nine pressures and one sack the last two games. Dayo Odeyingbo, off the other edge, has now been the major disappointment with three pressures and zero sacks in the span. Being able to have both players turn the light on at the same time would really help this defense reach it’s full potential.
5. More Involvement From DJ Moore
While I’ve been impressed with the passing game and quarterback Caleb Williams’ ability to be more of a point guard and distributing the ball, I would like to see DJ Moore get more involved in the offense coming out of the bye week.
Moore is the unit’s highest-paid player but the passing game has been running through Rome Odunze, who’s quickly emerged as the team’s top offensive weapon.
Moore has incredibly play-making ability with the ball in his hands and manufactoring easy touches for him should be an easy process. Through four weeks, Moore has a total of 22 touches for 188 yards (8.5 yards per touch) and just one touchdown. You’d like to see more out of him going forward.
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