Bears offense has a great opportunity vs Broncos
This weekend's matchup for the Chicago Bears is likely at the bottom of every NFL fan's watch list in the Week 4 slate. However, Sunday's game against the Denver Broncos is bound to have one thing finally go right for either of these two teams. Someone is coming out of the weekend with their first […]
This weekend's matchup for the Chicago Bears is likely at the bottom of every NFL fan's watch list in the Week 4 slate.
However, Sunday's game against the Denver Broncos is bound to have one thing finally go right for either of these two teams. Someone is coming out of the weekend with their first win of the season (unless, of course, they tie).
In a battle of winless teams, both sides are entering into this game expecting it to be the first real opportunity to earn a win in 2023.
However, for the Bears, this is truly the best opportunity this team has to get back on track offensively. The Bears surprisingly matchup really well against the Broncos and could come out and shock everyone with the style in which they play on offense.
Denver's Week 3 blowout to the Miami Dolphins ended up covering up how bad the Broncos secondary has actually been all season long.
The Broncos pass defense has arguably been one of the worst in all of football in 2023 and if it continues on Sunday, the Bears could capitalize in a surprising way.
The Bears have tried all season to force quarterback Justin Fields to use his arm and stretch the field vertically. This weekend against the Broncos will be the perfect opportunity to finally do so.
Opposing passers have torched the Broncos defense downfield throughout the first three weeks of the season. The Dolphins took advantage of that finishing with 376 passing yards and five passing touchdowns, two of which went for 50+ yards.
Overall, Denver has allowed the highest passing yards per attempt this season and the fourth most passing yards in the league. Of the league-leading nine passing touchdowns the Broncos allowed this season, three have come from passes 30+ yards downfield.
If there's any week for Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy to dial up the deep ball, it has to be this week. Two of the Bears' five touchdowns have come on 20+ yard passes in 2023 (Darnell Mooney in Week 1 and Chase Claypool in Week 2) and we should expect to see more on Sunday.
Quarterback Justin Fields showed the ability to have a strong arm last season and was actually one of the most accurate passers in the league on deep passes, but we've seen very few glimpses of it this season, such as this dime to DJ Moore.
Fields needs get back in the habit of throwing it deep and trusting his receivers to make a play on Sunday. The Bears tried to stretch the field against the Chiefs in Week 3 but just couldn't connect on the big plays after multiple drops and incompletions deep downfield.
The Bears offense is in a desperate attempt to combine both the strong arm and the dual threat ability of Fields in the offense. They've seen flashes of both working this season, just not quite at the same time. Week 4 could be the week everything comes together for the Bears offense.
"I thought we did a good job of moving [Fields] out of the pocket [against the Chiefs], he had a couple of quarterback designed runs, couple run pass options and took those shots down the field," Eberflus said on Monday.
"I thought [the deep shots] are really good," he added. "We got to capitalize on those. So I think [Fields] did some things in Sunday's game, that looked like how we wanted it to look, and it's getting better."
The secret to unlocking the Bears offense has just been about attacking the defenses vertically, not horizontally. Stretching the field can force defenses to respect the deep ball. This leaves the defense exposed to scrambles and quick RPOs if the receivers can drive the defense downfield. But that's not possible unless you challenge them deep.
Every big play the Bears had offensively against the Chiefs came from taking big shots downfield or on scrambles when the middle was left exposed. The recipe is there and the Broncos are the ideal opponents to test it out on.
Even Vegas odds have abandoned the Bears
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Featured image via: Daniel Bartel-USA TODAY Sports
