Ben Johnson points out an issue he still has with the offensive line even though they protected Caleb Williams in Week 3
The lack of a true run game continues to be an issue.
The backbone of the Chicago Bears offensive explosion in Week 3 against the Dallas Cowboys came from the play of the offensive line.
Quarterback Caleb Williams stayed clean in the pocket the entire game for the first time in his career and the offensive line largely avoided some of the costly mistakes that held back head coach Ben Johnson’s offense during the first two weeks of the season.
But, despite the 30+ point performance and offensive success, one area is still struggling to find it’s footing for the Bears’ offense. The run game is still not up to Johnson’s standard and he made sure to hold the offensive line accountable for that despite the strong outing in pass protection.
Ben Johnson believes the OL is playing a role in the struggling run game
“I lump the whole offensive line together when I look at our rushing statistics,” Johnson said to reporters on Monday. “I think we only averaged about three yards a rush. We left a lot of meat on the bone there. I give a lot of credit, that is a good front (in Dallas), particularly those interior players are really good players that have played at a high level in this league for a long time. We knew that, we knew we were going to have our hands full. But yet, we didn’t run the ball as effectively as we’re capable of doing. I think it starts there.”
It wasn’t just Week 3 either. In all three games, the Bears struggled moving the ball effectively and efficiently on the ground, which is unusual for a Ben Johnson-led offense like we saw in Detroit. After three weeks, the Bears rank 18th in yards per attempt (4.1), 32nd in yards after contact per attempt (1.7), and 20th in EPA per attempt (-0.02). All of the personnel on the unit plays a role in that.
In the backfield, D’Andre Swift has primarily gotten the bulk of the carries for Chicago through three games and while he offers some big-play ability, his consistent carry-to-carry production is subpar at best. Swift’s EPA per attempt ranks 20th among RBs with 20+ carries but his Boom% ranks third, according to Sports Info Solutions. As for his yards after contact, Swift ranks 34th out of 38 backs.
With how much involvement Swift is getting in the run game, it’s hard to truly say whether the ineffectiveness is on him, or the run protection up-front. So, let’s take a look at that as well since Johnson made it a point to address it.
Among all offensive linemen with 50+ run blocking snaps, only right tackle Darnell Wright (4th) and center Drew Dalman (9th) rank in the Top-10 at their respective positions in run blocking grade, per Pro Football Focus. Left tackle Braxton Jones (34th), left guard Joe Thuney (40th), and right guard Jonah Jackson (34th) are all struggling in that aspect. Which was to be expected since Wright and Dalman are really strong run protectors.
Seeing that, it is fair to place some of the blame on the offensive line for the struggles taking place in the run game, which again is an important part of making Johnson’s scheme click and really take off.
Luckily, for the time being, Johnson is able to manufacture other run plays with his wide receivers to help offset some of the struggles in the backfield. But, that’s not going to be sustainable once teams start loading the box and for quarterback Caleb Williams to throw the ball.
Something’s got to give eventually to clean this area up and Johnson needs to start by giving more opportunities to other backs to see if the real problem is Swift, or if it’s the blocking up-front. Either way, both sides of the coin need to start playing better football moving forward if this offense wants to take the next step forward.
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