Familiar struggles nearly haunt Bears again, but Chicago manages to come away with an ugly win against the Raiders
Somehow the Bears managed to squeak one out in Vegas.
Wins aren’t easy to come by in the NFL, and you have to take every win you can get in this league. The Chicago Bears might not feel like they deserved the win in Week 4 against the Las Vegas Raiders, but the team managed to steal one to get back to .500.
That’s the kind of ugly, grinded out, win the Bears usually don’t pull off, and it’s great to see it go that way for Chicago and head coach Ben Johnson.
Yet, at the same time, there’s a lot that needs to be cleaned up offensively. The unit showed some of the same issues that plagued the team during the first two weeks of the season.
Bears offense struggling to capitalize on opponent’s mistakes
Man, the defense stood up when it was needed. Yeah, the unit gave up some big plays against rookie running back Ashton Jeanty, but it also had four takeaways for the second straight week, including two early interceptions by veteran safety Kevin Byard.
On those following drives after those four turnovers, the Bears went: field goal, interception, field goal, and touchdown on offense. Getting 13 points off turnovers isn’t necessarily bad, but they squandered some prime opportunities early in this game and could have put the Raiders in a major hole if more of those drives ended in the end zone.
Overall, the offense had a total of five drives that started in Raiders territory, and Chicago only came away with one touchdown on those opportunities. You have to capitalize more than that; let’s take a look at why that wasn’t the case.
Offense was living in 3rd-and-long
Some of the same issues that plagued the Bears’ offense during the 0-2 start resurfaced throughout the game on Sunday. Chicago lived in third-and-long, something Johnson stated the team needed to avoid two weeks ago, following the Week 2 loss.
Just take a look at some of the third-down situations the offense faced: third-and-14, third-and-13, third-and-16, third-and-19, third-and-9, third-and-12.
A lot can be attributed to those long situations, and we’ll get more into the run game in a minute. But having illegal motions, holdings, false starts, and facemask penalties make it difficult to stay ahead of the sticks and keep the offense in rhythm. Johnson had many frustrated looks, and for good reason, seeing these kinds of issues show back up again. On third down, the Bears converted seven of 16.
Something’s gotta give with this run game
The run game against the Raiders left a lot of meat on the bone for the fourth consecutive game, and it’s even more frustrating considering the amount of emphasis Johnson put on the run game throughout the week.
Chicago finished with 69 total yards on the ground, but only 56 yards when you take out the yards gained by quarterback Caleb Williams. Running back D’Andre Swift was again inefficient, averaging 2.7 yards per attempt on 14 carries, while rookie Kyle Monangai saw just four attempts. It’s frustrating that this team cannot gain any yards after contact.
It’s getting to the definition of insanity at this point, and something must give because this isn’t a sustainable way to run this particular offense. It worked against a bad Cowboys defense last week and was barely just enough to get the job done against the Raiders.
