Bears Week 11 Snap Counts: Chicago had three specific trends that should lead to lasting impacts down the stretch
The Chicago Bears dropped a fourth consecutive game on Sunday and it was the 11th consecutive loss against the Green Bay Packers, however, there are reasons for optimism despite the tough result.The Bears' offense looked much more improved under new offensive coordinator Thomas Brown and the team had the opportunity to win the game on […]
The Chicago Bears dropped a fourth consecutive game on Sunday and it was the 11th consecutive loss against the Green Bay Packers, however, there are reasons for optimism despite the tough result.
The Bears' offense looked much more improved under new offensive coordinator Thomas Brown and the team had the opportunity to win the game on the final play.
There's also a lot of positive usage trends to take away from the loss based on the final snap counts from Sunday's game. Here are the snap counts and my top takeaways.
Bears Snap Counts vs Packers
Season-High Usage For Roschon Johnson
One of the biggest trends I noticed from the first game with Thomas Brown as offensive coordinator was the usage of second-year running back Roschon Johnson.
Under Shane Waldron, D'Andre Swift dominated the backfield share, averaging 65.44 percent of the offensive snaps from the first nine games. On Sunday, Swift played 57 percent of the snaps while Johnson played a season-high 42 percent of the snaps.
Below is the situational break down for Johnson's usage against the Packers. It was a viable strategy for how the team could look to manage the position going forward.
Cole Kmet & Rome Odunze Getting More Work
In the passing game, there were also a lot of positive usage trends that came out of the first game under Thomas Brown.
For starters, tight end Cole Kmet played 97 percent of the snaps and ran a route on 95 percent of the team's dropbacks on Sunday, both were easily his top numbers this season. Meanwhile, Gerald Everett played a season-low 11 percent of the snaps.
At wide receiver, Rome Odunze saw a much higher snap count (82%) compared to the team's previous game (68%) while posting a season-high 32 percent target share. Odunze turned all of that into six receptions for 65 yards. DJ Moore (94%) and Keenan Allen (92%) still played a higher share of snaps than Odunze, however.
Terell Smith Deserves More Snaps
The split between Tyrique Stevenson and Terell Smith continued against the Packers but it was Stevenson who led the two with 27 defensive snaps (Smith played 19).
On his nine coverage snaps, Smith was not directly targeted but was in a great position to intercept Jordan Love on the one-yard line, which proved to be a major play for the team. Stevenson, however, allowed one reception for 17 yards.
Stevenson also got away with a no-call after shoving Packers offensive lineman Elgton Jenkins following a fourth-down stop by the defense. Luckily, it wasn't called but these kind of things can't continue to happen.
DL Rotation
And finally for the weekly defensive line rotation report, Montez Sweat (78%) and DeMarcus Walker (74%) dominated the edge while Gervon Dexter Sr. (80%) rarely left the field. The three combined for eight total pressures and one sack (by Walker).
After Sweat and Walker, Jacob Martin (24%) and Austin Booker (17%) rotated in off the edge. Darrell Taylor, who dealt with a knee injury earlier in the week, played a season-low 13% of the defensive snaps. Taylor also missed the Week 10 loss to New England.
As for the other defensive tackle position, Zacch Pickens and Bryon Cowart each played 18 defensive snaps. Chris Williams also played 16 snaps at defensive tackle. We knew replacing Andrew Billings wouldn't be a one-man task and that was evident.
