Bears Week 9 Snap Counts vs Cardinals: Tyrique Stevenson benching turned out to be nothing more than overblown
The Chicago Bears are coming off another disappointing loss that was filled with a lot of question marks beyond the team's performance on the field. The result was a 20-point loss on the road, and one where the team opted to leave everyone out there.Let's see what the snap counts had to say about the […]
The Chicago Bears are coming off another disappointing loss that was filled with a lot of question marks beyond the team's performance on the field. The result was a 20-point loss on the road, and one where the team opted to leave everyone out there.
Let's see what the snap counts had to say about the game.
Bears Snap Counts vs Cardinals
Tyrique Stevenson Not Benched?
This turned out to be an incredibly overblown situation and it didn't have to be, and it's just bad handling that comes back on head coach Matt Eberflus.
After his blunder on the Hail Mary in Week 8, the Bears did in fact punish second-year cornerback Tyrique Stevenson by removing him from the starting defense on Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals.
Stevenson did not see the field on defense until the unit's third drive. However, Stevenson finished the game with 46 defensive snaps, or 79% of the snaps. A big reason why is because Terell Smith, who started over Stevenson, was forced to leave the game with an ankle injury in the first quarter. Stevenson had two pass breakups and allowed just three receptions for 22 yards. Here's what he had to say about being removed as a starter after the game.
“Honestly, probably (my) feelings were a little hurt. Feeling disappointed, but the decision was made," Stevenson said via ESPN's Courtney Cronin. "I can’t go against the decisions. I’m here to be a team player, be great guy for this team and that’s what I stood out to do this week.”
Why Was Caleb Williams Still In The Game??
This was another inexcusable decision made by the team's head coach. Despite being down 20 points, the Bears opted to keep all of the starters out on the field until time expired, including rookie quarterback Caleb Williams.
Here's the updated reasoning Eberflus provided on Monday and it still looks bad for him: "the starters we're left in the game because we're going to fight to the end."
That's such a BS explanation and to make things worse, Williams came very close to getting his ankle injured on the final drive of the game. Luckily, he's going to be fine.
Williams finished the game playing all 74 offensive snaps, along with four of his five starting offensive linemen. Including left guard Teven Jenkins, who was dealing with an injury all week leading up to the game. Please make it make sense.
Where Oh Where Was Cole Kmet?
The simple answer, he was on the field. But if you looked at the box sheet and not the game, you'd think tight end Cole Kmet forgot to get on the plane.
The team's big-bodied playmaker played 85% of the team's offensive snaps (63 total snaps) and three snaps on special teams.
Yet Kmet was not targeted the entire game. This was only the third time in Kmet's career in which he played a game and received zero targets. It's the first such game since Week 7 of last season, where he played 89% of the offensive snaps. Inexcusable once again by the Bears' coaching staff.
Defensive Line Rotation Without Top Edge Rusher
The rotation on the Bears' defensive front looked a little different with Montez Sweat out of the lineup. On the first drive, Darrell Taylor and Dominique Robinson started the game for the Bears, which was already a surprise since Robinson was a healthy scratch in each of the previous seven games.
Even though he didn't start, veteran DeMarcus Walker played the most snaps off the edge with 35 snaps. Gervon Dexter Sr. had the most on the entire front with 46. Rookie Austin Booker played 26 snaps, Andrew Billings played 26 before leaving the game, Taylor played 25, Robinson played 22, Zacch Pickens played 22, Chris Williams played 18, and veteran Jacob Martin played the fewest with 16.
Overall, the unit still managed to record nine total pressures and three sacks (by Williams, Martin, and safety Kevin Byard) all without their top edge rusher. Pretty solid.
