Bear Digest

Bears report card for 26-14 win over Saints: Trends begin building

The running game and defense combined to help the Bears to a fourth straight win and even better, they left enough to worry about going into a game with the Ravens.
Gene Chamberlain|
Bears running back Kyle Monangai rips through the Saints defense in the second half Sunday during a 26-14 win.
Bears running back Kyle Monangai rips through the Saints defense in the second half Sunday during a 26-14 win. | David Banks-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

Takeaways continue to pile up and it's easy to wonder where the Bears would be with their current passing game issues and without the benefit of the football being provided by Dennis Allen's greedy defense.

As safety Kevin Byard said, the defense talks about the ball all the time, and as a result they see the ball and get the ball.

Sunday's 26-14 win over the New Orleans Saints, though, built on something positive they started in the win over Washington. They ran it, and not only that but they added the dimension of power running by Kyle Monangai and also some by D'Andre Swift. Much of the running against Washington came outside.   

"I think both ball carriers ran physical, ran  violent, but huge credit to our offensive line and the tight ends in that core blocking unit because you could feel that line of scrimmage move at times, and our backs were finding the holes," coach Ben Johnson said. "That was really the name of the game there.

"A lot that we can clean up and we can improve."

The cleanup starts with Caleb Williams' passing, but at one time this wasn't the case and he and the passing game carried the offense.

More and more it looks like Johnson and staff piecing things together until they get to the much-promised December run when he says they'll be at their best.

For now, though, here's the report card for a Week 7 game when they got physical on both sides of the ball and brought Allen a little satisfaction.

Running game: A+

When a ground game tears a defense up on the outside it can work. When it happens on the inside the game is over. Their 222 yards rushing was the most since they gained 250 against the Cardinals at Soldier Field in Justin Fields' final season. The difference here was this came without depending on the gimmick of a quarterback running for almost 100 yards like with Fields Against the Cardinals. Quarterbacks running for huge amounts of yards is not sustainable in the NFL unless you want to risk the guy who is supposed to run your offense. The Bears don't need to do this if they can continue getting 124 yards and 6.5 yards a carry from D'Andre Swift and 81 yards and 6.2 per carry from Monangai. They need to clean up these five false starts/double pump snaps, though.

Passing game: C

Williams' best contribution was throwing only one interception because on the other side Spencer Rattler showed what happens when you throw three. Williams struggled with his accuracy again, hitting 57.6% (15 of 26). He did make a few splendid, crisp passes in time that stood out, particularly on to DJ Moore, and needs to look at those and build on them. One positive was finding tight ends four times for 40 yards. Maybe it's a sign Williams is recognizing the tight ends finally, but now Cole Kmet has a back injury. The pass blocking continues to step up. Two straight games when right guard Jonah Jackson had an excellent game both run blocking and pass blocking should silence some of the complaints about his signing and the criticism of Ryan Poles.

Run defense: A+

Alvin Kamara was made to look like a 30-year-old running back that he is, as he didn't get into space with the stout front he faced. Without Grady Jarrett, and using Jonathan Ford, Chris Williams and Shemar Turner to beef up their front, along with strongside linebacker D'Marco Jackson, the defense forced a running team to pass for the second straight game. If they can do it again in Baltimore, there will be plenty of raised eyebrows in the NFL.

Pass defense: A

It gave way after they put up a 20-0 lead as Rattler found Chris Olave for three big passes, including a 57-yarder. The interceptions made up for the spotty play after they took the big lead. Also, in the second half they had to account for Tyrique Stevenson's shoulder injury and a depleted personnel group. Kevin Byard, Nahshon Wright and Tremaine Edmunds get accolades for the picks but T.J. Edwards needs some recognition for tipping the fourth-down pass that Edmunds picked. The rush was rattling Rattler early thanks to the blitz, but still need more pressure from their front even if Montez Sweat had a huge strip-sack to start the game. 

Special teams: A-

Cairo who?  Well, that's an exaggeration. All four of the field goals Jake Moody made were shorter than 40 yards. However, he was missing some that short while with San Francisco. Apparently the move to bring in a left-footed punter for practice last week helped because Devin Duvernay had no problem fielding them. The rush forced a feeble 31-yard Saints punt and Tory Taylor put down two more inside the 20-yard line.

Coaching: A

Down to bringing in that left-footed punter, this Bears preparation in a short work week seemed to have been meticulous. They saw the way the Saints wanted to play in every game so far this year and followed the plan laid out from their scouting and the opponent's tendency to stick to the ground game, getting New Orleans out of its element early. It was obvious from the postgame celebration how important winning with defensive dominance was important to Dennis Allen and they did it. The best thing was no panic once a 20-0 lead became 20-14, but maybe think of being a little less aggressive with only a six-point lead on fourth-and-goal from the 1 in the second half?

Only the ironic presnap penalty on center Drew Dalman kept the defense from needing to prevent a 98-yard drive or 99 yards to keep from blowing the 20-point lead. A nine-point lead in the second half would have been good there, and they wound up with that anyway as a result of the penalty.  Give Johnson and his staff's operation high marks for the replay challenge on Taysom Hill's illegal lateral, too. You have to wonder if the former Bears staff would have had the ability to throw the challenge flag there with they way they managed games.     It got the ball back for the offense to eat clock.

Overall: A

The best thing about a complete win is when it happens and there are sufficient obvious flaws to point out for the next week in order to keep a team's interest, as if game film of Lamar Jackson isn't enough to do it.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.