Bear Digest

Key quality control issues for Ben Johnson and Chicago Bears to address

One victory doesn't totally erase the bad taste from two tough divisional losses and here's what the Bears still have to address heading into a game at Vegas.
Gene Chamberlain|
Montez Sweat gets his first sack of the season as he wraps up Dak Prescott in Sunday's 31-14 Bears win.
Montez Sweat gets his first sack of the season as he wraps up Dak Prescott in Sunday's 31-14 Bears win. | David Banks-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

It's football irony, or simply the way things change rapidly in the NFL.

Three weeks ago it looked like Caleb Williams and the Bears' passing attack was their biggest uncertainty, a key point to improve if they hoped to compete in the NFC North.

Heading into Week 4 against the Raiders, it looks like everything else but that could be a problem.

Now they are at a crossroads for their season because winning a road game can mean so much in the NFL and doing it after their 0-2 start would mean being .500.

According to The Athletic, the Bears have a 24.9% chance at making the playoffs as a 1-2 team. They have an 11% chance of making the playoffs and winning a game.

"It's early," Johnson said after the win. "We've got to get the issues fixed. I thought the guys were committed to that here this week, and we had a good week of preparation, and they came out and they played inspired football (Sunday).

"Good things happen when you're playing hard, you're playing physical and you're playing for the guy next to you. I thought that's what happened here today.”
It will no doubt take more going forward because not every team is as challenged as Dallas.

Here are the areas the Bears need to be concerned about after a 31-14 win.

5. Pass rush woes

The only time the Bears had a sufficient pass rush this season was during the first 2 1/2 quarters of the opener. Fortunately, Sunday it came and went sporadically enough to assist their first win. The good part was it came later in the game with sacks by Montez Sweat and Dominique Robinson to help put away Dallas.

Austin Booker looked like he might emerge as the person to step up and take pressure off Sweat, but his knee injury in preseason will keep him out at least until the game with Washington in Week 6, and even after that, Booker has never had a key role. Expecting him to step right into being as effective against starters as he was in preseason against reserves is unrealistic. Every team has injuries but when your best are out it's a problem. Dayo Odeyingbo hasn't done a great deal in pass rus situations. Their best pass-rush win player headin into Sunday was Grady Jarrett, ranking 17th in this category among defensive tackles according to ESPN. They badly need another threat besides Sweat to develop.

4. Health

Losing Jaylon Johnson indefinitely and not having Kyler Gordon deprives Dennis Allen of the two DBs who can make his scheme a real threat. The only other defender who might be a bigger loss if out is Montez Sweat. Despite not being as big of a threat for sacks as anyone would hope, Sweat occupies extra attention and creats one-on-one situations for others. If not for a penalty, he'd have two sacks after three games. What they need is for another pass rusher to become a persistent threat and it would take away the double teams.

Now they have to worry about Colston Loveland's hip injury affecting their use of 12-personnel. They got by with Durham Smythe for 23 plays on Sunday. It may need to continue.

3. Stupid penalties

They managed to decrease the presnap penalties Sunday but still had more penalties (six) and yards (42) than Dallas. A penalty gave Minnesota a field goal early in the opener and made its comeback easier later. A Braxton Jones facemasking led to an impossible down and distance and an interception of Williams that triggered a touchdown drive agains Detroit. A penalty wiped out a Montez Sweat Week 2 sack.

Their 26 penalties walked off have resulted in the league's fifth-most penalty yards. It's been a problem challenging Johnson's play calling at every point and on defense they've added to a burden made heavy by their injuries.

Fixing penalties can be done, but only if other problem situations improve because those help to cause the penalties.

2. Inability to stop the run

The Bears sought to reverse the collapse they had in this area last year with Grady Jarrett and with Andrew Billings returning to health. Gervon Dexter would progress in Year 3 and be more consistent against the run.

Dexter hasn't, and they fell apart in the opener because they couldn't stop the run to start the fourth quarter. They were trampled on the ground and burned through the air by Detroit. On Sunday, the 6 yards per carry the Cowboys had left the Bears next to last in the NFL in yards allowed per carry at 5.5. Buffalo's run defense has been about as good as a bunch of zombies, alllowing a ridiculous 6.2 per carry. With a weakness so obvious and blatant, it's only a matter of time until more teams pick up on this.

1. No rushing attack

The running game reduces pressure on the passing attack to keep the chains moving and keeps pressure on defenses. The real running game doesn't include quarterback scrambling yardage because that's a broken passing play. Their running backs and also DJ Moore running as a back and on end-around plays resulted in 3.74 yards a carry the first two games and only 3.0 yards a carry in Sunday's win.

. This won't do it for Ben Johnson's offense. Hes used to something near or over 5.0. He wants to run play-action passing and no defense cares about the play-fake when they know you have trouble running, anyway. In the first three games, D'Andre Swift faced an eight-man box of defenders only 16.7% of the time, according to NFL Next Gen Stats. There are 31 backs who have seen this more often. Defenses are able to keep their pass defenders away from the line and focus on stopping Williams' passing. Until running success is more consistent, the Bear offense will have problems with consistency. Once they give teams headaches, the passing gam will open wide up even more than Sunday.

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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.