Bears Need to Dial It Back Against Jets
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The Bears' season is divided into two very distinct parts, one with six games before they played New England and then the last five.
The overall results haven't differed greatly, but the styles of play have.
Starting with the New England game, they began running their quarterback on planned plays more often, especially to the outside with wide zone blocking.
They haven't succeeded in getting more victories using this method, but managed to stay in games with ball possession to help their dismantled defense.
It's very apparent this week they'll need to revert to their former method of play.
Justin Fields is injured. Whether he plays or not, they won't be able to risk running him as much against one of the league's more stout and physical defenses. They've spent all week saying things to the contrary, but it's the truth if he does play.
Of course, if they do the right thing and keep him out for this game, and possibly even the game against Green Bay next week, he'd get one more week of rest because of their bye week and could conceivably be entirely healthy to play Philadelphia, Buffalo, Detroit and Minnnesota to finish out the season.
Can they even hope to compete with the Jets using a more conventional approach on offense?
They've won more games doing this than they've won since their great offensive awakening, when they began using Fields as a combination running back/quarterback.
The Jets playing style is much like the 49ers, except with much less competent passing. It's where coach Robert Saleh came from and they don't vary a great deal from this approach.
The Bears already beat the 49ers in a game when San Francisco had more competence at quarterback than the Jets will have Sunday, when they use quarterback Mike White in his fifth NFL appearance. This win was the opener, well before the Bears turned Justin Fields into a running back.
The Bears managed to throw a scare into the NFC North-leading Minnesota Vikings using a more conventional approach.
They're going to need to find this game plan again because Fields isn't running 18 times on Sunday, and might not even be running at all.
Here are the three keys for a Bears win over the Jets.
1. Use All the Weapons
They were at their best on offense against Minnesota using all their receivers to some extent. Fields threw for 208 yards on 15 of 21 with a touchdown and a 118.7 passer rating. They had only 47 rushing yards out of the quarterback position and only 31 yards rushing from backs.
Finding Chase Claypool early in the game and dispersing the ball to different receivers can throw the Jets defense into a greater state of disarray than running the ball repeatedly because it's not something the Bears have shown they can do. Throwing to David Montgomery is another option to help keep the chains moving.
This can even be done with Trevor Siemian at quarterback. In fact, it will have to be done if Siemian is at quarterback.
The only way they're beating the Jets is by playing team ball and emphasizing every weapon they have available on offense over "me" ball, the approach they had with Fields running repeatedly.
2. Keep the Blitzes Coming
In fact, the Bears need to be even more exotic and mix in more disguises even though they will be missing both Jaquan Brisker and Kyler Gordon in their secondary.
Defensive coordinator Alan Williams has had to dial up more blitzes from different spots in recent games after they traded away Roquan Smith. They've made it begin to work to some extent as their pressure has been sufficient at times, even if they sacks are not piling up. The question becomes whether they've exhausted their blitz supply because the front four rush is so ineffective.
"Never," Williams said. "Never out of ways. There, we still have a lot of things up our sleeve in terms of finding ways to get pressure on the quarterback. So, we're still, no, we'll find different ways to get him down, to get him on the ground, to confuse him, be effective on third down."
It might be more difficult to disguise with two different defensive backfield starters but DeAndre Houston-Carson has been around long enough to be able to help in this regard at safety. They've had to play a little with Lamar Jackson at slot cornerback and could even move Jaylon Johnson there occasionally to throw a different look QB Mike White's way.
They're playing a totally inexperienced quarterback who lacks much mobility. White has taken 211 NFL snaps and has been around since 2018. Confusion from different looks and pressure from unanticipated spots on defense can go a long way toward forcing QB mistakes, and the Bears will need help from Jets errors to win this one.
3. Field Position Winners
The Jets already have a big advantage with a defense ranked sixth coming into this week's games, an edge the Bears won't have. The Bears need to approach this game thinking they need to help their defense at all costs. They need to win the field position battle and that means no more special teams debacles. They had two last week, one on Cordarrelle Patterson's TD return and another when they attempted a 56-yard field goal and it wasn't halftime or the end of the game. They had a punt blocked for a TD against Miami.
This needs to be a game where Trenton Gill is punting to get it downed inside the 10 as much as possible. They need no risky long field goal tries. Their own return teams can't afford muffed punts or bad decisions on kick returns.
It needs to be peak efficiency because the Jets have a solid return game of their own, ranking eighth in punt returns overall (11.0) and they limit kick returns to 19.57 yards on average. A win is downing the kick returns and taking it at the 25.
The Bears defense needs help in this one and they need to get it from their special teams, which have been shaky lately to say the least.
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
