Bears Lose Another Lineman, Except This Time on Defense
The Bears have lost one more player to injury but at least this time it wasn't another offensive lineman.
Roy Robertson-Harris has to have shoulder surgery to repair an injury which kept him out of last week's game, and is done for the season according to a Chicago Tribune report.
Also, they are at least temporarily without running back David Montgomery as the suspicions he had a concussion in Sunday's fourth quarter proved correct, according to coach Matt Nagy.
Robertson-Harris has been a vital part of the defensive front for four seasons and will be an unrestricted free agent next year. He wasn't having the type of impact year he had in the past two seasons, as he hadn't recorded a sack and had 10 tackles. Last year he had 30 tackles and 2 1/2 sacks.
The Bears used Daniel McCullers on the defensive line for the first time on Sunday at nose tackle and they'll likely continue doing this, freeing up Bilal Nichols and Brent Urban to play more at end. McCullers, a player the Bears signed off Pittsburgh's practice squad, had four tackles against Tennessee.
If Montgomery is unable to play Monday against Minnesota, the Bears may need to elevate Lamar Miller from the practice squad. The former Houston Texans back has been learning the offense as he rehabbed from a torn ACL suffered 15 months ago.
The Bears got back another player from their Reserve/COVID-19 list as right tackle backup Jason Spriggs came off the list. He could play against Minnesota, and it would free the Bears up to move Rashaad Coward back to left guard, where he played Sunday.
Both backup lineman Lachavious Simmons and safety Deon Bush remain on Reserve/COVID-19 along with Cody Whitehair. Simmons and Bush went on the list while in Tennessee and made it back to Chicago via automobile after their positive tests late Saturday and early Sunday. Neither came on the plane back with the team.
"The guys that were there on the trip, we had Lachavious Simmons—he ended up, we got him a limo, a car service with a limo," coach Matt Nagy said. "So he has that partition between him and the driver and we got him back to Chicago (Sunday). Then Deon Bush we traveled him back via car as well, in a separate car, so they were both separate. Now they're back here."
The line situation will be day to day for the Bears, with Whitehair still suffering from a calf injury and on the COVID list. Right tackle Bobby Massie is on injured reserve with a knee injury and backup center Sam Mustipher is nursing a knee injury.
It led to Arlington Hambright starting at left guard in his NFL debut and Alex Bars starting at center for the first time in his life.
"First you have to say what a great job the kid did," line coach Juan Castillo said of Bars. "He had never started at the center position, even in high school, so this is really the first game he ever started at that position. I was really proud of him, probably one of the best performances I have ever been around as a coach for somebody."
Bars, an undrafted free agent from Notre Dame, had familiar help.
"The kid really worked hard, my assistant really helped him a lot," Castillo said. "They were together at Notre Dame, so he worked with him, too."
Bears line assistant Donovan Raiola was an assistant under former Bears line coach Harry Heistand with the Irish and also with the Bears.
"The concept as a center you really don't have to use the snap hand until your second step and so that helped him a little bit too, understanding that," Castillo said. "Really the kind of kid that he is, he's a competitor, very smart and is a great kid."
Simmons was not slated to start but probably would have been in on special teams if not for Saturday's positive COVID-19 test.
"You know, just very sad," Castillo said. "I mean he was crying. It was sad because all his family was there so he was crying you know?"
It was to be a homecoming game of sorts for Simmons in his debut, because his family had come up to Tennessee from Alabama.
For all the praise Castillo heaped on his makeshift line, the production wasn't enough to win a game. They had only 56 yards rushing. The 335 yards passing Nick Foles had mainly came after they fell behind 24-3. They had three first downs in the first half.
Castillo acknowledged the stress the line was under with injuries.
"You know, we missed that extra day, too," he said.
The Bears didn't practice Thursday because of the discovery Spriggs had COVID-19 and the fact he'd been in contact with starting right guard Germain Ifedi. Eventually Ifedi played but struggled as much as the rest of the line against a Titans defensive front which had been sub-par much of the season.
Nagy didn't want to throw all the blame on the offensive line for the defeat, chiefly because they weren't fully responsible for all the silly presnap penalties that killed drives. And they didn't have any penalties in the first six drives as the Bears fell behind 10-0.
"There's a multitude of issues that we're having," Nagy said. "Where you get a little frustrated is if there's 10 guys that are doing something the right way and there's one guy that's not, that's where we've got to get that unison back of hey, understanding the effectiveness of a play or just stay within the play sometimes. '
"I think that's very valuable regardless of No. 1, who the quarterback is, and regardless of No. 2, who the O-line is, who the running back is, who's catching the ball in the flat with the tight end."
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