Nightmare Scenario for Bears: Aaron Donald Against Anyone
Nick Foles has a story about Los Angeles Rams defensive force Aaron Donald dating back to 2015 in St. Louis.
"I was his teammate once upon a time," Foles said. "It was when he was younger. I just remember going through practice. I didn’t really know who he was. I think he was rookie of the year and it was his second year.
"I'm like, 'Why can't we block this guy? We have two guys on him and we are still not blocking him.' And then years later I realized why: The dude's unbelievable. So obviously we have to respect him, and teams have different plans for him."
Donald has 7 1/2 sacks already in six games and the 6-foot-1, 280-pound defensive tackle will be lining up on most snaps directly across from Bears left guard Rashaad Coward.
It's the same Rashaad Coward who has played one game on the left side of the offensive line, so the Bears have to hope they can reproduce some of the success they had in 2018 against Donald, when they held him to a quarterback hit, two tackles and no sacks with Bryan Witzmann playing at left guard.
The San Francisco 49ers held Donald and every other Rams player without a sack last week in a 24-16 win but they ran the ball for 122 yards and it always helps to keep defenses off balance. The Bears barely managed to get more than 122 yards rushing in the last three games combined.
The assignment of blocking Donald doesn't fall entirely to Coward and last year Coward did get to block him some at right guard, as Donald moves around from side to side on the line. Or at least he and the others attempted to block Donald last year. The stats would say they didn't get it done.
"I don't want to say he just does what he does because that sounds like he's going rogue," coach Matt Nagy said of Donald. "They obviously put him where they want to put him to use him as an advantage."
Donald sometimes even goes out to the edge. Last year Donald had more success against the Bears. He had two sacks of Mitchell Trubisky, two tackles for loss, four quarterback hits, a tipped pass and four total tackles.
"The burst that he has off the line of scrimmage at the snap, it can be a simple run play and he just anticipates before you snap the ball and he just shoots the A or B gap and next thing you know he’s taking the handoff," Nagy said.
Yet, the Bears did get Donald blocked in 2018 in Chicago.
"I think you just have to get on him early before he gets going," Bears center Cody Whitehair said. "Obviously play physical with him and try to shut him down. And that's going to be our game plan.
"You know he can be a game-wrecker and you gotta account for him in every way you can."
Coward had a somewhat rocky start to replacing injured James Daniels last week, so the thought of him playing on the left side of the line for the second time seems scary. And right guard Germain Ifedi has faced Donald before in Seattle twice a year, but usually was at right tackle and didn't see him much, either.
Offensive coordinator Bill Lazor said it will require the utmost in communication between linemen, and this broke down a few times last week even though the line went without allowing a sack for the first time since Week 2 of the 2019 season.
"I mean, these guys have played with (Coward), other than Germain, right, so they know him and they communicate well," Lazor said.
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