David Montgomery Benefits from Better Line Execution
Rookie running back David Montgomery figures to be possibly the key figure for the Bears in Sunday's game to stay alive in the playoff chase against the Green Bay Packers.
That is, if he even plays against the Packers. Montgomery suffered a leg injury of unknown severity against the Cowboys and his status will be updated Wednesday, but he has had an extra three days to rest following a Thursday game and this could make a difference.
Not only has Montgomery proven critical in the current three-game Bears winning streak, but Green Bay's rush defense has been anything but stout. They're 25th against the run 27th in yards allowed per rush.
Montgomery gained 86 yards on 20 carries against the Cowboys and ran for 75 yards on 16 attempts in the win over Detroit on Thanksgiving. In both of those games he was well over 4.0 yards an attempt in a season when he's been fighting to get above 3.5 most of the time.
Yet, coach Matt Nagy sees nothing new from Montgomery in terms of improvement. It's more of a team thing.
"Nothing in particular other than I think just right now, what the feel is with our offense is that it's not just the running back, it's not just the quarterback, it's not just the O-line," Nagy said. "Everybody is just kind of syncing right now.
"Even myself, as a play caller. You start to feel stuff you like, things that feel right, concepts that are working. And then everyone's just worrying about themselves, not worrying about others. And you put all that together, and you have success."
The Bears had been unable to generate much of anything on the ground for four straight games before the win over Detroit on Thanksgiving. Montgomery had averaged 2.6 yards a carry in those games, but a few changes up front may be paying off for the Bears.
"It's being able to create chemistry with my O-line," Montgomery said. "Those guys have been doing good. I credit them with the little bit of success I’ve had towards the end of the season. I'm just happy to be here."
They made the switch of Cody Whitehair to center and James Daniels to left guard five games ago and it's possible it's taken this long to take hold. They've had Rashaad Coward at right guard now for eight games and he'd never even started an NFL game so he needed time to fit the role.
Finally, Bobby Massie suffered an ankle injury and Cornelius Lucas stepped in at right tackle and has been very effective in the ground game without giving much up as a pass blocker.
Nagy called it no matter of blocking better but really paying attention to detail.
"So we can't have a play where we call some type of inside zone and we have one guy that maybe thinks that we're running a mid-zone or their steps are off just a little bit and that can affect the play," Nagy said. "Now the communication ... we have some new guys here that are working together. We have some young guys with not much experience. Rashad Coward. I think now you’re just starting to feel a jelling of them, understanding kind of conceptually what we're doing, a trust amongst them, and really for them it's just saying, OK, kind of like, here we go. We know we can better and they're proving it."
As for Montgomery himself, Nagy sees nothing different.
"David's always had great vision," Nagy said. "He's always been able to run through tackles. I like where he's at."
Where he's at looks a lot better than it did as recently as three weeks ago.
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