Khalil Herbert's Minuteman Encore
In this story:
Khalil Herbert on Sunday recorded the biggest rushing day by a Bears back since 2017 but did it in a relief effort, much like he did last season.
Herbert ran for a career-high 157 yards on 20 carries and scored on runs of 1 and 11 yards, in a 23-20 Bears win over Houston Sunday, but had the chance only after running back David Montgomery went out in the first quarter with knee and ankle injuries.
"Told him that was for him," Herbert said of Montgomery. "Got to hold it down and help the team win and find a way to win."
Montgomery was injured while pass blocking and was struck from behind on the legs. The play looked horrifying but afterward coach Matt Eberflus had a positive report on the injury.
"David Montgomery is good," coach Matt Eberflus said. "He's going to be day-to-day so that's positive So we'll see where he is tomorrow, we'll re-evalute from there."
It wasn't an unfamiliar role for Hebert. Montgomery suffered a knee sprain last year in Week 4 and Herbert stepped in for four weeks as a rookie and had games of 100 yards against Tampa Bay and 99 against the Raiders.
This time, he kept the Bears in the game until their defense could win it for them with Roquan Smith's interception and return to the Houston 12 with 1 1/2 minutes left, followed by Cairo Santos' 30-yard field goal as time expired.
"Always ready. Always ready when my time is called," Herbert said. "Ready for any opportunity I get and try to make the most of it."
The last time a Bears back had more yards was when Jordan Howard ran for 167 yards on 36 carries against the Ravens in a 2017 overtime win on Oct. 15, 2017.
"I just try to make the most out of opportunities," Hebert said. "I feel like when I take that mindset into the game, it helps me make the most of it."
"Obviously some great performances by Herbert with him running the ball, but who does that go to?" Eberflus said. "It goes to the offensive line and you can't do it without those guys and you can't do it without the perimeter looking, did an excellent job there."
Herbert especially appreciated the effort on a 1-yard TD run on third-and-goal from the 1 to put the Bears up 20-17 in the third quarter. A week earlier, they couldn't get in from the 1 in Green Bay with a weird quarterback run up the middle out of the shotgun and Eberflus blamed the lack of push from the line.
This time, Herbert found wide open spaces.
The same was true on his 52-yarder to start that scoring drive.
"O-Line did a great job of opening up a massive hole," Herbert said. "KB (fullback Khari Blasingame) did a great job of kicking out. Everybody did a great job of blocking downfield.
"We were looking at the pictures on the sidelines, we could have drove a bus through there. It was a really big hole, it was my job to make the safety miss and I was able to do that."
It probably didn't hurt that the line was going against a defensive front they saw regularly in practice in the offseason and in training camp, as Lovie Smith's Houston defense runs the same defensive scheme as the Bears.
"Definitely, we practiced against it all spring, all fall camp," Herbert said. "So definitely helped us. Similar stuff we see every day."
It's not often in the NFL team stage comeback wins based solely on the running game, but with quarterback
"We just try to find a way to win any way we can," Herbert said.
