Bears Extra Points from Championship Games

Here's what applies to the Bears from the Sunday championship games, in a few cases lessons for them and others just similarities to the Super Bowl teams.

As in the wild card and divisional rounds of the playoffs, Sunday's NFC and AFC championships presented lessons for and made statements about the Bears.

You just needed to look hard, and it went beyond the fact they got their general manager from the AFC champions and their assistant general manager from the NFC champions.

Here's the conference title games from a Bears standpoint.

1. RPO

A team can get to the Super Bowl extensively using plenty of RPO plays, and running the zone read off of it. This should be good for the Bears because they did it extensively with Justin Fields over the second half of the season.

The 49ers defense is particularly effective on the edge and Jalen Hurts couldn't break loose on many runs but the threat of Hurts combined with the other Eagles backs was enough to account for 148 yards on the ground against a good run defense.

It's been the basis for the Eagles running attack the last two years as they finished first and fifth in rushing. The Bears led the NFL in rushing in 2022 using this with Fields, Khalil Herbert and David Montgomery.

Hurts led the NFL in RPO pass attempts with 122 according to Sportradar. That was 32 more than any other team. Fields was seventh with 61 didn't emphasize it as much until midway though the season. Expect it to remain a big part of the Bears offense going forward.

2. Montgomery's Return

Philadelphia actually has a running attack without what you'd call a power back, like the Bears have with David Montgomery. At 224 pounds, Montgomery is a bigger, more physical runner who breaks more tackles than 211-pound Miles Sanders. He broke 20 while Sanders broke 10 according to Sportradar. However, Philadelphia made it work with speedier backs like Sanders and 200-pound Kenneth Gainwell. Montgomery is a free agent. Do they really want the 224-pound back as the main threat or does it work better with only speed threats at running back? It's a question worth pondering.

3. Taking What's Given

Both Tony Romo in the AFC game and Greg Olsen during the NFC game pointed out how the winning quarterbacks became so much better when they started taking short gainers and getting the ball out quicker to closer targets instead of looking always to get the ball downfield.

The short passing game is where Fields admits he has to improve. He actually said once he was a bit envious of how backup Trevor Siemian was able to get to his check-down receiver when he admitted he needed to improve at this.

4. Don't Forget the Edge

Big plays by edge rushers had key roles in the games Sunday. Chris Jones moves around for the Chiefs but is normally a defensive tackle. He stepped outside on the edge for the key sack of Joe Burrow to force a punt that led to the winning drive. Hasaan Reddick came off the edge for two sacks, a forced fumble and recovery that helped trigger the Eagles rout. He knocked Brock Purdy out of the game.

The lesson here for the Bears? 

Everyone is pointing at Jalen Carter, the defensive tackle in the draft. While they definitely need a tackle, no one can forget their need at defensive end because they had 6 1/2 total sacks from all their edge rushers put together. They could actually use a pair of edge rushers.

5. Winning Organizations

Yes it is true, Poles did come from KC and Ian Cunningham from Philadelphia. It ought to make for an interesting game if they're watching it together.

It really can't hurt the Bears to have to people running personnel from Super organizations.

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