Bears Need to Be Like 'the Navy Seals'

Darnell Mooney hasn't become a forgotten man, just one whose receptions weren't needed as much last week.

It's unlikely the Bears can get away for long playing with an attack so heavily dominated by wide receiver DJ Moore.

"We're a work in progress still," Bears coach Matt Eberflus said. "We're not gonna close the books on that. We've got a lot of ball to play.

"Shoot, we've got a lot of games to play. We certainly want to highlight Mooney and we're gonna continue to do that and we're gonna continue to take shots to him. He's a big part of our package and we're excited where he is."

Or, at least they'd like him to be a big part of it.

Mooney caught four passes in two games and no passes in three of them. He has eight catches for 104 yards and a touchdown.

He had a slower start last year, too, with 10 catches for 173 yards after five games but picked up the pace with four catches or more in five of seven games before his season-ending ankle injury.

"I don't think it has anything to do with any chemistry or anything," he said.

Instead, he thinks just doing what he has done eventually will allow Justin Fields to find him.

Mooney's participation on a heavier basis figures to be more critical this week as the Bears will need to attack in various ways to beat Minnesota's blitzing defense.

It's also going to take improvement overall.

By improving this way and picking up all three keys to winning, the Bears can pull off a home-field upset and end a 10-game divisional losing streak as well as a nine-game losing streak at home.

"You know, the only easy day of it was yesterday. Right?" Eberflus reminded this week. "That's what the Navy Seals say. And that's true about NFL Football too.

"You've got to keep pressing, you've got to keep moving to get better and making the corrections that you need to make because each oppponent is different and everybody's looking at your weaknesses."

Here are three keys to a Bears win Sunday against Minnesota and to becoming more like the Navy Seals.

1. Balancing the Passing Game

Minnesota has seen two weeks worth of game films with DJ Moore beating the defense and regardless of what anyone thinks about their defense, they'll have ways to prevent one player from tearing them apart the way Moore did against the Commanders. The Vikings blitz at just below a 60% rate, and Justin Fields won't have time in the pocket to find Moore on each dropback. Mooney's' going to need to be open and hang onto the ball.

There are reasons besides this that getting other wide receivers involved and catching passes is important this week.

With Cole Kmet coming off a slight hamstring issue and Equanimeous St. Brown now on injured reserve, this passing game isn't achieving balance unless Mooney is contributing in a big way.

Scoring 40 points last week, a high under Matt Eberflus, made it apparent one part of it worked well—the passes to Moore.

"The offense was natural," Mooney said. "That's how we've been doing it for the past few weeks. Hopefully we can

continue to do that. That's just a fun offense to be around."

He just hopes to be in the middle of it more and will need to be because Minnesota is certain to move the ball well on offense even without wide receiver Justin Jefferson. They have other receivers and an attack geared to the pass. So the Bears can expect to need to scoring output Mooney can help provide.

The other reason they need balance is the opponent's weakness.

The Vikings defense has allowed 202.3 yards from scrimmage per game to wide receiver since 2021. That's the worst in NFL and the league average since then is 159.2.

The way to take advantage of Minnesota's defense is find wide receivers "plural," not wide receiver like last week because it won't work again.

2. Third-and-Long Aggressiveness

The Bears are the worst team in the NFL defending third down, but it goes beyond this. They are horrid at covering third-and-long, a down when NFL defenses should rule over offenses.

This year the Bears are giving up a 38.1% conversion rate on third-and-10 or longer. It's the worst rate in the league and the average is 25%.

Their secondary is coming back to health and needs to become more aggressive. They can't stay back in soft zone coverage, let receivers catch it 3 yards short of the sticks and build up momentum so that they fall forward beyond the first down after contact.

They need to aggressively come after Vikings receivers who catch it underneath and are trying for the first down.

Without Justin Jefferson, this will be Minnesota's best shot at picking up third-and-long yardage because the other receivers are not nearly as adept at back shoulder or 50-50 passes like their All-Pro.

The Bears were even bad at this last week when they dominated the game. It obviously helps to have a pass rush on third-and-long and they haven't had a consistent one.

However, the secondary is supposed to be the strength of their defense and needs to play this way on third-and-long.

3. Finish

It works on both sides of the ball and they did it last week.

The late portions of games usually are more critical than they were last week when the Bears owned a 17-point lead.

Plays need to be made at the end of games by Justin Fields and receivers, and by the defense.

Late in games or in close games, the Bears are scoring on 20% of their drives. That's the fifth-worst total in the NFL. Minnesota, meanwhile, has a defense that gives up scores late or in close games on 15.4% of drives. That's fourth best.

The Vikings build a strong season in 2022 by playing well late. They're not winning this year but they've still played well on offense when they needed to late in games.

The only way Justin Fields and the entire team will put losing in their past is by finishing out games strong in a way like last week, except more efficiently.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven