Skip to main content
Bear Digest

Bears Look Far From Solving Running Game Issues at Close Quarters

Kyle Monangai gained plenty of yards but the ground game came to a halt when the Bears hit short-yardage situations, an issue they've had all year.
Gene Chamberlain|
Kyle Monangai is surrounded by Jets as he tries to pull away and move forward for a short gain.
Kyle Monangai is surrounded by Jets as he tries to pull away and move forward for a short gain. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

In this story:

Chicago Bears

The coaching never ends, even in easy victories

The Bears' running game churned up the New York Jets defensive front — a defense that had been ranked seventh in average ground yards allowed at 87.3 yards a game going into the 23-12 Chicago win.

Kyle Monangai gained 146 yards and the ball control was downright montonous. Their own defensive players were getting antsy standing on the sidelines.

"It was boring. I got bored," joked Bears linebacker Devin Bush.

Not everything was seamless, though.

"There's still a lot of things we need to clean up," coach Ben Johnson said.

Heading into this week at Green Bay, Monangai's thumb injury becomes a concern but there are two other issues regarding whether they can play as effectively as they want on the ground.

Red zone running frustration

The first is their goal-line or short-yardage attack, particularly on runs. It failed miserably early in the game and even had one failure late, and this had been a problem earlier this year agains the Vikings. They converted only once Sunday on their first eight chances facing 3 yards or less for touchdown or first down. A few series later, they were at 2-for-10. Monangai exploded into the end zone on fourth-and-goal from the 1. Replay overturned a few TDs in the early sequence.

"Yeah it's frustrating but, like, it's next-play mentality," Monangai said. "You know, were coming up short in those moments. We've got to have it. We know we got to do better, don't leave it into the hands of the referee. That's just stuff to improve on.

"We're going to watch that on film and make sure it doesn't happen next week."

The Bears might lead the NFL in rushing but are 5-for-8 on fourth-and-2 or less this season, 6-for-10 on fourth-and-3 or less. They went 2-for-5 on third-and-1 against the Jets, are 7-for-11 on the year in that situation, and are really bad in third-and-3 at 1-for-7. They're only 11-for-22 on third-and-3 or less.

"Obviously, we’ve got to get better in the red zone," Johnson said. "It's been really three weeks in a row that we've left points out there. So that'll be a major emphasis for us going forward, as well as the turnovers. We can't have those on offense."

Who attempts to do this will be the real question going forward. On Sunday, D'Andre Swift came out of the game and didn't return. He had fumbled earlier in the game for the second time this season and it set up a Jets field goal.
Swift had a knee injury early in the week and sat out practice but had been cleared by the game.

Johnson was asked if the knee had been a reason for Swift coming out.

“No, nothing like that," he said.

Apparently it's performance-based, although it worked another way and that was Monangai was tearing up the Jets with his power running so they wanted to go to him.

"But he ran super, super hard," Johnson said. "Roschon (Johnson) came in, ran super hard as well. We really like that room and where they're at right now.

"And then, of course, you combine that with our bigs up front and the tight ends, the way that they block. It's fun to watch them go to work.”

Just not in near the goal line or in short-yardage situations.

The short-yardage issue

This needs to be corrected going forward or they'll be passing more and more on short-yardage situations, like the Bears did five times needing 3 or less Sunday. When a team must do that, they eventually lose the identity as a powerful running team with the ability to dictate to defenses.

The secoind issue is Monangai's injured thumb and whether they'll even be able to keep the same group together and try to overcome this problem. He felt like it wouldn't be a problem afterward.

As for Swift, do they bench him and go with Monangai if healthy moving forward? It seems unlikely since it was only the second fumble.

Sign Up For the Bears Daily Digest - OnSI’s Free Chicago Bears Newsletter

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Loading recommendations... Please wait while we load personalized content recommendations

Published
Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.

Home/News