Bear Digest

Liberation Day from NFC North Nemesis Backs Comes for Bears Defense

Two familiar and troublesome faces in opposing backfields will no longer be a problem for the Bears after Monday roster moves by NFC North opponents.
Gene Chamberlain|
Lions running back and former Bear David Montgomery powers through Chicago's defense in a 52-21 Detroit win last year.
Lions running back and former Bear David Montgomery powers through Chicago's defense in a 52-21 Detroit win last year. | Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

The running back combination Ben Johnson helped put into place will no longer be there to plague the Bears.

Neither will another familiar antagonist.

While he was offensive coordinator in Detroit, the current Bears coach set up the David Montgomery-Jahmyr Gibbs "Sonic and Knuckles" backfield combination after Montgomery left the Bears as a free agent. Sure enough Montgomery came back to burn Chicago's defense.

Now they won't need to worry about stopping him unless it's in the Super Bowl because the Lions traded Montgomery on Monday to the Houston Texans. Ironically, the move came on a day when another familiar Bears headache was reported to be cut by the Vikings, and that's Aaron Jones.

This removes a major thorn for the Bears' defense. In five games against his old team, Montgomery was far more effective than he had been overall playing for Chicago.

Montgomery had rushed for 3,609 yards on 915 carries with the Bears, a 3.9-yard average, then averaged 4.5 yards behind Detroit's vaunted offensive line for three seasons. In five games against the Bears, Montgomery averaged 5.3 yards a carry with 329 yards on 62 carries, and scored three TDs. He also caught 10 passes for 94 yards.

There had been the usual unfounded rumors Montgomery would return to the Bears before the trade but NFL Network's Mike Garafolo called Houston "David Montgomery's preferred destination if he was to be traded."

Montgomery is going into his eighth NFL season and  the shelf life of running backs is not long, anyway. The Lions appear to be taking pre-emptive move here to set up for bringing in a young running back in the draft or possibly free agency.

It's easier to come up with more of a power option among backs, like Montgomery, than it is to find a back with speed like Gibbs has.

What the Bears can expect

Whatever the Lions do, the Bears are certain to have problems against them at least initially. Detroit won't be going out looking for a poor replacement.

The Lions brought in former Cardinals offensive coordinator Drew Petzing and he may have a different idea than the Sonic-Knuckles combo in the backfield. Like, perhaps he likes a Sonic-Sonic situation.

Either way, Petzing had a good ground game in Arizona with power back James Conners. It's going to be a Bears defensive problem of a different type, considering they never did figure out how to beat the Lions last year in Johnson's first year as coach. It's hard to see how it could be more effective than the old combination but Petzing's reputation is he'll find a way to give the NFC North problems.

"Drew does a great job," Johnson said of Petzing, who was in his wedding. "He’s a dear friend of mine and I know he’s going to knock it out of the park there in Detroit and so very happy for him and that opportunity. There’s a ton of really good players there."

Not facing Jones with the Vikings, and earlier with the Packers, definitely won't bother the Bears. Although he's a running back, Jones has caught six touchdown passes against them in his career and ran for 5.0 yards a carry for the two NFC North teams.

Not facing those two backs on a regular basis alone could work wonders for the Bears' struggling run defense.

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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.