Bears Seeking Well-Grounded Offense

With everyone worried about Justin Fields handling the pressure being put on him, tight end Cole Kmet thinks it's time to do something about it.

They could take it off by running more and also more consistently for big yardage.

“Yeah, I think that’s big," Kmet said. "We were the No. 1 rushing team last year and there’s no reason that can’t still be a big part of our arsenal in the game.

"I think it always starts with the run and makes everything else a lot easier, so I think establishing our physicality up front is big and can help us get off to a fast start this game.”

The Bears are 17th in rushing and after three weeks last year were second. Justin Fields hadn't yet found his running shoes. It was yardage where backs had made the big difference.

Through three games last year, the Bears had 18 runs of 10 yards or longer and Fields had only two of them. Khalil Herbert had nine of them.

Through this year's three games, Herbert has two, D'Onta Foreman one, Roschon Johnson three and Fields three.

Kmet sees an adjustment made by defenses to Fields' running with part of the reason for the decrease in bigger plays.

“Yeah, absolutely, you can tell by how the ends are reading a little bit," he said. "They’re not crashing as hard as maybe they were last year when we first were starting doing a lot of quarterback runs with Justin.

"I think we’re going to be creative in terms of manufacturing some times where Justin’s able to take off and run, and then also being able to hand off and run power right up the gut. We've got to be able to do both those things, but you can definitely tell that teams are taking that into effect, for sure."

Of course, the other part of running besides the backs breaking off big yardage is the offensive line opening the holes. While they had some injury problems on the line throughout last year, injuries have sidelined Teven Jenkins and Braxton Jones, their two highest-rated starters from last season.

Second-year guard Ja'Tyre Carter filled in at guard in two games but that was because guard Nate Davis was away following a death in his family.

"I thought Ja’Tyre did a great job of stepping in there, right?" offensive coordinator Luke Getsy said. "I mean, talk about a really cool improvement from one year to the next as far as assignments and physicality and all of that stuff.

"Ja'Tyre has all of the athleticism in the world to do it, and it was really cool to be able to see him go out there and show some real improvement in the physicality part of it like he did the last two weeks."

Pro Football Focus wasn't too keen on Carter, as they grade him 74th out of 76 guards graded as a run blocker this year.

This week the Bears expect to get Davis back at right guard for the first time since the opener. It will be their fourth different starting offensive line in four games if this happens.

"He was out there yesterday and took all the reps, so I think as far as Nate and where he's at with everything, I think I’ll let him talk to (media) about where he’s at with that," offensive coordinator Luke Getsy said. "But he had a really good day yesterday, and it seemed like he's ready to roll."

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