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Three Greatest Challenges Facing the Bears in Season's Second Half

The Bears move into the second half of the NFL's 18-week season with three real obstacles to overcome, and they're much different than when they had QB issues.
Gene Chamberlain|
Caleb Williams looks to unload under pressure against Tampa Bay's blitz.
Caleb Williams looks to unload under pressure against Tampa Bay's blitz. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

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Chicago Bears

Any disappointment Bears fans might feel from the lack of a trade at the deadline only shows how little they know about the NFL.

Multiiple in-season trades by teams are uncommon occurrences even at the deadline, and the Bears already made their massive one by bringing aboard Jeffery Simmons.

Instead, the roster Ryan Poles and Ben Johnson built will need to try to improve from within, or they could add an unsigned player. Few of those can be very impactful at this time of the year — they'd be on a roster already if they possessed the kind of talent to let them turn a team's fortunes.

Improvement needs to come, though, as the Vikings have just elevated their offense by signing 38-year-old Kirk Cousins. The Packers have apparently improved and also are bringing back Micah Parsons at whatever level of play he can contribute following his knee surgery. And Detroit added a safety, although it still has defensive issues.

The Bears face three overriding problems when they begin they play New Orleans in Week 11 after the league goes through the first week of the schedule's second half this weekend.

None of these should seem shocking and the order can be debated. Here's how it looks.

3. Preventing deep pass plays

It's an issue they've begun to clean up by adding Simmons, although they did allow one deep ball for 58 yards on Sunday. QBs shouldn't have the time to attack them deep as often. They had a disastrous game at Green Bay that skewed their statistics somewhat, gave up a long one to Seattle, as well. But the number of deep passes has slowed.

It needs to continue. After a first half of the season when they r anked near the bottom of the league in preventing yards per pass attempt and were actually last for a while, they've come up to 26th and are 22nd over the last three games despite facing two Super Bowl teams.


Whether it means Tyrique Stevenson being benched for big plays allowed, or possibly a rotation of corners with Malik Muhammad returning from a toe injury and sharing time with Stevenson and Jaylon Johnson, the Bears might want to look at more change.

The safety position should be fine with improving rookie Dillon Thieneman and veteran Cam Lewis now getting more adjusted to the Dennis Allen scheme. It could really get effective if Coby Bryant returns at safety from his knee injury.

2. More Shorter Runs Allowed

The stats say they're sixth against the run but as former defensive coordinator Greg Blache said, numbers lie. They 23rd in yards allowed per attempt and their overall rushing yardage is low because teams gave up on the run when they were being outscored by Caleb Williams and the Bears offense. They were also hard-pressed for time with the Bears piling up possession time and couldn't run.

The No. 1 third-down defense in the league is no fluke. They are getting opponents into passing situations and have been top three much of the month in forcing three-and-outs. That's because they're getting better at stopping runs on first or second down.

Simmons' arrival should help them as much here as with his pass rush. They almost gave up a 100-yard game to Bucky Irving Sunday but there are plenty of defenses doing that. It's a matter of using Simmons well and the rest of their run stuffers continuing to work together better.

They're 20th in limiting rushing yards per attempt in the last three games, so there is a small amount of improvement. Their run defense is already on pace (46) for their most tackles for loss since 2018. It's more a matter of limiting the longer runs than stuffing more runs behind the line.

1. Running game revival

This is where Ben Johnson's offense is built. They started the year cruising a No. 1 and then came Kyle Monangai's injury, the knee injury to left tackle Braxton Jones and more recently a shoulder injury to Jones' replacement, Theo Benedet. All the while they're hoping to get left tackle Ozzy Trapilo back at full strength but he didn't play a down in the last two games.

The Bears still rank third in yardage and more importantly are No. 1 in attempts. Because they're now at nine games, this will drop after other teams catch up to there game total following the bye week. What they are not doing well is averaging solid yardage. They're at 13th in yards per carry at 4.2 and over the past five have failed to average 100 yards rushing per game (98.6).

The trend is definitely downward and it all began right after Monangai's injury in Week 4, when he was coming off his 146-yard rushing day against the New York Jets. Certainly facing three straight difficult run defenses hurt, but having him back in two weeks could make a huge difference.

Johnson speculates that it might just be the lack of explosive runs.
"Being able to have nine games of sample size at this point is going to be really good for us to look into," he said.

The other difference would be a healthier Benedet as he played through a shoulder injury on Sunday. He still had the second-highest Pro Football Focus blocking grade and second-highest pass-blocking grade on the team.

"He’s tough as nails," guard Jonah Jackson said. "Guys all over the board are dealing with stuff, some things you guys just might not know about. Credit to him doing his job and doing it at a high level."

It's a trait often mentioned as necessary by coaches.

"We talk about how there are going to be games over the course of the season where you're not 100%, and yet we need you going out there and giving every little ounce you got in your 90% or you're 85%," Johnson said. "I think that was a case of him last night pushing through and being out there for his buddies."

Not needing to overcome health issues would be a way to help kick-start the running game, whether it's at guard or at running back.

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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.

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