Bear Digest

Whatever it takes might be the way for Bears to counter Myles Garrett

Teams haven't really been able to come up with a certain way to shut down the dreaded Browns pass rusher but the Bears on Sunday can simply counter him in several ways.
Gene Chamberlain|
There has been no certain way to stop Myles Garrett but it doesn't mean the Browns need to win if he starts making sacks.
There has been no certain way to stop Myles Garrett but it doesn't mean the Browns need to win if he starts making sacks. | Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

The Bears tried this week to simulate Myles Garrett's pass rush pressure at practice the way any NFL team would.

They had someone line up in his position against their own offense.

It's a little bit different than the real thing.

“That's a big challenge," offensive coordinator Declan Doyle said. "There's not a lot of guys like him. Obviously, you're trying to simulate it as best you can on scout teams and things like that. And yet, at the same point in time, he provides a very unique challenge, one where those guys just don't grow on trees.

"He's a guy that we're very aware of, you study a lot of tape during the week and just have a plan to handle him. But, the main thing is we maintain focus on that player throughout the game and we know where he is and have a plan for how to handle him.”

Doyle didn't want to give up who played the role in practice.

“We have a number of guys that'll play defensive end that'll kind of sub through, but it will change based on who's getting more reps on defense and working,” Doyle said.

Both Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams referred to Garrett as a possible game wrecker. Considering the Bears will block Garrett with rookie Ozzy Trapilo, it's possible Garrett could make his presence felt.

The best Bears strategy would be to do what they're going to do regardless of Garrett. Even when he "wrecks" games, Garrett didn't necessarily win those games for his team. The Browns' 3-10 record says as much.

Garrett has four games with three sacks or more this season and the Browns only won one of them. That was the 24-10 victory over the Raiders. They held the Raiders to 60 rushing yards and forced passing situations, while Garrett made his sacks.

However, Baltimore gave up four sacks and ran for 187 yards in a 23-16 win over Cleveland. New England gave up five sacks to Garrett and still ran for 177 yards while passing for 24 and routed Cleveland 32-13. Running the ball is on way to keep Garrett at bay, but Cincinnati allowed three sacks in the opener and only had 95 yards passing, but the Browns lost a 17-16 defensive struggle.

On the other hand, three teams shut out Garrett and none of them really ran the ball well against Cleveland but they won largely based on what their own defense did.

The Steelers won 23-9 and Aaron Rodgers threw for 235 yards. The Vikings beat them 21-17 while throwing for 252 yards. And Detroit was limited on offense by its standards with 168 yards passing and 109 rushing, but still won 34-10 while shutting down Garrett.

It comes down to continuing to run the offense and working to keep Garrett away by whatever means are possible.

"He's done an incredible job," coach Ben Johnson said. "Just to look at the number of double teams, triple teams as you see on tape, and yet he still has 20 sacks on the season. It's pretty remarkable. And it's a special season for him.”

The Bears will find a way to contain him, counter him or both, if they want their own special season to continue rolling along.

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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.