The Chicago Bears are back from their bye week and preparing to take their two-game winning streak to Landover, Md., for a “Monday Night Football” meeting with the Washington Commanders.
The Bears should get a few injured players back after the break, though some of the good vibes from wins over the Dallas Cowboys and Las Vegas Raiders have been tempered by concerns about the running game and run defense.
Brad Biggs addresses those and more in his weekly Bears mailbag.
With T.J. Edwards coming back soon and Noah Sewell playing really well, do you believe Dennis Allen will be playing more base defense or continue with the 4-2-5 that has been used a lot? — @ukbornin1971
Barring something unexpected, it looks like Edwards will be back in action Monday at Washington. The veteran linebacker missed the season opener with a hamstring injury and then aggravated it on the first play of the third quarter in Detroit when he got caught trailing Lions wide receiver Jameson Williams.
Edwards said he felt 100% going into the Lions game before re-injuring himself.
“It just so happened that chasing down Jameson Williams was not on my docket,” he said. “It feels really good now. When you’re out for a little bit and hurting, you miss it. You don’t take any of those things for granted.”
We certainly could see more situations when the Bears have standard 4-3 personnel on the field, and that might aid in improving the leaky run defense. Through the first four games, the Bears haven’t used a lot of traditional 4-3 personnel. They’ve played a lot of sub packages with five or more defensive backs and dabbled with five down linemen. Rookie linebacker Ruben Hyppolite II has only 18 defensive snaps, and Daniel Hardy, who has played defensive end and linebacker, has just 13.
Yes, I believe the Bears — at full strength — will be in more 4-3 fronts. Provided Kyler Gordon isn’t on a snap count in his return from a hamstring injury, it will be interesting to see how Allen deploys him. He’ll be in his familiar nickel role, I would imagine, but does he dabble as a third safety or perhaps play outside corner in some 4-3 scenarios?
Sewell has taken a step forward this season, no question. He’s second on the team with 29 tackles (two for a loss). But he’s probably best in a Sam linebacker role that plays on occasion as a backup. He lacks high-end traits and doesn’t run great, and that can be an issue in coverage.
The Commanders enter the game with the league’s top rushing offense and already have four players with more than 100 yards, so offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury not only is versatile, but also has a lot of options. Perhaps Allen will lean more on a base defense in this game, but these kind of decisions are very opponent-specific. What you see one week you might barely notice the next.
How do the Bears upgrade on the offensive line and still can’t create any movement in the running game? — @lb3truther
That’s a fair question. The running game hasn’t popped through the first four weeks, and it’s not due to a lack of effort. Ben Johnson really prides himself in being effective running the ball, and you saw that nearly every week over the past couple of seasons with the Lions. Some former quarterbacks who have play-calling duties strive to prove how smart they are with their passing concepts and aerial-attack acumen.
“It’s hard to evaluate any of our running backs right now when you turn on the tape and there’s some free runners in the hole where the play’s designed to go,” Johnson said. “I take it personally because I actually spend more time on the run game than I do on the passing game. Not only trying to create explosives in the running game but being sound and taking a lot of pride in our execution of the fundamentals.”
You’re right, the Bears invested heavily in the offensive line, signing center Drew Dalman in free agency and trading for, and then extending the contracts of, guards Joe Thuney and Jonah Jackson. The first goal, I believe, was to create a better pocket for quarterback Caleb Williams, and that has worked when you look at how he has improved in playing on schedule with the sack rate tumbling.
Dalman is regarded as one of the best centers in the league for an outside zone scheme. The Bears haven’t been highly productive doing this, and some have wondered if the rest of the personnel is a great fit for that.
Most figured the Bears would be more profitable running the ball given Johnson’s penchant for the ground game and the experience of the linemen. Yet they are 24th in the league, averaging 102.2 rushing yards per game, and with a few exceptions such as the 19-play touchdown drive in Week 3 against the Dallas Cowboys, they haven’t run the ball consistently.
Unfortunately, there isn’t one element you can point to and say, “If they could fix this, it would be solved.” Yes, the Bears lack an elite running back, but they have the personnel to have a much more effective rushing attack. A lot of factors are adding up against them right now.
“You talk about a deuce block, deuce combination, all looking the same, a triple between the tight end and the tackle all looking the same,” Johnson said. “We’re not quite there yet. It’s been a race since training camp started. We get pads on, that’s when the full speed starts happening, and you get linebackers that are coming downhill and pulling you off your double teams. We’re just not reacting fast enough right now.
“So we have to learn from everything that we put on tape so far as an entire unit so that those combinations can be a lot cleaner and so we give our runners a chance. Because we do have some dynamic players, whether it’s our running backs or our receivers, that if we can give them a chance to get a little bit of green grass, they take advantage of it. But we just haven’t done it consistently enough.”
This should get better as the season goes. The linemen, tight ends, receivers and backs — they’re all involved — should improve their timing. If the offense starts hitting two or three big runs a game, the overall statistics will look different pretty quickly.
One thing we haven’t seen is the Bears hitting a big jet sweep or reverse play, and they have the personnel to do that with DJ Moore, Luther Burden III and others. Sprinkle in a 20-yard run — even if it’s a handoff to a wide receiver — and things should open up a little.
While the pass-rush problem seems like an issue that isn’t likely to be resolved with this team’s personnel, are there solutions to fixing the run defense in scheme and personnel? Getting Kyler Gordon back should help, but does Nahshon Wright need to be replaced if he continues to show zero interest in stopping the run? — @chicityforum1
I wrote at length earlier this week about the team’s struggles stopping the run. Fortunately it’s still a small sample size as the Bears have played only four games, but it has been an ominous start considering the explosive plays they are allowing on the ground. They are allowing 6.15 yards per carry. That’s last in the league and more than a half-yard behind the 31st-ranked Miami Dolphins.
“Hopefully (Gordon’s return) allows us to unlock a few things on defense,” Ben Johnson said. “He’s one of our bigger playmakers. I’ve got a lot of experience being on the opposing sideline from him and a ton of respect for how he can impact the game. There’s only a handful of nickels in this league that you really have to account for both as a coverage player but also a guy that likes to be nosy in the run game, and (he) could be part of the solution for us in terms of shoring up our run game as well.
“He’s got those natural football instincts that are really hard to coach and hard to teach. When you have enough players like that, that’s where you really take off in a hurry.”
Wright isn’t going to be great in run defense. I didn’t see a lack of interest in aiding the run defense last time out in Las Vegas. I saw him taking poor angles and failing to get outside leverage. He was coming down into the box. He just wasn’t executing.
As you probably know, cornerbacks are judged first by their ability to defend the pass, and if you’re swapping out those guys because of the problems you have stopping the run, there are probably bigger issues at hand.
Do you think this is a week we finally start to see more Kyle Monangai in the offense? — @j_toast
Monangai’s playing time was pretty similar in the last two games: 17 snaps against the Cowboys and 19 against the Raiders. He had 28 in Week 2 in Detroit, but that bump was largely attributable to the lopsided score in the second half.
We’ll have to see after Monangai appeared on the initial injury report of the week Thursday. It was an estimate because the team was off Thursday, but he was listed as “did not participate” with a thigh injury.
When he’s healthy, I’m of the mindset that Monangai’s playing time will depend somewhat on game flow. By that, I mean if the coaching staff has a plan entering the game to use him on the fourth offensive series of the first half and the third series of the second half, how does the offense do in those scenarios? If it’s a sustained drive, there will be opportunities for more snaps and more touches.
He’ll get mixed in on occasion for D’Andre Swift in the middle of a drive. Ben Johnson has been pretty clear: He’s not piling the blame for an inconsistent rushing attack on Swift’s shoulders. Plus, Swift has been a consistent check-down target for Caleb Williams. He has 13 receptions and the ability to make a big play in the passing game.
Maybe we’ll see a few more touches for Monangai, but I don’t know that handing him the ball more would all of a sudden unlock the offense.
Is Austin Booker a 100% go for the Commanders game? — @bearfsnman
The second-year defensive end, who has been out since mid-August with a knee injury, returned to practice Tuesday and told me he’s hopeful to be activated for his season debut Monday night. But it will depend on how the coaches believe he looks in practice.
I wouldn’t be surprised if we see Booker in action, but you can’t rule out the possibility the coaches want to see him practice for two weeks given the amount of time he missed. The team has until 3 p.m. Monday to restore him to the 53-man roster and make him eligible for the game.
Why are the Bears playing in Washington in back-to-back years? You would think one of the games would be in Chicago. — @jpigee84
This is actually the third consecutive season the Bears have played at Washington and the fourth straight year the teams are playing one another.
This year it’s a standard game against the Commanders with the Bears playing every NFC East team. The schedule rotates annually for which NFC division the North teams face. Last year, the Bears played the entire NFC West. In 2023, they faced all four NFC South teams. In 2022, when the NFC East was on the Bears schedule, the game against Washington was at Soldier Field. Provided the league keeps the same rotation, the Commanders will visit Soldier Field again in 2028.
Fourteen of the 17 opponents each year are predetermined. Three games are based on the previous season’s standings. In 2023 and 2024, the Bears and Commanders played because both finished in last place in their division.
If you’re looking ahead to 2026, the Bears will play the AFC East and NFC South teams. The wild cards are home dates versus the corresponding finisher in the NFC East and AFC South and a road game against the corresponding finisher in the NFC West. Yes, that makes it possible the Bears and Commanders would meet for a fifth consecutive season — but at Soldier Field.
These quirks in the schedule happen on occasion. Five of the last seven games between the Bears and Carolina Panthers have been played at Soldier Field.