LAKE FOREST, Ill. (WGN) — The Chicago Bears are starting to trend in the right direction. On offense, Chicago’s big, meaty men in the middle have created more running lanes for D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai over the last two weeks, leading to more (rightfully deserved) positive attention.
The Bears sit at 4-2. Their two most recent victories—a 26-14 win over the New Orleans Saints on Sunday and an electric, last-minute 25-24 dub against the Washington Commanders on Monday Night Football—both happened in large part due to the revitalization of the Chicago’s run game.
Six games down, the Bears rank second in the NFL in rushing first-down percentage (40.52%), and are also second in the NFL in rush yards per game (145.3) and rushing first-down percentage (44.83%) over their last three games.
Swift, Ben Johnson’s lead back, had his two best performances of the season in the past two weeks.
He notched 14 attempts for 108 yards rushing to go with two catches, 65 yards receiving and a touchdown in Week 6. Then Swift added another 19 attempts for 124 yards and a touchdown run with one catch for 14 yards in Week 7. He’s the first Bears’ running back to have 100-plus scrimmage yards and a touchdown in back-to-back games since Khalil Herbert in Weeks 16 and 17 of the 2023 season.
Rookie seventh-round pick Kyle Monangai joined in on the act in Week 7, too. The Rutgers alum had 13 attempts for 81 yards and scored his first NFL touchdown late in the second quarter of Sunday’s victory.
But those performances don’t come to fruition without the offensive line starting to gel, especially when it comes to Chicago’s zone run scheme, predominantly out of 10 personnel.
The New Orleans Tape
According to Next Gen Stats, when rushing to the weak side of the formation, the Bears’ offense had created the 2nd-most yards before contact per carry (2.5) and had the 4th-highest success rate (51.7%) in the NFL heading into Week 7.
Alternatively, the Saints defense had forfeited only 0.7 yards before contact per carry (4th-fewest) and allowed a success rate of 38.6% (5th-lowest) against weak-side rushes heading into Week 7.
Despite New Orleans’ proficiency against weak side runs on defense, Chicago was still able to find success on those plays. What makes their success interesting, specifically on inside zone runs, is how they diversified their ground attack to keep the Saints’ defense off-balance.
On their second drive after the Spencer Rattler fumble recovery, the Bears had second-and-12 from the New Orleans 26-yard line near the 12-minute mark.
Chicago came out in 10 personnel with Caleb Williams under center and Monangai in the backfield. Williams sent Luther Burden III in motion from right-to-left before the snap, to “create eye candy” for New Orleans’ linebacking corps, as Johnson would put it.
After the snap, the Bears’ offensive line slanted toward the strong side of the line on an inside zone run for Monangai.
Drew Dalman reached right on a double team with Jonah Jackson on Bryan Bresee (no. 90). Jackson took over the block for Dalman, who elevated to the second level and accounted for the linebacker, Demario Davis (no. 56). As this was happening, Joe Thuney walled off the nose tackle, Davon Godchaux (no. 92), to preserve a lane for Monangai to run through, who shot through the gap before it collapsed. He wasn’t brought down until he was inside the 15-yard line for a 14-yard gain.
The results on that first quarter zone run were so nice, Chicago said, ‘Why don’t we run it twice?’
Fast forward to the fourth quarter, and the Bears had first-and-10 from their own 34-yard line with 10:40 remaining in the ballgame.
Chicago came out in the same 10 personnel package as they did in the first quarter, but this time it was Swift lined up as the single back instead of Monangai.
And just like earlier, Burden was sent in motion across the formation ahead of the snap, while the Bears’ offensive line slanted right during the play. Dalman came off a double team, just like he did with Jackson earlier in the game, and elevated to block the linebacker again at the second level.
The only difference this time around was that Swift cut it back left before shooting straight up the middle for 23 yards.
Why did the same run play work so well twice in one game? In between the two, Johnson employed other run concepts on offense that also found success.
The Bears ran power out of 13 personnel (1 RB, 3 TE, 1 WR) with a tight end lined up at full back on Swift’s 11-yard touchdown run in the second quarter. They also got a 15-yard gain from Swift on a counter trap variant in the third quarter, where pre-snap motion set up Kmet to function as the second pulling blocker inside for Swift.
“I think we’re picking up steam. But, there’s a still a long way to go,” Monangai said. “We’re making progress in the right direction and the last game was a testament to that. The game before that kind of got it going, too. We have aspirations to be even better than where we are, in terms of the run game. I know we’re going to do that.
“We just have to keep building, week by week.”
The Washington Tape
Bears found success on outside and wide zone run concepts when facing stacked fronts against Washington (Stacked fronts, as in each gap is filled or accounted for by the Commanders).
A simple, clear-cut example of the Bears winning on weak-side outside zone runs happened on their first offensive drive of the game against Washington.
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A pre-snap weak side zone run look from the Bears. -
Cole Kmet motions from strong to weak side pre-snap, with their blocking scheme slanted to the weak side. -
Drew Dalman and Joe Thuney execute their blocks on the interior of the line at the first and second levels, while Theo Benedet and Kmet do the same on the outside.
Chicago had second-and-6 on their second play from scrimmage at the Commanders’ 40-yard line.
The Bears came out with a singleback formation in 10 personnel. After Caleb Williams motioned Kmet from the strong side to the weak side of the offensive line pre-snap, he handed the ball off to Swift, who followed his blockers for a 7-yard gain.
On the play, it’s Dalman’s objective to slide left and reach the 2i defensive tackle so that Thuney can create leverage and elevate to the second level to engage the weak-side linebacker, Frankie Luvu. Dalman and Thuney both accomplish their objectives, on top of Kmet and Theo Benedet executing great blocks of their own to help spring the positive play.
“I equate [our run blocking] to better fundamentals up front. I thought our guys did a great job with their combinations. I thought they had two really strong interior players and we were looking to get double teams on those guys as much as we could,” Johnson said after the Washington game.
“Whether it was our gap scheme or our zone schemes. I felt like those double teams were really good. I felt like we were able to displace them and create some cavities that way.”
Later near the end of the first quarter, the Bears got even better results on a similar outside zone run to the weak side that was also on a similar down and distance.
Chicago was again in 10 personnel out of the shotgun, with Kmet motioning from weak side to strong side ahead of the snap on second-and-5 from inside the Commanders’ red zone.
“We had some of the motions and shifts [that] I do think helped soften, that linebacking crew in particular, up a little bit because that was a hard-nosed, downhill unit that we were looking every which way we could to try to give them a little eye candy and slow them down,” Johnson said. “So, I think less of it one high, two high, I think more of it as really good execution upfront.”
After the snap, the Bears line slanted right, with Dalman having the same objective as before—reach left to intercept the defensive lineman—but this time its a defensive end in the 4i technique.
He accomplished that and formed a double team, which allowed Thuney to get to the second level and block the linebacker, Bobby Wagner. Dalman and Thuney, alongside Benedet—who neutralized Washington’s other defensive end, Preston Smith—executed their blocks so well that it didn’t matter Kmet was late getting across the formation to pick off Luvu.
What made this play even better the second time was that the Bears’ wide receivers got in on the act. Olamide Zaccheaus and Rome Odunze did a great job walling off defenders to extend the hole and give Swift a one-on-one matchup between him and the end zone. Quan Martin ended up making the tackle, but it was an all-around great play from a run-blocking execution standpoint.
“We are clicking up front, and the receivers are doing a great job on the perimeter. Hats off to them, the guys up front and the receivers, I can’t say that enough,” Swift said. “If they do their jobs up front and we get a little space as the backs, everybody in our room, we’re going to make something happen after that.
“I feel like we’ve been doing a better job this week and the past week of clicking on all cylinders and doing our jobs.”