If you want to understand my thoughts on how the Bears should approach the Rams defense tonight, they are all illustrated in Kyle Shanahan’s masterful scheme from a week ago. Avoid the middle. Throw on early downs. Screen them to death.
The Bears now enter a five-game-in-six-week stretch wherein three of those games will be in primetime. And at 5-1 there’s no one happier about that than Roger Goodell. The Bears have been the ratings surprise of the season and if they keep winning, that’ll continue. The ratings will be good Monday night. I’m not so sure the game will be.
I always like the Chicago Bears.
And the 2020 Bears are starting to play like, and take on the personality of, the 2018 Bears. That’s NEVER a bad thing. That team made a statement by beating the Rams in primetime. Might the same happen in 2020?
There are three players remaining on the Bears schedule that should frighten them. Aaron Rodgers because he’s Aaron Rodgers. Derrick Henry because if the Bears don’t wrap him up they’ll be shredded for 200+ yards. And Aaron Donald. With Donald, this week is especially terrifying.
Donald is the best defensive player in the league. He’s also a defensive tackle who’ll have the opportunity to line up opposite a liability on the Bears offensive line at left guard. If Donald wants to spend 40 snaps in that spot, he will. Matt Nagy and Nick Foles can’t let Donald wreck this game; something he’s more than capable of doing. That means their backs need to do a ton of work in protection. That could mean Holtz and Kmet in the backfield with their eyes squarely on Donald.
But it also means two other things.
Donald is the kind of player opposing coaches must fixate on if they intend to be successful. With the Bears struggling upfront, that’s even more the case here.
Do I love L.A. Story? More than most films. (The movie poster is sampled as the featured image of this post.) Is Chinatown one of the greatest screenplays ever written? Sure is. Do I think David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive has some of the most bizarre and sexy scenes ever captured? Yep. Are the L.A. scenes in Annie Hall perfect? They are. But for my money, Curb is the finest representation of Los Angeles and all it entails. (It is a terrible place and Larry David knows it.) I’ve done seven runs through the entire series and I’m happy with this list.
(7) Kamikaze Bingo
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(6) Larry vs. Michael J. Fox
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(5) The Table Read
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(4) The Ski Lift
We’ve spent the last two days focused on where the Bears need to improve. Today, I come to celebrate these first six weeks.
Defensive success in 2020 is predicated upon rushing the passer with the front four and Football Outsiders ranks the Bears as the second best pass defense in the league, predominantly because of the success they’re finding in the pressure department. Khalil Mack and Akiem Hicks have been as expected, and the Bears are getting pass rush contribution from unlikely sources like Mario Edwards Jr, James Vaughters and even Brent Urban.
What’s the most exciting thing about the pass rush? Robert Quinn is still being worked into the lineup and every time he gets on the field he makes an impact. When Quinn reaches 100% health, and sees his snap count tick up, the Bears will be the most feared front in the league.
No one is surprised that Fuller is the team’s best cover corner, and one of the best cover corners in the league.
But did anyone see Fuller becoming the reincarnation of Ronnie Lott, delivering a crushing hit almost every week. Did anyone see Fuller making the kind of tackle he made on Teddy Bridgewater Sunday, keeping the Panthers’ quarterback out of the end zone and changing the course of the game?
Kyle Fuller can really do it all. pic.twitter.com/QZrgzzSGI2
— Bears Film Room (@BearsFilmRoom) October 19, 2020
Fuller, through six weeks, is in the conversation for Defensive Player of the Year. (I’m just not sure Aaron Donald will ever lose that award again.)
Has Nick Foles been great since taking over at quarterback? No.
Has there been a discernible change when it comes to leadership? Absolutely.
Let’s take a look at what Foles has done since taking over.
Foles will always be limited physically. He’s frequently going to take the quick, efficient option over the “shot”. But as the season progresses, and he becomes more comfortable with his receivers, the passing game should improve.
A tweet from Allen Robinson’s agent seems to sum up how important it was for the Bears to make this move WHILE ALSO winning.
This guy @NickFoles is just different. In a great way.. On and off the field, he is a💡.. No surprise that success seems to follow him.. 🙏🏾
— Brandon Parker (@B_Parker21) October 20, 2020
(AP Photo/Mike McCarn)
[Editor’s Note: The following column is written from a place of jubilance. The Bears are 5-1. They are playing some of the best defense in the National Football League. But if our expectations are going to venture beyond just making it to January, they need to improve.]
3rd down and 2.
1:43 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Bears are nursing what feels like a tenuous seven-point lead.
Two yards ends the game. Two yards and the Bears are coasting to 5-1, allowing their defense to relax on the sideline and celebrate a job well done.
This is when you call your best play.
Your two-point conversion play.
Your “Chicago Special”.
This is when you roll out that thing you’ve been practicing every week because these moments don’t often present themselves over the course of a game. How many times are you actually in the position to say, “Get a couple yards and get a W.” The Bears faced one Sunday.
And then they ran…something. I don’t have the foggiest idea what it was. Foles took the snap and threw a dud of a pass to Allen Robinson on a well-covered shallow cross. No creativity. No imagination. I’ve drawn up better plays during street games in Kearny, New Jersey. (“Run to the Buick bumper and turn” always worked.) In the notebook I’ve been keeping during these games I wrote a single word.
Why?
The Bears are 5-1. They have played six games and won five of them. They are still not very good in almost every facet of offensive football but that doesn’t matter yet. 5. And. 1.
Score: 13-6 Bears.
Thanks to Del Reid and Dan Gigante – the fine folks at 26Shirts – we’ll be giving away our collaborative Darnell “Money” Mooney shirt this week. (The shirt is pictured above and you can read all about it by CLICKING HERE.)
The Contest.
Good luck!
I always like the Chicago Bears.
And I think something clicked for this group in the second half against Tampa.
You can run on the Panthers but their pass defense is start to get better.
Yards per attempt allowed the last three weeks:
Justin Herbert – 6.7
Kyler Murray – 4.3
Matt Ryan – 6.1Combined 4:2 TD to INT ratio allowed.
— Matt Harmon (@MattHarmon_BYB) October 11, 2020
(#5) The Bridge on the River Kwai
The most important bridge in cinematic history.
This year DBB is deepening our partnership with 26Shirts; becoming far more involved in shirt concepts/designs, especially when it comes to the Chicago Bears-specific ones. This collaboration is based on a Tweet from the Bears themselves.
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— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) October 4, 2020
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Darnell Mooney has wowed the Bears since training camp opened and is one of the breakout stars of this rookie class. So without further delay, the Darnell “Money” Mooney shirt.
Simple. Cool. You can simply click the image above to order or follow THIS LINK to the 26Shirts site.
As with all 26Shirts attire, half the proceeds go to charity and this shirt will support my friends at the Windy Kitty Cafe in Chicago. Like many smaller non-profits, they are struggling mightily in the wake of Covid-19. Resources are not as available as they were seven months ago. We are specifically supporting their “Kitten Korner”. Here’s a note from Jenny, the founder, on their website:
It was a dream of mine to have a kitten nursery be a part of The Windy Kitty since before I opened! Kitten Korner is phase one of the up and coming Chicago Kitten Nursery, which will be an entirely different facility in Chicago. For now, we take in kittens that are not ready for the main lounge but young enough to start being socialized so that fosters have more room for neonatal kittens.
Why?
Kittens are the first to be euthanized in city shelters if they are still nursing. Not because people don’t care but because the resources to care for them overnight just aren’t there. I thought, why not become a resource so less orphan kittens die!? So here we are… In just over a year we’ve saved over 200 lives.
History
With your help we opened Kitten Korner in August 2018, just 8 months after opening our doors. Now it is a full on non-profit entity working in conjunction with The Windy Kitty and various rescues within Chicago.
So why not buy a cool shirt and support an amazing cause? And if you don’t want the shirt but still want to support the cause, you can do that HERE.
