4th and Goal(s): Bears Talent Test Comes With Latest Packers Week
Stakes rising for promising Bears as eternal party poopers invade Chicago
Once again, it’s Packers week for the Chicago Bears — the ultimate rival making their yearly trek down from the dairy lands of Wisconsin down to the Bears’ den just off Lake Michigan.
Outside of 2018’s ultra competitive split — one point in Week 1 kept the Bears from a 6-0 NFC North record that year — the Packers have owned this series since general manager Ryan Pace has been in Chicago. Yet this week feels different than most years, because for the first time in a while the Bears are actually complimenting their good defense with an offense that has a budding identity going for it.
On a less positive note, the Bears have not been treated kindly by the injury report as of late, though the Packers have their own injury issues. This game comes to us complete with plenty of intangibles and with all the early stakes of a mid-season game that could mean a lot with first place in the NFC North on the line.
One of the usual, please - When the Bears and Packers meet — especially since the late 90s with both teams being competitive — fans are usually greeted with a battle of the high-powered Packers offense going up against a stingy Bears defense.
Bears fans are obviously elated this season with quarterback Justin Fields because he represents something the franchise has never had — a truly modern, game-breaker of a QB. At present time, though, Fields is not ready to beat Green Bay by himself, he’ll again need his team’s stingy defense to show up.
The Bears look to be pretty healthy on the defensive side and have steadily improved their performance through the first five weeks of this season. Still, some issues with blown coverages needs to be buttoned for this week, otherwise Aaron Rodgers is bound to have another field day at Soldier Field.
A huge positive for the Bears right now is them being in the bottom five of the league in blitzing while leading the league in sacks coming into this week. The tendency of only bringing four rushers with the occasional blitzer, then dropping back seven with disguised looks is reminiscent of ex-Bears defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, which makes sense as a Fangio disciple, Sean Desai, is leading the unit now and getting their most consistent play since 2018. This Fangio-like recipe is one of the best strategies against Rodgers and has proven to be more effective than most in neutralizing him.
Identity derailed? - Here is the good and the bad with the Bears offense heading into this game.
The good: the offensive line and run game have been physical and extremely effective as of late.
The bad: all of Chicago’s running backs either are hurt or have covid besides rookie Khalil Herbert. The sixth-round rookie draft pick from Virginia Tech flashed a lot of potential in last week’s game against the Raiders, but is it too soon for the young rookie to be thrust into the starting lineup?
Well, yeah it may be. But in the NFL opportunities often come when you least expect them and this is a huge opportunity for Herbert to showcase his talents and carry the Bears best offensive attribute, which is running the football. A familiar backup running back in Ryan Nall is poised to get additional carries, but will that backfield be enough to keep the Bears' churning and in control of the football?
Hit ‘em where it hurts - Its really unfortunate that the Bears running backs are so depleted. Green Bay’s defense is still very weak up the middle and combining that with the Bears being most successful when running the ball just seemed like a sweet mixture that could produce an upset win.
At least the Bears offensive line has been healthy, for the most part, and they’ve spent the last two weeks pancaking the *bleep* outta of the Lions and Raiders. Maybe the offense will have to change up its style in how it attacks, but the primary emphasis still needs to be on Chicago’s run game. That can maybe manifest in more run-pass options for Fields to isolate defenders and make the Packers have to think about runs to the outside as well as inside.
Maybe the Bears will use a few more wide receiver-run plays (how nice would Cordarrelle Patterson have been this week?) or movement of the pocket to give Fields chances to run. No matter the method, its important for the Bears to take advantage of a weak Packers run defense while consequently keeping Rodgers off the field.
Find a way to score - If you want to cast doubt on a Bears victory this week you need to look no further than the team’s points per game average. Only the Jets and Dolphins average worse than the Bears’ 16.8 per four quarters.
Going up against a scoring machine like Rodgers can be is worrisome enough. Throw in the issues at running back as discussed earlier and you got something very worrisome.
Somehow, the Bears need to get more points either out of the offense taking shots downfield with Fields, or help from defense/special teams finding a way to create score and/or create chances to score.
Certainly this is a tough task to accomplish, hopefully after this game we’ll get something approaching a signature “Justin Fields” game, but the rookie is learning and developing, it’s likely he’ll do something to help the team win but carrying the squad on his back during Packer week isn’t a guarantee yet.
This week calls for a total team effort to take down these Packers and capture an early lead in the NFC North.
Ryan Bukowiecki covers the Chicago Bears and professional football for WARR