ClutchPoints
The Cinderella season for the Chicago Bears is still rolling on, as Ben Johnson and company are into the Divisional Round of the NFL playoffs in his first season as head coach.
All season, the Bears have snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, and they did so again when they erased a 21-3 deficit in the Wild Card Round against the Green Bay Packers. Caleb Williams tossed the game-winning touchdown with less than two minutes to go, and the defense got one final stop to secure the victory.
Now, things will only be getting tougher for the Bears in the Divisional Round. Chicago comes into Sunday’s home playoff game against the Los Angeles Rams as an underdog despite being the No. 2 seed and winning the NFC North.
The Rams are coming off of a closer-than-expected win over the Carolina Panthers on the road in the Wild Card Round, where Matthew Stafford had to lead a game-winning drive in the final minutes to get a 34-31 victory. While Chicago seems undermanned in this matchup, especially on defense, but there are a few ways that they can get after this Los Angeles offense to pull the upset.
The Bears defense is a year or two away from being Super Bowl-ready, but the offense has them at this point in the postseason. If Chicago wants to continue that run with a win over the Rams, defensive coordinator Dennis Allen must find some creative ways to pressure Matthew Stafford.
Stafford looked uncomfortable at times in the Wild Card Round against the Panthers, in part due to the different things that Ejiro Evero and company were throwing at him and in part due to a sprained finger on his throwing hand that he suffered in the first half. On the final drive, when Carolina got more conservative and Stafford had time to operate, he carved them up and then found tight end Colby Parkinson for the game-winning touchdown.
The numbers, both season-long and in that game in Carolina, back that up. When Stafford was not pressured this season, he completed nearly 69% of his passes with 42 passing touchdowns and just seven interceptions, a nearly unstoppable force on a loaded Rams offense. When he was pressured, however, he completed just 53% of his passes this season and saw his EPA per dropback fall out of the top five in the NFL all the way down to ninth.
That was on display against the Panthers. When Carolina was able to get pressure on Stafford, the potential MVP quarterback was just 2-for-9 with 30 yards and an interception, throwing the ball into coverage on multiple occasions. For a Bears team that thrives on generating turnovers on defense, that could be the difference between a win and a loss on Sunday.
Unfortunately, getting pressure on the quarterback isn’t exactly the Bears’ forte. Chicago ranked 26th in the NFL in sacks and 27th...
