Windy City Gridiron
Here are all the details on the seven (7!) sacks allowed by the Chicago Bears.
I knew there’d be days like this with a rookie quarterback, and with the Houston Texans featuring two of the better pass rushers in the league, I’m not surprised the Chicago Bears allowed seven sacks on Sunday Night Football.
There’s been plenty of consternation over the Bears’ offensive start through two games, which is warranted. They’re last with only 3.0 yards per play, last with only 198 passing yards, last in yards per pass attempt (4.0), last in yards per pass completion (7.2), and 31st with 353 total yards, which is one more yard than the 32nd-ranked Panthers.
The Bears can only go up from here, and some winnable games are on the horizon, so let’s see how they do the next few weeks before engaging in full panic mode.
Before I get into the sacks, just a general observation from the All-22... The Texans did an outstanding job covering Chicago’s pass catchers. They were sticky all night, but the Bears didn’t do much to scheme receivers open. They also didn’t have a readily available hot read on several plays. Offensive coordinator Shane Waldron needs to do a better job in this aspect.
Here’s a breakdown of the seven sacks.
Sack 3 - 1st Quarter 4:42 - Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter
Speaking of two of the better pass rushers in the league, Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter combined to drop Caleb Williams on the first sack of the evening. But it wasn’t their pressure that led to the pass protection breakdown.
In what has been a common issue through two games, the Bears’ offensive line failed to pick up a stunt. Linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair (#0) starts out threatening Chicago’s left b-gap before looping around the edge.
Left tackle Braxton Jones should have passed off his man to left guard Teven Jenkins and picked up the stunting Al-Shaair, but he stayed on the defensive end too long. The timing of this stunt was perfect, however, but Jones still deserves some of the blame here.
On the other edge, right tackle Darnell Wright gets a tight end chip, a running back chip, and he still whiffs on Anderson after spending too much time squeezing his inside gap. Since I don’t think there would be any pass-blocking scheme that would leave the defensive end free, I have to assume that Wright was supposed to pick him up.
This sack allowed is on the two offensive tackles.
Sack 4 - 2nd Quarter 6:58 - Derek Barnett
The Bears had a third and four before Nate Davis flinched, making this a more difficult try. With it third and nine now, they’d need a tick longer to let the receivers get to the sticks, but Hunter stunted from his left defensive end spot and got in Caleb’s face. We’ve seen center Coleman Shelton open the inside door to stunts a couple of times this year, but with the...
