Windy City Gridiron
The Chicago Bears’ pass protection held up pretty well on Sunday in the first half, but as the Detroit Lions started to pull ahead on the scoreboard, their pass rushers were able to attack. All four sacks the Bears gave up came in the final two quarters when Detroit knew the Bears were playing catch-up.
The Bears get the Dallas Cowboys at home this Sunday, and their pass rush isn’t the same without Micah Parsons. It’ll be interesting to see what Dallas defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus has up his sleeve to get after Caleb Williams, and if Ben Johnson has Williams ready to light up against Dallas’ poor pass defense.
While head coach of the Bears, Eberflus matched wits against Johnson’s Detroit offense six times, and some of Eberflus’ players are still playing on Chicago’s defense.
“Yeah, well, we’ve got guys in the building that know how his mind works,” Johnson said about Eberflus at his press conference on Wednesday. “So we have some information on just schematically how he liked to approach my offense in general and his feelings on Caleb. I feel like we know what he knows, and we’ll be just fine there.”
This Sunday could be a shoot-out, but before that, let’s get into this week’s Sackwatch.
Sack 3 – 3rd Quarter 9:33 – Marcus Davenport
This was a play action, but the Lions brought a blitz off the Bears’ left edge, and running back D’Andre Swift aborted the play fake to make sure he got to the blitzing Brian Branch. Left tackle Braxton Jones did all he could to stay with Aidan Hutchinson and take him inside. As soon as Williams got to the top of his drop, he had pressure from his right side, where Marcus Davenport beat Darnell Wright.
Nothing fancy from Davenport as he tried to win with speed, Wright overset to protect the edge, lost his balance, and Davenport took advantage by dipping inside for the sack. It looks like Reggie White’s old hump move, but I don’t think Davenport has that kind of power.
This one is on Wright, but if Davenport didn’t get there, Branch slipped Swift’s block and was on Caleb right after.
Sack 4 – 3rd Quarter 5:16 – Al-Quadin Muhammad
The Bears were down 38 to 14, and this was a first and 25 after a chop block penalty by Wright. Chicago’s pass protection held up good enough for Williams to work from left to right in his progressions.
There was a window to throw to tight end Colston Loveland on the slant, but I think he wanted to wait for the deep out form Olamide Zaccheaus on that side for a bigger chunk. However, he felt the pressure coming over his left tackle and quickly worked to his right for Rome Odunze, who was hung up after his chip block, which could have thrown off his timing. Had Rome released cleaner, he would have been available, so that was unfortunate. But also unfortunate was left...
