Hogs Haven
It’s week 6 of the NFL season, and the 3-2 Washington Commanders will be facing the 2-2 Chicago Bears at home in Northwest Stadium in Landover, MD this Monday at 8:15 pm EDT. After losing their first two games of the season against the Vikings and Lions, the Bears have found a bit of a groove winning their next two games against the Cowboys and Raiders before going into a week 5 bye.
On offense, the Bears are coached by offensive HC Ben Johnson, former OC of the Lions. Johnson’s background is primarily in the West Coast Offense, having worked under Adam Gase, Darrell Bevell, and Joe Philbin (a Mike McCarthy disciple), all of whom run variations of a West Coast Offense. At the same time, Johnson has added many of his own creative twists and seemingly borrowed a lot of the Shanahan outside-zone run concepts to develop a truly unique and multi-faceted offense that is difficult to predict. The Bears completely re-made the interior of their offensive line this past offseason, trading for All Pro LG Joe Thuney and Pro Bowl RG Jonah Jackson, as well as signing C Drew Dalman in FA. Bears WR and 2024 1st-round pick Rome Odunze is on pace for a 1,200 yard season based on his first four games, a major rebound from his disappointing rookie season.
On defense, the Bears are coached by DC Dennis Allen, former DC and HC of the Saints. Allen typically runs an aggressive 4-3 base defense utilizing heavy man coverage and a high rate of big nickel (starting 3 safeties, creating more of a 4-2-5 package on most downs). It’s actually a defense somewhat similar to what Washington’s coaches seem to want to run. Chicago has been without two of their top DBs due to injury: top CB Jaylon Johnson and nickelback Kyler Gordon, though Gordon will be making his return this week. Despite these problems, Chicago has managed the 5th-best pass defense in terms of yards allowed. However, Chicago has proven much leakier in run defense, with the 9th-worst run defense in terms of yards allowed. It should be noted that Kyler Gordon’s return could prove a major bolster to Chicago’s run defense given that he is a capable run-stopping nickel.
I asked Bill Zimmerman of Windy City Gridiron five questions to better understand the state of the Bears and what to look for in this game.
1) What do you think of Caleb Williams in his 2nd year of NFL play, and what has the new coaching staff done for him? On a scale of 1-10, how certain are you that he’s a franchise guy?
The growth of Caleb Williams this year has been really positive. He certainly didn’t light the world on fire as a rookie, but he had two head coaches and three offensive coordinators, not exactly the most stable environment for success. Even with all that, Williams still kept his turnovers way down and still threw for 3,500 yards and 20...
