Bears Film Study: Glorious win in Green Bay didn’t redeem offensive line
Last week Caleb Williams stuck up for his offensive line, claiming many of this season's 68 sacks were his fault for holding the ball too long.
It was a nice gesture, but then the offense took the field Sunday in Green Bay and Williams was proven wrong. The offensive line has been the center of the Bears' disappointing performance. They fell from second to 25th in rushing yards per game, compared to last season, and led the NFL in getting sacked.
Beating the Packers was all about defense and specials teams, along with a few clutch third-down conversions by Williams in the second half. The Bears had minus-4 yards of offense in the first quarter and might have gotten blown out if not for the trick punt return and Peanut Punch from Jaylon Johnson.
On the Bears' first offensive play, Rashan Gary flew past Larry Borom at left tackle for a sack. To start the second drive, Roschon Johnson was dropped for a 4-yard loss when nose guard T.J. Slaton blew up center Coleman Shelton. On the next play, left guard Jake Curhan whiffed on his guy but was saved by Johnson. Meanwhile, Borom barely slowed Lukas Van Ness and Williams had to throw it away while running for his life.
On third down Gary came in unblocked and forced Williams to dump a pass to Johnson to avoid a sack. The blocking highlights were two tunnel screens to D.J. Moore, to set up the first offensive touchdown and score the fourth-quarter TD. Borom and Curran came off the line to throw solid blocks on the first one, Darnell Wright and Matt Pryor on the second.
Obviously, this wasn't the starting offensive line the Bears expected to have, but no one in the group played well this season. Pryor wasn't bad as an emergency fill-in. Braxton Jones, Teven Jenkins, Wright and Borom took backward steps from last year, while Shelton was not an improvement from Lucas Patrick.
Fault lies in management for having belief in this group and not making any significant changes, besides center. But also, one thing the Bears could fall back on in recent years was a power running game. With a new offensive coordinator on board, the team decided it didn't need fullback Khari Blasingame or blocking tight ends, and that was a huge mistake.
A suggested to-do list for the off-season: Find a new center, spend some cash or draft capital on a left tackle, move on from Ryan Pace draft picks Jenkins and Borom, and try Jones at guard.
Worst play
Plenty of offensive lowlights, but the winner came on the first drive of the third quarter. In a common move this season, both Wright and D'Andre Swift chose to block Gary, leaving Arron Mosby free off the edge. Williams managed to dodge Mosby, then stumbled through two ankle tackles before being slammed to the ground. The Bears are lucky Williams was injury-proof in his rookie season.
Best plays
On the offensive side, Williams had an amazing third-down conversion in the fourth quarter, dodging unblocked defensive end Edgerrin Cooper and throwing a laser to Moore on third-and-6. The play helped set up the Bears' final touchdown.
Two key plays saved the game for the defense. The Packers made sort of an odd call on fourth-and-3, sending Naperville Central grad Jayden Reed on a jet sweep, but credit Kyler Gordon for reading the play. While Terell Smith ended up making the tackle, Packers wide receiver Bo Melton was supposed to block him but had to improvise and throw himself at Gordon instead.
The other pivotal defensive play was the 2-point conversion stop. Quarterback Malik Willis had the ball slip out of his hand for a harmless incomplete pass, but the reason he tried to abort the pass was he saw T.J. Edwards jump in front of intended target Reed.