Bears Film Study finds winning strategies against Saints

The Bears victory over New Orleans on Sunday was the triumph of a game plan; evidence this coaching staff might just know what it's doing.

The star of the show was the Bears running game, which produced 222 yards on the ground. While 200-yard rushing days are rare, the Bears did hit 250 against Arizona a couple seasons ago.

The Saints posed a dilemma. As well as new left tackle Theo Benedet played the past two weeks, he was lining up across from Chase Young, who has had plenty of injury issues in the NFL, but was once a No. 2 overall draft pick. Then Young made his presence felt right away by batting down Caleb Williams' first pass attempt.

This dilemma is a familiar one for the Bears. When Braxton Jones was the left tackle, he generally fared well against run-of-the-mill pass rushers, but struggled badly against elite edges. There was potential for the same issue Sunday.

But the Bears solved the problem by generally staying away from Young. The most successful run design of the day was a duo scheme where the blockers slanted to the right, leaving Young unblocked and out of harm's way. After the Bears first turnover, the Bears hit this for a Kyle Monangai 14-yard run. D'Andre Swift added 23 yards on the same play in the fourth quarter.

Duo has been popular this season. That's where four linemen double-team the two defensive tackles, then one of the linemen leaves the double team to climb out and block a linebacker. This is something Joe Thuney and Drew Dalman do extremely well. Jonah Jackson had a nice climb on a late-game 24-yarder from Monangai.

All this is a strong example of a team playing to its strengths and minimizing its weaknesses. The Bears did use some variety in their runs. They had all three tight ends on the field, with Durham Smythe in the traditional fullback spot, on the first touchdown, an 11-yard run by Swift.

Most importantly, the Bears are executing. The blockers are finding their assignments and connecting. This is a credit not only to head coach Ben Johnson, but also to offensive line coach Dan Roushar and coordinator Declan Doyle.

And the veteran additions seem to be paying off. The offensive line may not be the most physically imposing by NFL standards, but staying in sync and knowing assignments can go a long way.

Harmful hesitation

Quarterback Caleb Williams had some rough moments, and this is a matter of remembering what works. Williams had success against Washington by making decisive, quick throws.

There was some of that against the Saints, but too many wild scrambles that usually resulted in incompletions on the run. On most every Williams scramble, he had easy receiving options right in front of him. Sometimes he looked the other way and never saw it; other times, it's anyone's guess what he was seeing.

“Take the easy throw,” needs to be playing on a loop in Williams' head. The simple two-man routes — where one receiver goes deep and the other squares off — were also working well Sunday.

Rattled and rolled

New Orleans quarterback Spencer Rattler has been in the spotlight since he was rated the top high school recruit in the class of 2019. He's sort of Kyler Murray lite. He's best when running around in the backfield, giving his receivers more time to get open. Keep him in the pocket and he won't see the field well.

The game's first turnover was an example. Rattler had open receivers, but trusted his past tendencies to run, and had the ball stripped by Montez Sweat.

Credit the Bears for spending most of Sunday with a vanilla four-man rush focused on blocking Rattler's view downfield. There was a nice advantage when Sweat matched up against rookie left tackle Kelvin Banks.

Naturally, the Saints' first big gain of the day happened when the Bears tried to get creative. They blitzed both linebackers and safety Jaquan Brisker, while dropping the edges into pass coverage. That took away the Sweat vs. Banks mismatch, and with just one safety deep, Tyrique Stevenson got burned by Chris Olave for 57 yards.

The second New Orleans touchdown was a similar situation. Edge Dayo Odeyingbo was backpedaling into pass coverage and collided with Nahshon Wright, who could never catch up to Olave before he hauled in a 14-yard score.