Bears' run game still stuck in neutral, but rookie OG James Daniels starting to flash

The Chicago Bears needed all the energy they could conjure on Thanksgiving Day, when they won their third division game in 12 days, despite head coach Matt Nagy admitting afterward, "you could kind of feel that our guys were a little bit tired."

Eddie Jackson's fourth-quarter pick-six heroics for the second consecutive week? On brand. Kyle Fuller picking off his team-leading fifth pass, this one in the end zone on Detroit's final possession? Like Chase Daniel stepping in on short rest in a clean, if not pristine outing, it was a huge, necessary boost, though not entirely surprising.

But a Bears run game that has spent pretty much the entire season - including the first 58-plus minutes in Detroit - playing dead, saving its best play of the game for the final one of consequence? That was a most unexpected jolt, even with perhaps the team's most electrifying player in Tarik Cohen picking up 10 yards on third-and-9 with one minute remaining to cue the victory formation.

"That's hard in a four-minute (situation) to get a first down," Nagy said, "where a first down wins the game. And then for No. 68, James Daniels, to come across there and make a great block. And 29, Tarik (Cohen), to go around and get the first down, that's a big-time play."

On his fast track to NFL stardom, Cohen has already raced into Bears' fans hearts. But we need to spend a few minutes discussing Daniels, the team's "other" second-round rookie (along with colorful WR Anthony Miller). No, Chicago's run game hasn't produced consistently, but that hasn't stopped Daniels' on-field maturation from becoming increasingly evident on the national stage over the past two games.

The Bears love pulling Daniels, arguably the NFL's most agile rookie blocker, and his ability to finish on the second level was on full display on the game's biggest conversion. He got out of his stance in a flash and engaged Lions CB Darius Slay, whom he drove roughly 5 yards downfield to help create space for Cohen to turn the corner with a head of steam.

Once Slay worked his way back into the play but whiffed on a tackle attempt, Daniels literally dragged Cohen the final 3 yards. It even earned the rookie a shout-out from CBS color guy Jim Nantz for his effort, a nice nod to any interior offensive lineman, as thankless a position as there is.

Daniels showed up in the box score, too, for his tackle on Lions LB Jarrad Davis following Trey Burton's lost fumble. At the end of Davis' 20-yard return, there was a hustling Daniels. One play earlier, a 7-yard Taquan Mizzell run that amounted to Chicago's second-most productive carry of the day, he cut back behind the left guard on an inside zone play.

Perhaps it shouldn't surprise us that Daniels, the youngest player on the Bears roster, would be a spark plug for a Bears team running on fumes. But along that same line of thinking, it's all the more impressive that, given his age and the fact that he didn't join the starting lineup full time until nearly the midway point of the season, Daniels is growing up in such a hurry.

Before his national introduction Thursday, Daniels was instrumental less than 90 hours earlier in the Bears' best blocking performance of the season, against the NFL's best starting front four, no less. He and underrated LT Charles Leno combined to allow not one single pressure. Bear in mind, Daniels was facing a pair of Pro Bowlers inside, Linval Joseph and Sheldon Richardson, and Mike Zimmer's scheme renowned for flummoxing much more experienced interior linemen with its immense inside pressure packages.

Remember, with the unit's best performer, Kyle Long, going down quite possibly for the count last month, the Bears opted to lock Daniels in at left guard and let veterans Eric Kush and Bryan Witzmann battle it out to fill Long's vacancy. And although Witzmann eventually unseated Kush, neither has played as well as Daniels has.

It hasn't been perfect. But Daniels, like this Bears team as a collective, is ahead of schedule and continuously improving.

• Arthur Arkush is the managing editor for Pro Football Weekly. For more on the NFL, visit profootballweekly.com and follow Arthur on Twitter @arthurarkush or @PFWeekly.