Observations from Sunday’s win and a look ahead
Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Pace indicated Sunday morning that injured defensive backs Jaylon Johnson and Buster Skrine are progressing, and that’s a key storyline to follow this week as the Bears prepare to face Green Bay Packers quarterback and NFL MVP front-runner Aaron Rodgers with a playoff bid on the line.
Johnson, the rookie second-round pick, has missed the last two games with a shoulder injury, and Skrine has been sidelined for three weeks with a concussion. The Bears don’t want to be shorthanded in the secondary against Rodgers, who has made a career out of humbling some of the game’s best cornerbacks.
The alternatives for the Bears are rookie Kindle Vildor, a fifth-round pick from Georgia Southern who made his first start in Sunday’s 41-17 victory in Jacksonville, and Duke Shelley, a nickel option whom the Bears drafted in the sixth round in 2019.
Here are three observations from rewatching the CBS telecast of the BearsJaguars game via the NFL GamePass subscription service, beginning with the situation at cornerback.
1. Jaguars quarterback Mike Glennon had success throwing at Kindle Vildor in the first half when the Bears built a narrow 13-10 lead.
Glennon connected with DJ Chark for a 20-yard touchdown in the second quarter. Vildor didn’t play it poorly. Locked in quarters coverage on the boundary, he got physical with Chark at the line of scrimmage. Once he contacted Chark, he was in a good position, but he got his eyes back inside on Glennon and then had to turn back to Chark, and he simply couldn’t locate the ball.
Chark is a bigger and better athlete. This was a play on which Jaylon Johnson, who is tied for fifth in the league with 15 pass breakups despite missing two games, might have been able to bat the ball away or dislodge it.
In the first quarter, Glennon missed Chark on a deep corner route on thirdand-4. The Bears were in Cover-2 and Vildor didn’t get great depth while also eyeing the underneath sit route. Strong safety Tashaun Gipson was a little deep considering the down and distance and had to play top down. Vildor got caught up a little bit and needed to sink a little more. You want to take away the deep ball and make the throw go underneath.
A veteran cornerback might have tried to bait Glennon by showing he was going to jump the under and then sinking underneath the corner route, which is a deeper route. What Vildor needed to do was cushion it a little bit so Gipson had time to drive down. Glennon was indecisive and needed to throw the ball sooner. Aaron Rodgers would have put the ball on a line before Chark was out of his break. Glennon was so late that Mario Edwards Jr. hit him on the play. That wouldn’t happen with Rodgers in this situation.
The Bears really need Johnson back against the Packers because no one else in the secondary is consistently making plays on the ball. Getting Buster Skrine back would be a plus too. Johnson has the ability to create disruption on the ball and has physical coverage ability whether he’s matched up on Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Equanimeous St. Brown or Allen Lazard, who is a big-bodied receiver. You need a physical corner to match up with those guys, and if the Packers scheme to have Davante Adams on that side and away from Kyle Fuller, the Bears need someone to affect Adams’ release and try to be physical with him at the line of scrimmage. Open and run against Adams, and it will be a first down every time.
2. The greatest jump the Bears offense has made since the bye week has come in the red zone.
Coming off the Week 10 loss to the Minnesota Vikings, the last start by quarterback Nick Foles, the Bears had scored touchdowns on 48.1% of their red-zone possessions, tied for 30th in the NFL ahead of only the New York Jets. Since then, the offense has scored touchdowns on 13 of 17 red-zone possessions (76.5%) to improve to 15th at 60% overall. To put that hot streak in perspective, the top-ranked Packers are at 78.6% in the red zone for the season.
What has made the Bears better in the red zone? Several factors that came into play during the win over the Jaguars, in which the offense produced touchdowns on four of six red-zone trips. Quarterback Mitch Trubisky has been mostly sound with his decisions (the interception in the end zone was a red-zone error), and running back David Montgomery has been able to produce inside the 10-yard line.
The ability to win short-yardage situations, especially inside the 10, is essential, and Montgomery has averaged 3.2 yards per carry in the red zone, which is solid in the compacted part of the field. You have to be able to run there or you become the Pittsburgh Steelers, who all of a sudden cannot score when they get near the end zone and are forced to resort to a ton of pick routes in an effort to spring a receiver open for Ben Roethlisberger. If you can’t run near the goal line, you’re in trouble, especially when you have a quarterback who is limited in his ability to read the field. The Bears offensive line has been better, especially on the inside from guard to guard with Sam Mustipher at center and Cody Whitehair playing his best football at left guard.
Montgomery is finding the creases and playing faster than he ever has. He runs with good contact balance and runs behind his pads so he can push the pile and find the end zone. What mirrors the Bears running game? The boot action with Trubisky, who provides a true run/pass option that the defense has to honor. They didn’t have that in place with Foles.
The Bears are spreading the ball around too. Eight offensive players have scored touchdowns since the bye week, and three players — Montgomery, Trubisky and rookie Artavis Pierce — had rushing touchdowns in Jacksonville.
3. Jimmy Graham’s two touchdown catches gave him eight for the season and tied Mike Ditka (1963) and Greg Olsen (2009) for the second-most by a tight end in franchise history.
Ditka holds the record with 12 in 1961. Graham has caught 48 passes for 451 yards and his average of 30.1 yards per game ranks 20th in team history for tight ends, so he has been more of a threat in the red zone than a true cog in the passing game. His eight touchdowns are three more than he totaled in 32 games with the Packers.
The Bears’ first touchdown was a 5-yard pass from Mitch Trubisky to Graham. The Jaguars are predominantly a single-high safety defense, and the Bears played the tendencies here. Teams do not play as much zone coverage near the goal line, especially the Jaguars. A shallow route to Allen Robinson pulled coverage from nickel cornerback Chris Claybrooks while occupying the lurk linebacker, Myles Jack, and the post safety, Jarrod Wilson. The Jaguars had three guys on Robinson, and Graham was wide open because he has a huge catch radius and the defender, strong safety Josh Jones, played his outside release. That’s well-schemed. The Bears knew they were going to get man coverage and knew Robinson would attract a crowd. It was a quick read for Trubisky and an easy throw into a large window.
Graham scored again in the third quarter on a 22-yard pass that came on another well-designed play. The Bears ran a playaction post/wheel. This is a call-it-and-runit play because the Bears knew they would get single-high coverage, either Cover-1 or Cover-3. The play works against both. In this case, it was Cover-3. Javon Wims, the outside wide receiver, ran a post as the clear-out guy. He took out the cornerback, and Graham was one-on-one with the safety, Jones, who jumped the route and guessed it would be an out.
It turned into a wheel, and Graham sold the out just enough to get Jones to slide down on his hip. When Graham kept going, Jones panicked and stumbled and it was an easy touchdown. The post safety couldn’t affect the play. Running the play into the boundary condensed the field for Trubisky, even though it wasn’t a very good throw and Graham had to twist to catch it. It was a good play, and the Bears had a backside dig route and an open outlet in David Montgomery out of the backfield.
While Graham hasn’t been a big target between the 20s for the Bears, he has been money in the red zone, and as a situational player, they’ve found ways to get big plays from him.
Examining the playing time numbers
Snaps for outside linebacker Khalil Mack, who was on the field for only 69% of the defensive snaps, his lowest percentage since he played 65% of the snaps in the 2018 season finale at Minnesota. With a big lead in the second half, the Bears were able to rest Mack — smart considering he has missed practice time with four different injuries this season.
Season-high snaps for wide receiver Javon Wims, who was on the field for half of the offensive plays. He was not targeted and has had only one pass thrown his way in the last three games, during which he has been on the field for 82 plays.
Offensive plays for Cordarrelle Patterson, whom the Bears limited to special teams because of his knee injury. In his absence, Ryan Nall (11 snaps) and Artavis Pierce (5) got time in the backfield.
38:
36:
0: