STAGE MIGHT
After dazzling under Monday- d night lights, Howard looks to have hold of starting job
Rookie running back Jordan Howard has gone from not playing a snap to starring to playing second fiddle to torching the NFC North leaders on national TV. And it has only been eight games. “I learned life in the NFL is very unpredictable,” Howard said Tuesday. “You can have a good week and then go to a bad week and bounce back to a good week. So you never know what’s gonna happen. You just gotta play each game the same.”
He was back on top Monday night, staking his claim for the Bears’ top feel- good story in an otherwise depressing season. His 69- yard run in the first quarter was the longest by a Bear since 1992, the fourth- best in the NFL this season and more than three times longer than the Vikings had allowed all year.
His 34- yard catch- and- run after Jay Cutler’s improvised shovel pass was the longest reception of his brief career. His totals — 26 rushes for 153 yards, four catches for 49 yards — made him the first Bears rookie with more than 200 yards from scrimmage since Gale Sayers in 1965.
Not bad for someone outgained by backup Ka’Deem Carey the previous two games.
“I hate to be philosophical, but it’s a bit like life,” coach John Fox said. “You’re going to have setbacks. It’s not all rosy. Neither is the National Football League. It’s too competitive.
“But it’s all part of growing, maturing, getting experience. I think every day is a new experience for him, and I think he’s handled it quite well and is extremely competitive.”
It took injuries to Carey and Jeremy Langford to hand Howard the starting job, but he gained 111 and 118 yards in consecutive weeks before struggling against the Jaguars and Packers.
For the first time since Week 1— when Howard was active but didn’t play— all three running backs were healthy Monday night. The Bears decided during the week that Howard would be the bell cow, though.
Carey had only two rushes for three yards, and Langford, limited in his return from a Week 3 high ankle sprain, caught one pass for 11 yards.
Howard looks like the starter going forward.
“He doesn’t flinch on the big stage,” running backs coach Stan Drayton said.
Howard is starting to be more aware of defenders because of film study, for better and for worse.
“Sometimes it plays to his fault because he over- anticipates,” Drayton said. “And sometimes he can be impatient with some of his reads and some of his runs.
“He’s studying defenses. He’s trying to become a student of the game, and it’s definitely showing in his production.”
Howard knew he’d have his struggles this season — “Nobody can get 100 yards every game,” he said — but that didn’t make the last two weeks easy. It was human nature for him to wonder about playing time with Langford returning and Carey playing well.
“He respects those guys in the room,” Drayton said. “He knows he can learn a ton from them and a ton from each other.”
In training camp, Drayton said Howard was quicker in confined spaces than the Bears anticipated when they drafted him in the fifth round out of Indiana.
“I expect to see that now,” he said. “Now that I know.” Howard does, too. “I feel like I’ve grown a lot with more playing time every week,” he said. “I feel like that’s helped me out a lot. I feel like I’ve grown and made a lot of strides in protecting the quarterback and knowing my reads.”
There are times he misses a block, isn’t decisive enough-making a cut or misses a hole.
On the whole, though, his first half couldn’t have gone much better.
“There are things I need to work on,” he said, “but I feel I’ve done a decent job so far.”