Physical Bears Beat Up on Patriots
The Bears have often talked about finding their identity on offense or on defense.
On Monday night, they reclaimed an identity based on the tradition their franchise always has had, and they became a physical football team again in a stunning 33-14 beating of the New England Patriots.
The tone for the game was set by turning Justin Fields into a passer/runner to complement David Montgomery and Khalil Herbert.
Once their ground game took control, their defense began teeing off and the game became one of hammer and nail with the Patriots in the unusual position of nail.
"I think when you look at what we did with justin in the run game and designed runs that was a lot fun," tight end Cole Kmet told reporters after the win. "And then being efficient in the pass game, you know, I think everyone gets tied up in wanting to throw for 400 yards every game. And obviously that's really cool. And I want that, the receivers want that. Thats good that would be sweet for everybody.
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"But at the end of the day our strength as a team is being able to run the football. We got a quarterback who can run physical. He's a tough kid who is able to get up and keep going and when the passes come he is able to execute."
Fields running the ball on sweeps, running it up the middle on quarterback draws and just scrambling accounted for 82 yards of their 243-yard total. It formed a good base for them to run sprint-out passes from, or to use RPO.
They ran 45 times, David Montgomery 15 times for his 62 yards and Khalil Herbert 12 for his 62 yards.
"Justin is able to use his legs and the line is blocking as well as they are, we have to take advantage of that and we were able to do that," Montgomery said. "Every chance we got to run the ball we wanted to make sure we were falling forward."
Trying to be a physically punishing team set the tone for all sides of the ball.
"It's not something necessarily we have to stress, I think," Kmet said. "It's something
we just kind of naturally are and we had to lean into it again.
"And then, not that we had lost it, but felt we had been getting away from it the past couple of games."
The great fear is that a running quarterback is going to be at risk of injury. However, Fields and the Bears blockers were doling out the punishment and sending Patriots to the sidelines.
It was when Fields was passing that he was at risk. On his 25-yard TD pass to Khalil Herbert on what was essentially like a wide receiver or flanker screen, the Bears QB took a huge hit from behind and from the front after he had passed it sidearm to avoid the rush.
"I didn't see it," Fields said. "I got smacked on that play. I was asking for the ref -- I was asking the ref what he saw on the roughing the passer.
"That's why I've got this big mark. I got smacked on that play. I didn't know he scored until somebody came up and told me."
It was the second time they had run that play, according to Fields.
"Of course, it doesn't hurt as bad when you score a touchdown on it," Fields said. "But it's a part of football. So, again, can't really do about it, just got to get up and move on."
He delivered the punishment himself with a tough 3-yard TD run in the first quarter and in helping convert 10 first downs on third downs.
"I think we had a great game plan coming in," Fields said of offensive coordinator Luke Getsy's week's work. "And I'm just proud of the way everybody came in and executed it."
The game plan was much like the one the Baltimore Ravens used in beating the Patriots. Except they had Lamar Jackson running for 108 yards in that one, while throwing four TD passes.
Fields didn't need the four TD passes, just the one to Herbert. But his 82 yards rushing were huge.
Still, you don't see many teams in the NFL rush 45 times in this era. The Philadelphia Eagles did this type of thing last year using Jalen Hurts the way the Bears did on Monday. And it laid the groundwork for the unbeaten team they have this year.
Baltimore has been successful doing it ever since Jackson came in the league.
Can it work in Chicago?
"I think this is something we can lean into," Kmet said.
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