Chicago Bears vs. Pittsburgh Steelers: Five players to watch
3. Tarik Cohen
If someone had told you back in July that Tarik Cohen would end up being the Chicago Bears’ best offensive player after two regular season games, would you have believed them?
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As much as I loved the selection and enjoyed watching him in preseason, I don’t think I would have. But nonetheless, Cohen’s playmaking ability out of the backfield is carrying this Chicago Bears’ offense. Anyone else who can really share the burden has either suffered a season-ending injury, is battling injury, or sucks.
So, for now anyway, here he stands. And the Bears have to find a balance between playing to his strengths and getting creative with him against the Steelers. Because as last Sunday’s game showed, teams are starting to get wise to their act.
For one, the Buccaneers showed how to defend pitches and outside zones to Cohen: string him out and stay home.
Cohen’s youth has betrayed him on a few occasions as he has attempted to bounce a few runs outside when he needed to get north and south. And the Bucs used that tendency to neutralize his speed to the outside and corral him against the sideline.
Plus, defenders are wary of the trick he pulled against the Falcons, closing down on his cutback lanes. As risky as it sounds, the Bears may need to run him between the tackles to keep the Steelers honest.
Through two weeks, Jason Witten leads the NFL in receptions (17). Tarik Cohen is tied with Antonio Brown (16) for second.
— Brandon Gdula (@gdula13) September 19, 2017
And in addition, they also should continue using him and Jordan Howard together as much as possible to occupy the Steelers’ linebackers. Ryan Shazier is fast, but even he can’t be in two places at once. If the Bears force him to choose between focusing on Howard and Cohen or Cohen gets a matchup with one of the Steelers’ other linebackers, the Chicago Bears could be in business.