Bears Need to Fix Clear Liability After Near-Upset vs. Rams in Week 4
The Chicago Bears came into Week 4 looking to get back on track with a victory over an injured Los Angeles Rams team. While the game was close throughout, the Bears escaped with a 24-18 victory
For the first time this season, the Bears' offense played effective, balanced football. Caleb Williams went 17/23 for 157 yards and one touchdown. Meanwhile, the rushing game had 28 carries for 131 yards and two touchdowns. Although the offense has some bad drives, scoring three touchdowns is a step in the right direction.
Defensively, while the Bears held yet another team to under 20 points, they weren't super dominant. Matthew Stafford went 20/29 for 224 and had multiple completions of over 15 yards. Meanwhile, the Bears run defense allowed 119 yards on 26 combined carries and one touchdown. Although the defense didn't put together a great game, they showed up when it mattered, gathering one interception, one forced fumble, and three sacks.
Even though the Bears came out with the victory, they still have multiple areas in which they need to improve. Here are three takeaways from the Bears week 4 victory.
1. Bad run defense
Last season, the Bears had the best run defense, only allowing 1,468 rush yards and an average of 3.8 yards per attempt. Coming into this season. The run defense was expected to be as good with the little changes that were made. Sadly, the Bears' defense has been bad overall through four weeks.
In the first three games, the Bears allowed both the Titans and Colts to run for over 100 yards. The Titans' leading rusher was Tony Pollard, who had 16 carries for 82 yards and a touchdown while averaging 5.1 yards a carry. On the other hand, Jonathan Taylor rushed for 110 yards on 23 carries, scoring two touchdowns and averaging 4.7 yards a carry.
The only team the Bears kept to under 100 yards rushing was the Texans, whose running back got hurt midway through the game.
Coming into this week, the Bears' main focus was to stop Kyren Williams, who was the only major threat to the Rams. While the defense had a few plays in which they stuffed Williams, he had a productive day. Williams ended with 16 carries for 94 yards, one touchdown, and averaged 4.9 yards a carry.
The Bears allowed Williams to run for at least five yards on multiple first downs. This made it difficult for the defense to get off the field with the easier second and third downs. If the Bears want to be considered one of the best defenses at the end of the season, they need to sure up their run defense the rest of the season.