Chicago Bears must throw stunts at Aaron Rodgers
The best way to attack Aaron Rodgers is to throw stunts at him up front. The Chicago Bears have the talent to take him down
Aaron Rodgers has been sacked a ridiculous 39 times this season. A lot of that can be put on him and his relationship with Mike McCarthy. Rodgers takes sacks and has a ton of throw aways but has one interception. It seems as though he would rather take the sack than make his stat line look bad.
His offensive line has suffered a couple of injuries and Bryan Bulaga is questionable for this game as well. A lot of teams are taking that weakness on the line and blitzing them relentlessly ending in sacks.
Of course, the Chicago Bears are a team that does not blitz. They blitz less than any team in the NFL thanks to Khalil Mack and company. However, there is one strategy that has proven to be successful when rushing four against the Packers. Stunts.
Going back to the Patriots, Seahawks and Vikings, the Packers lost and were held in check. These teams brought a four man rush often, but successfully got home on stunts.
Take a look at the play here. The New England Patriots have Adrian Clayborn at defensive end and Malcolm Brown at defensive tackle. Malcolm Brown is a talented defensive tackle and is able to get in between the tackle and guard to rush Rodgers. Of course, we know what makes Rodgers so special is his ability to break that initial rush and extend the play.
More from Bear Goggles On
- Franchise tag and transition tag windows open for Chicago Bears and NFL
- How the Chicago Bears can control the running back market in 2023
- The Chicago Bears can own the city of Chicago moving forward
- Chicago Bears NFL Combine Preview: Quarterback
- 7 best free agent tackle options for Chicago Bears
On a typical rush, Clayborn would extend outside to contain Rodgers within the pocket. Rodgers is an All-Pro quarterback and answers by stepping up. However, Clayborn stunted inside and swallowed Rodgers inside the pocket.
Against the Seahawks you can see it again here. Jarran Reed stunts around the tackle, who is following Jacob Martin to the inside. The miscommunication gets Reed free on the outside. This once again forces Rodgers to step up. With Martin forcing an issue inside Rodgers once again has nowhere to step up into.
Lastly we see the Minnesota Vikings in the play here. On this play Danielle Hunter stunts hard inside, and forces Rodgers outside of the pocket. This forces Rodgers outside, where Sheldon Richardson has worked around to force him into a sack.
This is something the Chicago Bears have been done commonly with Leonard Floyd. We wrote about stunts being a key way to involve Floyd without him having much hand usage early into the season. A stunt with Aaron Lynch and Floyd is shown here.
The idea with defending Aaron Rodgers is that you cannot just run straight at him. You have to use someone to force him to react. Then, you have to be ready to defend the reaction. The good thing is that Floyd can crash inside, and force Rodgers to the outside. Floyd can also contain when Hick and Goldman force Rodgers to the outside.
The perfect blend of mixing and matching will have to be done and with a coach like Vic Fangio, the Bears have a chance to get some revenge.