The key for Chicago Bears to beat Jared Goff

There is a simple solution for the Chicago Bears to get into Jared Goff’s head

The Chicago Bears have had excellent success against Jared Goff. In two starts, Goff has yet to top 200 yards passing in one game and has 0 touchdowns to go with five interceptions. It has been a disaster.

While it may seem like the Bears have some sort of magic power of Goff that causes him to struggle, the fact is that their team is built to beat him. Jared Goff was drafted because he has great accuracy and a big arm. However, coming from Cal, he did not see fast pressure in his face.

Goff is a great quarterback on-platform but is awful when he is under pressure. For the Chicago Bears, the message will be simple, get home with four.

So far this season Goff has a 38.1% completion rate under pressure, according to PFF. That is a drop of 29.3% from his clean pocket percentage. The only quarterbacks with a worse rate under pressure are Aaron Rodgers, Dwayne Haskins, and Mitch Trubisky. Two of those quarterbacks have been benched, and Rodgers has benefited from a very high completion rate under pressure. That is how bad Goff has been under pressure.

Still, as noted this not just a one-year thing. The Bears have had success since 2018. From full-year views, Goff has a 42% completion rate under pressure in 2019, and 43% in 2020. Every year he has been bottom five in the NFL in completion rate under pressure.

This just so happens to be the Chicago Bears strength. This season only the Pittsburgh Steelers can possibly have a better front four than Chicago. This is great for the Bears because they can pressure quickly and can also drop seven into coverage.  This is a perfect recipe for disaster for Jared Goff.

Of course, McVay and Goff do know this. They have done well with limiting pressure, and he ranks fourth in the least amount of snaps under pressure. Only Tom Brady, Kyler Murray, and Ben Roethlisberger are under pressure less than Jared Goff.

In our film room this week, we noted that Sean McVay is not hesitant to utilize his running back, tight end, and Cooper Kupp to chip block and buy Goff time. McVay also runs plays to roll Goff out and give him easy reads.

The Bears have to counter this by attacking their chip blocks and forcing them to struggle to release into space. They also need to attack downhill, and not fall for misdirection or movement. When Darrell Henderson is on the field they must attack the run but pass blitz when Malcolm Brown plays.

Staying aggressive and not paying the eye candy mind will keep the eyes of the defense on Goff. Even when players are open, Goff will miss them with defenders in his face. The Bears need to keep their eyes on attacking Goff on Monday.