The Chicago Bears season has started out as I expected from a record standpoint. I correctly predicted the Bears would beat San Francisco and lose to the Packers. Now, we move onto Week 3 with the Bears sitting in a four-way tie among the NFC North (not taking into account tie-breakers). Unfortunately, we do not have much to go on when analyzing the Bears’ offense. As it stands, Justin Fields has looked subpar throughout the first two games, but how fair is that deduction?
Luke Getsy’s play-calling was phenomenal in the second half of the game versus the 49ers given the circumstances. The field was like a giant slip-and-slide, but the Bears were still able to put 19 unanswered points on the board to win the game. That play-calling was more than suspect versus his former team in Week 2 though. Throughout these two games, Justin Fields has only made 28 passing attempts. To put that in perspective, 25 teams threw the ball more than 28 times last week alone — the Chicago Bears threw it 11 times.
Well, Luke Getsy needs to turn this around and find more balance, but he also cannot move away from the run. Just like last week, the Chicago Bears will need to find success running the football if they want any shot at beating the Houston Texans in Week 3.
The Chicago Bears must find success on the ground to beat the Texans in Week 3
Lovie Smith returns to town in what many are calling his revenge game. I’m already on record stating the Bears would beat the Texans this week. However, as I sit here today, I am way less confident than I was prior to the season starting. The offense just has not looked good enough, while the defense was thrashed for a large portion of last week’s loss to the Packers. The one area that has found success is the running attack.
Good news for the Chicago Bears is that Houston has struggled mightily in this area. Last week, the Texans allowed the Broncos to gain 149 yards on 31 carries for a yards-per-carry average of 4.8. Both Broncos’ running backs averaged over 4.5 yards-per-carry. Through the first two games of the year, the Texans have allowed 326 rushing yards on 69 carries (4.7 ypc).
The Chicago Bears found great success running against the Packers in Week 2. David Montgomery had 15 carries for 122 yards (8.1 ypc), while Khalil Herbert had four carries for 38 yards (9.5 ypc). The pass defense for Houston hasn’t been much better — allowing 6.3 net yards per pass attempt.
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Luke Getsy and Justin Fields need to find their mojo — the same success we saw versus the Browns in the preseason. Getsy will need to pound the football with his running backs again, but he also needs to find ways to put Fields in a better position to succeed, or even fail, by throwing the football more than 24 times in Week 3.