The Chicago Bears beat the Carolina Panthers in a game that was a must-win. They were the better team and proved it. They also were starting to make some changes. We finally saw some things we needed to see, and there may be some tweaks that are going to stick around. What happened?
3. The Chicago Bears defensive line changes may stick moving forward
With the addition of Montez Sweat, we knew that changes were coming to the defensive line. The Bears eased him in a bit with just 65% of the playing time in week nine, but in week ten, we started to see more of what we can expect moving forward.
Sweat played 73.3% of the defensive snaps. On Thursday, he was behind Yannick Ngakoue, who played 80%, but that shift may start to lean towards Sweat in the future.
One obvious difference that comes with that is the role of DeMarcus Walker. Walker played 45% of the defensive snaps, by far a season low. His low before that was 58.4%.
He also moved around a lot more. Walker went from lining up against the left tackle on just 39% of his snaps to lining up on that side 68% of the time on Thursday night. Because Sweat is a good run defender, the plan will be to spell Yannick Ngakoue with Walker and improve the run defense.
Beyond that, Walker slid inside more often than usual. He spent 18% of his snaps along the interior on Thursday after just 11% all season. Last year, he was rushing along the interior on 32% of the snaps, so it is a start, but he is still not back to his old role.
Along the interior, Gervon Dexter played more, and Andrew Billings played less, but that tends to happen when the Bears lead and face teams who pass. Dexter played 29 snaps, and 25 of them were rushing the passer.
Still, we saw Dexter next to Justin Jones with Montez Sweat and Yannick Ngakoue, the best pass-rush group the team has. They also had Walker in for Dexter and Justin Jones as the inside rusher.
On run downs, we saw Walker, Sweat, Justin Jones, and Andrew Billings, which is the best run defense group the team has put out there all year. They even subbed in Zacch Pickens, a plus run defender for Jones, for a few snaps.
Expect to see Walker inside and against left tackles more, and expect to see Sweat play more. Do not think that Dexter playing more meant anything other than the Bears facing a team desperate to pass more.
2. The Chicago Bears allowed Jaylon Johnson to move into the slot
The Chicago Bears wanted to see more from Jaylon Johnson this season before paying him like he is a number one cornerback. One of the big things that the team had to see was his ball production and whether he was able to man up on players and follow them around.
Johnson is good at sticking to his side in the zone, but he is not the player to move around much. However, on Thursday, the Panthers' top pass catcher was Adam Thielen, and he was primarily in the slot. The Panthers had Jonathan Mingo and Terrace Marshall outside, and neither provided a threat.
So, the Bears could let Johnson waste on the outside or move him inside. It only happened on eight snaps, mainly because Kyler Gordon is so good against the run in the slot that the Bears had to save it for obvious pass downs. Also, Thielen did run a few routes on the outside, which Johnson covered.
Overall, Johnson played eight snaps against Thielen in the slot and allowed no catches on zero targets. It was a strong performance, and it should be indicative of how things go moving forward.
Since Jaylon Johnson returned in week six, he has been targeted 19 times and allowed just 67 yards. Tyrique Stevenson had been targeted 45 times over that same span and has allowed 262 yards. The Bears cannot just sit there and let teams put their top pass catcher against Stevenson. Johnson has to follow receivers.
1. How did the Chicago Bears wide receiver snaps distribute with Equanimeous St. Brown back?
The Chicago Bears activated Equanimeous St. Brown from the IR, and he got some action, playing 28 snaps, 39% overall. Tyler Scott was one of the players impacted, and he has the same workload.
Scott had played 59%, 56%, 58%, and 59% in the four games that St. Brown was gone, and now he was down to 39% this week.
Scott and St. Brown did not play together but rather opposite of each other. When St. Brown was on the field, it was Scott on the sideline, and when Scott was on the field, St. Brown was nowhere to be seen. So, the duo played 78% of the overall snaps.
Darnell Mooney played fewer snaps than we have seen, though. His 67% was the lowest of his season, aside from the Bucs game when he left with an injury.
However, a lot of this comes down to the Chicago Bears running the ball and going heavy with their personnel. The Bears called 39 passes and 33 runs. Darnell Mooney ran 32 routes, and Marcedes Lewis was in for four pass snaps. Mooney had 16 run-blocking snaps, and Lewis had 16.
Essentially, when Lewis was on the field as the extra blocker, Mooney was not. Still, this is not a good thing that the Bears threw the ball 67% with Mooney on the field and ran the football 80% with Lewis on the field. They need to mix these two in together and keep a threat of run with Mooney out there and a threat of pass with Lewis out there.