Which Chicago Bears were winners in Week 16 vs. Cardinals?

Chicago Bears Week 16 Winner No. 2: Khalil Herbert

It has been an interesting season for Khalil Herbert. He was supposed to be the number one running back this season with the departure of David Montgomery, but then D'Onta Foreman was brought in, and Roschon Johnson was drafted. The Bears went into the year with a committee approach instead of using Herbert as a three-down back.

Herbert has played in ten games this season and started seven of them. He only has 102 rushing attempts for 459 yards. His average per carry is 4.5, which is more than serviceable, but his yards per game is only 45.9. Clearly, he just has not gotten as many touches as most would expect for him this year. His shortcomings as a pass catcher at times and being the least capable of pass protection out of all of the running backs has kept him off the field, as well as a hip injury that put him on IR for five games.

Against the Cardinals, Herbert looked like himself again. He broke some explosive runs that led to 112 rushing yards on twenty carries. He also found the endzone for his first rushing touchdown on the season. This was the type of game that he needed to have. Herbert had not gone over ten carries since Week 12. In the past three weeks, he has combined for 15 carries and 40 yards on the ground. He nearly tripled that yardage total against the Cardinals. The Bears fed him the ball, and he rewarded them.

The running game in general has not been great for the Bears this season. They have not been able to depend on it like last year. Justin Fields is the team's leading rusher. They have a very talented running room with three startable running backs. They just have not had great push and running lanes, as well as being behind the sticks a lot of the time. It will be interesting to see if Herbert can continue to carve out a bigger role going into the last two games of the season.