Think about all your favorite football cliches about the run game. You have to establish the run. It starts up front. A good ground game sets up the passing game. Run the ball well to help your rookie quarterback.
Well, the Chicago Bears would benefit from heeding any of those.
In Week 2, running back D’Andre Swift had 14 carries for 18 yards. The free-agent “splash” hasn’t been productive and he hasn’t had much room to run.
Per TruMedia, here’s where Swift’s performance on Sunday ranked in the league compared with other Week 2 outputs (among the 33 running backs who had at least 10 carries):
| Stat | Total | Rank |
|---|---|---|
|
YPC |
1.3 |
32nd |
|
Rush EPA |
-7.69 |
33rd |
|
YBC/rush |
-0.5 |
31st |
|
YAC/rush |
1.79 |
32nd |
YBC/rush: Yards before contact per carry
YAC/rush: Yards after contact per carry
Yes, it’s a passing league now and we have better analytics that show us you pass to win. But with the Bears getting stuck in third-and-long situations too often, they’re not setting rookie quarterback Caleb Williams up for success.
“I always think it always starts with running the football,” tight end Cole Kmet said Monday. “I think for every offense, the No. 1 goal is to run the football effectively. I think it always starts there.”
Coach Matt Eberflus said the run game “comes down to the basics,” listing combo blocks, the technique of where your helmet has to be, second-level blocks, perimeter blocks, crack blocks and more.
“It just comes down to detail,” he said. “It comes down to us being consistent as a group to be able to get that done. We’ve got the guys, we’ve got the coaches, we’ve got the players. We’ve just got to be better at the details, be better at the fundamentals of running the ball.”
The Bears have the same offensive line coach and returned four starters up front. Offensive coordinator Shane Waldron is understandably taking heat for the lack of offensive firepower the first two weeks. Whatever the reasons are — coaching, running, blocking — there seems to be a lot that has to get fixed.
Using the All-22 camera angles, here are some observations from the run game in Houston (All screenshots courtesy of NFL+).
GO DEEPER
Bears defense impressive so far, unlike offensive line: 5 takeaways
The Bears’ first run play went for a loss of 4 yards. Swift is lined up to Williams’ right and as he gets the handoff, left guard Teven Jenkins is heading to the second level to pick up a linebacker. Center Coleman Shelton is then tasked with blocking No. 91 for the Texans, Foley Fatukasi.
For a split second, it looks like Swift wanted to cut back and take the ball up the hash marks, but Fatukasi is there. It’s possible he was always planning to stretch it wide to the left, but that’s where Texans defensive end Danielle Hunter has knocked left tackle Braxton Jones off balance.
Shelton can’t seal Fatukasi, Hunter gets past Jones, and there’s nowhere for Swift to go.
Three plays later, after Williams converted a third-and-12 pass to wide receiver DeAndre Carter, the Bears handed it to Swift again.
No. 39 for the Texans, linebacker Henry To’oto’o, was everywhere Sunday night. He had 13 tackles and a sack. No. 0, linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair, also had his number called often with 10 tackles, a sack and two QB hits. Those two players are unoccupied as Swift gets the ball. A pair of double-teams take care of the defensive tackles, and Shelton is heading toward No. 5, safety Jalen Pitre.
Meanwhile, on the back side of the play, wide receiver Rome Odunze is coming over to help. However, he doesn’t get his block in on To’oto’o, who makes the tackle for no gain.
It’s unclear who had what responsibility or where Swift was supposed to go when he got the ball, but we saw a lot of situations where one of those Texans linebackers got a free run at someone — Swift, Williams, etc. That’s not ideal.
Then came the play that took social media by storm. I might have added to this, but the responses serve as a good reminder that we don’t know the call or the assignments, also how many interpretations there are for the play. It’s never as simple as we think at first glance. It’s first-and-10 — by the way, the Bears are 30th in the NFL in yards per play on first down (3.9).
As Swift gets his handoff going to his left, it looks like the makings of a big gain. Shelton sends Texans defensive tackle Mario Edwards Jr. past on the back side. Marcedes Lewis is going to block Pitre, and the Bears’ two guards, Nate Davis and Jenkins, are on their way to block the Texans’ linebackers.
Now, it looks like Davis and Jenkins wind up simply running past the linebackers, who gobble Swift up for a gain of 2 yards. It’s a brutal watch on repeat and emblematic of the issues in the run game.
But based on how Davis and Jenkins are positioned, it sure looks like they’re expecting Swift to take that run wide. Lewis’ block indicates that, too. A few folks on social media noted that Hunter pushing Jones back may have altered Swift’s route to be more inside than it should have been.
Now, maybe the guards are still supposed to get a hand on those ’backers, however, I’m not going to accept the idea that these two just chose to run past two defenders. This is an example of the run game issues being layered. It’s not one player. It’s not two players. A lot is going wrong.
GO DEEPER
Bears’ O-line fails to protect Caleb Williams in loss to Texans. Now what?
On the next play, second-and-8 from Houston’s 26-yard line, Waldron calls for another handoff to Swift.
At first watch, it looks like Shelton isn’t able to block To’oTo’o, but it seems unlikely Swift was supposed to go that way.
Off the snap, Edwards pushes Davis back, closing any hole for Swift to go. If you look at Shelton here, he’s in position to block To’oTo’o as if Swift is going to be behind him, but Swift has to bounce outside.
That’s asking a lot for Shelton to then get in front of the linebacker. The result is a loss of 1 yard, setting up a third-and-9, the situations the Bears were in too often. Williams gets sacked, leading to a Cairo Santos field goal.
If anything, the Bears were reminded of how fortunate they are to have Santos.
That was just the first drive. Swift had four carries for minus-3 yards. His longest run went for 2 yards and should’ve gone for more. Whatever the opposite of establishing the run is, the Bears did it to open the game.
GO DEEPER
Caleb Williams has his ‘Welcome to the Bears’ moment in Houston
Williams was 5-for-5 passing, which allowed the Bears to get points. But then the Texans started blitzing, and there weren’t enough answers from the passing game, which didn’t get help from the run game, and you can see the cycle continue.
Swift had one more run I want to highlight. It came in the fourth quarter. Jenkins makes a nice seal block, and Jones has Will Anderson contained. It’s wide receiver DJ Moore’s job to get to safety Eric Murray (No. 23).
He fails to keep Murray from making the stop for 3 yards, quickly closing one of the bigger holes Swift had to run through on the night. Now, cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. was nearby, too, so he might’ve stopped Swift even if Moore’s block got there, but it was another short gain.
Considering the Texans’ success rushing the passer, a successful run game would’ve been huge. Where were the draw plays? The best run the Bears had all night was Williams’ designed draw that led to their touchdown on first-and-goal from the 11.
Anderson and Hunter overpursue, Davis and Jenkins take care of their responsibilities, and Shelton heads to the second level. Williams gained 9 yards on the play.
The Bears ran a draw late in the fourth to Travis Homer that gained 6 yards. While you can’t go to that well too often — like screen passes — it worked on the Bears’ two attempts and was much more successful than the other run plays.
The Colts, Sunday’s opponent, have allowed 5.1 yards per carry. A week later, it’s the Rams, who rank 32nd in the league in defensive EPA against the run. Carolina, the Week 5 opponent, ranks 28th.
GO DEEPER
Say it with me, Chicago Bears fans: ‘It’s only Week 2’
The plays need to be better, the blocking has to be better, the running has to be better. If they can’t figure it out over the next three weeks, well, wouldn’t it be very Bears-like to finally have a quarterback, only to not be able to run the ball well?
(Top photo of D’Andre Swift: Alex Slitz / Getty Images)
