LAKE FOREST, Ill. — The Bears ran the ball 26 times for 69 yards in a Week 4 win over the Las Vegas Raiders, with 25 of them coming on two carries. It was a tough offensive-line day overall, when right tackle Darnell Wright didn’t play and left tackle Braxton Jones got benched.
It was an unacceptable effort for the Bears despite the injury and overall struggles up front. The Bears averaged 0.8 yards before contact. Head coach Ben Johnson said in the days after it was hard to evaluate the running backs because they weren’t given room to work. He wasn’t playing the blame game. Honestly is simply his default setting.
Talk to the players or position coaches and all you hear is that Johnson loves and respects offensive-line play. He cares deeply about the running game.
He vowed to fix the Bears rushing attack coming out of a Week 5 bye, with an emphasis on getting the entire operation right. The struggles weren’t necessarily shocking. And he knew there was better ahead.
“I kind of thought there would be some growing pains,” Johnson said. “And there were. It takes a while for some guys to jell up front. You’re asking a few of them to do some things they maybe haven’t done quite that way before. I think (offensive line coaches) Dan Roushar, Kyle DeVan, I keep bringing their names up. I think they’re really the driving force behind it. You see ‘em and it’s not sexy when you watch their individual periods. But it’s constant over and over and over again. How are we going to fit these players, the pads. And I think you keep doing it, you buy in and you start seeing the success come from it.”
Success has come steadily. To this point, anyway.
The Bears have averaged 176 rushing yards per game since then. While this story might make the bye seem like an “Ah-ha,” moment, that’s not the way running the football works.
Ask center Drew Dalman about it and he describes a slog, requiring reps and effort and all 11 acting as one each week to achieve true efficiency.
“It’s about the details and an understanding that you’re never really there,” Dalman said. “Even if you’re going well, you must continue to work and grind or you’re going to get beat.”
It also requires commitment from the offensive play caller and designer.
A steady run game is Johnson’s schematic foundation, a essential element to make his system work best. And it all starts up front.
“That started on Day 1 and Ben talking about our O-Line,” Bears running backs coach Eric Bieniemy said. “It starts with the front five guys, and Ben talking about how important it is for those guys to run off the ball and making sure that backs are consistent and disciplined with our tracks. There has been a lot of emphasis when it comes to the run game. As a running backs coach, I’m having fun.”
[MORE: Bears practice report: D’Andre Swift explains why run game is going well]
That was clear to outsiders this offseason, when the Bears spent big on the offensive line. They traded for guard Joe Thuney and Jonah Jackson, who are excellent and handsomely paid. They secured top free-agent center Drew Dalman on a big three-year contract. They had Wright, a former No. 10 overall pick in place. And they rolled the dice at left tackle and initially crapped out. Last year’s undrafted free agent Theo Benedet took hold of the job since the Las Vegas rushing debacle, and while his pass protection is uneven, his run blocking is solid and his future is bright.
This offensive line has found a rhythm within the scheme in the six games since the bye and the run game has launched. The Bears now rank No. 2 in rushing offense entering Week 12 at 146.6 yards per game. The Bears are first with 46 runs of 10-plus yards per game. They are third in what NFL NextGen Stats considers successful runs, production that keeps an offense on schedule.
Success earns more opportunities, which is why the Bears are second overall with 30.2 rushes per game.
Feature back D’Andre Swift has been on a tear, and Kyle Monangai was excellent against Cincinnati when Swift was hurt. Despite a rise in rushing efficiency, they weren’t patting themselves on the back. Those two know what has helped the run game come to life:
The offensive line.
[READ: Caleb Williams’ pocket presence key in Bears vs. Steelers Week 12 game]
“They’ve done a phenomenal job,” Swift said. “It didn’t start the way we wanted it to on offense. Those guys, with the attention to detail that they put in week out, with (offensive line coach Dan Roushar) and everyone else in that room, it is incredible to see how they work up front. We go as they go.”
The buy-in from everyone involved in the run game has been high. That starts with Johnson, who held run-game only meetings when things weren’t going right. His belief in a run-first offense, despite all the tricks and explosive plays he’s known for, is the driving force for what the Bears do.
As Roushar puts it, “we feel like we go in with pretty good plans.”
The schematics are good. The talent is there. The head coach/offensive play caller is a believer. That’s the foundation for success.
“Ben has a really good understanding of how he sees the run game every week,” Roushar said. “He’s not reliant on, ‘Hey, this is what we think.’ We’re relying on the fact that this is his vision, how he wants to attack in collaboration, and then it’s us executing our job.
“The other thing that I so appreciate about him is that he understands our strengths and weaknesses. He tries to play to our strength. … These linemen are so fortunate to play for him because he does a heck of a job of not putting us in tough situations.”
[READ: Caleb Williams’ pocket presence key in Bears vs. Steelers Week 12 game]
The offensive linemen feel that. They also appreciate the scheme and are working to perfect it. Running well is the signature of good teams in playoff contention, of which the Bears are one.
The results have been better because, across the board, the commitment is so high.
“You’re starting to see our guys really buy into that and believe it,” offensive coordinator Declan Doyle said. “It becomes seen from the outside now that our guys are buying into what we’ve been coaching.”
