The Chicago Bears head to Indianapolis this week to take on the Colts in a get-right game against a team that has been shredded on the ground in the season’s first two games. Can they take advantage and get the offense on track?
Chicago Bears Offensive Starting Lineup
Indianapolis Colts Defensive Starting Lineup
Bears Offensive Tendencies
Let’s hope the Bears’ tendencies from the first two weeks of the season don’t follow them into their Week 3 matchup with the Colts. Offensive Coordinator Shane Waldron’s game plans have been awful in the first two games, and Chicago has failed to establish a rushing attack.
The play-calling has been too conservative, second downs have been a nightmare scenario, the type of runs being called aren’t ideal, and, in general, everything looks disjointed and lacks rhythm and flow. The personnel usage has left me perplexed. In Week 1, Gerald Everett out-snapped Cole Kmet by a wide margin. After being called out during the week, Waldron had Kmet on the field for 77 percent of the Bears’ offensive snaps in Houston.
In Week 2, Waldron had Travis Homer, the fourth or fifth-best running back on the roster, on the field for 25 snaps — or 29 percent of the Bears’ offensive plays. Khalil Herbert saw just six snaps against Houston. Roschon Johnson saw none.
Meanwhile, D’Andre Swift averages two yards per carry. Why isn’t Herbert (or Johnson) getting more touches? Swift has 48 yards on 24 carries in two games with the Bears after they gave him a three-year, $24 million deal during the offseason. Considering that 27 of Swift’s 48 yards came on two rushes, his actual yards per carry are less than one yard per rush.
At least Swift was a part of the passing game in Houston last week, catching four passes for 24 yards, including a 14-yard catch-and-run. Still, Swift has been a complete bust in the early going. Waldron did Swift no favors by calling a bunch of runs to the outside when the offensive line was at a disadvantage at the snap with the silent snap count on the road. Swift’s longest rush of the game was a 7-yard run on a duo call up the middle, where the big fellas could get downhill.
Quarterback Caleb Williams’ best stretch through the first two weeks of the season was in the first half against Houston when he completed 12 of 15 passes for 91 yards (7.6) and a 91.9 passer rating. He should have had a touchdown in there, too, had Rome Odunze been able to haul in a jump ball in the endzone, which he was so famous for in college.
I know the old “If ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ were candy and nuts, we’d all have a merry Christmas” is an unsatisfying game to play right now. But the fact is that the sample size doesn’t allow us to go beyond that. If Keenan Allen and Rome Odunze secured the two touchdown passes in the end zone that was in their hands in Weeks 1 and 2, the conversation surrounding Williams and the Bears would be different.
Hopefully, after this weekend’s game in Indianapolis, we will have something more to talk about than the old Don Meredith quote.
Colts Defensive Tendencies
The Bears’ game plan this week should be pretty simple: Run the football. After they’ve done that, they should do it more.
The Colts have allowed the most rushing yards (474) and the most rushing plays, resulting in five or more yards over expected (12) through the season’s first two games. In Week 1, Texans running back Joe Mixon rushed for 159 yards on 30 carries (5.3) and a touchdown and was named the AFC Offensive Player of the Week. Last week in Green Bay, Josh Jacobs rushed for 151 yards on 32 carries (4.7) against Indianapolis.
The Texans and the Packers gave their lead backs 30-plus touches against the Colts, and both decisions paid off big for them. Chicago has given D’Andre Swift 24 carries in two games, and we’ve already discussed how little that has worked for him and the Bears.
Swift only saw 20 or more carries with the Philadelphia Eagles, and he rushed for 🌳92 yards and 175 yards in those two games. Perhaps Waldron should use 20 carries as the low-end ဣthreshold for Swift this week against a battered and bruised Colts front seven that will be without DeForest Buckner, minimally.
If Swift falters with the increased workload, turn to Herbert and Johnson. Travis Homer’s value on this roster is on special teams. That’s it.
The Bears offensive line needs a get-right game, and this is the perfect opportunity. Chicago’s offensive line allowed 23 pressures on 48 dropbacks, including 11 quick pressures in Week 2 against Houston. The Colts pass pressure rate is 27 percent when they rush four or fewer, which ranks 20th in the league. DeForest Buckner led the team in pressures through the first two games, and he’s sidelined after being placed on IR this week.
The Bears offense has a golden opportunity to get on track and iron out some playcalling and personnel issues. They can’t whiff on this one.
X-Factor
Running the football should be Chicago’s theme for the day, so their pricey free-agent addition at the position, D’Andre Swift, has to be the X-Factor in this one.
Swift should get a heavy dose of carries, and let’s hope that Waldron has been watching the tape and prioritizes running the football up the middle this week. If Swift can be productive early, the Bears will have a chance to allow Caleb Williams to get the football downfield. We watched him work the short pass game in structure to near perfection during the first half last we𓆉ek, and a good run game early shoul🌳d set up some good downfield looks for the rookie quarterback this week.
