5Q: Lions Should Be Able to Attack Weakened Bears Defense

Gene Chamberlain is a beat writer covering the Chciago Bears for Bears OnSI. He recently answered five questions from Lions OnSI to preview Sunday’s game between the two NFC North foes.

What are the biggest differences between from the Bears when they played Detroit on Thanksgiving to now?

Gene Chamberlain: The Bears are about half the team they were when they played Detroit at Thanksgiving. The biggest difference is if their defense hasn’t collapsed, it’s at least been knocked down several pegs by giving up too many big plays to good offenses. Losing Matt Eberflus as defensive play caller was devastating. Eric Washington hasn’t had any success with this in the NFL and has had the opportunities.  Also, they don’t have either of their starting defensive tackles, which ruins their ability to stop the run. The 49ers ran whenever they wanted. The Vikings did too, but Kevin O’Connell gets bored running it more than 30% of the time. Then after the Bears can’t stop the run their pass defense and pass rush cave in. They’ve been playing defense without two key players for too long — safety Jaquan Brisker and DT Andrew Billings. The importance of losing Brisker can’t be stressed enough. They brought him into the box often to help stop the run and he played all over in the back, sometimes flipping with Kevin Byard deep to strong or back. He’s been out since Oct. 6 with his third concussion in three years. The Bears didn’t put him on IR but now they don’t even list him on their injury report each week either. It’s like he vanished. Pretty sad considering he got to play only 2-plus seasons.

Is Lions’ offensive coordinator Ben Johnson the popular candidate for Bears fans to take over the head coaching job? Who are other names that could interest the team?

Chamberlain: Johnson would be the majority fan favorite but the meatball section of Chicago, the Ditka sect, all want Mike Vrabel. There are a small number who really don’t seem to have thought it out but they like the idea of Kliff Kingsbury teamed with Caleb Williams even though every team he ever coached faded or collapsed. Joe Brady stirred up some sparks when they beat the Lions but it’s not catching hold like Johnson has, mainly because the Lions are in the division and have been watched closely by Bears fans. 

What has been the root of the Bears’ offensive struggles in recent weeks?

Chamberlain: The combination of an inconsistent, overrated offensive line and a rookie quarterback who is being poorly developed. Again. Caleb Williams is on offensive coordinator No. 3 this year, Chris Beatty, and also on play caller No. 2  with interim head coach Thomas Brown. With that type of setup, it’s a wonder he hasn’t developed split personalities. Dan Orlovsky maintained Williams is the only QB among the first-rounders who hasn’t improved this year. He’s totally wrong. Williams has improved dramatically against the blitz. He forced the Vikings to retreat into playing base defensive coverage he was so good at it for two games. But, as Orlovsky also maintained, Williams isn’t making the little plays or easy plays that he normally had made in college.

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Caleb Williams had a strong fourth quarter against the Lions in the Thanksgiving matchup. What have been Williams’ strengths this year and could he take advantage of a beat-up Lions’ defense?

Chamberlain: His biggest strengths have been running the offense in no-huddle desperation mode because they’ve had to do it so much. Also, throwing on the move laterally and handling the blitz are strengths but lately his mechanics are getting worse and worse after 58 sacks taken, most in the league. He’s flinching.  He’s definitely capable of taking advantage of Detroit’s short-handed defense if they look past the Bears or if the coaches allow that to happen by not putting in enough work on their game planning. The game means too much to Detroit for this to happen. Williams also rushes too many throws and his footwork is bad then, leading to overthrows or underthrows. And he misses occasional open receivers even though coaches defend him and say he hasn’t.  He does and has.

Who wins and why?

  
Chamberlain: The Lions will win because the Bears can’t stop the run and have stopped running the ball since Brown became head coach/coordinator. Last week they finally did run but had only marginal success. D’Andre Swift finally broke a couple tackles last week and they need more of this. There is no doubt the Lions will run. Even without David Montgomery they will find ways to get this done against a Bears run defense now down to 26th in the league without Billings, Dexter and Brisker playing, one year after they were first against the run.