Paul Bretl | 11/18/2024
GREEN BAY, Wis. — The Chicago Bears offense came into this Week 11 matchup with the Packers struggling mightily, but on Sunday, they totaled nearly 400 yards of offense, and a lot of that success started with their run game, specifically, quarterback Caleb Williams.
Chicago entered this game on a three-game losing streak. Offensively, they had totaled just 27 points during that three game span, which included 241 yards of total offense in Week 9 against Arizona and 142 total yards last week against New England.
These struggles prompted head coach Matt Eberflus to make a change at coordinator early in the week prior to the Packers game, firing Shane Waldron and promoting passing game coordinator Thomas Brown.
While the move was made to provide a spark, it’s not as if there were going to be sweeping changes to the Bears’ playbook either–in the middle of the season with a game against Green Bay just days away, there simply isn’t enough time for that.
However, where things could–and did–differ under Brown as the new play-caller were in what plays he called in certain situations or if there were parts of the playbook that were under-utilized with Waldron that he wanted to emphasize. We saw the latter against Green Bay with Williams’ usage in the running game.
“During the bye week,” said Jeff Hafley this past Thursday, “you study a bunch of the Bears’ tendencies and you get these thoughts based on what they’ve called, when they’ve called ’em, down and distance, certain tendencies on formations. And a lot of that’s kinda gonna be thrown out now.
“It’s a different mind calling the game. Could it be the same plays, the same players, a lot of the same scheme, which, I’m sure he’ll have some wrinkles. A lot of the tendencies now, you’re gonna just have to get a feel throughout the game, right? Different guy calling the plays.”
The Bears finished this game totaling 179 yards on the ground at 5.3 yards per rush. D’Andre Swift was responsible for 71 of those yards, with 39 coming one touchdown run. However, Chicago’s most efficient ball carrier was Williams, who tallied 70 yards on the ground at 7.8 yards per rush attempt.
Some of that damage was done with Williams going off-script and leaving the pocket when there wasn’t anywhere to go with the ball in the passing game. But oftentimes, with Brown at the play-calling helm, it was designed runs with Williams that hurt the Packers–something that Chicago hadn’t put on tape much under previous offensive coordinator Shane Waldron.
“It was a lot,” said Xavier McKinney of Williams’ success in the run game. “They had a lot of QB runs, QB-designed runs. I said before the game he’s able to extend plays on his feet and he did that well today. I was surprised by how much designed runs there were, but that comes with having a new OC. There were some new things that we didn’t know that they were going to do and they did. So, it is what it is. We know now. Going into the next game, we’ll be better.”
Williams’ ability to make defenders miss is one thing, but you could tell those designed runs caught the Packers off-guard with how undisciplined they were on the edges at times and with the poor angles they took to Williams, which allowed him to get outside and opened up running lanes for him.
It’s not as if the Packers had been a bad rushing defense this season. They entered Week 11 allowing 4.2 yards per carry, which was the eighth-lowest mark in football. They had also done well previously at containing mobile quarterbacks in Jalen Hurts and Anthony Richardson.
But the big difference between those performances and this one is that Green Bay didn’t expect Williams to carry the ball as often or in the manner that he did, and for a unit that has been so good at making adjustments on the fly this season, they were unable to drum up very few answers when it came to containing Williams.
“They hadn’t run a lot of quarterback runs,” said Kenny Clark. “They got a lot of their runs off of, a lot of their explosives off quarterback runs. Kind of surprised us a little bit. But that’s the thing with a new offensive coordinator on the middle of the week. We didn’t really prepare for that I would say.”
The trickle-down effect that this had on the rest of the game was that with success on the ground, the Bears controlled the clock. Chicago held the ball for nearly 13 more minutes than the Packers and ran 25 more plays on offense. This severely limited the number of possessions and opportunities that Green Bay had. Excluding the Packers’ kneel-down before halftime, they had only six possessions the entire game.
For the Bears, a steady running game helped keep them ahead of the sticks and in manageable down-and-distance situations. Chicago finished the game an impressive 9-for-16 on third downs.
As that metric illustrates, staying out of long and predictable passing situations is an advantageous spot for an offense to be working from with the entire playbook open to them in those second and third-and-short scenarios. The defense then has to defend the entire field, being prepared either a run or a passing play, and that can help open up opportunities in the passing game, which Williams took advantage of, completing 23-of-31 passes for 231 yards.
“We got poor with our rush lanes and he (Williams) was running right up the middle and we gotta be better than that,” Matt LaFleur said post-game. “He is an athletic quarterback and you saw it right there at the end of the game on 3rd-and-19, we got a sack, we fly over the top of him, it sets up a 4th-and-3 and then he makes a good throw versus man coverage.
“I thought he did a nice job today. When we played man coverage, going to the right areas, getting to the right guys and their receivers that’s a good group. They’re a really talented receiving core and they made some plays today.”
We’ve seen on several occasions this season where the defense has come through late to help the offense secure the win. But on Sunday in Chicago, it was the defense who needed some saving. A late touchdown from the Jordan Love-led offense and a blocked field goal by Karl Brooks allowed Green Bay to escape with a crucial win.