Chicago Bears: 5 Observations from embarrassing Week 7 loss
4. Offensive line still needs a lot of improvement
A big reason for the Chicago Bears’ offensive struggles has to do with the offensive line. There have been too many penalties committed and they cannot open holes for the running game to flourish.
Well, one of the two problems were solved over the bye week. Still, the other got worse.
The offensive line committed no penalties in the game. That was a welcome sign. However, they still could not open holes for the running game. Every time David Montgomery got the ball (it wasn’t very many) he ran into a wall. There just wasn’t any space for him to run.
While the line gave up only two sacks, Trubisky was running around trying to get away from a lot of pressure. It seemed like Trubisky was sacked more than twice the way he was running and throwing the ball away.
The Bears placed guard Kyle Long on injured reserve and played Rashaad Coward in his place. He had some trouble handling Cameron Jordan, who finished with two sacks and two tackles for loss. I think once Ted Larsen is over his knee injury he might replace Coward. They probably split time. Larsen is a wily veteran who could get some rest from Coward. I don’t think Coward is ready to take on the star defenders.
The Bears need to do more to fix the line. Why not try Alex Bars. He is over his injury so why not put him in and see how he does? It cannot be much worse than what is happening now.
Additionally, James Daniels is struggling with signaling protection on the line. Nagy and offensive line coach Harry Hiestand might need to admit that the change of Daniels and Cody Whitehair was a mistake. They may just want to take some lumps while Daniels learns on the job but that is causing a lot of problems and losses. Be flexible and change it back.
This line needs to improve quickly for the Bears to have a chance at winning. As I mentioned before, the schedule is tough going on and if this line doesn’t shore up it’ll be difficult to find a victory anytime soon.