Chicago Bears: Blueprint to beating Rams in Week 11

The defense needs to dominate

While the Chicago Bears defense hasn’t played as great as it did last season, this is still an elite unit that can shut down any offense. Despite being on the field too long during games, they haven’t given up.

The Bears defense ranks fourth overall in scoring defense, fifth in passing touchdowns allowed and ninth in rushing touchdowns allowed. They still have the ability to make key stops, though some question that after late-game failures recently. The defense needs to dominate in this game. The Rams rank 10th in the league in scoring but put up just 12 points against the Steelers.

Last season, the Bears and the New England Patriots showed that if you put inside pressure on Goff he cannot move to the outside and use his legs to extend a play. He’ll go down and take a sack or he’ll try to make a play, only to make a bad throw or commit a turnover.

Nick Kwiatkoski did a great job of filling in when Danny Trevathan went down with an elbow injury. He also played well when he filled in for Roquan Smith so he’s been dependable. He needs to continue to play well now that he’s the starter for the foreseeable future. With the tackling machine Smith by his side, the duo should have a big game.

Khalil Mack has to put on his Superman cape and dominate once again. He has to do what he must to get the job done. Teams have made sure that he doesn’t go off by always having multiple players on him. He’s consistently double-teamed or even tripled-teamed. He’s made for games like this one and should make an impact.

For Mack to have an opportunity to wreak havoc the front line needs to perform. Roy Robertson-Harris, Eddie Goldman, and the combination of Bilal Nichols and Nick Williams have to put pressure on the line to attract attention away from Mack.

Leonard Floyd should also be one to do that but I don’t think he’ll be able to do it. He hasn’t done it in the 25 games he’s played opposite of Mack so I don’t think he’ll do it now. If he does, great, but it comes down to the defensive line alleviating pressure off of Mack.

The Rams’ running game has failed to gain 100 yards in six of their last seven games. The Bears rank ninth in rushing yards allowed and fourth in yards per rush so it’ll be difficult for Los Angeles to effectively run the ball. That means the Bears can zero in on Goff.

As I mentioned, Goff threw four interceptions in the game last season. That was when he was playing well. This season he hasn’t been the same. He has a touchdown rate of 3.1 percent, down a great deal from last season’s 5.7 percent. He threw 12 interceptions in 2018 but already has nine in as many games this season. If the Bears put a lot of pressure on him, Goff will give the Bears’ secondary a few opportunities to come up with turnovers.