Chicago Bears: 3 Observations from Week 12 win vs. Giants
Just when the O-line plays well, it does something to set the offense back
One of the main complaints fans have of the offense is the play of the offensive line. Too many penalties, too many sacks or quarterback pressures, and bad run blocking have fans at the breaking point. Some even feel that the bad line play is the reason Trubisky cannot develop.
The line played better in Week 12, however. Trubisky was sacked twice, once on a great move by Markus Golden, who went wide on the outside then cut sharply inside and made Charles Leno Jr. lose balance. The other sack came on great Giants coverage. Trubisky didn’t throw the ball away soon enough, then ran out of bounds a yard from the line of scrimmage.
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Trubisky had good protection from the line. He had a clean pocket and plenty of time to throw. However, the linemen committed some huge errors that wiped away big plays.
In the second quarter, with the Bears inside their own 10-yard line, Trubisky completed a pass in the middle to Allen Robinson, who took it 60 yards to the Giants’ 24-yard line. Cody Whitehair committed an illegal use of hands penalty that brought the ball back. There was another penalty committed by Bobbie Massie that kept the Bears pinned back deep in their territory.
The Bears ended up having to punt the ball. Pat O’Donnell shanked the ball for a 12-yard punt and that set up the Giants for their first touchdown.
The line again had trouble with run blocking. The Bears ended up with just 65 rushing yards. That is just an unacceptable number of yards, especially coming against a Giants defense that came in ranked 23rd in rushing yards allowed and 29th in rushing touchdowns allowed.
The running game needs to get going so it could support the passing game. In order for the running game to do that, the line has to open holes. Too many times, Montgomery has to run into a wall of humanity. The linemen aren’t moving the defensive lines in front of them.
Montgomery has shown an ability to drag defenders or to move away from defenders but he needs some space to do so. The line needs to do a better job of moving people.