Chicago Bears: 5 Major takeaways from Thanksgiving win over Lions

Running game did a good job of complementing passing game

The Chicago Bears’ running game has struggled this season. Going into this game, the running attack ranked 24th in rushing attempts, 29th in rushing yards, 24th in rushing touchdowns, and 29th in average yards per rush.

Montgomery had a good game against Detroit. He entered the game averaging just 3.3 yards per rush, but against the Lions, he had 75 yards on 16 carries, averaging 4.7 yards per rush. His yards helped Trubisky. With Montgomery being able to get good chunks of yards the defense had to add more defenders at the line of scrimmage to try to stop him. That frees up space for the receivers and we saw a lot of open receivers in the game.

In addition to his rushing yards, Montgomery also had two catches for 12 yards, including the game-winning score, his first touchdown catch of the season.

This is what the Bears expected from Montgomery when they drafted him in the third round of this year’s draft. He showed all the abilities the front office saw in his tape. He dragged defenders with him, he juked others, and he blasted through even more. He showed his entire package in this game. If Montgomery can continue this the Bears could make some noise as the season winds down.