Chicago Bears: 5 Players who must shine vs. Cowboys in Week 14
Eddie Goldman, Defensive Tackle
The Chicago Bears face the daunting task of stopping one of the top running backs in the NFL, Ezekiel Elliott. He has 990 rushing yards, 10 short of hitting 1,000 for the third time in his four seasons (the only reason he didn’t hit it in his second season was because of a suspension).
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With the loss of Akiem Hicks, the Bears’ defense hasn’t dominated against the run like the unit did last season. They still rank seventh in rushing yards allowed but they rank 14th in rushing touchdowns allowed. Not having Hicks is a big reason.
HIcks returned to practice this week but he probably won’t be ready until next week. That means that Eddie Goldman is an important player.
Goldman has done a good job of clogging up the middle of the defensive line. He is a good run stuffer. He needs to clog the middle as much as possible to force Elliott to bounce to the outside. The Bears’ outside rushers have the speed to get to and prevent him from passing them.
Elliott can blow past the middle and get big chunks of yards. Goldman is the guy to prevent that from happening. If he does, I don’t think Prescott could throw enough to beat the Bears.
The Vikings and Lions each held Elliott to under 50 yards so even without Hicks they can hold him as well. The Vikings defense ranks 15th in rushing yards given up and the Lions rank 23rd in that stat.
The Bears enjoy a good challenge and like to come out on top in big challenges. They took on Dalvin Cook and shut him down, allowing him to rush for just 35 yards. The problem is they’ve allowed over 100 rushing yards in the past three games. They need to come up big against a great running back again. Eddie Goldman is key to getting that done.