Chicago Bears: 5 Players critical to defeating Saints in Wild Card Round
Chicago Bears key player No. 4: David Montgomery, RB
With the improvement of the Chicago Bears’ offensive line, David Montgomery enjoyed a surge in production. In his last six games, he ran for 598 yards (averaging 99.7 yards per game), 5.2 yards per run, and 7 touchdowns. He added 24 catches for 226 yards and a touchdown.
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Compare those numbers to his first nine games. He ran for 472 yards (averaging 52.4 yards per game), averaged 3.6 yards per run and just one touchdown. He added 30 catches for 212 yards and one touchdown.
Montgomery ran for over 1,000 yards for the first time and was finally a big part of the offense. His running helped Trubisky by taking some pressure off of him. Some teams tried to stack the box a little more and gave Trubisky more space downfield to throw.
Montgomery had 69 rushing yards against the Packers last week but his 22 carries helped the offense control the clock. He also scored the only touchdown for the Bears. In addition, he had nine catches for 63 yards so he had 132 yards from scrimmage.
Montgomery needs to do more of that if the Bears have any chance of winning. If the Bears control the clock like they did last week, they’ll have a better chance of winning. The formula is valid, but we need to see if the defense comes up with a better performance.
During the playoffs scoring usually drops so every drive is important. If Montgomery helps keep Brees on the bench watching and not throwing touchdowns, they have a shot late in the game. That’s all you can ask for in a big game like this.