Despite the Week 1 loss to the Los Angeles Rams, the Chicago Bears offense did show some improvements. There is still much to improve, however.
The Chicago Bears bowed down and did what everyone in the NFL thought they’d do — lose to the Los Angeles Rams 34-14 on the road. The Rams are one of the top teams in the league and have the pieces to contend for a Super Bowl. The Bears, on the other hand, aren’t even close yet.
Despite that, there were some positives in the offensive performance. In his debut as the Chicago Bears quarterback, Andy Dalton completed 71.1 percent of his passes. However, he only threw for 208 yards and had an interception and a lost fumble.
Running back David Montgomery was the star of the game on Sunday night. He ran 16 times for 108 yards and a touchdown. He averaged an incredible 6.8 yards per rush. He did that against one of the elite rushing defenses in the league. Last season, the Rams allowed an average of 3.8 yards per rush. They also allowed about 95 yards per game. Both stats ranked third in the NFL.
Montgomery blew past both of those.
Head coach Matt Nagy even had super rookie Justin Fields make an appearance in the game. fields finished the game completing both his pass attempts for 10 yards. He also scored his first professional touchdown, a three-yard run.
While the offense showed some improvement, there is still a long way to go. Dalton made an incredibly frustrating mistake on the first drive. With the Bears inside the Rams’ five, He dropped back and threw a pass so bad it was difficult to envision where he wanted the ball to go.
The pass ended up going into a triple-covered Darnell Mooney. The ball was tipped and then intercepted. However, Montgomery was open by the sideline. He was going inside and no one around him. Dalton could have seen him as he attempted the pass and tried to get the ball there. He wasn’t able to and he ended up throwing an awful floater.
This is the same type of mistake we were used to seeing from Mitchell Trubisky. He’s now gone but the same mistakes are being made.
Later in the first quarter, the Bears tried to convert a fourth down. Dalton’s arm was hit and he fumbled the ball away.
One thing that happened on Sunday night was how the Rams negated the Bears’ speed. The team made speed a priority this offseason. The Bears’ wide receivers room is probably the fastest in the league.
The Rams thought so and they did what they could to avoid having the speedy receivers break out. They played a four-deep shell, keeping the receivers in front of the defenders at all times. They basically gave the Bears short completions.
A lot of fans are upset at what happened, but we have to keep in mind that the Rams have the elite personnel to do what they did. They could play deep and still get underneath quickly to make stops. They also have an elite pass rush and a great rush defense to make stops there as well.
Going forward, this is the type of offense we want to see. There aren’t many teams on the Bears’ schedule who can do what the Rams did.
Look at next week’s opponent, the Cincinnatti Bengals, for example. If they try to use the same four-deep shell, Montgomery will kill on the ground again. Additionally, someone underneath, like Allen Robinson or Cole Kmet, will make big plays. If they then move in, the speedy receivers, like Mooney, Marquise Goodwin, and Damiere Byrd, will burn their secondary deep.
The Bengals don’t have the personnel to cover everything as the Rams did. We have to just have to tip our cap to Los Angeles on what they did. As the season progresses, though, there are good things to look forward to from the Chicago Bears’ offense (especially with Fields).