The Bears would love to have running back Kyle Monangai back at practice but he sat out Wednesday's late workout again with toe and finger injuries.
Their running game is beginning to waste away, even as D'Andre Swift makes clutch runs and has more rushing touchdowns than anyone in the league. That 1-2 punch makes a difference when it comes to popping the big runs.
"It's inconsistent, and I know we started off hot early in the year just being able to run the football, but we have faced some tough opponents and it's been a little bit spotty," coach Ben Johnson said. "We stick with it, though, and I know first-half rushing hasn't been as effective as second-half rushing. And so that's one of those things that I know that eventually we will break through.
"We're just, we're too good up front not to do that. And yet, last week, that's tough sledding now. I think Swifty only averaged 2.7, 2.9, whatever that was. And so the fortunate thing is we weren't really having negative runs. They were twos and threes and those were hard yards."
Caleb Williams referred to them as the "dirty twos."
Seattle and New England were both top-10 run defenses and now the Bears go up against a defense ranked second in the league stopping the run.
The Bears have dropped drastically in rushing productivity since Monangai's injury, but have improved gradually in rushing total with each game.They averaged 4.9 yards for 159 attempts in their first four games. Since losing him they average 105.25 yards per game, They averaged 2.6 yards, 3.5 and 2.8 yards per rush in the last three games, all wins.
"I think those guys in the O-line room are really well coached," Johnson said. "I think our tight ends are doing a great job blocking in the running game. If we get Monangai back, I think that'll be a shot in the arm whenever that's the case.
"But I think Swifty's doing a great job right now seeing the little crease and turning on the gas. It goes with the week. Obviously, it's a huge point of emphasis for us."
Without Monangai, they've given some carries to Roschon Johnson but largely it's been a matter or relying on Swift. His total carries are starting to pile up.
"Yeah, we're conscious of it and certainly he's not a guy that we want to wear down," Johnson said. "We're going to need him for the whole duration of the season. We're certainly conscious of it and it's something we monitor over the course of a game."
What they are doing is getting the yards when they really need them, particularly in the red zone and at the end of games. Swift has a career-high 10 rushing touchdowns and leads the NFL. A league-high nine of them came inside the 10-yard line. Seven of them came from inside the 5, which isn't exactly fitting the narrative of Swift as a speed back who doesn't run to contact.
The Bears as a team have 687 second-half rushing yards and only 519 in the first half. They average 4.61 yards rushing in second halves compared to 3.93 in the first half.
Johnson has already identified a major problem for their offensive line in the game. That would be Buccaneers defensive tackle Vita Vea.
While talking about the impact Jeffery Simmons made in his first Bears game, the Buccaneers' 347-pound veteran came to the mind of the Bears coach.
"I think, Tampa's got a guy kinda like that as well in Vita Vea," Johnson said. "There are game changers out there that, as an offensive play caller, you've gotta account for. You hear all the time about defensive coordinators, they want to take out the best playmakers on the offense. Well, it's a little bit of the same thing for an offensive play caller.
"How do we minimize that individual's impact on the game the best that we can? Sometimes those plans work. Other times they don't."
The Bears need an answer to getting past Vea and the Tampa Bay defensive front or their rushing numbers could get even smaller after they were originally leading the league.
- Sign up for the Bears OnSI newsletter for more free coverage from Chicago Bears on SI
This article was originally published on www.si.com/nfl/bears/onsi as Bears Running Game Needs a Jolt Going Through Series of Tough Defenses .
