Are the Bears for real? NFC North chaos and huge playoff stakes | 1st & North
The Chicago Bears have a short week, and that week has already started.
Here's what we heard at Halas Hall on Tuesday, as the Bears continued to prepare for the Philadelphia Eagles.
Stopping the tush push
The most infamous play in football will be on display come Black Friday.
The Tush Push, or the Brotherly Shove, has become the Eagles’ specialty. It’s so often used to the Eagles’ benefit, the NFL had a vote to ban the play in the name of player safety.
No dice. Come short-yardage plays, the Bears will have to find a way to stop that play.
There have been many iterations of the tush push. The Steelers ran it twice on Sunday against the Bears. It only worked once, with the Bears stopping it when a tight end motioned under center to take the snap.
"You see a lot of teams, especially defending it, trying to jump over the pile instead. That never works," Bears safety Kevin Byard said. "If you're in man-to-man and your man is behind the guy on offense and pushing, then you push your guy, you push the defensive line. I think we did a really good job of stopping it."
The other time the Steelers lined up in short-yardage with a tight end under center, they handed the ball to Kenneth Gainwell for a 56-yard gain to the one-yard line.
The Eagles have the same threat, with plenty of options from the tush push formation.
The thing that makes it even more challenging is that they've got several plays off of it. So, it's a tough play to stop.
Planning for Vic Fangio
The Bears will go toe-to-toe with a familiar face on Friday. Former Bears’ defensive coordinator Vic Fangio runs the Eagles’ defense and provides a challenge as a master defensive play caller who recently added a Super Bowl ring to his already Hall-of-Fame worthy resume.
The Bears will have a challenge with the Eagles’ defense, mainly because Philadelphia is wired to stop the one thing the Bears do better than most of the NFL.
"Our goal offensively when we go in is really to be explosive," Bears offensive coordinator Declan Doyle said. "They've modeled their defense to be the antithesis of what we're trying to get done. You've seen teams take that approach and play what would appear to be maybe a softer zone pre-snap. Then they're able to rock and roll and create different spacing post snap."
The Bears are among the best in the NFL in terms of creating explosive plays.
Johnson’s offense will have their hands full specifically with a defensive line that includes Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis, Jaelan Phillips, Moro Ojomo and Nolan Smith Jr.
This defense stymied the Chiefs in the Super Bowl. The Bears now get a chance to play Philadelphia after it lost to Dallas 24-21 on Sunday.
The key for the Bears is to recognize what the Eagles are doing pre-snap. That is easier said than done.
"They do well hiding coverages and hiding pressures and waiting until the ball is snapped to do a bunch of different rotations and things like that," Bears quarterback Caleb Williams said. "They're different, but unique in their own ways."
Potential defensive reinforcements on the way
The Bears are expecting to get Jaylon Johnson and Kyler Gordon back at some point. That could be this week.
A good sign in their favor was how both would have been full participants in practice on Tuesday had the Bears held a full practice. Their Tuesday injury report was just an estimation.
"I’d love to get everybody on the field on every play," Bears safety Kevin Byard said. "Jaylon and Kyler have been working their behinds off."
If the Bears do get those two back, it would be an interesting puzzle to piece together.
The Bears have C.J. Gardner-Johnson, who has basically taken over Gordon’s place while he was out, and Nahshon Wright, who is one of the league leaders in interceptions since being the Bears’ full-time starting cornerback opposite Tyrique Stevenson.
"We're going through the game plan process and putting all that stuff together," Bears defensive coordinator Dennis Allen said "It's a good problem to have. We will have a plan to try to utilize all the pieces that we have to the puzzle."
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