Chicago Bears ground game exposes Philadelphia Eagles defense | Chris Simms Unbuttoned | NFL on NBC

Chicago Bears ground game exposes Philadelphia Eagles defense | Chris Simms Unbuttoned | NFL on NBC

At least for me watching this game, you sit there and when you see a team manhandle and run over the Eagles, it’s just jarring, right? It’s a how, why, I can’t believe this is happening. This is not supposed to happen to the Philadelphia Eagles. No, it’s not. It’s not. We’re not used to seeing that. All right. I think there’s some few things here that just hit off right off the bat. First thing, the Bears have a good O line, right? It’s big. It’s physical. It’s one of the few O lines where you go, b they can move some of the Eagle players. There’s no doubt about that, right? And they’re pretty athletic with also being big. Also, they got the ability to go two tight ends with two blocking tight ends who are extremely good at run blocking, also good in the pass game. Okay. They have great scheme, versatility, and creativity in the run game. Right? So, that’s another aspect of that. So, they’re great that way. That’s so those are some basic things. All right. Then, I think that you got to get into the Eagles are a little arrogant on defense at times. I their front four is so good that they’re they’re a team that goes, “Ah, oh, you ran the ball. Okay, well, we don’t think you can keep doing it. We don’t think you’ll stay patient. We don’t think you can just push around our front four all game long.” Right? They’ll be little reluctant to load the box. They’re a little bit sometimes like, “Prove it to us. You can run on our big mofos before we do stuff.” Go ahead, let me It’s nuts exactly what you’re saying. A light box, six or fewer, right? 20 rush attempts. So, the Eagles let him. They did run against our light box. Problem is the Bears averaged nine yards per carry on those 20 runs. Neutral a sevenman box. 14 rush attempts. Yeah, the Bears ran the ball non-stop. 4.1 yards per carry. Okay. When the Eagles actually respected their run game and had an eight plus box, only six times only three yards per carry. So, this is one of the very unique times that the Eagles kind of needed that extra guy or else the Bears were going to make them pay. They did. I thought they were too late to adjust to that. I do. I think they gave Caleb Williams in the passing game a little too much respect. But also on top of that, see again that’s what’s that’s even though the Bears offense is not hitting on all cylinders in the pass game, right? And we could certainly discuss that as we go on here. I I think still Vic Fangio sees it and goes, man, they got some weapons and this damn Ben Johnson’s creative where if I overplay the run too much, he’ll come up with some ways to gash us in the pass game. and I can’t just play man-to-man because they got guys that can beat manto man and run by people, right? So, I think there’s that, right? And I wrote at one point, even though the Bears running the ball in the first half, it feels like the Eagles are reluctant or going too reluctant on going too much in on run defense, like they have faith in the front four and they’re scared of the big plays of the the Bears pass game, right? That’s that’s where I felt like. So, you couple all those things. We talked about the Bears offense and what they do and they’re great at misdirection and of course they also have the guys that can just fire off and move you and then they uh the Eagles being a little reluctant to play run defense. And I think the other part of this too that you got to look into and we discussed this a little is the Eagles offense has to take some responsibility for what’s going on with the Eagles defense. Again, the Eagles defense has been saving the out of the Eagles offense for most of the year, right? But now here we are two weeks in a row where they’ve played two offenses where like, “Yeah, your defense is awesome, but they’re not just going to be able to stop us all game long.” So the offense at some point is going to have to help out and stay on the field. So there’s a ton of three and outs from the Eagles. The Eagles defense got worn out. And then when the Eagles did drive a few times, they drive quick, right? So it’s like, oh man, they put a drive together, but oh, there’s five plays, 80 yards, touchdown, and the defense is back on the field. So all that you talk about team complimentary football that adds to what we saw with the Eagles struggling a little bit too and then we get into the genius of the run game and how Ben Johnson marries the run game with the pass game and makes it very hard on a front to go oh wait the run’s coming because oh wait they have a pass that looks just like that wait oh here comes the bootleg pass oh wait damn it’s the run so they make you wrong a lot with how they they you know put their offense on the field and they’re Doing that with a two-headed monster right now. We are going to start with a Kyle Manungai run in the first quarter. 6 minutes and 57 seconds left. This is a first and 10 here, Chris, for the Chicago Bears. First and 10. And you know, we talked yesterday, the Bills, they ran two run plays for the majority of the game against the Pittsburgh Steelers defense. It wasn’t quite like this in this, but the majority of their good runs were inside zone, which was just like, let’s get bodies on bodies. Let’s move a little bit, Curry. as we move that. Great. The Dline has to move with us to stay in their gap and then our running back will find the right lane. Right. So, here you go. Let’s see it. They’re going to run a little zone cut back. It’s inside zone to the left side and then he’s going to kind of read it and he’s going to find a cut back lane and go. All right. So, let’s go to the next picture. Okay. So, there we go. There’s the next picture. And you can see Manungai going to his left. Look at the offensive line. They’re all pushing right now. There’s a backside unblocked defensive end and Jaylen Phillips right there. But they know he’s unblocked, but this is where they’re brilliant. And this is where go back to the first picture. Okay, Pete, for one second, cuz I didn’t explain this out the right way, but you see how this is playing out right here. All right, so it’s zoned to the left. Okay, you see Cole Kimetti came into motion, but he’s going to block the the defensive end on the top of the screen, right? DJ Moore is in the back field right here as fullback. All right. He’s going to come out here to the flat like it’s a bootleg. Yeah. Okay. Like run it legit. And within that Jaylen Phillips number 50 down here, he doesn’t know. So he’s kind of like, “Oh no, he might be running the bootleg.” So that makes him pause. So let’s go to the next picture again. Okay, next picture again. The one we just looked at. There it is. He gives the ball to Manungi. You could see here DJ Moore running right at Jaylen Phillips and Jaylen Phillips is like, “Wait, I don’t know. The receivers’s running at me like he’s gonna run a route and I don’t I can’t tell if Caleb Williams is giving the ball to the running back or not. Is Caleb about to come out here and run a bootleg.” So, he’s in the process right here as you’re watching of kind of breaking down going, “Wait, what’s about to happen here?” Right? He doesn’t know. All right, let’s go to the next picture. Okay, next picture. You’re going to see. And now look, he’s fiddled around with DJ Moore, but the offensive line now because they held Jaylen Phillips and check out there, everybody had like leverage to move the Eagles offensive line to the left side here, right? He was the only guy they didn’t have leverage on to make this kind of block to push everybody to the offensive left. But they took care of that with DJ Moore in the bootleg fake. And now you could see here. I mean, there’s not enough people in Philadelphia to even make the get here. I mean, the right tackle 68 right here or 58 Darnell Wright. He doesn’t have anybody to block. Okay, look at the hole. All right, I don’t know if you got another picture, Pete, but as you know and everybody can picture, this is going to be a big run. And it’s there he goes up the middle, sees the cut back, and I don’t know what did he end up with there, Pete? 15 17 17 yards, right? Untouched for 15 of them. Untouched for 15 of them. Insanity again. That’s insanity in the membranity. No doubt about that. And that’s part of their genius. You nailed it with Darnell, right? He didn’t really have anyone that he needed to block, but he uh he gave 98 a nice little shove to kind of like put the icing on the cake. Yeah. Jaylen Carter. He’s putting Yeah. Yeah. He gave him a nice help block. Hey, they get into a moment here in the game where they start to put Jaylen Carter at the defensive end cuz they start to go, we we need more big people on the field. We’re in trouble here. So, he ends up being over the offensive tackle a lot as the game goes along. But that’s the first one. And again, that’s brilliance. That’s brilliance and figuring that out and going, “Wait, if I do this, right, and we have now we got all this leverage to push the O line that way and we just get this one guy to be, oh, wait, I don’t know what it is.” Now, we can create holes. And that’s where Ben Johnson is is next level. So, let’s look at another one because one passing concept that that you highlighted that worked for them. Not a lot did in this game, but he was good on bootlegs, Caleb. He was three for four for 41 yards. He threw a touchdown off the bootleg as well. And they kind of use on the last play you showed, Chris, the idea of like, hey, it might be a bootleg, but no, we’re handing off the ball. This play feels a a little similar as well, like the threat of the bootleg is always there and it’s freezing defenders. It’s it’s it’s like another bootleg look here, right? They do like a D. So now we saw the last one where DJ Moore came behind the line of scrimmage. This one it’s going to be the same kind of run, but now they’re going to send two people to the backside of the bootleg to where again the defense is seeing this for the first time and now they’re going to go well this is definitely the bootleg. They slow down. Their pass is coming now. I mean because on this one, if I’m remembering correctly here, the fullback we see is going to go into the flat. He will go to the flat and DJ Moore the receiver is going to come behind the line of scrimmage and go into the flat too. That’s right. So, they’re going to run the ball to the left and two guys that you look at to go, “Oh, I think they’re going to block.” are going to run routes that are fake bootlegs just to keep backside defenders and linebackers just to make them pause for a second so we can get the right leverage to make the blocks. Right. So, let’s go to the next picture here. All right. So, next picture you’re going to see again, it’s just inside zone to the left. You see 81 at fullback. He’s going to the flat like you usually see in a bootleg. Oh, and here’s DJ Moore. Wait, he’s going to the flat, too, which you see a lot of times with bootlegs where it goes like, wait, 81 goes out in the flat. If he doesn’t get it, he’ll turn up the sidelines like in a wheel route. And then usually, oh wait, oh I nobody’s open. Oh wait, here comes DJ Moore and now I have a PL a place to throw the ball to another guy in the flat to see if he can turn up and do something with it. Okay, but they do that and this is still a run. But you could see Quinion Mitchell, who was probably part of the run game designed to stop it if it stops over here. He’s running across the formation to cover his receiver number two. Nico Dean, your middle linebacker, right? He’s going, “Wait, my guy’s going to the flat over here, 81. I need to go over there.” So, here’s two guys that are supposed to be helping the run game out on the left side of the offensive formation and they’ve been displaced because Ben Johnson went, “Hey, instead of trying to figure out ways how to block these guys and do all this, let’s just get them the hell out of there and then I think I can create angles for the rest of the offensive line to just make blocks and we can win our one-on- ons that way.” And that’s what they basically do here. So, let’s see the next picture. Next picture. Boom. Look at the cut back lanes again. My goodness, look at this. Nico Dean, a middle linebacker’s out in the flat by the 20 yd line, right? Quinnon Mitchell’s got caught up in the wash of the offensive line a little and the the center’s blocking him or Jonah Jackson’s blocking him. And now you got a Dunay at receiver at the top of the screen just free to block people. But the the point of it is look at the cut back lane created by all this stuff. And DeAndre Swift of course sees that. And as we go to the next picture, again, another gashing run by the Chicago Bears with brilliant game plan design and marrying pass game and run game concepts together to where the offense or the defense doesn’t know what the hell’s coming. And even worse on this, all of that is amazing. The concept and everything like that, it put Adori Jackson in the one-on-one tackle situation against Swift here. Swift runs him over and since Quinan kind of got caught in traffic, he he kind of assumed Adori was gonna make the play. Slows down a little. He slows down, right? And Swift keeps going and it’s it’s not a it’s not a great look. Then all the defense has to rally to the ball about 10 yards beyond the marker already where they were just caught up with eye candy and then they’re not confident and then their feet stop. Exactly. Right. That’s that’s why we talk about Right. We’ve had episodes a few weeks ago about why the team’s motion movement and and change things and all of that because all of that stuff confuses defensive players, makes them pause just for a half second, maybe gets them to take one wrong step, whatever it is. Uh, and that’s the brilliance of doing all that. And that’s where Ben Johnson right now is the master of eye candy before and after the snap. like you see and there’s a 17yd gain again where it’s like man it’s the big bad eagles and that Dline’s awesome but they’ve put them in a spot where I don’t care how awesome you are Ben Johnson putting you a spot where it’s like even though we’re not as good as you we you’re you’re going to be in a spot here because I’ve schematically given my team an advantage here to block you guys and they keep they kept bringing their running backs to the second level. We have another run play here Chris where they do that again first quarter 4 minutes and 38 seconds left. This is a second and five and another time where they use motion and they get swift to the second level of the second and this is this is different here. Yeah, it is. This is cool because this is like this is like an inside this is a we would call it a yw wham. It’s almost like a trap play. And you see Cole KT coming in motion behind Caleb Williams right here. And what he’s going to do is he’s going to pass Caleb Williams and then the defensive tackle who’s over the left guard right here. And I don’t know if it’s Jomo there. I can’t remember who it is. Um, but either way, it’s a defensive tackle over the left guard. They’re not going to block him. They’re going to let him fly up field and then Cole KT is going to seal him off. Caleb’s going to say set hut. He’s going to go underneath Caleb and now he’s going to get the body on the big D tackle. But the point is again about the leverage and angles that are created because of this. So now the left guard doesn’t have to block that defensive tackle and he’s going to fly up field. The center is going to take Jaylen Carter and kind of knock him with a twoon-one block if I remember correctly and they’re going to work up to Nico Dean the linebacker. And that left guard who I said is just going to run by that defensive tackle. He’s going to get right up on Zack B and they’re going to be like, “Oh my gosh, we got people on us right away.” So let’s go to the next picture. Let’s see it, Pete. All right. So, he’s going to say set hut. Okay. And there you go. Right away. Cole KT’s on the ground as you’re watching right now against the DTackle, but he’s all around his feet. Right. That left guard who didn’t block that guy that Cole KT’s blocking. Look at him. He’s free on Zack Bone. So, Zack Bone’s like, “Oh my gosh, wait. The running back’s coming downhill at me and there’s a giant man coming downhill on me.” the right guard in the center are doubling Jaylen Carter and then one of them’s going to work up to Nico Dean to again where look how perfect it is for them. It’s it’s it’s like they’ve shielded off people in every area to go, here’s a hole, you guys. We’ve created angles for our blockers. And right, boom, there’s the next picture. Pete, you’re exactly right. Look it. The center now is on inside leverage on Zack Bond, right? Or the left guard, excuse me. He’s on inside leverage on Zack Bond. So now Zack Bond screwed. Yeah. He tried to slip him to the outside shoulder and that was the wrong move. The wrong move, right? So you just unfortunately have to try to stack and shack and sh it up. Right. So you could see the defensive tackle blocked by Kimett. He’s trying to regain his feet and get in there. And then those the center and right right guard or now we got a Jaylen Carter and one up on Nico Dean and you’re in trouble now if you’re the uh Philadelphia Eagles. Blankenship’s the safety that’s coming down. But this that wasn’t his hole. So he’s not expecting to go, “Wait, I got to get down in there in the A gap.” That’s not what he’s expecting. So they’ve exposed them here and some of their gap integrity with the movement and how they blocked it. And as you could see again, another gash right up the middle on the Philadelphia Eagles. Yeah. And with Blankenship, one of his teammates went down and because that he kind of like a bowling pin went down in the pile. That’s why. So there’s just bodies flying around. That’s right. Bodies flying around and they move some people on that Bears offensive line. Now, Ben Johnson, he’s been uh pretty honest about their pass game. He said, “We’re winning in spite of our passing game, not because of it, and none of us are pleased with that right now.” We also heard from Ben Johnson just on potential accuracy concerns around Caleb. Where are your concern level with his accuracy right now? It it’s an area that that we are certainly uh talking about. Um there’s no question we’ve been talking about where we got to fundamentally be be correct. um the primary receiver when he’s open, we want to make sure we hit him. And then all of our pass catchers, we we just harped on it today. Um we need to be more disciplined in our route detail. It’s not where it needs to be. Our depth’s not proper all the time. Um our steps isn’t. And so, uh we got everybody’s got a role to play to get this pass game cleaned up. It’s not where it needs to be. We’re winning in spite of our passing game, not because of it. And uh none of us are pleased with that right now. I like that he didn’t make the passing game the quarterback game. He talked about receiver depth. He talked about detail. It wasn’t like Caleb didn’t do this, he didn’t do that, didn’t do that. And it’s not He’s protecting his quarterback, but he’s also being truthful of how important the details are for everybody. Exactly. Right. He’s like, we’ve had this combo a lot. Right. He’s rewiring Caleb Williams and they’re getting a crash course in legit NFL offense and what it takes to be surgical, execute on every play. It’s like, you know, the details, they got to be the they got to be detailed every play, right? Tom Tom Brady didn’t drop back to pass. It was like, ah, Edelman ran this route at seven yards last time. Maybe he’ll run it at five or nine here. We’ll just get it done. It’s a science, right? It’s a science. Exactly. Right. So, that’s where Caleb is definitely missing throws. Throws sometimes where you go, hey, like the pocket’s good. Like, come on. Right. But but he he’ll let his feet become stagnant and just flatten the ground, right? So there’s some of that he’s got to anticipate a little bit better, right? As far as guys are about to come out of the break, like it can’t be he comes out of the break, I see him, he’s out of the break and now I throw a laser every time. It can’t be. It’s got to be a little bit like, hey, he’s about to come out of the break. Let me just throw a little softball in that general area and he’ll make the catch and we’ll come down. There’s that aspect of it. So yeah, they’re leaving plays on the football field. And then what he’s talking about too when you’re a quarterback and the guy’s got a 20 yard out route called and all of a sudden he breaks out at 17 or 18. I know people out there like go what’s the big deal? But sometimes the quarterback’s not ready to throw and now he’s like oh gosh and now he has to hurry up and mechanics get all messed up and the that that’s what happens, right? So there’s a little bit of all that as far as what goes on. A half second in the NFL is hours in real life. But their their brilliance in marrying the pass game and the run game is not easy off only the great offensive coordinators really can do it because you got to fi figure out how to do it make it look like the pass but we still got to block everybody right and do all that and then it’s vice versa with the pass it’s like wait we want to pass it I want to send out all these people out in a route here but can I still make it look like the run and still block everybody right and that’s where offensive genius phrases come into play And that’s where Caleb uh or Ben Johnson is next level like a Shanahan and some of those other great play action offensive coordinators. Yo yo yo. Thanks for watching homies. We are now in the NFL season here on Chris Sims Unbutton. Hit subscribe to get our weekly picks, game recaps, film deep dives, and much much more. Thanks again for watching. Subscribe, rate, review. Peace out. You know where to find us.

Chris Simms and Connor Rogers break down how the Chicago Bears were able to decimate the Philadelphia Eagles defense on the ground in their 24-15 Week 13 win. #NBCSports #NFL #ChrisSimmsUnbuttoned
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Chicago Bears ground game exposes Philadelphia Eagles defense | Chris Simms Unbuttoned | NFL on NBC
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