Bears defense was burned by Giants’ play-action bootlegs
Heading into Sunday’s game against the Giants, the game plan for the Bears defense was simple: Stop Saquon Barkley.
Barkley has been one of the best running backs in the NFL and has led the Giants to the league’s fourth-best rushing attack. For a porous run defense like Chicago’s, stopping Barkley was paramount, as New York figured to know exactly how to attack this defense.
Unfortunately, their ugly run defense reared its ugly head again allowing 262 yards on the ground, including 146 yards by Barkley.
But the Bears didn’t seem to have an answer to the play-action bootlegs the Giants ran, which led to both of Daniel Jones’ rushing touchdowns. Brian Daboll and the Giants offense fooled Chicago’s defense — repeatedly.
“It was a lot off quarterback runs — more than we anticipated,” said linebacker Roquan Smith, via the Sun-Times. “Those guys had a good game plan and they got some plays on us. It was good on their behalf and us not sticking to our keys. If you do that, you’ll have a great shot at stopping them. But hats off to those guys. Good play-calling on their behalf. We’ve just got to get better from it.”
On Jones’ two touchdowns, the Bears had pretty much zero containment, which allowed him to walk right into the end zone. Linebacker Nicholas Morrow knows the execution has to be better.
“We’ve got to keep contain. We’ve got to follow our rules,” Morrow said. “What’s frustrating mostly is not executing. We’ve got to get a little better execution — myself included. Because we know we can stop ’em. We know we can be in position to make those plays. You got to make a move.”
Safety Eddie Jackson gave credit to the Giants, but he also pointed out Chicago’s shortcomings. It wasn’t just once that they were fooled; it was repeatedly.
“[It’s] the eyes. You’ve got to keep your eyes in the right spot,” Jackson said. “They were doing a good job of setting it up — running with Saquon, running, running and then slip a boot here and there. We just got to do a better job with our eyes and on the edge.”
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