Ben Johnson addressses run game struggles, praises pass protection

Ariana Pensy · Correspondent · 5 hours ago

CHICAGO - Quarterback Caleb Williams won NFC Offensive Player of the Week after leading the Bears to a 31-14 victory against the Dallas Cowboys. A lot of credit for that also goes to the offensive line, which did not allow Williams to get sacked.

They will have to deliver another stellar performance facing defensive end Maxx Crosby and the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday, Sept. 28 (3:25 p.m. / CBS).

“They did a phenomenal job blocking for him and so when we’re talking about him playing with his feet, playing through those hitches and yet, he’s not having to move off the spot, it really helps him out immensely because that’s where, if you’re trying to get to two or three and you’re feeling some pressure, you’re seeing some color and your eyes go down and they’re off the spot, that’s where the timing and rhythm of everything we’re trying to get done gets thrown off and so, I think those guys did a great job last week,” Johnson said. “Obviously, we got a whole different challenge here this week with their pass rush. They have some really good blitzers at the second level as well, whether it’s the linebackers or their nickels that we got to account for, and so, it’s going to take a whole group effort to have another day like that.”

If there were one thing to be critical of in regards to Chicago’s offensive performance against the Cowboys, it would certainly be the run game. Through the first three weeks, the running game has been a problem. Running back D’Andre Swift is only averaging 3.5 yards per carry and 49.7 yards per game. Part of what Johnson has attributed this to is that the offensive line still needs to gel.

However, part of it might just be that Swift is not cut out to be a starting running back.

“It can be better all over the place right now. We’re very conscious of it. We watched all of our runs as a group the other day, Monday, and I think I’ve alluded to it in the past. It can take a little bit of time before this all meshes and it all gels together. We got some new faces up front that haven’t played a ton of ball together yet and so, that’s part of the process. It’s also for the runners to understand what we intend to do with some of these play calls and where we want that ball to hit and then at the end of the day, they take their natural skill set and they make something big out of it,” Johnson said. “Our whole goal as a coaching staff is to get them up to the third level as much as he can to make these safeties and these corners tackle them one-on-one. We haven’t been doing that enough and so, as a coaching staff, we need a sound plan and then we need to go out there and we need to execute it just a little bit better than what we have been doing. But, I’m not discouraged at all. I see how close we are to this thing really coming together and I think that was really the point of the meeting there on Monday was those guys see the same thing.”

Defensively, the Bears have also been struggling with the run. In fact, they are one of the worst run defenses in the NFL, allowing an average of 5.5 yards per attempt, which is the second-worst in the league. Dallas had an average of 6.1 yards per carry while Detroit had an average of 5.9 yards per carry the week before. This is not something Johnson wants to see, but he also acknowledges that these numbers reflect the game plan.

Chicago was looking to take the Cowboys’ passing attack away, and in doing so, they allowed a bit more yards on the ground and still won by 17 points.

“No one wants to give up over five yards per carry. No one does. Yet when I look at the scoreboard and I see we gave up 14 points total to a really good offense, I’m pretty proud of our game plan. I’m proud of the way the guys executed it because we played that game the way we thought we needed to play it and we’ll look to be better in the run game here this week. That’s always a point of emphasis for us,” Johnson said. “But, our goals and our objectives to win the game, they vary and sometimes if you’re going to take away a couple dynamic receivers in the passing game, you might play with a lighter box in the running game and you might give up a few more yards in the running game than you’d like. So, schematically, there’s something to that. But at the same time, each week’s its own story and we’re going to do whatever we think we need to do to win that ball game.”