In the Bears’ regular-season finale, they had a season-low 65 rushing yards. They weren’t much better last week in the playoffs, with just 93 rushing yards. Bears coach Ben Johnson says that needs to improve.
“It feels like it’s dipped a little bit — not something that we want late in the season,” Johnson said. “We wanted that to pick up in the playoffs, weather games like this, you certainly want to be able to lean on your run game, so those are some elements we’re looking at. What can we do to help ignite that? It’s both efficient runs to stay on track and ahead of the chains and explosive runs as well — where can we find a few of those?”
Johnson said that on Sunday against the Rams, the Bears are facing a good run defense.
“We’ve got a really tough opponent in that regard,” Johnson said. “I think they do a really good job. I think the front is their strength — these guys at the line of scrimmage are really good football players. I think they shed blocks at an elite level. I think they are relentless. I think they are violent across the board, so I have a lot of respect for them and we have to be on our A-game to run it against this crew.”
It’s been a while since we’ve seen the Bears’ A-game running the ball. Johnson is focused on changing that on Sunday.
