LAKE FOREST, Ill. – The Bears looked more like themselves in an abbreviated practice at Halas Hall on Wednesday. Defensive end Montez Sweat, nickel corner Kyler Gordon and outside corner Tyrique Stevenson all participated in team drills for the first time in nearly two weeks. It didn’t take long for each man to make his presence felt on the field.
Stevenson was the first to make his mark, during seven-on-seven drills. In a zone concept, Stevenson read a play perfectly to put himself in position for a PBU.
Gordon followed, on the very first play of team drills. Caleb Williams used a hard count to draw the defensive line offsides and used the opportunity to take a shot down the field. He targeted Gerald Everett up the seam and looked to have a big gain to start the period, but Gordon got his hand in the mix for a PBU.
The very next pass play, Sweat was the big disruptor. After a play action fake, Williams had nowhere to go with the ball and tried to buy time. But Sweat chased Williams down and ran him out of bounds.
Williams and the offense did enjoy some success throughout the day. Highlights included a diving catch from DJ Moore in sevens and a chunk gain to Keenan Allen on a corner route. They got a little momentum going in a two-minute drill before fizzling out near the end zone, too.
To end practice, Williams and the offense took the ball at their own 45-yard line with one minute to go and one timeout. They needed a touchdown to win. A screen to Cole Kmet, then a quick checkdown to D’Andre Swift got the ball to the defense’s 38-line with 30 seconds to go, and head coach Matt Eberflus used his timeout. After the stoppage, Williams hit Kmet over the middle just inside the red zone. DBs were bearing down on Kmet, and in a real game the play would’ve resulted in a big collision. In training camp however, the DBs checked up to avoid contact.
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The Bears seemed ready to spike the ball after the play since the clock was moving, but they tried a quick deep shot to Rome Odunze instead. The ball fell incomplete, and Odunze fell into the dust around the field too. It was a brief injury scare, but Odunze was fine and ran to line back up, looking something like Pigpen from the Peanuts. From there, pressure forced a throwaway from Williams as Allen got open in the end zone. With eight seconds to go, Williams couldn’t get a pass off quickly, scrambled to buy time, then heaved a ball high towards the back of the end zone. Dante Pettis leapt to make a catch, but couldn’t come up with the ball. Time expired and the defense won the drill.
The second team offense led by Tyson Bagent went through the same drill, with an extremely similar result. The team worked down into the red zone but couldn’t score despite several extra chances. With four seconds to go, Bagent drew a defender offsides with a hard count, then took off on a scramble. Bagent was sacked on the ensuing free play– but he drew another offsides right beforehand, so the offense got another free play. This time, Bagent was able to get a pass off and into the endzone, but a defensive pass interference ruined the rep and gave the offense one more shot from the one-yard line. Once again, Bagent tried to find his man, and once again the ball fell incomplete. There were shouts of “flag, flag!” from the offensive sideline as the team pleaded for one more play, but the defense managed to stay clean on take four. They won the drill, again.
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The intensity should ratchet up significantly on Thursday, as the Bears will welcome the Bengals into Halas Hall for one day of joint practice.
OTHER NOTABLE PLAYS
The Bears lined up with three tight ends for a heavy formation and handed the ball off to Swift for a good gain, but Kevin Byard ruined the offense’s rep by punching the ball free. T.J. Edwards recovered the loose ball.
Johnson was Johnny on the Spot for what would’ve been a TFL on an Odunze end around.
Williams hit Pettis on a deep dig in 11s for a chunk gain.
INJURY UPDATES
In addition to Sweat, Gordon and Stevenson, Noah Sewell returned to practice. He has missed the majority of the summer with an undisclosed injury. Jaquan Brisker, Brett Rypien, Roschon Johnson, Adrian Colbert, DeAndre Carter, Patrick Scales, Jacob Martin, Theo Benedet, Ryan Bates, Collin Johnson and Marcedes Lewis did not participate in practice beyond walkthroughs and stretching.
There was another injury scare when DJ Moore got tangled up with Jaylon Johnson in sevens. Moore went to the ground and grimaced in pain for a moment, then got up on his own and limped to the sideline. He did not participate in the following team drills, but did return to the field for the two-minute drill.
