Chicago Bears Sackwatch 2017: Week 15 vs Detroit Lions

This season has been a drain on my Chicago Bears’ fandom. The lows have far outnumbered the highs, and at this point I’m actually looking more forward to the offseason than I am the last two games of the 2017 season.

This Sunday the Bears will host the Cleveland Browns and we’ll get a look at the player that was picked first overall in the 2017 NFL Draft, Myles Garrett. He leads the Browns in sacks with five, and he’s done that in only nine games. Chicago’s pass protection will need to contain Garrett so the player picked second overall, Mitchell Trubisky, can try and finish his rookie season strong.

The Bears gave up two sacks to the Detroit Lions last game, so let’s take a look at how the pass pro has done so far.

Sackwatch after 14 games

2010 - 48 Martz
2011 - 42 Martz
2012 - 42 Tice
2013 - 24 Trestman
2014 - 37 Trestman
2015 - 28 Gase
2016 - 24 Loggains
2017 - 33 - Loggains

Sack 32 - First Quarter 6:07 - Quandre Diggs
The Lions sent Diggs on a nickle blitz, but it was the scramble by Trubisky that ran him right into the sack.

As soon as Trubisky gets to the top of his drop, he’s pressured immediately. Right tackle Bobby Massie is caught dilly dallying with his inside gap for some reason, and he gives up the edge too quickly. It seems as though Jordan Howard was responsible for an inside blitz, so Massie’s first step should have been to cut off the edge, with right guard Tom Compton fanning out to the defensive lineman. Massie’s pressure directly led to the sack, so I have to hit him with some of the blame here.

Left tackle Charles Leno Jr. gives the edge up a bit too easily as well, but I think he got just enough of his man to push him past his quarterback.

I know it looks kind of silly with Josh Sitton essentially blocking no one, but he was doing his job by keeping the blitzer in front of him. Sitton has no idea that Trubusky had darted up the middle, so he was right to sit back and scan the play in front of him.

I’ll split this one between Massie and sacks happen.

Sack 33 - Third Quarter 3:09 - Akeem Spence
As soon as Bradley Sowell entered the game for Tom Compton at right guard, I feared the worst.

I’m not a fan of his, and I don’t think he’ll be on the roster next season.

Sowell lunges, he has his head down, and he has zero balance on this play. Trubisky had no chance to avoid the pressure, because had Spence not beat Sowell, Massie would have given up the sack. Luckily for Massie, Sowell sucked a bit quicker on this play and this one is on Sowell.

Let’s go to the individual Sackwatch through 14 games

Sacks Happen - 9.5
Mitchell Trubisky - 4
Charles Leno - 3.5
Bobby Massie - 3.5
Mike Glennon - 2
Josh Sitton - 2
Bradley Sowell - 2
Hroniss Grasu - 1.5
Jordan Howard - 1.5
Kyle Long - 1
Cody Whitehair - 1
Benny Cunningham - 1
Zach Miller - .5