Chicago Bears Sackwatch 2017: Week 13 vs San Francisco 49ers

A year ago, in their week 13 match-up, the Chicago Bears throttled the San Francisco 49ers at home by a score of 26-6. Flash forward to week 13 of 2017 and the 49ers dropped the Bears 15-14.

What changed?

San Francisco cleaned house last offseason and are starting to rebuild. They made a huge in-season trade for a quarterback and now have their franchise pointing in the right direction.

The Bears are in year three of their own rebuild, and they also made a trade for, what they hope is a franchise quarterback, but this season has been a step back in a lot of ways. Chicago’s 2017 roster is more talented than the one the Bears trotted out last year, but the coaching, from top to bottom, has seemingly regressed.

Speaking of the coaching, I wonder how big a difference it was going from Dave Magazu to Jeremiah Washburn as offensive line coach?

Sackwatch after 12 games

2010 - 45 Martz
2011 - 34 Martz
2012 - 36 Tice
2013 - 21 Trestman
2014 - 30 Trestman
2015 - 20 Gase
2016 - 23 - Loggains
2017 - 29 - Loggains

Sack 28 - First Quarter 7:04 - Elvis Dumervil
First off, did you know that Elvis Dumervil’s middle name is Kool?

I didn’t even realize he was still in the league until the Niners were playing the Bears this week. The 33-year old pass rusher still has some giddy-up around the edge and he tells the Bears ‘how ya like me now’ after picking up another of his team leading 5.5 sacks.

This season he actually hit two cool milestones. He crossed 100 sacks for his career (he’s now at 104.5) and Mitchell Trubisky was the fiftieth different quarterback he has sacked in his career. (h/t Niners Nation)

The eleven year pro is in his first season playing in the wild wild west with San Francisco and on this sack he just goes to work. He keeps hustling around Bears right tackle Bobby Massie until he gets home. Some of you guys may not like it, but I can’t fault Massie on this play. He pushes Dumervil past where his quarterback should be, and even though he usually gets no respect, I’m OK with Massie here.

Trubisky gets to the top of his drop, and if the Bears’ offense was on time, he’d have somewhere to go with the ball. But on this play no one was open. I double checked with our All-22 Guru, Andrew Link, and he conferred to me that Trubisky could have hit John Bellamy, but it would have required a really fast read and a really precise throw. All the other receivers were covered, so I’ll give the rookie the benefit of the doubt and place this sack in the sacks happen category.

The Bears are just fortunate that the sack didn’t require Trubisky to go see the doctor.

Sack 29 - Third Quarter :40 - Cassius Marsh
I’m usually not a fan when offensive tackles check their inside gap when they are on an island with an edge rusher, but look at the position left tackle Charles Leno Jr. is in. He has a good kick step, the defender is in front of him, and since Cassius Marsh was a tick late of the snap, Leno had to be wary of a stunt. Marsh ended up coming around the edge, but San Fran’s defensive tackle blatantly grabbed Leno’s arm.

That’s illegal and this should have been a penalty.

I can’t fault anyone on this sack either, so this is another for sacks happen.

Let’s go to the individual Sackwatch through 12 games

Sacks Happen - 8
Mitchell Trubisky - 4
Charles Leno - 3.5
Bobby Massie - 3
Mike Glennon - 2
Josh Sitton - 2
Hroniss Grasu - 1.5
Kyle Long - 1
Cody Whitehair - 1
Benny Cunningham - 1
Bradley Sowell - 1
Zach Miller - .5
Jordan Howard - .5

Since this is the holiday season, I’ll leave you with one of my favorite Kool Moe Dee songs. This one from when he was a member of the Treacherous Three.

Enjoy...