Bears Rush Report 2018: Week 4 vs the Buccaneers

The Bears offense FINALLY showed up last Sunday, but that doesn’t meant that the defense was silent. Not only did the Bears defense hold the #1 scoring offense to 10 measly point—3 if you don’t count the garbage time touchdown—but they snagged 4 more sacks to add to their NFL-leading total of 18 through 4 games. But that wasn’t all, the front-7 accounted for another forced fumble and 3 interceptions, as Akiem Hicks put serious pressure to force the throw that Eddie Jackson jumped. All-in-all, it was another banner performance from this phenomenal front!

Let’s get to the fun, shall we?

Week 4 at the Buccaneers

Sack 1 - First quarter 7:11 (2nd & 15) - Akiem Hicks

Hicks beats right guard Caleb Benenoch almost immediately. Watch Hicks’ hands closely as he swipes Benenoch’s hands away before beating him with an outside rip move. This is just about as bad as you can beat another player one-on-one.

Sack 2 - Second quarter 11:33 (3rd & 11) - Khalil Mack

I am starting to get a feel for what Khalil Mack does. He has several signature moves, and this is another one. He sets up the right tackle Demar Dotson by getting straight up-field, instead of trying to cut the edge early. The reason he does this is to get the tackle to “over-set” and turn his back towards the line of scrimmage. At this point, he has a huge head-of-steam built up and converts that speed-to-power, and obliterate his opponent. Watch the still shot where you can see where Mack has a chunk of jersey, and has Dotson under control from the snap of the ball. The finish with the swipe for his 4th-consecutive strip-sack is otherworldly.

Sack 3 - Third quarter 7:49 (1st & 10) - Roy Robertson-Harris & Bilal Nichols

Initially it looks like Eddie Goldman and Aaron Lynch are going to win on this play but just a few frames later and it’s completely flipped. Bilal Nichols stright bull rushes Benenoch back into Jameis Winston, while RRH slow plays left tackle Donovan Smith and gives a quick swim move to get inside leverage. If it wasn’t for RRH losing his balance, Winston might have not gotten up from the hit that was coming. But this was a great effort all around and both players deserve the credit for this sack.

Sack 4 - Third quarter 0:16 (1st & 10) - Aaron Lynch

This is a great effort from the front-4 here. Lynch, who ends up with the sack, never gives up and ends up with the reward, but he isn’t the only one with a great effort on this play. His outside rip move beats Dotson, but Winston steps up and he has to work back around. Leonard Floyd appears to get held 2 separate times on this play, and almost notches his first sack of the season. And outside, RRH is playing patty cake until he helps finish Winston off.

Pressure of the Week

Third quarter 11:19 (1st & 10) - Khalil Mack

Could have gone with the aforementioned Hicks play, but this one directly lead to the interception. Mack almost got his second swipe strip-sack of the game, but this works just as well. He got just enough of the ball to have it float into Danny Trevathan’s hands for the interception. For some reason, pulling left guard Ali Marpet to block Mack seemed like a good idea to Dirk Koetter. Mack takes him on, swims to the outside and then set his sights on Winston’s right arm.

Here’s how I have the individual* Rush Report after week 4.

Khalil Mack - 4

Team Sacks - 3

Akiem Hicks - 2

Roy Robertson-Harris - 1.5

Aaron Lynch - 1.5

Roquan Smith - 1

Eddie Goldman - 1

Danny Trevathan - 1

Sherrick McManis - 1

SINO - 1

Bilal Nichols - 0.5

Bryce Callahan - 0.5

*These numbers do not reflect a players official statistics.