Chicago Bears Sackwatch 2019: Week 4 vs. the Minnesota Vikings

The Chicago Bears’ pass protection last Sunday, against a damn good Minnesota Vikings pass rush, was solid all afternoon. Backup quarterback Chase Daniel was only sacked one time, and the Vikings only had 4 quarterback hits on the afternoon. For the most part, Daniel had a clean pocket to work with and that helped him complete 73% of his passes.

The pass protection will need to keep it up with Daniel starting the next couple games, because he’s not as elusive as Mitchell Trubisky. While Daniel was getting rid of the ball quickly on Sunday, in the two games he started last year his sack percentage was 10.6, which was more than double the 5.2 sack percentage from Trubisky in 2018.

Here’s how the Sackwatch has looked through the years.

2010 - 18 Martz
2011 - 15 Martz
2012 - 13 Tice
2013 - 6 Trestman
2014 - 8 Trestman
2015 - 9 Gase
2016 - 11 Loggians
2017 - 8 Loggains
2018 - 10 Nagy
2019 - 9 Nagy

The Bears are slightly under last years pace, and if they want to keep it that way they’ll need to do a better job than last year — and I’m talking a total team effort — in protecting the Daniel these next few games.

Sack 9 - Third Quarter 14:12 - Shamar Stephen
This one is as easy to diagnose when looking at the All-22 film as it was when I watched the game live. Right guard Ted Larsen just stops moving his feet and he’s caught lunging at Viking defensive tackle Shamar Stephon.

Stephon didn’t do anything out of the ordinary, he just got his hands inside Larsen and kept working around him. Larsen started off fine, but when he tried to readjust his hands he forgot to move his feet.

Right tackle Bobby Massie was badly beat on this play too, but Larsen got beat quicker, so this one is on him.

2019 Individual Sackwatch after week 4:

Mitchell Trubisky - 3
Kyle Long - 2
Charles Leno Jr. - 1
Cody Whitehair - 1
Ted Larsen - 1
Sacks Happen - 1