Bears' O-line bolstered by return of Long

Sep 26, 2017 - 3:49 AM LAKE FOREST, Ill. -- Chicago Bears guard Kyle Long marveled Monday at the toughness displayed by injury-plagued running back Jordan Howard in Sunday's 23-17 overtime victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers at Soldier Field.

"He would go down, he would get up, they'd bring him off, he'd come back in, first down," Long said. "I felt like it just kept happening over and over again like that."

Considering the holes Howard and Tarik Cohen had to run through, and the number of changes the offensive line endured, their blockers should have been held with similar esteem.

Depth on the offensive line and Long's return went a long way toward staking the Bears to 220 yards rushing.

"I thought Kyle played well, he played very physical, he played probably a lot longer than I thought was possible, as far as I think he was probably pretty gassed afterwards," Chicago head coach John Fox said.

Long hadn't played since Nov. 13 because of the bad ankle injury he suffered last year that required surgery to repair. He hadn't really been part of the offseason team work, and the plan had been to start him at left guard this season.

"Yeah, I mean I was happy to be able to run around out there and sustain almost 70 plays, I think it was, I'm not sure how many," Long said. "I'm about as sore today as I was prior to anything surgically.

"The good thing is I was able to finish and we got a win."

Long had never really practiced much at left guard, even though the intent was to start him there and put Josh Sitton at right guard. Surgery and rehab kept him from taking many snaps at all in organized team activities and in the second half of training camp.

"Well, the reality of it was I didn't even get, I probably got 10 reps at the left guard position so playing, going back to the right spot was a place where I felt comfortable," Long said.

With Sitton unavailable due to a rib injury and Tom Compton suffering from a hip injury, the Bears were sent scrambling on the line when center Hroniss Grasu went out of the physical battle with a hand injury.

Chicago solved the problem by moving Cody Whitehair from guard to replace Grasu, and putting Bradley Sowell at right guard.

"Luckily, we're able to have a lot of guys who can do multiple pieces like Cody and Brad, Tom (Compton), whoever it may be. We've got guys who can fill in."

Sowell is a tackle and never played guard until Week 2.

"He's tough," Long said. "He's a tough dude. And he is fearless. And he is a throwback offensive lineman. He can play any number of positions on the offensive line, tackle or guard, and he's done so for us, on short notice. At the drop of a hat. I mean, the guy is ready to roll."

With a short week leading to Green Bay approaching, the offensive line's health will be a major issue.

The nature and severity of Grasu's hand injury wasn't revealed Monday by Fox, but the team said he would have had limited participation if there had been practice.

If Sitton returns to face Green Bay, it would be the first time this season they've had the projected first-team line together.

Regardless, Long said the Bears can handle injuries better than any other team they've had since Ryan Pace became general manager. The depth is improved.

"I mean, if losing a player is going to make you down in the dumps, then the NFL isn't the place for you," Long said. "One thing we're no stranger to is injury here. And as football players it comes as no surprise that people go down every week."



NOTES: Head coach John Fox confirmed that safety Quintin Demps suffered a broken arm late in Sunday's win and now the Bears will turn to former starter Adrian Amos.

Demps' veteran influence had been credited with steadying the back of the defense.

"The good news is we've got guys that have been with us, whether it's Adrian, DHC (DeAndre Houston-Carson) or Deon Bush, there's guys there that are familiar with what we're doing. That was the advantage of some of the injuries and play time we got a year ago," said Fox. "We feel good about guys stepping in. Obviously, we don't want to see anybody get hurt or injured but those other guys are worthy."



REPORT CARD VS. STEELERS

--PASSING OFFENSE: D-plus -- Teams in the NFL shouldn't win with 101 passing yards, 3.5 yards per pass attempted and four throws with one completion to wide receivers. The Bears did. Mike Glennon got away with two passes that should have been intercepted, and had one bad pick into triple coverage that was an option route and was misread by the quarterback. Glennon's big contribution in the passing game was a well-executed fake and short toss on a play-action goal-line TD to tight end Adam Shaheen.

--RUSHING OFFENSE: A-plus -- The 220 yards was the best by the Bears under head coach John Fox. Run blocking was effective all day despite the line being without injured Josh Sitton, with Kyle Long playing for the first time in 10 months and with center Hroniss Grasu leaving with an injury (hand). The cuts and reads made by running back Jordan Howard were textbook, particularly on counters. He took full advantage of strong outside zone blocking, and ran hard after contact on inside plays despite a bad shoulder. Tarik Cohen's 36-yard run in overtime to put the Bears in scoring position was pure brilliance, and not merely a result of natural instincts. He knew how Pittsburgh had tried plugging inside zone runs and looked for a quick indicator they were doing it again, then popped outside. After that it was Barry Sanders-style fun.

--PASS DEFENSE: B -- The only failure in this was the third straight game without an interception for a defense that couldn't make them the last two years. Cornerback Kyle Fuller played his best game with Chicago, including the win at San Francisco as a rookie in 2014 when he made two interceptions. He played both run and zone with solid technique. Cornerback Prince Amukamara returned from a month away and was a positive factor with the exception of failing to make a tackle on a Pittsburgh touchdown when he had lined up eight yards off the receiver inside the 10-yard line. Marcus Cooper couldn't erase the memory of his blunder on a blocked kick return, but did play some of the best man coverage against deep passes the Bears have had in recent years from a cornerback. The pass rush struggled with consistency, but kept Ben Roethlisberger uncomfortable by preventing him from moving to throw. Three sacks helped keep their presence in his mind.

--RUSH DEFENSE: A-minus -- Holding Le'Veon Bell to 61 yards is an effective day for any defensive front. It was a third straight stout effort from nose tackle Eddie Goldman pushing the center of the line back and refusing to get caught up in the Pittsburgh blocking scheme. It's easy for linebackers to lose sight of Bell in the Steelers' blocking, but Christian Jones, John Timu and Danny Trevathan kept focused and the Bears gave up no runs longer than 13 yards. They kept the pile from pushing forward.

--SPECIAL TEAMS: B-minus -- Cooper's stupid stunt at the goal line, trying to celebrate before the end zone, wiped out chances of a complete special teams day. Also, kicker Connor Barth missed a 47-yard field goal in the first quarter. Sherrick McManis is the Bears' holdover from Dave Toub's tenure as a special teams coordinator and he still plays like he came from that era of teams dominance. He blocked a field goal, recovered a muffed punt and was on the field for 22 special teams plays.

--COACHING: B-plus -- It would be easy to criticize Dowell Loggains' offensive game plan as too conservative based on Glennon's low passing numbers, but he can't throw the passes. On many plays, Glennon could have taken it downfield for tries at moderate gains, but checked down. His receivers aren't the best, but they occasionally were open and he was unwilling to throw their way -- or didn't recognize they were open. Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio had Roethlisberger figured out, and even without a strong pass rush he devised a scheme to keep the Steelers quarterback from settling in comfortably to throw. Stopping the run first made play-action difficult for Pittsburgh. It's difficult to measure, but the Bears came in totally unified despite the situation with political unrest, as they decided to stand for the anthem and lock arms. Coaches, ownership and players all deserve credit for keeping everyone unified. Were the Steelers as unified? They had one player standing at the edge of the tunnel and coaches on the field for the anthem, with everyone else in the locker-room area. It's safe to assume some would rather have been doing what the Bears did and lock arms. It's immeasurable, but togetherness is an intangible that might have been just enough to alter the scales in a close game.