Coming off a disappointing loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, the Tennessee Titans will attempt to avoid dropping a third straight game by knocking off the Chicago Bears.
For Tennessee, it’ll be crucial to walk out of Nissan Stadium with a win before their heated divisional clash with the Indianapolis Colts on Thursday night. If you win, you at least guarantee a tie atop the AFC South with Indianapolis if they win against Baltimore. If you lose, winning Thursday night’s game becomes an even more important piece of business on your agenda.
But before all that can happen, Chicago has to come first.
Major Storylines Heading Into The Game
Chicago Is Somehow Keeping Up In The NFC North Division Title Race
Matt Nagy’s Bears have been able to keep up with Green Bay in the NFC North despite a number of issues plaguing the team.
Nagy’s offense has played some poor football this year, switching from Mitchell Trubisky to Nick Foles at quarterback, while battling a number of performance problems on the offensive line. The run game has lacked any sort of consistency or punch per say, and it’s a big reason why this offense can’t find any sort of consistent success in ball games.
Chicago is averaging only 85.6 YPG on the ground this season, good the 2nd worst mark in all of football. David Montgomery has received most of the touches so far, but the offensive line can’t seem to make any sort of room up front, therefore killing any real chance for Montgomery to make a real impact in the run game.
That lack of success in the run game has forced this Bears passing game to carry more of the load, and they just haven’t been able to do that so far this year.
To put it in short terms, this offense is so abysmal and so dreadful to watch, that it’d be helpful in putting your cranky baby to sleep whenever they have trouble doing so.
What has saved this Bears team from a total meltdown, has been the glorious play they’ve gotten from their defense. It’s reverted back to its dominant 2018 ways, and is doing so behind the excellent play from Akiem Hicks, Khalil Mack, and Roquan Smith. It’s been fun to watch Hicks return to his previously feared form especially, since his game makes things a lot easier for the rest of that front 7.
This is your friendly reminder that #Bears Akiem Hicks, even against great OLs, is an extremely good football player.
He was a huge reason the Bears stopped the run as much as they did. pic.twitter.com/sgD6A8vNXm
— Robert Schmitz (@robertkschmitz) November 5, 2020
If this defense can keep doing what they’re doing, and if this offense can just find some consistency moving forward, this NFC North divisional title race could be a lot more interesting to watch.
Titans Will Roll Out A Lot of New Names Defensively
After the Titans’ defense put out another stinker against Cincinnati, GM Jon Robinson had seen enough. He moved swiftly, cutting a few players that have been more of a problem rather than a bright spot for the defense, something I don’t think any of us expected him to do.
Johnathan Joseph and Vic Beasley, who both played important roles on this Titans defense during the first 8 weeks of the season, were both cut this past week. It left the corner and edge rushing group a little thin and starved of depth, especially the corner spot, where the Titans could see a new name receive some big time snaps today.
Joseph was the primary boundary corner opposite Malcolm Butler, but with him gone and Adoree Jackson along with Tye Smith dealing with injuries, it’ll be Breon Borders who’ll be expected to man down that 2nd boundary corner spot. Borders has made a living on the Titans’ practice squad all year long, so he’ll get his first big shot at making a name for himself for the team, and what better way to do it while on a team with Super Bowl aspirations huh?
With Adoree Jackson and Tye Smith both out tomorrow, you can expect to see a lot of Breon Borders as the boundary corner opposite Malcolm Butler.
Luckily for the #Titans, Desmond King will make his debut tomorrow, so corner depth isn’t totally shot.
— TreJean Watkins (@TreWatkins099) November 7, 2020
Another corner who’ll get their first chance to impress as a Titan is Desmond King, who the Titans traded for this past Monday. King will automatically slide in as the starting slot corner, and will be depended on a good amount even without having a decent amount of practice time with his new team.
As for who’ll potentially replace Beasley, it seems Derick Roberson and practice squad mainstay Wyatt Ray will combine to pick up the slack as pass rushers.
It’ll be interesting to see what the Titans do numbers wise for their OLBs today, since they’ve only carried 3 onto the gameday roster for the last couple of weeks. But with Jadeveon Clowney dealing with some knee problems, they might have to carry more than 3 to make up for Clowney’s potential absence.
Matchups to Watch
The Titans’ OL vs. The Bears’ Front 7
I discussed the Bears’ front 7 and how dangerous it is, especially in pass rush situations. They’ll be a tough test for this Titans OL, which struggled to handle the Steelers’ mighty pass rush back in week 7.
Dennis Kelly and Ty Sambrailo especially struggled, and they’ll struggle again if they can’t get a handle on Khalil Mack and Robert Quinn. Expect to see the Titans at least try to throw some extra help to either of those guy’s way on passing downs, while also making it a priority to abuse the quick passing game to limit those pass rushing opportunities for Mack and Quinn.
This interior Titans OL will have their hands full with Akiem Hicks as well, so it’ll be a busy day for this Titans offensive front.
The Bears’ OL vs. The Titans’ Pass Rush
We’re going with a double dose of trench play in this preview, and this time, we’ll focus on the Bears’ offensive front. This Bears offensive line won’t look like the usual today, instead, it’ll be full of backups and backups to other backups.
Starting center Cody Whitehair, starting guard James Daniels, and starting tackle Bobby Massie will all be absent for today’s game, leaving the Bears in a bit of a pickle in regards to their offensive line play.
Don’t even get me started about their replacements either, since the Bears are dealing with a load of problems in that particular area as well.
All these problems for the Bears’ offensive line should give hope to a Titans pass rush that hasn’t been good at all this year. Although the Titans faced a similar situation last week in Cincinnati, and still managed to put up middling numbers in the pass rush department.
If this Titans pass rush can’t get going this week, then I don’t see how they’ll get going in any other game that remains on the schedule.
Jon Robinson has tried his best to fix this #Titans pass rush over the last couple of years, but it just hasn’t panned out.
Harold Landry has been up and down, Jadeveon Clowney doesn’t have sack, and Vic Beasley just got released.
— TreJean Watkins (@TreWatkins099) November 3, 2020
Honest thoughts.
X-Factors
Chicago Bears: Darnell Mooney
Mooney has been the Bears’ best wide receiver not named Allen Robinson. He’s been extremely crisp in his route running, and has created separation numerous times only to not have an accurate ball thrown his way.
He’ll line up outside for the most part, and will likely get the assignment of winning his matchup against Breon Borders. Malcolm Butler will likely stick on Allen Robinson, since physical receivers are a better matchup for Butler’s lack of downfield speed.
Mooney should find ample opportunities to make plays against Borders, who I imagine won’t be given a ton of freedom in terms of man coverage whenever it’s called, which is rare for the Titans anyways.
Tennessee Titans: Derick Roberson
With Vic Beasley now gone, the 3rd OLB in the pecking order is Derick Roberson, who shined a bit last season but hasn’t been able to get on the field as much this year.
Roberson has been hampered by injuries, but he’s healthy now, and should get a handful or more of snaps in pass rushing situations, just like what Beasley was received in his role before he got released.
With the Bears missing a couple of options at tackle, this could be a chance for Roberson to really make his mark and solidify his place in the Titans’ OLB group moving forward.
Random thought: if I were the #Titans, I’d at least try to give Derick Roberson more of a role going forward.
He’s been hit with injuries and other unfortunate events so far, but rolling him out there the same out as Vic Beasley couldn’t be worse.
— TreJean Watkins (@TreWatkins099) November 3, 2020
Prediction
This Bears defense is really good, but this Titans offensive is good as well.
It’ll come down to how effective this Titans offense can be in pass protection, and whether the Titans’ 3rd down defense can finally shed the problems that have bee plaguing them all year.
I like the Titans in this one, but it could be close just because of the problems the Titans have defensively.
Titans: 27
Bears: 23
