Getty Head coach Matt Eberflus of the Chicago Bears says Darnell Mooney and Cole Kmet should be more involved in the passing game in the weeks to come.
Two weeks have passed in the 2022 NFL regular season, and the Chicago Bears are sitting at 1-1, along with every other team in the NFC North.
The Bears have two potentially winnable games coming up over the next few weeks: at home against a winless Houston Texans (0-1-1) team Week 3, and on the road week against the surprising 2-0 New York Giants Week 4. While Chicago managed to earn a hard-fought Week 1 win over the San Francisco 49ers, the team’s luck ran out the following Sunday night in Green Bay.
The Bears fell to the Packers, 27-10, and there were two glaring issues for Chicago when the final seconds ticked off the clock: a porous run defense and an anemic passing attack.
Green Bay running backs Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon gashed the Bears defense for 191 yards on the ground, but an arguably bigger problem was the absence of two of Chicago’s supposed best players on offense: wide receiver Darnell Mooney and tight end Cole Kmet.
Eberflus: Passing Game ‘A Concern’
Fields completed seven passes out of 11 attempts for 70 yards (6.4 ypa) and an interception, finishing with a 43.8 rating against the Packers (stats via Pro Football Reference).
Mooney caught one pass on two targets for a total of -4 yards, while Kmet dropped the only pass thrown his way:
So far through two games, Fields has attempted a total of 28 passes, while Mooney has two catches for four yards and Kmet has yet to haul in a reception. The Bears are averaging just 76.5 yards per game through the air, easily the worst in the NFL.
When speaking with the media on September 19, Bears head coach Matt Eberflus was asked about the team’s lack of an aerial attack, and the first-year coach was blunt.
“Yeah, we’re looking at that,” Eberflus said. “I think that is a concern. We want to get better there. We want to improve. There’s no question. We want to improve in a lot of parts of our football team, aspects of our football team, but that’s one of them. The touches, who we are looking at, getting touches early, getting guys involved, all those things are being looked at as we’re looking through the course of our whole football team.”
Eberflus Says Team Will Incorporate Kmet & Mooney More
The Bears coach also noted he expects both targets and production to increase for Mooney and Kmet. Considering Mooney is the team’s WR1 and Kmet was targeted 93 times last year, this should happen sooner rather than later.
“We need to highlight our skill,” Eberflus added. “We know that. We know that. So we’re going to try to do a better job of that — we will do a better job. We’ve got great coaches. Those guys are smart. They know how to get it done and we will get it done.”
One aspect of Chicago’s offense that has been working is the run game. The Bears finished with 180 yards on the ground on 27 rushing attempts against a solid Packers defense, and Eberflus says the team is striving for better balance.
“I think that on offense you have to have balance. We will look at that as we assess and evaluate the game, but man,” Eberflus said, “We were running it really well and we were still in the game at that point. We were going with what was working for us.”
There’s merit in leaning on one aspect of the game if and when it’s working, but in today’s NFL, a passing attack is a necessary element of every one of the league’s best offenses, and Eberflus knows it.
We’ll see how Fields, Mooney and Kmet respond against Houston.