Washington breaks down Colts defense, improved play of Billings and Dexter |
CHICAGO - Defensive coordinator Eric Washington plays a strong role for the Bears in breaking down their future opponents and game planning.
He and the rest of the defensive staff have a tall task this week preparing for the Indianapolis Colts this Sunday (Noon / CBS) with their strong offensive line, dynamic quarterback, and power running back. “Offensive line, Quenton Nelson, he’s been doing it for a long time at a high level. He’s one of the reasons why their offense, why their rushing game, has been so productive,” Washington said. “He’s got a disposition. You’re going to have to do a good job against him to maintain your leverage, to anchor the point of attack and have a chance to win one-on-one as a pass rusher.” Ever since running back Jonathan Taylor entered the league in 2020, he has been one of the best. The pinnacle of his career so far was in 2021, when he led the league in attempts (332), rushing yards (1,811), rushing touchdowns (18), and rushing yards per game (106.5). He also had the longest run of the season that year with an 83-yard touchdown against the Houston Texans. While injuries have hampered him the past two years, Washington understands his importance to this team and how talented Taylor is. “Jonathan Taylor, in my opinion, this offense starts with him. As one of the featured, most productive runners that we’ve seen in the last couple of years, attempts, yards, all of those things, he’s everything that you look for in a featured back,” Washington said. “We’ve got to do a really good job of maintaining our discipline as far as our gaps are concerned and our run fits. We’ve just got to do a good job of working together and making sure that we keep him in front of us with respect to our assignments.” Taylor is not the only talented runner on this roster. The Bears' defense will also have to deal with containing quarterback Anthony Richardson, who has already rushed for 93 yards this season. Although he only played four games last season, he has already established himself as a dangerous quarterback who will run through defenders. He has five rushing touchdowns in the six NFL games he has played. “Anthony Richardson, this man is really the featured runner. When they start to transition to some of the college-style plays, the option plays. He’s capable of running the football. He has excellent speed, size and so, we’ve got to do a good job with our assignments as it pertains to the option-portion of their rushing offense,” Washington said. “We have to be exceptionally detailed with our assignments, especially when they start to utilize him as a second runner with some of the option things that you’ll see and, similar to last week, when we can’t allow him to extend plays, especially when we do a good job of connecting with our coverage. We’ve got to make sure he stays in the pocket, and we can force him to throw the ball away or at best, get him down.” One positive aspect of Richardson is that he has a propensity to put the ball in danger. He likes to take deep shots down the field and make risky plays. When they work out, they can be explosive plays. But as last week against the Green Bay Packers proved, those risks can be costly. After throwing three interceptions against the Packers last week, he now leads the league in interceptions with four this season. With a defense like Chicago’s, this is certainly something they should be able to take advantage of. “We try to be opportunistic every week. We try to create the opportunities with every quarterback that we face,” Washington said. “We want to speed him up or force him away from his rhythm or the rhythm of that particular play and, hopefully, to get some throws that are errant, that are off target, and really when those opportunities present themselves, we got to catch the football.” To help create those dangerous throws from Richardson, Chicago will need its pass rush to make him uncomfortable. The good thing for the Bears is that numerous other players have stepped up so far this season to show they can get to the quarterback when edge rusher Montez Sweat cannot do so because of a double-team. One of those players is defensive tackle Andrew Billings, who forced the fumble against the Texans that prevented Houston from scoring and set up the Bears for a 54-yard field goal to make it a one-possession game. “He understands (the) rush protections, especially on first and second down - who he needs to rush, to pick after the protection declares itself and to find his one-on-one in the mix whether it’s a drop back scenario or a play action scenario,” Washington said. “For that nose tackle, that’s the first person that we address, ironically, when we start to install our four-man rush because he has the most direct path to the quarterback. We got to get it pushed back and that will allow our edge rushers to be productive. So, his mindset has been excellent. His conditioning is where it needs to be and (it’s) just really exciting to watch how he’s added to his overall game.” Another player who has stepped up is Gervon Dexter. There was a lot of offseason hype about how he changed his body and how his practice performance improved as a result. Now, that is starting to translate to the field, as he has a sack in each of Chicago’s first two games of the season. “This young man works as hard and as diligent as I’ve seen in practice,” Washington said. “He comes out every single day, and he’s focused on that particular moment - what we’re emphasizing, the situations that we’re working on - and he’s working on what he’s going to do during the game in practice. I can’t say enough about that.”
