Staley Da Bear
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- Mar 16, 2019
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Key loss: Bears Pro Bowl defensive tackle Akiem Hicks exited with an elbow injury on the game’s opening possession and did not return.
“Not to discredit the guys we have up front,” said cornerback Prince Amukamara. “I feel our front seven is amazing. But everybody knows that Akiem is a huge part of our defense. I feel like that hurt us. It really shows how valuable he is to our team.”
Hicks was sidelined by a knee injury last Sunday and the Bears defense completely shut down the Vikings in a 16-6 win. So what was the difference?
“Last week was a different scenario,” Amukamara said. “Last week we got up on them early, so now you can’t just keep running, running. Now it’s more of a passing game., This game, they got up on us early. Now they’re supposed to run, run, run, eat the clock and no need to pass. So it was just two different scenarios.”
Not a factor: The Bears came out flat on both sides of the ball, but Nagy doesn’t think it had anything to do with the team not arriving in London until Friday morning. The Raiders came into town Monday, leaving from Indianapolis after last Sunday’s game against the Colts.
“Had nothing to do with when we came here and when we didn’t,” Nagy said. “It’s about playing football.”
“I don’t think that was it,” Amukamara added. “I feel like if you do that, you kind of discredit what Oakland did scheme-wise, and I feel like they just had great calls. That first series they punched us in the mouth and it just seemed like we weren’t able to recover that first half.”
Defense struggles: The Bears did not record a sack for the first time this season after registering 5, 2, 4 and 6 in their first four games. They were credited with only one quarterback hit (by Khalil Mack).
The defense allowed a season-high 398 total yards and a season-worst 50 percent conversation rate on third downs (6-of-12).
After limiting the Vikings rushing attack to 40 yards on 16 carries last weekend, the Bears run defense yielded a season-high 169 yards on 39 attempts to the Raiders.