FLOWERY BRANCH – The Atlanta Falcons face a unique challenge against the Chicago Bears this Sunday. Caleb Williams will start for the first time since Week 2, and his presence unlocks another level of this offense.
While Williams will get the attention, the Falcons face another underlying challenge that will likely play a bigger role in this game's outcome. It all starts with the guy up top.
Head coach Ben Johnson is renowned as an offensive genius and was a highly sought-after candidate after leading a record-setting Lions offense. He can open up the passing game and punish defenses with a potent rushing attack.
The Falcons defense knows it needs to be at its best on Sunday.
“There's very little weakness to his offense, and it starts with the run game,” Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich said this week about Johnson. “They're number one in the rush for the entire league. And it's not a real close second, in my opinion, to what they do. The level of precision and execution (in the) scheme is elite, but then you combine that with a real style of play: physicality, a finish.
“They're going to test you schematically, technically, and physically, and everything in between. It's a great challenge in that way.”
At their best, the Bears have punished teams, like in Week 1 when they ran up 59 points on the Panthers. Since then, Chicago has been a lot of Jekyll and Hyde, producing scorelines of 3 points (with Williams going down at the end of regulation) in Week 2, 27 points in Week 3, 23 points in Week 4, and 7 points in Week 5.
Williams will get most of the attention for the Bears, but as Ulbrich mentioned, it starts with slowing down the rushing attack. With or without the former No. 1 overall pick under center, Chicago wants to run the football.
They lead the NFL in rushing, averaging 173.2 yards per game, but will be without bruiser Kyle Monangai for a second straight week, and starter D’Andre Swift is working through both a hip and knee injury that limited him to a single carry in the second half last Sunday. With Swift banged up and Monangai sidelined, the Bears ran for a season-worst 81 yards in a forgettable offensive performance against the Packers.
Either way, Johnson will have his unit in position to make an impact.
“There's countless challenges, to tell you the truth,” Ulbrich said. “They do it at the highest level. You can tell there's high-level precision, there's great coaching, there's great detail. And like I already said, there's a great style of play that comes with all that, which is very unique.”
The Falcons and their resurgent run defense have leaned on the four-man rush, using a league-high 72 unique four-man pass-rush combinations this season (third-most by any defense through the first five weeks of a season in the Next Gen Stats era), and it has paid off. Even after the Ravens poured in 208 yards, the Falcons boast a top-four rush defense.
That healthy utilization has unlocked the Falcons’ defense, allowing Ulbrich to deploy his second-level defenders elsewhere.
While Chicago won’t feature a Derrick Henry on Sunday, Johnson will present the Falcons with a different challenge, one they need to be ready for if they want to come out on top. The Bears' rushing production is built around Johnson's scheme and the entire offense's execution, forcing Atlanta to account for more than one player.
“You’ve got to be very diligent about what you're calling and when you're calling it,” Ulbrich said. “It's going to be a great challenge for the players. It's going to be a great challenge for our coaches and myself as well.”
If the Falcons’ four-man rush can control the Bears’ running game as it did against Green Bay and New Orleans, Williams’ return matters less. If it can’t, Johnson’s offense will make them pay regardless of who’s under center.
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