Growth of Bears run consistency comes at perfect time to face Ravens

The game before was almost 100 yards less but still far better than what the Bears had been producing. This becomes critical to achieve this week and not because of Williams' struggles.

Baltimore is often thought of as a dominant defensive team based on its past but this has hardly been the case in 2025. Surprise: These aren't your father's Ravens. They didn't get to 1-5 only because Roquan Smith has been out in October. They went 1-3 in September and gave up 133 points in four games.

Definitely losing Lamar Jackson hurt them as they were without their impact passer, but he also was the main reason their running game had been so effective. And that running game kept opposing defenses on the field and the Ravens defense off of it. Now, that defense has been on the field longer and exposed.

They gave up 224 yards rushing to Detroit when Smith was playing, gave up 167 to Houston when he wasn't.

Baltimore's starting defensive line includes two former Bears, Brent Urban and John Jenkins. Both have been journeymen types.

They're 28th stopping the pass, 26th stopping the run and will no doubt improve with Smith back but what they've shown so far both with and without him says they still will have problems.

The positive for the Ravens is they had their best overall defensive effort of the year in their last game two weeks ago when, they held the Rams to 241 yards of offense and 17 points in a loss.

They need to hope this was the start of momentum because the Bears definitely have some with their own running game. The line looks to be a cohesive group firing out together now, unlike earlier.

"We have aspirations to be even better than where we are, in terms of the run game," Monangai said. "I know we're going to do that. We just have to keep building, week by week."

Monangai's rise in the last two games is a good sign for the Bears that this is a consistent threat because they’re getting production from two backs behind the line. This says it’s more than just more effective running. It shows they’ve addressed the root problem of their earlier problems running the ball.

They’re showing they are capable of repeating this, especially against a defense having its problems.

It's going to be something they need to work from here on out, especially when they haven't really been able to count on a consistent passing threat from their own quarterback.