How well will the LA Rams offensive line hold up on SNF?

It’s… it’s… Da Bears D blitz

With NT Eddie Goldman out for this one, many expect to see a heavy dose of DT Bilal Hicks. Hicks is due for an extension, and a huge game against the Rams virtually guarantees that he will have plenty of leverage to get one with favorable compensation.

Historically, the Bears do not like to send blitzes against quarterback Matthew Stafford, because he is quite good at reading the defense quickly and knowing where to go with the football. Since they faced him twice a year, they tried other methods of creating challenges in the passing game.

But this is a brand new team, and the LA Rams have a brand new offensive center in Brian Allen. Well, a newly retreated offensive center, Brian Allen. Allen was the starting offensive center in 2019, but he seemed to struggle with a lack of power against beefy nose tackles. Eventually, offensive linemen began to fall to injury, while Allen suffered a horrific injury against the Pittsburgh Steelers.  As the video shows, it’s been 660 days since the injury, and the journey back was a long difficult process. But notice in the video, that this is definitely a more fired-up and intense Brian Allen, almost as though he has the eye-of-the-tiger now.

Meanwhile, you can certainly expect the Chicago Bears to test just how good Allen is this year at handling the task of dolling out blocking assignments, and handling A-gap blitzes, the nemesis of the Rams offense for the past two to three years. In fact, since the LA Rams have not played any preseason with their starters, the Bears defense has plenty of reason to stunt, blitz, rotate coverages, and try to confuse the Rams offense, and offensive line, out of the gates.