Evan Silva’s Matchups: Bears at Ravens

Chicago @ Baltimore

Team Totals: Ravens 28.5, Bears 21.5

The Bears have embraced a run-first approach since their Week 5 bye, accomplishing two goals: 1) Highlighting their offensive line strengths. 2) Hiding struggling Caleb Williams. Inaccurate and consistently a beat late on anticipation throws, Caleb is just 54-of-92 passing (59%) for 636 yards (6.9 YPA) and a 2:2 TD-to-INT ratio over his last three starts. He fumbled four times in that span and rushed for nine combined yards. The Ravens have been a to-date sieve on defense, but I hesitate to put stock in their allowed stats because DC Zach Orr’s personnel was injury decimated in Weeks 1-6 and is much healthier after Week 7’s bye. … D’Andre Swift is on fire, averaging 7.0 yards per carry and 156.5 total yards per game with two touchdowns in two weeks since Chicago’s open date. The Bears’ offensive line has blocked out the sun to the extent that even seventh-round rookie Kyle Monangai got in quality work as a max-effort change-up RB last week. Working against Swift is his road-dog status against a Ravens defense getting too many health reinforcements to list. As Swift will stay on the field if the Bears fall behind — Monangai is not trusted in pass protection — Swift should still provide enough of a floor for confident RB2 treatment with RB1 upside.