The Bears head into Monday Night Football short another piece in the backfield, with Kyle Monangai ruled out for the matchup against the Seattle Seahawks because of a toe injury.
That means Monangai will sit out for the fourth straight game. He hasn’t played since Week 4, when he delivered one of Chicago’s biggest rushing performances of the season against the New York Jets. In that game, he piled up 30 carries for 146 yards and two touchdowns before the toe issue sidelined him.
Since then, the Bears have been waiting on his status week after week, but he never got back onto the practice field on Thursday or Friday. That left the team with little choice on Saturday but to officially rule him out again.
The timing is rough for Chicago. Seattle is coming off a 20-3 win over the Kansas City Chiefs, and that game turned into a showcase for the Seahawks’ run defense. They held Kenneth Walker III to 36 yards on 14 carries, his worst outing of the season, even though he entered the matchup as the NFL’s leading rusher.
Chicago’s ground game has taken a noticeable hit without Monangai. The Bears averaged 196 rushing yards per game with him available, but that number drops to 98 yards per game when he’s out. D’Andre Swift is expected to carry most of the load again, while Roschon Johnson remains in the mix as the complementary option.
The Bears have had stretches where they’ve still moved the ball on the ground without Monangai, but Monday night presents a much tougher ask. Seattle’s defense just proved it can smother the run, and doing that on the road only raises the degree of difficulty.
For Chicago, Monangai’s absence strips one more weapon from an offense that will need to find answers against a defense that’s been rolling. Swift should get the bulk of the touches, but the Bears now have to try to establish the run against one of the league’s stingiest fronts without the back who gave them their biggest burst in Week 4.
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