Even when the Bears weren't running the ball as effectively as they would have liked early in the season, coach Ben Johnson never lost confidence in the ground game.
Johnson's faith has been rewarded in back-to-back wins following the bye week, with the Bears rushing for 145 yards against the Commanders and 222 yards versus the Saints.
"We've been pretty consistent with that message that it was going to take a little bit of time to get our O-line on the same page and feel good about their fits and their combinations, and I think that's starting to come together," Johnson said.
"You accumulate the reps over the course of camp and through these first five games going into the sixth one, and you really see it come to life a little bit."
Johnson credited offensive linemen as well as position coach Dan Roushar and assistant Kyle DeVan for the running game's emergence.
"They do phenomenal jobs," Johnson said. "They've been very consistent with that crew. It's a prideful group. They want to protect the quarterback in the passing game, and they want to be able to run for 200 [yards] every week in the running game."
After averaging 102.3 yards on the ground in their four games before the bye, the Bears have averaged 183.5 yards rushing in their last two contests.
"We are clicking up front, and the receivers are doing a great job on the perimeter," said running back D'Andre Swift. "Hats off to them. If they do their jobs up front and we get a little space as the backs, everybody in our room, we're going to make something happen after that. I feel like we've been doing a better job this week and the past week of clicking on all cylinders and doing our jobs."
"We watched the film, and it was the little things," added rookie running back Kyle Monangai, "where we're a guy away here or it was on us in the backfield where we missed a read by a step or a footwork detail or all that little stuff that can go from missing a big play or gashing a 40-yarder or a touchdown."
After rushing for 53, 63, 33 and 38 yards in the Bears' first four games, Swift has gained 108 and 124 yards in the last two contests.
"He's just so explosive," said left tackle Theo Benedet. "All you've got to do is give him a crease and we've started to do that the last two weeks, and he's hitting them. It's exciting to watch him run and watch some of those runs pop."
Monangai, a seventh-round pick from Rutgers, rushed for 81 yards in the first five games and then matched his season total with 81 yards on 13 carries versus the Saints.
"You saw how hard he runs," Benedet said. "That just fires up your whole team. He's going to get you an extra 3-4-5 yards on every run, and that's really rewarding as an O-lineman."
Monangai revealed that his relationship with Swift "has been strong since I got here." The two bonded over their similar backgrounds—Swift grew up in Philadelphia and Monangai hails from nearby New Jersey—and work ethics.
"[Swift] is a big-play-at-any-moment type of guy," Monangai said. "You get the ball in his hands, he has that ability to make those big plays happen out of anything, and I think we complement each other well with the way we run. Different running styles, but I think we complement each other well."
As they prepare for a Week 8 contest against the Ravens Sunday in Baltimore, the Bears are confident that their running game will continue to ascend.
"We're picking up steam, but there's still a long way to go," Monangai said. "We're making progress in the right direction, that's for sure, and the last game was a testament to that. The game before that, we kind of got it going, too. We have aspirations to be better than we are in terms of the run game. I know we're going to do that. We just have to keep building up."
