Bears will need 'exceptional' effort to contain Rams' Puka Nacua, Davante Adams

The only time Puka Nacua faced a Dennis Allen defense, the Rams receiver caught nine passes for 164 yards and a touchdown. By comparison, the Bears have only had three receivers in the entire Super Bowl era catch at least nine passes for 164 yards and a score.

Not that Allen, the Bears’ defensive coordinator, needed a reminder of what Nacua did to the 2023 Saints in the third-to-last game of his rookie year. He’s been studying the receiver all week as the Bears prepare to try to slow him in Sunday night’s divisional round playoff game at Soldier Field.

“You come away from there thoroughly impressed,” Allen said Thursday. “He runs as fast as he needs to to get the job done. He’s big, he’s physical. He catches everything that’s remotely close to him and he’s tremendous with the run after the catch.

“I just think he does everything that you want a receiver to be able to do.”

The Rams receiver was one of just four AP All-Pro unanimous choices this year. He led the NFL with 129 catches during the regular season and ranked second with 1,715 receiving yards.

“He’s put it on display all year,” cornerback Nahshon Wright said. “He’s physical. He’s good with the ball in his hand. He’s good at the point of attack. He can catch the ball with three fingers.”

That’s what he did in a loss to the Falcons last month. His one-handed, toe-tapping catch along the sideline with five seconds left and his team down by three was the catch of the year — until replay ruled the pass incomplete.

“Grit” is what makes Nacua special, said Bears cornerback Kyler Gordon, a former teammate at Washington. A lack of straight-ahead speed is why Nacua, who later transferred to BYU, lasted until the fifth round of the 2023 draft. He ran a 4.57 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine.

On the field, his speed hits different.

“He might not be the fastest, but he’s damn sure one of the toughest,” cornerback C.J. Gardner-Johnson said.

The Rams’ No. 2 receiver, former Packers star Davante Adams, is one of the sport’s great route-running technicians — and a -notorious Bears villain. Since 2015, no receiver in the NFL has totaled more receiving yards or touchdowns against the Bears.

Two-time Pro Bowl cornerback Jaylon Johnson said he was eager to face Adams, whom he called a future Pro Football Hall of Famer, after their battles when he played in Green Bay. But he said he was worried about the Rams’ “two-headed monster.”

The two pose the greatest challenge yet to a Bears cornerbacks corps that last offseason was considered the team’s best position group — only to struggle with injuries since. Johnson played in six regular-season games because of two serious groin injuries and says he won’t feel 100% until next season. Gordon played only three games because of three different injuries before returning last week.

The Bears expected the two to be “cornerstone pieces for us” before the injuries, Allen said, adding that it has been “challenging to try to manipulate” the defense without them. Wright has helped, leading the NFL in -takeaways.

The Bears leaned on that three-man unit in their second-half resurgence against the Packers after playing Nick McCloud in the slot to start the game and cycling Tyrique Stevenson in for Johnson in the first half.

Johnson, Wright and Gordon played in every nickel package of the second half until there were 13 seconds left and the Packers were heaving the ball toward the end zone. That figures to be the Bears’ lineup again Sunday, though Allen has vowed to work in Gardner-Johnson, who has recovered from a concussion.

They’ll all have their hands full.

“It’s going to take an exceptional effort on our part to give ourselves a chance,” Allen said.