It sounds like a good week to lean on the running game for the Bears and it might not be the worst idea in the world.

For one, they’ll have D’Onta Foreman back from a personal absence if they choose to have him active. Once Matt Nagy lined the Bears up in a straight T-formation with a full house backfield as tribute to George Halas’ T-formation teams of the 1940s. Maybe it wouldn’t be a bad choice this week because they could use all of their backs that way.

In all seriousness, last week the running game kick-started after a period of relative dormancy, as Khalil Herbert hit for a season-high 112 yards and they gained 250 on the ground.

The Falcons haven’t been a bad run defense, especially in the red zone. They’ve given up the second-fewest rushing TDs in the league (6) but when teams have hurt the Falcons they usually have been able to mix it up and run. In losses since Week 8, they gave up 129 yards rushing to Carolina, 148 to Tampa Bay, 122 to Arizona, 146 to Minnesota and 149 to Tennessee. In their three wins since Week 8 they’ve given up an average of 100.6 yards on the ground.

The Bears hit them with 149 yards rushing last year but still lost for several reasons, and one was what happened to Justin Fields. The Falcons hit him hard enough to injure his shoulder and although he gutted out the end of the game, he had to miss the next game.

Fields has since become better at avoiding hits, says coach Matt Eberflus.

“You look at the hits he’s taken as of late, he’s done a really good job on the scrambles and the QB runs, for example, the one third down he almost scored on, on the one sweep that he had, did a really good job of working from the hash to the numbers to the boundary and also working himself out of bounds and not getting hit there, and not taking the undue hits that he doesn’t need to take,” coach Matt Eberflus said. “So he’s continuing to work on that, but the balance has to be there, right? You have to have that, because you don’t want to put your quarterback in harm’s way. And part of that responsibility is on him, too.”

Eberflus thinks Fields slides a little better, or at least is strategically better at it.

“I think it depends on how many yards he gets,” Eberflus said. “When he gets a lot of yards, he slides with some swagger. He pops up and does the first-down signal. But yeah, I think he has improved on that.”

Fields is likely to need that swagger, slide and rushing ability this week to balance out the offense against a good Falcons defense.

Here are the Bears who can do the most damage to the Falcons.

1. QB Justin Fields

The double-edged sword was back in the running attack last week as Herbert’s 112 yards were accompanied by Fields’ 97 yards on nine carries, to go with 170 passing yards. Finding the passing yards wasn’t easy after Kmet and Moore left with injuries. Fields ran last year for 85 yards and threw for 153 against Atlanta. He might have had more of both if he could have finished without a shoulder injury. Expect them to lean on him like they did last year as they hope to spread out the Falcons’ defense.

2. RB Khalil Herbert

The Falcons held David Montgomery in relative check last year but they didn’t face the 1-2 threat of big gainers from Herbert’s speed combined with Fields’ speed. He didn’t play in the game due to injury. It’s not as easy ganging up on Fields when Herbert is running with explosion the way he did last week. It was the first time he showed a burst since his Oct. 5 ankle injury. The Bears could go back to rotating all their backs the way they did early in the season, but they have to hope it works better because they ran better when they had either Herbert or Foreman or both.

3. DE Montez Sweat

He’s going to face a stiff challenge but even against a good blocker it hasn’t seemed to matter. Sweat might not get there but exerts necessary pressure. His 24 pressures are almost double that of any other Bears defensive lineman since Week 9 after the trade and he keeps coming. Facing Kaleb McGary, who is ranked 23rd among tackles by PFF and has given up just four sacks, will make it tougher. But Sweat has faced McGary in the past and in three games has two sacks, four quarterback hits and three tackles for loss. One of those games was this year, when the rumors of Sweat being traded in mid-October had picked up. Sweat’s ability to also be stout as a run defender at end is critical in this game against a team with backs who can run behind a wide zone scheme.

4. G Teven Jenkins

It appears Jenkins would be ready to exit concussion protocol after the way he has been going through full practices this week. In the past, it might have been even more critical to have their best overall blocker available because he’d be lining up much of the time across from Grady Jarrett. But losing Jarrett for the year with a torn ACL leaves the Falcons a bit less dangerous up front. Former Saints defensive lineman David Onyematta has made up for losing Jarrett somewhat and would be the toughest assignment for the Bears interior offensive line.

5. WR DJ Moore

Moore averaged 4.1 catches for 71.8 yards in 10 games against the Falcons while in the same division. What he’s able to do Sunday could depend largely on his ankle but he had six catches for 152 yards in one of the games against them. Unless the Falcons flip their cornerbacks, which they could do, Moore would be facing rookie Clark Phillips III, the rookie from Utah who has started the last three games and shows great promise and has allowed only 39.1% completions when targeted (9 of 23). Whether Moore could challenge in the deep game will depend on how much his ankle recovered this week after the injury but he hasn’t missed practice time.

6. CB Kyler Gordon

The Bears slot cornerback has the ability against a wide zone team to be disruptive both against the run and the pass. He has gradually built momentum over the past nine games and it culminated last week in the highest PFF grade of his career, a 90.3. His strong game in coverage also included a sack of Kyler Murray on a blitz. Facing a quarterback who hasn’t been playing much, like the Falcons will have this week, can be huge in this scheme for the slot cornerback if he’s disguised properly in the scheme.

7. DE DeMarcus Walker

Walker’s great strength coming to the Bears was defending the edge against the run and he’ll get a chance to prove he can do it this week. He is also coming off a solid nine pass rush pressures in the last two games.

8. RB D’Onta Foreman

There’s no guarantee they’ll keep him active for the game but if they look at what he did in the past against Atlanta they will. He gouged the Falcons defense for 118 and 130 yards rushing in two games last year with Carolina with his efficient, downhill style of power running.