Post by JABF on Oct 15, 2019 9:29:29 GMT -6
This is just a small part of a long but good article regarding the Bears offense. It's worth following the LINK to read it in its entirety. These are just some small random snippets from the long article.
LINK
If the Bears offense is broken, does Matt Nagy have the manual to fix it?
Coach Matt Nagy’s offense ranks in the bottom third of the NFL in most of the main statistical categories. The breakout season Nagy and the Bears envisioned for quarterback Mitch Trubisky hasn’t materialized. And the championship-level defense has been saddled with a minuscule margin for error each week.
In other words, Nagy recognizes the offense is failing and stuck. He said it: “The numbers don’t lie.” The Bears are 28th in points per game (17.4) and 30th in yards per play (4.48).
Nagy is gifted and established as a team leader. But as an offensive strategist and coach, he remains unproven. And the Bears need the latter to catch up to the former. Fast.
To that point, there’s no separating Trubisky’s current plateau (or regression?) from Nagy, the quarterback-centric coach who was hired as a central piece in the construction effort around Trubisky. Given that Trubisky didn’t begin this season demonstrating the advanced command—or even the incremental improvements — the Bears expected, what can Nagy do six weeks into the season to suddenly elevate Trubisky’s play?
No doubt. Numbers don’t lie, right? Nagy said so himself. So how about a few more to add to the pile of damning evidence against this offense? This entire offense.
We’re about to hit mid-October and Daniel has as many touchdown passes as Trubisky. (That wasn’t in the plan.)
Miller, fully healthy for all five games, has yet to record his 10th catch, ranking 157th in the league in receptions with eight, tied with Bisi Johnson, Damion Ratley and, yes, Dontrelle Inman.
David Montgomery has yet to have a 100-yard rushing game and has a 3.3 yards-per-carry average.
Left tackle Charles Leno headed into the open date as the league’s most penalized player.
Tight ends Trey Burton (an expensive free-agent signee) and Adam Shaheen (a second-round draft pick) have combined for 18 catches, 107 yards and zero touchdowns.
As a whole, the Bears offense has scored touchdowns on just eight of 52 possessions. Three of those touchdown drives — including two against the Raiders — started inside the opponent’s 20-yard line. In all, 37 of the Bears’ 87 points have come immediately after a takeaway.
The Bears also have only three offensive touchdowns of longer than 5 yards, and their longest touchdown all season (37 yards) came from safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix on an interception return.
Those are all signs this offense requires way too much assistance to get going. It has been an equal-opportunity disappointment with every position group partially responsible and an offensive-minded head coach still searching for a cure. So how quickly can he find it?
If quarterback play is the biggest disappointment, the O-line’s collective struggles are the biggest surprise. The starting five is back from last season, albeit with center James Daniels and left guard Cody Whitehair transposed. But as Nagy has said, they’re losing too many one-on-one blocks, particularly in the running game.
It was a stunning contrast in London how the Raiders O-line consistently displaced Bears defenders, while the Bears O-line did not. Montgomery’s yards-per-carry average is suffering as a result.
How about this: Jordan Howard was dealt in the offseason after averaging a career-worst 3.7 yards per carry in 2018. In five games with the Eagles this year, he’s back up to 4.7. Maybe the Bears’ blocking difficulties aren’t surprising after all.
This wasn’t supposed to be a lingering issue. In fact, Nagy promised that this year would have a whole different look to it on offense. This was Nagy in February at the scouting combine in Indianapolis, where he swore the Bears’ time in the flight simulator was over and they were ready to take a real plane out on the runway: “Now we’re at a point where we kind of know a little bit of the direction of what we like and what we don’t like. Now that enables us to get better at the things we like and throw away the things we don’t like. Which, all in all, is going to end up really helping out our players.”
In fact, if you sift through all the things Nagy said over the offseason — from the combine to the owners meetings to organized team activities to his pre-training camp chat in Decatur — what you find are a bunch of confident promises about the offense that have proved, thus far, to be hollow. And what we see on the field is an offense grasping with a young quarterback who is struggling to clear even the lowest of hurdles.
This wasn’t supposed to be a lingering issue. In fact, Nagy promised that this year would have a whole different look to it on offense. This was Nagy in February at the scouting combine in Indianapolis, where he swore the Bears’ time in the flight simulator was over and they were ready to take a real plane out on the runway: “Now we’re at a point where we kind of know a little bit of the direction of what we like and what we don’t like. Now that enables us to get better at the things we like and throw away the things we don’t like. Which, all in all, is going to end up really helping out our players.”
In fact, if you sift through all the things Nagy said over the offseason — from the combine to the owners meetings to organized team activities to his pre-training camp chat in Decatur — what you find are a bunch of confident promises about the offense that have proved, thus far, to be hollow. And what we see on the field is an offense grasping with a young quarterback who is struggling to clear even the lowest of hurdles.
If the Bears offense is broken, does Matt Nagy have the manual to fix it?
Coach Matt Nagy’s offense ranks in the bottom third of the NFL in most of the main statistical categories. The breakout season Nagy and the Bears envisioned for quarterback Mitch Trubisky hasn’t materialized. And the championship-level defense has been saddled with a minuscule margin for error each week.
In other words, Nagy recognizes the offense is failing and stuck. He said it: “The numbers don’t lie.” The Bears are 28th in points per game (17.4) and 30th in yards per play (4.48).
Nagy is gifted and established as a team leader. But as an offensive strategist and coach, he remains unproven. And the Bears need the latter to catch up to the former. Fast.
To that point, there’s no separating Trubisky’s current plateau (or regression?) from Nagy, the quarterback-centric coach who was hired as a central piece in the construction effort around Trubisky. Given that Trubisky didn’t begin this season demonstrating the advanced command—or even the incremental improvements — the Bears expected, what can Nagy do six weeks into the season to suddenly elevate Trubisky’s play?
No doubt. Numbers don’t lie, right? Nagy said so himself. So how about a few more to add to the pile of damning evidence against this offense? This entire offense.
We’re about to hit mid-October and Daniel has as many touchdown passes as Trubisky. (That wasn’t in the plan.)
Miller, fully healthy for all five games, has yet to record his 10th catch, ranking 157th in the league in receptions with eight, tied with Bisi Johnson, Damion Ratley and, yes, Dontrelle Inman.
David Montgomery has yet to have a 100-yard rushing game and has a 3.3 yards-per-carry average.
Left tackle Charles Leno headed into the open date as the league’s most penalized player.
Tight ends Trey Burton (an expensive free-agent signee) and Adam Shaheen (a second-round draft pick) have combined for 18 catches, 107 yards and zero touchdowns.
As a whole, the Bears offense has scored touchdowns on just eight of 52 possessions. Three of those touchdown drives — including two against the Raiders — started inside the opponent’s 20-yard line. In all, 37 of the Bears’ 87 points have come immediately after a takeaway.
The Bears also have only three offensive touchdowns of longer than 5 yards, and their longest touchdown all season (37 yards) came from safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix on an interception return.
Those are all signs this offense requires way too much assistance to get going. It has been an equal-opportunity disappointment with every position group partially responsible and an offensive-minded head coach still searching for a cure. So how quickly can he find it?
If quarterback play is the biggest disappointment, the O-line’s collective struggles are the biggest surprise. The starting five is back from last season, albeit with center James Daniels and left guard Cody Whitehair transposed. But as Nagy has said, they’re losing too many one-on-one blocks, particularly in the running game.
It was a stunning contrast in London how the Raiders O-line consistently displaced Bears defenders, while the Bears O-line did not. Montgomery’s yards-per-carry average is suffering as a result.
How about this: Jordan Howard was dealt in the offseason after averaging a career-worst 3.7 yards per carry in 2018. In five games with the Eagles this year, he’s back up to 4.7. Maybe the Bears’ blocking difficulties aren’t surprising after all.
This wasn’t supposed to be a lingering issue. In fact, Nagy promised that this year would have a whole different look to it on offense. This was Nagy in February at the scouting combine in Indianapolis, where he swore the Bears’ time in the flight simulator was over and they were ready to take a real plane out on the runway: “Now we’re at a point where we kind of know a little bit of the direction of what we like and what we don’t like. Now that enables us to get better at the things we like and throw away the things we don’t like. Which, all in all, is going to end up really helping out our players.”
In fact, if you sift through all the things Nagy said over the offseason — from the combine to the owners meetings to organized team activities to his pre-training camp chat in Decatur — what you find are a bunch of confident promises about the offense that have proved, thus far, to be hollow. And what we see on the field is an offense grasping with a young quarterback who is struggling to clear even the lowest of hurdles.
This wasn’t supposed to be a lingering issue. In fact, Nagy promised that this year would have a whole different look to it on offense. This was Nagy in February at the scouting combine in Indianapolis, where he swore the Bears’ time in the flight simulator was over and they were ready to take a real plane out on the runway: “Now we’re at a point where we kind of know a little bit of the direction of what we like and what we don’t like. Now that enables us to get better at the things we like and throw away the things we don’t like. Which, all in all, is going to end up really helping out our players.”
In fact, if you sift through all the things Nagy said over the offseason — from the combine to the owners meetings to organized team activities to his pre-training camp chat in Decatur — what you find are a bunch of confident promises about the offense that have proved, thus far, to be hollow. And what we see on the field is an offense grasping with a young quarterback who is struggling to clear even the lowest of hurdles.
