Post by JABF on Dec 19, 2017 8:53:26 GMT -6
I don't know about Hub's reasoning here. Maybe. What do you guys think?
"Let’s see if Loggains and Fox give him a fighting chance in these last two weeks."
"Let’s see if Loggains and Fox give him a fighting chance in these last two weeks."
LINK
Arkush: Are Bears developing Trubisky or holding him back?
CHICAGO – Coach John Fox was unhappy Monday about how much the Bears threw the ball in their 20-10 loss to Detroit on Saturday.
Of Mitch Trubisky’s 46-attempt day in Detroit, Fox said, “You’d like to avoid [that] – I didn’t like having a 46-pass game regardless of who’s playing quarterback.”
Now that may not seem like news, but since Fox took over the Bears, we have had reason to question just what exactly the Bears’ offensive philosophy is.
In 2015 with Adam Gase running the offense, the Bears were eighth in the NFL in run/pass ratio, running the ball 47.3 percent of the time and throwing it 52.7 percent.
In 2016 with Dowell Loggains taking over the offense, the Bears were 22nd in run/pass ratio, running the ball only 40.5 percent of the time and throwing it 59.5 percent, and that is misleading as the Bears were 30th in the league with only three games remaining in the season.
But through 14 weeks of Year 2 with Loggains and Year 3 with Fox, the Bears were back to third in the NFL in run/pass ratio, running 49.6 percent of the time and throwing it 50.4 percent.
That 2017 statistic, however, is misleading. In games against Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Detroit (the first time around) and Cincinnati, the Bears ran the ball 160 times for 907 yards, while throwing only 101 passes, a 61.3 percent to 38.7 percent run/pass ratio. They went 3-1, failing to get the Lions game to overtime for a chance to win after Connor Barth’s missed 46-yard field-goal attempt.
In the Bears’ 10 other games, they ran the ball only 216 times while throwing it 312 times, a 40.15 percent to 59.9 percent run/pass ratio, almost identical to their numbers in 2013, when they went 3-13.
Fox is right, a run-oriented offense best fits these Bears, and when you look deeper into the league-wide run/pass ratios, there is a correlation between running the ball more and winning.
Of the top 13 teams in the NFL in run/pass ratio this year, only the Bears (third), Colts (sixth) and Jets (10th) are below .500.
The Jaguars (first), Panthers (fourth), Eagles (seventh), Vikings (eighth) and Rams (11th) are near certain playoff participants, and the Bills (second), Cowboys (fifth), Titans (ninth), Ravens (12th) and Falcons (13th) still are very much in the playoff hunt.
The Bears’ problem is when they don’t – or can’t – run early in games, the offense grinds to a halt.
As Fox said Monday, “Well, I think we have to be more efficient passing the ball.
“If you look at it statistically, we’re ninth in the league in defense – 12th in points – that should win you more games than what we’re at.
“When you look at our offense, we’re 28th in points, 30th overall, you know, in the top 10 in rushing but the bottom three in passing, so I’ll just leave it at that.”
So why has the Bears’ ground game been so inconsistent? Certainly injuries on the offensive line are a factor, but Fox has another explanation, as well.
“I think you’ve got to give the defense some credit.
“When they’re stacking eight, nine guys at the line of scrimmage and forcing you to throw, it makes the run game a little more difficult.”
Difficult? Yes. But impossible? No.
Carolina is 27th in passing, Jacksonville 19th, Tennessee 25th and Baltimore 29th, and all have had the box stacked against them, too.
When defenses stack the box to take away the ground game, offenses have to burn them with passes in the middle and in deep zones that are left uncovered, a part of the Bears offense that has been – for the most part – nonexistent under Loggains.
How many times have we seen Trubisky air the ball out this year, or try and connect on skinny posts or deep outs?
Ten starts in and Trubisky is ready to at least try to help his ground game rather than have the ground game almost exclusively used to protect him.
Arkush: Are Bears developing Trubisky or holding him back?
CHICAGO – Coach John Fox was unhappy Monday about how much the Bears threw the ball in their 20-10 loss to Detroit on Saturday.
Of Mitch Trubisky’s 46-attempt day in Detroit, Fox said, “You’d like to avoid [that] – I didn’t like having a 46-pass game regardless of who’s playing quarterback.”
Now that may not seem like news, but since Fox took over the Bears, we have had reason to question just what exactly the Bears’ offensive philosophy is.
In 2015 with Adam Gase running the offense, the Bears were eighth in the NFL in run/pass ratio, running the ball 47.3 percent of the time and throwing it 52.7 percent.
In 2016 with Dowell Loggains taking over the offense, the Bears were 22nd in run/pass ratio, running the ball only 40.5 percent of the time and throwing it 59.5 percent, and that is misleading as the Bears were 30th in the league with only three games remaining in the season.
But through 14 weeks of Year 2 with Loggains and Year 3 with Fox, the Bears were back to third in the NFL in run/pass ratio, running 49.6 percent of the time and throwing it 50.4 percent.
That 2017 statistic, however, is misleading. In games against Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Detroit (the first time around) and Cincinnati, the Bears ran the ball 160 times for 907 yards, while throwing only 101 passes, a 61.3 percent to 38.7 percent run/pass ratio. They went 3-1, failing to get the Lions game to overtime for a chance to win after Connor Barth’s missed 46-yard field-goal attempt.
In the Bears’ 10 other games, they ran the ball only 216 times while throwing it 312 times, a 40.15 percent to 59.9 percent run/pass ratio, almost identical to their numbers in 2013, when they went 3-13.
Fox is right, a run-oriented offense best fits these Bears, and when you look deeper into the league-wide run/pass ratios, there is a correlation between running the ball more and winning.
Of the top 13 teams in the NFL in run/pass ratio this year, only the Bears (third), Colts (sixth) and Jets (10th) are below .500.
The Jaguars (first), Panthers (fourth), Eagles (seventh), Vikings (eighth) and Rams (11th) are near certain playoff participants, and the Bills (second), Cowboys (fifth), Titans (ninth), Ravens (12th) and Falcons (13th) still are very much in the playoff hunt.
The Bears’ problem is when they don’t – or can’t – run early in games, the offense grinds to a halt.
As Fox said Monday, “Well, I think we have to be more efficient passing the ball.
“If you look at it statistically, we’re ninth in the league in defense – 12th in points – that should win you more games than what we’re at.
“When you look at our offense, we’re 28th in points, 30th overall, you know, in the top 10 in rushing but the bottom three in passing, so I’ll just leave it at that.”
So why has the Bears’ ground game been so inconsistent? Certainly injuries on the offensive line are a factor, but Fox has another explanation, as well.
“I think you’ve got to give the defense some credit.
“When they’re stacking eight, nine guys at the line of scrimmage and forcing you to throw, it makes the run game a little more difficult.”
Difficult? Yes. But impossible? No.
Carolina is 27th in passing, Jacksonville 19th, Tennessee 25th and Baltimore 29th, and all have had the box stacked against them, too.
When defenses stack the box to take away the ground game, offenses have to burn them with passes in the middle and in deep zones that are left uncovered, a part of the Bears offense that has been – for the most part – nonexistent under Loggains.
How many times have we seen Trubisky air the ball out this year, or try and connect on skinny posts or deep outs?
Ten starts in and Trubisky is ready to at least try to help his ground game rather than have the ground game almost exclusively used to protect him.
