The Bears offense has made some dramatic changes in the last 3 weeks. It started 4 weeks ago with the playcalling going to Coach Lazor. It has played dividends as each week they get better and better as an offensive football team. They really made a commitment to running the football and the offense has hit on all cylinders.
1. The Bears have changed their identity. They are going under center. 1st down under center the last 3 weeks is 72% on 1st down as compared to 32% earlier in the year. Weeks 1-10 on 2nd down was 31% and the last 3 weeks is 58%. That is a huge difference.
They are running the ball successfully. They are giving the ball to Montgomery and he has been playing great. Their wide zone play has really been good of late.This has a lot to do with running the ball under center with more down hill runs. 21/29 runs vs the Lions were under center.
2. The Offensive Line changes have been a major upgrade. The interior was playing horrible and the best move they made was moving Whitehair to left guard and Mustipher to center. They are doing a nice job as a unit and the difference is night and day. Right Guard Bars has been solid and Leno and Ilfedi have been good at tackle.
My other posts details the issues prior to the lineup changes
https://coachkoufootball.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-bears-offensive-struggles.html
They are running more plays under center on 1st and 2nd down as mentioned above and running more play action passes with Robinson and other wr benefitting. They are running plays sequentially. Jet sweep, wide zone etc. Much different than the rpo world they liked earlier in the year.
3. Also, off the under center runs, you are seeing more bootlegs which is playing to Trubisky's strengths
4. They are getting into a rhythm on offense and it shows. Decisive decision making and play calling has definitely been different.
5. They are being smart. Not asking Jimmy Graham to be a point of attack blocker, using Patterson as primarily a running back and just playing to their players strengths. Getting efficiency from guys other than Robinson has been key.
6.They are running simple route concepts on third down which is making the reads easy for Trubisky.There is an example down below of this concept.
Stats the last 3 games.
Rushing 31/140 4.5 ypc Passing. 26/34 249 yards 1 td o int
Texans 23/169 7.3 ypc 24/33. 267. 3 td, o int
Vikings 42/199 4.7ypc 15/21 201. 1 td, 1 int
Here's a perfect example how an improved running game sets up your play action.
The Bears gain 4 yards on first down against the Lions. On 2nd and 6 they go play action and hit Robinson on a dig route vs cover 3. They freeze the db's with the jet fake and wide zone action. Easy throw to Robinson!
on 2nd and 10.
They run the same jet action as earlier in the game but give the ball to the HB on the zone slice play.
Good decision and part of their zone, jet play action package.
Down on the goal line they run the jet sweep action and wide zone off it. The Center, Left guard and left tackle to a nice job. The SS goes with the slice block so no real cut back player. Good scheme good blocking and a nice run by Montgomery for 13 yard gain. Setting up plays nicely.
On 3rd down the Bears are giving Trubisky time but also running effective route concepts that are easy reads for the qb. Here they get man free and run Robinson on the in route at about 12 yards at a depth where the safety cant help. The Lions bring 5 so no underneath help from the lb. Nice 20 yard gain.
The Bears are playing good football. They have a good team and will be a tough opponent should they make the playoffs.
Bears vs the Vikings
The thing that impressed me was the Bears were really good on 1st down vs the Vikings.
They had it going with their wide zone game, bootlegs and play action. That 1st down efficiency made the difference in putting them up 27-17 halfway thru the 3rd quarter. After that they got away from it and only scored 6 in the last quarter and a half.
1st Half
Rushing: 9 carries for 74 yards 8 yards per carry
first drive 2nd half 4 carries for 28 yards 7 yards per carry.
Passing on 1st down: 6/7 for 76 yards
2nd half 1st down 1/2 for 7 yards
Out of the 9 passes on first down, 7 were boots and 2 were play action.
Here's an example of their boot out of condensed formation. A nice 14 yard gain.
Robinson has man free coverage and easily beats him across the field on the boot.
Again, a major improvement by the bears who earlier in the year were averaging 1.4 ypc. Nice job by Coach Nagy and the Bears as addressing their issues and making the necessary changes.
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