I keep going back to the game between the Bears and Cardinals in December of 2012. Following two disheartening losses to the Vikings and Packers (where Jay had been underwhelming at best) that dropped the team out of the playoff hunt, the Bears desperately needed a win against the Cardinals and some help in order to stay alive. During the game against the lifeless 5-9 Cardinals, Jay completed less than half of his passes for a measly 146 yards and looked lost. This wasn't a young, reckless, frustrated QB responding to breakdowns in protection by firing fastballs into double coverage. It wasn't even Jay forcing deep balls downfield in a futile attempt to make a play. It was just a quarterback who looked erratic, inaccurate, and lost.
Phil Emery saw the same thing. Jay Cutler was lost, and Phil had a choice to make. Keep the head coach and coordinator who was supposedly so estranged from his own quarterback that the two barely spoke and lose the quarterback forever, or replace them and dedicate one more year to trying to reclaim the talented young passer who threw for over 4500 yards and made the Pro Bowl in his last year in Denver.
As we know, Emery made the choice to roll with Cutler, and the result was a 2013 season that was, despite being cut short by injury, Cutler's best in many ways. He set career highs in passer rating, had the highest completion % of his Bears career, the second highest yards per game average of his career, and the highest TD%. Emery saw enough in Cutler's progress in 2013 to reward him with a long term contract extension. With Cutler the Bears starter at quarterback for the foreseeable future, it's worth looking back at Emery's plan and seeing how he and Marc Trestman turned Jay back into a viable starter.
1) Find the Coach: There were different reasons why the previous offensive coordinators that handled Jay in Chicago had all failed. Ron Turner's scheme was vanilla and outdated, and incapable of producing without a dominant run game.
Showing posts with label Mike Tice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mike Tice. Show all posts
Sunday, June 8, 2014
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Schemin' Marc Trestman
Last year when I was attempting to get a grip on what kind of offense Mike Tice was going to run given Tice's history in Minnesota, the presence of Jeremy Bates, and the holdovers from the Martz playbook, I said the following:
I'm forced to wonder how all three of these influences (the Ghost of Martz, Tice/Linehan, and Bates/Shanahan) are going to gel into one coherent offensive scheme this year.
Unfortunately, as anyone who watched the team last year knows, the answer was that they just didn't. Tice's playbook consisted of a sometimes random assortment of ill-timed deep balls, inside zones with guards who couldn't run-block and a runningback who makes his living bouncing outside the tackles, and a motley jumble of other concepts. Tice ended up throwing deep more often than his seemingly mad predecessor, but lacked Martz's deft hand with screens and hot routes to enable the team to move the chains between the twenties.
The biggest problem with Tice's offense was that it just wasn't an offense, frankly. A true offense starts with a philosophy. This doesn't have to be Lovie Smith's "we get off the bus running" or Martz's bombs away aerial approach, but you have to have clear, delineated goals and concepts to match. What pass plays do you have that you believe will always work against Cover 2? If it's 2nd and 1, do your players know and have faith in what you are going to call, or are you just guessing? Mike Leach once rejected the description of play-calling in football as a chess match in favor of boxing. You're taking way too much time if you're trying to guess or dial up the perfect play for that moment. It should be punch-counterpunch, with an instinctual response to every situation that is honed by repetition and consistency.
Marc Trestman, at least, brings a true offense with him. Trestman is as old of a disciple as one can be in the West Coast offense without having sat in the room with guys like Paul Brown and Bill Walsh as they first put the concepts together. He's run some version of it since the 1980s, adjusting it to suit quarterbacks as different in arm strength, mobility, and accuracy as Bernie Kosar, Steve Young, Scott Mitchell, Jake Plummer, and Rich Gannon. Through this all, he's remained true to the core philosophy of the system, which is to move the ball methodically down the field with a controlled, timing-based short passing offense.
This is a welcome relief for Jay Cutler, most of all, because this was exactly the system that Jay was drafted to run in Denver (it's worth noting that Trestman took over as 49ers offensive coordinator in 1995, replacing Mike Shanahan). It would seemingly run counter to logic that Cutler, with his cannon arm and his sometimes erratic accuracy would be a perfect fit for this system, but consider that some of the most successful operators of the West Coast were guys, like Jay, known for strong arms and sometimes questionable decisions like Brett Favre and John Elway. The West Coast is perfect for these type of players as it places structural limitations on their recklessness and carefully manages when and where they attack the defense vertically. Trestman, unlike Tice and Martz, seems unlikely to give into the temptation of Jay's arm strength and be seduced by lower % big play attempts instead of a more efficient approach.
Simply being a West Coast Offense guy, however, is relatively meaningless in today's NFL, where a good portion of the league's coordinators will lay claim to a similar lineage. The Green Bay Packers under Mike McCarthy and the Cleveland Browns under Pat Shurmur and our old friend Brad Childress both ran the West Coast as their base offense last year, and one would hardly say they had much in common. Trestman will be judged not on what his offense has done in the past but on what adjustments he has made to suit the modern NFL, and for that it's worth looking at his experience up North.
The CFL, with only three downs, seven skill position players, and a wider, longer field seemed an odd fit for a West Coast guru. Traditional West Coast formations (remember, for years the shotgun was an almost foreign formation in the scheme) and run plays simply wouldn't work. What was Trestman's response?
Not much, actually. In Canada, Trestman still ran traditional West Coast concepts like Snag and Stick, with the routes run out of the shotgun instead of a pro set, and with extra wide receivers or tight ends running routes that previously belonged to the fullback or runningback. By doing so, Trestman could present new looks to the defense and utilize the horizontal passing game in place of the run while leaving the basic concepts and strengths of his offense in place.
If this sounds somewhat familiar, it probably should, because it's not much different, schematically, from what the Saints and Packers have done in recent years, and that's also no surprise since Trestman was actually offered the opportunity to be the Saints OC in 2006 and served as an offensive consultant for them in 2007. These teams are running more or less the same plays that the 49ers ran with Joe Montana, with a few added wrinkles, out of different formations and with different personnel, taking advantage, for example, of the mismatches created by splitting someone like Jimmy Graham or Jermichael Finley out wide.
So, going back to my main criticism of Tice, that his offense lacked a true philosophy or identity, what can we expect from Trestman? It would seem the Bears are likely to lead with the pass, although in a much less reckless fashion than Martz's deep drops. As Cutler has said, the emphasis of this offense is definitely protecting the quarterback by getting the ball out as soon as possible. Forte will get over twenty touches per game, most likely, but those touches will definitely vary between rushes and receptions based on the situation. It would also seem, from observers' comments at the first mini-camp, that Trestman believes in the boxing approach, as many said the Bears got in and out of the huddle and to the line faster on their first day of install with a new playbook than they ever did at any point under Tice or Martz. Trestman himself said that he wanted each play to "build muscle memory." It would appear that Trestman is less concerned with out-scheming or out-smarting is opponents (a difficult thing to do in the NFL where too much is made of "genius" as it is) and more with ensuring that his players understand their roles and their objectives and can execute them on each play.
If that's the case, then we'll hopefully see a more confident offensive unit in the fall, one that wastes fewer timeouts, has fewer false starts, and overall seems to be a lot less confused than the mess we saw last year. It's hard to say right now that this approach will be successful, but it seems logical to assume that you'll be able to do a lot more on offense if you know, at least, what it actually is you want to do, and Marc Trestman has at least gotten them started on that path.
I'm forced to wonder how all three of these influences (the Ghost of Martz, Tice/Linehan, and Bates/Shanahan) are going to gel into one coherent offensive scheme this year.
Unfortunately, as anyone who watched the team last year knows, the answer was that they just didn't. Tice's playbook consisted of a sometimes random assortment of ill-timed deep balls, inside zones with guards who couldn't run-block and a runningback who makes his living bouncing outside the tackles, and a motley jumble of other concepts. Tice ended up throwing deep more often than his seemingly mad predecessor, but lacked Martz's deft hand with screens and hot routes to enable the team to move the chains between the twenties.
The biggest problem with Tice's offense was that it just wasn't an offense, frankly. A true offense starts with a philosophy. This doesn't have to be Lovie Smith's "we get off the bus running" or Martz's bombs away aerial approach, but you have to have clear, delineated goals and concepts to match. What pass plays do you have that you believe will always work against Cover 2? If it's 2nd and 1, do your players know and have faith in what you are going to call, or are you just guessing? Mike Leach once rejected the description of play-calling in football as a chess match in favor of boxing. You're taking way too much time if you're trying to guess or dial up the perfect play for that moment. It should be punch-counterpunch, with an instinctual response to every situation that is honed by repetition and consistency.
Marc Trestman, at least, brings a true offense with him. Trestman is as old of a disciple as one can be in the West Coast offense without having sat in the room with guys like Paul Brown and Bill Walsh as they first put the concepts together. He's run some version of it since the 1980s, adjusting it to suit quarterbacks as different in arm strength, mobility, and accuracy as Bernie Kosar, Steve Young, Scott Mitchell, Jake Plummer, and Rich Gannon. Through this all, he's remained true to the core philosophy of the system, which is to move the ball methodically down the field with a controlled, timing-based short passing offense.
This is a welcome relief for Jay Cutler, most of all, because this was exactly the system that Jay was drafted to run in Denver (it's worth noting that Trestman took over as 49ers offensive coordinator in 1995, replacing Mike Shanahan). It would seemingly run counter to logic that Cutler, with his cannon arm and his sometimes erratic accuracy would be a perfect fit for this system, but consider that some of the most successful operators of the West Coast were guys, like Jay, known for strong arms and sometimes questionable decisions like Brett Favre and John Elway. The West Coast is perfect for these type of players as it places structural limitations on their recklessness and carefully manages when and where they attack the defense vertically. Trestman, unlike Tice and Martz, seems unlikely to give into the temptation of Jay's arm strength and be seduced by lower % big play attempts instead of a more efficient approach.
Simply being a West Coast Offense guy, however, is relatively meaningless in today's NFL, where a good portion of the league's coordinators will lay claim to a similar lineage. The Green Bay Packers under Mike McCarthy and the Cleveland Browns under Pat Shurmur and our old friend Brad Childress both ran the West Coast as their base offense last year, and one would hardly say they had much in common. Trestman will be judged not on what his offense has done in the past but on what adjustments he has made to suit the modern NFL, and for that it's worth looking at his experience up North.
The CFL, with only three downs, seven skill position players, and a wider, longer field seemed an odd fit for a West Coast guru. Traditional West Coast formations (remember, for years the shotgun was an almost foreign formation in the scheme) and run plays simply wouldn't work. What was Trestman's response?
Not much, actually. In Canada, Trestman still ran traditional West Coast concepts like Snag and Stick, with the routes run out of the shotgun instead of a pro set, and with extra wide receivers or tight ends running routes that previously belonged to the fullback or runningback. By doing so, Trestman could present new looks to the defense and utilize the horizontal passing game in place of the run while leaving the basic concepts and strengths of his offense in place.
If this sounds somewhat familiar, it probably should, because it's not much different, schematically, from what the Saints and Packers have done in recent years, and that's also no surprise since Trestman was actually offered the opportunity to be the Saints OC in 2006 and served as an offensive consultant for them in 2007. These teams are running more or less the same plays that the 49ers ran with Joe Montana, with a few added wrinkles, out of different formations and with different personnel, taking advantage, for example, of the mismatches created by splitting someone like Jimmy Graham or Jermichael Finley out wide.
So, going back to my main criticism of Tice, that his offense lacked a true philosophy or identity, what can we expect from Trestman? It would seem the Bears are likely to lead with the pass, although in a much less reckless fashion than Martz's deep drops. As Cutler has said, the emphasis of this offense is definitely protecting the quarterback by getting the ball out as soon as possible. Forte will get over twenty touches per game, most likely, but those touches will definitely vary between rushes and receptions based on the situation. It would also seem, from observers' comments at the first mini-camp, that Trestman believes in the boxing approach, as many said the Bears got in and out of the huddle and to the line faster on their first day of install with a new playbook than they ever did at any point under Tice or Martz. Trestman himself said that he wanted each play to "build muscle memory." It would appear that Trestman is less concerned with out-scheming or out-smarting is opponents (a difficult thing to do in the NFL where too much is made of "genius" as it is) and more with ensuring that his players understand their roles and their objectives and can execute them on each play.
If that's the case, then we'll hopefully see a more confident offensive unit in the fall, one that wastes fewer timeouts, has fewer false starts, and overall seems to be a lot less confused than the mess we saw last year. It's hard to say right now that this approach will be successful, but it seems logical to assume that you'll be able to do a lot more on offense if you know, at least, what it actually is you want to do, and Marc Trestman has at least gotten them started on that path.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
2012 Bears Position Reviews: Runningbacks
Mike Tice was supposed to return the Bears offense to traditional, ground-and-pound BEAR FOOTBAW after the team often forgot that half of the offense under Mike Martz. One would think that Tice was an improvement after the Bears finished 10th in the NFL in rushing, but they actually rushed for fewer yards (1970) in 2012 than they had (2015) the year before, just one of many disappointments that the brief Tice Experiment represented.
#22 Matt Forte, 15 games, 15 games started, 248 attempts, 1094 YDs, 5 TDs, 4.4 YPA, 72.9 YPG, 44 rec., 340 YDs, 7.7 YPC, 1 TD.
Taken as a whole, Matt Forte's numbers look respectable, and pretty similar to his very good 2010 campaign, if not the ridiculous season he was on pace for before his injury in 2011. From week to week, however, the story was quite different. Mike Tice seemed to have the not-altogether horrible idea of keeping Forte from having to single-handedly carry the offense as he had the previous year. In reality this led to Tice using Forte irregularly, replacing him with Michael Bush at awkward intervals, and ultimately giving him just 15 or fewer carries in nearly half of his starts. For comparison's sake, Forte had just 8 games with 15 or fewer carries in his last 22 games (minus the Kansas City game where he was injured) under the notoriously pass-happy Mike Martz (the Bears went 15-7 in that time).
Even worse than Tice's inconsistent use of Forte as a runner was his use of Forte as a receiver. Forte had fewer catches this year than in any other year of his career. Even worse than that, his yards per reception average dropped to a paltry 7.7, well below the 10.1 YPC he averaged in two years under Mike Martz. Far too often Tice called plays that featured Forte as a checkdown, rather than a featured target on wheel routes or screens, two plays that were successful staples of Martz offense. Hopefully Trestman will restore the runningback to prominence in the passing game, as he did in 2002 with the Raiders when Charlie Garner had 91 receptions for 941 YDs.
#29 Michael Bush, 13 games, 1 game started, 114 attempts, 411 YDs, 5 TDs, 3.6 YPA, 31.6 YPG, 9 rec., 83 YDs, 9.2 YPC.
Michael Bush's statistics may not appear to be that much better than Marion Barber's from 2011, but the impact he had on the team in short-yardage and goal-to-go situations cannot be overstated. for the first time in recent memory we had no reason to fear when the Bears needed to pick up a yard in crunch time. Of course, sometimes Tice forgot he existed and opted to go empty backfield on 2nd and inches and GOD DAMMIT ANOTHER INTERCEPTION ON A SEAM ROUTE TO KELLEN DAVIS. Unfortunately, his injury came just as the tailspin was beginning, and he was sorely missed. Hopefully he can stay healthy next year, because he's a very useful player to have.
#32 Kahlil Bell, 4 games, 0 games started, 29 attempts, 76 yards, 2.6 YPA, 19.0 YPG, 1 rec., 11 YDs, 11.0 YPC.
Bell was cut in the preseason, as the Bears gave him a new contract in the offseason solely to put the squeeze on Forte. He was re-signed while Forte was hurt and lacked the burst he had shown the year before. He's gone once more and will probably not return.
#25 Armando Allen, 15 games, 0 games started, 27 attempts, 124 yds, 1 TD, 4.6 YPA, 8.3 YPG, 2 rec., 16 YDs, 8.0 YPC.
Allen, previously an afterthought, turned out to be a swift change of pace back who provided a nice complement to the bigger and more powerful Forte and Bush. He's got potential and seems to have proven that he can be trusted with more carries, if needed.
That's all for now, next time I will salivate over Brandon Marshall and pour my scorn upon the (hopefully) last days of the Devin Hester Package.
#22 Matt Forte, 15 games, 15 games started, 248 attempts, 1094 YDs, 5 TDs, 4.4 YPA, 72.9 YPG, 44 rec., 340 YDs, 7.7 YPC, 1 TD.
Taken as a whole, Matt Forte's numbers look respectable, and pretty similar to his very good 2010 campaign, if not the ridiculous season he was on pace for before his injury in 2011. From week to week, however, the story was quite different. Mike Tice seemed to have the not-altogether horrible idea of keeping Forte from having to single-handedly carry the offense as he had the previous year. In reality this led to Tice using Forte irregularly, replacing him with Michael Bush at awkward intervals, and ultimately giving him just 15 or fewer carries in nearly half of his starts. For comparison's sake, Forte had just 8 games with 15 or fewer carries in his last 22 games (minus the Kansas City game where he was injured) under the notoriously pass-happy Mike Martz (the Bears went 15-7 in that time).
Even worse than Tice's inconsistent use of Forte as a runner was his use of Forte as a receiver. Forte had fewer catches this year than in any other year of his career. Even worse than that, his yards per reception average dropped to a paltry 7.7, well below the 10.1 YPC he averaged in two years under Mike Martz. Far too often Tice called plays that featured Forte as a checkdown, rather than a featured target on wheel routes or screens, two plays that were successful staples of Martz offense. Hopefully Trestman will restore the runningback to prominence in the passing game, as he did in 2002 with the Raiders when Charlie Garner had 91 receptions for 941 YDs.
#29 Michael Bush, 13 games, 1 game started, 114 attempts, 411 YDs, 5 TDs, 3.6 YPA, 31.6 YPG, 9 rec., 83 YDs, 9.2 YPC.
Michael Bush's statistics may not appear to be that much better than Marion Barber's from 2011, but the impact he had on the team in short-yardage and goal-to-go situations cannot be overstated. for the first time in recent memory we had no reason to fear when the Bears needed to pick up a yard in crunch time. Of course, sometimes Tice forgot he existed and opted to go empty backfield on 2nd and inches and GOD DAMMIT ANOTHER INTERCEPTION ON A SEAM ROUTE TO KELLEN DAVIS. Unfortunately, his injury came just as the tailspin was beginning, and he was sorely missed. Hopefully he can stay healthy next year, because he's a very useful player to have.
#32 Kahlil Bell, 4 games, 0 games started, 29 attempts, 76 yards, 2.6 YPA, 19.0 YPG, 1 rec., 11 YDs, 11.0 YPC.
Bell was cut in the preseason, as the Bears gave him a new contract in the offseason solely to put the squeeze on Forte. He was re-signed while Forte was hurt and lacked the burst he had shown the year before. He's gone once more and will probably not return.
#25 Armando Allen, 15 games, 0 games started, 27 attempts, 124 yds, 1 TD, 4.6 YPA, 8.3 YPG, 2 rec., 16 YDs, 8.0 YPC.
Allen, previously an afterthought, turned out to be a swift change of pace back who provided a nice complement to the bigger and more powerful Forte and Bush. He's got potential and seems to have proven that he can be trusted with more carries, if needed.
That's all for now, next time I will salivate over Brandon Marshall and pour my scorn upon the (hopefully) last days of the Devin Hester Package.
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Vikings 21, Bears 14: There Goes the Neighborhood
As SKO was actually at the game, he’s asked me to step in
and do the recap today. I was hoping it would be a good game. As you all saw, I
was very very wrong. The Bears fall to 8-5, still leading the wild card race,
but it was not an encouraging game.
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Bears 51, Titans 20. Good Old Fashioned Ass Whuppin'
The Bears dominated the Titans in all three phases, with two phases showing up from the start and the offense kicking it in sometime around the start of the second quarter. From the very first play for the Titans, when Matt Hasselbeck fired a perfect throw to Kenny Britt only for Charles Tillman to pop it for an immediately-deflating fumble, things were clearly going to go the Bears way. In the end they got 37 points from the offense, 7 from the defense, and 7 from special teams, to go along with 358 yards on offense, a 229 yards, 3 TD, 138 rating day for Jay Cutler, 100+ yard efforts from Forte and Marshall, the startling return of the real Brian Urlacher, and Charles Tillman just doing that thing that leaves opposing ball-carriers double clutching the football and dropping to the ground whenever his fists come near.
The Bears finished with 51 points, their most since 1981. They had the most points they've ever scored in a first quarter, 28, and they're now 7-1 at the halfway point for the first time since they last went to a Superbowl. We supposedly have to wait one more week to find out whether we have a good team in Chicago, but I've already made up my mind regardless.
To the specifics:
THE GOOD:
-Brian Urlacher: He's certainly not what he used to be, but it was comforting to see him rack up tackles and make a great break on the ball to get the interception. I sure as hell enjoyed watching him shove Matt Hasselbeck out of the way like a minor nuisance. Someday, maybe as soon as next season, Brian Urlacher won't be a Bear, and I will be sad because of that.
-Corey Wootton and Nate Collins: Wootton's been stellar all year in reserve, but he got a chance to shine today with a blocked punt return TD and a sack to add to his growing list of great plays. Nate Collins justified his spot on the active roster for the second week in a row with a a pass deflection and three tackles. This defensive line's depth is utterly terrifying. In a good way.
-Sherrick McManis: blocked a punt, reminded me that he was on the roster.
-Charles Tillman: The man forced four fumbles today. FOUR. Jesus. He's just on another level right now. For a guy who was always better than he's been given credit for, Tillman's surpassed his own previous bests this year.
-Jay Cutler: He was patient when he needed to be, he took his shots when the opportunity opened up, the sack-fumble, unlike last week, was not his fault since he got killed before he even had a chance to go to his second read, and all three of his touchdown passes were a combination of arm strength, improvisation, and great accuracy. The second one, in particular, was placed right over the corner and safety where only Marshall could make the play. He finished 19/26 for 229 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTs, and a 138.1 rating, and his passer rating on the season is now back to a respectable 85.3. If he can keep making chickensalad out of this chickenshit offensive line, good things are in the forecast.
-Brandon Marshall: Noted SKO fan RV noted on twitter that Marshall's stats for half a season this year (797 yards, 7 TDs) would both have led the team for an entire year in 6 of the last 9 seasons. Real receivers are awesome. Hopefully Alshon will be back soon, so Marshall can stop carrying this entire offense on his back.
The Bad:
-Gabe Carimi: the "he's still young" excuse only works if he gradually gets better, not worse. He is, as Iggins! put it, a dumpster fire at right tackle right now. Webb had a hold and the illegal hands to the face that led to the safety, but he wasn't terrible otherwise, but Gabe is just a disaster and it's holding the entire offense back. Mike Tice had better have a damn good plan for keeping Cutler upright against Houston.
-Mike Tice: Just stop getting fucking cute. Oh, look! The Hester reverse when you're up 31-2. HahahahFuck you. Empty backfield on 2nd and 1 in the red zone? Brilliant! Your offensive line is always stellar when you broadcast "WE ARE PASSING" to the opposing D! Just stop it. Run the ball till they load the box, then play-action.
The Ugly:
Brian Billick: Okay. We fucking get it. The Bears are feasting on easy first-half schedule. Get over it. It'd be one thing if they were just scraping by, but other than the Carolina game their average margin of victory over these patsies is 23 points. They're dominating the weak half of their schedule. We don't know HOW great they are yet, but we can at least say they are good without immediately having to dredge up a "but...".
That's it for now. The Bears have done all that we could possibly have hoped for in the first half of the season. The long haul begins next week, but have faith. This team is capable of doing great things. It's doing them right now.
Go Bears.
The Bears finished with 51 points, their most since 1981. They had the most points they've ever scored in a first quarter, 28, and they're now 7-1 at the halfway point for the first time since they last went to a Superbowl. We supposedly have to wait one more week to find out whether we have a good team in Chicago, but I've already made up my mind regardless.
To the specifics:
THE GOOD:
-Brian Urlacher: He's certainly not what he used to be, but it was comforting to see him rack up tackles and make a great break on the ball to get the interception. I sure as hell enjoyed watching him shove Matt Hasselbeck out of the way like a minor nuisance. Someday, maybe as soon as next season, Brian Urlacher won't be a Bear, and I will be sad because of that.
-Corey Wootton and Nate Collins: Wootton's been stellar all year in reserve, but he got a chance to shine today with a blocked punt return TD and a sack to add to his growing list of great plays. Nate Collins justified his spot on the active roster for the second week in a row with a a pass deflection and three tackles. This defensive line's depth is utterly terrifying. In a good way.
-Sherrick McManis: blocked a punt, reminded me that he was on the roster.
-Charles Tillman: The man forced four fumbles today. FOUR. Jesus. He's just on another level right now. For a guy who was always better than he's been given credit for, Tillman's surpassed his own previous bests this year.
-Jay Cutler: He was patient when he needed to be, he took his shots when the opportunity opened up, the sack-fumble, unlike last week, was not his fault since he got killed before he even had a chance to go to his second read, and all three of his touchdown passes were a combination of arm strength, improvisation, and great accuracy. The second one, in particular, was placed right over the corner and safety where only Marshall could make the play. He finished 19/26 for 229 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTs, and a 138.1 rating, and his passer rating on the season is now back to a respectable 85.3. If he can keep making chickensalad out of this chickenshit offensive line, good things are in the forecast.
-Brandon Marshall: Noted SKO fan RV noted on twitter that Marshall's stats for half a season this year (797 yards, 7 TDs) would both have led the team for an entire year in 6 of the last 9 seasons. Real receivers are awesome. Hopefully Alshon will be back soon, so Marshall can stop carrying this entire offense on his back.
The Bad:
-Gabe Carimi: the "he's still young" excuse only works if he gradually gets better, not worse. He is, as Iggins! put it, a dumpster fire at right tackle right now. Webb had a hold and the illegal hands to the face that led to the safety, but he wasn't terrible otherwise, but Gabe is just a disaster and it's holding the entire offense back. Mike Tice had better have a damn good plan for keeping Cutler upright against Houston.
-Mike Tice: Just stop getting fucking cute. Oh, look! The Hester reverse when you're up 31-2. HahahahFuck you. Empty backfield on 2nd and 1 in the red zone? Brilliant! Your offensive line is always stellar when you broadcast "WE ARE PASSING" to the opposing D! Just stop it. Run the ball till they load the box, then play-action.
The Ugly:
Brian Billick: Okay. We fucking get it. The Bears are feasting on easy first-half schedule. Get over it. It'd be one thing if they were just scraping by, but other than the Carolina game their average margin of victory over these patsies is 23 points. They're dominating the weak half of their schedule. We don't know HOW great they are yet, but we can at least say they are good without immediately having to dredge up a "but...".
That's it for now. The Bears have done all that we could possibly have hoped for in the first half of the season. The long haul begins next week, but have faith. This team is capable of doing great things. It's doing them right now.
Go Bears.
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Bears 23, Panthers 22-- Holy Sh*t
In 2010 the Bears won a bunch of close games and every single week someone would utter that they "didn't deserve to win." It's become a running joke around these parts that the Bears are always 0-16 in the deserved to win standings. I've never accepted that. This is the NFL. Not all offensive and defensive schemes are built the same, and yardage totals, etc. are insignifcant. In this case...well, damn. The Panthers dominated the Bears in all three phases for 3 1/2 quarters and lost. Tough luck, guys. But once again, this is the NFL. No one's going to have sympathy for you.
The Bears were bloodied and bruised for most of the game. The offensive line couldn't pass-block against the most basic four man rushes for the entire first half. Jay looked hesitant, underthrew an interception, and held the ball too long on back-to-back sacks, including a fumble that set up Carolina's first touchdown. The receivers dropped five passes, including one absolutely brutal one by Spaeth that nearly killed me. The defense struggled to contain Newton and allowed the big plays for the first time all year. No one should act like aren't some reasons for concern, but....
...the Bears came back to win. They stopped allowing sacks. Mike Tice discovered the quick slant. Even when Carolina finally shut down the Bears run game (without Mike Tice shutting it down himself, of course, more on that later), they still found a way to move the ball. Cutler and Marshall hooked up several times on a game winning drive that left me thinking "man, this drive would have been 4 & out with forced passes to Johnny Knox and Devin Hester." Jay Cutler, a week after he should have silenced all of the bullshit about his lack of toughness once and for all, added to his reputation with three great late drives to win the game (sure, Robbie missed, but it was still a good drive). The defense finally made the kind of play we just expect them to make now, with Tim Jennings getting the franchise record 6th pick six of the year. When you look at the numbers and do the math, you'll be hard-pressed to figure out how the Bears won, but they did, and here they are at 6-1 on their way to Tennessee.
The Good:
Red Zone Defense: Hard to single out any member of the defense for consistently good play, since the Panthers moved the ball better than anyone has against this team so far, but the red zone defense kept the Bears in this game. Carolina had multiple opportunities to score the game-clinching touchdown and the defense stopped them every single time.
Tim Jennings: Added two interceptions for a career high six, and gave the Bears the lead late with his pick six. Love this guy.
Jay Cutler: Everything was a disaster in the first half. Jay was hit (and yes, the interception is on him and so were 2 of the sacks, including the fumble) and sacked 6 times. He was just 4 of 9 in the first two quarters. Jay, however, bounced back. He overcame the sacks. He overcame the drops (five of them. Again. Five). In the final 17 minutes of the game he was 14/16 for 141 yds and a TD. He is, as Erik noted, the best 4th quarter passer in the league right now, and he won the game for the Bears.
Matt Forte: He had 61 yards on 8 carries in the first half. The problem with that is that he got EIGHT CARRIES IN THE FIRST HALF. Goddammit, Tice. Either way, Matt now has over 400 yards in his last three games against the Panthers.
The Bad:
Offensive Line: I'm not even sure who gets the blame for all of these. I've already put two of them on Cutler, and I believe Webb got beat for at least one sack in the first half. This kind of effort is just plain terrifying, since the offensive line seemed to be progressing really well before 11 sacks allowed in the last two weeks. Get it together.
Defensive Line: They got just two sacks and allowed Cam Newton to get outside several times. Not the kind of effort they needed to have to keep this offense in Check.
Mike Tice: What the hell, Mike? What the hell? Matt Forte was shredding the Panthers and Tice couldn't be bothered to run it more than twice in a row. If you want to have a truly great running game you have to commit to it, and you have to be willing to keep at it even on 2nd and 8. You certainly don't go empty backfield on second down when there's years of statistics showing that that formation is death under all circumstances for this team. Also, if you want to mix runs and passes, why the hell do you wait until the fourth quarter to throw in some goddamn slant passes? I know the drops aren't your fault and that broke up the rhythm, but if you didn't try to throw it downfield on every pass you might be more effective at moving the chains.
Drops: Again, five drops. Spaeth's was definitely the most brutal, but Hester's was terrible as well. Marshall made up his two with some huge catches late. The rest of you need to think about what you've done.
The Ugly:
Ron Rivera: why so serious? Who has watched Devin Hester this year and decided they need to be scared of him that you hand the Bears the ball at midfield on nearly every possession? Poor call, Ron.
Cam Newton's Critics: Oh man. Really? You're going to light into him for not running down to celebrate with Louis Murphy on a play where he actually was hurt? How stupid. Cam wasn't great today. He racked up a lot of yards downfield but his accuracy was spotty when it mattered and he had two bad interceptions, but he's clearly not the problem on this team.
That's all for now. Next week the Bears have to go down and face a not-terrible Titans squad on the road. They'll need to get it cleaned up and start playing four quarters of offensive football. They're certainly going to need it in the second half of the season. This is their chance to build that momentum.
Go Bears.
The Bears were bloodied and bruised for most of the game. The offensive line couldn't pass-block against the most basic four man rushes for the entire first half. Jay looked hesitant, underthrew an interception, and held the ball too long on back-to-back sacks, including a fumble that set up Carolina's first touchdown. The receivers dropped five passes, including one absolutely brutal one by Spaeth that nearly killed me. The defense struggled to contain Newton and allowed the big plays for the first time all year. No one should act like aren't some reasons for concern, but....
...the Bears came back to win. They stopped allowing sacks. Mike Tice discovered the quick slant. Even when Carolina finally shut down the Bears run game (without Mike Tice shutting it down himself, of course, more on that later), they still found a way to move the ball. Cutler and Marshall hooked up several times on a game winning drive that left me thinking "man, this drive would have been 4 & out with forced passes to Johnny Knox and Devin Hester." Jay Cutler, a week after he should have silenced all of the bullshit about his lack of toughness once and for all, added to his reputation with three great late drives to win the game (sure, Robbie missed, but it was still a good drive). The defense finally made the kind of play we just expect them to make now, with Tim Jennings getting the franchise record 6th pick six of the year. When you look at the numbers and do the math, you'll be hard-pressed to figure out how the Bears won, but they did, and here they are at 6-1 on their way to Tennessee.
The Good:
Red Zone Defense: Hard to single out any member of the defense for consistently good play, since the Panthers moved the ball better than anyone has against this team so far, but the red zone defense kept the Bears in this game. Carolina had multiple opportunities to score the game-clinching touchdown and the defense stopped them every single time.
Tim Jennings: Added two interceptions for a career high six, and gave the Bears the lead late with his pick six. Love this guy.
Jay Cutler: Everything was a disaster in the first half. Jay was hit (and yes, the interception is on him and so were 2 of the sacks, including the fumble) and sacked 6 times. He was just 4 of 9 in the first two quarters. Jay, however, bounced back. He overcame the sacks. He overcame the drops (five of them. Again. Five). In the final 17 minutes of the game he was 14/16 for 141 yds and a TD. He is, as Erik noted, the best 4th quarter passer in the league right now, and he won the game for the Bears.
Matt Forte: He had 61 yards on 8 carries in the first half. The problem with that is that he got EIGHT CARRIES IN THE FIRST HALF. Goddammit, Tice. Either way, Matt now has over 400 yards in his last three games against the Panthers.
The Bad:
Offensive Line: I'm not even sure who gets the blame for all of these. I've already put two of them on Cutler, and I believe Webb got beat for at least one sack in the first half. This kind of effort is just plain terrifying, since the offensive line seemed to be progressing really well before 11 sacks allowed in the last two weeks. Get it together.
Defensive Line: They got just two sacks and allowed Cam Newton to get outside several times. Not the kind of effort they needed to have to keep this offense in Check.
Mike Tice: What the hell, Mike? What the hell? Matt Forte was shredding the Panthers and Tice couldn't be bothered to run it more than twice in a row. If you want to have a truly great running game you have to commit to it, and you have to be willing to keep at it even on 2nd and 8. You certainly don't go empty backfield on second down when there's years of statistics showing that that formation is death under all circumstances for this team. Also, if you want to mix runs and passes, why the hell do you wait until the fourth quarter to throw in some goddamn slant passes? I know the drops aren't your fault and that broke up the rhythm, but if you didn't try to throw it downfield on every pass you might be more effective at moving the chains.
Drops: Again, five drops. Spaeth's was definitely the most brutal, but Hester's was terrible as well. Marshall made up his two with some huge catches late. The rest of you need to think about what you've done.
The Ugly:
Ron Rivera: why so serious? Who has watched Devin Hester this year and decided they need to be scared of him that you hand the Bears the ball at midfield on nearly every possession? Poor call, Ron.
Cam Newton's Critics: Oh man. Really? You're going to light into him for not running down to celebrate with Louis Murphy on a play where he actually was hurt? How stupid. Cam wasn't great today. He racked up a lot of yards downfield but his accuracy was spotty when it mattered and he had two bad interceptions, but he's clearly not the problem on this team.
That's all for now. Next week the Bears have to go down and face a not-terrible Titans squad on the road. They'll need to get it cleaned up and start playing four quarters of offensive football. They're certainly going to need it in the second half of the season. This is their chance to build that momentum.
Go Bears.
Monday, October 22, 2012
Bears 13, Lions 7- These ARE Your Father's Lions
The box score will tell you this game was close, but it really wasn't. The Lions never stood a chance of winning this game, no matter how many unnecessary roughness penalties they racked up (2), or how badly they tried to knock Cutler out of the game. This Bears defense proved once again tonight that they'll shut down anyone, anywhere, and they will punch your balls out repeatedly.
The Bears move to 5-1, maintaining control of the division, while the probably-fucked Lions dropped to 2-4, proving that, hey, Detroit is still Detroit after all. I mean, there was a time in the 90s when the Lions weren't consistently awful. They were just awful the year after meaningless playoff appearances. Welcome back:
Onto the specifics:
THE GOOD:
Jay Cutler: The numbers weren't there, but anyone who saw the game will know why he's up here first. I've certainly argued against the "Jay Cutler is a wuss" crowd in the past, but even if it wasn't already the dumbest fucking thing I've ever heard before tonight, after tonight I hope to never hear it again. As long as #6 is the quarterback of the Bears, I'll be happy, because he's a bad-ass mother fucker.
Matt Forte/Michael Bush: 28 rushes, 132 yds, 4.7 ypc. This combo works, and I'm glad they committed to it, even if they forgot it at the goal line (more on that later).
Julius Peppers: He had another sack, but disrupted the Lions on many plays, including Stafford's game-clinching interception. He's got more help than ever now, but he's still the star of the show.
The Rest of the D-Line: They finished with three sacks, but Stafford was hurried and harassed most of the night, and it showed. Shea McClellin had a half a sack, because fuck Hub Arkush.
Charles Tillman: He blanketed Megatron again, holding him to just 34 yards receiving. He broke up a touchdown pass right before a turnover that kept Detroit off the board. He punched a ball out (even if the fumble went out of bounds) because Charles Tillman is very good at football.
THE BAD:
Gabe Carimi: I'm getting really tired of putting him here. At some point you've got to be able to block SOMEBODY in pass protection, Gabe. Please don't be Gabe Colombo.
Stupid Penalties: Several of them killed drives, drove starting field position back to the shadow of the endzone, and made the f*&king Lions look disciplined. Unacceptable.
Mike Tice: Christ, Mike. We've been over this. His name is Michael Bush. He's a fucking battering ram. Detroit showed no interest in stopping him at all tonight. Just give him the ball when you're at the fucking 3 yard line and it's 17-0 Bears and Jay can rest his ribs for an extra quarter.
Ndamukong Suh: Okay. That hit may not have been illegal, but fuck you. Overrated sack of shit.
Matthew Stafford: Stafford was seconds away from picking a fight with DJ Moore's back all night, as he was clearly flustered and frustrated that P'Nut once again took away his favorite toy. Nice turf-face, Bitchford.
That's all for now. Others will say "it wasn't pretty." Maybe you think so if you don't enjoy watching Lovie's defense rack up takeaways at an absolutely epic rate. I, personally, thought it was fucking beautiful.
Go Bears.
The Bears move to 5-1, maintaining control of the division, while the probably-fucked Lions dropped to 2-4, proving that, hey, Detroit is still Detroit after all. I mean, there was a time in the 90s when the Lions weren't consistently awful. They were just awful the year after meaningless playoff appearances. Welcome back:
Onto the specifics:
THE GOOD:
Jay Cutler: The numbers weren't there, but anyone who saw the game will know why he's up here first. I've certainly argued against the "Jay Cutler is a wuss" crowd in the past, but even if it wasn't already the dumbest fucking thing I've ever heard before tonight, after tonight I hope to never hear it again. As long as #6 is the quarterback of the Bears, I'll be happy, because he's a bad-ass mother fucker.
Matt Forte/Michael Bush: 28 rushes, 132 yds, 4.7 ypc. This combo works, and I'm glad they committed to it, even if they forgot it at the goal line (more on that later).
Julius Peppers: He had another sack, but disrupted the Lions on many plays, including Stafford's game-clinching interception. He's got more help than ever now, but he's still the star of the show.
The Rest of the D-Line: They finished with three sacks, but Stafford was hurried and harassed most of the night, and it showed. Shea McClellin had a half a sack, because fuck Hub Arkush.
Charles Tillman: He blanketed Megatron again, holding him to just 34 yards receiving. He broke up a touchdown pass right before a turnover that kept Detroit off the board. He punched a ball out (even if the fumble went out of bounds) because Charles Tillman is very good at football.
THE BAD:
Gabe Carimi: I'm getting really tired of putting him here. At some point you've got to be able to block SOMEBODY in pass protection, Gabe. Please don't be Gabe Colombo.
Stupid Penalties: Several of them killed drives, drove starting field position back to the shadow of the endzone, and made the f*&king Lions look disciplined. Unacceptable.
Mike Tice: Christ, Mike. We've been over this. His name is Michael Bush. He's a fucking battering ram. Detroit showed no interest in stopping him at all tonight. Just give him the ball when you're at the fucking 3 yard line and it's 17-0 Bears and Jay can rest his ribs for an extra quarter.
Ndamukong Suh: Okay. That hit may not have been illegal, but fuck you. Overrated sack of shit.
Matthew Stafford: Stafford was seconds away from picking a fight with DJ Moore's back all night, as he was clearly flustered and frustrated that P'Nut once again took away his favorite toy. Nice turf-face, Bitchford.
That's all for now. Others will say "it wasn't pretty." Maybe you think so if you don't enjoy watching Lovie's defense rack up takeaways at an absolutely epic rate. I, personally, thought it was fucking beautiful.
Go Bears.
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Bears 23, Ram 6: Oh Look, Bear Footbaw
Well, the Bears did exactly what they needed to do today: win big at home against the hapless Rams. Damned if it didn't feel like the rejuvenating blowout win we wanted to make ourselves feel good after last week. The defense, as we're learning so far this year, is very, very good. If you take away points from a pick six and that fake FG in Green Bay, the Bears have allowed just 12 PPG on defense in three games this year. They've racked up 14 sacks in those three games, and they've picked off 6 passes, including their first interception for a TD today.
The offense, however, remains mired in the most perplexing rut we've seen in a while. The pass protection was shaky again in the first half today before the team just stopped trying to do much of anything other than avoid turnovers in the second half. Cutler missed throws when he was rushed, but also threw some passes that made no sense. The receivers made some big plays and yet had at least four or five drops, again.Mike Tice still can't seem to make up his mind on whether he wants to pass to set up the run (bad idea with that line against blitzing defenses) or run to set up the pass (that's the ticket, Mike). There are a lot of issues to work out, and they're going to need to find answers to at least some of them before they go into Dallas and face off against DeMarcus Ware next Monday.
I'm not going to piss in your cornflakes on a Bears victory day, however. The team looked dominant on defense and, even if the offense has to buckle in and dink and dunk their way to victory until they sort out the offensive line, well, they've won plenty of games that way before. The Bears won, so let us rejoice.
THE GOOD:
-The Front Four: It's hard to single out any individual performance from this group. Everyone got in on it, from Peppers to Melton to Okoye to Idonije to McClellin. They just bring the heat on every down, regardless of the personnel. They got 5 sacks today out of this group (one from Nick Roach), and it was clear Sam Bradford never had a chance. Keep it up, guys. Make all of the opposing QB's feel Jay Cutler's pain.
-Tim Jennings: The few times that Bradford actually had time to throw were no issue, since Jennings and the rest blanketed the Rams receivers all day. Jennings threw in another interception, giving him a career-high 4 already, and he should start making reservations in Honolulu.
-Major Wright: He takes a lot of shit, much of it justified, but, like Mike Brown, Wright does seem to make big plays whenever he stays healthy. His pick six today was a thing of beauty, and it's worth noting that he and Conte have yet to be beat deep this year.
-Robbie Gould: 3 field goals made, and he's now 7 for his last 7 from 50+.
THE BAD:
-Jay Cutler: he wasn't anywhere near as bad as his QB rating makes it appear. He was hurt by multiple drops, one of which caused his only INT, but he's still struggling. His accuracy was off on several throws, and he's not quite adjusting to the pressure like has in the past. I did appreciate his 21 yard run, though. He needs to show teams he can do that if they pressure him.
-The Wide Receivers: Drops, drops, everywhere for the second straight game. Guh. Not all of them were perfectly thrown balls, but if you're an NFL receiver and it hits you in both hands, you have to make those grabs. Still out of sync.
-J'Marcus Webb: I'm done with this. Just done. He allowed one sack, and then killed a drive when Robert Quinn mauled him off of the edge and hit Jay, forcing a bad throw. He did very little the rest of the game after Tice quit taking chances, but they really need to work out anything else before they get to watch Webb get destroyed by Ware. No more excuses. I don't care if he lacks passion and is actually super talented. The result is single-handedly killing the offense of what could be a Superbowl team if it could pass block. Fuck him.
Mike Tice: Seriously? Why start off with the exact same game plan that had killed you two weeks before? How does Michael Bush end up blocking Chris Long 1 on 1? How does it take him until the 4th quarter of the third game of the season to figure out that you can throw short passes, like curls and stuff, and it's not illegal? Gah. Figure out what your team does well, Mike. Figure it out soon, and run it.
THE UGLY:
Dick Stockton: Harry Melton. Ashlon Jeffreys. Two of the mysterious Bears on Dick's roster.
That's it for now. The Bears did what needed to be done, and that defense is truly elite. We'll see if they can straighten out the other side of the ball in time for Dallas. I sure as hell hope so. Go Bears.
The offense, however, remains mired in the most perplexing rut we've seen in a while. The pass protection was shaky again in the first half today before the team just stopped trying to do much of anything other than avoid turnovers in the second half. Cutler missed throws when he was rushed, but also threw some passes that made no sense. The receivers made some big plays and yet had at least four or five drops, again.Mike Tice still can't seem to make up his mind on whether he wants to pass to set up the run (bad idea with that line against blitzing defenses) or run to set up the pass (that's the ticket, Mike). There are a lot of issues to work out, and they're going to need to find answers to at least some of them before they go into Dallas and face off against DeMarcus Ware next Monday.
I'm not going to piss in your cornflakes on a Bears victory day, however. The team looked dominant on defense and, even if the offense has to buckle in and dink and dunk their way to victory until they sort out the offensive line, well, they've won plenty of games that way before. The Bears won, so let us rejoice.
THE GOOD:
-The Front Four: It's hard to single out any individual performance from this group. Everyone got in on it, from Peppers to Melton to Okoye to Idonije to McClellin. They just bring the heat on every down, regardless of the personnel. They got 5 sacks today out of this group (one from Nick Roach), and it was clear Sam Bradford never had a chance. Keep it up, guys. Make all of the opposing QB's feel Jay Cutler's pain.
-Tim Jennings: The few times that Bradford actually had time to throw were no issue, since Jennings and the rest blanketed the Rams receivers all day. Jennings threw in another interception, giving him a career-high 4 already, and he should start making reservations in Honolulu.
-Major Wright: He takes a lot of shit, much of it justified, but, like Mike Brown, Wright does seem to make big plays whenever he stays healthy. His pick six today was a thing of beauty, and it's worth noting that he and Conte have yet to be beat deep this year.
-Robbie Gould: 3 field goals made, and he's now 7 for his last 7 from 50+.
THE BAD:
-Jay Cutler: he wasn't anywhere near as bad as his QB rating makes it appear. He was hurt by multiple drops, one of which caused his only INT, but he's still struggling. His accuracy was off on several throws, and he's not quite adjusting to the pressure like has in the past. I did appreciate his 21 yard run, though. He needs to show teams he can do that if they pressure him.
-The Wide Receivers: Drops, drops, everywhere for the second straight game. Guh. Not all of them were perfectly thrown balls, but if you're an NFL receiver and it hits you in both hands, you have to make those grabs. Still out of sync.
-J'Marcus Webb: I'm done with this. Just done. He allowed one sack, and then killed a drive when Robert Quinn mauled him off of the edge and hit Jay, forcing a bad throw. He did very little the rest of the game after Tice quit taking chances, but they really need to work out anything else before they get to watch Webb get destroyed by Ware. No more excuses. I don't care if he lacks passion and is actually super talented. The result is single-handedly killing the offense of what could be a Superbowl team if it could pass block. Fuck him.
Mike Tice: Seriously? Why start off with the exact same game plan that had killed you two weeks before? How does Michael Bush end up blocking Chris Long 1 on 1? How does it take him until the 4th quarter of the third game of the season to figure out that you can throw short passes, like curls and stuff, and it's not illegal? Gah. Figure out what your team does well, Mike. Figure it out soon, and run it.
THE UGLY:
Dick Stockton: Harry Melton. Ashlon Jeffreys. Two of the mysterious Bears on Dick's roster.
That's it for now. The Bears did what needed to be done, and that defense is truly elite. We'll see if they can straighten out the other side of the ball in time for Dallas. I sure as hell hope so. Go Bears.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Packers 23, Bears 10. Shell Shocked
I was prepared for a lot of things tonight. I could have accepted the Bears defense struggling, or Aaron Rodgers just coming out and refusing to go 0-2. I could have accepted anything but what actually happened.
The song somehow remains the same. How? How does this happen? How does Green Bay right the ship just in time? How does Mike Tice forget the VERY FUCKING REASON he got the job he has and run Matt Forte four fucking times in an entire half? How does the offensive line just collapse like that after all the work that's been put into rectifying the situation?
I know you're never as bad or as good as your best or worst game, but it's hard to really know what to fucking make of this team at this point. That was a goddamn disaster however you want to put it. Silver lining? The defensive line was a menace for the second straight game. The secondary covered well. If you hold Aaron Rodgers to 16 points on offense, you deserve some fucking kudos.
Unfortunately, this offense was just a fucking abortion. The offensive line was battered for 7 sacks. The wide receivers dropped, by my count, at least five passes, including a TD. Mike Tice, again, much like his predecessor, didn't even attempt to run the ball in the first half against a team that surrendered 187 yards rushing last week. All of this is pathetic.
The meatballs will have their day tomorrow, and frankly, they fucking deserve it. This team deserves all of the scorn the fanbase can muster for sniffing its own shit too fast. Lovie Smith deserves it for getting absolutely outclassed. Mike Tice just pissed on all of the good will he'd been extended. It's over. Honeymoon is passed. Now you're going to have to work really damn hard to erase the stain of what you just did there.
We deserve it, too, for all of the empty boasting. Will their be better days ahead? Absolutely. There's no reason to despair over the possibility of missing the playoffs or even to forget the offensive performance from last week. This team is still capable of that, but it ultimately isn't going to mean a damn thing if they can't ever solve the problem of beating Green Bay. Like it or not, they're always going to be in the way. Right now, the Bears are the little brother, and until they grow up, they're fighting for second place.
If you think I'm going to excuse Jay Cutler, well, you're wrong. I thought he was past this, too. Maybe he was as shocked as we were that things hadn't changed. He'd certainly seemed to have reached a point where he could just work around the protection issues and avoid frustration. Tonight it was a meltdown. Is it understandable after the sacks, and the drops? Of course. Is it forgiveable? No. He's still not an elite QB. They don't do that. The monkey on his back is the comparison to the guy across the sidelines. It ain't fair, but it's the truth. Rodgers was largely neutralized tonight, but the difference between him and Cutler was that he didn't turn the ball over, and his team won the ball game.
Just fucking disappointing. So glad I get to stew over this one for ten fucking days.
Good night.
The song somehow remains the same. How? How does this happen? How does Green Bay right the ship just in time? How does Mike Tice forget the VERY FUCKING REASON he got the job he has and run Matt Forte four fucking times in an entire half? How does the offensive line just collapse like that after all the work that's been put into rectifying the situation?
I know you're never as bad or as good as your best or worst game, but it's hard to really know what to fucking make of this team at this point. That was a goddamn disaster however you want to put it. Silver lining? The defensive line was a menace for the second straight game. The secondary covered well. If you hold Aaron Rodgers to 16 points on offense, you deserve some fucking kudos.
Unfortunately, this offense was just a fucking abortion. The offensive line was battered for 7 sacks. The wide receivers dropped, by my count, at least five passes, including a TD. Mike Tice, again, much like his predecessor, didn't even attempt to run the ball in the first half against a team that surrendered 187 yards rushing last week. All of this is pathetic.
The meatballs will have their day tomorrow, and frankly, they fucking deserve it. This team deserves all of the scorn the fanbase can muster for sniffing its own shit too fast. Lovie Smith deserves it for getting absolutely outclassed. Mike Tice just pissed on all of the good will he'd been extended. It's over. Honeymoon is passed. Now you're going to have to work really damn hard to erase the stain of what you just did there.
We deserve it, too, for all of the empty boasting. Will their be better days ahead? Absolutely. There's no reason to despair over the possibility of missing the playoffs or even to forget the offensive performance from last week. This team is still capable of that, but it ultimately isn't going to mean a damn thing if they can't ever solve the problem of beating Green Bay. Like it or not, they're always going to be in the way. Right now, the Bears are the little brother, and until they grow up, they're fighting for second place.
If you think I'm going to excuse Jay Cutler, well, you're wrong. I thought he was past this, too. Maybe he was as shocked as we were that things hadn't changed. He'd certainly seemed to have reached a point where he could just work around the protection issues and avoid frustration. Tonight it was a meltdown. Is it understandable after the sacks, and the drops? Of course. Is it forgiveable? No. He's still not an elite QB. They don't do that. The monkey on his back is the comparison to the guy across the sidelines. It ain't fair, but it's the truth. Rodgers was largely neutralized tonight, but the difference between him and Cutler was that he didn't turn the ball over, and his team won the ball game.
Just fucking disappointing. So glad I get to stew over this one for ten fucking days.
Good night.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Predicting the Playbook
The Bears are rarely a team with an over-arching offensive philosophy. While Green Bay had Mike Holmgren, a West Coast purist if ever there was one, and followed him up with two more West Coast adherents in Mike Sherman and Mike McCarthy (although McCarthy's obviously branched out and adapted many spread concepts thanks to Aaron Rodgers' incredible ability and his plethora of talented receivers), the Bears offensive coordinators throughout the years have mostly paid mere lip service to some over-arching scheme and have been pragmatic at best and clueless at worst.
Ron Turner claimed to be in the Don Coryell camp, but frequent injuries and talent deficiencies at quarterback often limited him to a more controlled short-passing scheme. Even when it worked, Turner's offense was hardly the deep-throw at all costs attack of Coryell disciples like Mike Martz. Ask any Bears fan or Bears opponent what Ron Turner wanted to do and the answer is quite simple: run the ball and throw off of play-action. It really was that simple.
Before Ron, Terry Shea spent one year trying to install Kansas City's version of the Martz offense, a more balanced and tight-end friendly alternative to Mike's original attack. It's really hard to describe Shea's offense as anything like Kansas City's at the time, since the offensive line was, recent history included, the worst in Bears history (66 sacks allowed) the receivers were, and stop me if you've heard this before, terrible, with David Terrell leading the pack, and the quarterbacks (Jonathan Quinn, Craig Krenzel, Chad Hutchinson) that came in after Rex Grossman went down in week 3 were incapable of completing even a rudimentary quick slant.
I'll not spend much time describing John Shoop's offense, since his philosophy simply revolved around avoiding turnovers and praying the defense would win the game, which leads us to Gary Crowton, the last Bears offensive coordinator before Mike Martz to have a reputation as a unique offensive mind. Crowton of course brought the spread to the NFL (well before the Patriots) and somehow got over 4,000 yds passing out of Shane Matthews, Cade McNown, and Jim Miller before the league caught on in 2000 and ran Crowton off to a disappointing head coaching career at BYU.
Considering this history, it's no surprise that the Mike Martz experiment was quite a radical departure from normal Bears procedure. Martz is nothing if not a man with his a strong commitment to his offensive philosophy, and it's one that undoubtedly produces when he has the talent to do so. In Chicago he did not, and we all know how that ended.
This long-winded digression into the history of recent Bears offensive schemes leads me up to my question today, which is: what the hell are the 2012 Bears going to run on Sundays now that they, once again, appear to be without one clear philosophy?
The only answers the media provides are somewhat contradictory. Mike Wright of ESPN claimed the Bears, thanks to Jeremy Bates, were going to use the 2008 Broncos playbook verbatim, which of course would mean that the Bears were running Mike Shanahan's version of the West Coast offense, which he developed by altering the original West Coast scheme to fit the running talents of Steve Young and later John Elway (which is also why he drafted the mobile Jay Cutler).
The offensive coordinator, however, is Mike Tice, not Jeremy Bates, and Tice has his own history on offense from when he and Scott Linehan (now the OC for the Lions) had a very productive operation going in Minnesota in the first half of the decade. So one would have to assume the Bears offense would resemble the Vikings playbook from that time period, no?
Well, that doesn't seem to be the case either. Many Bears players have noted that the playbook, with the notable exception of the recently eliminated seven step drops, still contains anywhere from 50-75% of last year's playbook. So I'm forced to wonder how all three of these influences (the Ghost of Martz, Tice/Linehan, and Bates/Shanahan) are going to gel into one coherent offensive scheme this year. I've decided to take a guess and explore a couple of run and pass concepts from all three offenses that I think the team will make extensive use of: Mike Martz's Mesh concept, Mike Shanahan's Near/Solo Left QB Keep Pass Right (in English: play-action bootleg to the right), and the Inside Zone running play from the Tice/Linehan offense.
1) MESH
Mesh is an outstanding concept that Martz had great success with all the way back in his earliest days of coaching. It's a play that's also been popularized in college by the Air Raid offenses of my beloved Mike Leach and his disciples. The great thing about Mesh is that, while it's a Martz staple, it's a shallow cross concept and doesn't require one of the dreaded deep drops. Here is Mesh as drawn up in Martz's offense:
The image is a little small, but basically the key to Mesh is that the X receiver (Brandon Marshall) and the Y receiver (Earl Bennett) cross paths in the middle of the field on what's known as a rub (in practice coaches will sometimes make these two receives touch hands so they understand just how close they need to get together on the play) in order to confuse the defense and get one of them open. The Z receiver (either Alshon Jeffery or Devin Hester) runs a deep curl to the middle of the field in order to draw one of the linebackers away from the X and Y as the CB goes deep to cover the RB on the wheel route. The QB then reads (as the illustration shows) right to left, from X to Z to Y.
This play is primarily designed to beat man coverage, but it can also be used against zone since the deep curl by the Z receiver will draw the MLB and the RB threatens both the flat and the sideline with the wheel route, keeping both the corner and safety in place on Cover 2. Martz's QBs have racked up hundreds of yards over the years on this play. The addition of a big, strong receiver in Marshall means that Jay should have no trouble turning this relatively short, easy throw into a big play.
2)Near/Solo Left Fake 15/35 QB Keep Pass Right
These two plays are basically identical, with the difference being that one has a fullback in the backfield who released into the flat and another has two tight ends, with the second tight end releasing into the flat. This is a concept that Shanahan/Bates have used to great effect with Steve Young, John Elway, Jake Plummer, and Jay Cutler (One of these things is not like the other...) and I would expect, given the repeated cries over the last three years for the Bears to take advantage of Cutler's ability to throw on the run, we will see it plenty this year:
Ron Turner claimed to be in the Don Coryell camp, but frequent injuries and talent deficiencies at quarterback often limited him to a more controlled short-passing scheme. Even when it worked, Turner's offense was hardly the deep-throw at all costs attack of Coryell disciples like Mike Martz. Ask any Bears fan or Bears opponent what Ron Turner wanted to do and the answer is quite simple: run the ball and throw off of play-action. It really was that simple.
Before Ron, Terry Shea spent one year trying to install Kansas City's version of the Martz offense, a more balanced and tight-end friendly alternative to Mike's original attack. It's really hard to describe Shea's offense as anything like Kansas City's at the time, since the offensive line was, recent history included, the worst in Bears history (66 sacks allowed) the receivers were, and stop me if you've heard this before, terrible, with David Terrell leading the pack, and the quarterbacks (Jonathan Quinn, Craig Krenzel, Chad Hutchinson) that came in after Rex Grossman went down in week 3 were incapable of completing even a rudimentary quick slant.
I'll not spend much time describing John Shoop's offense, since his philosophy simply revolved around avoiding turnovers and praying the defense would win the game, which leads us to Gary Crowton, the last Bears offensive coordinator before Mike Martz to have a reputation as a unique offensive mind. Crowton of course brought the spread to the NFL (well before the Patriots) and somehow got over 4,000 yds passing out of Shane Matthews, Cade McNown, and Jim Miller before the league caught on in 2000 and ran Crowton off to a disappointing head coaching career at BYU.
Considering this history, it's no surprise that the Mike Martz experiment was quite a radical departure from normal Bears procedure. Martz is nothing if not a man with his a strong commitment to his offensive philosophy, and it's one that undoubtedly produces when he has the talent to do so. In Chicago he did not, and we all know how that ended.
This long-winded digression into the history of recent Bears offensive schemes leads me up to my question today, which is: what the hell are the 2012 Bears going to run on Sundays now that they, once again, appear to be without one clear philosophy?
The only answers the media provides are somewhat contradictory. Mike Wright of ESPN claimed the Bears, thanks to Jeremy Bates, were going to use the 2008 Broncos playbook verbatim, which of course would mean that the Bears were running Mike Shanahan's version of the West Coast offense, which he developed by altering the original West Coast scheme to fit the running talents of Steve Young and later John Elway (which is also why he drafted the mobile Jay Cutler).
The offensive coordinator, however, is Mike Tice, not Jeremy Bates, and Tice has his own history on offense from when he and Scott Linehan (now the OC for the Lions) had a very productive operation going in Minnesota in the first half of the decade. So one would have to assume the Bears offense would resemble the Vikings playbook from that time period, no?
Well, that doesn't seem to be the case either. Many Bears players have noted that the playbook, with the notable exception of the recently eliminated seven step drops, still contains anywhere from 50-75% of last year's playbook. So I'm forced to wonder how all three of these influences (the Ghost of Martz, Tice/Linehan, and Bates/Shanahan) are going to gel into one coherent offensive scheme this year. I've decided to take a guess and explore a couple of run and pass concepts from all three offenses that I think the team will make extensive use of: Mike Martz's Mesh concept, Mike Shanahan's Near/Solo Left QB Keep Pass Right (in English: play-action bootleg to the right), and the Inside Zone running play from the Tice/Linehan offense.
1) MESH
Mesh is an outstanding concept that Martz had great success with all the way back in his earliest days of coaching. It's a play that's also been popularized in college by the Air Raid offenses of my beloved Mike Leach and his disciples. The great thing about Mesh is that, while it's a Martz staple, it's a shallow cross concept and doesn't require one of the dreaded deep drops. Here is Mesh as drawn up in Martz's offense:
 |
| Source: www.smartfootball.com |
This play is primarily designed to beat man coverage, but it can also be used against zone since the deep curl by the Z receiver will draw the MLB and the RB threatens both the flat and the sideline with the wheel route, keeping both the corner and safety in place on Cover 2. Martz's QBs have racked up hundreds of yards over the years on this play. The addition of a big, strong receiver in Marshall means that Jay should have no trouble turning this relatively short, easy throw into a big play.
2)Near/Solo Left Fake 15/35 QB Keep Pass Right
These two plays are basically identical, with the difference being that one has a fullback in the backfield who released into the flat and another has two tight ends, with the second tight end releasing into the flat. This is a concept that Shanahan/Bates have used to great effect with Steve Young, John Elway, Jake Plummer, and Jay Cutler (One of these things is not like the other...) and I would expect, given the repeated cries over the last three years for the Bears to take advantage of Cutler's ability to throw on the run, we will see it plenty this year:
 |
| Source: www.theburgundywarpath.com |
This play is pretty self explanatory, really. Cutler fakes it to Forte and rolls right, while Marshall (X) runs a deep comeback to the play side (taking advantage of the gap between corner and safety, as the corner should stay to cover the second tight end (T) or the FB in the flats and the LB should be preoccupied with the first TE (Y) running the shallow cross) and the Z (Hester or Jeffery) runs either a deep post against Cover 2 in order to draw the safety deep or a deep dig against Cover 1 in order to get the safety to "sink" on the route.
3)Inside Zone
This is a play that nearly every NFL team runs, and one that the Bears have already had a great deal of success with under Tice the last two years, but it's also a staple of the one-back offense that Tice/Linehan run and you'll see it plenty this year as well.
 |
| Source: www.smartfootball.com |
When you hear people talk about "zone runs" vs. man or power runs, the difference is what an "uncovered" lineman does. If a guard lines up and there's a defensive tackle right in front of him obviously his assignment is to block that guy. If there's not a defensive player directly in front of him, however, the offensive lineman's job is to shift towards the playside and double team the nearest defensive lineman. Once that defensive player is blocked, one of the two offensive lineman then shifts off to the nearest defender in the "zone" of the play. It's not really rocket science.
In the above version of inside zone, for example, the TE, RT, RG, and C all block the person covering them. The zone blockers are the LT and LG, who shift to block the WLB and the Nose Tackle, respectively. The runningback aims for the outside hip of the RG and shoot between the RG and the RT. If there's no opening there, he makes one cut and shoots back between the RG and the C. It's a running play that's both simple and effective, and Matt Forte and 30 other runningbacks will hear it called every Sunday. Tice has admitted in the past that it is his favorite running play, as he coaxed a 1300 yd season out of Michael Bennett and several great seasons from the two-headed monster of Fred Taylor and MJD largely off of this play during his time in Minnesota and Jacksonville, respectively.
So there you have it. I'm guessing the Bears offense will be very similar to the one they ran the last couple of years after the annual "Run the Damn Ball, Martz" intervention, with the biggest difference being a considerable increase in the amount of play-action passes and bootlegs, and fewer screens in response to pressure. These three plays, however, will almost certainly be locks for the gameplan every week. I apologize for the length of this post, but, shit, I really don't. If you're here, I assume you came to read.
Friday, May 4, 2012
Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes: What the Switch From Mike to Mike Means for the Bears Offense
I was listening to Hub Arkush on the radio the other day and he was complaining, like many people, about the Bears failure to address the left tackle position in the draft. His critique of the people who keep saying that getting rid of Mike Martz will fix the Bears offensive line came down to this: the Bears didn't bring Jay Cutler in to throw a bunch of short passes, so simply dialing back the offensive isn't really a "fix."
I'm going to agree with Hub on the idea that the Bears didn't bring Jay Cutler into town to run an offense they could've run with Kyle Orton. I'm going to disagree, however, with the idea that Mike Martz wasn't the biggest problem.
It's true that the problem with seven step drops is overblown. That really wasn't the biggest problem with the Bears offense, and while they've said most of it has been thrown out, you'll still see them throw deep, probably out of the shotgun and especially off of play action. The issue was that Mike Martz's offense simply didn't suit the personnel he had.
I'll say here that I still think Mike Martz's offense could work in the NFL. It's not obsolete, but the the thing that Mike hasn't wanted to admitted since 2003 is that you absolutely need four things to make it work:
1) An accurate, dropback quarterback who can throw to a spot and hope that his wide receiver will be there.
2) An offensive line with TWO stalwart tackles, capable of blocking defensive ends on an island without any help.
3) Wide receivers who can run precise routes with absolute discipline and can also make the correct read on the many option routes that Martz utilizes (Martz basically borrowed the option routes from the Run N Shoot and melded them to the old Air Coryell system to create his offense).
4) A runningback that's as good of a receiver as he is a runner.
Let's look and see where things went wrong in Chicago on those four parts:
1) I'll admit that Jay Cutler, while he definitely improved under Martz and can be a great pocket passer when he has a pocket, isn't the most natural fit for Martz's offense. Jay came from look-based schemes in Denver and in college, and you really don't need a guy with Jay's skillset to run Martz's scheme. Jay's there to exploit openings and fire the ball into tight spots. Martz got career years out of marginal athletes like Trent Green and Marc Bulger simply because you don't need a cannon arm or the ability to scramble to take a seven step drop and throw the ball to a pre-determined spot.
2)The Bears certainly don't have two great tackles, and while I'm not as hard on J'Marcus Webb as many, we're all pinning our hopes on Gabe Carimi that they can manage to have at least one. This was the biggest issue, which is no surprise to anyone. In 2010 the line was absolutely terrible and couldn't manage the scheme at all. Last year, for that brief window in the preseason and the first game and a half when they had the healthy starting five of Webb-Williams-Garza-Louis-Carimi, they were running the real Mike Martz offense and doing pretty well with it, as Jay's numbers in the last two preseason games and the Falcons game show: 47/74 (63.5%), 653 yds, 8.8 YPA, 13.9 YPC. Unfortunately, Carimi and Lance Louis went down early and, for the next four games, just as in 2010, it took the rest of the world a while to convince Martz that he couldn't run the same offense with Frank Omiyale.
3) This, after the offensive line, was also the biggest problems. Now fools like me who desperately wanted to talk ourselves out of our initial gloomy reaction to the Martz hiring looked at some superficial things, like the small and speedy Johnny Knox (6'0", 185) and Devin Hester (5'10", 185) bearing some physical resemblance to Torry Holt (6'0'', 190) and Isaac Bruce (6'0", 188). Unfortunately, there's a difference between the Bears duo and the Rams duo, and it's quite simple: Holt and Bruce were good. Holt and Bruce could run the routes, get the separation, and make the adjustments that Hester and Knox just couldn't. Devin Hester's a lot of things. Smart is not one of them. As for Knox, well, lord knows how many interceptions he caused with shitty routes and his inability to take a god damn bump on a slant route.
4) Unfortunately for the Bears, Martz, since sometime around halftime of Superbowl XXXVI, forgot the fact that the single most important player for the Greatest Show on Turf was Marshall Faulk, and forgot Matt Forte for long stretches of time. Even in the games where the Bears offensive line took a lot of heat, the biggest problem was an unbalanced playcalling ratio that led to dozens of dropbacks and few runs to keep the defense honest. Take the Saints game this year for example: the stat sheet shows that Jay got sacked 6 times, which makes the offensive line look terrible, except the first sack came in the 3rd quarter, with the Bears still in the game, down 16-13. At that point, though, Martz had called 31 passes and just 10 runs. The final ratio? 52 pass plays, 11 called runs. Sure, there are teams like the Lions and Packers that throw the ball almost exclusively, but an average, but not necessarily terrible, line like this year's Bears line is going to look worse than their talent if they're asked to dropback 52 times, mostly on 5 man protections, with just 11 runs. That, my friends, is a far more heinous crime than calling seven step drops.
Now this sets me up for the crux of my argument: the new Bears offense isn't going to be "dialed back." They're not going to be running half a playbook or running the kind of stereotypical West Coast Offense (that may not even exist anymore, if it ever did) that people associate with noodle-armed guys like Jeff Garcia. They're changing philosophies. Martz believed in moving the ball in large chunks by dropping back and throwing timed routes to pre-determined spots downfield. The new Bears offense will be more or less what Cutler ran in Denver, the Mike Shanahan variant of the West Coast that began during Shanahan's time as OC in San Francisco when he worked with the athletic Steve Young and evolved during his time in Denver with John Elway. This is a look-based scheme that's going to feature a zone-blocking based run game, plenty of designed roll-outs and play action, and a wide range of 3 and 5 step drops that stretch the field horizontally and with the 15-25 yard intermediate routes that Brandon Marshall does so well. They'll go deep the way most NFL teams do, by exploiting blown coverages and defenses that cheat against the short stuff and move up against the run.
It's worth noting, mind you, that during the 11 games (including playoffs) after the Bears prevailed on Martz to "dial back" his offense after the Redskins game in 2010 and the 5 game winning streak after the Bears "dialed back" the offense after the first game at Detroit this year, the team went 13-3 and averaged 26 PPG (32 this year during the 5 game win streak) and Jay Cutler still managed 7.5 YPA and 13 YPC. If you think of most of the longest passes Jay's thrown during the last two seasons (the 67 yard bomb to Knox against Minnesota in '10, the three long TD passes to Knox and Hester against the Jets, the 48 yarder to Hester against Minnesota this year, the two long throws to Knox against the Chargers, the 58 yard pass to Olson in the playoff game) nearly all of them have come after the Bears had supposedly gone "conservative". The Bears didn't cut anything back. They simply ran the ball and took advantage of situations rather than attempting to force them. That's what they'll be doing with Tice and Bates, and it's a good thing.
More important than just the shift in approach, however, is this crazy idea Phil Emery has of matching his personnel to his scheme. You get an offensive coordinator who wants to utilize Jay's ability to throw on the run and make laser throws to tight spots. You get big, physical receivers in Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffrey who can win individual matchups. You have two backs (three, really, including Kahlil Bell) who can pound the ball inside and out and catch it very smoothly out of the backfield (combined receiving totals for Forte, Bush, and Bell in 2011: 108 receptions, 1041 yds, 3 TDs). Basically, you find whatever it is your guys do best and you send them out there to do just that. Football, as much as I often imply otherwise with my 25,000 word monologues, is sometimes that simple. Mike Martz may never be able to accept that, and it's why he won't be an NFL coach again.
I'm going to agree with Hub on the idea that the Bears didn't bring Jay Cutler into town to run an offense they could've run with Kyle Orton. I'm going to disagree, however, with the idea that Mike Martz wasn't the biggest problem.
It's true that the problem with seven step drops is overblown. That really wasn't the biggest problem with the Bears offense, and while they've said most of it has been thrown out, you'll still see them throw deep, probably out of the shotgun and especially off of play action. The issue was that Mike Martz's offense simply didn't suit the personnel he had.
I'll say here that I still think Mike Martz's offense could work in the NFL. It's not obsolete, but the the thing that Mike hasn't wanted to admitted since 2003 is that you absolutely need four things to make it work:
1) An accurate, dropback quarterback who can throw to a spot and hope that his wide receiver will be there.
2) An offensive line with TWO stalwart tackles, capable of blocking defensive ends on an island without any help.
3) Wide receivers who can run precise routes with absolute discipline and can also make the correct read on the many option routes that Martz utilizes (Martz basically borrowed the option routes from the Run N Shoot and melded them to the old Air Coryell system to create his offense).
4) A runningback that's as good of a receiver as he is a runner.
Let's look and see where things went wrong in Chicago on those four parts:
1) I'll admit that Jay Cutler, while he definitely improved under Martz and can be a great pocket passer when he has a pocket, isn't the most natural fit for Martz's offense. Jay came from look-based schemes in Denver and in college, and you really don't need a guy with Jay's skillset to run Martz's scheme. Jay's there to exploit openings and fire the ball into tight spots. Martz got career years out of marginal athletes like Trent Green and Marc Bulger simply because you don't need a cannon arm or the ability to scramble to take a seven step drop and throw the ball to a pre-determined spot.
2)The Bears certainly don't have two great tackles, and while I'm not as hard on J'Marcus Webb as many, we're all pinning our hopes on Gabe Carimi that they can manage to have at least one. This was the biggest issue, which is no surprise to anyone. In 2010 the line was absolutely terrible and couldn't manage the scheme at all. Last year, for that brief window in the preseason and the first game and a half when they had the healthy starting five of Webb-Williams-Garza-Louis-Carimi, they were running the real Mike Martz offense and doing pretty well with it, as Jay's numbers in the last two preseason games and the Falcons game show: 47/74 (63.5%), 653 yds, 8.8 YPA, 13.9 YPC. Unfortunately, Carimi and Lance Louis went down early and, for the next four games, just as in 2010, it took the rest of the world a while to convince Martz that he couldn't run the same offense with Frank Omiyale.
3) This, after the offensive line, was also the biggest problems. Now fools like me who desperately wanted to talk ourselves out of our initial gloomy reaction to the Martz hiring looked at some superficial things, like the small and speedy Johnny Knox (6'0", 185) and Devin Hester (5'10", 185) bearing some physical resemblance to Torry Holt (6'0'', 190) and Isaac Bruce (6'0", 188). Unfortunately, there's a difference between the Bears duo and the Rams duo, and it's quite simple: Holt and Bruce were good. Holt and Bruce could run the routes, get the separation, and make the adjustments that Hester and Knox just couldn't. Devin Hester's a lot of things. Smart is not one of them. As for Knox, well, lord knows how many interceptions he caused with shitty routes and his inability to take a god damn bump on a slant route.
4) Unfortunately for the Bears, Martz, since sometime around halftime of Superbowl XXXVI, forgot the fact that the single most important player for the Greatest Show on Turf was Marshall Faulk, and forgot Matt Forte for long stretches of time. Even in the games where the Bears offensive line took a lot of heat, the biggest problem was an unbalanced playcalling ratio that led to dozens of dropbacks and few runs to keep the defense honest. Take the Saints game this year for example: the stat sheet shows that Jay got sacked 6 times, which makes the offensive line look terrible, except the first sack came in the 3rd quarter, with the Bears still in the game, down 16-13. At that point, though, Martz had called 31 passes and just 10 runs. The final ratio? 52 pass plays, 11 called runs. Sure, there are teams like the Lions and Packers that throw the ball almost exclusively, but an average, but not necessarily terrible, line like this year's Bears line is going to look worse than their talent if they're asked to dropback 52 times, mostly on 5 man protections, with just 11 runs. That, my friends, is a far more heinous crime than calling seven step drops.
Now this sets me up for the crux of my argument: the new Bears offense isn't going to be "dialed back." They're not going to be running half a playbook or running the kind of stereotypical West Coast Offense (that may not even exist anymore, if it ever did) that people associate with noodle-armed guys like Jeff Garcia. They're changing philosophies. Martz believed in moving the ball in large chunks by dropping back and throwing timed routes to pre-determined spots downfield. The new Bears offense will be more or less what Cutler ran in Denver, the Mike Shanahan variant of the West Coast that began during Shanahan's time as OC in San Francisco when he worked with the athletic Steve Young and evolved during his time in Denver with John Elway. This is a look-based scheme that's going to feature a zone-blocking based run game, plenty of designed roll-outs and play action, and a wide range of 3 and 5 step drops that stretch the field horizontally and with the 15-25 yard intermediate routes that Brandon Marshall does so well. They'll go deep the way most NFL teams do, by exploiting blown coverages and defenses that cheat against the short stuff and move up against the run.
It's worth noting, mind you, that during the 11 games (including playoffs) after the Bears prevailed on Martz to "dial back" his offense after the Redskins game in 2010 and the 5 game winning streak after the Bears "dialed back" the offense after the first game at Detroit this year, the team went 13-3 and averaged 26 PPG (32 this year during the 5 game win streak) and Jay Cutler still managed 7.5 YPA and 13 YPC. If you think of most of the longest passes Jay's thrown during the last two seasons (the 67 yard bomb to Knox against Minnesota in '10, the three long TD passes to Knox and Hester against the Jets, the 48 yarder to Hester against Minnesota this year, the two long throws to Knox against the Chargers, the 58 yard pass to Olson in the playoff game) nearly all of them have come after the Bears had supposedly gone "conservative". The Bears didn't cut anything back. They simply ran the ball and took advantage of situations rather than attempting to force them. That's what they'll be doing with Tice and Bates, and it's a good thing.
More important than just the shift in approach, however, is this crazy idea Phil Emery has of matching his personnel to his scheme. You get an offensive coordinator who wants to utilize Jay's ability to throw on the run and make laser throws to tight spots. You get big, physical receivers in Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffrey who can win individual matchups. You have two backs (three, really, including Kahlil Bell) who can pound the ball inside and out and catch it very smoothly out of the backfield (combined receiving totals for Forte, Bush, and Bell in 2011: 108 receptions, 1041 yds, 3 TDs). Basically, you find whatever it is your guys do best and you send them out there to do just that. Football, as much as I often imply otherwise with my 25,000 word monologues, is sometimes that simple. Mike Martz may never be able to accept that, and it's why he won't be an NFL coach again.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
2011 Bears Position Reviews: The Offensive Line
It's tough to be a Bears offensive lineman. It really is. Although the sack total (49) certainly makes it seem that not much changed between last year and 2010 (56), the fact is the Bears offensive line made some positive strides last year. As I mentioned before, it's worth noting that the Bears allowed 23 sacks in 10 games with Cutler, and just 5 in the last 5 games, vs. 26 in 6 games of Hanie/McCown. It's also worth noting that the guy who was supposed to be the key to the line's resurgence, Gabe Carimi, played less than two full games, and that Chris Williams, Chris Spencer, and Lance Louis all suffered from injuries at some point throughout the season. The outstanding rushing totals: 2015 yds, 4.4 ypc, 10 TDs are evidence of the fact that they have the bulk necessary to be successful in that department and pave the way for big years for Forte and Bush next year. Finally, no one can overstate just how much of an effect Mike Martz had on the sack totals, since there's only been two seasons in his entire career as an offensive coordinator or head coach when his team allowed less than 40 sacks.
Excuses aside, however, no one is going to pretend that this offensive line doesn't need to improve. The fact is, however, that it's hard to say the answer is to bring in new players, when they have some promising pieces that just need to stay healthy, and some guys who have enough talent that they can't be abandoned yet.
#73 J'Marcus Webb: 16 games, 16 games started, 14 sacks allowed, 8 false starts, 4 holds.
The numbers are godawful. There's no way to hide that. It's sad to see how much of a beating J'Marcus has taken all offseason, because he really isn't as bad as the numbers say he is. He's still a very athletic guy with prototypical left tackle size. Up until Cutler went down, he actually had a Positive rating from Pro Football Focus, and he maintained a positive rating all year long in run blocking, where he's an absolute mauler. His numbers absolutely tanked due to three bad games: week 5, in Detroit, where he false started all over the damn place and had a terrible time with Cliff Avril, and weeks 13 and 14, when Kansas City's stout front seven and the Von Miller/Elvis Dumervil combo, combined with Caleb Hanie's awful pocket presence, led to 11 total sacks in two games (not all on Webb). Again though, it's worth noting that four of the seven sacks in the Kansas City game came on seven step drops, as did several in the Denver game. Although the numbers are what they are, I still don't think there's any reason to give up on J'Marcus. Could they find competition for him? Absolutely, and they should also consider flipping Carimi and Webb if need be, but I think J'Marcus will surprise in 2012. I really do.
The one thing that is entirely on J'Marcus, however, is the penalties, and there's just no excuse for that many. If he can cut those in half, that alone would send his ratings up.
#74 Chris Williams: 9 games, 9 games started, 1 sack allowed, 2 false start, 0 holds.
Chris Williams is a hard luck player if I've ever seen one. For one, it's not his fault that Jerry didn't know about his back injury. For another, I've always felt it was unfair of the team to boot him inside after less than 2 full starts at left tackle in 2010. It's hard to shed a bust label with that little playing time. That said, the move was working out for Chris, as he played very well down the stretch in 2010 and was off to a stellar start in 2011. He allowed just one sack, but his real strength was run blocking, and his ability to swing out was a major factor in Forte's success in the first half. It's no coincidence that Forte started to struggle after Williams went down. There's a possibility the Bears may give Chris another shot at tackle this year if Webb falters, but I think the best thing for the team would be to try and get a full year of continuity out of Webb and Williams together on the left side.
#63 Roberto Garza: 16 games, 16 games started, 1 sack allowed, 0 false starts, 1 hold.
I love being right. It's like a goddamn addiction, and frankly, I'm going to just say that when it comes to the great Garza/Kreutz debate of 2011, I WAS RIGHT. Garza was solid in his first year as a full time center, a vast improvement over Kreutz in pass blocking and a mild improvement in run blocking. He was also capable of snapping in the shotgun, didn't false start, and also didn't retire less than halfway into the season. That's really all I wanted. Thanks, Roberto. I'd say something about his age, but I'm not terribly worried. If Garza declines, they have Spencer on board to take over.
#60 Lance Louis: 14 games, 13 games started, 10 sacks allowed, 3 starts, 0 hold.
Lance's numbers also have to be taken with a grain of salt, since he was playing out of position for most of the year. Even then, however, his numbers were much better before Cutler went down. Louis, like Webb, earned his poor rating mostly through total breakdowns in week 13 and 14, and was a plus run blocker and okay pass protector the rest of the year. A move back in side next year will help. Louis was the best Bears lineman when he was healthy in 2010, and he's still a serviceable guy at guard. I just hope not to see him at right tackle again.
#72 Gabe Carimi: 2 games, 2 games started, 1 sack allowed, 0 false starts, 0 holds.
His knee is always going to scare us, but you'll never find an offensive lineman without knee concerns. He held his own quite well in the preseason and in a tough matchup against John Abraham in the season opener. He may get an opportunity on the left side next year, but he's still got the potential to be a Pro Bowl right tackle. Just stay healthy, Gabe.
#67 Chris Spencer: 15 games, 14 games started, 1 sack allowed, 3 false starts, 1 hold.
Chris was a surprisingly good find last year. Despite the fact that he started 14 games st guard, not his natural position of center, he was the most effective starter the Bears had over the course of the season. He was a solid run blocker, a serviceable pass protector, and he was very rarely penalized. Kudos to Jerry Angelo for one of his last good signings. Even if he doesn't start next year, he's a quality backup along any of the three interior line positions. That's a rarity in the recent history of Bears football.
#70 Edwin Williams: 15 games, 7 games started, 0 sacks allowed, 1 false start, 0 hold.
Edwin Williams, according to Pro Football Focus, was the highest rated player the Bears had on the line all season. It's interesting to note that he's started 10 games over the last two years and allowed just one sack. While he's not a great run blocker (not a terrible one either) he's the only guard the Bears have that's really a good, not just serviceable, pass blocker. Angelo and Tice should get some credit for picking him off of waivers in 2010, as he's a quality back up at the least.
#68 Frank Omiyale: 16 games, 3 games started, 4 sacks allowed, 7 false starts, 0 holds.
You can say all you want about J'Marcus Webb's 14 sacks allowed, at least he was better than Frank could have ever been, considering Frank's 4 sacks and 7 penalties in THREE FUCKING STARTS projects to 21 sacks and 37 penalties over the course of a full season. My God. It's hard to imagine a more worthless player than Frank, or one that got more undeserved chances to start. He was just plain awful in every way possible, and I cannot express the joy in my heart upon hearing that Emery cut the bastard. I hope Carpenter and Okung tear their everything next year and Seattle has to endure 16 games of Frank. I want someone else to know my suffering. Seriously, fuck you, Frank Omiyale.
That's it for now. It'll be really interesting to see how the Bears starting five shakes out next year, because there's a lot of quality depth on the interior in the Williamses, Spencer, Louis, and Garza. If Carimi can stay healthy, the only real question mark is left tackle, and I assume we'll see a competition between Chris Williams, J'Marcus Webb, and a potential rookie to be named later. The fact is, the silver lining in the disaster that was the injury plagued line last year was that many guys got a chance to play, and several of them played well. Other than Garza, there's still youth on their side, as every other lineman on the roster is still south of 30. I know I said this before last season (and it was looking like I was right ten games in), but the Bears really can put together a good offensive line with the talent they have. It's going to take the right combination of health, experience, and playcalling, but they're capable of big things. Sometimes the numbers really don't tell the whole story.
Excuses aside, however, no one is going to pretend that this offensive line doesn't need to improve. The fact is, however, that it's hard to say the answer is to bring in new players, when they have some promising pieces that just need to stay healthy, and some guys who have enough talent that they can't be abandoned yet.
#73 J'Marcus Webb: 16 games, 16 games started, 14 sacks allowed, 8 false starts, 4 holds.
The numbers are godawful. There's no way to hide that. It's sad to see how much of a beating J'Marcus has taken all offseason, because he really isn't as bad as the numbers say he is. He's still a very athletic guy with prototypical left tackle size. Up until Cutler went down, he actually had a Positive rating from Pro Football Focus, and he maintained a positive rating all year long in run blocking, where he's an absolute mauler. His numbers absolutely tanked due to three bad games: week 5, in Detroit, where he false started all over the damn place and had a terrible time with Cliff Avril, and weeks 13 and 14, when Kansas City's stout front seven and the Von Miller/Elvis Dumervil combo, combined with Caleb Hanie's awful pocket presence, led to 11 total sacks in two games (not all on Webb). Again though, it's worth noting that four of the seven sacks in the Kansas City game came on seven step drops, as did several in the Denver game. Although the numbers are what they are, I still don't think there's any reason to give up on J'Marcus. Could they find competition for him? Absolutely, and they should also consider flipping Carimi and Webb if need be, but I think J'Marcus will surprise in 2012. I really do.
The one thing that is entirely on J'Marcus, however, is the penalties, and there's just no excuse for that many. If he can cut those in half, that alone would send his ratings up.
#74 Chris Williams: 9 games, 9 games started, 1 sack allowed, 2 false start, 0 holds.
Chris Williams is a hard luck player if I've ever seen one. For one, it's not his fault that Jerry didn't know about his back injury. For another, I've always felt it was unfair of the team to boot him inside after less than 2 full starts at left tackle in 2010. It's hard to shed a bust label with that little playing time. That said, the move was working out for Chris, as he played very well down the stretch in 2010 and was off to a stellar start in 2011. He allowed just one sack, but his real strength was run blocking, and his ability to swing out was a major factor in Forte's success in the first half. It's no coincidence that Forte started to struggle after Williams went down. There's a possibility the Bears may give Chris another shot at tackle this year if Webb falters, but I think the best thing for the team would be to try and get a full year of continuity out of Webb and Williams together on the left side.
#63 Roberto Garza: 16 games, 16 games started, 1 sack allowed, 0 false starts, 1 hold.
I love being right. It's like a goddamn addiction, and frankly, I'm going to just say that when it comes to the great Garza/Kreutz debate of 2011, I WAS RIGHT. Garza was solid in his first year as a full time center, a vast improvement over Kreutz in pass blocking and a mild improvement in run blocking. He was also capable of snapping in the shotgun, didn't false start, and also didn't retire less than halfway into the season. That's really all I wanted. Thanks, Roberto. I'd say something about his age, but I'm not terribly worried. If Garza declines, they have Spencer on board to take over.
#60 Lance Louis: 14 games, 13 games started, 10 sacks allowed, 3 starts, 0 hold.
Lance's numbers also have to be taken with a grain of salt, since he was playing out of position for most of the year. Even then, however, his numbers were much better before Cutler went down. Louis, like Webb, earned his poor rating mostly through total breakdowns in week 13 and 14, and was a plus run blocker and okay pass protector the rest of the year. A move back in side next year will help. Louis was the best Bears lineman when he was healthy in 2010, and he's still a serviceable guy at guard. I just hope not to see him at right tackle again.
#72 Gabe Carimi: 2 games, 2 games started, 1 sack allowed, 0 false starts, 0 holds.
His knee is always going to scare us, but you'll never find an offensive lineman without knee concerns. He held his own quite well in the preseason and in a tough matchup against John Abraham in the season opener. He may get an opportunity on the left side next year, but he's still got the potential to be a Pro Bowl right tackle. Just stay healthy, Gabe.
#67 Chris Spencer: 15 games, 14 games started, 1 sack allowed, 3 false starts, 1 hold.
Chris was a surprisingly good find last year. Despite the fact that he started 14 games st guard, not his natural position of center, he was the most effective starter the Bears had over the course of the season. He was a solid run blocker, a serviceable pass protector, and he was very rarely penalized. Kudos to Jerry Angelo for one of his last good signings. Even if he doesn't start next year, he's a quality backup along any of the three interior line positions. That's a rarity in the recent history of Bears football.
#70 Edwin Williams: 15 games, 7 games started, 0 sacks allowed, 1 false start, 0 hold.
Edwin Williams, according to Pro Football Focus, was the highest rated player the Bears had on the line all season. It's interesting to note that he's started 10 games over the last two years and allowed just one sack. While he's not a great run blocker (not a terrible one either) he's the only guard the Bears have that's really a good, not just serviceable, pass blocker. Angelo and Tice should get some credit for picking him off of waivers in 2010, as he's a quality back up at the least.
#68 Frank Omiyale: 16 games, 3 games started, 4 sacks allowed, 7 false starts, 0 holds.
You can say all you want about J'Marcus Webb's 14 sacks allowed, at least he was better than Frank could have ever been, considering Frank's 4 sacks and 7 penalties in THREE FUCKING STARTS projects to 21 sacks and 37 penalties over the course of a full season. My God. It's hard to imagine a more worthless player than Frank, or one that got more undeserved chances to start. He was just plain awful in every way possible, and I cannot express the joy in my heart upon hearing that Emery cut the bastard. I hope Carpenter and Okung tear their everything next year and Seattle has to endure 16 games of Frank. I want someone else to know my suffering. Seriously, fuck you, Frank Omiyale.
That's it for now. It'll be really interesting to see how the Bears starting five shakes out next year, because there's a lot of quality depth on the interior in the Williamses, Spencer, Louis, and Garza. If Carimi can stay healthy, the only real question mark is left tackle, and I assume we'll see a competition between Chris Williams, J'Marcus Webb, and a potential rookie to be named later. The fact is, the silver lining in the disaster that was the injury plagued line last year was that many guys got a chance to play, and several of them played well. Other than Garza, there's still youth on their side, as every other lineman on the roster is still south of 30. I know I said this before last season (and it was looking like I was right ten games in), but the Bears really can put together a good offensive line with the talent they have. It's going to take the right combination of health, experience, and playcalling, but they're capable of big things. Sometimes the numbers really don't tell the whole story.
Monday, August 8, 2011
The Bears Offensive Line: Talking Myself Off of the Ledge
So Mike Tice has declared the starting five combination that he wants to take into the season opener against the Atlanta Falcons. That starting five consists of J'Marcus Webb at left tackle, Chris Williams at left guard, Roberto Garza at center, Lance Louis at right guard, and Gabe Carimi at right tackle. Now that starting five doesn't really appear to be inspiring much confidence in most people because four of those give gentlemen were on last year's roster during the 56 sack-a-palooza and the fifth guy is an untested rookie.
Now, dear reader, I understand your concern because, well, I myself have been shitting solid bricks over Jerry's inactivity regarding the offensive line during free agency. While I think the team truly will be better at the center position with Chris Spencer rather than Olin Kreutz (although Garza at center is at total wild card, the man's not a bad player and is bigger than Kreutz so he could do just fine there), I too am not sold on the idea that the Bears can count on Webb, Carimi, Louis, and Williams ALL to pan out. Unfortunately, however, help doesn't appear to be on the way. Those are the guys you're stuck with, so here's why you and I shouldn't start drinking Clorox, or something.
1. The biggest offender of 2010 is no longer in the lineup.
Funny thing about last year. After Chris Williams went down in week two against the Cowboys, Frank Omiyale moved over from right tackle to left tackle and stayed there for the rest of the season. After that we were force-fed horseplop about how Omiyale was "surprisingly solid" at left tackle blah blah blah. Omiyale allowed 13 sacks last year, by far the highest total of anyone on the team. Hell, Orlando Pace allowed 3 sacks in 11 games in 2009, for comparison, and while raw sack totals are sometimes flawed and Orlando allowed a hell of a lot of pressure overall, Omiyale sucked and let no one tell you otherwise. While Frank was certainly an improvement of Chris Williams/Kevin Shaffer at left tackle in the run game, he was still in my opinion the weakest link of the unit and he's been relegated to the bench, hopefully for good. That's a bonus.
2. They're bigger.
Mike Martz's offense calls for five big, beefy offensive linemen who can hold their own in the passing game. Olin Kreutz as a 292 pound center was a poor fit, and moving Garza to center in order to get greater size at both center and guard makes sense. As it stands right now, that starting five combo of Webb, Williams, Garza, Louis, and Carimi would average about 312 LBs per man. Hopefully that size alone should cut down on some of the interior penetration which caused so much trouble last year. If this group can simply fall down and make a mess of things in the middle and allow Cutler to scramble outside of the pocket, well, that's an improvement over the disaster that was the first half of last year.
3. The unit that ended last season is not the unit that started last season.
There are a lot of enduring, painful images of last year's offensive line that have us all sweating balls about this group. It's worth noting however that the unit that ended last season was far different than the unit that was responsible for debacles like the 10 sack game vs. the Giants, the 6 sack against the Seahawks, and the 4 sack games against the Lions and the Redskins. The Bears opened the season last year with a left-to-right alignment of Chris Williams, Garza, Kreutz, Louis, and Omiyale and got the following results:
-Chris Williams at left tackle was a disaster, and he went down in week two with an injury shortly after getting pantsed by DeMarcus Ware on consecutive possessions. That forced Omiyale over to left tackle, where he was only an improvement compared to Chris Williams, and sent Kevin Shaffer in at right tackle.
-Kevin Shaffer blew and was absolutely shellacked by the Giants (2 sacks, 2 false starts in just 1 start), so he was benched after one start for J'Marcus Webb at RT.
-Roberto Garza struggled with a knee injury early on before he missed two starts after surgery. In his place Edwin Williams was less than spectacular, allowing 1 sack and several pressures in two starts.
-Louis played well, but it was hard to tell between the overrated mediocrity of Olin Kreutz and the general suckitude of Kevin Shaffer. Louis missed one start due to injury and then was lost in the shuffle after Chris Williams returned to play left guard.
The Bears didn't settle on a group of five that lasted more than one game until the eighth game of the season against Buffalo. After that, things got better:
First Seven Games: 31 sacks (4.4 per game), 89 yards rushing per game, 18 PPG
Last Nine Games: 25 sacks (2.7 per game), 111 yards rushing per game, 23 PPG
So the Bears have now replaced two weak links on that much less embarrassing second half offensive line (Kreutz, Omiyale) with Roberto Garza at center and Gabe Carimi at right tackle. Will it work? I don't know, but there's reasons ot believe it can and will, but there's also little reason to fear a regression to last year's nightmarish first half numbers. At the very least this a group that should be able to run the ball effectively.
4. There's Some depth.
Chris Spencer isn't currently in the starting lineup, and I do believe Tice when he says he'd prefer to go into the season with Roberto Garza at center. Roberto has been a quality linemen (except in the four games last year before his knee surgery) in his time for the Bears and a move to center could prolong his career. He also knows the Martz playbook and all of the line calls and seems to be handling center well after a rough start to camp. And hell, if he botches a few snaps, has a couple false starts, and maybe can't handle a shotgun snap real well, it's not like he's any worse than vaunted leader Olin Kreutz in that department. However, Garza can always move back to guard to replace either Louis or Williams if either of them falters, and hopefully by that point Spencer will be ready to step in at center. Spencer's also got an entire 16-game season of experience at guard under his belt, so the Bears may go that route if need be.
The simple fact of the matter is that the Bears didn't score the big-name free agent linemen that we (and they) were hoping for and now they have to hope one of their young guys can play better than whatever over-priced, lower-tier free agent they could bring in at this point. If you're asking me, I'd say Carimi will be in improvement over the Omiyale/Shaffer/Rookie Webb combo at RT, while it won't take much from Webb to be an improvement over Omiyale at left tackle. Garza can probably handle center, and I'm high on Lance Louis.
My biggest worry is Chris Williams, but I'd say that the worst case scenario for the Bears at this point would be marginal improvement over last year's second half-numbers (the acquisition of Matt Spaeth, who HAS to be a better blocker than the Manu/Olsen combo of last year, should help as well), while anyone fearing a retreat back to the full-on CutlerRape of the first half can probably cease the pants-wetting. As for the best case scenario? I don't know. If Carimi and Webb can be what Mike Tice believes they can be, this could be one very good offense. If not, well, they could probably survive another year with an offensive line like the one they took into the playoffs last year, just not the offensive line they took into the Meadowlands.
Or they could be fucked, in which case somebody's getting fired, and that's always fun, no?
Now, dear reader, I understand your concern because, well, I myself have been shitting solid bricks over Jerry's inactivity regarding the offensive line during free agency. While I think the team truly will be better at the center position with Chris Spencer rather than Olin Kreutz (although Garza at center is at total wild card, the man's not a bad player and is bigger than Kreutz so he could do just fine there), I too am not sold on the idea that the Bears can count on Webb, Carimi, Louis, and Williams ALL to pan out. Unfortunately, however, help doesn't appear to be on the way. Those are the guys you're stuck with, so here's why you and I shouldn't start drinking Clorox, or something.
1. The biggest offender of 2010 is no longer in the lineup.
Funny thing about last year. After Chris Williams went down in week two against the Cowboys, Frank Omiyale moved over from right tackle to left tackle and stayed there for the rest of the season. After that we were force-fed horseplop about how Omiyale was "surprisingly solid" at left tackle blah blah blah. Omiyale allowed 13 sacks last year, by far the highest total of anyone on the team. Hell, Orlando Pace allowed 3 sacks in 11 games in 2009, for comparison, and while raw sack totals are sometimes flawed and Orlando allowed a hell of a lot of pressure overall, Omiyale sucked and let no one tell you otherwise. While Frank was certainly an improvement of Chris Williams/Kevin Shaffer at left tackle in the run game, he was still in my opinion the weakest link of the unit and he's been relegated to the bench, hopefully for good. That's a bonus.
2. They're bigger.
Mike Martz's offense calls for five big, beefy offensive linemen who can hold their own in the passing game. Olin Kreutz as a 292 pound center was a poor fit, and moving Garza to center in order to get greater size at both center and guard makes sense. As it stands right now, that starting five combo of Webb, Williams, Garza, Louis, and Carimi would average about 312 LBs per man. Hopefully that size alone should cut down on some of the interior penetration which caused so much trouble last year. If this group can simply fall down and make a mess of things in the middle and allow Cutler to scramble outside of the pocket, well, that's an improvement over the disaster that was the first half of last year.
3. The unit that ended last season is not the unit that started last season.
There are a lot of enduring, painful images of last year's offensive line that have us all sweating balls about this group. It's worth noting however that the unit that ended last season was far different than the unit that was responsible for debacles like the 10 sack game vs. the Giants, the 6 sack against the Seahawks, and the 4 sack games against the Lions and the Redskins. The Bears opened the season last year with a left-to-right alignment of Chris Williams, Garza, Kreutz, Louis, and Omiyale and got the following results:
-Chris Williams at left tackle was a disaster, and he went down in week two with an injury shortly after getting pantsed by DeMarcus Ware on consecutive possessions. That forced Omiyale over to left tackle, where he was only an improvement compared to Chris Williams, and sent Kevin Shaffer in at right tackle.
-Kevin Shaffer blew and was absolutely shellacked by the Giants (2 sacks, 2 false starts in just 1 start), so he was benched after one start for J'Marcus Webb at RT.
-Roberto Garza struggled with a knee injury early on before he missed two starts after surgery. In his place Edwin Williams was less than spectacular, allowing 1 sack and several pressures in two starts.
-Louis played well, but it was hard to tell between the overrated mediocrity of Olin Kreutz and the general suckitude of Kevin Shaffer. Louis missed one start due to injury and then was lost in the shuffle after Chris Williams returned to play left guard.
The Bears didn't settle on a group of five that lasted more than one game until the eighth game of the season against Buffalo. After that, things got better:
First Seven Games: 31 sacks (4.4 per game), 89 yards rushing per game, 18 PPG
Last Nine Games: 25 sacks (2.7 per game), 111 yards rushing per game, 23 PPG
So the Bears have now replaced two weak links on that much less embarrassing second half offensive line (Kreutz, Omiyale) with Roberto Garza at center and Gabe Carimi at right tackle. Will it work? I don't know, but there's reasons ot believe it can and will, but there's also little reason to fear a regression to last year's nightmarish first half numbers. At the very least this a group that should be able to run the ball effectively.
4. There's Some depth.
Chris Spencer isn't currently in the starting lineup, and I do believe Tice when he says he'd prefer to go into the season with Roberto Garza at center. Roberto has been a quality linemen (except in the four games last year before his knee surgery) in his time for the Bears and a move to center could prolong his career. He also knows the Martz playbook and all of the line calls and seems to be handling center well after a rough start to camp. And hell, if he botches a few snaps, has a couple false starts, and maybe can't handle a shotgun snap real well, it's not like he's any worse than vaunted leader Olin Kreutz in that department. However, Garza can always move back to guard to replace either Louis or Williams if either of them falters, and hopefully by that point Spencer will be ready to step in at center. Spencer's also got an entire 16-game season of experience at guard under his belt, so the Bears may go that route if need be.
The simple fact of the matter is that the Bears didn't score the big-name free agent linemen that we (and they) were hoping for and now they have to hope one of their young guys can play better than whatever over-priced, lower-tier free agent they could bring in at this point. If you're asking me, I'd say Carimi will be in improvement over the Omiyale/Shaffer/Rookie Webb combo at RT, while it won't take much from Webb to be an improvement over Omiyale at left tackle. Garza can probably handle center, and I'm high on Lance Louis.
My biggest worry is Chris Williams, but I'd say that the worst case scenario for the Bears at this point would be marginal improvement over last year's second half-numbers (the acquisition of Matt Spaeth, who HAS to be a better blocker than the Manu/Olsen combo of last year, should help as well), while anyone fearing a retreat back to the full-on CutlerRape of the first half can probably cease the pants-wetting. As for the best case scenario? I don't know. If Carimi and Webb can be what Mike Tice believes they can be, this could be one very good offense. If not, well, they could probably survive another year with an offensive line like the one they took into the playoffs last year, just not the offensive line they took into the Meadowlands.
Or they could be fucked, in which case somebody's getting fired, and that's always fun, no?
Monday, June 13, 2011
In Review-The Coaching Staff
Time to wrap up the reviews today, and I've decided to finish with the unit that typically causes the most controversy, especially among Bears fans: the coaches. Considering at least half (and I think that's an underestimate) of the fanbase started the year off expecting and possibly even rooting for a losing season out of Lovie and Co. so that they'd get fired, this was a unit that had a long way to go to earn any measure of respect. Personally I've never understood the concept of rooting against your own team in hopes that they will then fire a coach in order to replace him with a coach "who will win." I mean, for one, this may be hard to accept, but your rooting interest has absolutely no effect whatsoever on the outcome of games. Secondly, if the guy that's already there wins, why do you need to replace him with a "winner"? Thirdly, if any of you sonsofbitches ever argued for Mr. Four Division Titles in 17 Years Jeff Fisher as future coach of the Chicago Bears, I will personally fight you. So anywho, onto the brains behind the Bears:
Dave Toub, Special Teams Coordinator
I'll admit it- I never saw the value of a special teams coordinator until Dave Toub came around to show us that there really is a big difference between an average unit and a very good one. Obviously Devin Hester's record-breaking talents have earned Dave his share of credit, but that would be shortchanging him considering how good the Bears have been at kicking, punting, returning, and covering. Hell, one of the best things I can say about Dave Toub is how I was so damned shocked that Dez Bryant returned a punt for a TD in week two against he Bears simply because I assumed it could never happen to them under his watch. That's still only the second return for a TD the Bears have allowed in Toubs seven years. I'll take it. Throw in the fact that the Bears lead the NFL by a wide margin in blocking kicks and punts (20 during Toub's tenure) and it's hard to argue that Toub isn't the best in the game at his job. Not surprisingly, the Bears lowballed Toub on a contract extension this offseason and he turned them down. If he has another year this year like he had in 2010 I wouldn't be shocked to see him as a candidate for a John Harbaugh-style leap all the way to a big job somewhere.
Mike Tice, Offensive Line Coach
I'm not going to cover the rest of the individual unit coaches (although I'll mention that Bob Babich sucks. F*&k you, Babich), but I figured Tice was worth mentioning. You'd think a guy who had the worst offensive line in the NFL by a wide margin would have received all kinds of shit this year. Instead, Tice received nothing but (deserved) accolades for managing to scrape together a patchwork that actually managed to hold together for most of the second half of the season. We all knew the Bears offensive line was dogshit going into the season, and yet Tice managed to find a way to move around Chris Williams, Lance Louis, Olin Kreutz, Edwin Williams, Roberto Garza, Kevin Shaffer, and Frank Omiyale to get to a line that went 7-2 after the bye week and allowed the offense to average over 24 PPG in the second half. Matt Forte had the highest yard per carry average of any back in the NFL in that second half, and they allowed 21 sacks in the 9 games after the bye vs. 31 in the first 7 games. None of those numbers are that stellar, but anyone who watched the change knows that Tice did the best he could with a line very, very thin on talent. Hopefully this damnable lockout ends soon and Tice can continue to mold Chris Williams into a guard and gear up Gabe Carimi for his future as a left tackle in the NFL. J'Marcus Webb still has a lot to learn and a lot of talent to work with, and Lance Louis played very well before he was pushed out of the starting lineup through no real fault of his own. Tice's unit should hopefully be the most improved next year.
Rod Marinelli, Defensive Coordinator
We were all pissed when the Bears failed in their search for a new DC and had to settle for promoting Marinelli. We'd heard all offseason the year before about how Marinelli was going to upgrade the Bears defensive line in 2009 and bring them back their 05-06 heyday. He actually did improve their overall numbers, but to nowhere near the extent we were promised and the backlash was pretty powerful. Rod's Lovie's best friend and yes man and everyone knew it, so it seemed like more of the same was in order for this year.
Well, it wasn't. The truth is that the Tampa Two that Lovie brought to Chicago was never broken, the personnel the Bears had to run it was. Marinelli had Julius Peppers and a healthy Brian Urlacher and Charles Tillman to work with, along with Chris Harris and the breakout year of Danieal Manning. I'll still give Rod some credit, since his game plans were very stout and he never seemed to be too loyal to his base defense or even some of the zone blitzes that Lovie was fond of overusing last year. All in all, this wasn't the bad hire it seemed to be, and the fact remains that the Bears will have a good defense so long as they can keep the big three of Urlacher, Briggs, and Peppers healthy.
Mike Martz, Offensive Coordinator
Oh, Mike Martz. What a long, strange trip it's been. I love the art of offensive strategy in football. The Coryell offense that Martz runs is one of my favorite schemes of all time, if not my all time favorite. Granted, I'm more of a fan of the more balanced attack run that Dick Vermeil and Al Saunders ran in Kansas City, but the fact remains that, schematically, the deep passing of this offense makes it one of the more exciting and difficult to defend offenses in football. That's good, considering what Bears fans have had to deal with in the past with the monotonous Ron Turner, the sham that was Terry Shea's "Coryell" style attack, and the Run'N'Punt of John Shoop.
Of course, the problem is that we've only seen glimpses of the true Mike Martz offense. Cutler hasn't had the protection necessary for the kind of seven step drops and deep dig routes that were Martz's staple in St. Louis. Lord knows Martz tried, and the results were disastrous. You could see him chomping at the bit in the second half while he had to reign things in and play small ball, but he managed to do it well, and eventually things reached a point where he was able to dabble a bit with some of his old favorites, which led to some interesting explosions like the Eagles game, the 40-14 demolishing of the Vikings, and the wild comeback win over the Jets that showed what this offense can be if it can get consistent blocking up front.
I'd have to give Mike a B- for the year if I was giving out grades. On the one hand, he managed to right the ship and gameplan around some serious deficiencies up front in order to do just enough to win 11 games. On the other hand, a lot of his problems were self inflicted. He should have known better than to attempt seven step drops against the front of the New York Giants. He should never have ignored Matt Forte's ability to run the ball until it took a rumored closed door meeting during the bye week to get Matt some more carries. He attempted to run "his" offense against the Packers in week 17 and he missed the chance to knock the Packers out of the playoffs while exposing Cutler to an unnecessary beating and, most damning of all, he tried to run the same god damn offense out there in the NFC Championship Game. When Mike's "genius" was needed the most, he failed to adapt. Cutler should have been in the shotgun early and often in those games, Forte should have been given more than 15 carries, and you DO NOT CALL A REVERSE ON 3rd AND FUCKING THREE.
Sorry. Every now and then I remember that I hate Mike Martz as a person, and that sort of taints my view of him as a coach. I think Mike has earned his reputation in this league, both for good and bad. We saw plenty of both this year. It's easy to say that Mike's offense will do better next year with a better offensive front, but that still leaves the burden on him to remember to give Forte the rock, to protect Cutler at all costs, and to just plain be able to admit when something isn't working. I really hope he can do that.
Lovie Smith, Head Coach
The Lovie Smith experience for me is all about perspective. Last year I jumped on the Fire Lovie bandwagon late, as three years of frustration can have a deadly effect on a man. I think Lovie's an imperfect coach. He has some of the same flaws as his predecessor Jauron in that he can sometimes be too loyal to an assistant (Bob Babich, anyone?) and that he has a tendency to shut things down and pucker late in close games. He's also a bit of a dictator behind the scenes, considering he ran Ron Rivera out of town over a very minor difference in philosophy. His struggles with challenges are infamous, even though statistics say he's about average in that category. I'm also pretty sure that he'd draft seven safeties a year if it was entirely up to him. He's also, however, a pretty good football coach.
That's as controversial a statement as I can make, but the results tend to bear me out. Lovie's now 63-49 (.563%) as coach of the Bears with four winning seasons, three playoff appearances, and a conference championship in seven years. The Bears are a top ten team in this decade with regard to wins and playoff appearances. They're not where we want them to be with regards to championships and consistency, but there's still something to be said for Lovie's ability to turn around a franchise that went 75-101 (.426%) under his two predecessors.
We know what Lovie's faults are as far as on-field coaching goes. He can get too conservative on offense. He will live and die by the Tampa Two, even when you lose three of the four guys who made it so effective in Chicago in the first place (Mike Brown, Brian Urlacher, Tommie Harris, and Lance Briggs). He'll occasionally do some really, really stupid shit. But if he can get healthy players that fit his system, he wins ballgames. When Lovie has 16 games of Brian Urlacher, he's 51-29 with three playoff appearances in five years. I still don't blame him for 2004, since he wasn't the one that put Jonathan Quinn and Craig Krenzel on the roster. 07-09 sucked, and Lovie bears his share of the blame, but again, the biggest problem in that time period was a roster based upon big contracts given to Brian Urlacher, Tommie Harris, Nathan Vasher, and Charles Tillman when those four all missed parts, most, or all of entire seasons with injuries. It sucked to watch a Superbowl contender disappear over night, but it's hard to blame Lovie for being as mystified as the rest of us when most of his best players simply weren't the same guys anymore.
I think this team is on the cusp of ending the ups and downs of the past few years and turning into a perennial contender. There's a great corps of young skill players on offense with Cutler, Forte, Knox, Olsen, Hester, and Bennett that are only going to get better if they can find five guys up front to allow them to go to work. The defense is aging but the performance it gave this year gives me hope that they'll stick around long enough to allow their replacements to start filtering in over the next couple of years. I think the simple truth is that the Chicago Bears are going to have the same head coach for a while, and for once it might not just be the result of ownership being too cheap to fire him.
Dave Toub, Special Teams Coordinator
I'll admit it- I never saw the value of a special teams coordinator until Dave Toub came around to show us that there really is a big difference between an average unit and a very good one. Obviously Devin Hester's record-breaking talents have earned Dave his share of credit, but that would be shortchanging him considering how good the Bears have been at kicking, punting, returning, and covering. Hell, one of the best things I can say about Dave Toub is how I was so damned shocked that Dez Bryant returned a punt for a TD in week two against he Bears simply because I assumed it could never happen to them under his watch. That's still only the second return for a TD the Bears have allowed in Toubs seven years. I'll take it. Throw in the fact that the Bears lead the NFL by a wide margin in blocking kicks and punts (20 during Toub's tenure) and it's hard to argue that Toub isn't the best in the game at his job. Not surprisingly, the Bears lowballed Toub on a contract extension this offseason and he turned them down. If he has another year this year like he had in 2010 I wouldn't be shocked to see him as a candidate for a John Harbaugh-style leap all the way to a big job somewhere.
Mike Tice, Offensive Line Coach
I'm not going to cover the rest of the individual unit coaches (although I'll mention that Bob Babich sucks. F*&k you, Babich), but I figured Tice was worth mentioning. You'd think a guy who had the worst offensive line in the NFL by a wide margin would have received all kinds of shit this year. Instead, Tice received nothing but (deserved) accolades for managing to scrape together a patchwork that actually managed to hold together for most of the second half of the season. We all knew the Bears offensive line was dogshit going into the season, and yet Tice managed to find a way to move around Chris Williams, Lance Louis, Olin Kreutz, Edwin Williams, Roberto Garza, Kevin Shaffer, and Frank Omiyale to get to a line that went 7-2 after the bye week and allowed the offense to average over 24 PPG in the second half. Matt Forte had the highest yard per carry average of any back in the NFL in that second half, and they allowed 21 sacks in the 9 games after the bye vs. 31 in the first 7 games. None of those numbers are that stellar, but anyone who watched the change knows that Tice did the best he could with a line very, very thin on talent. Hopefully this damnable lockout ends soon and Tice can continue to mold Chris Williams into a guard and gear up Gabe Carimi for his future as a left tackle in the NFL. J'Marcus Webb still has a lot to learn and a lot of talent to work with, and Lance Louis played very well before he was pushed out of the starting lineup through no real fault of his own. Tice's unit should hopefully be the most improved next year.
Rod Marinelli, Defensive Coordinator
We were all pissed when the Bears failed in their search for a new DC and had to settle for promoting Marinelli. We'd heard all offseason the year before about how Marinelli was going to upgrade the Bears defensive line in 2009 and bring them back their 05-06 heyday. He actually did improve their overall numbers, but to nowhere near the extent we were promised and the backlash was pretty powerful. Rod's Lovie's best friend and yes man and everyone knew it, so it seemed like more of the same was in order for this year.
Well, it wasn't. The truth is that the Tampa Two that Lovie brought to Chicago was never broken, the personnel the Bears had to run it was. Marinelli had Julius Peppers and a healthy Brian Urlacher and Charles Tillman to work with, along with Chris Harris and the breakout year of Danieal Manning. I'll still give Rod some credit, since his game plans were very stout and he never seemed to be too loyal to his base defense or even some of the zone blitzes that Lovie was fond of overusing last year. All in all, this wasn't the bad hire it seemed to be, and the fact remains that the Bears will have a good defense so long as they can keep the big three of Urlacher, Briggs, and Peppers healthy.
Mike Martz, Offensive Coordinator
Oh, Mike Martz. What a long, strange trip it's been. I love the art of offensive strategy in football. The Coryell offense that Martz runs is one of my favorite schemes of all time, if not my all time favorite. Granted, I'm more of a fan of the more balanced attack run that Dick Vermeil and Al Saunders ran in Kansas City, but the fact remains that, schematically, the deep passing of this offense makes it one of the more exciting and difficult to defend offenses in football. That's good, considering what Bears fans have had to deal with in the past with the monotonous Ron Turner, the sham that was Terry Shea's "Coryell" style attack, and the Run'N'Punt of John Shoop.
Of course, the problem is that we've only seen glimpses of the true Mike Martz offense. Cutler hasn't had the protection necessary for the kind of seven step drops and deep dig routes that were Martz's staple in St. Louis. Lord knows Martz tried, and the results were disastrous. You could see him chomping at the bit in the second half while he had to reign things in and play small ball, but he managed to do it well, and eventually things reached a point where he was able to dabble a bit with some of his old favorites, which led to some interesting explosions like the Eagles game, the 40-14 demolishing of the Vikings, and the wild comeback win over the Jets that showed what this offense can be if it can get consistent blocking up front.
I'd have to give Mike a B- for the year if I was giving out grades. On the one hand, he managed to right the ship and gameplan around some serious deficiencies up front in order to do just enough to win 11 games. On the other hand, a lot of his problems were self inflicted. He should have known better than to attempt seven step drops against the front of the New York Giants. He should never have ignored Matt Forte's ability to run the ball until it took a rumored closed door meeting during the bye week to get Matt some more carries. He attempted to run "his" offense against the Packers in week 17 and he missed the chance to knock the Packers out of the playoffs while exposing Cutler to an unnecessary beating and, most damning of all, he tried to run the same god damn offense out there in the NFC Championship Game. When Mike's "genius" was needed the most, he failed to adapt. Cutler should have been in the shotgun early and often in those games, Forte should have been given more than 15 carries, and you DO NOT CALL A REVERSE ON 3rd AND FUCKING THREE.
Sorry. Every now and then I remember that I hate Mike Martz as a person, and that sort of taints my view of him as a coach. I think Mike has earned his reputation in this league, both for good and bad. We saw plenty of both this year. It's easy to say that Mike's offense will do better next year with a better offensive front, but that still leaves the burden on him to remember to give Forte the rock, to protect Cutler at all costs, and to just plain be able to admit when something isn't working. I really hope he can do that.
Lovie Smith, Head Coach
The Lovie Smith experience for me is all about perspective. Last year I jumped on the Fire Lovie bandwagon late, as three years of frustration can have a deadly effect on a man. I think Lovie's an imperfect coach. He has some of the same flaws as his predecessor Jauron in that he can sometimes be too loyal to an assistant (Bob Babich, anyone?) and that he has a tendency to shut things down and pucker late in close games. He's also a bit of a dictator behind the scenes, considering he ran Ron Rivera out of town over a very minor difference in philosophy. His struggles with challenges are infamous, even though statistics say he's about average in that category. I'm also pretty sure that he'd draft seven safeties a year if it was entirely up to him. He's also, however, a pretty good football coach.
That's as controversial a statement as I can make, but the results tend to bear me out. Lovie's now 63-49 (.563%) as coach of the Bears with four winning seasons, three playoff appearances, and a conference championship in seven years. The Bears are a top ten team in this decade with regard to wins and playoff appearances. They're not where we want them to be with regards to championships and consistency, but there's still something to be said for Lovie's ability to turn around a franchise that went 75-101 (.426%) under his two predecessors.
We know what Lovie's faults are as far as on-field coaching goes. He can get too conservative on offense. He will live and die by the Tampa Two, even when you lose three of the four guys who made it so effective in Chicago in the first place (Mike Brown, Brian Urlacher, Tommie Harris, and Lance Briggs). He'll occasionally do some really, really stupid shit. But if he can get healthy players that fit his system, he wins ballgames. When Lovie has 16 games of Brian Urlacher, he's 51-29 with three playoff appearances in five years. I still don't blame him for 2004, since he wasn't the one that put Jonathan Quinn and Craig Krenzel on the roster. 07-09 sucked, and Lovie bears his share of the blame, but again, the biggest problem in that time period was a roster based upon big contracts given to Brian Urlacher, Tommie Harris, Nathan Vasher, and Charles Tillman when those four all missed parts, most, or all of entire seasons with injuries. It sucked to watch a Superbowl contender disappear over night, but it's hard to blame Lovie for being as mystified as the rest of us when most of his best players simply weren't the same guys anymore.
I think this team is on the cusp of ending the ups and downs of the past few years and turning into a perennial contender. There's a great corps of young skill players on offense with Cutler, Forte, Knox, Olsen, Hester, and Bennett that are only going to get better if they can find five guys up front to allow them to go to work. The defense is aging but the performance it gave this year gives me hope that they'll stick around long enough to allow their replacements to start filtering in over the next couple of years. I think the simple truth is that the Chicago Bears are going to have the same head coach for a while, and for once it might not just be the result of ownership being too cheap to fire him.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Tice on the Offensive Line
I think most of us remember Mike Tice as the befuddled-looking coach of the Vikings, but as an offensive line coach he seems to know what he's doing. Here's a really great interview with him from ESPN.com that I highly recommend you all read.
The things I like most are when he talks about what Chris Williams needs to improve upon as well as his potential, rather than just heaping praise upon him like Tom Thayer. I agree that Chris really looked promising after the switch to left tackle. Given the importance of that position, if Chris takes that next step the entire offensive line could improve.
The other thing I really liked was this:
"We’re very athletic. So we’re gonna try to get our guys out in space. I think we’ll be very good in the draw game. I know we’re gonna be able to run the inside zone because in my tenure, everywhere I’ve been, we’ve been able to run the inside zone. So we’ll be able to run the inside zone. We’ll dabble a little bit with power, but probably not as much as they ran it here last year."
Part of the problem with last year's offensive line was Turner's dedication to the power run game. I think the zone run game, and the inside zone particularly, is a great way to open holes through scheming and athleticism rather than pure physical power, and that'll help compensate for some of the issues the line had in blowing their guys off the ball last year. Smarter, not harder, as they say. Obviously, as he says, the draw play should be effective if the passing game improves like it should.
The things I like most are when he talks about what Chris Williams needs to improve upon as well as his potential, rather than just heaping praise upon him like Tom Thayer. I agree that Chris really looked promising after the switch to left tackle. Given the importance of that position, if Chris takes that next step the entire offensive line could improve.
The other thing I really liked was this:
"We’re very athletic. So we’re gonna try to get our guys out in space. I think we’ll be very good in the draw game. I know we’re gonna be able to run the inside zone because in my tenure, everywhere I’ve been, we’ve been able to run the inside zone. So we’ll be able to run the inside zone. We’ll dabble a little bit with power, but probably not as much as they ran it here last year."
Part of the problem with last year's offensive line was Turner's dedication to the power run game. I think the zone run game, and the inside zone particularly, is a great way to open holes through scheming and athleticism rather than pure physical power, and that'll help compensate for some of the issues the line had in blowing their guys off the ball last year. Smarter, not harder, as they say. Obviously, as he says, the draw play should be effective if the passing game improves like it should.
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