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A New Concept For Improving The Running Game?


soulman

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Coaching 'change' may hold key to unlocking Bears non-existent run game

John Mullin,NBC Sports Chicago 16 hours ago
 

As the Bears search for ways to build an effective running game, one question overhanging the process is whether the team in fact has the coaches for it. In fact, one solution may be a coaching "change."

Not a staff makeover. Rather, an internal change which has a very successful precedent, one that once nearly took them to a Super Bowl.

First, consider:

The Bears can pay lip service to a run commitment. But a notable void on the offensive coaching staff is the dearth of individuals with a proven grasp of a rushing offense. Nagy is himself a former quarterback, with his entire NFL experience based in Andy Reid's West Coast pass-based offense.

Coordinator Mark Helfrich for much of the past 20 years has been a quarterbacks coach, offensive coordinator and passing-game coordinator, plus being a head coach at Oregon where the Ducks ran more than they threw, but Helfrich's No. 2 rusher annually was his quarterback. Bears QB coach Dave Ragone was a college and NFL quarterback before becoming a QB coach at the NFL level.

Hold that thought. Now rewind to 2010… .

The Bears had hired Mike Martz as offensive coordinator, he of Greatest Show on Turf. The season began with three wins, including one over Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers. But quarterback Jay Cutler was coming under assault in an offense that averaged barely 70 rushing yards per game with little commitment to the run. The imbalance bottomed out in a loss to the New York Giants when, trailing just 0-3 through the first half, Cutler was sacked nine times in the first half and was lost to a concussion.

With Cutler out, the Bears then ran 42 times for 218 yards and a pair of Matt Forte rushing touchdowns in a blowout of the Carolina Panthers.

But then the Bears rushed for 61 and 68 yards in dismal losses to Seattle and Washington. Martz called 14 runs against Seattle, 16 against Washington, with Cutler taking 10 more combined sacks in the two games

Coach Lovie Smith had had enough.

The Bears' off week followed, during which Smith sat Martz down and told him in no uncertain terms that offensive-line coach Mike Tice, a former primarily-blocking NFL tight end, was now to be a major factor in the game planning. Tice's title did not expand to anything like "run game coordinator" but that was effectively what Smith created to balance his offense.

The Bears proceeded to go 8-3 the remainder of the way, losing only to the New England Patriots and twice to the Packers. Over the final 11 games the Bears rushed for fewer than 100 yards only twice – to the Patriots, and to the Packers in the NFC Championship game loss. The three defeats over that span were the three games with the Bears' fewest rushing attempts (14 at New England, 20 and 24 vs. Green Bay.)

Back to the 2019 Bears coaching situation

The Bears may talk about committing to the run but have only two coaches with true roots in that part of the game: offensive line coach Harry Hiestand and running backs coach Charles London. Neither have been more than supporting players, however, to the Bears structure built around the maximizing of quarterback Mitchell Trubisky.

An expanded role for one or both may hold a key to advancing a Bears run game that has struggled not only with results, but also even play design.

London, a former Duke running back, has coached running backs at Duke, Penn State and for the Houston Texans and Bears. Under coach Bill O'Brien, London worked with Arian Foster and Lamar Miller.

Hiestand is another matter. He was coordinator Ron Turner's offensive line coach in the 2005 playoff season and 2006 Super Bowl year, offenses built around Thomas Jones and Cedric Benson and which were effectively 50-50 run-pass. At Notre Dame, which ran the ball more than threw it, Hiestand coached, among others, Zack Martin, Mike McGlinchey, Quenton Nelson and Ronnie Stanley -- all first-round draft picks.

Hiestand also was once the run-game coordinator at the University of Cincinnati, after which he was Missouri's offensive line coach when Mizzou averaged 250 rush yards per game (1986).

Point is, the Bears coaching staff as it is currently constituted is quarterback-centric. An even modest tilt toward the assistants whose forte (pun intended) is in running the football projects to expand the realm of the possible from the limited scope that Nagy has displayed with that aspect of his game. Perhaps promoting Hiestand to run-game coordinator is a step that makes a necessary statement.

Changing definitions

The challenge on Nagy is not simply to call greater numbers of run plays, but to redefine his idea of a "productive" play, which he's put forward as his standard for calling plays and why he stops calling runs when they come up short on productive yardage.

Because when Nagy's fleeting commitment to the run game vanishes, he feeds his quarterback to the opposing defense. He makes his own offense one-dimensional, which is an objective of all defenses. The Bears' head coach is doing it for them.

The point for Nagy is to make Trubisky, not a game-manager overseeing a run-based scheme, but an unpredictable quarterback that utilizes a skillset beyond just his arm. The route to that objective is through a mix of well-designed plays, not simply a tilt toward running the football a bunch of times.

It also involves getting Trubisky back to the mental/confidence level he and every quarterback needs.

"[Trubisky's] confidence isn't at an all-time high," Nagy conceded. "We're struggling right now. But he's not the only one that the confidence isn't there.

"But how do you get that back. You get it back by practicing hard, by actually getting ‘tighter.' We need to get tighter and understand, and I think that's the message that we've had is get tighter, believe in one another, keep trusting, right? And bond together and then when you get that one win, it just sparks. (snaps his fingers) It's crazy. It's just absolutely crazy how that works. So, we gotta do that."

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Seems like this article is entirely a suggestion by Mullin, and he doesn't really have an inkling that something along those lines is actually being done to improve the run game. The saddest part is that the running game shouldn't be as much of a mystery to Nagy and Helfrich as it appears to be. If a bunch of schlubs on the internet can come together and cook up better solutions, quickly, then your football team has some VERY serious problems. 

Run the ball more often. @beardown3231 posted a Baldinger clip in the (I believe) last game day thread where Baldy pointed out how poorly designed motion on one of the Bears running plays actually brought a defender into Cohen's running lane--so that's pretty clear too; Nagy has to stop being so damn cute with the play calling. Stop running inside zone plays almost exclusively, and don't use your five foot six, not particularly elusive running back in those plays because it basically never works. Speaking of Cohen, running back by committee is fine, but Cohen's percentage of snaps should be much lower--at least until he proves he can produce. Run behind, or along with, a fullback from time to time. Since the team has to be so pass happy for some reason--run draw plays on occasion. Pull a guard. Run a sweep. There are things called screen passes (really Nagy, it's true, Google it if you don't believe me)--run some of those, get the defense off balance. 

How hard is all that? 

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Nagy is trying.  He is trying everything.

The base offense is run off inside zone, some oz, power and jet sweeps.

You cannot play football in any scheme without a between the tackles run play.   It is your jab.  You can't box without a jab.  Not against someone good anyway.  

The between tackles play is IZ run with a play side block of end man on line of scrimmage or back side block of end man on line of scrimmage.  Well for multiple games, I am losing track, the TEs missed nearly every single block on the end man on line of scrimmage.  On few occasions they made their block, someone else missed theirs.  

What was Nagy's adjustment?  He switched to zone read with the IZ play so TE didn't have to make the block.  He has tried using multiple backs.  He has tried using FBs.

He is trying anything and everything, bottom line is TEs and OL have to block with physicality, they have to block right guys and defenses have to be afraid of downfield passes.  If they aren't they can always bring more than you can block.  

Only person not at fault is Montgomery to be honest and I wasn't even a Montgomery guy.  

 

 

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13 hours ago, dll2000 said:

Nagy is trying.  He is trying everything.

The base offense is run off inside zone, some oz, power and jet sweeps.

You cannot play football in any scheme without a between the tackles run play.   It is your jab.  You can't box without a jab.  Not against someone good anyway.  

The between tackles play is IZ run with a play side block of end man on line of scrimmage or back side block of end man on line of scrimmage.  Well for multiple games, I am losing track, the TEs missed nearly every single block on the end man on line of scrimmage.  On few occasions they made their block, someone else missed theirs.  

What was Nagy's adjustment?  He switched to zone read with the IZ play so TE didn't have to make the block.  He has tried using multiple backs.  He has tried using FBs.

He is trying anything and everything, bottom line is TEs and OL have to block with physicality, they have to block right guys and defenses have to be afraid of downfield passes.  If they aren't they can always bring more than you can block.  

Only person not at fault is Montgomery to be honest and I wasn't even a Montgomery guy.  

 

 

Well said and worth bold facing the part I did and the sentence in red is mostly what it's been about since game one.

Pettine developed a game plan to shut down the run even using additional DBs and dared Trubisky to beat them by throwing into coverage designed to take away all of his favorite reads.  It worked perfectly and every other DC since has been able to go to school and learn from it.

I can grant that Nagy has tried his best to compensate for this but with a young QB who can't seem to execute well enough hitting key throws and threaten to force a change this is what you get each week or some variation of it.  Until whoever is playing QB can actually force 8 men out of the box we're gonna keep facing it and one or two guys will go unblocked and that's a best case deal provided every once else executes their block well.  That's not happening either.

I've argued that this OL is not as well constructed to fit Nagy's scheme as they could be.  Sans Kyle Long they are not a brutally physical OL and even that diminished as Kyle's injuries mounted.  But it's what we're stuck with now more or less.  Guys were extended to keep the OL intact and they cannot be easily replaced now or even soon.  The rationale behind Mullins column is to somehow get HH and London more involved telling Nagy what must change for it to work and for him to listen.

I have no doubt there is some genius in some of what Nagy can create but there are also some unforeseen problems that even execution won't resolve and we aren't even getting much of that now.  Even this Sunday if you subtract that one 55 yard run by Montgomery his ypc was only 3.1 yds on 26 other carries including being stymied several times around the goal line.  That is a truly ridiculous failure by the offense and at least one primary reason we lost a game we should have won easily by double digits.

I'm not offering much in the way of workable solutions other than what my own common sense and experience tell me but even after Sunday I know we're still a long way from having this problem fixed if only because we're still a very long way from having our QB problem fixed and the two are stuck together like glue.  If teams aren't concerned about Mitch beating them through the air they're gonna keep shutting down the run game making us as one dimensional and dependent on a failing QB as they possibly can.

IMHO none of this bodes well for the rest of the season if only because I believe what ails Mitch cannot be "fixed" over 9 more games while he's under pressure each week and knows it.  He's not mentally calloused enough yet to beat it and I'm really questioning hard whether or not he ever will be.  It's 50/50 at best.  So let's all make believe this is more like we expected 2018 to go and that we got our years flipped around.  Pace and Nagy are not gonna give up on Mitch just yet.  They are 100% gonna play this out unless he's injured.

Edited by soulman
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4 hours ago, soulman said:

Well said and worth bold facing the part I did and the sentence in red is mostly what it's been about since game one.

Pettine developed a game plan to shut down the run even using additional DBs and dared Trubisky to beat them by throwing into coverage designed to take away all of his favorite reads.  It worked perfectly and every other DC since has been able to go to school and learn from it.

I can grant that Nagy has tried his best to compensate for this but with a young QB who can't seem to execute well enough hitting key throws and threaten to force a change this is what you get each week or some variation of it.  Until whoever is playing QB can actually force 8 men out of the box we're gonna keep facing it and one or two guys will go unblocked and that's a best case deal provided every once else executes their block well.  That's not happening either.

I've argued that this OL is not as well constructed to fit Nagy's scheme as they could be.  Sans Kyle Long they are not a brutally physical OL and even that diminished as Kyle's injuries mounted.  But it's what we're stuck with now more or less.  Guys were extended to keep the OL intact and they cannot be easily replaced now or even soon.  The rationale behind Mullins column is to somehow get HH and London more involved telling Nagy what must change for it to work and for him to listen.

I have no doubt there is some genius in some of what Nagy can create but there are also some unforeseen problems that even execution won't resolve and we aren't even getting much of that now.  Even this Sunday if you subtract that one 55 yard run by Montgomery his ypc was only 3.1 yds on 26 other carries including being stymied several times around the goal line.  That is a truly ridiculous failure by the offense and at least one primary reason we lost a game we should have won easily by double digits.

I'm not offering much in the way of workable solutions other than what my own common sense and experience tell me but even after Sunday I know we're still a long way from having this problem fixed if only because we're still a very long way from having our QB problem fixed and the two are stuck together like glue.  If teams aren't concerned about Mitch beating them through the air they're gonna keep shutting down the run game making us as one dimensional and dependent on a failing QB as they possibly can.

IMHO none of this bodes well for the rest of the season if only because I believe what ails Mitch cannot be "fixed" over 9 more games while he's under pressure each week and knows it.  He's not mentally calloused enough yet to beat it and I'm really questioning hard whether or not he ever will be.  It's 50/50 at best.  So let's all make believe this is more like we expected 2018 to go and that we got our years flipped around.  Pace and Nagy are not gonna give up on Mitch just yet.  They are 100% gonna play this out unless he's injured.

It only takes 7 men in box to generally stop run when you are in 1 TE sets and 6 with no TEs.   If they bring 8 they really don't respect you.  I have seen the Bears face 9 on occasion.  

Teams have no respect for the Bears downfield passing game.   None.  I haven't honestly even watched the last two games.  I can't take it.   

Until teams fear the QB expect the beatings to continue until morale improves.

 

 

 

 

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7 hours ago, dll2000 said:

It only takes 7 men in box to generally stop run when you are in 1 TE sets and 6 with no TEs.   If they bring 8 they really don't respect you.  I have seen the Bears face 9 on occasion.  

Teams have no respect for the Bears downfield passing game.   None.  I haven't honestly even watched the last two games.  I can't take it.   

Until teams fear the QB expect the beatings to continue until morale improves.

 

 

 

 

Yup.......seeing much the same as you are and our QB problem is at the heart of it all.

Nagy won't replace Mitch even for a game or two if only to find out if Daniel can loosen up defenses by creating more of a threat passing so I expect all we'll see is more of the same. 

Some will look at our stats from the Charger game and feel we've made progress and I don't see that at all.  Those stats are very misleading and Mitch is still the guy who has to turn his game around or the offense will continue to struggle and fail to score.

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On 10/29/2019 at 3:32 PM, dll2000 said:

Nagy is trying.  He is trying everything.

To his credit, he tried a lot of different stuff against the Chargers. Before that, no, can't honestly say he was "trying everything". And out of those previous six games we had two contests with only eleven and seven rushes. When your O Line is struggling, you simply can't try something once or twice, then scrap it. 

On 10/29/2019 at 3:32 PM, dll2000 said:

The base offense is run off inside zone, some oz, power and jet sweeps.

And that's utterly too simplistic and gimmick-ridden to work unless you have a high-flying passing offense. Which the Bears don't.

35 minutes ago, soulman said:

Some will look at our stats from the Charger game and feel we've made progress and I don't see that at all.  Those stats are very misleading and Mitch is still the guy who has to turn his game around or the offense will continue to struggle and fail to score

Mitchell played better, and all could see it--how does that make the stats "misleading"? It was Mitchell's best game so far this season. Was it enough? Well, obviously not. Does this mean the proverbial switch has flicked on for him? Again, obviously not, as we've seen him play even better than that and regress to garbage shortly thereafter. Mitchell's problems are entirely mental, and it remains to be seen if he overcomes them. But to call the Chargers game more of the same is kind of disingenuous. 

Edited by Heinz D.
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What they did against the Chargers was simply everything and run fairly basic run plays.

They are going to see heavy boxes because the QB play is not threatening. But by simplifying at least you get a body on a body.

Couple of observations 

-James Daniels is still struggling.

-Shaheen is a pylon.

-Coward May be something long term.

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I badly want to see some coaching changes so there is accountability for what has been a terrible season for this offence...I also want to see a change in concept when it comes to the running game with more zone concepts...fire Helfrich & HH & hire Mike McDaniel as OC & Chris Forester as OL coach from San Fran so we can get the best out of this OL...let these guys develop the running game so Nagy can focus on whoever the new QB is going to be...hopefully Hurts who would also play perfectly into more of a zone/bootleg scheme.

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13 hours ago, Heinz D. said:
13 hours ago, soulman said:

Some will look at our stats from the Charger game and feel we've made progress and I don't see that at all.  Those stats are very misleading and Mitch is still the guy who has to turn his game around or the offense will continue to struggle and fail to score

Mitchell played better, and all could see it--how does that make the stats "misleading"? It was Mitchell's best game so far this season. Was it enough? Well, obviously not. Does this mean the proverbial switch has flicked on for him? Again, obviously not, as we've seen him play even better than that and regress to garbage shortly thereafter. Mitchell's problems are entirely mental, and it remains to be seen if he overcomes them. But to call the Chargers game more of the same is kind of disingenuous. 

How?  Sans a 55 run which boosted Montgomery's ypc to 5.0 he averaged only 3.1 ypc on 26 other runs.

Mitch threw for 253 yards but failed to produce more than one TD and gifted the Chargers two late game turnovers.

The Bears rolled up nearly 400 total yards of offense but scored only 16 points.  That's why I feel the stats are misleading.  Most NFL team would put up far more than 16 points off that kind of yardage gained. 

I don't see it as disingenuous at all.  With few exceptions this is precisely how Mitch has played most of his pro career.  He simply does not finish enough drives with TDs and if the defense cannot hold the result is often a loss.

We were able to get away with that more frequently in 2018 due to defensive scoring but not this year.  In the games Matt Nagy has coached our offense has scored 16 points or less in 13 of the games.  That's not nearly good enough and by in large Mitch Trubisky is a major reason why that's so.

Can he improve?  I believe he can.  Will he improve?  I don't know but until he removes some of his own mental blocks I don't see it.

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10 hours ago, soulman said:

How?  Sans a 55 run which boosted Montgomery's ypc to 5.0 he averaged only 3.1 ypc on 26 other runs.

Mitch threw for 253 yards but failed to produce more than one TD and gifted the Chargers two late game turnovers.

The Bears rolled up nearly 400 total yards of offense but scored only 16 points.  That's why I feel the stats are misleading.  Most NFL team would put up far more than 16 points off that kind of yardage gained. 

I don't see it as disingenuous at all.  With few exceptions this is precisely how Mitch has played most of his pro career.  He simply does not finish enough drives with TDs and if the defense cannot hold the result is often a loss.

We were able to get away with that more frequently in 2018 due to defensive scoring but not this year.  In the games Matt Nagy has coached our offense has scored 16 points or less in 13 of the games.  That's not nearly good enough and by in large Mitch Trubisky is a major reason why that's so.

Can he improve?  I believe he can.  Will he improve?  I don't know but until he removes some of his own mental blocks I don't see it.

Long runs always bolster a RB's average, pretty much. You know that as well as I do, dude. The chunk play runs are why you have to be persistent in running the ball.

As to the turnovers, neither was acceptable, but the fumble was at least understandable, with his own guy running into Trubisky, and all. 

And sure, can't really argue that most NFL teams would score more than 16 points with all those yards, and all those trips to the red zone. That's why we're tapping away at our keyboards and sending massive floods of words out to the internet. 

Mitchell overcoming his panic issues (which, I feel, basically describes the bulk of his problems) will be difficult to do as long as Nagy continues to be so headstrong with his own weirdness. And it's sad to think about in that context. Trubisky with a more understanding, less bizarre head coach (or OC, whatever.) Nagy with a more polished, veteran QB. 

Oh well. 

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