Bears offense still wrestling with identity crisis
October 31, 2012, 10:11 pm
The 2012 Bears overall is excellent, as good as could be expected: 6-1. But as coordinator Mike Tice said on Wednesday, the performance against the Panthers obviously was not resume material.
“It wouldn’t be a whole heck of a lot of clinic coming out of that performance in the first half last week,” Tice said.
Why that matters is that where some wins or losses provide positives to build on, that game didn’t. A team that has stated it wants to build from a base of balance and running the ball did neither very well.
Indeed, the offensive coordinator is likening the Bears' offense to one in another sport that no one really should be aspiring to be like.
Forte analyzed The questions have focused on whether or not Matt Forte is getting the ball enough of Brandon Marshall is getting it too much, or rather other receivers too little.
Forte’s “problem” is actually simple. The franchise back missed one game, vs. St. Louis. In three of the six games he played, the Bears ran 57, 54 and 53 plays. Not enough “enough” to go around.
For purposes of loose comparison: Through the first six games last season, Forte handled the ball on 139 of the Bears’ 354 snaps (38.1 percent). Of those, 99 were runs.
Through the six games he’s played this season, the Bears have run 376 snaps. Of those, the ball has gone to Forte on 113 (30 percent).
One difference is that through the first six last season, other backs (Marion Barber, Kalil Bell) had 28 total carries. Michael Bush has 49 carries in the 2012 Forte games, plus 18 vs. St. Louis.
The falloff in receiving for Forte also is no surprise, to him above all.
“I’m not the only one out there catching balls,” Forte told CSNChicago.com. “It just so happens we haven’t had to use me as much in the passing game.”
Passing thoughts The personality of the passing is incomplete. Marshall is in place but the loss of Alshon Jeffery cannot be ignored. The rookie had moved into the starting lineup and was second on the team with 14 catches when he broke his hand three games ago.
He is still No. 2 among wide receivers in catches. Losing speed receiver Johnny Knox, who had 37 catches all last season, was a setback but Jay Cutler’s confidence level in Knox was nowhere near what it was becoming with the 6-foot-3 Jeffery.
But while the Bears spoke throughout the offseason, training camp and preseason about the multiple weapons on offense, the deployment of those weapons still has a tilt.
Marshall was acquired to catch a lot of passes. He is on pace to catch 110-112. That would be more than the top three Bears wide receivers combined last season.
Bad model If that happens, what does that suggest about the effectiveness of those other so-called weapons.
“We’re like the {NBA Minnesota] Timberwolves when I was there and Kevin Garnett was playing,” Tice said. “All their offensive plays went through Kevin Garnett. In our passing game, we’re going to obviously go through Brandon, so he’s going to be the first read or an early read a lot of the times.”
Tice may want to find another template to use. In Garnett’s years with the Timberwolves (1995-2007), Minnesota finished first in the Midwest Division and reached the Western Conference finals once.
With Garnett they never finished higher than third in the division, and they lost in the first round all six other times they managed to make the playoffs.
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Football,
Michael Bush,
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Midwest Division
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