Connorbear Posted December 18, 2017 Report Share Posted December 18, 2017 Even more reason to get rid of this coaching staff: From Brad Biggs in the Tribune: It would be far from accurate to say the Bears lost this game because they didn’t hand the ball off to Jordan Howard for running plays from the shotgun formation. But a week after having good success running the ball from that formation in Cincinnati, the Bears didn’t try it once. Howard had 10 carries from the shotgun against the Bengals for 97 yards and two touchdowns. It was strong production from their most consistent offensive performer. It was not a surprise. Howard led all NFL running backs out of the shotgun as a rookie in 2016 when he averaged 7.0 yards per carry (87 rushes for 608 yards). He had a 69-yard run from the shotgun last season. Take that out of the equation and he still averaged 6.3 yards per carry. The Bears finally got back to that in the game plan last week and, poof, just like that it disappeared. Howard had only 10 carries against the Lions for 37 yards and not one of them came from the shotgun. Did the Bears not get around to it because the score was lopsided before the midway point of the third quarter when the Lions led 20-3? Maybe that’s part of it. Did the Lions present a look on defense that dissuaded the Bears from trying it? The Bears should dictate what they want to run on offense. Do what fits their players well, and Howard had a ton of success in college running out of the shotgun. The production he piled up running out of the shotgun in college is what got him drafted. He’s comfortable doing it. The team had a lot of success spreading out the Bengals and didn’t do as much of it here against the Lions. Howard has a grand total of 22 carries from the shotgun formation this season and those have produced 145 yards. So the production is right in line with where it was last season. Again, this tactical move didn’t doom the game for the Bears, but before last week, Howard had only 12 carries from the shotgun. It’s not like the Bears haven’t been in the shotgun. Mitch Trubisky entered the game with 173 pass attempts from the shotgun formation. By my count, he attempted 40 passes from the shotgun in this game and there was also a sack, two scrambles by Trubisky and a defensive holding penalty that came out of shotgun snaps. The Bears are in the shotgun, they just haven’t been running the ball from the shotgun. What’s driven that philosophical or tactical shift this season, I don’t know. I get the sense offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains likes opening things up and spreading out the defense. He was a happy man at the Halas Hall podium last week talking about the success the Bears had in putting up 33 points on the Bengals. Is he being directed to tailor the game plan differently? Certainly that is possible. But it’s stuck out as a curious move all season and you go back and review the games and against the Buccaneers (nine carries), Steelers (23), Packers (18), Ravens (36), Panthers (21), Saints (23) and now Lions (10), Howard had zero shotgun runs in those games. Coincidence? Yes. Trend? You bet. Bad idea? Unless someone can convince me otherwise, you bet. Peace Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZ54 Posted December 18, 2017 Report Share Posted December 18, 2017 When it comes to the running or passing game we need to get one thing clear: Grasu is really bad. On the flipside of this nobody is talking about the good game Jordan Howard had as a receiver. There's nothing spectacular about 4 rec for 26yards but he caught the ball. If he can develop this part of his game going into next season it will help the team quite a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Connorbear Posted December 18, 2017 Author Report Share Posted December 18, 2017 When it comes to the running or passing game we need to get one thing clear: Grasu is really bad. On the flipside of this nobody is talking about the good game Jordan Howard had as a receiver. There's nothing spectacular about 4 rec for 26yards but he caught the ball. If he can develop this part of his game going into next season it will help the team quite a bit. I agree Grasu is bad. He won't be back next year. However, they passed out of the shotgun the entire game and did not have 1 run from the shotgun. It was nice to see Howard have success catching the ball but we will not win when he runs 10 times a game. Peace Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowlingtwig Posted December 18, 2017 Report Share Posted December 18, 2017 This is what frustrates me the most about the play calling. If we are in shotgun we are throwing the ball 90% of the time and when we are under center it's almost guaranteed we are running the ball. We need to be more creative than that. Any defense can make adjustments at the line when they see our formation they know what we are doing. We are 14 games into the season and I don't think we have established an identity yet. That also is on the coaches. We have to get our top players the ball. It's that simple Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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