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Most Important Bears Loss


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Why are the Bears struggling so hard to win games this year?

 

The Offensive and Defensive rosters were full of experienced talent, and we finally had coaches with a scheme that can put up points.

 

The answer was the Bears biggest offseason loss, and it's someone you might never have heard of.

 

Rusty Jones was the Bears Strength and Conditioning coach from 2005 through spring of 2013.

 

During that time, the Bears were relatively injury free. Here's a Story from Sports Illustrated about Rusty Jones, and his philosophy of training to avoid injuries, as contrasted with training to gain maximum strength.

 

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writ...programs/1.html

 

Rusty retired this past year, and we brought in Mike Clark from Kansas City. He was described as being of the opposing school of thought, and interested in "maximizing power and explosion" in the players.

 

http://www.windycitygridiron.com/2013/6/3/...r-and-explosion

 

Now we are looking at that same roster of experienced players on the sideline with injuries, missing at least some games. Melton, Paea, McLellin, Briggs, DJ Williams, Tillman, Peppers comprise the heart of the defense and all have missed games due to injury this season. On Offense, Jay Cutler is out with muscle pulls and now an ankle that was probably injured due to limited movement because of his groin.

 

In fact, none of these players broke a bone. In all cases it was a pulled or ruptured muscle or tendon.

 

If all those players had remained healthy on defense, I wonder what our defense would like like now, as they started to gel. I wonder what the destination of the healthy 2013 Bears squad would have been.

 

How badly do we miss Rusty Jones?

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Intesting post. Thanks for sharing!

 

Coupled with father time, it makes sense.

 

Why are the Bears struggling so hard to win games this year?

 

The Offensive and Defensive rosters were full of experienced talent, and we finally had coaches with a scheme that can put up points.

 

The answer was the Bears biggest offseason loss, and it's someone you might never have heard of.

 

Rusty Jones was the Bears Strength and Conditioning coach from 2005 through spring of 2013.

 

During that time, the Bears were relatively injury free. Here's a Story from Sports Illustrated about Rusty Jones, and his philosophy of training to avoid injuries, as contrasted with training to gain maximum strength.

 

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writ...programs/1.html

 

Rusty retired this past year, and we brought in Mike Clark from Kansas City. He was described as being of the opposing school of thought, and interested in "maximizing power and explosion" in the players.

 

http://www.windycitygridiron.com/2013/6/3/...r-and-explosion

 

Now we are looking at that same roster of experienced players on the sideline with injuries, missing at least some games. Melton, Paea, McLellin, Briggs, DJ Williams, Tillman, Peppers comprise the heart of the defense and all have missed games due to injury this season. On Offense, Jay Cutler is out with muscle pulls and now an ankle that was probably injured due to limited movement because of his groin.

 

In fact, none of these players broke a bone. In all cases it was a pulled or ruptured muscle or tendon.

 

If all those players had remained healthy on defense, I wonder what our defense would like like now, as they started to gel. I wonder what the destination of the healthy 2013 Bears squad would have been.

 

How badly do we miss Rusty Jones?

 

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I lean far more toward 1) Age 2) luck and when I consider the league wide issues I suspect 3) the collective bargaining agreement that prohibits practice tackling, two-a-day practices, etc. Lift weights all you want but tackling to the ground, and being tackled to the ground is different. Practice it before the season and it gives your body time to gain that strength. Practice blocking on Oline and Dline more often (i.e. OTAs) and you get acclimated to the stresses, and timing of contact, you'll have in a game situation. Don't practice these parts of the game for 8 months and you lose it. I'm not an advocate of full contact practices throughout camp but I believe more contact is necessary than what they do these days.

 

Briggs...injured shoulder while landing with his arm extended trying to make a tackle and a defensive player lands on his back further driving him into the ground. Classic way to dislocate your shoulder. Fail to see how a different weight lifting program changes that.

 

Tillman...been battling a sprained knee all season. Tore a triceps muscle in a game. Again, he hasn't been able to do much more than suit up for games with very limited practice all season. Possible weight training issue.

 

Melton...blew out his knee trying to move around a block. Avoiding weightlifting moves (i.e. squats) as Rusty did would have avoided this? I don't see that as a cause-effect. I think squats better reflect the demands placed on a player's body during a game than the various separate exercises on machines Rusty reportedly used.

 

Collins....see above

 

DJ Williams....torn muscle. I'll agree with potential for weight training here.

 

Kelvin Hayden....torn hamstring, needed surgery. Didn't see how it happened so don't know if that's an issue where he was just running or doing some cuts in traffic and lost his footing. Could be a workout issue.

 

Paea...turf toe. Never heard of a training program to avoid this.

 

 

Meanwhile on offense, where our roster is younger, we don't see as many injuries. Martellus Bennett has played through his shoulder issue but it definitely impacted him. He got injured going sky high for a Cutler pass in the endzone and landed squarely on his shoulder. I'll submit that part of this is luck too.

 

This is a physical game and reality is younger people heal quicker so what may start as a minor strain in a muscle doesn't escalate to a torn muscle a week later. A players age cannot be ignored when looking at injuries and the length of time it takes to recover from them. Past injury history is also a factor for older players. As they say, after the first game everyone is playing with some pain or injury.

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I just think there was an emphasis on building muscle rather than how flexible people are, and it might have something to do with all the injuries. If I oversold the idea to make the "article" more interesting, then well... yeah maybe :)

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Might be the new country club rules...

You are right, I believe the shorter, lighter off season is contributing to these injuries more than the conditioning program. It is easier to get into game shape over a longer period. They seem to be ramping up too quick.

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It's not just us, which makes me think other forces are at work.

 

You are right, I believe the shorter, lighter off season is contributing to these injuries more than the conditioning program. It is easier to get into game shape over a longer period. They seem to be ramping up too quick.

 

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I just think there was an emphasis on building muscle rather than how flexible people are, and it might have something to do with all the injuries. If I oversold the idea to make the "article" more interesting, then well... yeah maybe :)

 

I agree on stretching and flexibility as being a very important component to any athletes conditioning program. Here's the link to the article about our new strength coach:

 

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-06...trength-program

 

 

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You are right, I believe the shorter, lighter off season is contributing to these injuries more than the conditioning program. It is easier to get into game shape over a longer period. They seem to be ramping up too quick.

And the NFL wants to extend the season and shorten the pre-season, making things even worse.

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