Since I live in Delaware now-a-days, I don't get to watch much Bears football. From the bits and pieces that I get to see, I thought that Mitch was getting unfairly blamed for a lot of things that weren't actually on him. But again, I only get to see so much, so it was difficult to be sure about this conclusion.
With the Bears traveling to Philly to face the Eagles, it was a perfect opportunity to watch a full Bears game from start to finish. I was fortunate enough to attend the week 9 game live and in person, and this gave the added advantage of getting to see the whole field and not just the broadcast.
I must admit, I was fuming during the game. The first half was some of the worst offense I have ever seen in my life. But here's the thing:
I was fuming at Matt Nagy. Nobody else.
I was calling for his head to be on the chopping block Monday morning. I just could not stand his stubbornness and sheer unwillingness to call plays that will make the offense successful. All he wants to do is sit in the shotgun and do all of this nonsense to try and be like the Kansas City Chiefs, when in reality, the Bears (and Trubisky) are a much better football team all around when they line up under center and play a little power football (like last season).
And guess what? In the second half, the Bears came out and started playing that brand of football (FINALLY!). It lead to 14 second half points and over 150 yards of offense (that includes not even getting to see the ball the last 9 minutes of the game).
After the game, I actually felt a bit better about the offense and Trubisky. But a lot of other people clearly didn't. I was sitting with my father (who has coached football for over 40 years) the whole game and we both agreed:
We thought Trubisky played really well in the second half. And the first half problems weren't on him.
So I got back into my defensive stance on Trubisky, trying to defend him from everyone on social media and whatnot. But I started to wonder, was I missing something that everybody else was seeing in him? Were the struggles actually on him, or does the scheme really matter that much?
So I decided to dive a little deeper and do some film analysis. I recently got access to NFL Game Pass so I took the time (a long amount of time) to go through every last one of the Bears offensive plays and to analyze it: both play call and execution-wise in a completely objective manner.
I wanted to use the "coaches film" version that has all 22 players in it, but unfortunately it still isn't posted as of Monday at 7pm est and I really wanted to post this ASAP. There's only a couple of plays where I couldn't get the full picture, but I feel like I was able to get pretty much everything I needed from the broadcast view. Here's what I found:
1Q 15:00 3 plays 1 yard 1:42 PUNT
- 1st and 10 (Own25): Offset I formation (20T), D. Montgomery off left tackle for 4 yards. Good double team and push by Daniels/Whitehair. The Bears seemingly learned their lesson from last week and line up in a power formation from the get go.
- 2nd and 6 (Own29): Singleback (20 twin TE right), D. Montgomery up the middle for -3 yards. Fletcher Cox jumps the snap and blows up Coward/Massie to disrupt the play.
- 3rd and 9 (Own26): Shotgun (12)(Wing TE left), M. Trubisky pass short right incomplete to A. Robinson. Brandon Graham beats R. Coward and Fletcher Cox deposits J. Daniels into Trubisky’s lap. Trubisky has to throw off his back foot and can’t drive the football (see image below), overthrowing A. Robinson who had beaten Avonte Maddox on a nice out route.
- 1st and 10 (Own27): Shotgun (23), M. Trubisky sacked for -4 yards. Eagles rush 4, protection moderate, but not outstanding. R. Coward gets destroyed again, ends up tripping over himself. Trubisky has both A. Robinson and A. Miller open and is looking directly at them. He hesitates/pumps, and that was the end of things. Trubisky needs to trust what he sees here and get the ball out on time.
- 2nd and 14 (Own23): Shotgun (13Bunch), M. Trubsiky pass short left dropped by T. Cohen. Eagles bring 5, but the initial rush is held up briefly. Trubisky looks immediately left, eliminating the three WR route combo on the right side from the play. Left WR A. Robinson’s dig route is blanketed, so Cohen sneaking out of the backfield is Trubisky’s only option. Cohen tries to make a move before the ball is secured, leading to a drop. I'm not sure if Trubisky is meant to immediately look left here or not, but regardless, you can't just eliminate the route combination on the right side like that.
- 3rd and 14 (Own23): Shotgun (12)(Wing TE right), M. Trubisky pass short left complete to D. Montgomery for 2 yards, C. Leno holding penalty declined. Eagles rush 4 and get a strong push, but nobody breaks through. Trubisky floats left and misses an open lane to step up, forcing him to make a weak, double pump dump off to Montgomery. Eagles run a cover 3 shell and easily cover up the 3 man route. The Bears have really no chance to convert in these situations, especially on only 3 man routes.
- 1st and 10 (Own25): Singleback (21)(Wing TE left), T. Cohen jet motion left to right, D. Montgomery off left tackle for 3 yards, C. Patterson holding penalty accepted. Bears start behind the chains for a second straight drive.
- 1st and 20 (Own15): Singleback (21)(Wing TE right), D. Montgomery up the middle for 8 yards, Timmy Jernigan offsides penalty accepted. Bears get some of that holding penalty yardage back.
- 1st and 15 (Own20): Pistol (10)(Trips TE right), M. Trubisky pass short right complete to D. Montgomery for 4 yards. Eagles rush 4, R. Coward gets destroyed by Derek Barnett to create pressure on Trubisky. Looks like the Bears may have been trying to draw up a wheel route for T. Burton, but the Eagles do a decent job of shutting it down (see Burton at the top of the image below). This is a poorly designed play with only one real option down the field in Burton, leaving Trubisky no choice but to check down to Montgomery.
- 2nd and 11 (Own24): Shotgun (31), M. Trubisky quick screen left to T. Gabriel for 3 yards. Watching this live, I was unhappy with the predictability of the play call (2nd and long screen play). Re-watching it though, this play actually sets up very nicely. Trubisky gets the ball out quickly and on the numbers to Gabriel. The keys to the play are A. Robinson taking care of the corner over Gabriel (which he does) and C. Leno getting outside to block the final defender outside. Leno is far too slow, allowing Sidney Jones to shoot the gap and close the wide open lane that could have been created for Gabriel.
- 3rd and 8 (Own27): Shotgun (13), M. Trubisky sacked for -8 yards. Eagles show pressure pre-snap and bring 6. The offensive line and the back (Montgomery) actually do a good job initially picking up the blitz. However, J. Daniels doesn’t pass off his rusher to R. Coward (who ends up blocking nobody) and Derek Barnett gets a clean run through for the sack. WRs really had no chance to even get into their routes on this play, so this was doomed from the start.
- 1st and 10 (Own20): A. Shaheen false start. Bears behind the chains...... again
- 1st and 15 (Own15): Singleback (Bunch 30), A. Robinson jet motion left to right, D. Montgomery sweeps left for no gain. T. Burton prematurely passes off Nathan Gerry before C. Whitehair gets outside far enough. Whitehair never picks up Gerry, who goes on to blow up the play.
- 2nd and 15 (Own15): Shotgun (13), M. Trubisky shovel pass to T. Cohen for 3 yards. This is a designed dump off. J. Daniels releases immediately, but doesn’t take a good angle to seal off Kamu Grugier-Hill, who had dropped into coverage. C. Leno and C. Whitehair both also release, but go straight up the field instead of angling to the right side (where Cohen was designed to catch and run). A. Robinson and T. Burton both don’t block anybody either. The only guy getting mean is T. Gabriel, who actually puts a strong block on his guy. Beyond the poor execution, I also really hate this play call because it’s way too generic and not fooling anybody. The Bears have yet to threaten downfield to this point in the game, and they’re severely behind the chains. Defenses are looking for this play under these circumstances, which puts a premium on execution (which the Bears did not nail here).
- 3rd and 12 (Own18): Shotgun (21)(Wing TE left), M. Trubisky deep pass left incomplete to A. Robinson. Eagles rush 4 and Massie whiffs on his block. However, Trubisky is able to roll left away from the pressure and R. Coward gets enough of Josh Sweat to slow him up so Mitch can throw a dart to Robinson, but Robinson can’t keep his feet in bounds. In all honesty, this was probably Mitch’s best throw of the day. Rolling to his left, he drops an absolute dime to Robinson, getting it over the leaping Avonte Maddox, in front of Ronald Darby, and with enough space for Robinson to stay in bounds (see image below). There is no reason Robinson shouldn’t have made this play.
- 1st and 10 (Own36): Shotgun (12)(Wing TE right), M. Trubisky short pass right dropped by T. Cohen. The Bears call a rollout play and T. Burton and B. Massie do a good job of setting the edge. T. Cohen whips Jalen Mills on a nice comeback route and Trubisky puts the pass right on the numbers. Cohen again tries to get going before he’s secured the catch, leading to his second drop. I like that the Bears finally get Trubisky moving behind the LOS, but I have problems with the play design. Pre-snap, Burton comes across the formation from left to right to end up on the wing. The purpose of this was to allow Burton to chip the DE to help Massie before getting into his route. While this was successful, the motion causes Malcolm Jenkins to rotate down to the LOS in a press position on Burton. Jenkins, who is an outstanding defender, quickly reads the rollout and is able to pin Burton on his inside shoulder and get pressure on Trubisky, forcing a quick throw. A better play design would have Burton line up at the left wing and incorporate a run fake from right to left. Burton slide across the formation, forcing either his cover guy in man to work through traffic to stay with him, or the zone defender to identify him crossing the field (this is exactly what the Eagles did on multiple occasions with Zach Ertz). Additionally, without Jenkins having rotated down to the LOS, the extra pressure, which forced a quick throw, is not created. This leads to another issue in play design. This play is clearly designed to go to Cohen and Cohen only. It looks to me like Gabriel (in the slot on the right side of the formation) is supposed to run a corner route. However, he does not even try to create separation and does not run the route hard. If he does, there’s a good chance he can beat Avonte Maddox, who was trailing him and had no over the top help. Though Cohen was wide open, a hard running Gabriel down the field is a shot at a big play. But a missed opportunity here.
- 2nd and 10 (Own36): Shotgun (12)(Twin TE left), M. Trubisky deep pass left incomplete to T. Burton. Eagles rush 4 and B. Massie gets beat inside by Vinny Curry. Trubisky probably could have stepped into the throw more, but doesn’t get into it a bunch as he gets hit after the release. Watching this live, I thought that Burton may have cut off his route instead keeping going down the seam. But re-watching it, it looks like the throw may have instead sailed on Trubisky. Despite the pressure, Trubisky should still be able to really drive this football and hit Burton here.
- 3rd and 10 (Own36): Shotgun (22), M. Trubisky sacked for -11 yards. The Eagles bring 6 and get immediate, heavy pressure. C. Whitehair gets driven back into Trubisky’s lap. D. Montgomery gets run over. J. Daniels looks the wrong direction off snap and completely misses Genard Avery who comes through the middle untouched. R. Coward and B. Massie both actually do a good job here, but it doesn’t matter as Malcom Jenkins also gets a free run from the left side and combines with Avery for the sack. Its unfortunate there was so much pressure because it looks as though A. Robinson may have beaten his man in coverage to give Trubsiky an opportunity to hit him. But just as he was coming open, Mitch was already getting sacked. These are the challenges you face when you put yourself in 3rd and longs like this.
- 1st and 10 (Own7): Shotgun (31), M. Trubisky pass short right complete to T. Cohen for 6 yards. Eagles rush 4 and protection is airtight. This again looks like a designed play to Cohen in the flat, most likely to get the Bears away from their own end zone. It’s pretty well covered, but Cohen makes a good move to get the yardage.
- 2nd and 4 (Own13): Shotgun (32), M. Trubisky scrambles left for 7 yards, Andrew Sendejo unnecessary roughness penalty accepted. Eagles rush 4 and protection is solid, but C. Leno does get beat a bit inside by Derek Barnett. Trubisky does a good job of not forcing the ball to A. Robinson and feeling the pressure to spin out to the wide open field on the left. I like how he kept his eyes downfield during the scramble, but in the end decides to pick up the easy first down.
- 1st and 10 (Own35): Shotgun (13), M. Trubisky pass short left complete to A. Robinson for 6 yards. Eagles rush 4 and protection is strong. Robinson runs a quick hitch route and Trubisky gets the ball out on time and on the numbers for an easy catch.
- 2nd and 4 (Own41): Shotgun (23), M. Trubisky deep pass right incomplete to A. Miller. Eagles rush 4, and while the protection is moderate, R. Coward does get beat a little leading to a hurry on Trubisky. The pressure in his face again forces Trubisky to throw off his back foot, causing the ball to sail a bit. Even so, Miller doesn’t do a good job of creating any separation from Avonte Maddox. An excellent back shoulder throw could get a completion here, but its anything from easy. There may have been a way for Trubisky to maneuver in the pocket and extend the play, but it was hardly blatant. T. Gabriel looks to be open, but for only a minimal gain. I take more issue with play design here. Again the Bears are in an empty set, which is not my favorite set for them. But more so, the issue is this is really only a one receiver route with Miller on the fade (see image below). There are no other threats across the field, not only making this an easier play to cover, but also limiting options. I appreciate trying to get the ball down the field in this situation, but not in this way.
- 3rd and 4 (Own41): Shotgun (12)(Wing TE left), M. Trubisky pass intermediate right incomplete to T. Cohen. The Bears call another rollout play, but D. Montgomery misses his cut block on Josh Sweat and Malcolm Jenkins beats R. Coward to create pressure. Trubisky has a decently sized window to hit Cohen, but the throw ends up being too high (For him at least. He gets his hands on this ball in the image below, but he just doesn't have enough reach that any other receiver would have). My question here is: why is Cohen the one running this route? Cohen is 5’6". He is absolutely too small to be running this route in this window. Should Mitch have hit him? Probably, yea. Does Mitch hit literally any other receiver on this team if they’re running this route? Probably, yea.
- 1st and 10 (Own25): Offset I (11)(TE left), D. Montgomery up the middle for 7 yards. The Bears offensive line creates no movement up front and the Eagles collapse on the LOS. However, everyone has a hat on a hat and Montgomery makes a nice jump cut to make Brandon Graham miss, and he shoots through a huge hole created by a nice block by A. Shaheen on Malcolm Jenkins. Montgomery finishes with some nice power to pick up an extra 2 yards at the end of the run. I really appreciate that even though they were down 19, the Bears went power football here (like I assume they scripted during halftime). This commitment is going to pay off in a couple plays.
- 2nd and 3 (Own32): Offset I (11)(TE right), D. Montgomery off left tackle for 4 yards. C. Leno makes a good block to take Brandon Graham out of the play and JP Holtz buries Kamu Grugier-Hill on the lead block. J. Daniels is slow off the ball, but gets a nice chip from C. Whitehair to recover while Whitehair gets on to the second level. R. Coward and B. Massie also do a good job on their combo block. Montgomery misses a chance at a big time run on a cutback to the right (see image below), and instead runs into the thick of everything on the left. He gets the first down, but man, there was a huge hole there.
- 1st and 10 (Own36): Singleback (02)(Twin TE left), D. Montgomery up the middle for 2 yards. The Eagles have 8 guys in the box and the offensive line gets no push. Montgomery is able to find a small little hole though and dives forward for the short gain. This play is critical however, as I’ll explain in a second.
- 2nd and 8 (Own 38): Offset I (01)(Wing TE right), M. Trubisky pass deep left complete to T. Gabriel for 53 yards. Eagles rush 4 and get absolutely no push. All the LBs for the Eagles and Malcolm Jenkins freeze a little on the play action fake. This allows Gabriel the necessary depth to get behind Jenkins (who also looked a little lost on this play). He then puts a nice stutter step on Jalen Mills to make him think he’s going outside, and breaks free across the field. Jenkins is too slow to recover and its an easy completion. The previous three plays have set this one up, especially the first down run. The Bears line up in a power formation with only 1 WR on the field, and announce they’re going to run the ball. Instead, they go for the shot play and Trubisky hits Gabriel on the deep crossing route for a huge gain. Say what you want about "If Mitch leads Gabriel properly it’s a walk-in touchdown", Trubisky dropped this in the bread basket for an easy 50+ yard gain. From here on out, the field has been opened and now the whole offense is in a position to succeed. All because the Bears came out and ran the football three straight times to start the half.
- 1st and goal (Opp9): Shotgun (02)(Twin TE left), M. Trubisky runs left for 8 yards. The Bears run a read option with Trubisky and T. Cohen and get Derek Barnett to bite on Cohen. T. Burton gets a good, initial block on Malcolm Jenkins, but Jenkins breaks his hands and forces Trubisky to cut the run outside (cutting up could possibly have been an easy touchdown). Burton is able to recover and seal Jenkins inside to allow Trubisky the edge. A. Robinson never gets a block on Ronald Darby, keeping Trubisky from having a walk in touchdown. Trubisky is able to avoid Darby’s tackle attempt but is unable to spin out of Kamu Grugier-Hill’s grasp. The ball pops out at the end of the play, but it’s clear from re-watching that it was not a fumble (as ruled correctly on the field). I really liked this play call. The Bears finally allow Trubisky to use his athleticism and it pays off with an easy gain to inside the 1 (albeit it should have been a touchdown).
- 2nd and goal (Opp1): Singleback (12)(TE right), T. Cohen up the middle for no gain. The Bears rushed to the LOS to get a quick snap just in case there might have been a fumble on the previous play (that’s why Cohen is in the game). I’m not going to nitpick too much here because I understand why they tried to snap so quickly. The only thing I’ll say is I hate the 3 receiver set they were in. There were two TEs in the game so you could have at least gone double tight or some sort of offset I. I also don’t know why Trubisky didn’t just go for a sneak. Cohen was lucky to hang on to this football as well (he tried to extend over the goal line and it looked a little wobbly).
- 3rd and goal (Opp1): Goal-line formation, D. Montgomery off left tackle for a 1 yard touchdown. The Bears brought in an extra offensive lineman (C. Lucas) and ran right at him. The left side of the line gets a decent push to open a lane for Montgomery, but R. Coward gets beat across his face. Nonetheless, Montgomery finishes the run nicely to get into the end zone.
- 1st and 10 (Opp48): Offset I (11)(TE right), D. Montgomery off left tackle for 3 yards. The offensive line only gets a moderate amount of push, but everyone has a hat on a hat. Unfortunately, Malcolm Jenkins is unblocked off the right edge and he cuts the run down to only a modest 3 yard gain. Nonetheless, I really liked how the Bears went right back to the power game after the success on the previous drive.
- 2nd and 7 (Opp45): Offset I (11)(TE right), D. Montgomery up the middle for 1 yard. The Eagles have 8 players in the box yet again with press coverage on the outside and a single high safety. R. Coward again lets his defender (Fletcher Cox) cross his face, forcing JP Holtz to forgo blocking a LB and help. This leaves two Eagles LBs unblocked and nowhere for Montgomery to go. I’m torn on this play call. On one hand, I want to see the Bears keep pounding the rock. Despite the 8 man front, this play still could have been successful for 3+ yards if Coward doesn’t get blown up. That being said, this is a perfect opportunity for another shot play. With the single high safety, a play action fake and a two man route with A. Robinson (covered by Ronald Darby) and Taylor Gabriel (covered by Jalen Mills) down the field is a better play call in my opinion. Have max protection and allow Trubisky look the safety off and see if a WR can beat a guy or win a 50/50 ball. Especially in this part of the field, that is a missed opportunity.
- 3rd and 7 (Opp45): Shotgun (23), M. Trubisky pass short left incomplete to A. Robinson. Eagles rush 5 and the Bears pick everyone up, but C. Whitehair gives too much ground and gets pushed back into Trubisky. Additionally, R. Coward lets Vinny Curry cross his face, gives him one shove, then blocks someone else’s guy. The Eagles are in press man across the board (except whoever is guarding Cordarrelle Patterson, I can't make out the number) with a single high safety again. Every receiver runs a route to the sticks. This play is bad on so many different levels. First, the Bears are again in an empty set. Second, every receiver is running a stick route, which is a common theme for the Bears in third and medium situations. There are no threats of them going down the field, which is exactly why the Eagles are in press man in this situation. Also, you can see how predictable the call is by the way that Rasual Douglas covers Robinson (see bottom of image below). He is inside of him, looking directly at him, and waiting for him to breakdown at the sticks. This is why this pass has no chance of completion. This also makes me wonder: when was the last time the Bears ran anyone on a double move? The final thing that bugs me about this play is that Trubisky misses the only open receiver on this play. Patterson was the only guy who wasn’t being pressed at the LOS (he had 7 yards of separation). Having to respect Patterson’s speed, the corner over him ends up backpedaling a couple yards off snap as well, leaving Patterson more than enough cushion and Trubisky enough room to fire one in there for the first down (see top of image below). But Trubisky puts too much faith in Robinson and it backfires. Whether this is just a poor read on his part or just too much reliance on Robinson/lack of faith in other WRs is hard to tell. This was a frustrating drive because they started already in plus territory and couldn’t even get a first down.
- 1st and 10 (Own42): I-formation (11)(TE left), M. Trubisky pass deep right incomplete to A. Robinson. The Bears run a play action fake. The Eagles only rush 4 and the pocket is pristine. Robinson runs a good route and gets behind Jalen Mills. Trubisky gets to the top of his drop and gets completely into this throw, however, it's slightly underthrown which allows Mills to recover enough to make a good play on the ball and Robinson is unable to hang on. Again, I love the Bears coming out and calling a shot play right away. The Eagles have 8 in the box with 1 high safety yet again. The Bears commitment to the run on the previous two drives (even despite facing 8 man fronts) allows the play action to be successful. Contrary to popular belief, this was not a bad throw by Trubisky. I saw many people complaining about how Robinson beat his man but Trubisky drastically underthrew him and let the defender make a play. Let’s clear a few things up here: first off, this throw was going directly into a wind of maybe 10-15 mph (trust me, it was blowing directly into my face all game, it wasn’t fun). Second, despite the ball being underthrown, Robinson only has to take a couple of false steps to slow down for the ball. Granted, this is enough time for Mills to recover to make a play on the ball, but nonetheless, this ball is still in a very good position for Robinson to bring it in. Robinson tries to high point the ball, but he doesn’t go and get it well enough (see image below). He kinda catches the ball in his body (where Mills can make a play) instead of out in front (where Mills can’t). Even though Mills is able to make some sort of play, I still think this is a ball Robinson should get. Trubisky certainly could make a better throw, but the throw he did make definitely put his receiver in a good position to make a play.
- 2nd and 10 (Own42): Shotgun (22), D. Montgomery up the middle for 2 yards. R. Coward whiffs on his block. Live, I hated this play call. On my full speed re-watch, I hated this play call. Watching in slow motion however, I’m actually moderately impressed by the play design. The Bears draw up a play for the RG/RT to not block the DT/DE on their side, and instead, immediately work to the next level. C. Whitehair comes across on a trap block, which takes out the DT and actually seals off the DE to create a seam to run through. However, yet again Coward gets beat. He’s off-balance on his block picking up the A-gap blitzer (Genard Avery), who just throws him to the side with ease to blow up the play. If Coward doesn’t miss this block, this run probably goes for 10+ yards easily (see the unblocked man in the image below).
- 3rd and 8 (Own44): Shotgun (31), M. Trubisky pass medium left to T. Gabriel for 13 yards. Eagles rush 4 and the Bears create a smooth pocket. Trubisky is able to step up and fire a dart to Gabriel (I swear I saw a puff of smoke behind this pass). Gabriel does a great job of finding the hole in the coverage and sitting there, while Mitch does a great job of finding him (it looks to me that Gabriel may have been either the second or third read on this play). Well called and execute play for a big first down.
- 1st and 10 (Opp43): Shotgun (03), T. Cohen jet motion right to left, M. Trubisky pass deep middle complete to D. Montgomery for 30 yards. Eagles rush 4 and the Bears create a solid, but collapsing pocket. Cohen’s jet motion creates confusion in the Eagles LB core, allowing free runs on crossing routes by T. Burton (short crosser) and A. Robinson (deep crosser). While struggling to pick up the crossing routes, the Eagles secondary loses track of Montgomery, who sneaks out of the backfield and up the seam for probably the easiest completion of the day. This play is exceptionally designed. The pre-snap motion by Cohen accomplishes its goal by freezing and confusing the short cover guys. In recovering, two guys end up covering the same player (Burton). Robinson’s deep crossing route is able to hold both the safeties, and Montgomery is able to have a picnic in the middle of the field because there’s so much space. Give Nagy a gold star on this one.
- 1st and 10 (Opp13): Shotgun (13), M. Trubisky pass short left complete to C. Patterson for 5 yards. Eagles rush 4 and the offensive line creates a clean pocket. Trubisky hits Patterson (who is wide open) on an easy timing route. This is the 4th straight play the Bears were in the shotgun, and I’m not even mad. Now that they have established the power game under center, the field has opened up, and now so can the offense. Here, the Bears run a simple 2-man route concept with D. Montgomery running in the flat and Patterson sitting down between the coverage. It’s a simple play design, but it’s a good extension of the running game to set up 2nd and manageable inside the 10.
- 2nd and 5 (Opp8): Singleback (31), C. Patterson jet motion left to right, T. Cohen sweeps left for 7 yards. M. Trubisky fakes the jet sweep to Patterson before flipping it out to Cohen. The Bears pull both C. Whitehair and C. Leno on the toss, leaving J. Daniels in a tough position to have to reach Timmy Jernigan. While he gets manhandled, Daniels is able to stay engaged and keep Jernigan from blowing up the play. On the front side, C. Patterson absolutely flattens Derek Barnett on an excellent block. Daniels does a great job of looking inside on his pull and is able to seal off Malcolm Jenkins from making a play in the backfield from the backside. Leno is able to get down the field and body up Ronald Darby, leaving everyone sealed off on the play side. But man, I gotta give Fletcher Cox credit on this play. He fights off a solid block by B. Massie on the backside, then takes a perfect angle (fighting through traffic) to track down Cohen to keep the play from being an easy touchdown. I like this play call a lot because this is exactly what Cohen is supposed to be used for. Great misdirection design and great execution.
- 1st and goal (Opp1): Goal-line formation, D. Montgomery off left tackle for no gain. The Bears try a power play, pulling Coward and blocking down on the left side. Leno/Whitehair/Daniels all actually do a solid job of washing everything down and a crease opens, but Coward is soft on his pull and catches the defender instead of exploding through him, causing the hole to be smaller and forcing Montgomery back into traffic. In order to get through it, Montgomery needs to hurdle and this loses him all power and he is stopped by reinforcements. One thing that I didn’t get here was there was absolutely no one in the right side A-gap defensively. Why was their no audible to a straight QB sneak right at the wide open gap?
- 2nd and goal (Opp1): Singleback (00)(Twin TE left), D. Montgomery up the middle for a 1 yard touchdown. Left side of the offensive line gets a solid push and Montgomery finishes with the leap over the top.
- 1st and 10 (Own30): Offset I (02), D. Montgomery off right tackle for 17 yards. B. Massie takes Derek Barnett out of the play immediately while J. Daniels and R. Coward make a nice combo block. JP Holtz makes another strong lead block to take Kamu Grugier-Hill out of the play. The play is really made by C. Whitehair, who completely seals off the backside (Malcolm Jenkins in particular). Montgomery is able to find a seam and then finishes with some strong power (9 yards after contact and 1 broken tackle). Again, the Bears come out in a power formation and pound the ball successfully.
- 1st and 10 (Own47): Singleback (10)(Twin TE left), D. Montgomery up the middle for 1 yard. 9... count them... 9 guys in the box on this play. The Bears run the ball left (5 players to block 6 defenders). The offensive line doesn’t get any movement really and TJ Edwards has no trouble stepping up to fill the hole. The beef I have with this play is two-fold. First, lets focus on play design. JP Holtz (who lined up at wing TE) comes across the formation. While this brings Jalen Mills out of the play, it also eliminates an additional blocker play side. I’d personally rather go 5 on 6 with that 6th man being a 6’0" 190 corner than 4 on 5. Now for play call. It’s not good at all. The Bears line up in this power formation which I love, but there’s no adjustment to the 9 guys in the box. For starters, the offense brought in an additional offensive lineman (C. Lucas) who was on the right side of the line. This basically eliminates any chance of throwing the ball to that position, allowing the defense to focus more heavily elsewhere. The positive of bringing in Lucas though is the improved blocking over a TE. A run to the right side would have been a much better call, specifically because they had even numbers going that direction (4 on 4). Additionally, there’s more than a few passing plays that could have been successful in this situation: a play action fake to take a shot down the field to T. Gabriel or to A. Shaheen on a deep crossing route, a play action fake that send Montgomery into the flat and Shaheen across the field for a high low look, or a play action fake left into a roll right that has Shaheen running a deep crossing route and JP Holtz coming across the formation in the backfield into the flat. Any of the play calls I just mentioned were monumentally better than what Nagy called in this situation. I could argue that this play call cost the Bears the game, but it’s going to have to compete with the 3rd down call as well.
- 2nd down and 9 (Own48): Singleback (21)(Wing TE right), M. Trubisky screen pass dropped by D. Montgomery. The Bears run a play action fake to Montgomery, followed by a fake end around to T. Gabriel. This misdirection really froze the entire Philly defense and this play set up so beautifully. Trubisky drops the ball over the top of the rush right to Montgomery (he couldn’t have handed him the ball any better). J. Daniels has manhandled the only Eagles defender in the vicinity, R. Coward has sealed off the weak side reinforcements, and C. Whitehair is out in front as a lead blocker. This play was coming right into our end zone and believe me when I say, Montgomery would still be running. As much as I just trashed Nagy for the previous play call and design, this was perfect on both accounts. It just wasn’t executed by Montgomery.
- 3rd down and 9 (Own48): Singleback (11)(Double wing TEs), M. Trubisky pass short right incomplete to A. Shaheen. The Bears run a play action fake to D. Montgomery, but no one bites. The Eagles bring 6 and a stunt up front. The blitz actually gets picked up, but yet again, R. Coward gets eaten alive by Brandon Graham who creates heavy pressure and forces the ball out of Trubisky’s hands. Fletcher Cox also breaks through a J. Daniels block to create secondary pressure. Both Shaheen and JP Holtz run check and release routes and both A. Robinson and T. Gabriel run streaks. Ronald Darby pretty much blankets Gabriel, but Robinson beats Rasul Douglas. Trubisky looks right at Gabriel coming out of the play fake, realizes he's not open and that heavy pressure is coming, so it gets it out to his hot read (which was Shaheen). Where to start with this play? First off, why on 3rd and 9 do you have your two backup TEs in the game (one of which is a primary blocker)? You shouldn't have two TEs in the game in this situation, and neither Holtz nor Shaheen should have been on the field. That leads to a second issue: why are you under center in a double wing formation? Of all the times Nagy has refused to line up under center, why choose now to stay out of the shotgun? Finally, who is biting on a play action fake on 3rd and 9? Trubisky may have missed Robinson running open down the field on this play because he looked to his right first instead of his left, but this play call was absolutely horrible. I was (and still am) in disbelief over how bad this was.
I hope you enjoyed looking through the play-by-play film analysis. I am always open to hearing rebuttals if you think I analyzed a play incorrectly, or if you just want to talk a little Bears football on a higher level. It remains to be seen if Trubisky is the QB of the future for the Chicago Bears, and I think the team should explore options elsewhere for competition, but I do not think he deserves the reputation that he has been given (both by Bears fans and the national sports media).
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