Chris Long is a good authority on what it takes to win a Super Bowl. He did it twice in his career. First with the New England Patriots in 2016 and then a year later with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2017. So he’s seen the blueprint in regards to what a team must have in order to complete the mission. That is why it was interesting to hear his thoughts on “Kap & Company” while speaking to David Kaplan and his brother Kyle Long.
The conversation started out with basketball and the state of the Chicago Bulls. Inevitably, things came around to the Chicago Bears. Chris is well aware of this team’s situation at quarterback with Mitch Trubisky and their offense in general. He was rather frank on the subject. He called the 25-year old a middle-of-the-road player, which isn’t all bad. It does mean though he needs a proper system around him in order to have success.
Right now, what the Bears have in Matt Nagy’s system isn’t going to cut it. Why?
“The biggest thing that I watch when I see Chicago is…and I said this to Kyle when I played them in the playoffs. I didn’t feel like it was a physical outfit. They have physical players, but the scheme has to be physical. If the scheme is physical, it takes pressure off Mitch.”
Kyle remembered asking his brother after the loss to Philadelphia last January. Could the Bears have made a run to the Super Bowl had they won that game? Chris replied simply, “No shot. You guys weren’t physical enough.”
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Chris Long was candid and not entirely wrong
Nobody likes to hear something like that. This idea that their team or at least half of it might be soft. Yet that is the case and it’s honestly hard to argue. Every time the Bears have run into a top contender this past season, they were decisively dismissed. A big reason was that their offense wasn’t able to impose their will at all. Just look at games against the Raiders, Saints, Eagles, and Chiefs. Each of those opponents held the Bears completely in check for at least the first half with minimal yards and few if any points.
They finished 27th in rushing on top of that. Those are not the signs of a physical football team.
Maybe this is a big reason why Nagy decided to overhaul his offensive staff in January. Juan Castillo, Bill Lazor, Clancy Barone, and John DeFilippo are new faces. All of them have considerable NFL experience including Super Bowl rings. That might just be the jolt this system needs to start playing at a level customary of old school Bears football. At least that’s the hope.
