A lot of people aren’t happy with Chicago Bears offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains. That’s understandable. After all he’s the man responsible for the development of Mitch Trubisky. This kid is the first top five QB drafted by this franchise in 34 years. He’s kind of a big deal in terms of the Bears’ future. This is not a coaching job they can afford to get wrong.
So naturally there’s a lot of pressure on Loggains. Thus far through four games people aren’t impressed. Chicago ranks dead last in passing. Trubisky hasn’t even thrown for 200 yards in a game yet. There is an appalling predictability to he plays called. Little creativity on getting receivers open and giving the rookie easier looks.
This is hard to understand because a year ago the Bears were quite adept at this. Loggains got over 4,000 yards passing from a combination of Jay Cutler, Brian Hoyer and Matt Barkley. Now all of a sudden he’s running the ball a ton and the play calling has been vanilla to say the least. At least one notable person thinks something fishy is up.
Matt Hasselbeck baffled by Dowell Loggains 2017 approach
One man who knows Loggains well and also something about great QB play in the NFL is Matt Hasselbeck. The man is a three-time Pro Bowler, took a team to a Super Bowl and played until the age of 40. He knows what good offensive coaching looks like and believes Loggains has it. That’s especially true when throwing the football.
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The Bears’ offense mystifies Matt Hasselbeck, a Pro Bowl quarterback for the Seahawks who is now an ESPN analyst. He can’t believe offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains is running the ball this much.
“I’m a big believer in what Dowell Loggains does as a play-caller and as an offensive coordinator,” said Hasselbeck, who spent two seasons with Loggains with the Titans. “To see him running the ball as much as he is, it’s almost confusing to me because I know what he is.
“He’s a little bit of a Jedi master/ninja warrior drawing up pass plays and even pass protection. He’s really good at that.”
Indeed prior to this year Loggains never passed the ball less than 55% of all offensive plays. This year the Bears are throwing it just 49.79% of the time. So it’s clear something has suddenly altered his decision-making. Head coach John Fox is at the heart of it. The old coach has a long history of heavily favoring the run over the pass, especially when he doesn’t trust the quarterback and/or his receivers.
It’s not hard at all to see him telling Loggains to keep the ball on the ground. Hasselbeck isn’t opposed to the idea of running to protect Trubisky. He feels that’s what the Bears do best right now. At the same time he warns against sticking with that method the entire season.
“It’s sometimes how you coach a young quarterback: ‘Hey, just run the ball, don’t turn the ball over and we win,’ ” Hasselbeck said. “I don’t think that’s necessarily always true. At some point, the quarterback has to play really good football.”
They can’t do that until the shackles are taken off Loggains.
