Matt Nagy was at least a man of his word on Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers. He promised the Chicago Bears would run the ball a lot more than the seven times they managed against New Orleans the week before. This they did. The Bears ran the ball 38 times for 162 yards including a touchdown. David Montgomery led the way with 135 yards. That was only part of the surprise though. The other part was how the offense went about running the ball.
Previously the Bears have been mostly known for a run-pass option style where the quarterback is in shotgun and either hands the ball to the running back or pulls back to throw. That has not worked much at all for the offense all year long. So Nagy and his coaching staff decided to try something a little different. A little more old school. They began to run it out of the I-formation.
This is where the quarterback is under center with a fullback behind him and the running back behind the fullback. Then they run it straight ahead. It was a throwback to classic Bears football, and it worked. Chicago averaged over eight yards per play when in the I-formation during that game. So when he was asked whether the Bears might incorporate more of it moving forward, he didn’t dismiss the idea.
“That’s in the West Coast offense. Back in the day that used to be three yards and a cloud of dust. So it sounds like eight yards and a cloud of dust. So I like that. Whatever works, I’m down with. I don’t know if we’ll do more of it or less of it. We’ll just have to wait and see.”
Keep in mind that Nagy was smirking by the end of it.
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Matt Nagy needs to gear the offense around Montgomery
Though the Bears only scored 16 points, they had several trips inside the Chargers’ red zone on Sunday. They easily could’ve scored more than 30 had they been able to execute better in goal-to-go situations. If nothing else, this game proves that the best course of action for Nagy was to reform the offensive identity around Montgomery and the rushing attack. This due in large part to the ongoing consistency issues with Mitch Trubisky at quarterback.
It may not be the offensive plan Nagy had in mind when the year began, but with the Bears 3-4, he can’t afford to be stubborn about this. They need to start scoring more points. If reverting to classic power football is the way that will happen, then he knows he has to embrace that reality.
