0 Comments

Audibles From the Long Snapper

| November 3rd, 2009

Born to Run
You want to know what’s dogging the Bears offense?  Brad Biggs breaks it down quite effectively in his Sun-Times column: 

They are tied for 25th in the NFL in red-zone efficiency at 44.4 percent (12-for-27).

Here’s the kicker: Entering Monday, only six teams had more
opportunities inside the 20-yard line. If the Bears were 50 percent
better on their missed chances, they would be regarded as an offensive
juggernaut.

Red zone efficiency more often than not comes down to play-calling and here’s a fact: on every first down in the red zone, the Bears called a run.  (Not withstanding a first-and-two with five minutes left.)  These are the same Bears who can’t run the ball and whom Lovie Smith called “a running football team” in Monday’s presser.  I often make the argument that we give athletes and coaches the benefit of the intelligence doubt but you know what?  These guys aren’t smart.  They’re jocks.  And they really like proving it.

It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City

David Haugh offers ten ways to fix the Bears offense
and he gets it right from the start.  The best player on this offense
is the quarterback and the offense will produce nothing until the team
utilizes his very special abilities.  What we overlooked for the past
few years is how a limited quarterback may have covered up scheme and
play-calling flaws in the name of “a conservative approach”.  You wanna
score like the Saints or the Pats or the Colts?  You have to trust the
guy throwing the ball.  You wanna score like the Bears?  You trust Ron
Turner.

Nothing Man

When did the expectations for Tommie Harris get so low?  Vaughn McClure’s Trib piece
has Alex Brown calling him “amazing” and Lovie Smith calling him
“disruptive”.  I don’t know what word I would use to describe his
performance against the Browns but I’d start with “pretty
good…against the Browns.”