The Chicago Bears have dropped to 0-3 and their offensive coordinator, Dowell Loggains, may be at the top of a long list of problems.
The Chicago Bears lost on Sunday Night Football to the Dallas Cowboys 31-17. I start this article off with the score because odds are you didn’t watch the second half after the Bears weren’t competitive for the first half of the game and found themselves down 24-3.
With a struggling offense, the game was over at that point. The Bears looked somewhat competitive in the second half but it was far too little, too late and Chicago dropped to 0-3. After just three games, it’s clear the Bears have a multitude of problems. It’s simply impossible to pinpoint their struggles on just one thing, but what one can do is prioritize which issues are impacting the team more than others.
Of all of the Chicago Bears’ problems, Dowell Loggains is at the top of the list.
Loggains was promoted from quarterback coach to offensive coordinator to keep Jay Cutler happy and keep the same offensive system in place. Adam Gase took his talents to South Beach and Loggains’ job was to pick up where Gase left off and keep the offense trending in the right direction.
Simply put, that hasn’t happened. The Bears offense has looked out of sorts the entire season. The running game has struggled, the pass protection has been weak, and the play of the skill positions has been inconsistent (at best).
When the offense is running at this type of dysfunctional level, you have to look at the top, and that top is Loggains.
Loggains has been a quarterbacks coach for most of his career, he had a brief stint as offensive coordinator of the Tennessee Titans in 2012-2013, but his offense consistently ranked in the bottom third of the league.
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In 2015, the Bears offense ranked 23rd in points, so far in 2016 they have dropped to 30th. In yards per game, the Bears have dropped from 21st to 25th. Some of the offensive personnel has changed, but for the most part, the only major change has been Gase to Loggains.
The biggest issue facing the Bears offense is their inability to sustain any type of scoring drives.
The Bears have had 33 possessions so far on the season. Of those drives, five have ended in touchdowns, one ended in a FG, and the other ended in a missed FG. Every other drive has ended in a turnover on downs, a punt, or a turnover. That means the Bears are scoring on just 18% of their drives. By comparison, the Philadelphia Eagles have scored on 17 of their 33 drives (52%).
It seems that it’s something different biting the Bears in the rear each drive. Sometimes it’s a costly penalty, sometimes it’s a sack, sometimes it’s the lack of a running game. It doesn’t seem to matter, but the Bears offense can’t put it together.
This has created a situation where the Bears haven’t had one scoring drive over 5 minutes on the season. The Bears’ opponents have had the ball for 107:43 while the Bears have held possession for only 72:17. That’s over a 35 minute difference over only three games. The offensive struggles have forced the defense on the field constantly. When that’s the situation, eventually, the defense is going to buckle thanks to fatigue.
Marc Trestman taught us that it doesn’t matter what players you might have on the field, if they aren’t coached properly, they won’t win football games. Loggains’ offense is lost. Perhaps he can right the ship with this unit but at this point that doesn’t appear to be happening any time soon.
It seems irrelevant whether it’s Jay Cutler or Brian Hoyer under center, the Bears offense seems to be stuck in the mud. They’ve had 13 drives this season (out of 33) where they have failed to gain one first down. The Bears offense is predictable and uninspiring. When there are this many failures with one unit, you have to look at its captain.
Loggains is clearly over his head. Firing a coordinator in the middle of the season usually does very little to spark the team, but you have to wonder if they are considering it at Halas Hall. It’s only three games in and the Bears will look at injuries to Cutler and now Jeremy Langford as to why the offense might be struggling, but if this continues into late October and into November, the Bears will certainly consider making a change.
It’s doubtful the Bears will fire John Fox at season’s end just two years into his contract, but management will not accept the status quo. They will demand some type of substantial change and Loggains will certainly be the man to go.
The Bears have problems- a lot of problems. But none of them seem significant as long as Dowell Loggains is calling plays. If the offense doesn’t begin to click, the Bears will undoubtedly regress this year. That type of season is going to put both Fox and Ryan Pace on the hot seat heading into 2017. If the Bears want to start building something in Chicago, they need stability but it appears that Loggains has turned any stability into a rickety old bridge.
Bill Zimmerman is an editor and featured writer for FanSided‘s BearGogglesOn. Like his Facebook page or follow him on Twitter for more news and interaction.