Chicago Bears using pass as extension of running game
The Chicago Bears rushing attack has been lackluster this season. However, to compensate the team has done a good job at feeding Tarik Cohen in the passing game
The Chicago Bears rushing attack has not gone to plan. You can blame Jordan Howard, Kyle Long, Matt Nagy; whoever is at fault it has not been efficient or effective.
Jordan Howard has one 100-yard game this season and Tarik Cohen has not topped 70 on the ground. However, while the run game has yet to get going the Chicago Bears have still moved the ball effectively and won games.
Some of that has to do with how well they have been able to pass the football to their running backs, namely Tarik Cohen.
Since Week 12 the Chicago Bears have targeted their running backs on 33% of targets. That number is a bit ballooned because of Chase Daniel but they still threw to their backs 26% of the time in the last two Trubisky starts. League average for this stat 21%.
They are going to the running backs in the passing game more often because they have been extremely efficient throwing to them out of the backfield. In the past two games 55% of their passes have graded successfully, which ranks fourth in the NFL. That is also third in the NFL at 7.6 yards per attempt.
As shown in his next gen charts , these are not deep and intricate routes that Cohen is running. However, they are passes that get the ball out of the hands of Mitch Trubisky quick and they get the defense having to pause before rushing upfield. They are as valuable as rushing attempts.
Even Jordan Howard has a catch for 15 yards against the Packers. When adding in catches Howard had 20 touches for 75 yards and Tarik Cohen had 11 touches for 52 yards. He had 13 touches for 89 yards the week before.
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It is not the conventional way to look at a team and their rushing attack. However, the Bears passes to their running backs are more effective than runs and have been a staple of the offense recently.