Chicago Bears: 5 changes the coaches must consider to beat Bengals

The Chicago Bears Must Make This Fifth Change: Help the offensive line

There are ways that a coach can help an offensive line that is struggling. Running the ball is one way, but that is not something that the Chicago Bears did wrong last week — shockingly. The Bears ran the ball 22 times last week with David Montgomery and Damien Williams. A power running game is something that helps most offensive lines. This is not the only way to help.

In fact, what Matt Nagy and the Bears tried to do last week is a way to help the offensive line. Honestly, I don’t have a problem with the game plan last week, or I should say the main premise of the game plan. It was a good idea to get the ball out of Andy Dalton’s hand quickly to keep Aaron Donald and others from having enough time to attack. Where Matt Nagy went wrong is that he did not set up these passes to open up the deep game.

That’s right, we talked about how play action can be used to open up the deep ball. I even brought up how the deep ball can open up other areas too. The thing is, being too one-dimensional is predictable. Once you show them what is working and the defense tries to predict it, then you have to throw in some wrinkles to keep them on their toes. The success the Chicago Bears had moving the football, should have left deeper routes to be more open, but they have to take their shots. Matt Nagy stuck to his only vanilla offense.

Something Matt Nagy and the coaches could do is to design some rollouts. This again is a situation that is frustrating seeing Andy Dalton out there — he is not the most agile. Moving the pocket around is something that we have heard Olin Kreutz talk about forever now.

https://twitter.com/olin_kreutz/status/1211359764451667970?s=20

He understands that little shifts and rollouts can help cover up some deficiencies an offensive line may have. Adding another blocker is an option too. Bringing in Cole Kmet and/or Jesse James could be key. Chicago only ran out of a 12-personnel package 17 percent of the time. With this offensive line, that number should probably be more like 25 to 30 percent.

Adding in these little wrinkles and nuances is what a good offensive-minded coach does. Unfortunately, we are not seeing that enough from Matt Nagy’s offense. These are the little things that set a below-average coach apart from a good coach and a good coach apart from becoming a great coach. What kind of coach does Nagy want to be?