Where have the Chicago Bears and Shane Waldron gone wrong?
Matt Forte and I went on to discuss the current state of the Chicago Bears as a team -- especially the state of the coaching staff. As we all know, Shane Waldron was fired this week and I wanted to hear what Matt Forte had to say about the situation.
"When it comes to where they are at now, I think it could be a good thing. Maybe Thomas [Brown] will lean more into the running game and establishing the run and focusing on that. It is obviously exciting when you have a new, first-round, first-pick, former Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback. And yeah, you want to throw the ball and do all the bells and whistles and stuff, but when it comes to NFL football you have to be smashmouth. You have to have a physical type of run game to complement your defense. Very rarely can a quarterback come in and take the full shoulder and change the game on his own. It takes everybody and that is why football is so great. It is the ultimate team sport."Matt Forte
Forte has inner knowledge of how this Bears organization runs from top to bottom. He has been in multiple locker rooms. He has seen some work and some not work. He has seen offenses succeed and offenses struggle. We talked about what he thinks has been going wrong with the Chicago Bears offense.
"The offensive coordinator's job is to do is to put guys in position. If you are playing against tough defenses, 50/50 is not good enough. You are gonna have to put them in positions like 75/25, 80/20, 90/10. Whereas you have the benefit of knowing where you are going, and the defense has to react. They are always going to be a step behind because they are reacting. But if you are on your heels all the time, they get paid too."Matt Forte
Forte goes on to call out specific plays that should never be happening. He mentioned the game against Indianapolis and called out the option play to D'Andre Swift. He mentioned the "Refrigerator Perry" play with Doug Kramer. He even talked about the fake run, faked the reverse, and then threw to the reverse play that went for an eight-yard loss. You can tell he's still dialed into this team but is frustrated like the rest of us Chicago Bears fans who want to see the team run more high-percentage plays -- especially in those situations. He was also frustrated with the Hail Mary situation.
In this short interview, I could tell how competitive Matt Forte still is as a person. It is exciting to see him continue to embrace the city of Chicago by giving back where he can. We at BearGogglesOn wish him the best of luck in the pickleball tournament next week!