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Bears on the run, but not the right way
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When you think of the Chicago Bears, you think "Monsters of the Midway."
You think Butkus. Ditka. Payton. Black and blue.
It's an identity. A tradition. A stamp.
That's why the Bears' 0-4 start is a most uncomfortable 0-4. They're not
even losing the Bears' way.
|  | | Cade McNown has a quarterback rating of 72.8 in eight starts this season. |
Bears? Winnie the Pooh is more like it. They don't run the football. They
don't stop the run.
Wednesday, the Bears decided to change some of these dynamics. They moved
Curtis Enis to fullback with James Allen moving into the feature back role.
If you listen to ESPN analyst Merril Hoge, a former Bear, part of the
problem at least is being addressed.
"Curtis Enis has no business being on the field," said Hoge, taking a
break from watching tape at NFL Films. "He's soft, he's sluggish, he can't
get to the perimeter. He's hampering an offense that's already hampered."
Hoge also believes the defense has a lot of problems, and he agrees on one
universal idea about the Bears -- "they have no difference-maker on the
defensive line, a guy other teams have to double-team and game-plan around."
In their first three games against the Minnesota Vikings, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New
York Giants, the Bears allowed 171.3 yards rushing per game, the 30th-worst mark in the NFL.
On offense, they had a very deceptive three-game average of 105.7 rushing
yards per game. It's deceptive because second-year quarterback Cade McNown was
the leading rusher after three games with 140 yards on 17 carries (an 8.2 average). When your
leading rusher is the quarterback, it's a problem.
Granted, the Vikings, Bucs and Giants were a collective 9-0 after Week 3.
Maybe it's been the (bad) luck of the draw.
However, there were signs in preseason that this overly-hyped Bears team
was headed down the wrong path. Preseason games don't normally tell you much
because teams play so "vanilla" -- or very basic. But the one thing basic
football does tell you is whether a team is physical or not, because that's
the one component that is demanded.
Word around preseason was that the Bears were physically soft.
There's a reason for that. During much of training camp, teams work
against each other. The Bears don't emphasize the run on offense, so the
defense gets very little quality work against it.
Funny, how the tide turns. Offensive coordinator Gary Crowton was hailed
as an innovator a year ago with his four-wideout scheme that featured
creative screen passes and delivered three 1,000-yard passers on one team -- Shane Matthews, Jim Miller and McNown. When it's working, and the team is winning, it's fun to watch.
Crowton has an excellent reputation. He is head-coach material. In fact,
he might be the ideal successor to LaVell Edwards at BYU (Crowton is a BYU
man). He just might be in the wrong place. Give him a team in the Sun Belt.
Or one that plays in a dome, a la the St. Louis Rams. Hey, the Bears play at
Soldier Field. Give me Green Berets football.
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This team is worse than last year -- and that surprises me because I
thought the Bears would be a playoff team. ” |
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— ESPN's Merril Hoge |
"I think we all picture the Bears in the past, but that's not the way it
is," said Mark Hatley, Bears vice president of personnel. "Every franchise
changes, and we knew when we brought Gary Crowton in here that our offense
would change. We're more spread out. We're more open. It was last year and
people here were excited about it. Now, we happen to have a young
quarterback who's struggling a bit."
Truth is, as Ron Jaworski often preaches, offensive football is about
balance. You must be able to pass the football, and you must be able to run.
Jaws, Hoge's partner on "Edge NFL Matchup," thinks McNown is being set up for failure.
"The Bears are trying to do too much, especially with a young
quarterback," said Jaworski. "The concepts of Crowton's offense, the
principles, they're all good. But when you have a young quarterback, you've
got to bring him along a little slower.
"There's also no real staple to the offense. Good teams, when things are
not going well, have something they can fall back on. The Bears don't, and
the pressure falls on McNown. That's too much to handle for a young
quarterback."
It could be the Bears got caught in transition when Dick Jauron was hired to
replace Dave Wannstedt as head coach. Hatley drafted a power runner (Enis) in the '98 draft
to fit Wannstedt's offensive tastes for power football. As Hoge pointed out,
Enis turned out to be another Penn State bust, and Crowton has probably wasted
valuable time trying to fit him into the scheme.
Back in April, the Bears owned the No. 9 pick in the draft. Privately,
they hoped Virginia's Thomas Jones would slip to them as an ideal fit to their offense.
"He would have been perfect," said Hoge, "because they don't have a back
to fit Crowton's system."
Instead, Jones went No. 7 to Arizona. The Bears settled on New Mexico
safety Brian Urlacher, who is making a tough transition to middle linebacker.
That's part of the problem defensively. The Bears have made some changes,
have some injuries, and don't have a player who can impact a game with a big play.
"Urlacher, I think, could be an impact player at his college position
(safety)," said Hoge. "He's been moved to linebacker because of his size
(6-foot-4, 255 pounds), but you can see he has the speed to play safety and he has the
athleticism. I mean, (ex-Bengal) David Fulcher was bigger than Urlacher, and
Urlacher is faster and more athletic, and I like his football instincts."
Now, all that optimism that projected the Bears as a playoff team -- a
"surprise" team, remember -- is fading fast. In fact, Jauron's team has lost seven of its last eight games and 11 of 14 since a
promising start in his first season in 1999.
"This team is worse than last year -- and that surprises me because I
thought the Bears would be a playoff team," said Hoge.
Hatley isn't panicked, but he doesn't necessarily buy into the theory
that expectations were too high for his young team.
"I guess you can always say that, especially after our start," he said.
"I thought it would depend on how we got out of the gate. If we could have
split in our first two games (against the Vikings and Bucs), I think we could
have built some momentum and confidence.
"Realistically, I think we had a
chance to win two out of the three. And I know Tampa beat us 41-0, but it
wasn't a 41-0 game. We've played three good football teams who have been
better at execution. If we do some of the basic things better, we'll win our share of games."
Running the football is basic.
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