Bears' Marshall missing in action

One of the things missing from the Bears' disappointing offense this season is Brandon Marshall.

The Bears aren't ready yet to put the five-time Pro Bowler's picture on milk cartons. But Marshall has not had nearly the impact expected from a player who had a combined 218 receptions for 2,803 yards in the 2012 and '13 seasons, his first two with the Bears.

With just 19 receptions for 188 yards through five games, Marshall is on pace for 61 catches and 610 yards. That's a steep plummet from the 99 catches and 1,249 yards Marshall averaged over the previous seven seasons.

A big reason for the drop-off is the sprained ankle that kept the 30-year-old out of practice for most of a three-week stretch and limited his effectiveness for at least two games.

But Marshall had a full week of practice leading up to Sunday's 31-24 loss to the Carolina Panthers, and he was allegedly full speed, yet he produced just 3 catches for 44 yards.

Fourth on the Bears in receptions and receiving yards this season, Marshall was succinct in his assessment of the latest defeat.

“We just lost it in the second half,” he said. “We didn't do well in the second half. We've got to play better. They just outplayed us. We didn't make those plays when they were giving them to us.”

Marshall is clearly not happy, and with good reason, according to coach Marc Trestman.

“Brandon is not happy because he's not being as productive as we'd like him to be, and he's not contributing like he wants to contribute to the offense,” Trestman said. “So he's not happy about it, and neither are we.

“But he comes to work every day, he prepares, he works hard in practice. He shouldn't be happy, and we wouldn't want him to be happy, having this kind of productivity.”

Back-to-back losses have done nothing to brighten Marshall's demeanor or that of any other Bear, as the team languishes at 2-3 with a game against the equally disappointing and also 2-3 Falcons in Atlanta on the horizon.

“We haven't won the last two weeks,” Trestman said. “That's No. 1.”

No. 1A probably is the lack of attention Marshall has received in Trestman's offense. He was targeted a season-low five times against the Panthers and just six times in each of the previous two weeks. For the season, Marshall has been targeted 37 times, an average of 7.4 per game, far less than normal.

“I think that he's been targeted certainly,” Trestman said. “(But) we're going to go back and do some work on that to make sure we're doing all the right things in that regard.”

More than five plays were called for Marshall, but the Panthers successfully game-planned to take that part of the Bears' offense away.

“We targeted him (Sunday),” Trestman said. “He had a lot of calls. They took it away, and Jay (Cutler) did the right thing by going other places.”

Since he became a full-time starter in 2007, his second year in the league, Marshall has been targeted an average of 11 times per game.

The sprained ankle certainly played a part in fewer passes being directed Marshall's way, but, again, he was healthy against the Panthers.

Marshall also is doing less with the balls thrown to him this season. Since becoming a starter, his single-season conversion of targets to receptions has been anywhere from 57.4 percent (2011) to 65.6 percent (2009).

So far this season he's at 51.4 percent. With better health, all of Marshall's numbers are sure to increase and the Bears' offense should be expected to do the same, according to Trestman.

“We want him obviously to have more productivity,” Trestman said. “When he touches the ball, good things happen, and over the last couple of weeks we haven't been able to get that done.

“It's certainly something that we have to continue to work on to get him back involved where he can get more touches that will result in bigger plays.”

A statistical quirk to what has been an uncharacteristic season for Marshall are his team-best 5 touchdown catches, on pace for what would be a career-best 16.

Marshall has managed to find the end zone with greater frequency than ever before despite averaging just 9.9 yards per catch. He never has averaged fewer than 11.1 yards for a season.

“I kind of looked at it at times as a little bit of a batting slump for a hitter,” Trestman said. “We don't get as many opportunities as those hitters get, but we've got to do a better job of getting him more swings at the plate and allowing him to take more shots.”

And Marshall has to do more damage to opposing defenses with the additional opportunities he's expected to get.

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