Smith knows Bears need more balance on offense

When you're 26th in the NFL in rushing attempts and rushing yards per game, the first step is admitting you have a problem.

Bears coach Lovie Smith did that Monday.

“We realize we have to have more balance on the offensive side of the football, and we plan on doing that, Smith said. “I know we've taken too many sacks. We haven't established the run the way we'd like to. We realize all of those things.

Those two problems often are related.

If the defense doesn't have any reason to respect the run, it's a lot easier to go after the quarterback with extra rushers when they're not needed in run support.

Take away Jay Cutler's two scrambles Sunday and the Bears ran the ball by design just 12 times. So it was easy for Seattle to ignore the threat of a run.

The result was 6 more sacks of Cutler, who has been hit hard all season. Of the Seahawks' sacks, 2½ came from safeties Jordan Babineaux and Lawyer Milloy, who didn't have to worry much about run support.

Asked if the Bears needed to run the ball more, Cutler was noncommittal.

“You get in a situation where you're down, he said. “You've got to catch up. You've got to get some big yards and big chunks. Sometimes that's how it goes.

But the Bears were never down by more than 7 points until the fourth quarter.

Two weeks earlier, while Cutler was being sacked nine times in the first half against the New York Giants, the Bears ran just seven times before the break and just 16 times the entire game.

Between those two games, backups Todd Collins and Caleb Hanie were sacked three times at Carolina, which still isn't much to brag about. But the pass rush was slowed by 42 running plays for 218 yards, which gave the Panthers' defense some conflict of assignment.

“It's just not as simple as what happened the week before and you say, ‘We'll you just do that every time,' Smith said. “It's a little more than that.

“We didn't get a lot done with the running game (Sunday). Last week we got something going early with the running game, which allows you to do it a little more.

“After getting beat like that (by the Seahawks), we wish we had run it a little more and maybe we would have gotten a little bit more production from it.

Offensive coordinator Mike Martz is in charge of playcalling when the Bears have the ball, but Smith has some say.

“During the game, as head football coach, I'd like to think I have input on everything that's going on, and I do, Smith said. “We all went in with that game plan feeling good about it, Mike and everybody else.

“We didn't execute the game plan the way we wanted to. But I'm behind everything that we've done offensively and am excited about the direction we're going to continue to go from there.

Smith was asked if the plan going into Sunday's game was to have a 4-to-1 pass-to-run ratio. (Cutler's 39 passes, the 6 sacks and two scrambles compared to 12 runs by Matt Forte and Chester Taylor).

“That's what we did, so we're going to stay with that plan, Smith said. “Sometimes the plan changes during the course of a game.

“We're not happy with what happened, but we're not going to sit here now … it's pretty easy in hindsight to say, ‘We wish we would have done this a little bit better.'

“As I started off early on, I said, ‘We need to have balance, more balance,' and that's what we'll do.

That's the second step.

ŸFollow Bob LeGere's Bears reports via Twitter@BobLeGere. Check out his blog, Bear Essentials at DailyHerald.com.