Bears promise: They're going to rev up ground game
Bears coaches (again) are saying the team needs to run the ball more.
Ÿ They've been saying that since the 17-3 loss to the Giants in Week 4 when just 16 running plays were called.
Ÿ They said it again after the 23-20 loss to the Seahawks, when there were just 12 running plays.
Ÿ And now they're saying it yet again after running the ball 16 times in the 17-14 loss to the Redskins last week.
Starter Matt Forte has carried the ball just 90 times this season, 28 less carries than he had after seven games last season. His workload was expected to drop off a bit this season after the Bears signed unrestricted free agent Chester Taylor in the off-season, but Taylor has just 44 rushing attempts.
“I'm real fresh,” said Taylor, who averaged 117 carries a season the past three years as Adrian Peterson's backup with the Vikings. “I feel fresher than I have in a long time. I'm just waiting until the time comes.”
Only twice in seven games have the Bears run the ball more than 19 times.
“We need to run the ball more, no doubt about that,” coach Lovie Smith said on Wednesday of the bye week, as the Bears worked on correcting the mistakes of the first seven weeks. “And not just run the ball more, we need to get those two guys involved more, whether that be through the run, (but also) like what we've done with some of our screen (passes). Just getting the ball in our playmakers' hands, and those are two of them.”
But offensive coordinator Mike Martz is the play-caller, and his preference for the pass is well documented. His ratio of pass plays to runs was 4-to-1 against the Seahawks and nearly 3-to-1 against the Redskins. Martz claims that, after the bye, he plans to use both running backs more and perhaps with even a twist in personnel that the Bears haven't shown yet.
“You know what?” Martz said, “We've got to get them in the game more together. I think that's a neat opportunity for us. We've explored a little bit of that, and those are all things that we'll look at over the bye week. There's a couple things we want to look at that's a little bit different than maybe what we've done in the past and we're all excited about that.”
The Bears are 30th in the NFL in rushing yards per game, which is part of the reason they're:
Ÿ The league's worst team in preventing sacks.
Ÿ The league's worst team in converting third downs.
Ÿ Ranked 31st in interception percentage.
Defending a one-dimensional attack is easier for any defense. Rarely will a quarterback complain about throwing the ball frequently, but Jay Cutler sees the wisdom in a balanced attack.
“We've got to get those guys the ball,” he said of Forte and Taylor. “They're playmakers out there. Good things happen when you get the ball to Matt and Chester in space, so that's definitely something we've got to do.”
The only game the Bears have won in the past month was the 23-6 victory over the Carolina Panthers when they ran the ball 42 times for 218 yards. In the three games they've lost in the past month they ran a total of 44 times for a combined 186 yards.
Ÿ Follow Bob LeGere's Bears reports via Twitter@BobLeGere. Check out his blog, Bear Essentials at DailyHerald.com