Some of Haugh's ideas were good some okay some not so good. Below are the details:
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- Get
more out of Cutler. Basically, he is saying that Jay has to be almost perfect
which is unrealistic. To borrow from Boomer Esiason, Jay is playing his
butt off under duress so of course he is going to make mistakes here and
there. This point by Haugh is at best too vague to be useful. David did
point out that Cutler’s stats from this year and last year are very
similar proving a point myself and others around have been onto that RT
has made Rex, Kyle and now Jay all look like similar QB’s who throw way
too many INT’s and lead an offense that stutters in the red zone.
- He
wants the play calling to make Jay more efficient and explosive and
suggests starting that with more short pass plays to get a passing rhythm
going. I disagree with the more short pass plays idea. Every DC is
expecting lots of short passes from the Bears so even more of an over
abundance of short passes can easily lead to big mistakes. This offense
need fresh ideas not rehashed ones. Defenses typically crowd the LOS until
the Bear offense proves it’s a bad idea. The offense needs to spread out
the defense horizontally like the spread offense does or vertically.
- Keep tinkering with the oline. Yes yes a
thousand times yes to this idea. Chris Williams is an agile 300+ pounder
which shoul make him a good LT and so far he looks like an average to
below average RT. Pace has whiffed way to many times in pass coverage to
believe he can keep Cutler from harms way enough to avoid worst case
scenario for the most valuable player on the team. The other Trib writer
Dan Pompei in his piece on Tuesday pointed out that the Bears average much
more on runs to the left than runs to the right. That would lead one to
think that Pace can still run block. The Ravens wanted Pace to play RT but
he took the Bears offer because he preferred LT. I say try switching the
two tackles and if Pace doesn’t do well sit him and see what either Schafer
or Omiyale can do at RT.
- Use
more pass run options in the red zone. Again yes yes a thousand times yes.
My personal favorite play at the other team’s goal line is having the QB
roll out to his right giving him the option to run it in or fire a pass to
someone. This comes under the heading of being less predictable as no one
knows for sure what the QB will do including the QB.
- Scrap
the wildcat. Great idea da bears stink at it.
- Don’t
get too cute in the red zone. Haugh points out the flaw in sticking with
Wolfe in the red zone and sitting the Bears best RB when this close to
scoring. Any football novice can see that Wolfe’s speed plays better in
space not in the cramped confines of running from 5 yards out or closer. A
prime example of stating the obvious to Turner who is so rigid once he
commits to an idea.
- Stop
making a myth of Greg Olsen. David wants Greg in some jump ball passes.
Again stating the obvious to the clueless. What David didn’t say was that
historically Turner has not used the TE much and apparently does not really
know what to do with one that is much faster than your normal TE or more
likely lacks the guts to try something different than he is used to in
critical situations. RT has regressed from his reasonably good use of the
TE last year. By this time isn’t it obvious that it would be much easier
to just replace the OC instead of trying to offer him suggestions he will
either ignore or screw up trying.
- Get
creative with Hester. David writes “mix in reverses, sweeps off motion and
screens along with his usual downfield repertoire.” All good ideas except that
Devin’s downfield repertoire has been put on ice since the 4 INT fiasco in
Green Bay. RT has lacked the
backbone to take advantage of Jay’s cannon since then. This also probably
accounts for why Olsen has been largely out of the picture because taking
advantage of his speed would mean going deeper than Ron appears willing to
go. Now others in print media today have posited than RT has not and
should not go deep because the oline cant pass block long enough. However,
I believe that is an exaggeration as Dan Pompei in his weekly film session
break down noted that in the Browns game the oline blocked well but it was
the extra men blitzting that put pressure on Cutler not the the guys being
blocked. Not having Jay go deep at least on occasion because of the oline
appears to be another gutless move by Turner and supporting that is more knee
jerk reaction by the media.
- Incorporate the no-huddle once a quarter. That
is just the type of fresh creative idea this offense needs but won’t get
done because the past shows RT’s feelings get hurt when the QB gets any
credit for calling plays. Refer to Bob Griese if you wonder about this. This
is a great idea because quite often the plays in Turner’s play book do
work when the other guys aren’t laying in the weeds knowing they are
coming.
- Devise more ways to get Forte into the open
field. This is another good idea but probably also get lost in the Turner
effect. Getting an RB into space quite often means using screen passes and
the screen has been a play RT has eschewed for most of his time as an OC.
This is a bit ironic as his big brother adores the screen. It is possible
that Ron has ignored the screen as a way of establishing his own play
calling identity away from big bro. This might also account for other
quirky ineffective patterns Ron has a play caller. Regretfully, the screen
is a very effective way to counter blitzes along with other misdirection
plays like slants and draws and Turner’s reluctance to use these
misdirection plays has led to the Bears poorly handling the blitz during
his time in Chitown. This comes full circle to another fine idea, FIRING
Turner with prejudice. Then hire an OC like Al Saunders who knows how to
use the screen, the TE and get lots of yards for his RB.