Chicago Bears

I’ll embellish this a little with some stuff I’ve picked up on:

• the rhythm is off. JF was slow in the drop back so when receivers make a cut to create a window, his feet aren’t set and he’s not through the progression to see it. The best way I can explain this is actually the Kelce’s New Heights podcast, the Gronk episode. Gronk talks about working on his routes with Brady so a typical 10 yard curl actually has the receiver curl at 8 yards because that’s when Tom was done with his drop back. If you’ve watched any of the QB school videos, he talks about this too. This is how you make anticipation throws, if you’re under pressure and you know when your receiver is going to turn, you can throw it and know they will be there when the ball arrives.
• Checkdown. There is a time and place for a check down. If DJ Moore is one on one on the outside and has 1 yard of separation, throw it. Trust your guy, make the pass. Look what happened in the Washington game.
• Throw the ball away. JF and Bagent were both guilty of hero ball. And I know his name is taboo in this sub but that’s one of the reasons Aaron Rodgers was so good. He extended the play with his legs to try and help the receivers create some separation, and if nothing developed he would just toss it out of bounds. You can find numerous interviews of defensive players and coaches talking about this part of his game. Punts are better than turnovers.
• As mentioned, the play calling is questionable. Why are we running so many screens with the same front and same looks? Defenses are sniffing this out a mile away.
• Too many elementary concepts. There is little to no creativity in the play calling that gives any spark or makes defenses question it. Adding things like RPOs, Read Action, Play Actions, more motion before the snap, designed decoys would help.
• Communication. Offensive lineman missing blocks, receivers running the same routes, etc. they need to talk and communicate directional blocking and assignments.