Nagy, Bears commit to run the ball. So far, it has worked

The Bears are going back to the basics.

It’s evident in their willingness to put quarterback Mitch Trubisky under center, and it’s evident in their commitment to run the ball through the first two weeks of the season.

Through two games, the Bears are a top-10 rushing team. Their 142 rushing yards per game ranks ninth right now.

A year ago, coach Matt Nagy and his staff tried to fit the players into the offensive system. This year, Nagy is taking the players and building the system around them. If these guys perform better under center, why not do that as much as possible?

“It's something that we felt like, OK, let's work to our player's strengths,” Nagy said this week. “Let's go ahead and adjust what we need to do schematically and see if it works. So far it's been pretty good.”

With Trubisky under center, Montgomery is taking handoffs with a full head of steam. According to NFL Next Gen Stats, Montgomery is spending less time behind the line of scrimmage.

In 2019, he spent an average of 2.75 seconds behind the line of scrimmage, which ranked 16th among NFL running backs. Through two games in 2020, Montgomery has shaved that down to 2.55 seconds, which seems like a small difference, but he now ranks seventh in the NFL in that metric.

That’s more a reflection of the scheme than of Montgomery. Running out of the shotgun last year simply wasn’t effective. So the Bears offense is keeping it simple and giving Montgomery the chance to run straight and break tackles.

The final drive of Sunday’s win over the Giants didn’t result in points, but Montgomery carried the Bears offense down field and kept the clock moving. He touched the ball on seven of 12 plays during that possession.

“It really had nothing to do with me, honestly,” Montgomery said Thursday. “Guys up front, receivers just being selfless and being able to get out there and block, so really, I was just running through a hole. It really was nothing on me. It was them guys up front and everyone else around me.”

There was so much talk about the Bears’ tight ends in training camp, yet the position has largely been used as an extra blocker – and it has been effective.

The Bears have had at least two tight ends on the field on 32% of their offensive plays, according to SharpFootballStats.com. With two tight ends and two receivers, the Bears are running the ball 68% of the time.

This running back group has gotten the job done. Montgomery is averaging 5.0 yards per carry, with 146 total yards on 29 carries through two games. Tarik Cohen has 53 yards on 12 carries, while Cordarrelle Patterson has totaled 44 yards on 11 carries.

The Bears have picked their spots with Patterson, a converted receiver, but he seems to be finding success at the position.

“It’s fun, man,” Patterson said. “I just love getting the ball and just running. I remember last week, one of the big boys from the Giants tried to tackle me. He said, ‘Bro, you run hard. Bro, you hard to tackle.’ That’s what I’m going for, man. I’m just trying to run through a wall if I can.”

Offensive coordinator Bill Lazor said Patterson has continually improved at reading the blocks in front of him. That might be the toughest part of the transition, Patterson said this summer, because the running back often needs to think like a quarterback.

“What I was curious to see was: Can he take all that, like he shows us all the time on kick returns, and put it in the framework of fitting the ball into the play the way the offensive line is blocking it,” Lazor said. “And the answer has been yes.”

The focus on running the ball isn’t going to disappear any time soon.The Bears will need it this week.

The more success they can find running the ball, the less time Matt Ryan and the Falcons offense will spend on the field.