It’s not often that the Chicago Bears’ struggling offense is in rhythm, but when they’re utilizing the no-huddle offense, they seem to resemble an actual offense.
After the Bears failed to score on their first five possessions last Sunday against the New York Giants, turning to an up-tempo hurry-up offense seemed to breathe life into a lifeless offense.
On the final possession of the first half, Chicago’s offense drove 59 yards on nine plays to set up Eddy Pineiro’s 26-yard field goal with :08 left. On that drive, quarterback Mitchell Trubisky completed 4 of 5 passes for 42 yards.
Trubisky recognizes the no-huddle offense as a strength of the unit, and coach Matt Nagy recognizes the importance of utilizing that hurry-up offense and wants to implement it more. In fact, the Bears have 101 no-huddle plays this season, which ranks second behind the Arizona Cardinals.
“That’s stuff that we look into,” Nagy continued. “There’s pros and cons to it. It’s always good when it works, and then when it doesn’t work, you’ve got to be careful with that. We like it and we think it’s good, and we know that Mitch feels comfortable in that. And I think our offense does, so we want to definitely keep that going.”
If Trubisky is so comfortable and successful in the no-huddle offense, why aren’t the Bears running it more? Nagy said that it limits the formations and plays that can be called, as well as prevents changing personnel groupings based on down-and-distance.
“What it is is just trying to figure out — whether it’s player-wise, scheme-wise, personnel-wise, play-wise, — what you want to do when you’re in that two-minute, when you’re in that tempo,” Nagy said. “And sometimes the tempo isn’t always where you’re going just mach speed. Sometimes it’s a tempo where you may be snapping the ball with two seconds on the clock. There’s a little bit of making sure that you understand those personnels because it’s not always real simple.”
Then there’s the fact that if you’re implementing a no-huddle offense on a constant basis you run the risk of putting your defense back on the field with limited rest, which has already been an issue for the defense this season.
The Bears need to replicate the execution and tempo that comes with running a hurry-up offense, and they’ll be looking to do that Thursday against the Detroit Lions.
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