Mitchell Trubisky Learns Value of the Play-Action Game
The Bears rank in the NFL's top 10 teams in rushing, a place they haven't finished a season at since 2012.
The beneficiary of this success is none other than Mitchell Trubisky.
Trubisky acknowledged Wednesday the benefit of the running attack is establishing the play-action passing game, something the Bears did not really have most of last year while they tried almost stubbornly to run out of shotgun formation much of the time.
"It's just nice to keep the defense off balance and I think when you have a steady run game and the way our O-line is doing a great job controlling the line of scrimmage, it just–it gives more stability to this offense, I feel like," Trubisky said.
Coach Matt Nagy seemed dead set on a shotgun style of offense with RPO instead of traditional play-fakes in his first two seasons, but a few games late last year may have been instrumental in changing some minds. Plus, it helped having new offensive line coach Juan Castillo who could help with the blocking scheme for this style attack.
"We have come to kind of realize that in two years now and heading into our third year that schematically this is something the direction that we want to go to," Nagy said. "I don't know if we will always live in this world, I have no idea. But it's something that we felt like, OK, 'Let's work to our player's strengths, let's go ahead and adjust what we need to do schematically and see if it works.' So far it's been pretty good.
"We have other things that we can do, we have alternative ideas and thoughts, but I just give credit to the coaching staff and players accepting it and now putting it into motion."
Trubisky has been a more effective passer largely because the threat of David Montgomery, Cordarrelle Patterson and Tarik Cohen doing damage with running plays is real. The three running backs average 4.6 yards per carry, a year after they averaged 3.7.
Defenses have to respect this and Trubisky gets a split second more to locate targets as a result while he drops back.
"I think sometimes you notice that, sometimes the windows are just bigger or when you drop back to pass and you see a bunch of defenders get deep really quickly and they're not respecting the underneath routes," Trubisky said. "I think it makes them either bail out and more of the underneath stuff is more open.
"Or it's a different type of dropback. The windows are a little bit bigger and they're having to cover more of the field because maybe they're in a little bit more of a panic because they respect the run game or they lose track of their assignment for whatever reason."
It's all meant Trubisky needs to be better with play fakes and work at this.
"If we're having a good play fake, make sure it's the best play fake in the world," Trubisky said.
The Bears will need the extra split second to freeze defenders this week because while Atlanta's defense ranks 31st in the league, the Falcons do possess one dangerous trait which can cause problems.
"They got really good closing speed, they're quick off the edges and closing whether it's in the pass game or run game, closing the holes or closing the windows in the pass game," Trubisky said.
The other benefit of having a running game besides play-action is it established an identity of sorts.
"I think it just creates rhythm for our offense and it's nice to have an identity," Trubisky said. "We know what we can lean on, and that's our run game, and our O-line up front creating holes and establishing the line of scrimmage. I think it also helps in the drop-back pass game as well, so it's nice to have that. It's part of our identity, but we want to continue to evolve with the run game and the pass game and just keep getting better."
It's more of a traditional football approach, but something the San Francisco 49ers, Tennessee Titans, the Los Angeles Rams and Green Bay Packers had succeeded with over the last year before the Bears tried adding it to their repertoire this season.
"We are still growing, we are not close to where we need to be," Nagy said. "We are kind of figuring it out right now and it's nice to be 2-0 while we are doing it."
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