USA Today
Self-Evident Truths After Conference Title Games
Every football game teaches something about the teams involved and also other teams.
Sunday's conference championship games revealed very self-evident truths about the Bears and where they are headed under new leadership.
1. The Bears Committed to the Correct Offense
Matt Nagy had them in the Kansas City offense of Andy Reid. While it has worked for Reid over the years, the distiguishing factor has been Patrick Mahomes and not their offensive system. The Bears don't have Mahomes, or at least don't have someone like him yet. They'd like to think Justin Fields is better than they have seen but until he does more they won't know.
Meanwhile, three of the final four teams run offensive systems derived from the Mike Shanahan offense. Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan run their own versions of the Shanahan offense. Bengals coach Zac Taylor is a McVay disciple who now has his own version along with a pretty fair second-year quarterback.
And when the Bears on Saturday committed to offensive coordinator Luke Getsy they made it possible to run an offense from the Shanahan family tree because Packers coach Matt LaFleur is from that same family tree. No longer are the Bears using a system succeeding largely because of one player they don't have. They're going to run one that actually works around the rest of the NFL, so there is hope for more scoring.
2. Year 2 Can Be Big for Justin Fields
Joe Burrow at this time last year was recovering from a torn ACL following a rookie year when he averaged only 6.7 yards per pass attempt, although he was efficient with an 89.8 passer rating. Now he's the rage of the NFL once the Bengals improved the offensive line somewhat and got viable targets. The Bears need to do both of those before Fields is going to improve. Yet Fields has the potential for drastic improvement. Doing what Burrow does is a reach, but remember who the quarterback was for the Bears when they beat the Bengals back in Week 2. Fields was the one on the field in the second half to put away the win. A lot can happen to a quarterback in an offseason and Fields doesn't have to spend his offseason doing rehab like Burrow did.
3. Ryan Poles Can Recast Bears Offensive Line
The Bears led the NFL in sacks allowed and were 21st in yards per rushing attempt. They aren't simply taking the players they have on the line and putting them back on the field. There will be change coming. New GM Ryan Poles is someone who can fix the offensive line well enough to make their offense competitive or even better in the way the Bengals turned around their line from 2020 to 2021. Poles was an offensive lineman and was part of Kansas City turning around its struggling offensive line from 2020 to 2021. Now Poles has an assistant GM in Ian Cunningham who can help, as well. He was also an offensive lineman and was in Philadelphia last year, where the line improved greatly over 2020 when it was a contributing factor in an awful season when Doug Pederson was fired and Carson Wentz was shipped out of town.
4. Sacks and Pass Rush Pressure Still Matter
The Bears were fourth in sacks with 49. Both of the Super Bowl combatants were ranked high in sacks t his year, as well. In fact three of the final four teams did, as well. The 49ers were fifth in sacks, the Rams third and the Bengals 11th.
As long as they retain much of the pass rush they had this year, the Bears can remain competitive. They'll need any edge they can get on defense because besides their conversion to a 4-3, they also need better personnel at cornerback, inside linebacker and different types of personnel at inside defensive line.
5. Pride Factor
If the Bengals beat the Rams in the Super Bowl, the Bears will be able to say they defeated the Super Bowl champion each of the last two years. They beat Tampa Bay in 2020 20-19. What is the significance? There isn't any, but it sure sounds nice.
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
