Offensive Breakdowns Explained

Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy tries to point to where the offense came unraveled in last week's loss to the Minnesota Vikings.

The Bears can't afford an operation Sunday like the one they just had in a 19-13 loss to the Minnesota Vikings, especially if rookie Tyson Bagent is playing quarterback.

It needs to be as smooth as possible up front, in the backfield and at receiver to give the rookie a fighting chance.

From the quarterbacks, to the offensive line and receivers to offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, there was something to be upset about after the performance last week. Getsy attempted to explain most of it, including some of the least popular play calls, as measured by fan booing.

The Surprise Third-and-7 Run Up the Middle

Darrynton Evans gained 2 yards on a simple run up the middle when the Bears faced third-and-7. Then they punted and Getsy heard it from the fans, who obviously preferred a pass. Getsy just thought he had caught the Vikings in the wrong defense.

"We had that as a check that we wanted to get to when they played in their Double-A defense," Getsy said. "We had it when we wanted, we just didn't finish those blocks. I think then guy reached out and tripped Darrynton on it. Like that one was close where we were really close to having about a 15-yard to 25-yard gain on that one. We had the exact thing we wanted, we were prepared for it. That was what we wanted there. We just didn't do it there.

When Justin Fields Was Injured on Danielle Hunter Sack

"They dropped eight (in pass coverage)," Getsy said. "And so, any time they dropped eight the point of emphasis was if your primary wasn't open we're extending the play. And so he was in that mindset, right? Darnell (Wright) didn't finish that play, if you recall. We had two people, had (guard) Ja'Tyre (Carter) in, Darnell on Danielle there. And so we were extending the play."

It becomes a case of playground football, essentially,

"And so all of that part of it is when you're on third down, when you're in the gold zone and then people want to drop eight, you've got to extend some plays because the windows are going to be all foggy, right?" Getsy said. "You have people dropping all over the place. But if you can extend the play now you create huge windows for yourself. So that was kind of the thought process."

It was a case where Fields couldn't do anything as he tried to buy time because Hunter hadn't been blocked by Wright, who left the defensive end to the running back to block.

The Embarrassing First Play on D.J. Wonnum's Sack

The Bears were reading what Minnesota was going to do presnap.

"Yeah, you get two things. Half the time they blitz everybody," Getsy said. "And half the time they don't. But also you get to see—we were in 21 personnel—so you got to see kind of what their plan was against us (by formation). Were they gonna go big or were they gonna go sub defense? They went sub defense. Justin did a great job. He checked the protection. He just didn't react the right way. When you make the protection and you know you have the guy free, you've got to drift right and throw it. And he didn't do that. But he did the hard part. He recognized the defense that they had never shown us. He handled it with the right protection adjustment. He just didn’t handle the next part of it right.

First Interception and Strip Sack for Scoop-and-Score

"Yeah just miscommunication," Getsy said. "You know, the first one you speak of, just a young guy made a mistake and blocked the (wrong) guy and so we lost an opportunity to throw one to DJ there. The other one was just, again, miscommunication. The center made a call and we didn't execute that call. And you know, usually bad things happen when you don't execute the calls that you talk about."

Bagent's Game-Ending Interception

The rookie QB basically fouled up his own attempt to throw on the game-ending interception.

"If you get one on one with your best guy, you got to let it fly," Getsy said. "Now he took three hitches and that was his issue. He's right in the middle of the pocket and he took three hitches. He really ran himself into the left guard. 

"So, it's one hitch, let it fly, and if you feel some hesitation, then he's right. If you get the hesitation, then you got to go get your checkdown and he kinda didn't do that. You know one of those experiences that we got to learn from."

Wonnum basically prevented himself from letting loose the ball properly by running into his own blocker.

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