Trickery Thy Name Is Getsy

It might have been Luke Getsy's most innovative game as Bears play caller or designer, although plenty resulted from chance.

Considering the Cleveland Browns' rank as No. 1 defense, he might need to have a few more tricks up his sleeve this week.

A week after fans were calling for his head over an unhealthy diet of Bears screen passes, Getsy had to take a few bows for trickery unveiled against Detroit.

He wasn't taking the credit, but was still taking on blame like most coaches tend to do.

The blame came for what basically was a no-win scenario on the failed fourth-and-1 toss to DJ Moore in the second quarter.

This was how Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy described what Justin Fields faced Sunday when a fourth-and-1 gamble at Detroit's 38-yard line failed, swinging momentum squarely back in the Lions' favor until the second half.

"You're talking about a pre-snap like, 'oh no,' " Getsy said. "The way that they lined up, they lined up differently because we've done sneaks and we've done things against them three times before that."

The play was to be bascially a fake tush push with a short lateral to Moore. The Lions stopped it because they had a defensive back lined up in a different way than they had in similar scouted situations.

"He had typically been inline, not sitting back," Getsy said. "So it was one of those pre-snap things where you have to hopefully do a better job of making sure you can get out of that situation if you have an element like that that's sitting there that you're not accounting for."

Fields hadn't been alerted what he could do if the DB was back instead of on the line.

"He was not prepared for that to be that way, no, but hopefully in the future as we learn from things and make mistakes like that we can grow from it,” Getsy said.

No chance for an audible existed, either.

"He wouldn't have known in that particular instance, no," Getsy said. "That's on me."

Getsy said it's on him because he's responsbile for breaking down potential scenarios and addressing them in advance, in this case with a way to get out of the play.

"You're not going to get 100 percent," Getsy said. "That's never going to happen. But you want to make sure you're protected as much as possible. And it's a critical play, so you want to be even extra prepared for that."

The one escape, he said, was a timeout but they still liked their chances with the ball in Moores hands.

Two other trick plays worked much better, including Moore's fake end-around as a wildcat QB for a 16-yard TD. Getsy pointed to flawless execution on that play, one he designed after seeing another NFL game.

"It's fun when you practice it, that part of it, you practice it, the guys get to see what the opportunity is," Getsy said. "I promise you, we practice a lot of those types of things each week.

"Those are the plays that get everybody in the room excited and then when you're able to go out and execute those, it's just fun to see the guys respond when those types of things happen."

The other trick play wasn't planned, just practiced. It was the tie-breaking TD pass of 38 yards to Moore by Fields after they saw the offsides by Aidan Hutchinson -- a freebie.

"It's been something that I've been a part of for a long time in my career and we practice it and we do it and so that part of it, it was really good execution."

By being part of his career, Getsy meant time in Green Bay working with Aaron Rodgers, who perfected that type of play.

"You practice it, the guys get to see what the opportunity is," Getsy said. "I promise you, we practice a lot of those types of things each week. Those are the plays that get everybody in the room excited and then when you're able to go out and execute those.

"It's just fun to see the guys respond when those types of things happen."

Getsy might need some more of that innovation against a Browns defense led by Myles Garrett and Za'Darius Smith ranked first in yards allowed, passing yards allowed 12.6 points a game at home with four opponents scoring 10 or less. Or it might take something more.

"I think it comes down to making the plays when those plays happen—they don’t happen very often against this type of team," Getsy said. "When you have those big-play opportunities you have to execute them.

"I think last week specifically, Jacksonville had maybe five or six opportunities. They took advantage of three of them and left the other two out there. You can’t do that or you won’t win. That’s a big part of it. You’re going to get a couple opportunities in a few different ways that we’ll hopefully show rather than talk about. At the same time you have to execute those opportunities. They don’t make em easy—it’s not like you’ve got someone screaming wide open. I think it’s guys making a play with a one-on-one opportunity."

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