Kyle Long may have unofficially retired, but his loyalty to the Chicago Bears remains unwavering. He knows fans are frustrated with how 2019 went. Much of the blame for that falls on an offense that finished 27th in the league across the board. A massive disappointment considering where expectations were. Inevitably people have sought names to blame for this disaster. Mitch Trubisky is the most popular for obvious reasons. However, head coach Matt Nagy is right behind him.
People have criticized both his scheme and especially his play calling as big reasons the offense can’t function. He’s not trying hard enough to accentuate the strengths of his players. He refuses to run the football consistently. The list goes on. Long though isn’t buying it. He told Adam Hoge of WGN that the coach did everything possible to help the offense succeed.
It was other circumstances that led to the failures. Namely a lack of health and inability to execute, especially in the run game.
“People want to place the blame on Matt (Nagy), or they want to place the blame on Mitch (Trubisky), and that’s unfair because there’s so many people on the field that dictate how the game ends up,” Long said…
…“I would say scheme is not the issue,” Long said. “As football players, we’re told what to do and we’re asked to execute and if you don’t execute, everybody looks bad because of it. And if one of the five guys isn’t executing, me for example, if I’m not playing the ball that I’m capable of playing, it drags everybody else down.”
Kyle Long is biased but also not entirely wrong
It’s true that Long is going to defend his guys. Still, what he says isn’t just said for the sake of it. He brings up a good point. The Bears offense was banged up for much of this past season. Long was just one example. Bobby Massie had back issues later in the year. Taylor Gabriel suffered concussion issues. Trubisky injured his shoulder in the first half of the season. Both Trey Burton and Adam Shaheen never saw the field 100% healthy. None of the critical gears for this system functioned the way they had to for the system to have success.
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As for the running game? Nagy got hammered for his unwillingness to use it, but the reality is the Bears were 20th in the league in rush attempts. Why not more? They were 29th in yards per rush attempt at 3.7. The truth is Nagy didn’t run the ball more because it wasn’t working. Blockers weren’t creating the lanes needed often enough. He had a choice. Continue to bang his head against the wall or go to what at least worked better, which was throwing the ball.
The goal in 2020 isn’t to run it more like some think. It’s to run it better. That is what Long was getting at, and he’s absolutely correct.
