Ten points. That was all the Chicago Bears‘ offense could muster against the Cleveland Browns on Sunday. Worse still, seven of those points were gift-wrapped to them by one of the three interceptions provided by the defense. Nothing worked for the Bears. Receivers dropped passes. The offensive line couldn’t generate movement on the ground or protect Justin Fields. Yet a lot of the problems came back to Luke Getsy. The Bears offensive coordinator seemed to have no answers for what the Browns were doing, and it led to mostly punts the entire game.
One person who is beyond done with Getsy is former quarterback J.T. O’Sullivan. He has followed the Bears closely as a film evaluator for his QB School channel on YouTube. He has a better idea than most unbiased experts what the offensive coordinator is doing. He’s not impressed. In fact, he is often disgusted. O’Sullivan has called out Getsy on multiple occasions over the past several months. Sunday might’ve been his breaking point, as these three tweets summarize.
Luke Getsy is a liability. There is no getting around it now.
Every time the Bears have gone against a defensive coordinator with a proven reputation, their offense has completely stalled out. They scored 10 points against Jim Schwartz on Sunday. Brian Flores held them to 23 across two meetings with Minnesota. Steve Spagnuolo held him to 10 points in Kansas City. The cold reality is the Bears have been held under 20 points in eight games this year. Lack of talent can’t be used as an excuse this time. D.J. Moore and Cole Kmet are on pace for career years. The offensive line has played better. They can still run the ball well.
The only explanation for them not being able to score more points is Luke Getsy. While a competent play designer, his lack of feel for play calling is abundantly clear. He lacks situational awareness, falls in love with running the same plays over and over, and struggles to lean into what his players do best. There are plenty of reasons why this team struggles to close out games. In hindsight, the decision to hire Getsy as offensive coordinator will go down as one of the biggest.
Subscribe to the BFR Youtube channel and ride shotgun with Dave and Ficky as they break down Bears football like nobody else.
There is plenty of blame to go around. Getsy needs to go because he refuses to run an offense designed to the strengths of his QB. They should also move on from Fields, despite the Getsy limitation, because he does not elevate the play of those around him. Just last night I saw backup QB Drew Lock make a series of clutch throws in the closing seconds to beat the Eagles with a dime thrown to Njigba for the TD. Clutch drives by Fields usually lead to strip sacks, fumbles and disappointment. That is not the trait of a QB1.… Read more »
When defenses make adjustments, good QBs recognize it and make pre-snap calls to change the formation or the play. Fields seems blind to an unblocked pass-rusher, and even his RPO decisions appear to be pre-determined in his mind instead of based on what is actually unfolding. He doesn’t find the open receiver, or releases the ball too late, or air mails it or throws it behind the receiver. On the plays that look good, they’re long tosses where the receiver has the ability to make the adjustment that makes the throw look accurate. In short, it looks like Getsy is… Read more »
Getsy makes a game plan and when the other team figures it out, he doesn’t have a backup plan. This is a game of adjustments, good coordinators with QBs that are able to change the game within the game are the elite offenses. Fields looked shell shocked when the Browns made the adjustments. It seemed when Jenkins went down so did the Bears. The Browns have a hell of a D and were supplying pressure with their down linemen and when they started to blitz it was over.
I know that Getsy was not the play-caller in GB but I wish that he puts together a similarly styled game plan, adjusted for Fields’ strengths, for the Bears’ remaining three games. Let’s see if Fields stands up to the challenge.
True statement Justin Fields is the Quarterback for the Chicago Bears. But if you are going to blame him for the way he plays, then you must also consider the plays that he is given. Or do you believe Fields is holding his hands to hear the ESPN broadcast of the game or the plays sent in by Getsy. How long would they allow Fields to QB if he ignored Getsy and run his own style of plays. I dare say they would find a reason to bench Fields especially if his plays were more productive than the ones Getsy… Read more »