Chicago Bears: Offense needs to find faith in receivers again

So far this season, the Chicago Bears offense continually gets bogged down. A reason for that is ball distribution. More receivers need to be involved for the offense to hum.

After two games this season, the Chicago Bears struggled offensively. In the first game, the running game was nonexistent. Head coach Matt Nagy adjusted and the running game responded with 153 yards.

The biggest problem in the offense is the passing game. The passing game ranks 28th in yards and 31st in touchdowns. The Miami Dolphins have more passing touchdowns than the Bears!

The state of the Bears’ passing game has many fans worried. They see the same Mitchell Trubisky making the same mistakes. The coaches and anyone else involved with the Bears told fans that Trubisky improved and had a better grip of the offense. That hasn’t happened yet and Bears Nation feels impatient.

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One of the reasons the offense bogs down during games is the ball distribution. There is a small number of receiving targets and the other receivers are forgotten. We see the rapport Trubisky has with Allen Robinson is noticeable.

Robinson has 20 targets this season. As was the case in the playoff game last season, Trubisky looks for Robinson when he needs a big play. Trubisky and Robinson connected on a big pass to get the Bears into field goal range last January. In Week 1, Robinson was the target on a pass in the end zone that would have tied the game. Last week, Robinson caught the ball that got the Bears in position for the game-winning field goal.

Second on the team in targets is Tarik Cohen with 15. Between Robinson and Cohen, they have 35 targets. The rest of the players combine for 36 targets. In fact, the running backs account for 37 percent of the targets. All other receivers other than Robinson account for 32 percent of the targets. Robinson by himself has 28 percent of the targets (three percent were throwaways).

The offense cannot flourish when the ball distribution is that lopsided. Yes, you need the number one receiver like Robinson is but the other receivers need to be involved as well so Robinson can make the big plays.

Cordarrelle Patterson, Taylor Gabriel and Anthony Miller were supposed to be key contributors. So far, however, they’ve combined for 12 targets. Patterson’s biggest contribution this season was a 46-yard run that helped set up the only touchdown for the Bears’ offense in Week 2.

Miller, who impressed in his rookie season when he had 33 catches for 423 yards and seven touchdowns (while dealing with a shoulder injury), has only two targets in two games. Tight end Trey Burton missed the first game yet has more targets (3) than Miller.

On Friday offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich spoke about the distribution. He feels they’ll eventually get it right, via the Chicago Sun-Times:

"This is a great example of, early in the season, ‘Why isn’t so and so making more plays?’ We need to make more plays period. And that’s on all of us. But the distribution of how that happens… I think that’ll all come."

The Bears need to get everyone involved. Many decry Trubisky’s lack of progression, and they may have a point. For whatever reason, he’s looking for Robinson most times and that’s it. By continually looking for Robinson defenses will dare him to throw to other receivers. Trubisky needs to take what the defenses give him, not just continue to fit the ball through traffic.

I still feel Trubisky can right the ship and get things flowing again. He just needs to start it soon before the thick part of the schedule arrives. If not, we’ll have another quarterback controversy on our hands, and we don’t want to see that again.