Chicago Bears must stick to 100-year old gameplan to thrive

The Chicago Bears need to stick to their tried and true gameplan to win in 2020.

For what seems like the thousandth time in their 100-plus year history in the NFL, the Chicago Bears are entering training camp with an underwhelming quarterback controversy. The contestants entering 2020 are incumbent Mitch Trubisky, taken ahead of Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson in the 2017 draft, and veteran Nick Foles.

The Bears traded for Foles this offseason and he comes in with the pedigree of being a former Super Bowl MVP and tying the record for most touchdown passes in a single game with seven. He also has the reputation of only being able to perform while a member of the Philadelphia Eagles.

While Trubisky hasn’t performed at the level of those in his draft class, he has performed well enough to take the Bears to the playoffs and come within a double-doink away from winning it.

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He also earned himself a Pro Bowl nod (for what it’s worth) in 2018. He’s the first Bears signal-caller to be given that honor since Jim McMahon in 1985. Before that, you’d have to go back to Bill Wade in 1963, and Ed Brown and Johnny Lujack in the 1950s. Perhaps the best Bears quarterback of all was Sid Luckman (the first to throw seven touchdowns in a game ironically) and he played in the 1940s.

Suffice it to say, the Bears have had a bit of a poor history at quarterback but have had a rich team history nonetheless. How have they done it? They’ve followed a simple formula that transcends any era.

That is ferocious defense and a well-balanced rushing attack while having a quarterback that stays out of the way but still managing to make a throw here and there. Simply put, Bears quarterbacks are rarely, if ever, asked to win games.

Tried and true Chicago Bears gameplan doesn’t rely on the quarterback.

The nickname the “Monsters of the Midway” was coined to describe this team led by coach/owner/founder “Papa Bear” George Halas and given to a fierce defense (playing both ways) littered with Hall of Famers and a Hall of Fame quarterback in Luckman.

After Luckman retired in 1950, the Bears have not had what can be considered a Hall of Fame or even franchise-caliber quarterback since. But they’ve also played the same way with the same roster styles since.

For their history, the Bears have lived by a great defense, good offensive line, a balanced rushing attack, speedy yet unspectacular receivers and wildly mediocre to above-average quarterback play.

In 1963, the Bears won the NFL championship with a fantastic defense featuring Hall of Famers Bill George and Doug Atkins plus a balanced running game with Ronnie Bull, Joe Marconi and Willie Galimore and the solid and serviceable Wade under center, a Pro Bowl level player not sniffing the Hall of Fame. The team also featured a tight end named Mike Ditka.

While Dick Butkus and Gayle Sayers were both drafted in 1965 and had the misfortune of playing for some bad Bears teams, they still need to be mentioned as they had quintessential styles for the City of Big Shoulders.

The legendary 1985 team, arguably the greatest team of all time with arguably the greatest defense in NFL history, featured Walter Payton in the backfield, arguably the greatest running back of all time. Jim McMahon was the quarterback and while the Punky QB was certainly no scrub, he was often injured and not exactly at the top of anybody’s Hall of Fame ballots.

The Bears made the Super Bowl again in 2006 with, again, another great defense that could win games by themselves. They often had to because Rex Grossman was at quarterback. It was after one such game when then Arizona Cardinals head coach Dennis Green famously ranted in the post-game press conference that at the Bears “were who we thought they were.”

Fast forward to 2020, the Chicago Bears still are who we thought they were.

Defensively, the Bears should remain in the upper-echelon of the league. Offensively, if the Bears are going to succeed, two things need to happen. First, whoever the quarterback is, whether it’s Trubisky or Foles, they can’t be asked to do too much.

A season ago, Matt Nagy and the coaching staff did their best impression of “buying in” to Trubisky, a quarterback they didn’t draft. That said, they simply tried to have him go out and win games instead of playing to his strengths.

By that same token, Doug Pederson did this with Foles with aplomb. He simplified the gameplan, and the Eagles got their Super Bowl out of it. Should Foles start under center, he will have some familiar faces in the coach’s room from Philadelphia to help with this. Simply put, Nagy can’t have his quarterback win games by slinging the ball all over the field.

The Bears need to revert to what they’ve done the last century and run their offense around the running game.

Tarik Cohen serves as a tremendous versatile scatback who excels more catching the ball then he does carrying it. Hard-nosed rookie David Montgomery was showing more and more promise every game and has a le that’s reminiscent of Bears backs of yesteryear. There’s also an intriguing battle brewing for that third running back spot. The Bears have high hopes for their running backs, and with good reason.

It seemed like at times last season Nagy and the offense tried to get too cute. This ended up being their detriment. If the Bears can stick to what they’ve been doing for the last century, they should be able to get back into the playoff, and possibly beyond. As far as that next great quarterback goes, perhaps he’s out there to be found sometime in the near future.