GIVING ’EM THE WILLIES
‘Wonka’ play fools Bucs after Nagy tells team to ‘cut it loose’
The Bears introduced the Buccaneers and the rest of the NFL to “Willy Wonka” in their 48-10 victory in Week 4. That’s what they named their trick play that resulted in receiver Taylor Gabriel’s three-yard touchdown reception.
“You can sit there and say, squeeze left, Y left, Zebra right, counter motion, such-andsuch and such-and-such,” Nagy said. “And then the next thing is you look up at the clock, and there’s 14 seconds on it. But you go ‘Willy Wonka.’ Boom, they know it.” And, boom, the Bears scored on it.
It was one of the many highlights the Bears had on Sunday. Here are five takeaways after watching the film of their resounding victory:
Meet ‘Willy Wonka’
“Willy Wonka” is a play that the Bears’ quarterbacks helped name and also design. Nagy called it taking “ownership.”
The play itself involved plenty of pre-snap motion. It began with Gabriel going from right to left before getting set. Tight end Trey Burton then followed by going from right to left and finally back to the right. Gabriel scored on a shovel pass, which countered the offensive line’s blocking to the left.
“Willy Wonka” closely resembled the two shovel-pass touchdowns that the Chiefs scored on the goal line in Week 1 against the Chargers. The differences included how the Bears got into their final 2x2 formation and also the use of backup quarterback Chase Daniel in the backfield next to Trubisky.
“That’s why it opened up so much, because they know about No. 4’s run ability, his [breaking] tackles and spin moves,” Trubisky joked.
It was obvious on film that the Bucs were confused.
“Chase was a big part of coming up with it,” Trubisky said. “And it opened right up just the way we drew it up.”
Feeling a rhythm
Trubisky completed five passes that traveled more than 20 yards through the air from the line of scrimmage against the Bucs. It was a significant difference from the previous three games in which he totaled four.
It was the result of his line’s outstanding protection and also Nagy’s feel for the Bucs’ defense. Nagy felt that he had better rhythm in his fourth game as Trubisky’s play-caller.
“I don’t know exactly why other than I think the mindset of just kind of cutting it loose,” Nagy said. “We knew that we were close but we knew that we weren’t doing enough of our job to help the team. So one way to fix that in my opinion is to just play loose. Everybody, just cut it loose. And don’t worry about playing tight. Don’t worry about making mistakes. Worry about good things happening. And we all did that — myself included.”
Trubisky averaged a whopping 18.6 yards
per completion.
“You play aggressive,” Nagy said. “I told you that when I got here, that I was going to be an aggressive play caller and aggressive coach as long as it was calculated and made sense, and I feel like yesterday was probably for sure we showed that.”
Daniels fits in
The most notable development up front for the Bears was a left-guard rotation with Eric Kush and second-round pick James Daniels.
Kush got 37 of the 61 snaps, while Daniels received 27, which included some at right guard late in the game. Overall, it was a strong performance for Daniels, who first replaced Kush on the Bears’ third possession.
“James has been working hard and making the progress that we want him to,” offensive line coach Harry Hiestand said. “It was a good start for him.”
On his first snap, Daniels sealed defensive tackle Jerel Worthy on Gabriel’s 10-yard run on an end-around. Five plays later, Daniels pulled to the right and handled linebacker Lavonte David on Cohen’s 19-yard run.
Daniels’ worst play came in the second quarter when he failed to prevent linebacker Kwon Alexander from snuffing out a screen to running back Jordan Howard in the second quarter.
Daniels, though, was much better on Cohen’s 31-yard reception on a screen late in the second quarter. He reached David and shoved him to the outside, which allowed Cohen to cut up the field.
Setting things up
Trubisky’s 20-yard touchdown pass to receiver Josh Bellamy in the second quarter was an example of how plays can be built off each other.
There were essentially three looks for the Bucs’ defense to recognize and then combat. All of it was too much for the Bucs, especially with inexperience in their secondary.
Trubisky faked a handoff to Howard before pump faking a bubble screen to Cohen. Bellamy at first engaged with cornerback M.J. Stewart but quickly released and ran his wide-open route. Allen Robinson’s vertical “nine” route also pulled two defensive backs.
It’s an example of how defenses can be fooled by the Bears’ heavy use of quick screens. They began Sunday only behind the Steelers in the use of screens, according to Pro Football Focus. The Bears also established Cohen at that point in the game, too.
“The biggest part of those is they’re either hit or miss,” Nagy said. “Everything in this offense comes off of something, and there’s a counter part to each play, so we just felt like teams have been pretty aggressive with [defending] the bubble concept. We felt like this was a good time to test [that play] out.”
Blocking things out
Receiver Kevin White played a seasonhigh 28 snaps with rookie Anthony Miller out with a dislocated shoulder. White is yet to be targeted this season, but he made meaningful contributions as a blocker in the victory.
“They were productive plays,” Nagy said. It included handling veteran cornerback Brent Grimes on Cohen’s 19-yard run. He later knocked down safety Justin Evans on Cohen’s 31-yard catch on a screen.
“I’m really proud of him right now because he made some great blocks,” Nagy said. “What you’ll see in him is just a continued growth within this offense, whatever that role is. He did a great job when he was in there. Who knows? He could get more targets in Miami.”