REDZONE IS BEARS’ DEADZONE
COACHES WILL USE BYEWEEK TO FIGURE OUT WHY TEAM HAS NFL’S 2ND-WORST SUCCESS RATE
Brandon Parker, one of receiver Allen Robinson’s agents, took to Twitter during the Bears’ loss to the Vikings on Monday. “Throw [Robinson] the damn ball in the red zone! JUST ONCE! My goodness,” Parker wrote. He continued, in other Tweets, to praise quarterback Nick Foles, slam the offensive line and say Robinson should be the Bears’ first option inside the opposing 20-yard line “99% of the time.” He wrote that the Bears are “the only team in the league” that won’t throw the ball to their best receiver in the red zone.
“WHAT’S REALLY GOING ON?” he wrote.
It’s a good question to ask about the Bears’ entire red-zone offense.
They’ve scored touchdowns on 48.15% of their red-zone trips, the second-worst success rate in the league — ahead of only the Jets. In November, only the Jets and Cowboys have been less successful than the Bears, who have a 50% rate this month.
The Bears are spending the byeweek digging into exactly why. Quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo was tasked with bringing his red-zone observations to coach Matt Nagy, pass-game coordinator Dave Ragone and offensive coordinator Bill Lazor.
“I give my suggestions, and we all come together and smooth out those ideas,”
DeFilippo said. “Those guys bring in their ideas.”
There are obvious reasons for their struggles. The Bears’ offense is atrocious when it has the ball on the other 80 yards of the field, too. It ranks 31st in the league with 300.9 yards per game. The only team worse is— you guessed it— the Jets.
The tight space in the red zone requires accuracy from the quarterback — something that both Foles and Mitch Trubisky have struggled with this season. Foles’ seven red-zone touchdowns rank 25th, while Trubisky’s four rank 31st.
Teams need a dangerous rushing attack to bully their way into the end zone. But the
Bears have just two rushing touchdowns this year — and one was a one-yard sneak by Foles.
“You still have time to change if something’s not working. Or, if something’s working, do more of it,” Ragone said. “The reality is, we need to get better in situational football— third down and red area. Imean, that’s obvious. We’re not oblivious to it.”
That sounds a lot like Nagy’s “I’m-notan-idiot” response to the Bears needing to run better. He said that more than a year ago, and the Bears still haven’t fixed their rushing problem.
It’s the job of Robinson’s agent to stump for him, particularly in a contract year. Each touchdown, in theory, bumps the price of his next paycheck — be it this offseason or, if the Bears hand him the franchise tag, the one after that. But he’s right: Robinson is the Bears’ best offensive weapon. He ranks second in the league with 95 targets, yet somehow has only seven targets in the red zone.
Tight end Jimmy Graham is tied for second in the NFL with 13 targets inside the opposition’s 20. Receiver Anthony Miller is second on the team with eight. Running back David Montgomery and receiver Darnell Mooney have five each.
Robinson is the first player opponents try to take away. But Bears coaches have to find creative ways to get him the ball in the red zone. It’s damning that they’ve played 10 games and still haven’t figured out how.
“If getting Allen more touches down there helps the red zone, then that’s something that we obviously need to look at and get better at,” Ragone said. “But that goes for everything we’re doing offensively. There’s no one, obviously, happy where we’re at. There’s things we can definitely improve on.”
NOTE: The Bears reinstated rookie guard Lachavious Simmons from the reserve/ COVID-19 list Friday, 13 days after he tested positive for the coronavirus while the Bears were in Nashville, Tennessee.