3 observations from rewatching the Chicago Bears’ Week 6 win: No-huddle offense provides rhythm, Mario Edwards Jr. makes the most of his playing time and Kyle Fuller’s tackle was bigger than his huge hit
In another game in which the Chicago Bears labored to move the ball, the rare moments when the offense found rhythm and success in Sunday’s 23-16 road victory over the Carolina Panthers came when it operated with a no-huddle attack.
It was predicated by game situation once, when the Bears took over on their 25-yard line with two minutes remaining in the second quarter. The other times they went uptempo in the third and fourth quarters were strategic decisions by coach Matt Nagy.
Two field goals and Nick Foles’ 1-yard touchdown run were the product of drives the offense jump-started with no-huddle operation. The Bears had 12 snaps in no-huddle (one was a spike to stop the clock), and they produced 80 of the offense’s 261 yards.
Here are three observations from rewatching the Fox telecast via the NFL GamePass subscription service, beginning with the no-huddle offense, plus some interesting playing time statistics.
1. The Bears sprinkle in no-huddle tactics on occasion and did so previously with Mitch Trubisky.
A lot of the time it’s not a hurry-up attack, but that still can give the offense an advantage. Defenses tend to lean on what they are and not make a lot of adjustments. It can force a defense to keep personnel on the field and prevent it from substituting for situations. The Bears knew the Panthers were a zone-based team in the secondary, so Nick Foles could know what he was getting and run RPOs and count numbers to attack light boxes with the running game. It kept Foles in rhythm as a processor, and that’s what he is good at.
“We had to change something up because it was first-and-10 to second-and-11,” Nagy said. “Something wasn’t working. So we’ve got to change the tempo. And we have the ability to do that. We said, ‘Let’s test it out.’ And it kind of worked. We were popping some runs, spacing out a little bit, being able to get rid of the ball.
“We just felt like we were better in that situation. It’s not like the old-school Oregon offense where you’re just flying around going as fast as you can. There’s a control to it. So we just decided to stay in that, and at least we were getting some first downs and getting rhythm.”
On the drive before halftime that ended with Cairo Santos’ 55-yard field goal, the Bears got it going on the second snap with a 7-yard pass to David Montgomery on a high-low concept in which Darnell Mooney cleared out space underneath. Next, Foles hit tight end Jimmy Graham for a 10-yard gain on a stick route. Foles was reading high to low and it was an easy throw — just find the zone window.
After crossing into Panthers territory in the third quarter, the Bears went no-huddle again. Montgomery showed good patience and picked up a nice block by right tackle Bobby Massie on an inside zone run. Foles followed with an 8-yard pass to Graham on another stick route and then hit Mooney for 18 yards on a corner route versus Cover-3 when the curl defender, Tre Boston, played Montgomery to create a window for an easy throw.
Foles came to the line in no-huddle again and found the Panthers with a light, six-man box. The Bears went with a split-flow zone run. Graham came in motion to kick out the edge defender on the back side. Left tackle Charles Leno did a nice job of pinning weak-side linebacker Shaq Thompson outside, and center Cody Whitehair climbed to block middle linebacker Tahir Whitehead, getting away with a hold. Montgomery finished off a physical run, plowing through safety Jeremy Chinn for 11 yards to the 1.
The best run of the game came in the fourth quarter from no-huddle when Foles had an RPO against a seven-man box as Boston walked down late. He chose inside zone instead of the bubble throw. Massie and right guard German Ifedi got good blocks to the front side, and Montgomery did a nice job of setting up Thompson before finding daylight and scooting outside.
“It’s tough on the defense when you switch speeds,” Foles said. "It’s like playing basketball. You’ve got a fast break, you bring it up, you do all these different things. You’ve got to show them these different speeds. And it ultimately comes down to putting stress on the defense and then letting players make plays. When you go no-huddle, hey, they’re on their heels. When you huddle up, sometimes they can get a good call on for what they had in practice all week.
“All of a sudden you’re no-huddle, some of their calls aren’t possible from that situation, so it’s a good changeup. Is it something we’re going to major in? I don’t know, but we’re going to continue to work and show these different speeds because that’s what offenses do, great offenses do. You can huddle up and do well, you can go no-huddle, switch the speed, you can go super fast. And it becomes dangerous because all of a sudden that team you’re playing has to work on those, and I thought today, for really our first time switching up the tempo like that, we were able to get a couple really good drives going that helped us get a ‘W.’ ”
2. Defensive end Mario Edwards Jr. played only 16 snaps, but based on one three-play sequence in the fourth quarter, he could be in line for more playing time.
Edwards whipped Panthers left guard Chris Reed on three straight plays midway through the quarter after a 38-yard pass to D.J. Moore had moved the Panthers to the Bears 27-yard line.
On first down, he beat Reed with speed off the ball and violent, quick hands. Reed lunged at him, and by then Edwards was flushing Teddy Bridgewater out of the pocket, something the Bears did with consistency. Bridgewater threw the ball into the ground.
On second down, Edwards got pressure again with the Bears playing Cover-6 behind the line. He forced Bridgewater to pat the ball and throw underneath to Moore, where cornerback Jaylon Johnson made an excellent play. Bridgewater wanted to wait for a crosser to get past inside linebacker Roquan Smith, but he couldn’t because Edwards collapsed the pocket again.
On third down, Edwards got a sack. The Bears had dime personnel on the field and there was nowhere to go with the ball. Edwards beat Reed off the snap again. Running back Mike Davis was check/releasing, but Reed was so out of whack that it opened a door for Edwards to come inside. Bridgewater got to the top of his drop, where he had to pat the ball again, climb the pocket and then try to escape. Edwards made a high-effort play.
If Edwards is on the field more next week against the Los Angeles Rams, it could be based on this series.
3. Kyle Fuller’s penalty for unnecessary roughness was his biggest hit of the game, and it looked like a clean, shoulder-to-shoulder collision with wide receiver Keith Kirkwood.
But his biggest tackle of the game came at the goal line in the second quarter when he knifed down Teddy Bridgewater at the 2-yard line, stopping him for a 1-yard gain.
The Panthers had a 2x2 formation and brought a wide receiver in jet motion. It was the NFL’s modern-day triple option with zone read and an RPO — a tight end flat route — mixed in. Safety Tashaun Gipson widened out to play the right end, and Bridgewater read outside linebacker Khalil Mack crashing down on the dive. That left Bridgewater one on one with Fuller to get in the end zone, precisely what the Panthers wanted. Fuller came downhill and made the play.
That’s the sense of urgency the other members of the secondary need to be playing with against the run. See the play and go make it.
Examining the playing time numbers
44: Anthony Miller was on the field for 44 of the 66 offensive snaps, his second-highest total of the season (he played 47 in Week 3 in Atlanta), but it was hard to notice him with the exception of a third-and-3 pass in the first quarter on which it looked like he had the yardage needed to move the chains and went backward to be tackled short of the line. Miller finished with three receptions for 8 yards, and he’s simply having too many games in which his contributions are negligible to be considered a reliable WR2 in his third season.
45: Snaps for Jimmy Graham, which is consistent with how many he has played recently. Maybe it’s time to cut that number down and give rookie Cole Kmet (23 snaps) more opportunities. Kmet has to be better at run-after-the-catch, and the only way to find out is to increase his playing time.
33: Outside linebacker James Vaughters played 33 snaps, more action than Barkevious Mingo (20) got, and maybe it’s a sign that he’s becoming the third option behind Khalil Mack and Robert Quinn. Vaughters made three tackles and shared a sack with Mingo.
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