I went to Patrick Finley at the Chicago Sun-Times to get some insight into how the team he covers (the Bears) are approaching this Sunday night battle with the Eagles in Philadelphia.
Both the Bears and the Eagles at 8-6 are contemplating the latest odds as to which team has the better shot at advancing past this game into a playoff scenario.
Finley says the Bears defense is very concerned about keeping up with the Eagles' up-tempo offensive pace—and that's more from a substitution standpoint, not necessarily a conditioning issue.
The Bears' rookie Kyle Long is a Chip Kelly alumnus, and he used to see defeat in defenders’ eyes by the second quarter.
‘‘You’d be amazed at how quickly you can get a defense’s will to break when you’re going 100 mph,’’ said the Bears rookie guard, who played on Oregon’s revolutionary, fast-paced offense last year. ‘‘The tempo is what gets ya.’’
This is the inside advice Kyle Long is giving to the Bears defense, according to Finley. For the Bears and their NFL-worst run defense, slowing the Eagles on Sunday will be like trying to stop a ceiling fan with their bare hands.
Kelly’s grand experiment, for the most part, has been working all season.
‘‘Have you seen the stats?’’ Long asked, rhetorically. The Eagles average 152.9 rushing yards per game and 4.98 yards per running play, best in the NFL, yet their time of possession, 25:53, is the shortest in the league.
With 88 plays of 20 yards or more, the Eagles are nine short of breaking the NFL record set by the 2001 ‘‘Greatest Show on Turf’’ St. Louis Rams. “It’s certainly proven that it can be very successful after 15 weeks,” Bears coach Marc Trestman said. ‘‘I mean, they’ve been exceptional.’’
The Bears, according to Finley and Kyle Long, see the beauty of the Eagles offense in its simplicity. Long estimated last year’s Oregon Ducks ran only 20 different plays, albeit out of 40 different formations. The familiar plays allowed players to line up quickly, without huddling, and react rather than think.
While the NFL version of the ‘‘Blur’’ is more complicated — routes are different and Eagles quarterback Nick Foles sometimes goes under center — the tempo is the same. Even Foles’ ‘‘check-with-me’’ audibles come quickly, from Kelly’s sideline.
‘‘[Kelly] simplifies it so much,’’ running back LeSean McCoy said, ‘‘that you’re able to play fast.’’
Even if Bears linebacker Lance Briggs returns and resumes play-calling duties, Sunday will be a challenge for the Bears defense.
‘‘We just have to make sure we’re on the same page,’’ defensive coordinator Mel Tucker said. ‘‘We have to get the call in quickly. We have to get aligned very quickly and make sure we communicate. Then, when the ball is snapped, we’ve got to go play.’’
The Bears could face challenges in substituting, too. NFL rules stipulate an offensive team that makes a substitution must wait for the defense to do the same, so the Eagles often keep the same 11 players on the field.
The Bears smell what the Chippah is cookin'…
‘‘When you’re tired,’’ defensive end Shea McClellin said, ‘‘get out.’’
Before McCoy became the NFL’s leading rusher, he had to adjust. ‘‘It’s one thing to be in shape,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s another to be in shape for this offense.”
Defenses are not. With one more game of 400 total yards, the Eagles will become just the fourth NFL team to do it 12 times in one season.
‘‘When the big [defensive] guys up front get tired, the holes get a little bigger,’’ said McCoy, who leads the NFL with 1,343 rushing yards despite gaining 38 on only eight tries in Sunday’s 48-30 loss to the Vikings in Minneapolis. ‘‘Those guys are tired, and once they get tired, you can roll and get going. If there’s one step that a guy got you on the first time, he won’t get you the next time — because he’s tired.’’
Bears defensive tackle Stephen Paea said McCoy ‘‘is running everything in their offense right now.’’ Foles can keep the ball, too, on read-option plays; he has 50 carries this season. The Washington Redskins, another read-option team, gashed the Bears for 209 yards on 43 carries Oct. 20.
The Bears have spent the week reviewing who is responsible for the option, the dive, the quarterback and the pitch — at a breakneck pace.
‘‘The concept is still the same [as Oregon], where they’re trying to get as many opportunities as they can for their offense,’’ said Bears safety Chris Conte, who, along with McClellin and Paea, faced Oregon in college.
Kelly claims tempo isn’t the primary focus, ‘‘just a tool in the toolbox,” he said. It’s what sets his teams apart, but they’re not solely dependent on the rush, either.
In Sunday’s loss to the Vikes, the Eagles ran only 13 times and threw 48 passes. ‘‘We had 475 yards of offense and scored 30 points,’’ Kelly said. ‘‘We don’t get any points for having a run-pass balance.
‘‘If you can throw for 400 yards a game, I think every single coach in this league, all 32 of them, would say, ‘Yeah, I’ll do that.’ ’’
And there's the rub…
Patrick Finley wouldn't give me a hint of a clue as to what the Bears' offense has planned for the Eagles defense.
It was all like passive-aggressive "how great is your offense!" stuff— but Finley knows where Jay Cutler and the Bears offense are planning to take their team in Philadelphia. It's called right to the throat of the Eagles secondary, which is reeling from injury, fatigue and lack of prime-time talent.
The implied message after being decoded by my special Cutler Ray Scan Ring is the Bears plan on scoring more points than the Eagles do—and they'll do it the old-fashioned way. Traditional huddle, Matt Forte off the tackles, and bombs away against our motley crew of banged up corners and inept safeties.
Yeah, that's what they're actually thinking. Don't shoot the messenger…
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