The Bears are too cute in short yardage; why not just ‘Tush Push’ more?
Bears quarterback Justin Fields carries the ball against the Lions.
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The Eagles have the third-best rushing quarterback in the NFL and have no trouble in short yardage. The Bears have the second-best and have struggled.
Rather than call a direct snap to a rookie running back on third-and-1, as the Bears did Sunday — it was stuffed — why not just let Justin Fields fall forward the way Jalen Hurts does in the Eagles’ “Tush Push?”
“I don’t want to discredit what they do,” Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy said Thursday. “I think it’s pretty obvious that they do it really well and they have a plan of attack in how they do it and who’s doing it. All that stuff is really important.
“As we’ve alluded to in the past, 31 other teams have tried to emulate that. I think we’ve emulated it as well as anybody else. It’s incredible, right? They do a great job. And when you watch them do that, what you think, what stands out, is an immediate push, right, where the yard already happens and here comes two or three more yards after that, even, for those guys. It’s pretty incredible.”
The Bears have run 55 offensive plays on third-and-2 or fourth-and-2 or shorter. They’ve run 36 times and thrown 19 times. They’ve gotten a first down 53.8% of the time, which ranks 14th in the NFL.
The Eagles lead the NFL with a league-leading first down percentage of 71.9. They’ve run 42 out of 55 times — often the “Tush Push,” in which Hurts goes under center and is shoved forward by players in the backfield.
Bears quarterback Justin Fields can do that. At the least, he should have the ball in his hands when the Bears need a yard. The Bears have tried the “Tush Push” this season, but not in the last two weeks, where they’ve been stuffed in critical short yardage plays.
Getsy called the direct snap to Johnson “a play that we run 12-15 times a year” that was foiled by blitzing safety Jalen Thompson. Tight end Robert Tonyan pulled and ran right past him rather than block Thompson, but Getsy said the Bears’ gap blocking scheme meant he was the responsibility of an offensive lineman.