One of the more interesting statistics through the first six weeks of the 2022 NFL season had to do with which quarterbacks were most often used, and which quarterbacks were most often effective, as weapons on designed run plays. Taking scrambles and quarterback sneaks out of the equation; we’re talking only about plays in which the whole idea was for the quarterback to run the ball in some sort of schemed construct
Per Sports Info Solutions, Jalen Hurts led all quarterbacks with 42 designed runs for 124 yards and three touchdowns through the first six weeks of the season. Not a huge surprise. Nor was it a shock that Lamar Jackson ranked second with 39 designed runs for 320 yards and two touchdowns. After that, it was Kyler Murray with 26 designed runs for 144 yards and a touchdown, Marcus Mariota with 26 for 95 yards and two touchdowns, Daniel Jones with 22 for 62 yards, and Josh Allen with 22 for 49 yards and one touchdown.
Ranking seventh? There was Justin Fields, with 20 designed runs… for 15 yards.
Given Fields’ incandescent abilities as a pure runner, you almost have to go out of your way to present inhospitable opportunities for him in that capacity. And through the first six weeks of the season, the Bears and offensive coordinator Luke Getsy certainly did their worst. Instead of designing concepts that would work in his favor, the idea seemed to be to let Fields use his legs only if the play broke down. That’s why Fields led the league in scrambles by far through the first six weeks of the season — he had 38 for 261 yards and a touchdown. Josh Allen finished second with 25 scrambles for 205 yards and a touchdown. Fields’ 136 yards gained after contact should have been a clue to Getsy and head coach Matt Eberflus.
It would appear that the mini-bye given to the Bears following their Week 6 Thursday night loss to the Commanders gave the coaches some extra time in the film room, and when it was time for the Bears to face the Patriots on Monday night, there was a plan in place that had not been there before. In Chicago’s 33-14 win over New England, Fields led all quarterbacks in Week 7 with 11 designed runs for 60 yards and a touchdown. His Positive Play Rate on designed runs shot up from 15% in Weeks 1-6 to 54.5% in Week 7.
“Yeah. I think that creates an issue sometimes for the defense,” Eberflus said after the game. “Depending what defense they’re in, certainly when you have a quarterback that can – has the designed runs with the run pass off of it, you know, and then also doing some things have the ability to scramble and make first downs. I think that’s a big piece. And it’s hard to defend those guys. And we’ve all seen them around the league. And Justin did a nice job of executing today.”
Let’s give the Bears’ coaches some credit for finally figuring out what they should have figured out weeks ago, and what former head coach Matt Nagy never did: You can build your offense to a point around Justin Fields as a run threat, just as the Eagles have done with Hurts, the Bills have done with Allen, the Falcons have done with Mariota, and the Ravens have certainly done with Jackson.
How did it look, and how did it work? Let’s go to the tape.
If you don't have a plan, steal from the best!
Apparently, one of the parts of the plan that Getsy and his staff put together was based on the aforementioned Mr. Jackson, and the success he’s had as a runner through his career in the concepts designed by offensive coordinator Greg Roman.
The Bears were apparently looking closely @ the Lamar Jackson offense. When Justin Fields was asked about all the designed runs:
"It just brings another whole element to our offense, stealing some plays from the (Baltimore) Ravens.
Stealing some plays from the Ravens?
— Mark Grote (@markgrotesports) October 25, 2022
Devin McCourty said the Bears had more designed runs for Justin Fields than they had shown on film, noting the Patriots saw some similar concepts to what the Ravens/Lamar Jackson threw at them (with success) in Week 3. pic.twitter.com/LIepYKDERp
— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) October 25, 2022
“He just made a lot of plays, I’d say,” McCourty said after the game. “Throwing, dropping back, scrambling, more designed runs than we saw on film. I think with the extended time they added some plays that I think we saw in the Baltimore game with Lamar Jackson. Some of those style of plays, but we just didn’t do a good job of keeping him in the pocket. Early they had some kind of moving the pocket plays, boot plays, roll pass, to get them more comfortable. But then, just some big third downs where he was able to scramble, by time, throw some passes on the run. Things that we knew coming in. I would just say overall, across the board, as a team, it was just a poor showing. Across the board, from beginning all the way to the end.”
Jackson led all quarterbacks in Week 3, when the Ravens played the Patriots, with 11 designed runs for 107 yards and a touchdown. So, perhaps the Bears did some smart scouting here.
The Ravens love to mess with your defense on quarterback counters, as on this 20-yard Jackson scamper against New England’s defense.
And there are few, if any, teams who can get your defense in the wrong place with good old QB Power. This 38-yard run is proof of concept.
“I don’t think there were any new plays,” Belichick said after the fact of Jackson’s designed runs. “They ran their C gap plays. Lamar did a good job on keeping some of those, not keeping those, the option choices that he made. We lost leverage, missed a couple of tackles there, so… Combination of all those things.
Putting it on the field.
The Patriots got a second helping of that counter concept on this eight-yard Fields run with 3:42 left in the first quarter…
The Bears also gave Belichick’s defense some nightmares on old-school pulls, as was the case on this nine-yard run late in the second quarter.
This four-yard outside zone run didn’t just fool the Patriots — it also psyched out the camera person in charge of the tight copy.
How it made everything different.
Before this game, the Bears had converted just four of their 21 attempts of third-and-10 or more. In this game, Fields converted a third-and-14 with a 20-yard run, and converted a third-and-16 with a 17-yard pass to receiver Darnell Mooney. The 17-yard completion came late in the first half, and you can see how the Patriots reacted in their Cover-1 look to the very idea that Fields might keep the ball here.
Fields’ 20-yard run wasn’t even designed — it was a desperation scramble after he couldn’t find an open receiver to his liking.
Both of these conversions happened on the same drive near the end of the first half, and both long conversions were predicated by sacks. Imagine how things might have gone without the threat of the designed run here? Bears kicker Cairo Santos booted a 23-yard field goal at the end of the half to put the Bears up, 20-14. Take that threat out, and you have a very dispirited quarterback heading back into the locker room, wondering if and when things would ever open up in his misbegotten offenses.
Hopefully, the Bears will stick with the plan.
This is not to excuse the Bears’ coaching staff for taking this long to figure it out. Nor are we saying that Chicago should go Full Metal Wing-T and just run Fields all the time. There are passing concepts to unlock in this offense, and Fields must continue to develop as a passer.
That said, the job of any coach is to present players with the best possible opportunities to succeed, and as frustrating as it was for Fields’ specific skill set to go ignored for this long, we’re here now.
“[It] just makes our offense more complex,” Fields said after the game. Jjust getting us out of the pocket, just more designed quarterback runs. It just opens it up a little bit more, just doing a lot of different things on offense.”
Running back David Montgomery agreed.
“[When] Justin is able to use his legs and the line is blocking as well as they are, we have to take advantage of that and we were able to do that. Every chance we got to run the ball, we wanted to make sure we were falling forward.”
Tight end Cole Kmet was right there in the choir.
“It’s a lot of fun when you’re able to have all these different type of run schemes with the running backs we have and the quarterback we have, and even with our fullbacks and tight ends. It can be a lot of fun and we were able to do that tonight.
“Probably a big strength of ours is being able to run the football this way, then the pass coming off of that. We will continue to lean into that. That’s a good defense we went up against. I definitely thought we were more physical than they were today and it will show on tape. We will just continue to improve and continue to find our niche.”
Now, it’s up to Eberflus and Getsy to build upon the plan they found and implemented… by any means necessary.
