NFL Chicago Bears

Marc Trestman’s System Simply Doesn’t Fit Chicago Bears’ Personnel

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By @brianneal23

Marc Trestman Fired

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For the past couple months of the 2014 NFL season, a big question surrounding the Chicago Bears has been Marc Trestman‘s future as their head coach. Is the reason for the Bears’ disappointing season a lack of talent, the coaching or a combination of both?

Well, it’s easy to say a combination of both, as that’s fairly obvious, especially with the defense — though, Trestman doesn’t have much, if anything to do with that side of the ball. But as far the offense goes? I think it’s clear now that his system simply does not fit the personnel of this team.

It was masked last year as the offensive line was healthier and its play was simply better. And while it’s hard to have a successful offense with an inconsistent O-line anyway, Trestman’s system isn’t going to work with the players they have on offense right now. And while his offense could work with some new pieces, moving all of those players when you could just bring in a better system makes the most sense.

Trestman’s offense is mostly a classic West-Coast style. The key is to make a lot of short passes, mixed in with some runs, and use both of those facets to nickel and dime your way down the field. That’s the foundation. That’s why you see the Bears run so many short pass plays. Of course, that could also be because the offensive line has struggled at times, but those passes would still occur regardless.

However, having a QB like Jay Cutler simply doesn’t work with that very well, especially when Trestman won’t commit to the run.

What a QB like Cutler needs is an offense that is determined to run in order to set up the pass. His most successful plays and most efficient times of taking care of the ball have historically come when running bootlegs and play-action that open up the field and work the intermediate-to-deep passing game. The Bears could have that … If they ran the ball. The problem is, Trestman doesn’t run the ball much at all, and believes his system will work just passing the ball well over 60 percent of the time. As this season shows: that thought process is incorrect.

And the saddest part of all that? The Bears aren’t that bad at running the ball at all. Sometimes they struggle, as most run games will at times during every game, but they’re still averaging 4.0 yards per carry this season.

If Trestman would run the ball 25-30 times a game, instead of 22.3 (including a season-low eight times against the Detroit Lions in a Week 13 loss, 34-17), then the Bears would have much more balance and Cutler wouldn’t have to throw the ball 38.2 times per game.

When you throw the ball that much, especially without mixing in the run consistently, mistakes are going to happen. That’s because the defensive line can just pin its ears back and rush without worrying too much about the run, and the guys in coverage are going to have an easy day when their D-line can just rush and put pressure on the QB with regularity.

And that’s just what happened this year, as Cutler was forced into a style of offense that doesn’t fit him or the rest of the personnel well, and then the QB led the league in turnovers through 14 games. Much of that can fall on Trestman and his play-calling.

So even though Trestman’s offense has worked elsewhere, it simply doesn’t work with this team. That’s why, most importantly out of all the reasons, Trestman should be fired after the Bears’ Week 17 game.

Replacing him with Mike Shanahan or whoever is ready to come in, run the ball and utilize the talents of Cutler, Alshon Jeffery and Brandon Marshall the best with play-action passes in a balanced offensive attack should be one of the Bears’ top priorities this offseason.

Brian Neal is an NFL contributor for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @brianneal23.

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