Durkin: Bears Focused On Keeping The Pocket Moving
By Dan Durkin-
(CBS) Bears coach Marc Trestman talked about doing a "deep analysis" during the team's bye week. Given their post-bye week meltdown against the Packers, many questioned just what this analysis determined.
Part of the self-scouting the Bears did revolved around quarterback Jay Cutler's launch point on passing plays. Predominantly, the Bears used Cutler from the "home" position directly behind center. However, this past Sunday against the Vikings, the Bears got Cutler on the move to both evade the rush and allow him to throw on the move, which he's always done well.
"Well, we did almost exclusively drop-back or play-action passes in the pocket," Trestman said. "But we touched on it last week where we did create some advantage for us getting him outside, we got a few balls in to Marty (Martellus Bennett) and so forth, so that's a good thing, and again when you move the passing spot that certainly can help.
"Every quarterback likes to move and change the passing spot and not be sitting in the same spot. We came out of the bye week and we looked at it and have done some things to allow him to do that."
The results were positive Sunday. The Bears had five passing plays of 20-plus yards, and Cutler completed 72 percent of his passes (second-highest mark this year), with three going for touchdowns, and his 7.67 yards per attempt was his third-best mark of the season.
Trestman said that moving the pocket is something that the team will look to continue to do moving forward, which was music to Cutler's ears.
"It was great," Cutler said. "We got to keep doing it. We got to keep doing it in different ways, showing different looks, get off the spot as much as we possibly can because it helps with everything. It helps the pass rush, gets some easy balls out to the flat, out on the outside, lets the guys run. It's got to be something in our offense that we do more of."
Dan Durkin covers the Bears for CBSChicago.com and is a frequent contributor to 670 The Score. Follow him on Twitter at @djdurkin.
