Is Offensive Balance Here To Stay?
Earlier today on the Mully and Hanley Show, Dan Hampton said he believed that Lovie Smith made it clear to Mike Martz that the team needs a more balanced offense that protects Jay Cutler.
However, Troy Aikman sees the offense balance more as a game plan for the Bills rather than a new offensive philosophy for the Bears.
"I believe that Lovie [Smith] would like to have balance," Aikman said on the Mully and Hanley Show. "And I'm sure that they talk about that. I also believe, however, that Lovie has great confidence in Mike Martz as an offensive coordinator.
"They obviously have a history together and he lets Mike kind of do what it is he feels is best. Mike's going to err on side of throwing that ball, as we know, and he's a stubborn guy. But I also know that he's going to do what he feels is best to give that team a chance to win offensively."
LISTEN: Troy Aikman On The Mully And Hanley Show
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But now that we saw offensive balance, for perhaps the first time all year, should the Bears continue to make an effort to run the ball 40-50% of the time? Aikman discussed the idea of committing to the run, even when you're not having success.
"There just seems to be this notion, not just in Chicago, but really around the league that whenever you lose, people immediately tend to look at the statistics. And if you say 'well they only ran the ball 12 times, then therefore that's the reason they lost the game.'
"They don't ever really go into it a little deeper and say 'yeah, but they don't run the ball well' or 'the 12 times they ran it they didn't get any yardage.' It becomes very very difficult to [call running] plays when you're not having any success running the football and you're looking at 2nd and 10, 2nd and 9, every time you run it on first down."
While the fact that the Bears did stick with the running game helps, it's more important that they run the ball well and not just for the sake of running the ball.
