Sticking To What They're Good At
Bears offensive line coach, Mike Tice addressed the media today. He described the key for improvement in the second half of the season as "[Playing] four good quarters of football, starting this week would be nice."
However, simplification, like some have suggested, isn't always the best way to improve. Putting players in the best position to play well will lead to improvement in the second half of the season.
"Mike [Martz] and I and the staff have coached a lot of football," Tice said. "Name a scheme [and] we've tried it and what we have to do is not so much simplify, but find the things that our guys do well and make sure those are the things we're focusing on."
Protection schemes have been a hot topic through the first seven games. But, in the coaching staff's mind there isn't a need to reduce the number they have.
"We carry in the low 20s every week," Tice said. "We might call 15 to 16 to 17 of those in a game. For me, that's been the norm. I don't know how it's been on other teams, for me that's been the norm. So saying that we're carrying too many protections, I don't buy that. I don't think that's an area where we can make an excuse for young or old guys.
Perfection isn't a reasonable option for an offensive line. Each play is too physical and the games are too long to expect perfection from all five members of the offensive line. But Tice knows exactly the performance he needs from his players.
"If three guys out of five play winning football in a game, you should win some games," Tice said. "If four out of five guys play winning football in a game, unless you turn the ball over a whole lot, you should win the game. Because not five guys out of five are going to play winning football. There's not a lineman I've seen that's blocked his guy every single play, it just doesn't happen. So to expect that is a pipe dream. But what we have to do is have four guys grade out at winning football and we'll win a lot of football games, if we don't turn the ball over."
Offensive line play and ball protection are just two of the many aspects that the Bears will need to improve in order to make a run at the playoffs.
