Curran: Hard Truths: The bear offensive is not a joke

FOXBORO – Bill Belichick's weekly call with opposing media makes him feel like a hooded Eddie Haskell.

"It's a great football team you have out there in Chicago!"

It's a standard ploy with multiple benefits.

More hard truths:

This allows his own team to know he is not doing anything stupid, he really thinks these guys – in this case the Bears – are good.

The media is conscientiously reporting what the greatest coach of all time thinks of his team, creating city-wide puffs and raising expectations.

The players hear about it, are happy that he noticed their hard work and wonder how it would be to play one day for Bill Belichick if he is still there.

And then, Sunday, the Patriots will often hit the opponent's ass between the ears to force them to blow their noses.

The next team comes and he does it again.

The rub against the Bears this week has been particularly warm since he noted that the 3-2 Bears are just a few 5-0 games.

And when it came to the Bears and Mitch Trubisky attack, Belichick did not back down.

Speaking on the fact that Taylor Gabriel had finished last season with 54 yards rushing against Taylor last week against Miami, Belichick said: "It's pretty much the same pitch and the capture that I saw all year.The execution was 99 out of 100. It was a very good throw, a good course, an excellent catch.It took about a few centimeters to get in the ball within 50 meters and that's where it was happening. "

Look at the room. It's good. But nothing comes out of the screen to announce itself as one of the great pieces of 2018. The placement was exceptional but Gabriel has ruined everything and is immediately towed.

The hyperbole aside, this game, the two directors involved and the rest of the Bears offensive so far this season have turned freshman head coach Matt Nagy into a much more interesting product to watch.

Last season, the Bears launched 12 touchdowns. All year.

This season, Trubisky has 11 and players like Gabriel and the pocket size Tarik Cohen (5 feet 6 inches, 178 pounds). picture below) are presented in such a way as to make the offensive transformation of the Bears a neglected story at the beginning of the season.

The worst match of Trubisky this season in terms of percentage completion was the opener. He completed 65.71% of his passes. It was above 70% in the other three was at 68.75 in the other.

Two weeks ago, he made six touchdown passes in a Buccaneer pounding. And the decision making was good. Chicago is 12-20 in the third run of the last two games.

"I think he's done a good job in giving the ball to players who are open or in space and letting them play the role of playmakers," Belichick said. "He has a lot. It's the quarterback's job to deliver the ball to the playmakers and let him go. I think he did a good job in this area. He's a tough kid, whom I respect. This is what we ask our quarterbacks to do games to help our team win, to give the ball to players who are open and in space. It's not a question of statistics. It's about doing what you need to do to win. "

Cohen is the most difficult offensive player to handle with the Bears. He averages 85 yards of scrimmage per game and totals 211 yards on 14 catches (17 targets). He averages 8.1 yards per touch on scrimmage games (for comparison, Alvin Kamara of the Saints averaged 7.7 for the Saints last year in his breakaway year). Cohen is also the main return from Chiefs kickoffs and averages 12.2 yards per return.

"It plays about a little less than 50% of the time and is hard to find in many different places," Belichick said.

"He's a dynamic player who can run, catch, really threaten every meter of the pitch, from touchline to touchline, in the center, deep down. You can throw it at him, give it to him and he is elusive with the balloon and it is elusive to be able to open for the quarterback to recover. These are excellent skills to have. Each of these qualities is good and he has many. "

The Patriots are not good at covering ultra-fast guys. Cohen is not as fast as Tyreek Hill, but they are quite similar players in terms of speed and stature. And Gabriel, the former Super Bowl Falcon you'll remember, is much more used in Chicago (34 shots), while Tears Burton (13.3 out of 15 captures) is the biggest guy in Bears.

Nagy being in Kansas City with Andy Reid, he brought a style similar to the Bears. On the one hand, it's great. The Patriots have just got ready for the Chiefs, so they have a length in advance.

By cons, the Patriots had 10 days to prepare for KC and still gave 40 points. And since it would help the Chiefs so much if the Bears were able to cope with an unexpected loss to New England, you can rest assured that Nagy and his staff will use Reid's brain to understand what the Chiefs forgot about Sunday night. .

There are more than just kernels of truth in what Belichick had to say on Wednesday about the squawk box. This may be more difficult than originally planned.

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