
Bears running back Tarik Cohen takes a handoff during Wednesday’s practice. | AP Photos
With a stout defense and no long-term answer at the most important position in sports, the Bears are the last NFL team that should try to throw 40 times a game.
Javon Wims didn’t see David Montgomery collapse in the early minutes of practice Wednesday, nor did he watch the cart come and take the Bears’ starting running back away to the Halas Hall training room. The receiver first heard about the team’s biggest training-camp development after practice ended.
“I just got in the cold tub,” he said. “And I saw it on ESPN.”
The Bears will feel the impact of his injury soon enough — none more than the two most important players of training camp, Mitch Trubisky and Nick Foles. Depending on the severity of Montgomery’s groin injury, it could feel more bracing that any cold tub.
The Bears hope that either Trubisky or Foles — whomever wins the starting job in the next 2 ½ weeks — can conduct a balanced offensive attack this season. The winner of the derby will need to be a point guard, not a three-point shooter. Montgomery, then, was supposed to be their ideal pick-and-roll mate, someone to take the pressure off the quarterback.
The Bears can’t expect either quarterback to take over the offense single-handedly. Training camp performances by each of them — vacillating between uneven and concerning, depending on your level of generosity— have only reinforced that belief.
With a stout defense and no long-term answer at the most important position in sports, the Bears are the last NFL team that should try to throw 40 times a game. And certainly not 54 times, as they did in a season-crushing blowout loss last year to the Saints. Coach Matt Nagy called seven run plays and provided the sound bite of the season a day later.
“I know we need to run the ball more,” he said. “I’m not an idiot.”
He’d be an idiot to shun the run this season, even if Montgomery has to miss significant time. It won’t be easy. Finding a way to formulate a balanced attack before the season opener could prove just as challenging as picking the right quarterback.
If Montgomery remains out, Nagy is unlikely to lean on undrafted rookie Artavis Pierce. He probably won’t ride Ryan Nall, who has two career carries. Tarik Cohen is a receiver in a running back’s body, and Cordarrelle Patterson is the opposite. Because of intake coronavirus testing, anyone signed as a free agent probably wouldn’t be able to practice until Monday at the earliest. That’s 13 days before the Bears’ opener against the Lions — which might not be enough time to devour Nagy’s playbook.
If Montgomery misses time, Nagy has two choices. One is to hope his quarterback gets the team into the proper run plays at the line of scrimmage – it’s Foles’ strength, but not Trubisky’s —and hands the ball off to one of the team’s …read more
Source:: Chicago Sun Times