Chicago Bears: 5 burning questions about the offenseRyan Heckmanon June 19, 2020 at 3:00 pm

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Chicago Bears (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

Going into training camp and the preseason, the Chicago Bears have a lot of questions surrounding their offense.

Two years ago when the Chicago Bears hired Matt Nagy to be their head coach, fans immediately felt something they hadn’t in quite some time. From the get-go, Nagy was an excited, positive and outgoing character who brought the team together. He instilled hope from the very first moment he spoke to the fans and media.

Nagy’s background was supposed to help lift the Bears’ offense from the ashes to better days ahead. In 2018, the rookie head coach saw his team take a small step forward, finishing as the league’s 19th ranked offense in yards per game.

Last year, though, the offense seemed to regress in every sense of the word.

Whether it was Mitchell Trubisky looking like a rookie all over again, the offensive line falling apart or the run game failing to find itself, the Bears were miserable on that side of the ball. Heck, Nagy was at plenty of fault throughout the season as well.

A year after winning the NFC North and seeing so much hope brought to the future of this team, and specifically the offense, the Bears fell backwards to the NFL’s 29th ranked offense, putting up a measly 296.8 yards per game.

They ranked similarly in points per game (29th), rushing yards per game (27th), passing yards per game (25th), first downs achieved (28th) and third down percentage (25th).

All in all, they were horrendous. Needless to say, there are going to be continuous questions regarding the offense all the way up to the first game of the season. Five, in particular, are overly worrisome. Hopefully, these are answered early on in the regular season — and let’s hope these answers are the ones we want to hear. If not, the Bears are doomed once again.

Next: Question No. 1

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Chicago Blackhawks: Proud of the leader Patrick Kane has becomeVincent Pariseon June 19, 2020 at 2:00 pm

The Chicago Blackhawks should be so proud of how Patrick Kane has grown up over the years. He has truly developed into a great leader for this franchise.

The Chicago Blackhawks owned the National Hockey League for about eight years. It was a lot of fun to watch the growth and development of all their star players which allowed them to win a boatload of hockey games. In particular, Patrick Kane developed into one of the greatest players who ever played. It was a bumpy ride off the ice at first but he has developed in that area of his career as well and it has been wonderful to see.

There was the Cinco de Mayo pictures, the cab driver, and alligations against him early on that made people wonder about his character but it has all turned out well for Kane. He is a tremendous leader on the ice and off the ice which makes him an even more valuable asset to the organization. He is the face of the franchise and he is going to be for a long time still. There might be a time in the past where nobody ever would have thought that Kane deserves an “A” on his sweater at all but here we are.

He has 1022 points in 973 games played for the Hawks and is on his way to being known as the all-time greatest Blackhawks player. He is also headed towards being known as the greatest American born player in the history of the sport. All of that is fine and dandy but his character off the ice is important too and that has really come a long way from where he once was.

Kane recently appeared on ESPN’s “The Return of Sports” special version of SportsCenter. He just speaks so eloquently now and is a great representative of the Chicago Blackhawks and National Hockey League as a whole. He talked about getting back to playing hockey and how he is a guy that needs to be skating regularly and working on his craft in order to be ready. It makes complete sense that Patrick Kane is addicted to practicing hockey because of how good he is.

At this point in 2020, it is fair to go into the playoffs (whenever they happen) with a bit of confidence that the Hawks will be able to at least make it interesting. That is because of the fact that Patrick Kane is there with some other experienced veterans like Jonathan Toews and Duncan Keith to lead the way.

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Chicago Blackhawks: Proud of the leader Patrick Kane has becomeVincent Pariseon June 19, 2020 at 2:00 pm Read More »

Chicago Bears: Tarik Cohen’s fitness comment raises eyebrowsBrandon Hinrichson June 19, 2020 at 1:00 pm

Chicago Bears’ Tarik Cohen recently shared that he didn’t prioritize his fitness last season which was a big reason why the Bears took a big step backward.

Many fans and media pundits out there have continually blamed quarterback Mitch Trubisky’s performance on the field being the main reason why the Chicago Bears went from being 12-4 in 2018 to 8-8 last season. The criticism is certainly warranted, given Trubisky’s regression as a quarterback, but it’s not entirely justified to make Trubisky the lone scapegoat here.

Head coach Matt Nagy seemingly struggled to get into any sort of a good rhythm with his play-calling, while the offensive line couldn’t generate enough holes for runners to power through. Furthermore, Khalil Mack and the entire defense struggled to generate the type of impact they produced in 2018 when they led the league in turnovers created.

Most notably, however, was the fact that the Bears just couldn’t rid themselves from the injury bug all season long. Akiem Hicks, Kyle Long, Trey Burton, Anthony Miller, and a whole cast of noteworthy players on the roster couldn’t stay healthy throughout the season. Add all of these factors up, and it’s no wonder the Bears found themselves back to being a .500 team, missing the postseason in disappointing fashion.

Recently, Tarik Cohen opened up to the Chicago Sun-Times about the grueling effects that the physicality of the season brings.

‘I’ve been doing yoga now, stretching more often and just like the small training room — in-house things you do to keep your body durable,” he said. ”And to keep the wear-and-tear of the season off of you longer.” Cohen later added: ”I really slacked on that. I always had older guys that would keep me on that, keep me in line.”

Cohen’s noteworthy comments here reflect how the entire 2019 season played out for the Bears. It’s entirely possible that the Bears as a unit felt high-and-mighty from their previous success, therefore not displaying the same focus and intensity, whether on the field or during team workouts, that propelled them to a division title. Cohen also mentioned that reliable veteran players like running back Benny Cunningham weren’t around last season to keep him focused on taking care of his body.

The Bears, despite their previous success under Matt Nagy, seemingly had a void in leadership in 2019, possibly because many impact players were hurt on the sidelines, focusing more on their own rehab as opposed to being on the field practicing and playing in actual games. Maybe like Cohen, it’s because they too didn’t properly take care of their bodies.

It all comes down to doing all the little things necessary to avoid these types of hurdles that plague teams like the Bears who were seemingly on the rise before the 2019 season began. That means the Bears can no longer be complacent because they’re no longer the ones being hunted in their own division. Whether it’s in practice, during workouts, or once the games actually matter, the Bears must not take anything lightly from here on out if they want to get back to winning frequently again.

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Chicago Bears: Tarik Cohen’s fitness comment raises eyebrowsBrandon Hinrichson June 19, 2020 at 1:00 pm Read More »