Running Back by Committee Not a Bad Idea
by The Sports Exchange of BearReport.com, October 21, 2009 at 11:46am ET
Matt Forte Profile
Step 1 is admitting the Bears have a problem running the football.
They've rushed for more than 86 yards just once in five games, so that qualifies as a problem.
Step 2 is doing something about it – starting right now.
For openers, Josh Beekman deserves a start at left guard, where he started all 16 games last season. Frank Omiyale, a seldom-used backup tackle for his first four NFL seasons in Atlanta and Carolina, was essentially given Beekman's spot in training camp despite hardly any experience at the position.
That's not to single out Omiyale for the failures of the run game. None of the Bears' offensive linemen has played very well, and running back Matt Forte hasn't looked as quick or elusive as he did a year ago.
But Omiyale is playing out of position, and Beekman would cause the least disruption to a unit that must perform cohesively to be effective. Beekman played next to center Olin Kreutz all of last season, so the transition would be fairly seamless.
The remaking of the offensive line doesn't have to stop there. Chris Williams, the 2008 first-round draft pick, has yet to play like one. Not to say that he won't be a good player some day, but backup Kevin Shaffer, another offseason free agent signing, is a good player right now. He started 31 games at right tackle for the Browns the past two years, and 47 games at left tackle the previous three years for the Browns and Falcons.
Shaffer is not an elite pass protector, but he is a big, powerful run blocker with the size (6-5, 318 pounds) and strength to be a force in the run game. He isn't on the roster for window dressing or insurance. He's there to step in and start when there are problems, and there are.
Whether Forte has become tentative or is less than 100 percent physically, it doesn't hurt to utilize other options, even if Forte remains the go-to guy, which he should. Garrett Wolfe showed the quickness, agility and elusiveness on his first carry versus the Falcons that Forte's game has been missing most of the season.
That carry by Wolfe picked up 12 yards, which is a longer run than Forte has had in four of five games this season. Wolfe has had only 14 carries this season, but he is averaging 4.3 yards compared to Forte's 3.4.
And if Adrian Peterson is back from his sprained knee, he also should be incorporated into the run game this week. His 5.6-yard average is meaningless on just five carries, but Peterson gets everything he can from every carry, and like Wolfe, he's a good receiver.
There's nothing wrong with a running attack by committee. Very few teams depend as heavily on one runner as the Bears did on Forte last year.
Finally, the Bears need to remember that all teams tend to execute things better the more often they do them. Only once have the Bears run the ball as many as 30 times in a game this year, and they've run fewer than 25 times in three games. That's not enough reps for the run game to improve, and it's not enough to get opposing defenses to respect the ground game, which in the long run will adversely affect the air attack.
It's tempting when a team has a quarterback as talented as Jay Cutler to forget about the run, but that's not the best route to the postseason.
Ask last year's Broncos.
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