Thread: Bears Analysis; The RB's, What's Ahead for Forte, Barber and Bell.......

Originally Posted by Dagan81

Ric and Soul, I think that you both make excellent points. However, with this offensive system that Tice is going to install, I just don't see the Bears really going to a system where they throw the ball 35-45 times per game UNLESS it is to exploit certain matchups. I still believe that the most complete offenses in the league are the ones in Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Houston, because they feature a mixture of pass and run so prevalently in their offense schemes. I feel like Tice will bring that to the table with the Bears' offense. Now, all we need is a good blocker at LT and we would be complete.

Soul, you mentioned something in a post in another thread that I found interesting. You mentioned the schemes that Mike Shanahan ran in Denver that won the Broncos two Super Bowls. What was interesting about the running plays were that most of them were zone blocking schemes like Shanahan is running in Washington right now. If Tice were to run something like that, I'd say that the Bears would become the best rushing offense in the NFL with their stable of backs.

Much of the reason for why the Broncos ran zone blocking schemes was because Alex Gibbs was the line coach and that's what he coaches. The other reason was because the Broncos typically had smaller quicker lineman who wouldn't hold up well in a man on man power game. The advantage was that it creates space and opens cutback lanes so that's the type of RB's Shanny drafted. They were perfect for that scheme.

I really don't know what's on Tice's mind as far as that goes. Our lineman are bigger but they're certainly athletic enough to run zone blocking schemes and Forte is exactly the kind of back that can benefit from it. You need a back who doesn't dance of waste time on fancy moves. You want a one cut back who finds the cutback lane and explodes through it. Forte doesn't have great top end speed but he accelerates quickly enough and he has the ability to make people miss once he gets to the second level.

My guess is with Tice always looking to get bigger on the line he coaches more of a power blocking game than he does a finesse game but I could be wrong. Someone like Butka or Windy who know more about line play would be good guys to ask.