Bears film breakdown: Why wasn't Adam Shaheen playing more? This play, and the score, had something to do with it

Share

Adam Shaheen was relegated to the sidelines for more than two-thirds of the Bears' offensive plays in Sunday's 31-3 blowout loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. With the game quickly getting out of hand, the Bears were forced to deploy their two-minute offense for most of the afternoon in a futile effort to make things competitive. 

And because Daniel Brown, not Shaheen, is the Bears' go-to two-minute tight end, the team's second-round pick only was on the field for 17 of the Bears' 55 snaps (Dion Sims had 20 snaps, bolstering the two-minute-offense argument). 

"I think most of it is when you get down 24-0, you kind of adjust what you're doing," coach John Fox said. "That led more to Dan Brown playing, say, than Adam Shaheen."

Fox is never one to throw his players under the bus to the media, though. So it's worth looking at a play that may have something to do with Shaheen's lack of snaps: Jordan Howard's third-and-two run in the first quarter. 

With the Bears down 7-0, Sims had just thrown the offense a life raft when he stripped Malcolm Jenkins -- who had just picked off Mitchell Trubisky -- with Tre McBride recovering the forced fumble. The Bears had the ball at midfield with a fresh set of downs, seemingly providing a good opportunity to march downfield and at least get some points, if not tie the game. Howard ran for a yard, then Tarik Cohen caught a seven-yard pass, setting up third-and-two at the Eagles' 42-yard line. 

The Bears bring Cohen (yellow arrow) in motion, likely trying to get defensive end Brandon Graham (red arrow) to bite and make an outside move on Adam Shaheen. Left guard Josh Sitton (blue arrow) will pull to his right and go between right tackle Bobby Massie and Shaheen, giving Howard an option to run between center Cody Whitehair and right guard Kyle long, or between Massie, Shaheen and Sitton. 

Graham doesn't bite on Cohen's misdirection and cuts inside. Shaheen, though, opens up his right shoulder while Graham cuts inside, and already is in a poor position to block even before Howard receives the handoff. 

As Howard receives the handoff, Shaheen is already beat. Sitton's responsibility isn't on Graham, and he does his job pulling into where the hole should be. Linebacker Nigel Bradham (green arrow) goes to fill the hole left by Sitton's pull. 

"That was a play that wasn't executed as well as we could have, and that was part of that issue when the end came underneath," Fox said. 

Howard sees he has nowhere to go to his right, so he plants and looks to cut back to his left, but Bradham is right there in the hole. 

Graham and Bradham converge on Howard and drop him for a one-yard loss. There was no opportunity for Howard to break a tackle here. Instead of going for a first down on fourth-and-three, Fox elects to punt. 

Shaheen hardly was the only Bears player who didn't execute on Sunday, but this mistake stood out. There's a coaching point here for Shaheen, as Jim Miller and Alex Brown explained on the Under Center Podcast on Sunday (at the 4:30 mark), but as Miller said: "That is stupid football.” 

Contact Us