Nobody likes to fight a crazy person. So it’s good when people think you might be a little crazy. It doesn’t mean you actually ARE crazy; it just helps a little if your foe of the moment thinks you might be, which makes them a little wary and adds to any mystique of unpredictability. The other guy has even a good idea of how you fight, but there’s that one crazy look that is always just below the surface.
So it is with the 2018 Bears offense, which has had, among other things:
· a defensive lineman rush for a touchdown;
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· an offensive lineman catch a touchdown pass, and line up in the backfield and run a deep seam route;
· five defensive linemen join quarterback Mitchell Trubisky as the “skill-position” players in one package;
· a linebacker haul in a pass for a two-point conversion;
· two quarterbacks line up side-by-side in the backfield;
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· assorted defensive backs lineup on offense, with a touch of motion thrown in;
Through a season replete with surprises, seven different Bears defensive players have taken at least one snap on offense. Formations, motions, unorthodox personnel packages, “it’s a fact of creating a ‘Ya’ just don’t know’ in a defense,” said Nick Kwiatkoski, the linebacker who caught the two-point conversion pass against Minnesota. “It’s hard to prepare for everything. You narrow things down to tendencies but then it’s hard to know what else they might do.
“It’s good to be a little ‘crazy.’”
The Philadelphia Eagles aren’t likely to be flummoxed by “crazy,” having dropped in the “Philly Special” pass from tight end Trey Burton to quarterback Nick Foles on the way to winning last year’s Super Bowl. Indeed, the surprise will be if Matt Nagy doesn’t send out some quirky personnel grouping, most likely in the tight red zone, with the immediate goal of points right then.
But “crazy” has been at most an incidental objective, not a goal in itself. Where great Bears teams – as in the 1963 NFL champions and 1985 Super Bowl winners – have had gaping fissures between offense and defense, Nagy has given members of his defense an occasional very vested interest in the offense.
The objective is to score points along with creating another element in a changed culture.
“One person's crazy is another person's fun and dynamic and energizing,” said offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich. “I think the chemistry that we have is -- those things are related, you know? Whether it's in the locker room and the whole ‘Club Dub’ thing and some of the other stuff that he does.
“These are a bunch of individuals that come together and sometimes it's hard. You have to find a unique way to galvanize them. And I think that [Nagy] has done a lot of things that have been very positive. Now, if we'd have thrown a pick when trying to throw the ball to [tackle] Bradley Sowell or [defensive lineman] Akiem Hicks fumbles, then ‘crazy’ is the proper adjective. But I think it's all just part of the chemical reaction that has taken place.”