The Bears needed to use David Montgomery more on Sunday, but that’s the only bad thing you can say about the running back’s afternoon. Montgomery carried 11 times for 113 yards, with an explosive 80-yard touchdown run on the first play of the game setting the tone for the entire game at Soldier Field.
That 80-yard touchdown, by the way, was the Bears’ first score of 50 or more yards since Oct. 28, 2018.
But the Mitch Trubisky factor is real with Montgomery:
Montgomery w/Trubisky at QB: 76 carries, 442 yards (5.8 YPC), 4 TDs
Montgomery w/Nick Foles at QB: 94 carries, 318 yards (3.4 YPC), 0 TD
Just these numbers alone make you wonder how different the Bears’ season might’ve been had Matt Nagy not benched Trubisky early in the third quarter of Week 3’s trip to Atlanta. Benching Trubisky for Foles meant Nagy got a chance to run *his* shotgun-heavy offense, which failed spectacularly.
Fitting a scheme to the players you have works. Fitting players to the scheme you want doesn’t. That’s an abundantly clear lesson when you look at Montgomery’s season, and again – maybe this season could’ve been different had Nagy not turned to Foles so quickly, or at all.