The Chicago Bears have produced a top 10 offense twice in the past 30 years. The first was in 1995, and the last came in 2013. That is it. Otherwise, it’s been a long trudge of mediocre-to-bad on that side of the ball. So you can understand why many fans and media are stunned at the unit’s rapid ascent this season. They rank 3rd in yards and 7th in scoring. All of it is thanks to the arrival of head coach Ben Johnson. Everybody knew he was a wizard in Detroit, but they probably didn’t think he’d have such a profound impact so quickly. Former Bears running back Matt Forte can already see one of the reasons the coach is so good at what he does.
Forte explained on 670 The Score that Johnson is excellent at disguising the true intentions of his plays. Chicago is highly adept at making run plays look like pass plays and vice versa. Play action can come from anywhere. The same formation can deliver several different results. It was here that Forte said it all reminds him of another Bears coach. One that fans might be shocked to hear.
Matt Forte seems to think Mike Martz wasn’t appreciated enough.
The former Bears offensive coordinator joined the team in 2010. It was a mess in the early weeks. Jay Cutler took a lot of sacks and things were constantly off-kilter. However, Martz made adjustments, and they finally found some cohesion down the stretch. Chicago reached the NFC championship. Then in 2011, Cutler overcame a rough start to begin looking like a possible MVP contender midway through the season. Then he broke his thumb. The offense fell apart without him, and Martz was fired. Many still wonder if things could’ve been different had he stayed.
From the way Matt Forte speaks, you can tell he had great respect for his former coach. After all, the running back had probably the best season of his career in 2011, going for 997 yards in just 12 games. Martz gave them lots of advantages with his scheming, even if his preferred style of attack was pass-heavy at times. Johnson is much the same way, only his career is just getting started. Martz’s was coming to an end.
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