Vikings Defenders Admitted Luke Getsy Gave Them Fits Sunday
The Chicago Bears coaching staff caught lots of heat after the loss to the New York Giants last week. Luke Getsy was chief among them for some of his curious play calls, particularly in the red zone. Later tape evaluations revealed the calls weren’t too bad. The execution was. If anything, the young Bears offensive coordinator was apparently doing some exciting things to get his unit unstuck. Apparently, that carried over into Minnesota against the Vikings.
Things started well enough with a field goal drive to open the game. Then after a three-and-out, it looked like the Bears should’ve had a big conversion on 3rd and 7 into Vikings territory. Sadly Dante Pettis dropped the pass, and Sam Mustipher committed a holding penalty. Finally, late in the first half, Getsy put together a TD drive to make it 21-10. Things got even better in the second half as the Bears racked up 156 yards and 13 points.
Linebacker Eric Kendricks admitted to Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune after the game that the scheming from Getsy gave them problems.
“If the pass options weren’t open they always had (Fields’) legs,” Kendricks said. “He’s a good athlete. They tried a lot of plans. It was all over the place really. It was hard to game plan because they had so much stuff.
“I think it was the big play. (Mooney) made an incredible catch and then they scored. After that, we were trying to get in rhythm but they were giving us different looks and we were trying to adjust from there.”
Love the use of pre-snap motion in the Bears offense. Can see here how it affects the Vikings on the first play of the game pic.twitter.com/xzIx1XeQA6
— Benjamin Solak (@BenjaminSolak) October 10, 2022
3rd and 7. Vikings spin post-snap to a Tampa-2 look. Justin Fields finds the *field Cover 2 hole* and puts a ball on Jesse James. Drop. pic.twitter.com/cAehLKBT0V
— Benjamin Solak (@BenjaminSolak) October 10, 2022
Luke Getsy is a chef with limited ingredients.
Criticizing the coach is easy when the offense isn’t doing much. In reality, Getsy got dealt a tough hand this season. His lineup of players is less than ideal. There are major deficiencies at wide receivers, tight end, and the offensive line. It’s been apparent now for weeks. For Getsy to work around that and still produce the 5th-best rushing attack and manufacture incremental improvement from Justin Fields deserves admiration.
There will be more bad days to come. The Bears have some formidable defenses on their schedule in the near future. Luke Getsy can only do so much with what he has. Still, it offers signs that once the talent level starts to rise soon, he’ll be able to showcase what this offense can really do. That is never a bad sign when he has the respect of guys like Kendricks.