Bear Digest

What Cole Kmet Thinks About Importance of Scripted Early Plays

The Bears talked at great lengths about the impact of scripting early plays but so far it's not when the points come but how often.

Gene Chamberlain

Cole Kmet sees the Bears as ready for prime time after their offense started to click.
Cole Kmet sees the Bears as ready for prime time after their offense started to click. / Chicago Bears Video
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Despite all the discussion about how the Bears are now scripting plays and its great benefits, the bottom line is it hasn't really made much difference.

Even against Jacksonville in their 35-16 Week 6 win, the Bears didn't come out faster because they are scripting plays at the start of the game. They followed the same pattern of struggles with their execution early, followed by a surge and then a strong finish.

In the NFL, the strong finish counts for more, anyway. But they can make it a bit easier on themselves by getting out of the gates faster, so to speak.

Tight end Cole Kmet discounted the importance of scripting.

"I think that gets overblown a little bit," Kmet said. "I mean, there's coaches that don't have scripts going into games. That's very common for a lot of coaches. There's coaches that have it down to a T where it's kinda teed up right until halftime.

"You've got your first 15 or first 20 and your primary third-down calls where I could tell you it's third-and-6 and I know exactly what play's coming in. You take that all the way to half and regroup at half and kinda list what your opener’s gonna be for the half, and then you go on there until the end of the game, really. There's a bunch of ways of doing it."

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"Obviously we gotta be better coming out of the gate and I think as players we gotta execute better," Kmet said. "There’s plays that are there for us to hit early on. I think the quicker we can get in our mojo, I think we've seen that once we get going and get that first first down and first chunk gain we really start rolling as an offense."

In some games it's been the no-huddle or tempo approach that got the offense moving. They actually were trailing against Jacksonville 3-0 before scoring two second-quarter touchdowns. To date, they not only haven't scored a TD on the opening drive, but they only have 17 first-quarter points off two touchdowns against Carolina and a 53-yard Cairo Santos field goal against Tennessee in the opener.

"We just need to get to that sooner," Kmet said. "Especially with the teams coming up that we're playing, that's gonna be really important for us to be doing that early and often to give our defense rest early in the game and for us to get ahead early and provide a little bit more of a cushion."

Washington on Sunday leads the NFL in scoring at 218 points, and are fourth in total offense. The Bears are in rare air for them, ranked 12th in scoring (148 points) heading into Monday night's two games. But they're only 24th in yards gained.

Still, without the scripted or early scoring, the Bears have begun putting together a successful offense and there seems to be one big difference than earlier in the season.

"I mean, for me, it's hard not to say the quarterback," Kmet said. "The quarterback looks really good. He's super talented and can do a lot of really good things with his legs and with his arm.

"I think the things he does in the pocket as a rookie are really impressive. I think those are the things you look at that you can rely on week to week, whether that's the intermediate or short passing game. I think Caleb has done a really good job with that. It's hard for me not to say the quarterback. There are a lot of other elements to it, protecting and all that. But I think Caleb has a knack for playmaking and making plays happen."

Twitter: BearsOnSI

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.