Tarik Cohen was Bears coach Matt Nagy’s most dangerous weapon last season, but has faded into the background amid the offense’s plunge.
As the Bears staggered through a 22-14 loss to the Eagles, Cohen never got the ball more than twice in a drive. He was omitted entirely on 4 of 10 possessions and finished with two catches for 9 yards on five targets, plus two carries for 7.
His dropoff is one of many as the offense has deteriorated. Heading the Lions game on Sunday, wide receiver Allen Robinson is the only skill player on track to match or exceed his 2018 output.
“It’s just that we, as a collective offense, haven’t done what we wanted to do,” Cohen said. “So people aren’t going to [produce] like they did last year.”
Nagy isn’t getting a chance to mix it up when the Bears don’t keep drives going. How can he spread the ball around on a three-and-out? The Bears are the NFL’s fifth-worst third-down team, leading to them running 59.9 plays per game (fourth-worst).
The recession has hit Cohen the hardest.
He played a season-low 20 percent of the snaps against the Chargers and 36 percent in Philadelphia. He finished at 46 percent last season, when he led the team with 1,169 yards from scrimmage.
He has gone from getting nearly one-fifth of Bears’ receiving targets and rushing attempts to 15.5 percent. And his production has dipped from 8 yards per target and 4.5 per carry to 3.8 and 2.4, respectively.
At 256 yards total yards and one touchdown, Cohen will need a surge merely to reach half of what he posted last season.
“We need to do a better job of getting him the ball and doing different things with him,” Nagy said. “When there’s a lull in play, sometimes when you get a chance to make a play, you overdo it and you want to make something happen and it ends up backfiring on you... I know he’s a heck of a playmaker, and we want to continue to just find ways to get him the ball. “
It’s all interdependent. Cohen would probably produce more if the offense was better, and the offense could ignite if he provided the spark.
He’s the most low-risk, high-reward option for Mitch Trubisky because he can take the safest imaginable throw and turn it into an incredible gain. With the offense a mess, that ability would seem to make him more valuable than ever.
“It’s never a confidence issue with Tarik,” Trubisky said. “He’s got all the belief in the world in him, and we have all the belief in the world in him. ... Calling his number more in the game will help him get more of those explosive plays that we know he’s capable of.”
When Cohen got the ball in Philadelphia, it was often in situations with little or no space to make defenders miss and break into a sprint. Nagy even sent him flying up the middle at the goal line, which seemed like a better spot for David Montgomery at 31 pounds heavier.
As Nagy alluded, Cohen also hurt himself. He dropped two passes, one in decent space, and a 15-yard throw went off his fingers — it’s debatable how catchable it was — as he jumped for it with a defender on his back.
“Things like this happen, where you go through drop spells or whatever,” Cohen said. “I’m not too worried about my individual performance. I’m all about the team.
“The whole offense collectively [is struggling], and I thrive within the offense. So if the offense isn’t doing well as a team, then I’m not gonna be doing good.”
The list of problems the offense needs to fix is daunting, but getting Cohen going is near the top. He’s an elite runner, and it’d make an enormous difference if Nagy got back to maximizing that.
