Inside the film room: Breaking down the Bears spot route concept in the passing game -

Even though summer is just getting started, it’s never too early to look toward training camp and the start of the season this fall. In the coming weeks, I’ll build a bridge to Bourbonnais with this film room series, where I’ll break down some concepts the Bears use to help you better understand the intricacies of the game.

Bears coach Matt Nagy garnered attention for his creative play-calling en route to earning 2018 coach of the year honors. From “Santa’s Sleigh” to “Willy Wonka” he whimsically marketed the fingerprints he’s putting on modern offensive football. But when you look back at the concepts he used, the relics from his West Coast roots were consistently successful.

One concept that routinely showed up on weekly call sheets was the “spot” or “snag” concept, a triangular arrangement of receivers that stretches the defense both vertically and horizontally. The vertical stretch of the defense comes from a corner route. The horizontal stretch comes from a flat route. In between those routes is a mini-curl route, which settles in the open area – or “spot” – of the defense.

The Bears primarily ran this concept from a trips bunch set (three receivers grouped in an inverted V formation). In this example against the Lions, Allen Robinson is the “point man” at the top of the bunch and is running the flat route. Taylor Gabriel is lined up in the back right of the bunch, running the spot route. Anthony Miller is in the back left, running the corner route.

Well-designed plays give quarterbacks plenty of answers for whichever defense they’re presented, and Mitch Trubisky thrived with the progression of reads in the spot concept. It’s a half-field read with the receivers finishing their routes in the shape of a triangle.

If the defense plays zone, the flat defender is bracketed in a “hi-lo” situation. If he sinks to defend the corner route, the flat route becomes open and vice versa. The receiver running the spot route is taught to settle in the open area and “hook up,” getting his eyes back to the quarterback. If the timing of his route coincides with the drop of the quarterback, he should theoretically always be open.

If the defense plays man, there’s natural congestion created from the bunch formation for defenders to work through, which typically pries open the receiver running the flat route. The vertical stem of the corner route up the seam forces the defender to be prepared for a two-way go (the receiver breaking either outside or inside at the top of the route), which can leave him in a trail position behind the receiver.

In this clip, the Lions are playing Cover-1 man defense against the Bears with a four-man rush. In the defensive backfield, the Lions have a coverage bust. Quandre Diggs (No. 28), plays a coverage exchange, passing off Miller’s corner route to DeShawn Shead (No. 26). But Shead drives down to defend Gabriel’s spot route, leaving two players on Gabriel and Miller uncovered in the open field.

Free safety Glover Quin (No. 27) is the literal last line of defense for the Lions. He tries clean up the coverage bust, driving downhill attempting to tackle Miller at the sideline. But he comes in out of control and whiffs at the point of attack.

Trubisky operates from the shotgun and performs a three-step drop in the pocket. After the snap, he first checks the mike (middle) linebacker to see if there’s pressure coming. From there he reads the single-high safety. Seeing that there are no cornerbacks helping on the outside deep-thirds of the field, he knows he’s facing man coverage, so he gets into his progression.

Trubisky reads the spot from high-to-low, meaning he’s starting with the corner route, then working his way down to the spot and the flat in that sequence. He notices the coverage bust just as he’s finishing his gather step, hits the top of his drop, hitches and throws the corner route to an uncovered Miller angling for the sideline. Miller makes Quin miss and takes it up the sideline for six.

Given its design and how well Trubisky did with this progression, the Bears used the spot concept in several situations, including third down and red zone. I appreciate the aggressive mindset they’ve instilled with the high-to-low read, as it’s easy for a quarterback to just throw the easy completion to the flat. Instead he looked for the chunk yardage first.

Nagy used window dressing to keep defenses from keying on this route from the bunch. He motioned receivers to form the bunch set just before the snap of the ball. He varied where the three routes were run from within the bunch set. He converted the corner route to a dig in some variants. He converted the spot route to an option route depending on coverage.

The spot route will remain a featured concept for the Bears this fall. So when you’re watching games and see the Bears lining up in that trips bunch set, be on alert for this concept to be called and see if you can determine where the ball should go based on what you now know and see.

(Top photo: Jonathan Daniel / Getty Images)

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