LAKE FOREST, Ill. -- The Chicago Bears have adopted the theory that the only relevant statistics when evaluating quarterback Mike Glennon are wins and losses.
“Mike is doing exactly what he needs to do to win games,” offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains said on Tuesday.
Glennon, who is 6-15 all-time as a starter, feels the same way.
“At the end of the day, if we win, that’s really all that matters,” Glennon said. “As quarterbacks, that’s the way we’re judged, is on your wins and losses. Whatever it takes to win, whether we hand the ball off 40 times and throw it 20 or throw it 40 and hand it off 20 -- whatever it is, just keep executing my job; completions, first downs, get us in the right play and all of whatever we’re doing at the line of scrimmage.
"Whatever it takes to win. Each week is going to be different with what we have to do.”
Chicago’s aerial attack took a backseat to the run game in Week 3 when Glennon completed 15-of-22 pass attempts for just 101 yards. Jordan Howard and Tarik Cohen combining to rush for 216 yards saved the day, but the offense looked extremely limited whenever Glennon dropped back to throw.
Loggains has a different take altogether.
“I think a lot of credit should go to Mike,” Loggains said. “If you eliminate his dropped balls, he'd have finished 19-of-22, and he did exactly what he needed to do to win that game.”
The Bears know they can’t win every week when the quarterback passes for 101 yards -- Loggains acknowledged it during his press conference -- but it’s not Glennon’s total yardage on the season (615) that’s troubling, it’s the distance he throws the ball.
Via ESPN Stats & Information, Glennon has attempted two passes (1.9 percent) that traveled 20-plus yards downfield this season, the fewest in the league. (These numbers do not include any passes that may have been negated by penalties.)
The league average for quarterbacks is 9.8 passes (10.4 percent) of 20-plus yards downfield through three weeks. New England’s Tom Brady and Cleveland’s DeShone Kizer each have attempted 21 such throws in 2017.
Glennon’s 5.51 air yards per attempt are second-fewest in the league; only Baltimore’s Joe Flacco (5.33) is lower.
But Loggains is undeterred.
“We are [convinced Mike can make those downfield throws],” Loggains said. “I thought he threw a really good deep ball early on to Markus Wheaton. We had an opportunity to take a shot and we got it, and I think it backed them off a little bit and they zoned us out and tried to keep everything in front of us. I can't speak for those guys [Pittsburgh]; maybe they didn't think we'd be patient enough to run the ball like we did and stick with it. But I have plenty of confidence in Mike to be able to do those things and throw the ball down the field.”