Shane Waldron says he won't shy away from a Doug Kramer Run

Shane Waldron went to the well twice and came away thirsty, or probably it is more appropriate to say that water was spilled on the bears.

There’s no clear acknowledgment from the Bears’ offensive coordinator that they’ll scrap Doug Kramer’s run at the 1-yard line in the future, though he’s certainly felt, heard or read the consequences of a fumble by a player who has no business who transport the football.

“I know I could have prepared us better at that moment so we could have made a better play call at that moment,” Waldron said.

The play call gave it to a fullback on the play, Kramer, who is actually a backup center or guard. It was when the game was on the line and there was 6:25 left to play with the Bears trailing 12-7.

When Kramer fumbled, it seemed like a familiar situation, as earlier this year they tried an outside option pitch on fourth down from the Indianapolis 1-foot line and ended up losing 12 yards.

“I’m trying to learn from it,” Waldron said. “I felt like I was moving forward here, hey, we have different plays that aren’t all vanilla and when is the right time to use those (trick plays)? I felt confident. I always feel confident in the ability of our guys to execute that. And then I have to think and look at hey, if the next scenario happens, what can we all do better to execute in that situation?”

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Ryan Leaf on Shane Waldron, who doubled down on his call for a transfer to Doug Kramer: “If I did stupid things, it was out of my control. And I was out of the league pretty quickly. Maybe he wants to learn from my stupid thinking.

Watch: pic.twitter.com/clhtTYnBdl

— 670 The Score (@670TheScore) October 31, 2024

It seems encouraging that he at least admits they might want to worry less about a tasteful game and more about six points.

Then again…

“It’s a balance like you said. And you look at the risk-reward. I think looking back earlier in the season, you’re probably referring to the Colts game there on fourth-and-1,” Waldron said. “And I will not shy away from these things.”

Shane Waldron just confirmed that he doesn’t understand what “lineman hands” are. Not a football guy. pic.twitter.com/0G4fYwUUu5

— Bleacher Ben (@BenWaisnora) October 31, 2024

After Sunday, Bears fans might say, “Please shy away.”

The play call resulted in criticism from DJ Moore, if not others. He did it during a regular spot on AM-670, and while he admitted the team preferred to keep that thought to themselves, he also said Wednesday in Halas Hall that he said what he thinks is right.

“I think there’s always valid criticism when things don’t work out,” Waldron said. “We’ll work inward. We’ll put our arms around each other and work to look ahead and execute better and call better plays the next situation that comes along.”

When asked the inevitable: would he call it again if given the opportunity again, Waldron was probably not liked by many Bears fans.

“At that moment? Yes, I was confident. I was confident,” he said. “And when we look back on it, all the things that go into a conversation over the course of the game, whether it’s early conversations in the game that keep things from working, or conversations in the middle, conversations at the end, critical conversations, I will always assess them and move on.”

As for the actual execution, Waldron certainly didn’t shy away from that subject too much.

“It just wasn’t a clean handoff,” he said. “Those guys (Caleb Williams and Kramer) and we looked at it and went away from it, but it didn’t work. Obviously the ball bounced forward.

“Something that hadn’t come up, but has come up, and we look forward to cleaning it up.”

So they need to clean up the handoff of Williams to a player who normally hands the ball between his legs to someone else, instead of taking it from someone while he’s trying to figure out where to run with eleven angry men running at get rid of him.

It might be better to simply come up with another play that is much less risky and forget about it, such as giving it to Roschon Johnson, who has scored four times from the 1-yard line this year. D’Andre Swift has done it twice. Rome Odunze caught a pass from the 1 once. By the way, Khalil Herbert, while he was still playing, scored on a two-yard run.

So there are ways to reach the end zone from 36 inches and it doesn’t require cheating.

Twitter: BearsOnSI