Bears’ Future Problems Are All Too Typical
issues. Everybody has them.
They are particularly prevalent in NFL teams with four wins and eight losses. As the Bears attempt to improve to 5-8 heading into the final stretch following their bye week, they are dealing with a number of bewildering problems.
Since Matt Eberflus took over as coach, if not earlier, all of them appear to have loomed large over them.
A few of them center on Luke Getsy and his offensive struggles. Even though Eberflus’ defense has been able to turn around a lot of the bad habits they had early in the season, some still exist.
These are the main issues that the Bears will be dealing with for the rest of their schedule.
7. Quick Pass
When Montez Sweat showed up, this became less of a problem, but it remains.
Even with increased pressure, they are not receiving enough sacks. Sweat’s four games total is 2 1/2. They are still ranked last with 17 games played, exactly where they were at the conclusion of the previous season.
Increased pressure will lead to more takeaways, which could lead to more sacks in the end. At this point, the sacks should start to arrive in large quantities.
It’s likely that their most potent weapon will see limited action during the final five games, which won’t be beneficial. Sweat will be up against Zach Tom of Green Bay, who is ranked 12th overall among tackles by Pro Football Focus, Penei Sewell, and Kaleb McGary. The 6-foot-8, 375-pound Dawand Jones of Cleveland and Paris Johnson of Arizona, two former Ohio State tackles who have been playing well at right tackle, will oppose him.
6. Passing the Red Zone
Minnesota discovered the full extent of the Bears’ deplorable red zone defense in the fourth quarter. After struggling to move the ball throughout the entire Monday night game, the Vikings were able to do so with ease when they reached the red zone and attempted a throw to T.J. Hockenson, who found the end zone.
The Bears are ninth overall and have significantly improved their defense. When it comes to fewer opponents entering the red zone (21 times), they are tied for 15th place. Once they arrive, though, their opponents discover that it’s essentially a seven-point free pass. 76.2% of the opposition’s red zone trips end with touchdowns for the Bears. The only place worse is Seattle (81.8%).
Nor is it landing on the ground. They are tied for the fifth-lowest total in the league with just six rushing touchdowns allowed.
In the red zone, their pass defense is where everything breaks down.
5. Defense on the Third Down
The defense of the Bears has significantly improved. They have superior coverage. Better yet, they rush the passer. They are the best at stopping the run going into this week.
Their performance on third down is still lacking.
47.8% of third downs are still lost by the Bears for first downs. Only 50% of Tampa Bay is worse.
Despite their constant bragging about the play of their cornerbacks, especially slot cornerback Kyler Gordon and the pass rush with Sweat aboard, they remain among the worst teams when it comes to forcing opponents off the field on third downs.
4. Overcoming the Blitz
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Fields and/or Getsy have not been able to find a solution, so the Bears will be dealing with this until the end of the season.
The offensive line makes every effort to prevent overzealous blitzing, but Minnesota mostly succeeded in doing so in two games against them. Despite not being a blitzing team, Detroit did it. They attempted to maintain third-and-long situations by run-blitzing multiple times.
Reversing course BearDigest was informed by Khalil Herbert that these were not run blitzes, but rather linebackers charging headlong into openings. It begs the question: what are run blitzes if not linebackers diving headfirst into gaps?
Defenses will continue to use this tactic against the Bears until Fields can demonstrate that it is ineffective.
3. Points of Turnover
They’re turning the ball over far too frequently and giving up far too many points as a result. They then fail to score when they get takeaways.
After turning the ball over, they’ve conceded 71 points.
After taking it away, they scored 49.
They have improved to minus-3 in turnover ratio, which is 23rd in the league and as good as they’ve been since very early in the season, thanks to the last two games when they took the ball away eight times.
But in their last two games, they have scored 13 points thanks to their eight takeaways.
Naturally, that’s not what you want, Eberflus remarked. “And when you have that, it’s discouraging to be able to go backward. We need to take advantage of that momentum and those instances in which our team has gained momentum. We need to grab the momentum when it arises. And that’s either way; obviously, we prefer a field goal to a touchdown. Furthermore, it is not preferred to have negative plays by TFL, sack, or penalty.
2. Crude Crime
The Bears’ primary issues may be turnovers and penalties, but their offense is merely haphazard and unappealing.
They don’t follow the rules at all. There aren’t many other explanations for why they convert third downs almost last while ranking fifth in rushing and 12th in yards gained on first down plays.
These statistical trends don’t usually line up.
They currently have an average of 5.0 yards per play, but over the past three games, it has decreased to 4.5 yards. They have scored eight field goals and two touchdowns in the past two, so they aren’t making any progress. They are currently ranked 20th overall on offense and 24th in passing, having improved their position in yards gained virtually every week. They are unable to end drives with touchdowns, though.
It gets really messy when you include in all of Getsy’s screen passes.
1. Sanctions
There are two facets to this problem, and given how it has gotten out of hand, it may be the main obstacle the Bears face in their remaining five games.
Since Week 2 against Tampa Bay, the Bears have not committed fewer penalties than their opponents in any game. In that time, they have only had one matchup of penalties with the opposition. Therefore, they have committed more penalties than their opponents in nine of the previous ten games, and they have failed to commit fewer penalties in all ten games.
The coach of this team follows the HITS principle, which ends in a “S” for clever play.
This year, they have accrued 699 yards from 80 penalties. In contrast, their opponents have only amassed 395 yards due to 51 penalties.
The first thing to do is to cease imposing penalties. It is this easy in certain situations. In terms of false starts, they are second in the league. This is a completely controllable penalty. It has nothing to do with being placed in an awkward situation on the field to avoid a penalty or being outmatched physically.
“If you commit a penalty in practice, make it felt,” he stated.
Perhaps they have the group perform pushups, runs, or some other kind of group exercise.
Guys are going to make you feel awkward about it. That’s just guys being honest with one another.
“So whether that’s me who jumps offsides or somebody else, we’ve got to be holding each other accountable on that aspect because I think that at the end of the day is what’s been killing us so far offensively.”
