Bear Digest

Ben Johnson entirely confident time exists to fix slow Bears starts

Against Detroit, their coach counted six mental errors in the first 11 plays as they dug themselves the kind of hole they can't afford to have in the playoffs.
Gene Chamberlain|
The Bears got Colston Loveland going Sunday against Detroit but nothing else.
The Bears got Colston Loveland going Sunday against Detroit but nothing else. | Matt Marton-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

It was only meant as a light-hearted attempt at explaining what the Bears faced before making their rally on Sunday against Detroit.

"I mean, when we was down 16-0 we thought we had it," defensive tackle Grady Jarrett said after the game. "So a little bit of Bears magic, you know what I'm saying?"

Unfortunately, everyone knows what he's saying.

The Bears were going to lean on their ability to rally from a big deficit again Sunday like they have so often, instead of dictating with a lead to an opponent that will be sitting at home this coming week.

The real problem with the loss to Detroit going into Saturday's playoff game with Green Bay is it took on the exact same look as the first two Green Bay games. The Bears needed to prove they could get out of this slow start rut on offense and simply repeated it.

The Bears started poorly on offense, they rallied, and in one game with Green Bay they managed to make a couple of unlikely plays and win. However, in the other game they couldn't get it done. Now they’re facing the Packers again and can’t afford it happening again.

Playing from behind because of a slow start is no longer an option in the playoffs, and Johnson said the problems can be fixed even in a short work week until Saturday's playoff game.

"It can all be addressed," coach Ben Johnson said on Monday. "We're not far away. You never are in this league. You're really close. And so we've just got to clean up some of the mental errors we had.

"I think, in the first 11 plays we counted six mentals as an offense. When we're facing a good team you can't do that. So we'll clean that up. We'll be a lot sharper here going forward and we're going to be OK."

Why the Bears started slow

Part of the issue could have been in an approach designed to let the Bears play faster, one with fewer alterations involved.

"We ended up going into that one wanting to play fast and we knew that their defense created a lot of multiplicity and so we wanted to be sound, and because of that we had a little bit less shifts and motions going into that game plan than we've had probably since the bye week. That's really what the simpler game plan was talking about."

They need to get back to trying to fool people more before the snap, because it especially helps their ground game, which in turn helps their time of possession.

"You know, when you have eight possessions and three of them are three-and-outs it's just not the recipe for good football."

Johnson doesn't see anything hurt beyond pride heading into the postseason even after the way they underperformed.

"I think we've got a great group of guys, we've got a prideful group," Johnson said. "We've earned a division title. We've earned the No. 2 seed in the NFC. Those are things that we're certainly proud about.

“But at the same time the season is not over. It's just starting for us. And our guys understand that. We can play better than we played at the end of the season and that's really our expectation going forward.”

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.