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Bear Digest

Five Ways the Bears Can Improve Even After Starting Season 5-2

Some of the problems the Bears have had in their two losses as well as in some of the wins are correctable, and here's what can be fixed starting with Week 8.
Gene Chamberlain|
Green Bay's Evan Williams recovers a fumble against the Bears at Lambeau Field in Week 5. Fumbling has plagued the Bears.
Green Bay's Evan Williams recovers a fumble against the Bears at Lambeau Field in Week 5. Fumbling has plagued the Bears. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

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Chicago Bears

Any team can improve, even those among the unbeaten ranks.

The Bears were 24-point losers just three weeks ago at Green Bay and even after consecutive impressive wins they can still find ways to up their performance.

Here are five big ways Caleb Williams and the offense or Dennis Allen's defense can improve after the mini-bye week when they go to Seattle, and when they return home Nov. 8 to play resurgent Tampa Bay.

1. Quit with the fumbling

This may easily have escaped the attention of some but only the Chargers and Saints had lost more fumbles than the Bears going into Week 7 games. Last year the Bears lost seven fumbles for the entire season. This year they have already lost six, egregious and otherwise.

2. Stop dropping passes

This is a recording, stop dropping passes. Yes, Johnson said they had to stop this after the loss to the Rams in the playoffs season. He even got rid of one of their worst perpetrators, Olamide Zaccheaus. Yet, whether it's Rome Odunze or Colston Loveland or one of the backs, someone always seems to come up with a dropped pass. They finished with the fifth-most drops last year with 29. So they have improved -- they had the sixth most dropped passes going into Sunday games.

3. Cut out penalties

Going into Sunday's games, the Bears had the fifth-most penalties with 53, although they were certain to move down in ranks with some other teams just behind them and still playing this week. They were worst most of last season, but this is still an embarrassing level.

"I'm proud of the fact that right now -- we're not playing very clean football, very disciplined football from a penalty standpoint there's too many pre-snap penalties and there's too many holding penalties right now for us - but despite those, our guys still find a way to get back on track and overcome," Johnson said. "I've been a part of teams where you get one penalty and that just derails the whole drive and that's it. That's not what's happening to us right now. I look forward to the day that we clean those up and see what that looks like.”

Typical was the first drive of the game against Atlanta. They went 67 yards for a touchdown on the possession and had three penalties, including a hold on Theo Benedet.

4. Defending deep passes

It might seem like missed tackles would be their biggest problem, especially after the way they handled the short Patriots pass before halftime on Thursday. But they actually were tied for 11th fewest missed tackles going into Sunday and stand to be even better after those games.

Actually, their problem has been defending deeper throws and no one would be surprised by this after the way they let the Packers complete long throws and even did it against Atlanta the following week. On Thursday, the Patriots tried to test this and Tyrique Stevenson got back to knock one down. Perhaps they are improving or will.

According to NFLGSIS statistics, the Bears have given up the fifth highest average gain per completion on deep passes to the right side (16.86), the third highest average gain on deep passes over the middle (29.13), and the 11th highest gain per passes completed against them to the left side (13.69).

Their pass defense overall hasn't been great, as rookie safety Dillon Thieneman is their top tackler with 43. If the safety makes the most tackles, it can be a sign things are not going right on defense -- although Dennis Allen does call on his safeties to be all over the field.

5. Red zone rushing

Even after they improved and were 4-for-5 and 3-for-4 the last two games in the red zone at scoring TDs, the Bears still rated only 19th in TD percentage for the red zone going into Sunday.

At the root of their problem is their inability to move the pile in close on runs. D'Andre Swift is tied for the third-most rushing TDs inside the 10 in the NFL with six but he averages 1.85 yards per run inside the 10. Derrick Henry, for instance, has averaged 2.5 yards per rush inside the 10 and leads in TD runs inside the 10. Swift has only 13 yards on 12 carries inside the 5. Kyle Monangai also is below 2.0 yards per run inside the 10, althoug he has been hurt the last two weeks.

It's not a terrible problem and they can offset this with short passes or Williams keepers. Other teams have similar issues in close. KC's Kenneth Walker, for instance, averages only 1.6 yards inside the 10. But they can make things much easier for themselves by getting more TD runs inside the 5.

This problem could be over with Williams back healthy, and definitely could be once Monangai is healthy again after toe and finger issues.

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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.

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