Bears by the Numbers: Yellow Inefficiency

As long as the Bears plan to operate with an efficient backup quarterback in charge while their big-play QB is injured, they're going to actually need to be efficient as an overall offense.

They weren't on Sunday.

The Bears overcame a good deal in winning with Tyson Bagent at quarterback on Sunday, much of which involved yellow flags. The Bears had nine penalties for 110 yards in the 30-12 win over the Las Vegas Raiders. The had five penalties against the Vikings two games ago but they were bigger because the game was tight and they weren't leading.

This is supposed to be the HITS principle, the "S" standing for smart play. The "S" is starting to stand for "Sloppy" with this Bears team.

The Bears are 11th in penalties this year and eighth in penalty yards.

Coach Matt Eberflus was explaining how they need to play efficiently on Monday and the flags came up.

"You don't get a holding penalty that puts you back," he said. "You don't get, certain situations, false starts, which we had some of those. We had too many of those. We got to clean those up. Got to clean up the holding penalties that we had. We don't agree with all those but that's what it is. Just efficiency."

The Bears are ninth in offensive penalties and eighth in offensive penalty yards.

It's probably no surprise considering they've switched starting offensive lines in six of their seven games, but the Bears are tied for the NFL lead in false starts. They have committed 14 false starts, tying them with another struggling team, the Carolina Panthers. That's three more than the third-highest total of 11 by struggling Arizona and by Jacksonville.

Then again, when you're at home you don't expect false start penalties because noise shouldn't be a factor.

The worst Bears false starters are players away from the middle of the line, which is understandable. Braxton Jones is tied for the lead and hasn't played since Week 2. He and Darnell Wright have three. The other tackle they've used, Larry Borom, has two. Tight end Cole Kmet has two.

They had five penalties against the Vikings two games ago but they were bigger because the game was tight and they weren't leading.

The problem with the penalties they've had in the last two games have been yards gained that were nullified. They had 34 yards wiped out in the Vikings game and 38 in the Raiders game. In the entire rest of the season, five other games, they had only 33 yards nullified.

The 38 nullified yards last game came on three holding penalties.

It's all too much of a burden for a team if they're going to operate without a passing gain longer than 17 yards or a rushing gain longer than 14 yards like the Bears did against the Raiders.

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