Bear Digest

Where Ben Johnson's Bears offense stands and needs to go next

The step-by-step process of building an attack has reached a point for the Bears where their immediate goal is an obvious one.
Gene Chamberlain|
The run and play-action are established, and next up is Caleb Williams' accuracy.
The run and play-action are established, and next up is Caleb Williams' accuracy. | Brad Rempel-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

It has been anything but ideal or a clone of the Detroit offense Ben Johnson had last year.

He has made it work. Johnson's Bears offense has found a way to achieve the ends he desires despite personnel differences. The idea was to build a strong running game, a passing game based on play-action and an ability to disguise what they're doing from play to play.

Ranked second in the league in rushing, the Bears put down the most basic requirement for the attack early on thanks to the key acquisitions GM Ryan Poles made of interior linemen Jonah Jackson, Drew Dalman and Joe Thuney.

Then they let those three, Darnell Wright and finally Theo Benedet toil together until it meshed.

Offensive line success

"I think it's important to have a strong running game so that we can win these games, potentially, in poor weather late in the season," Johnson said. "I do think that was kind of the vision of us acquiring Joe Thuney and Jonah and Drew, bringing those guys into the fold.

"If we need to lean into the run, then we have that ability. At the same time, we've got the flexibility to pivot, and if we need to throw the ball 50 times a game or win the game in a two-minute or in third-down, then we've got the playmakers to do that as well. I think that's what makes this really dangerous, is we have all those options on the table each and every week.”

Their rushing success is a drastic departure from last year. Then, they were trying to adjust to a running attack no longer supplemented by the extra threat of Justin Fields breaking long touchdowns. Fields didn't supply the right passing threat and once teams stopped the run by him or their back, the Bears had nothing to hit them wit.

Building a conventional ground game took a while. It failed last year. Johnson's team got outrushed in each of their first four games. They've outrushed five out of the last six opponents, relying on two different style running threats in D'Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai.

Growing pains

“I thought there'd be some growing pains, and there were," Johnson said. "It takes a while for some guys to gel up front. You're asking a few of them to do some things that they maybe haven't done quite that way before.

"I think (offensive line coach) Dan Roushar, (assistant O-line coach) Kyle DeVan, I keep bringing their names up and I think they're really the driving force behind it. You see them, it's not sexy when you watch their individual periods, but it's constant over and over and over again. How are we going to fit these players, the pads. You keep doing it. You buy in and you start seeing the success come from it. I think it's been a huge part of what we're doing right now.”

The end result is it gives Caleb Williams the play-action threat now that he didn't have so pronounced earlier in the season.

Rise of play-action

According to Sharp Football Analysis, the Bears now run the second-most play-action pass plays in the league at 19.6%. Johnson's idea is to use plays from under center extensively, and while they haven't done it as much as his former team they are near the top. They have run plays out of the shotgun the fourth-fewest amount (51%).

The other key aspect of the passing game is getting chunk yardage and they continue looking for bigger strikes as they've been one of the top teams for explosive plays all year. Their intended air yards is fourth in the league an average of 8.4 yards.

The passing is the complement to the run, though. The idea is as long as they can run, they're going to be a threat to even the better defenses they could face later this season.

"The longer you hang on and stick with that run game, eventually you're going to start popping them," Johnson said. "I've got confidence in our group; I’ve got confidence in the plan that we put together.

"I know that the longer we go, that eventually we can start to wear down defenses that way."

Caleb Williams' objective

The running game established, sharpening the pass would seem the next step. Late-game heroics only go so far and Williams needs to be better than 58% completions and a passer rating in the 80s.

"I think that there are a lot of next steps," offensive coordinator Declan Doyle said.

The inability to connect on some of their long passes recently when open are good examples of what's required.

"Certainly, we want to be able to connect more frequently on things like that," Doyle said. "When we have opportunities and shots down the field where we feel like we have a guy with separation, it's on both the wide out and the quarterback to be able to go handle that.

"Also, we want him to be able to start playing through those progressions when those things don't present themselves, to be able to expedite his process to get the ball underneath."

More accuracy and taking the shorter route or what defenses are giving has been a Williams issue for 1 1/2 seasons.

It's obvious they all need to keep working at it to complement the running game.

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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.