Windy City Gridiron
The Chicago Bears had their bye this week. While a late bye week is usually an advantage for a team, this week-five bye might be at the ideal time for an injury-plagued team still learning a new system.
Shortly after the Bears’ schedule was released in May, head coach Ben Johnson explained on The Herd that the Bears’ bye week would be the perfect time for the coaching staff to reevaluate where their team is at.
“I actually like where that bye week is, because it usually takes about four weeks into the season to find out who you are as a team, what you do well, what you don’t do well, and that’s at a good time so we can reflect on that as a coaching staff to really hone in on what we want to be for the remaining three-quarters of the season,” Johnson said.
What attributes might have the coaching staff been taking a deeper look at during the bye? Here are my three noteworthy takeaways on the Bears through four weeks:
Penalties have plagued this team, specifically on the offense. Through the first four weeks of the season, the Bears have committed 339 yards in penalties, 271 of those coming from the offense. In total, they’ve been flagged 40 times which is the eighth-most in the NFL. Out of those 40 penalties, 13 of them have been pre-snap penalties, the fifth-most in the NFL.
These penalties often put the offense in 3rd and long situations and even result in having to punt the ball away. This is a concern that the coaching staff should be further evaluating during the bye in hopes of getting those cleaned up.
While the defense has certainly struggled with their pass rush and run defense, the silver lining has been their ability to turn the ball over. The Bears have a total of nine takeaways this season, seven interceptions and two fumbles, which ranks third in the league.
Moreover, safety Kevin Byard currently leads the league in interceptions with linebacker Tremaine Edmunds following closely with a tie for third per ESPN.
The defensive staff is getting the most from their unit in this category, but they should be asking how they can keep it going and most importantly, how they can get more production out of their defense as a whole.
If there’s one thing that this coaching staff has been reevaluating during the bye, it’s the offensive line.
Offensive tackle Braxton Jones was benched last week against the Las Vegas Raiders. When asked about the offensive tackle switch in the postgame presser, Johnson replied, “We were just at the point where we weren’t doing a whole lot on offense, and we felt like that might give us a little spark and ignite us a little bit on offense.”
Jones has not been playing up to his full potential, likely due to still not being fully recovered from the ankle injury...
