Bears’ offensive struggles are forcing Ben Johnson to have a hand tied behind his back and it has nothing to do with Caleb Williams
By A to Z Sports,Kole Noble
Copyright yardbarker
Before we get into this, let’s make one thing clear. The offense of the Chicago Bears was far from the biggest issue against the Detroit Lions in a game where the defense gives up 52 points.Over the last two days, the issues on the defensive side of the ball have been covered enough. Injuries have hurt the starting unit, the play of the pass rush is unjustifiable, and the cornerback position is a major liability in coverage.But, how did things look on offense? For starters, quarterback Caleb Williams played a much improved game in Week 2 compared to the frantic mistakes he was making in Week 1.
“I did see significant growth,” Johnson said. “It’s not perfect yet. There’s still a number of plays where our eyes aren’t quite in the right position or we’re holding onto the ball just a tick longer than what we’re coaching. But I did see tremendous growth in terms of going through the progression… I did think he got better from Week 1 to Week 2. I’m encouraged by what I saw and I’m hopeful that we’ll continue to see another leap here this week.”
Even still, the offense seemed to be lacking in other areas and it still looks nowhere near the kind of unit you expect to see from one of the league’s top offensive play-callers, so let’s look into why that’s the case.
Mental errors are still holding the Bears’ offense back
While Williams seemed to clean up his accuracy and decision-making in Week 2, multiple other offensive starters still had massive mental errors. The Bears dealt with a few drops, two turnovers, multiple false starts, some holding calls, and four sacks. Basically, all of the possible negative plays.
“We gotta find a way to run the ball better early in the game. We gotta find a way to not shoot ourselves in the foot with penalties early in the game. We gotta stay on schedule, not have these third-and-longs,” Johnson explained. “I think that all is a big part of the equation.”
The opening drives, for the most part, have been great. Chicago has scored a touchdown on the opening drive in both games this season, something the unit failed to achieve in all 18 games last year. After the opening script is when things fall apart.
