The Chicago Bears offense was a jumbled mess in 2016. They fielded the second-best running back in the NFL and collectively threw for over 4,000 yards. By rights it should’ve been a great year. Instead they finished 28th in the league, averaging a pitiful 17.43 points scored per game. That is definitely not how a team is going to win football games.
So where do the problems lay? What happened last year that curbed their apparent success in the yardage department? Well an interesting new stat courtesy of Sportingcharts.com sheds some light on what has been a recurring nightmare for the Bears over the past few seasons. Something that involves bad timing and bad discipline all at the same time.
Bears offense among NFL-worst in passing yards lost to penalty
Picture the moments. A Bears quarterback strikes down the field on third down. Big catch and run to set the team up in opposing territory on first down. Only no. Out comes the red flag. Holding call on the offensive line. The big play is negated and all the momentum from it completely erased. Sound familiar? It should because Chicago has seen way too many of such moments lately.
“If a quarterback successfully completes a 50 yard pass, but holding is called on one of the lineman, the play will more than likely be called back (the non-penalized team has the option of going to the next down at the spot of the foul, or repeating the down; coaches always choose the latter). In this example, passing yards lost to penalties would be 50 yards. It is easy to see why having a low number of passing yards lost to penalties is essential to the success of every football team.”
Now the stats prove it. Between Jay Cutler, Brian Hoyer and Matt Barkley the Bears offense lost 277 yards to penalties in 2016. That ranks the team second in the NFL behind only the Indianapolis Colts who had 310. This isn’t even counting the same issues on running plays as well, of which there were plenty. Keep in mind the Bears ranked 9th overall in 2016 with 65 offensive penalties. Just offense. That’s an average of 4.1 per game. It’s almost impossible to generate effective scoring like that. It also lends momentum to opponents.
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What a huge holding penalty there. 27-yard gain off the book and moves Bears out of FG range. #CHIvsDET
— Tim Twentyman (@ttwentyman) December 11, 2016
#Bears with a completion to the 16 — wiped out by Charles Leno's holding penalty
— Patrick Finley (@patrickfinley) December 11, 2016
Bears holding penalty before the half cost them a potential 3 points. Giants start the 2nd half with a TD. Tied game.
— Zach Gelb (@ZachGelb) November 20, 2016
Is it any coincident that the Bears won more games in 2015 because they had 165 passing yards lost to penalties. Success in the NFL can often be by the slimmest of margins. If John Fox wants to keep his job beyond 2017, this is a problem he has to snuff out.
