The Chicago Bears escaped disaster in September. After a brutal 0-2 start characterized by demoralizing losses to Minnesota and Detroit, they rallied to knock off Dallas and Las Vegas, reaching the bye week at 2-2. It wasn’t without lots of drama. They needed a good month from quarterback Caleb Williams to overcome a disappointing defense and a dead running game. The latter is something that seems to haunt the nightmares of head coach Ben Johnson. It was a big reason why he chose to bench left tackle Braxton Jones. However, the problems don’t stop there.
Johnson admitted that there were several things he did over the past four weeks that led to some of the issues. One thing is that he has no clear understanding of his players’ strengths and weaknesses. That is partly why he has been using various schemes. According to Adam Hoge and Adam Jahns of CHGO, it seems that this is about to change.
Like Johnson said during training camp, he’s still got to figure out what everyone does well together. That’s Swift, the offensive line, the tight ends and the receivers. He’s got to blend his personnel with the right scheme. Are they going to be an inside zone team? Or will it be more outside zone? Do they have to make other scheme or lineup changes?
“There were some things execution-wise that we knew what we were going to do but the techniques, the fundamentals, we didn’t adhere to them when we needed to,” Johnson said. “When you look at it as a whole, it was just a mess, man. I’m just not proud of what we put on tape. I think it’s a reflection of myself. I always take it personally. I saw us getting better the first three weeks in a lot of ways on offense and then this was just a little bit of a step back for us. Like I said, the bye week is coming at a good time and we’re really going to be able to take a good look at ourselves and do a little soul searching.”
Hoge went on to mention what he noticed.
I’ll get into some of the specifics in a minute, but the biggest priority has to be figuring out what his offensive line does well in the run game and what they don’t do well. They look like an outside zone team to me, and maybe Johnson just needs to embrace that.
This is confirmed by watching the tape. D’Andre Swift has five runs of 10 yards or more this season. Three of them came from some variation of an outside zone. The reality is this offensive line isn’t built with power in mind. Guys like Jones, left guard Joe Thuney, and center Drew Dalman are known for their athleticism and technique. Such players are built for the outside zone.
Ben Johnson knows he can’t persist with the current plan.
Las Vegas had one of the worst run defenses in the league and still held the Bears to 69 yards. It is almost impossible to win games like that unless you have an elite quarterback and a good defense. Right now, Chicago has neither. Williams is improving rapidly, but he’s not in Mahomes territory by any means. The defense ranks dead last against the run and lacks a reliable pass rush. Ben Johnson isn’t naive. The only way to give his team a reasonable chance moving forward is by fixing the ground attack. It is a crucial part of his offensive identity.
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Chicago has achieved success in recent years by utilizing an outside-zone system, as seen in 2022 and 2023. Shane Waldron ruined that last year with his inside-zone shift. It seems Johnson might be close to fully reversing course on that.
