Anybody who has watched Bill Lazor since he arrived with the Chicago Bears knows he isn’t a guy who gets overly emotional. He is even-keel, soft-spoken, and generally in control of his faculties. Yet he is still a human being. Sometimes his feelings seep through on certain subjects. When watching his press conference on Wednesday heading towards the opener in Los Angeles, he was asked an interesting question.
What is the most important thing he’ll be looking for come Sunday against the Rams? Lazor had an immediate answer. Third down conversions. It was obvious from his demeanor that this is something he’s thought about for many hours, days, and weeks. There was even a moment where one could see a bit of agitation in his face. Not from the question but from knowing the issue still persists.
One can’t really blame him.
The Bears were atrocious on 3rd down in 2020. They converted for 1st downs on just 33.49% of their opportunities. That ranked them 32nd in the NFL. Dead last. Where it got really ugly was in 3rd and 4+ range. The offense ran a total of 145 plays in those situations across the season. Only 36 led to a 1st down. Ask any offensive specialist in football. Good teams make their money on 3rd down. The Bears were the actual worst.
When looking at the preseason, there weren’t any signs of improvement. So many three-and-outs and few conversions scattered across multiple drives of nothing. It was not good. In total, the Bears were 6-for-33 on 3rd down across their three preseason games. That is an 18.18% conversion rate. Somehow even worse than last season. So yeah. Lazor has a pretty good reason to feel upset right now.
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Bill Lazor knows this issue could determine the season
While no one stat is that important, 3rd down conversion is almost always the best barometer of how well an offense is performing. The last time the Bears had an actual decent one? That was 2018. They ranked 13th that year. Green Bay, Kansas City, and Buffalo were all in the conference championship games. They ranked 1st, 3rd, and 4th respectively. The eventual champion Buccaneers were 9th.
This stuff is important and Bill Lazor knows it. He’s been around the NFL a long time. He has coached on some pretty bad teams. All of them had this same problem. The fact it still hasn’t been fixed with the season so close must be concerning to him. The question is will the Bears offense improve once everybody is finally together? That means Andy Dalton has the starting offensive line and wide receivers at his disposal. Something that wasn’t the case in the preseason.
They better hope so.
Head coach Matt Nagy is already under the gun for the offense’s ineptitude. Many blame him for the persistent lack of execution and sloppy mistakes. If the three-and-outs and stalled drives persist early this season, the calls for his head will only grow louder. Lazor knows a lot of jobs are on the line if they can’t get this problem fixed.
