Coach Ben Johnson spoke to the media Wednesday at Halas Hall before the Bears held a walk-through. Here are five things we learned from that session:
(1) Johnson is pleased with how the passing game has performed in recent weeks.
In quarterbacking the Bears to three straight wins since recovering from a hamstring injury, Caleb Williams has completed 73.8% of his passes for 860 yards with four touchdowns, no interceptions and a 111.3 passer rating.
"Our passing game in general has been a little bit cleaner," Johnson said. "These guys are doing a great job just with the details and where they're supposed to be. Caleb's completing the ball at a high rate right now and distributing it to really all these guys. We kind of had some lulls there early in the season of who's getting the ball, when they're getting the ball, and the last few games it feels like it's getting distributed to everybody at a cleaner rate."
The Bears have scored 31, 30 and 34 points in wins over the Falcons, Patriots and Seahawks, respectively. In those games, Luther Burden III has caught 19 passes for 281 yards and two touchdowns, Colston Loveland has 20 receptions for 199 yards and 2 TDs, and Rome Odunze has caught 11 passes for 195 yards.
Williams has raised his game to another level in part due to his decisiveness.
"It's a testament to the work that he's putting in," Johnson said. "I said at the end of last week he had to put a lot of time and effort into that game plan and spend time well outside of the guidelines, making sure he had that thing down. He believes in the process that we have each and every week. I think it's helping him play faster at this point and he's got a lot of confidence in the guys around him too doing their jobs."
Johnson feels that Williams likes to be pushed and appreciates his willingness to try new things.
"As a coaching staff, we want to do things that are attacking the defense and complementing what we've already put on tape," Johnson said. "He's got to be receptive to opening new doors, too, in terms of what he can do. And the good news about him is there's not a throw he can't make on the football field, so it might be something that we haven't had a whole lot of reps of. But I think he appreciates being pushed a little bit in different areas that he might not always love that particular play, but the more we talk about it and we rep it, I think he can see where there's benefits to executing that on field."
(2) Improving the running game is a top priority this week heading into Sunday night's home game against the Buccaneers.
The Bears rank second in the NFL in rushing, averaging 150.8 yards per game. But after averaging 196.2 yards on the ground in their first four contests, they've been held to 105.3 yards over their last four games.
"It's inconsistent," Johnson said. "I know we started off hot early in the year just being able to run the football, but we have faced some tough opponents, and it's been a little bit spotty. We stick with it, though … I know first-half rushing hasn't been as effective as second-half rushing. That's one of those things that I know that eventually we will break though. We're too good up front not to do that. Last week, that's tough sledding. I think 'Swifty' (D'Andre Swift) only averaged 2.7, 2.9, whatever that was. The fortunate thing is we weren't really having negative runs. They were twos and threes and those were hard yards.
"But it is something we're committed to, and we put a lot of time and effort into this. Those guys in the O-line room are really well coached. Our tight ends are doing a great job blocking in the running game. If we get [Kyle] Monangai back, I think that'll be a shot in the arm whenever that's the case. But I think Swifty's doing a great job right now seeing the little crease and turning on the gas. It goes with the week. Obviously, it's a huge point of emphasis for us."
(3) In his Bears debut, All-Pro defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons made an impact on and off the field.
Acquired last week in a trade with the Titans, Simmons registered six tackles, 1.0 sack, two tackles-for-loss and one pass breakup in Monday night's win in Seattle.
"You felt it on the sideline," Johnson said. "That's always the ultimate compliment you can give a player is when you are elevating the people around you, and he does that. He does that on a play-by-play basis. We'll be able to continue to sink in that during the week as well. It's a long season, yet I think he's going to be one of those guys, even coming in on a Wednesday and not everyone's feeling great and he's going to be able to provide some juice there. Excited to have him."
Simmons is the type of impact player that opposing offensive coordinators focus on when creating game plans.
"Tampa's got a guy kind of like that as well in Vita Vea," Johnson said. "There are game changers out there that, as an offensive play caller, you've got to account for. You hear all the time about defensive coordinators … they want to take out the best playmakers on the offense. Well, it's a little bit of the same thing for an offensive play caller: how do we minimize that individual's impact on the game the best that we can?
"Sometimes those plans work; other times they don't. Last year we play the Raiders and Maxx Crosby—even though everything was predicated around him—still finds a way. Those guys are rare. I think Jeffery's one of those guys. We're very fortunate to have him."
(4) Johnson revealed that two Bears linemen will likely miss the remainder of the season due to injuries.
Defensive tackle Kentavius Street was placed on injured reserve Wednesday after hurting his knee in Monday night's win over the Seahawks.
And Johnson confirmed that left tackle Braxton Jones underwent surgery to repair a knee injury he sustained in a Week 3 win over the Eagles.
(5) Johnson praised Swift for his knack for finding the end zone.
The seventh-year pro matched a career high he set in Week 1 this season with three touchdowns against the Seahawks. The scores came on runs of 1, 5 and 5 yards.
In the process, Swift claimed the NFL lead with 10 rushing TDs, became the first Bears player with 10 rushing TDs in the first eight games of a season since 1956, and became the franchise's first rusher with three TDs in one half since Hall of Famer Walter Payton in a 1977 win over the Chiefs.
Swift is a major reason the Bears have scored TDs in 7 of 8 goal-to-goal situations (87.5%) in their last three games after being limited to TDs in 4 of 11 goal-to-goal scenarios (36.4%) in their previous four contests.
"You get what you emphasize, and our guys know how important it is to get sevens instead of threes," Johnson said. "It's a credit to [Swift]. It's a credit to the guys up front as well. I kind of feel them take it up another notch and they want to finish around the football and look to push the pile when we get down there tight. But we got a couple unscouted looks the other day and 'Swifty' was able to make something happen with those. So, credit to him for having great vision."
