One bright spot for the Bears so far this season has been their quick starts on offense.
In each of their first two games, they've scored a touchdown on their opening possession. Against the Vikings, Caleb Williams completed 6 of 6 passes for 51 yards before scrambling for a 9-yard TD. Versus the Lions, Williams capped an 8-play, 74-yard drive with a 28-yard touchdown pass to receiver Rome Odunze.
"Our guys have come out and shown up on those drives in both games," said offensive coordinator Declan Doyle. "Played up to our standard on both of those and were able to come away with points. It's something that, really, we'd like to build off of. You want to start fast and then you want to be able to keep that momentum going.
"A lot of times those plays are pre-scripted out. They know what's coming so we're able to prepare for that and really anticipate what we're going to see. We've done a good job the last couple weeks of getting points on that first drive."
The Bears have not had the same success on their opening possession of the second half, going three-and-out against both the Vikings and Lions.
"You look at both weeks, we've shot ourselves in the foot with either penalties or mistakes," Doyle said. "That's something that we're working really hard to clean up because that can't happen. We come out of the half last week and we false start on the first play. Immediately you're putting yourself behind the sticks and now you're playing catch up football.
"It's something that, really, across, the board, it's getting cleaned up fundamentally, every single day our habits, how we practice, every part of that. We're really not giving an inch in any way. That's the message and that's the standard we're trying to live up to."
Asked if the Bears have given any thought to scripting plays to open the second half, Doyle said: "That's absolutely something we give thought to. We do it every week … [But] it's been less us schematically being at a disadvantage and more so we've got to clean up the penalties, we've got to clean up the mental errors, we've got to clean up the fundamentals and technique. That's the secret sauce. That's what we constantly preach and that's how you stay on track, that's how that drive in the second half looks like the drive in the first half."
Doyle felt that Williams played better last Sunday than he did in the season opener, with the second-year quarterback increasing his passer rating (86.6 to 91.9), completion percentage (60.0 to 63.3) and yards per attempt (6.0 to 6.9).
"You saw a guy who has improved," Doyle said. "Since we got here, he's improved a little bit at a time … We expect him to continue to progress. We expect next week to be better than this week. His focus is in the right place. He's coming to work every day and trying to match his habits with his expectations and that's really where we're at right now."
Asked for specifics regarding Williams' performance last Sunday, Doyle said: "He did a better job of playing through with his eyes and some of the concepts. Just his general process, that was cleaner. Getting up to the line of scrimmage and going a little bit. We utilized more tempo in that game because it fit … Our operation was a little bit better and a little bit cleaner."
Early this week, Bears coach Ben Johnson challenged players to perform better away from the ball in practice than they did versus the Lions. Doyle was pleased with how they responded in Wednesday's practice.
"That was something that we felt like didn't show up and that was uncharacteristic or not what we're looking for as far as playing away from the football in the game and that was disappointing," he said. "But you meet that head on, and I thought our guys responded really well. Obviously, it's just practice, but our guys are finishing near the ball and that's the expectation every time we're out there."
