Over the course of Wednesday’s press conference with Bears head coach Matt Eberflus a conversation about the balance between patience and urgency unfurled. Eberflus spoke candidly about the desire to win more games, more often, but wanting to stay true to his process and build his program “the right way.” But he also said there are things he’d like to see improve within the offense, right away. Specifically, he wants the offense to execute better after a sudden change.
“Sudden change comes around for offense when you get a big return into (opponent’s territory), either by takeaway or kicking game,” Eberflus said. “Or you get an explosive play, that can also be a momentum thing, too. It’s not quite sudden change, but it’s also momentum into the scoring zone.”
The Bears offense had several opportunities to take advantage of sudden change against the Vikings in Week 12, but they couldn’t make the most of them. The Bears offense got the ball five times off of a sudden change– four from interceptions and one from a turnover on downs– but they only managed to score six points on those ensuing drives. They had four offensive plays that went for 20+ yards over three drives. They got six points out of those drives. That’s not good enough, and it allowed the Vikings to hang around in a game that the Bears should have dominated.
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Eberflus believes the key for more success is as simple as better operation when the team is in scoring range.
“Some of that’s converting on third downs,” Eberflus said. “If we decided to go on fourth down like we did last week with fourth-and-10, it’s converting there. Then it’s maintaining that momentum through execution into the scoring zone, into the end zone.
“That’s what we have to focus on.”
Poor execution both on offense and defense led to an incredible collapse in Week 11 when the team gave up a 12-point lead with just over four minutes to play against the Lions. The Bears have a chance to exorcize the demons when the Lions come to Soldier Field this Sunday. The team knows they can hang with the NFC North leaders, and if they can execute better on offense in the biggest moments they’ll give themselves a chance to tally a signature win.
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“I think they're coming,” Eberflus said. “I really do.”