Bear Digest

Bears Offense Needs to Find a Way Out of the Phone Booth

Analysis: The few big plays Caleb Williams and the Bears offense managed last week are examples of what they've been lacking that they had in recent years.

Gene Chamberlain

DJ Moore catches a 9-yard touchdown pass from Caleb Williams. The Bears offense needs even more of these except longer.
DJ Moore catches a 9-yard touchdown pass from Caleb Williams. The Bears offense needs even more of these except longer. / David Banks-Imagn Images
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One of Matt Eberflus' favorite sayings at press conferences discussing his team's offense is "we need chunk plays" or "chunk yardage."

Part of the reason Eberflus gave at the annual postseason press conference for firing Luke Getsy was the need for more chunk plays.

Eberflus was just talking about this and the need for it last week prior to the win over the Rams.

"We saw improvement last week as we all did and we're gonna keep improving and getting that continuity, working together in terms of the route distribution, timing, protection, all the things you need to be a successful offense—running the ball more efficiently, getting chunk plays so you score points, converting in the red zone," Eberflus said. 

It was also part of the reason offensive coordinator Shane Waldron appealed to Eberflus in his hunt for a Getsy replacement. Waldron definitely didn't have a reputation for failing to produce chunk plays with the Seahawks. His team was ninth in pass plays of 20 yards or longer last year and they weren't only getting running plays of 10 yards or longer, they were getting running plays of 20 yards or longer. They ranked ninth in runs of 20 yards or longer.

According to statistics presented by The33rdTeam.com's Marcus Mosher, the Bears are dead last in the league for this season at this with only 12 big plays. They have had six running plays of 10 yards or longer and six pass plays.

Their total of six pass plays 20 yards or longer is next to last. Only the New England Patriots, with four, have had fewer. Their rushing plays of 10 yards or more is third fewest. Only the Cowboys, with four, and the Rams, with five, had had fewer.

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Making matters worse for the Bears, the Green Bay Packers lead the NFL with 38 big plays, Detroit is fifth and the Vikings are ninth.


At this point last season, the Bears had 28 big plays. They were split evenly between passes and runs.

Last year Justin Fields' running had accounted for only three of the 14 running plays they had longer than nine yards at this point. So it wasn't all a result of Fields' scrambling.

At this point last year, DJ Moore had seven catches of 20 yards or longer and Cole Kmet two. Darnell Mooney also had two while Equanimeous St. Brown, Khalil Herbert and Chase Claypool each had one. Yes, Claypool did have a catch longer than 19 yards, a 20-yard TD in fact.

This year Rome Odunze has three of the six long passes over 19 yards with two for 27 yards and one for 47. Moore has only one, at 44 yards. The others were this past weekend when D'Andre Swift broke off a 27-yarder on a short pass and Kmet had a 22-yarder on a seam route.

The sad part about the Bears running attack has been three of the six runs of 10 yards or longer came from Williams. Swift has only two and Moore one on an end-around.

The Bears have no big rushing of passing plays in first quarters and no rushing plays longer than 9 yards in the first half of a game. Four of their six passes of 20 yards or longer came in the second quarter and the other two in the fourth quarter.

When they talk optimistically about the offense finally breaking out, you'll know it's happening when there are more chunk plays coming like the 36-yard run by Swift for a TD one play after another chunk play, Williams' 22-yard throw on the seam route to Kmet.

Considering where they're at in relation to the rest of the league, they've got a lot of making up to do.

How bad is it?

In 2022 they were just starting out with a new coaching staff, new players at new positions across the board, and Getsy was in his first year as an offensive coordinator.

They had 32 big plays at this point, or 20 more than they have now. Of those, eight were passes and 24 runs. They did have Fields then and it was the year he ran for over 1,000 yards. But at this point in the year, he had only five of the 24 big rushing plays.

They are truly operating the offense in a phone booth now and the most common link of it appears to be Williams and the coaches' confidence in him, although that appears to be growing after last week.

Twitter: BearsOnSI

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.