Bear Digest

Bears Talk About Last Loss as Their Turning Point for Now

Analysis: If the Bears look back at season's end and celebrate any amount of success, they see a failure as the spur to what has been happening in their win column.

Gene Chamberlain

A goal line scrum when Trey Sermon scored a touchdown against the Bars defense might have been part of a Bears turning point.
A goal line scrum when Trey Sermon scored a touchdown against the Bars defense might have been part of a Bears turning point. / Christine Tannous/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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It has rapidly become the turning point for the Bears, at least in the eyes of players, coaches and GM Ryan Poles.

Many turning points for teams come in wins.

This came in a loss and it's not the first time they've suggested this, but quarterback Caleb Williams pointed specifically at the Colts game aftermath as a turning point.

"I think it starts in practice and how we've handled ourselves from that Indy loss," Williams told reporters Wednesday in London. "From there, we've made jumps in practice.

"I'm not speaking about a game or anything like that."

They began paying more attention in practice, concentrating more in practice, talking more with coaches and coaches talked more with them. It's where the communication lines improved and in turn their running game also improve. That's when the gained an offensive identity.

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"From there we've made huge jumps in practice about focus, about details and I think that starts with our leaders that we have," Williams said.

It was after that game when offensive coordinator Shane Waldron admitted to some questionable play calls, when tight end Marcedes Lewis had a talk with Waldron about play calls in short yardage and execution but in general getting coaches to coache the players harder.

"I've got to give a lot of credit to our leadership group on the team, a lot of credit to (Matt Eberflus) and Shane (Waldron) and Eric (Washington)," GM Ryan Poles said.

They quickly assessed the situation and what to do about it.

"I thought they did a fantastic job identifying, 'all right, when you lose a game like that this isn't acceptable. So we're going to get together and we're going to find solutions.'

"And they did that fast and they took initiative to do that and I think that speaks volumes on their leadership and desire to get this team where it needs to be as fast as possible."

Getting the running game going the next two games could be directly traced back to this approach but also they played two poor defenses, so this didn't hurt.

Whether it's an actual turning point for the season or simply sparked an early surge forward won't be known until much later. Winning over Jacksonville Sunday and going into the bye week with their longest winnign streak under Eberflus at three games would take it a step closer to being the actual season turning point.

"Now i see a team that is learning, adapting and growing and improving week by week," Poles said. "I've been very happy with the high level of communication from player to coach, coach to player to find solutions and find ways to improve every single week. And sometimes in a week that's hard."

Bears offensive coordinator Shane Waldron had found this as a huge landmark in their season a week ago.

"The guys being open to being coached hard, they want to hear the directions, they want to hear everything that's there," Waldron said. "For us as coaches, and it goes both ways, too, when you hear constructive criticism and things you can improve on, it's the players having the ability to not put their guard up when there's something that's a positive correction."

All of the corrections have been positive so far. It's a matter now of continuing in that direction.

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.