Bear Digest

Bears Claim Officials' New Rule Emphasis Won't Surprise Them

Matt Eberflus brought up the way officials are calling alignment penalties on offensive linemen to the team, and Sunday everyone will see if they were paying attention.

Gene Chamberlain

Matt Eberflus tries to get the attention of officials in a game the Bears lost 41-10 to the Chiefs.
Matt Eberflus tries to get the attention of officials in a game the Bears lost 41-10 to the Chiefs. / Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images
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If the Bears commit a bunch of silly alignment infractions the way the Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens did in Thursday night's NFL season opener, it won't be for lack of attention to detail.

Coach Matt Eberflus already said he brought up the rule emphasis officials have this year to the team on Friday after seeing the way official Shawn Hochuli's crew threw flags repeatedly in the Thursday night opener. It's an attempt to keep offensive lines from having too great an advantage by making the tackles line up even with the waist of the center.

"We brought it up–this is our situations day (at practice) for the team meeting," Eberflus said. "I go through and pull off (film of) situations from preseason, from the game last night and we talk about it. We do about a 15-minute deal there. It's part of the smart phase of our deal."

This rule emphasis was pointed out by officials ahead of time to teams so there is no excuse, although it's easy to wonder why officials would ever need to have a rule emphasis when they are merely supposed to call the rules according to the way they are written all of the time.

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"The league sent us a tape about the illegal formation–that's what it was called last night–the tackles have to break the waist of the center. If you're too far back, typically, they give you a warning, but they are starting to call that. That's going to be a point of emphasis."

It's not the only issue officials decided to get tough with this year.

"The other thing that is going to be a point of emphasis is the shaving of the motion with the receivers," Eberflus said. "When they come in jet motion or regular motion, they have to make sure they are still staying horizonal, not going vertical towards the line of scrimmage before the ball is snapped. We talked to our guys about that. Showed them some clips on that so they are informed."

Officials in recent years have seemed to let the rule slide. They've really seemed to let it go, particularly with jet sweeps and end-around runs.

The Bears once had a critical call like this go against them in a playoff game.

They had the chance to go up two touchdowns on Philadelphia in 1979 and Walter Payton broke off an 84-yard run in the third quarter. But officials called Brian Baschnagel for moving toward the line of scrimmage when he was in motion on the play. The replays showed only lateral movement.

From that point on the game turned and the Eagles went on to win 27-17.

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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.