Bears Need TDs from Red Zone or Otherwise

The Bears offense is feeling a bit encouraged by the passing performance against the Giants but the lack of touchdowns from the red zone or elsewhere is keeping them from progressing.

The Bears need to be realistic about where their offense is at the moment, and some are.

They would like to think their offense turned a corner, or at least swerved a bit with their 174-yard passing game and a 56-yard bomb from Justin Fields to Darnell Mooney.

Maybe it did. If so, it was merely the second step on a 100-step staircase.

"I thought throughout the game there was some plays where the O-Line did a good job protecting," quarterback Justin Fields said.

There were a few plays, and it was far between for each of them considering Fields absorbed six sacks, nine quarterback hits and 15 pressures.

However, they did get more passing yards (174), net passing yards (155) and completions (11) than in any other game.

"Just taking those and the positive runs we had, the positive explosives we had and just trying to build on those," Fields said.

Building on it is the best way to approach it because there really hasn't been much success.

The Bears went 0-for-3 in the red zone and settled for four field goals, but it's worse than this. They have scored one touchdown in their last 22 possessions. They have scored two TDs in the last 32 possessions. They are last in passing and next to last in total offense.

Darnell Mooney saw his 56-yard catch as important because of the confidence factor.

"I feel like any type of a spark, just passing the ball down the field, can give confidence to the offense itself," Mooney said.

Still, if one spark might start a fire, said fire needs time to grow into a blaze.

"I understand the process we have to go through with our offense and everything being new, everybody still learning and just trying to believe in the offense itself," Mooney said. "It's a process. It's a journey that you just have to stay into it, believe in and trust the process."

It would be easy for the Bears to get down about the fact that Fields has two touchdown passes and only nine for his career after 14 starts, or that their red zone offense ranks 23rd, or that only six teams have had fewer red zone possessions.

"You know, it's about scoring," coach Matt Eberflus said about the red zone situation. "This league’s about scoring touchdowns.

"Defensively, we're doing OK right now (in the red zone). But offensively, we need to improve that percentage. But again, the practices just have to translate. It's been good red zone practices (this week). We've got good schemes down there and it just has to translate to the games now."

Therein lies the problem.

"I mean, it's kind of hard to go to the positives when you don't score points," Mooney said.

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