Bear Digest

Self-Scout Needs to Give Bears Answers to First-Quarter Woes

Analysis: The Bears have conducted their self-scout under offensive coordinator Shane Waldron during the bye and it says they must improve on first-quarter third downs but will they?

Gene Chamberlain

Caleb Williams breaks a tackle and tries for a first down on a run against Jacksonville in London.
Caleb Williams breaks a tackle and tries for a first down on a run against Jacksonville in London. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
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Almost all of the problems the Bears offense faced before the bye week seemed to have been addressed by the time their 35-16 win over Jacksonville ended in London.

If a few snuck through, however, offensive coordinator Shane Waldron is counting on that secret weapon of NFL coaching staffs everywhere to correct them.

That would be the good, old self-scout.

The Bears had a bye week and took a thorough look at what they had been doing on offense as they struggled to score points early in games.

"I think the big thing for self-scout, too, for me is that's a weekly process," Waldron said Thursday at Halas Hall. "I know as different things evolve and technologies, it's something that our departments do a great job, whether it's analytics or the different information some of our younger coaches provide for us on a weekly basis.

"But then when we get a chance to have an off time and truly look back, I think the big thing obviously is starting faster, keep putting an emphasis on that. And a lot of that's going to come down to opening-drive third-down conversions, knowing that if you can stay (on the field), you can convert on third downs, you can extend those opening drives, you can extend those first-quarter drives and play a little more efficient at the beginning of games."

Caleb Williams and the offense have been strong at rebounding to score when they need to after their problems scoring in first quarters.

"But it's also not to say that if you play well throughout the course of the game, you (don't) have a chance to rebound from those things if it doesn't start perfectly," Waldron said. "But that would be the biggest takeaway from the week off and looking back did some self-scout."

It didn't really require a deep self-scout to see they're starting poorly in games. They've had 24 scoring drives and only three came in first quarters, only one, for a field goal, on the opening drive. The touchdown on one of those drives actually came in the second quarter, but the drive started in the first quarter. So in actuality, they've had 10 first-quarter points. They've scored 54 in second quarters and 57 in fourth quarters, 27 in third quarters.

The need for third-down conversions in first quarters Waldron talked about couldn't be more accurate. The Bears are 3-for-16 on third down in first quarters, or 18.7%.

They're 26 of 66 in the other three quarters, or 39.4%.

Under Matt Eberflus, Bears have done a fair job of assessing things over a bye before coming back strong. Last year their best overall game was their convincing 28-13 win over Detroit at Soldier Field, right after the bye. In 2022, the roster was gutted but they came out and gave a good account of themselves against the Super Bowl-qualifying Eagles before losing 25-20.

Perhaps more important is how Waldron's Seahawks teams have done after bye weeks because Eberflus' defense definitely was ready in the past.

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The Seahawks went 0-3 in their three games after bye weeks with Waldron as offensive coordinator. In 2021, they beat the Jaguars in a rout, 31-7, much as the Bears just did last week 35-16. Then they had a bye and came out and laid an egg. Green Bay shut them out 17-0 and allowed them 208 yards of offense.

They did better on offense the next year. They scored 34 coming out of the bye against the Raiders and lost in overtime 40-34 in 2022.

Last year they struggled again on offense and lost 17-13 to the Bengals to end a three-game winning streak.

The Waldron self-scout needs to be better for the Bears this year because their own defense is going to have a difficult time keeping the Commanders' high-scoring offense in check.

They'll need scoring in every quarter and might even need to win a shootout.

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.