For all of the things the Chicago Bears have been good at this season, scoring touchdowns in the red zone is not one of them.
In fact, the Bears
are the third-worst red zone team in the NFL with only the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Miami Dolphins having a lower red zone percentage. Head coach Ben Johnson said it is not just one issue as Chicago has had differing issues in the red zone in the past few weeks.“It’s different each week right now,” Johnson said. “Last week we were plagued with negative plays. We had a couple fouls, we had a false state, we had a holding, I want to say we had four negative runs. This week, that wasn’t the case. We stayed more on schedule and on track. Our details got a little bit haywire.”
While Chicago had a dominant
win against the New York Jets in Week 4, their lack of success in the red zone shows the score could have been a lot more lopsided. The Bears had seven red zone attempts but only scored a touchdown on two of them. This highlights the major problem with Chicago. They can get into the red zone, and actually have the most trips to the red zone out of any NFL team through the first four weeks, but they just cannot seem to get touchdowns on a consistent basis.
“We need to do a better job installing the play, having the guys understand what the intent of the play is,” Johnson said. “We’ve got to make sure that we get a great practice on Friday, which is our red zone day, to make sure that any issues that could come up, we go ahead and address then and there, and we’re good to go on game day.”
On Sunday, the Bears are playing another team that has struggled in the red zone, the Green Bay Packers. Their offense is a shell of what it was last year because of a lack of a run game and injuries on both sides of the ball are not helping them. Chicago’s strengths on offense correspond with Green Bay’s weaknesses, making this a very interesting matchup for both teams.
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This article originally appeared on Bears Wire: Ben Johnson stresses where Bears offense must improve vs. Packers
