Ben Johnson finally gives an honest take on the run game and isn’t discouraged by how long it’s taking to come together
Eventually, he’s hoping it gets right.
In Week 3, it finally seemed like everything clicked for the Chicago Bears offense led by head coach Ben Johnson. The Bears efficiently moved the ball, hit the explosive plays, and finished the game with over 30 points on the scoreboard.
A big reason why is because the unit played mistake-free football. The lingering pre-snap issues were corrected, the amount of penalties was minimized, the offensive line kept the QB clean, and Caleb Williams spread the ball around perfectly to his skill players.
As good as it was, there was still one thing missing from the offense. The run game, once again, struggled to find the ideal level of success, but it’s not something Johnson is panicking over just yet.
Ben Johnson isn’t discouraged with the struggles in the run game
“It can be better all over the place right now,” Johnson explained to reporters. “We’re very conscious of it. We watched all of our runs as a group (on Monday) and I think, I’ve alluded to it in the past, it can take a little bit of time before this all meshes and it all gels together.”
“We got some new faces up-front that haven’t played a ton of ball together yet and so, that’s part of the process. It’s also for the runners to understand what we intend to do with some of these play calls, where we want that ball to hit. And then, at the end of the day, they take their natural skillset and they make something big out of it.”
As Johnson briefly discussed on Monday, the lack of success and consistency can be blamed on the entire offense, including the players up-front, as much as people on the outside want to blame the personnel usage in the backfield. There’s a lot that truly goes into having a strong run game week in and week out.
Yet, Johnson’s scheme is build on having a strong run game to open up passing lanes and create big shots down the field off play-action. So, while he’s not overly concerned about it yet, it is something worth paying more attention to.
At the same time, the Bears aren’t the only team struggling to move the ball on the ground. Entering Week 4, only six teams have rushed for 400+ yards with the top team rushing for 489 yards (Buffalo). Compare that to a season ago when 10 teams rushed for 400+ yards with the top team rushing for 612 yards (Packers) through three games.
Want another example, look at the team the Bears are facing on Sunday. The Las Vegas Raiders rank 30th in rushing yards despite drafting running back Ashton Jeanty in the Top-10 of the NFL Draft. Sometimes, it just takes time and corrections for things to come together.
“Offensively, though three games, you would say that (the Raiders) passing game is a little bit ahead of their running game. But, that’s us also,” Johnson added. “I’m sure they’re working to fix whatever issues they perceive they have, just like we are on offense here.”
Simply put, it’s going to take some time before being perfect and the coaches recognize that, but the level of urgency is still there to improve on a weekly basis and that seemed to be a strong message to the players at the start of this week.
“As a coaching staff, we need a sound plan and then we need to go out there and we need to execute it just a little bit better than what we have been doing,” Johnson explained. “But, I’m not discouraged at all. I see how close we are to this thing really coming together. That was really the point of the meeting there on Monday was those guys see the same thing.”
Chicago Bears News
Caleb Williams caps his big Week 3 performance by earning an award previously given to the QB on the opposite sideline against Chicago
Well deserved award.
