Caleb Williams and Bears offense have starts mastered but need more

"Obviously, you want to start fast and then you want to be able to keep that momentum going. Been able to do that twice and our guys do a good job of being prepared and being ready for the plan. A lot of times those plays are pre-scripted out. They know what’s coming so we’re able to prepare for that and really anticipate what we’re going to see. But we’ve done a good job the last couple of weeks of getting points on that first drive."

Points after first drives are tougher for them to achieve.

"You can't just be great the first drive and then we stall out for however many after that," running back D'Andre Swift said. "We have to build on that momentum and, every possession after that, just keep rolling, keep rolling. That just comes with playing clean football. But like I said, that isn’t just one person. It's 11 people out there on that field. So, 11 people have a job to do.”

Clean play means no penalties. Flags or sacks have led to tough or impossible down and distance.

"I mean, you look at both weeks, we’ve kind of shot ourselves in the foot with either penalties or mistakes," Doyle said. "That’s something that we’re working really hard to clean up because, obviously, that can’t happen.

"We come out of the half(time) last week and we false start on the first play. Immediately you’re putting yourself behind the sticks and now you’re playing catch-up football. It’s something that, really, across the board, it’s getting cleaned up fundamentally every single day: our habits, how we practice, every part of that. We’re really not giving an inch in any way. That’s the message and that’s the standard we’re trying to live up to."

It was Swift who came out and false-started to begin the second half, leaving them in first-and-15. They failed to pick up the first down. The Lions drove to another TD and a field goal for a 17-point lead and the rout was on.

That was hardly their worst down-and-distance situation due to penalties or sacks. They had a third-and-14 after a sack, a third-and-34 after a chop block penalty.

They converted a third-and-15 on a 37-yard pass to Rome Odunze, so it can be done. But it's difficult.

A holding on Drew Dalman and facemask grab by Braxton Jones left them in a second-and-32 situation before the interception Caleb Williams threw.

“Just play clean," Swift said. "There'll be flashes early in the game where they go down and score. We responded right away. Those are the type of things that if we want to be the type of team that we know we can be, we have to do that each and every drive."

The Bears have 23 penalties, seventh most in the league. The team they play Sunday, Dallas, hasn't been much better with 19, the ninth most.

The cynic could look at the third-and-long situations and point out they couldn’t even pick up first down when it was third-and-1 and fourth-and-1, so why worry about third-and-32?

But it truly is like former coach Matt Nagy once said after they failed on third-and-40 against the Packers: “I don’t have a play for third-and-40,” he said. 

"We can't shoot ourselves in the foot offensively, going against a team like that," Swift said. "If it's a shootout, we need to be right with that shooting out on offense as well.

"So, the penalties and things like that, that has to stop. It is everybody, it's a collective effort.”