Chicago Bears trends Ben Johnson needs to reverse from the get-go

Those details need to be aimed at three areas in particular.
It is here where the Bears built up the worst trends imaginable while compiling the 5-12 record they owned last year.
Here are the three trends Ben Johnson needs to reverse this season the most.

3. Offensive penalties

How many times last year did you hear Shane Waldron or Thomas Brown or Matt Eberflus himself complain about presnap penalties?

They're killers. They put an offense in a longer down-and-distance situation and force them to do what they don't want or need to do.
The Bears last year had 42 presnap penalties. Only the Browns had more (45).
It wasn't just presnap penalties putting handcuffs on the Bears offense. They managed to commit other penalties on offense, as well.
Although they were middle of the pack for total committed penalies, their offense tied for the fifth-most total at 68, according to NFLpenalties.com.

Their own defense committed only 26 penalties last year, third fewest in the NFL. Yet their offense was bad enough to wipe out all of the advantage this gave them.
Teams in the NFL last year with one more penalty than an opponent for a game won only 48.4% of the time. Teams with two more won 47.2% of games.

When a team committed four more penalties than opponents, they won only 40.1% of the time.

The HITS principle of Eberflus stressd smart play but the Bears played dumb football on offense.
Johnson needs to restore some intelligence on that side of the ball.

2. Establish the run

There will be people talking until they are orange and blue in the face about the need to improve Caleb Williams in various areas.
It's been said they've given him everything he needs to win. That's not totally true.
Something that can help him win more than just about anything else is establishing the running attack right off the bat each and every game. If they know they can run effectively, pressure is reduced greatly from a defense that is on its heels.

The run also lets the offense use play-action passing, which is a key to Johnson's desire to make the same plays look different and different plays look the same.
The Bears knew all of this last year. They didn't do it. They were near the bottom in play-action.

Their offense outrushed opponents in four games in the first half but was outrushed in 13 first halves. They were 2-2 when they outrushed opponents in the first half. When they were outrushed in the first half, they had a 3-10 record.
The Bears last year averaged only 3.6 yards per rush in the first half. They went away from the run too quickly because they flopped at it, or didn't have it set as priority No. 1 often enough.

Will Johnson do it here? Whether he has the offensive line and backs to get it done might be the stumbling block but there's no doubt he realizes what must be done.
The Lions last year outrushed opponents in the first half of games 14 times and won 13 of those games. They were outrushed in first halves three times and were 2-1 in those. Two of those games were against Green Bay and they won anyway. The only loss when they failed to outrush an opponent in the first half of the three games was to Buffalo.
Johnson wants to run it and last year the Bears just dabbled at running.

1. First-Quarter Doze

With the Lions, it was score early and often but the early comes first and when they have success then they can control the game the way they want throughout.
The Bears' miserable performance during 2024 this way spoke or the utter incompetence on the part of game planners, although Caleb Williams' rookie struggles weighed in as well.
The Bears had three touchdowns and two 53-yard field goals in first quarters last season, and that's it. They averaged a league-worst 1.6 points per first quarter. They did eventually score on an opening drive when they got one of those field goals at Soldier Field against the Packers, but never did score a touchdown on their first drive of games.

They were 0-1 when they scored first, which is an atrocious stat. That's because it means opponents scored first 16 times.
They were 1-11 when trailing after the second and third quarters, which say they couldn't do enough to climb out of the deep hole they got into by not committing to the run first and by committing stupid penalties.
Johnson has plenty of work to do starting next week if he wants to reverse these dreadful trends.