3 Things That Strikingly Reminded Chicago Bears Head Coach Matt Eberflus From Week 2 Loss

In the fourth quarter, the Texans were in position to extend their lead to 19-10 on a first-and-goal from the 4 when Andrew Billings forced running back Cam Akers to fumble the ball and Kevin Byard III recovered at the 3. The offense followed with a 61-yard drive that culminated in Cairo Santos’ 54-yard field goal, cutting the deficit to 19-13.

The defense then made another stop, forcing a three-and-out to give the Bears offense a chance to win the game. But after reaching their own 47 on a 27-yard pass from Caleb Williams to Rome Odunze, the drive stalled.

“We did a really good job of defending well in the second half,” Eberflus said, “giving our guys a chance to score that field goal on a drive. Then we got back into position with the defense, in terms of getting the ball back for our offense and winning.”

(2) The running game must be more productive.

The Bears ran for 71 yards on 22 carries against the Texans, but Williams had 44 of those yards on five attempts. Running backs D’Andre Swift (14 carries for 18 yards), Travis Homer (1-6) and Khalil Herbert (2-3) combined for just 27 yards on 17 attempts.

“The run game comes down to the fundamentals,” Eberflus said. “It comes down to your combo blocks. It comes down to guys working their helmet in the right spot, staying in place, working to the second level, spotting to the second level, sticking and staying at the second level.

“Perimeter blocking has to be better with our pushes, our perimeter blocking for perimeter screens. It’s just a matter of details. We have to be consistent as a group to be able to do that. We have the guys, we have the coaches, we have the players. We just have to be better at the details, be better at the fundamentals of running the ball.”

A more productive rushing attack would make play-action passes more efficient and put the Bears in fewer predictable passing situations.

“I think when you’re able to run the ball and move it and stay in front of the chains, you don’t have that type of pressure where we know you’re all in pass protection,” Eberflus said. “We’ve got to do a really good job of that going forward and not creating those yardages for us that aren’t conducive to our offense, where we can rely more on the pass rush, where we can rely more on converting third downs and really getting first downs on first and second downs, not even getting to third down. That’s what we’re looking for. We’re looking for that.”

The Bears have had to run at least one third-down play on 17 of their 20 possessions this season, the only exceptions being two late-half situations and an interception Sunday night in Houston that came on second down.