Bye Week Breakthrough: How Coaching Adjustments Revived the Chicago Bears

Learn about the essential coaching adjustments for Bears made during their Bye Week to enhance team performance and strategy.

Teams often dread an early-season Bye Week, but for the Bears, it was essential. Heading into their Week 5 Bye, Chicago did not have a lot to hang their hat on. Sitting at a record of 2-2, the Bears managed to survive their first month of the season despite a porous defense and a near league-worst rushing attack. What felt like it would take weeks to fix appears to be accomplished in their self-scout during their week off.

For teams like the Andy Reid Chiefs, John Harbaugh Ravens, or the Sean McDermott Bills, the Bye Week is a perfect opportunity to self-scout and vastly improve. The elite teams in the league not only use the Bye to get healthy, but to identify and ameliorate deficiencies. These types of changes only occur when the right coaching staff is present, which Chicago has not had in quite some time. In their last 11 seasons, the Bears had a woeful record of 1-10 in their first game coming out of the Bye Week.

Looking back at last year, the Bears entered their Week 7 bye at 4-2, coming off one of Quarterback Caleb Williams’ best games at the time. Instead of building upon their success, Chicago lost all of their momentum coming out of the bye in the infamous “Fail Mary” game in Washington. Past seasons’ failures are what made Head Coach Ben Johnson’s approach to the Bye Week all the more intriguing.

Before the Bye

The first four games for the Bears found them struggling with the basics. From pre-snap and operational issues on offense to not shedding blocks to stop the run, Chicago was not playing fundamentally sound football.

The offense was plagued with costly, unnecessary penalties, and the run game was anemic. Chicago had a total of only 409 rush yards through the first month, coming out to just 102.3 rush yards per game on 3.8 yards per carry. The offensive line was not creating sufficient movement for the backs, and the backs were not hitting their holes. The defense found itself ranking near the bottom of the league in many categories. Chicago was giving up 164.5 rush yards per game on 6.1 yards per carry, ranking them last in the league in those categories. At only five sacks in the first four games and a pressure rate of 25.4%, the Bears were barely affecting the opposing Quarterback.

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Injuries played a part, but it felt like Chicago was in for a long season with the poor team play. The Bye Week was necessary for Coach Johnson and his staff to address their mistakes and turn their season around.

After the Bye

Johnson, Defensive Coordinator Dennis Allen, and the rest of the coaching staff more than delivered and flipped the script for how Chicago was playing. In their two games after the bye, the Bears’ defense has only given up 84 rush yards per game on 3.3 yards per carry, a drastic change compared to the first month. That includes bottling up the best rushing team in the NFL at that time in Washington, and Chicago just held New Orleans to a mere 44 yards of rushing this past weekend.

Coach Allen deserves a ton of credit for how the defense is performing after the Bye. Allen made the decision to switch T.J. Edwards and Tremaine Edmunds’ Linebacker positions, and we have seen the dynamic LB duo making plays all over the field. Allen has also had his imprint on affecting the opposing QB. Chicago’s pass rush has come to life with seven sacks in the last two games, pressuring the QB on 41% of drop-backs. There has been an increase in blitz rate, and the development of young players is starting to pay dividends.

Rookie defensive lineman Shemar Turner was drafted to play on the interior defensive line, but Allen has experimented with Turner playing on the end, which has led to more comfortable play from the rookie. Dominique Robinson has had his struggles in his first few years, but now Robinson is starting to make his mark on the pass rush.

Chicago’s run game has seen an enormous lift since the Bye. The Bears are averaging 183.5 rush yards per game on 5.5 yards per carry, with D’Andre Swift and rookie Kyle Monangai playing their best football of the season with the zone rushing scheme unlocked. When you watch the tape, Chicago is reaping the benefits of beautiful combo blocks from the interior offensive line, pulling tackles, and perimeter players’ willingness to block open up definitive rush lanes for the backs to hit.

With momentum behind them, Chicago is ready to prove they are the real deal, starting Week 8 in Baltimore.