LAKE FOREST, Ill. — At the University of Washington, players were held accountable for their mistakes through what receiver Rome Odunze called the “TNT sign.”
“You had to go touch it,” Odunze said. “And it was far.”
The Bears don’t have their own version of the TNT sign at Halas Hall yet. But offensive coordinator Declan Doyle said the team has turned to some “unorthodox” ways to finally put an end to their presnap penalties. The Bears lead the league with 16 false starts in seven games this season, according to nflpenalties.com.
“We’re kind of using some unorthodox things as far as out there on the practice field that you might not see,” Doyle said this week. “But it’s something we’re addressing, and it’s really important for us to stay on schedule and be able to move the ball offensively and be effective and finish with touchdowns.”
Turning up the crowd noise appears to be one of the techniques used this week.
“You can bump up the crowd noise to annoying and go from there,” receiver DJ Moore said. “That’s about it. Being able to not hear what (Caleb Williams is) saying as far as the snap count goes and just moving when the ball.”
Coach Ben Johnson wanted the team’s leaders to take control of the problem.
“If there’s repeat offenders and what’s maybe the cause behind it, whether it’s the cadence or whether it’s antsy-ness or different stuff like that, we just got to get it out of our system,” Moore said.
Doyle said that the coaches examine every penalty after every game.
“You’re just trying to identify: Can we teach it better? Are we asking our guys to do things that are too much for them?” Doyle said. “Or is there an issue, whether it’s communication, or is there something happening that is causing those things? Really, as we evaluate it, that’s what we’re trying to attack to figure out what is the problem and then create a plan to attack it.”
Johnson’s plan this week was to take it directly to the team leaders to fix.
Enough is enough.
“As players, we got to get that stuff fixed and take ownership of that deal,” tight end Cole Kmet said. “And coaches talked to us about that. So we need to get that corrected here this week. (It’s) definitely something that has kept coming up, really, since training camp. So (it’s) something that we need to get corrected if we want to get to the level that we wanna get to as an offense.”
Running back news
Running back D’Andre Swift didn’t practice Friday and was officially listed as out for Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Swift has been dealing with a nagging groin injury since after Week 6 against the Washington Commanders. Swift dealt with quad and hip injuries earlier in the season. But the groin is proving to be more problematic.
“It’s really been a chronic thing for a while now,” Johnson said. “I think it goes probably earlier than (Washington) D.C. that he’s been feeling something. And so we’re just doing our due diligence to make sure that we’re getting the best version of Swift to help this team, for him and his individual success. We just want to make sure that we have him in a good spot for the whole season.”
With Swift out, rookie Kyle Monangai becomes the Bears’ No. 1 back against the Bengals. Swift has played well since the bye week, gaining 277 yards and scoring two touchdowns on 44 carries. The Bears will need him later this season, too.
“It’s a week-to-week deal with where he’s at, “ Johnson said. “But he understands. He’s a tough guy. He wants to be out there competing and playing for his teammates. He wants to win games, help his team win games. A little bit for us is we got to protect him from himself, too. We talked early in training camp that at some point this season, you’re not going to be feeling good. You got to be able to play at a high level, despite being 80, 85 percent of how you normally feel, and he’s at that spot right now. So I think he’s going to pay dividends for us down the stretch here.”
Player to watch: Nickel back C.J. Gardner-Johnson
The Bears’ secondary will be better this week with cornerback Tyrique Stevenson returning from his shoulder injury. But the team is really hoping that C.J. Gardner-Johnson provides a spark at nickel back with Kyler Gordon out, too.
“He’s a highly competitive player, and I think he goes out there and competes on every single play,” said defensive coordinator Dennis Allen, who previously coached Gardner-Johnson in New Orleans. “And so, that’s fully what I would expect for him to do with us. I think it brings a little attitude to the football team, which I think is good.”
That attitude showed up in practice at Halas Hall, especially with Stevenson also returning.
“I would say the first thing I noticed, not just about Tyrique, but about the whole secondary, is they’re a little bit louder right now,” Johnson said. “Between (Jaquan) Brisker, C.J. and Tyrique out there all at the same time, so I hear them.”
Gardner-Johnson won a Super Bowl last season with the Philadelphia Eagles. That experience helps. But the Bears are counting more on his three seasons with Allen and the Saints from 2019-21 to help the secondary.
“I think there’s some recall in terms of what we’ve done with him before,” Allen said. “I think that was kind of the plan coming in. Let’s try to force-feed some of the information to him, force-feed some of these reps to him and then see where he’s at.”
