Ben Johnson is hell-bent on improving Bears’ end-of-half offense. Here’s how he’s doing it
Eight plays, 61 yards, touchdown.
Sure, it’s still well before 11 a.m. on a Friday in July at Halas Hall. And by extension, the significance of this Chicago Bears drive from their third non-padded training camp practice might feel minimal. Yet it’s critical to understand the big-picture importance of what went down Friday on Field 4.
The drive’s final play was quick and smooth, a 14-yard Caleb Williams touchdown pass to tight end Colston Loveland, a connection made after the young tight end knifed between cornerback Tyrique Stevenson, linebacker Devin Bush and safety Coby Bryant to get open.
Williams’ fastball, into a tight window, was on time and on target. The quarterback’s stat line on the drive, 6-of-7 for 55 yards, also felt encouraging during this snapshot of efficiency.
Still, this is more about the work the Bears offense is putting in and responding to the directive from coach Ben Johnson: to become far better this season in end-of-half, two-minute situations.
By now, the football world knows just how good Williams and the Bears were last season during game-on-the-line drives. There are YouTube montages, racking up views, dedicated to just how deadly Williams became in the clutch as he propelled the Bears to seven game-winning drives and later worked his way onto the cover of Madden 27.
The Bears quarterback also twice forced overtime with thrilling possessions and remarkable throws, including the team’s final scoring drive last season — the one in the NFC divisional round, when Williams provided his instantly iconic 14-yard, score-tying touchdown pass to Cole Kmet with 18 seconds left in regulation at a then-jubilant Soldier Field.
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Still, over the offseason, Johnson found himself perplexed by the disparity between how good his quarterback and offense were at the end of games and how substandard their production seemed to be at the end of halves.
“We tended to get the first, first down,” Johnson noted in March. “But we didn’t end up moving the ball very much after that. That’ll be a point of emphasis for us.”
Including the playoffs, according to TruMedia, the Bears led the NFL in points scored in the final three minutes of regulation but ranked 27th in points scored in the final three minutes before halftime.
Similarly, Williams’ passer rating in the final five minutes of games (102.3) versus his mark in the final five minutes of the first half (89.0) featured a notable gap.
Early in the offseason, Johnson scratched his head at the riddle. When asked before Friday’s practice about the end-of-half, two-minute issues of a season ago, he lit right up.
“Oh man, you hit that nail on the head,” Johnson said. “It’s a huge point of emphasis for us. … A lot goes into it.”
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With aspirations of becoming the league’s highest-scoring offense, Johnson and the Bears are adopting a micro-focus on situational precision. Thus, Johnson used a meeting Thursday night to harp on the need for sharper end-of-half execution. Then, at the conclusion of Friday’s two-hour practice, Johnson threw his group into an end-of-half, two-minute situation.
Tie game. First down at their own 39. Just 1:37 on the clock. Two timeouts remaining. Play it out.
“I do think, as I’ve said for a year and a half now, anytime you put emphasis on something, you normally see good things happen because of that,” Johnson said.
On the whole, including the playoffs, the Bears were outscored 160-103 in the second quarter last season. It was the only quarter they cumulatively lost. Additionally, on 20 possessions that either began in the final four minutes before halftime or ended in the final minute, the Bears managed just two touchdowns and five field goals.
Even in their two highest-scoring games — a 47-point outburst at the Cincinnati Bengals and a 38-point showing against the San Francisco 49ers — the offense came up empty on its final drives of the first half.
“I would say it’s maybe just losing a little bit of focus as a unit,” offensive tackle Braxton Jones said Friday about the Bears’ end-of-half struggles. “And I think that’s what you have to dial into in those situations — really dialing back in, focusing and realizing those are critical moments in games where we can get points. And it just starts with consistency in those moments.”
Though Johnson initially felt perplexed by last season’s struggles, Friday he offered a confident smile and reassurance that he had his arms around things, even if he was reluctant to offer specifics on what he diagnosed.
“We’ve got some ideas,” he said. “We’re working on it.”
Certainly, Johnson had to be encouraged during Friday’s two-minute sequence when Williams bit off 11 yards with his first pass to Luther Burden III, then hit Loveland for 4 more with a completion the tight end took out of bounds to stop the clock.
Two offsides penalties on the defense plus a third-down conversion on a draw to D’Andre Swift offered help. Then, Williams overcame a 4-yard loss on a sack with consecutive completions to Loveland — 13 yards on a dart over the middle, 10 more on a play-action dump-off.
Ideally, throws like those on drives like this will become miniature building blocks as the Bears build toward the regular season.
“Our guys understand how important this is,” Johnson said. “It’s a way for us to possibly steal a possession through the course of a game if we handle the before-half procedure correctly. And, of course, we want more momentum going into halftime as well than what we had (last season).”
