The Bears’ coaching staff spent part of their bye week dissecting their inordinate number of penalties, which have served as a season-long rebuke of coach Matt Eberflus’ H.I.T.S. system.
Only seven teams have committed more penalties than the Bears’ 80 this season. The 699 yards the Bears have allowed on those flags are the fourth-most, behind the Seahawks, Cardinals and Cowboys.
Eberflus preaches that the Bears are what they emphasize, and the “S” in H.I.T.S. is supposed to stand for “smarts.”
“You want to eliminate those [penalties],” Eberflus said Monday. “Certainly there’s many of them that you disagree with — of course, that’s always the case. But of the penalties that were accepted against us, obviously the things you want to control are the things that are pre-snap.”
Rookie right tackle Darnell Wright has 10 flags, the second-most of any offensive lineman in the NFL. Five have been false starts.
Only three teams have more false starts than the Bears’ 20.
“We’ve got to continue to do a better job of that,” Eberflus said. “We’ve been emphasizing that for the last several weeks, and we’ve got to continue to do a better job there.”
