Chicago Bears defense helped limit offense

The Chicago Bears offense was an absolute disaster on Sunday. This is in no way letting the offense off of the hook. However, when looking back into just how it could go so bad for the Bears, there are plenty of places to look.

The reality is that the Cleveland Browns ran 78 plays on Sunday to just 48 for the Chicago Bears. Every fan will scream that this is obvious when the offense is flying off of the field, and the defense has to keep running back out for stop after stop. However, this disparity started with the first drive, the Cleveland Browns’ first drive.

The team ran a 10 play drive to open things off. They slowly moved down the field, wearing out the defense with a bundle of plays. Yes, the Bears only had five plays in response, but they moved the ball down the field to kick a field goal. The next drive for Cleveland was another seven plays.

The Browns third drive hit eight plays. When adding in the Bears second drive, the team had run eight plays to the Browns 25. Through one quarter, the Browns held the ball for 10 minutes. Of the first 22 minutes, they had the ball for 17 minutes.

As noted, this is the first quarter. On average, the NFL drive is 6.09 plays per drive. The first three drives for the Browns were at 8.3 after three drives.

So, while you can argue that the Bears defense was defeated by a Bears offense that could not get out of its own way, it can just as easily be argued that the Browns offense kept the Bears offense on the sidelines for so long that they could not find any chances to get any sort of rhythm on offense.

They waited and waited after kick-off, then they get a field goal drive and have to wait out most of the first quarter. From there, it spiraled, and the Browns offense stayed on the field longer and longer.

The offense did the defense no favors, and the second-half dominance was a tired defense from being called on too often. However, the defense did not do their part early in the game, either.