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LAKE FOREST, Ill. – Bears general manager Ryan Poles gave Matt Eberflus quite the compliment late last month, stating that his head coach has conviction in the face of calls for change.

“It’s so hard, with pressure, to stay the course,” Poles said on Aug. 28. “When there’s a lot of noise about doing different things and changes and all that, to hold the line, it takes a special man to do that.”

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We saw evidence of that Wednesday afternoon, when Eberflus was asked if he would make merit-based personnel changes along the offensive line. That topic came in the wake of a 19-13 loss at Houston when Caleb Williams was sacked seven times and hit on 11 occasions in the face of relentless quarterback pressure.

His answer was direct: Right now, no.

Eberflus was focused on getting the talent in place to show improvement. As Poles points out, this is Eberflus holding the line.

“We’re looking for continuity and consistency and communication and getting better,” he said in a Wednesday press conference. “That’s what we’re focused on. I go back to my original comment — it’s fundamentals and basics. It’s important that we get that down as a group. So, we’re going back to that. That’s what wins football games.”

Eberflus’ original comment referred to getting back to the basics and drilling fundamentals as the Bears’ runaway theme of the week. He has altered practices some to focus on the little details and proper communication that sent them out of sync during the first two weeks, especially the latter portions of the Texans loss.

They aren’t going to blow everything up after two weeks. Bears coaches are committed to making the players they have better. There’s an underlying part of this that wasn’t said but can’t be ignored.

The Bears don’t have a lot of options.

Outside inserting Matt Pryor in at guard — he can play tackle, too, but Braxton Jones is fine a left tackle and Chicago isn’t moving Darnell Wright from the right flank — there aren’t many logical changes to be made. Guard/center Ryan Bates is on injured reserve. The remaining options, Doug Kramer Jr., Bill Murray and Kiran Amegadjie don’t have an NFL start between them.

So, with the personnel essentially set, the Bears must go about the detail work of getting better in technique and communication. That started with a Monday film session that wasn’t much fun for an offensive line that allowed 37 quarterback pressures and helped produce just 1.5 yards per attempt on runs from their backs.

“They can obviously be a little tough, when you’re not looking at the prettiest pictures and the quarterback’s under pressure,” Jones said. “That’s not easy, but you have to take what you can from it and get better the next week. That’s my main focus and fixing the small errors I had in the game and making sure I’m doing the right things pre- and post-practice to get (better).”

There was an encouraging sign on that messy tape. Those Sunday miscues weren’t about getting overwhelmed by superior talent.

“Looking at the film, I see a ton of stuff that’s fixable,” Jones said. “I don’t see it as this huge problem we’ll have over the long run. It’s fixable. For me, it’s not getting off the ball at the correct time, some technical things and being on the same page with my guard.”

Each player is taking something from the film to fix. There’s a lot to work on after that one, from pre-snap penalties to run fits to playing in greater sync to adjusting to creative blitzes in the moment.

“We weren’t happy; nobody likes losing,” Davis said. “We just have to take the coaching, understand what we need to do better and flush what happened by today. It’s a long season. We have to keep moving.”

Chicago needs to move quickly in a positive direction. Everything starts up front, so improved line play can set the foundation for explosiveness and efficiency. Without it, the Bears will continue to struggle.  

The Bears know they want to be an attacking, aggressive and well-balanced offense. They just haven’t established that on the field quite yet, and won’t until the find some rhythm and sync between the quarterback, line and the skill spots.

“Guys are working on fundamentals and we’re figuring out what we do well,” Eberflus said. “It’s the second game in our offense so we’re going to figure it out. I believe that we got better last week in terms of rhythm, timing, passing, distributing the ball to the skill players. OK. Now we’re working run game, all the other things that come off that and like I said, we’re a work in progress. And I believe in the coaches and I believe in the players and the guys are working to get that done.”

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