LAKE FOREST, Ill. – Chris Beatty has been a receivers coach most of his career, and for the entirety of his time in the NFL.

While he understands the position as well as anyone at this level, that’s not his only specialty. He also considers game- and time- management among them, which is something interim head coach Thomas Brown has charged him with improving over the final five games of this Bears season.

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That should make Chicago fans happy after struggles in pivotal situations that have cost the Bears games.

Think the last two plays in Washington. The fourth-and-4 against Minnesota. And, of course, leaving the Lions game with a timeout in Matt Eberflus’ pocket. Oh, and all the challenges lost.

Those elements are major reasons why the Bears are so bad in one-score games, and positively a reason why Eberflus is no longer head coach.

While Beatty has been more involved with insight on play calling and what’s coming next for the offense since Brown took over as offensive coordinator, his role will expand ever-so-slightly now that Brown’s interim head coach.

“I’ll probably have a little bit more to say with the time management part of it,” Beatty said on Thursday. “Obviously, we had some issues with that, so we’re going to try to streamline that a little bit to make that a little less hectic maybe on the headset and more a couple of heads getting together before everything happens as opposed to as it happens. So those things we’re trying to work through and fit those things in.”

Game-management was faulty during Eberflus’ tenure here. There’s no arguing that. Brown is trying to rectify the situation as best he can in the time allotted, to improve crucial situations and act appropriately in the moment despite not having experience making such calls.

Time management has been something Beatty has studied since he was a head coach at the high school level in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It’s an interest and a passion and something he’s committed to getting right in Chicago.

“One of the first things that Thomas and I talked about was how to streamline that and make it smoother,” Beatty said. “We’ve talked about that. We have gone through the process of trying how we’re going to simulate that in a game and try to get that to where it’s not an issue and stay a play ahead. That’s part of the issue, is that we haven’t been ahead of the game. We’ve been a bit late. And that’s part of it. That’s a hard thing.

“It’s easy on the couch. I watched games this weekend and I’m like, ‘I would do this, and I would do that.’ My wife was, like, ‘it’s not that easy.’ And she was right. She’s almost always right. At the end of the day, we’re going to work on trying to be better at that because it’s extremely important, especially with all the close games that we’ve had.”

Brown talked Monday about the need to improve time management, and didn’t excuse himself from blame despite having Eberflus as an easy scapegoat. He recognized an obvious problem and is committed to fixing it.

“I know there was a lot of scrutiny, talk, dialogue about what has happened at the end of some of these games. I am not exempt from responsibility in those actions, because we’re a team,” Brown said. “I believe in doing things together. We get rewarded together; we also get criticized together. We will have an internal process we’ll go through on a weekly basis to prepare ourselves for those opportunities. And on gameday, go execute. Don’t panic. Do a great job communicating. Be poised in the moment. Make a decision and go roll with it. That’s the thought process.”