The Chicago Bears committed eleven penalties during their Saturday matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals. Penalties can be a dark omen for teams, particularly when it's not an isolated issue. Things like this are to be expected in preseason matchups, when many players are suiting up in NFL uniforms for their first few times. But when Ben Johnson surprisingly decides to surprisingly play his starters, the scales tip a bit in the other direction. Or so they should.
2025 saw the Bears commit 120 penalties in the regular season, totaling up to 970 total yards. Astonishingly, this was worse than the Bears 2024 performance under Eberflus, where they recorded only 110 penalties before and after Eberflus' firing.
Obviously the Bears have seen significant changes in the elapsing season and a half since Eberflus was canned, but there are still many remnants of the old regime around to see, including a chunk of the Bears' current roster. In 2024, the Bears ranked 17th in penalties overall, but in 2025 they dropped back to 27th.
As the starting quarterback of the Bears, Caleb Williams has a responsibility to his team and to the city of Chicago. After Saturday's matchup, Williams publicly displayed this during a post game press conference where he laid the blame on himself.
"The urgency is there. We obviously have to, you know, fix things on tape. There are a lot of penalties out there, from first team, second team, and third team. And so it started with the head of the snake, and we got to, you know, it went all the way down to the tail. So we got to fix that."Caleb Williams
Accountability is important when it comes to the NFL, and that goes doubly so for those players that must face the media. The Bears' starters were only on the field for a short period of time that should have been penalty free, but they fell short of that goal. The Bears will have their work cut out for them if they're to cut their penalties down.
With the Bears chasing another winning performance in the NFC North, any free yards that the Bears can get should be taken. But it's all erased if at the end of the day the final net yardage removes almost all gains earned. Year 2 is looking promising for the Bears, but unless this key category sees improvement for the Bears, it's fitting to be a long season.
| More Bears on DaWindyCity |
Add us as a preferred source on Google