Bears' Ability to Evaporate the Clock Becomes Another Way to Attack Defenses

Against one of the best defenses in the NFL, the Chicago Bears opened up the primetime game on Monday Night Football at Lumen Field with a statement drive. 

Quarterback Caleb Williams executed head coach Ben Johnson's offense, moving down the field on a 17-play, 80-yard drive, ending with a Luther Burden 1-yard touchdown reception. 

When the offense takes up 8:32 off the clock to start the game, it's hard to remember exactly everything that happened. That's where Johnson found himself when discussing that opening series.  

"Well, truthfully I didn't know it was 17 plays," Johnson said. "Looking back at it, we thought it was going to be tough to get this thing going. We knew in the first half we kind of talked about being patient and if the running game we were getting ones, twos and threes we thought we could eventually get to the point where those would turn into threes, fours and fives. It's an outstanding front, a really good scheme. They make it very challenging on you and so I thought we had some really good communication.

Garrett Bradbury did a nice job driving that train for us. Swifty ran super hard. I know he didn't have a ton of yards, but 27 attempts and three touchdowns, every single yard was earned by him. Those are hard yards to come by. Our receivers were blocking. I thought Caleb did a great job just throughout the game, certainly on that first drive that you're alluding to. But he took care of the football and I thought he did a lot of really good things throughout." 

The collective effort on offense resulted in a 34-17 victory, improving the Bears to 6-2 on the season. Chicago has had long drives before, but not like the one to start off the Week 8 game. 

In Week 4, they put the New York Jets away with an 18-play, 76-yard drive that ended in victory formation. Against the Green Bay Packers, their lone touchdown came off a 16-play, 78-yard drive finished by D'Andre Swift's 1-yard score. Before last night, their gold standard for an opening-drive touchdown was an 11-play, 66-yard march sealed by an 8-yard strike to Luther Burden III in the win over the Philadelphia Eagles.

The Bears lead the league in time of possession by a wide margin, with 04:43:33. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are second (04:21:58). On average, the Bears' offense stays on the field for 03:09 -- also longest in the league. 

Although the Bears are atop the NFL in these offensive categories, it's not a high priority for Johnson. 

"I do think that's played a part in some of these games so far," he said after the Patriots game. "I've never been one for the time of possession stat. I don't know that that really equates to winning and losing necessarily. And yet, when you look up, we are possessing the ball more than our opponent more often than not. So I do think it takes something off the defense. ..."

At the same time, Johnson is aware of the impact those long drives have on the offense. Johnson stressed the team needs an "equal share of the load" with the skilled players and of course the offensive line is impacted the more reps they get over the course of the season. 

"But is it part of the tactic?" Johnson said. "I don't know if, it's not something that we stress. We really talk more about getting explosive plays. Like, I would rather have a one-play drive for a touchdown than a 10-play drive for a touchdown. But the ability to stay efficient, stay on schedule, I do think that's something that good offenses show that they can do."

The Bears won the time of possession battle against the Seahawks, 35:03 to 24:57. Sometimes the best defense is keeping the opposing offense off the field. Seahawks wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba caught six passes for 118 yards and a touchdown, but Seattle came up empty on eight of its 11 offensive possessions. 

Even when the Bears didn't score touchdowns, the field goal drives still put points on the board and took time off the clock, limiting Smith-Njigba's opportunities. The Bears' two field goal drives in the second quarter took more time off the clock than Chicago's final two touchdown drives.

Johnson may not fully subscribe to time-of-possession tactic, but the Bears can play that type of game and utilize that philosphy to come away with wins. 

That's all Johnson and the rest of the team care about in the end -- coming away with a victory, no matter how much clock it burns.