Bear Necessities: Chicago has opportunity to improve in red zone vs. Vikings

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Perhaps the most frustrating part of the Bears’ 20-12 loss to the Giants was the fact that Chicago had opportunities to win. Instead, they stalled in the red zone, going 0-for-3 and settling for field goals each time.

“We certainly have to improve on that,” said head coach Matt Eberflus. “It’s about scoring. This league is about scoring touchdowns and defensively we’re doing OK right now. But offensively, we need to improve that percentage. But again, the practices just have to translate. It’s been good red-zone practices. We’ve got good schemes down there. It just has to translate to the game now.”

Interestingly enough, the Bears had the fifth-ranked red zone offense heading into last week’s game against the Giants, scoring touchdowns on 71.43% of their red zone opportunities.

So what changed against the Giants?

“There’s nothing else to really put it on, besides all 11 not doing our jobs,” said left tackle Braxton Jones, via ChicagoBears.com. “It’s obviously a little bit more of an emphasis. But we haven’t been terrible in the red zone, except for last week, so I think we’ve just got to execute better. I know a few times for me, I think we’re in the high red zone and I had one bad play, and then it led to a fumble, and then the false start that killed it. So certain things like that, just gotta clue in better and not really hurt the drive and kill the drive. But that’s all it is.”

The Bears should have their opportunities in the red zone against the Vikings, who are allowing touchdowns on 72.73% of those opportunities. Whether Chicago can take advantage of that remains to be seen.

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Story originally appeared on Bears Wire