Chicago Bears coordinators and assistant coaches met with reporters Thursday at Halas Hall in Lake Forest as the team continued to get ready for the Baltimore Ravens.

The Bears face a big test Sunday when they travel to play the Ravens. Although Baltimore comes in at 1-5, the Ravens could return some injured starters who missed the first part of the year, including quarterback Lamar Jackson. If it can pass that test, Chicago would win its fifth straight game for the first time since 2018.

Here are three of the most interesting things Bears coordinators and assistant coaches said Thursday.

On developing offensive tackles

The Bears’ offensive line has played some of its best football during the team’s four-game winning streak. Chicago’s young tackles have played an important role in that development.

Both left tackle Theo Benedet and right tackle Darnell Wright have shown signs of improvement, especially in the past two games. Benedet made his first two career starts at left tackle during that time while Wright returned from a right elbow injury that forced him to miss the Bears’ Week 4 game against the Las Vegas Raiders.

But the development hasn’t been perfect. A week after Benedet overpowered some Washington Commanders in his first start at the spot, he made some mistakes against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday. Benedet was called for two false starts and also missed some assignments that led to scrambles by quarterback Caleb Williams.

Benedet was critical of himself after Sunday’s sloppy performance. Bears offensive line coach Dan Roushar said it’s on the coaching staff to make sure to keep Benedet on track when things go awry.

“He’s his own worst critic and we certainly share the criticism with him,” Roushar said. “I think, like any young player, the more confidence he gains, the slower the game will become. The more experience he gets, the slower the game will become. I thought at times he was doing things that were trying to be a little bit more than he needs to be. So you try to refocus.”

Meanwhile, Wright played two of his best games of the season since returning from a right elbow injury. He’s created paths for Bears running backs, especially in Sunday’s win.

Roushar said Wright has played in control for the most part. But he also wants Wright to use his injured arm more. Although he understands the hesitation, if Wright plays in better fundamental positions and forces himself to be in position to block instead of being out, Wright can elevate his play even more.

“I understand there’s an area there that he’s probably mentally and maybe even physically protecting a little bit,” Roushar said. “When it is used, it’s very effective. When it’s not, as I reminded him, and we can work on it’s not as good as it can be. He’s got a chance to be an elite player in this league and he has to put that together.”

On Caleb Williams missing throws on the run

Through six games, Williams has shown growth during his first season with Johnson as his play caller. But Williams also lost something that he excelled at during his rookie season and college.

Williams hasn’t succeeded in throwing on the run as much as he did in the past. There have been times this year, primarily during the team’s last couple games, when Williams escapes pressure or has a designed throw on the run and he can’t connect with an open receiver on the run.

“I think part of it is at times it can be inaccuracy, it can be, ‘hey, I missed a throw,’” offensive coordinator Declan Doyle said. “And other times it’s, ‘hey, we’re not on the same page,’ and so it may look different to you as you’re watching it than maybe it looks to us in the film room saying, ‘hey, those two guys aren’t on the same page.’ So I think you’re coaching it off of the play as you go, but I talked about it before, we’ve kind of implemented some of those things in practice as far as him breaking contain and really emphasizing how that needs to look and giving him shots at it in real time in practice.”

Williams told reporters Wednesday that he feels like the passing game is “extremely close” to gaining rhythm. Him throwing on the run will definitely play a major role in that happening.

But Doyle emphasized that it’s not just up to Williams to have it work.

“I think it’s always on all of us,” Doyle said. “It’s always a collection of the wideouts doing the right thing and him being on the same page as them, as well as our [offensive] line blocking through the echo of the whistle — the tight ends are involved in that. But anytime we break contain, it really falls on all of us to put ourselves in the right place."

On an evolving defensive scheme

Bears defensive coordinator Dennis Allen was known for his aggressive play calling and man-to-man coverage scheme when he became the Bears’ defensive play caller over the offseason. But Allen’s adjusted his scheme at times during Chicago’s winning streak.

Sunday was a good example of those adjustments. Allen put out a scheme with three defensive linemen, two linebackers and six players in the secondary. It’s something that Allen had done at times throughout his career and helped cause confusion.

“I think any time you have guys that can do multiple things playing different positions I think that just allows you to be maybe a little bit more creative in terms of what you’re doing,” Allen said. “We have a few chess pieces on our defense that we can move around and put in different positions and do some different things with.”

A couple of those chess pieces are safety Jaquan Brisker and nickel cornerback Kyler Gordon. Both players showed their ability to confuse the Saints by either pressuring the quarterback or dropping back in coverage. Brisker had a sack and two quarterback hits while Gordon added another sack and quarterback hit.

“He’s his own worst critic and we certainly share the criticism with him. I think, like any young player, the more confidence he gains, the slower the game will become. The more experience he gets, the slower the game will become. I thought at times he was doing things that were trying to be a little bit more than he needs to be. So you try to refocus.”

—  Dan Roushar,

But for Allen, those chess pieces only work when they know what to do. The Bears showed they bought in Sunday.

“I think the work that our guys are putting in outside of the building off the practice field, outside of when they’re in there with the coaches and meeting with the coaches, I think that’s been a key part of our ability to play better over this, we’ll call it, last four-game stretch,” Allen said. “That will continue to be a big part of what we’ll do.”