Chicago Bears coordinators and assistant coaches met with reporters Thursday at Halas Hall in Lake Forest as they continued preparing for the Cincinnati Bengals.

The Bears have spent the week trying to find some answers when they travel to play the Bengals on Sunday. Cincinnati should be a good opportunity to see how much progress Chicago has made as it seeks to capitalize on a weaker stretch of its schedule.

Here are three of the most interesting things said Thursday.

On Caleb Williams’ target share

A major question the Bears faced heading into the season was what the ball distribution would look like with so many targets for quarterback Caleb Williams.

The Bears already had playmakers at wide receiver with DJ Moore and Rome Odunze to go with running back D’Andre Swift and tight end Cole Kmet. Then Bears general manager Ryan Poles selected tight end Colston Loveland in the first round and wide receiver Luther Burden III in the second round of this year’s draft after adding wide receiver Olamide Zaccheaus in free agency.

Through seven games, Williams has focused on some of the same targets. He’s targeted Odunze the most (56), followed by Moore and Zaccheaus (38), Swift (24), Kmet (19), Loveland (18) and Burden (15).

Bears offensive coordinator Declan Doyle said deciding who to target is a balancing act. Although he and Bears head coach Ben Johnson don’t want to force-feed one player, they want to make sure their top guys are the primary read on many plays.

“As we put the game plan together, that’s taken into account quite a bit, whether that’s a wideout, a tight end or a back,” Doyle said. “That’s something that you always need to be looking at, and I think it changes week to week based on the matchups and who we’re playing.”

Odunze has become Williams’ favorite target this season as he’s taking a major step in his second season after being selected No. 9 in last year’s draft. But sometimes it’s felt as if Williams is only looking at Odunze and feeding him passes into tight coverage.

But Doyle didn’t think they had to be cautious about focusing on Odunze.

“I think it’s always: If Rome is first in the progression, that’s who we need to be looking at,” Doyle said. “If Rome is late in the progression, then your eyes need to be on one and progress to two and three. We kind of let the plays take care of themselves as far as that goes. But I don’t think your quarterback and a player have good chemistry; I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I think we encourage that.”

On Dayo Odeyingbo’s tough stretch from the edge

The Bears felt confident that defensive end Dayo Odeyingbo could develop into a top pass rusher opposite Montez Sweat when they signed him to a three-year, $48 million deal during free agency. But the results haven’t come yet.

Chicago hasn’t created a consistent pass rush this season. The unit ranks 25th in sacks (16) and tied for 26th in quarterback hurries (12) and quarterback knockdowns (16), according to Pro Football Reference. Sweat is second on the team with three sacks, while Odeyingbo is tied for fourth with six players at one sack. Defensive tackle Gervon Dexter leads the team with 3.5 sacks.

Johnson told reporters earlier in the week that he felt Odeyingbo played his best game of the season Sunday against Baltimore when he rushed well from the inside and did a good job of stopping the run. But he also said the unit hasn’t done a good enough job adjusting to play action.

Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen said Thursday that he felt the Bears needed to do a better job of forcing teams into obvious passing situations. Chicago has done well in those situations, including on third down. Opponents have gone 22 for 69, a 32% conversion rate.

“There are things we can do in terms of, can we bring an extra rusher?” Allen said. “Can we drop the ends? There are different things we can do. When we’ve gotten into situations where it’s an obvious passing down, I do think there are some things we’ve done to affect the passer.”

An addition to the defensive line could help boost Odeyingbo’s ability to perform. Defensive end Austin Booker is expected to play in his first game of the season Sunday after the team activated him from injured reserve Tuesday.

The Bears liked what they saw in the offseason when they moved Odeyingbo inside the defensive line at times during the offseason and had Booker on the edge so that Odeyingbo could rush from the inside. They’ll likely explore that more against the Bengals.

“When we evaluated Dayo, I thought that one of the best things he did was the inside rush,” Allen said. “We haven’t been able to use him a whole lot in there. I think we’ll see how the games play out, but that could let us be able to use him more inside.”

On executing a ‘hurricane’ field goal

Chicago had a chance to knock in a last-second field goal just before the end of the first half against the Ravens.

With no timeouts and facing third down, Williams completed a 9-yard pass to Loveland that got the ball down to the Ravens’ 40-yard line with about 15 seconds left in the second quarter. The offense rushed off, and the “hurricane” field goal unit rushed on. Kicker Cairo Santos got off a kick just before time expired, but he missed the 58-yard attempt.

“If you look around the league, there are a number of examples of people not being able to execute that for whatever reason,” special teams coordinator Richard Hightower said. “So I was thoroughly pleased with how our guys executed and operated in that situation. Unfortunately, the kick was a yard short there.”

Both Johnson and Hightower said they practice the situation throughout practice so players know what they need to do. Hightower also mentioned the amount of time to execute the play depends on how close players on the sideline are to where the line of scrimmage is. Some coaches like it at 25 seconds, others prefer 23.

Running a quick field goal doesn’t always allow a kick to use a “k-ball,” a ball specifically designed for kicking. This has been the first season kickers have gotten a chance to use the balls, and it’s resulted in longer field goals.

“As we put the game plan together, that’s taken into account quite a bit, whether that’s a wideout, a tight end or a back. That’s something that you always need to be looking at and I think it changes week to week based on the matchups and who we’re playing.”

—  Declan Doyle, Bears offensive coordinator

Referees don’t always change the balls out depending on whether they feel they have enough time to do it. They didn’t change the ball out Sunday.

“If you look at that kick, it was on target,” Hightower said. “That was a really good kick. It just wasn’t long enough. But that is at the officials’ discretion. If they decide that they can get it in or not. So we’re not counting on it. When we practice it, we practice it with a quarterback ball all the time cause we’re never expecting a k-ball.”