Since the start of the regular season, Chicago Bears wide receiver Rome Odunze and most of his offensive teammates have started most Wednesday practices in a similar fashion.

Bears wide receivers, running backs, tight ends and quarterbacks all run to one end of a field at Halas Hall in Lake Forest once a horn sounds, signalling that the stretching session is over. They each dash over to where Bears assistants wait with props in hand.

Sometimes, every player has to catch a ball, turn and run by coaches wearing boxing gloves, who try to knock the ball out before players run through a long football gauntlet. Other times, players receive a ball, run in a circle around a practice donut before having to dodge flying objects and running through a gauntlet.

“That gauntlet, I mean, it’s no joke,” Odunze told Shaw Local News Network. “That little pin thing machine that we run through, those things hurt. It hurts every time. I don’t think I’ve ever had it where, like, it genuinely hurt to go through. But that’s the price that we pay every week to go out there and not turn the ball over.”

Ten games into the season, it’s been worth the pain for the Bears.

Chicago leads the NFL with a plus-16 turnover margin, six more than the Houston Texans, who’ve played one more game than the Bears. They’ve forced a league-leading 15 interceptions and recovered seven fumbles to go along with only four interceptions by quarterback Caleb Williams and two fumbles by the offense.

Winning the turnover margin has been essential to the Bears’ 7-3 record. Chicago is 7-0 this year when they’ve won the turnover battle. The team lost both of its games where it lost the turnover ratio, as well as the Week 1 game against the Minnesota Vikings where both teams forced one takeaway.

“You can’t make up the stats, the win-loss statistics when it comes to the turnover margin being in the plus side of that,” Bears backup quarterback Tyson Bagent told Shaw Local New Network. “When you’re in the negative side of that, it’s hard to win.”

The Bears have emphasized winning the margin even though Bears head coach Ben Johnson seemed to diminish its value during his introductory press conference in January. Back then, he said the quarterback’s success was a better indicator of wins and losses in the modern NFL than the turnover ratio.

But Johnson and his coaching staff didn’t diminish its value when they took over during the offseason. Bears coaches harped on the details, including ball security, during offseason workouts and training, which continued to training camp.

Bears running backs coach Eric Bieniemy has made it hard to forget. Bieniemy harps on its importance each day, showing videos of good and bad forms of carrying the ball. On Saturdays, he’ll lead meetings emphasizing the FFT: fundamentals, finish, technique.

For Bieniemy, he wants one thing to happen after every play: A Bear is handing the ball back to the referee.

“When you hear every day, it’s just something that becomes second nature,” Odunze said. “And when it becomes second nature and you’re securing the ball in that fashion, it’s hard for defenses to make a play on it. It’s the lack of fundamentals or lack of technique when you’re carrying the ball that can lead to some of those fumbles. So when you’re doing it right every single day, is kind of your first inclination when we get out there in real warfare.”

It’s become so ingrained that players are constantly thinking about ball security when they get the ball.

Bears rookie tight end Colston Loveland has made some big catches in his young career. But none was bigger than when he caught a go-ahead touchdown pass against the Cincinnati Bengals. He caught a pass from Williams, held on to the ball and broke a couple of tackles before completing a 58-yard touchdown reception.

“Anytime there’s more than one or two dudes on me, let me make sure I have it, you know what I mean?” Loveland told Shaw Local News Network. “So maybe I sacrifice a couple more yards just to make sure I keep the ball secure.”

That’s paired nicely with a defense that’s found a knack for creating turnovers.

Chicago has forced multiple turnovers in multiple games six times this season. Safety Kevin Byard leads the NFL with five interceptions, while linebacker Tremaine Edmunds and cornerback Nahshon Wright are tied with a couple players for second with four interceptions.

Those turnovers have played a pivotal role in the team’s success. The Bears’ ability to create turnovers has kept Chicago in games where the offense has struggled and has led to wins in close games.

“It’s funny because [Johnson] said, I think, in his open press conference about EPA and passing efficiency, but I mean if you look at our team, it’s been the takeaways,” Byard said. “Obviously, we take care of the ball and that taking the ball away has been helping us win. So that’s been our identity. So I think that’s something we have to continue because when we don’t take the ball away, we don’t win.”

Learning how to take better advantage of Chicago’s league-best turnover margin will be an important step for the Bears as they make their playoff push over the last seven weeks of the regular season. Odunze wants the offense to do a better job of scoring touchdowns off the turnovers it gets to put teams away earlier instead of needing late-game heroics.

Those lessons will come along with the Bears’ continuation of running those drills, going through the gauntlet to start practice. It’s worked this far and will only help moving forward.

“If anything, it’s a double-doubling down on it,” Odnuze said. “When things are going good, that’s when you kind of start to lean back and start to get away from their fundamentals. For us, it’s just keep doing what we’ve been taught and keep harmonizing on it every single day, especially when we go out on Sundays. And I think that will prove fruitful for us, especially when we get into these winter months and winter-type football where it’s kind of gritty in that fashion.”