Chicago Bears coordinators met with reporters Thursday at Halas Hall in Lake Forest as they continued their preparation for Sunday’s game against the Cleveland Browns at Soldier Field.

With four games left in the season, Sunday’s loss to the Green Bay Packers showed there are still things the Bears need to improve on as they make their playoff push. The defense gave up too many explosive plays and didn’t pressure Packers quarterback Jordan Love very often. Meanwhile, it took a whole half before quarterback Caleb Williams and the offense got going.

A matchup against the Browns should give the Bears an opportunity to fix some things. Here are three of the most interesting things the Bears said Thursday.

On quicker offensive starts

The Bears’ trend of failing to score on their opening possession continued in Green Bay. They went three-and-out on their first two possessions and gained one first down during their third drive.

Chicago has now scored points on five of its 13 opening drives this season. The offense scored three touchdowns and knocked in two field goals during those drives. The last touchdown came in Week 9 against the Cincinnati Bengals.

Those struggles have come despite Bears coaches putting in scripted opening-drives like other teams around the league. Coaches usually use “openers” to build momentum early in games when players know what to expect the play call to be. But it hasn’t helped the Bears.

“I think it really is across the board on the offense you want to try to get going, whether that is us establishing pad level and get off with cadence, or it’s the quarterback finding completions early, pass catchers being able to get the ball in their hands and kind of get that feel, you really want to try to get your guys in a rhythm early,” Bears offensive coordinator Declan Doyle said Thursday in Lake Forest. “That’s why every team in the league puts these openers together to kind of get off on the right foot.”

Williams has been prone to those slow starts himself. There have been many times this season where Williams opened games with off-target throws that derail drives and force the Bears to punt. According to Pro Football Reference, Williams has his highest completion rate (60.6%) in the first quarter but his lowest total passing yards (696).

Doyle didn’t look at Williams’ slow start as a Williams-only problem. There are times he’s not sticking to his own fundamentals. But Doyle pointed out that it requires all players on the offense to make sure a play runs the way it’s intended.

“There are times where you’re looking at it, and it’s like that’s exactly right, but maybe we’re not on the same page with the protection or the route concept or something else that may go wrong and then, you know, at the end of the day, it becomes a failure that way,” Doyle said. “And so what we’re trying to do is get all 11 to understand the details, and what we’re asking of them just to focus on just their job, do your one-eleventh to the best of your ability, and that’s when you find success, is our guys are all on their details.”

On defensive lapses, better pass rush

Green Bay pulled out to 14-3 and 21-11 leads Sunday because it took advantage of the Bears’ secondary and scored on explosive plays. There were times when it seemed there was some miscommunication on who was supposed to cover whom.

Bears defensive coordinator Dennis Allen took responsibility for those lapses Thursday.

“I really put that on me,” Allen said. “I gotta coach that up better in terms of how we have to defend that. They had a good play. We didn’t defend it as well as we needed to. And really, I gotta do a better job there.”

Part of the problem stems from the Bears not having much of a pass rush. The Bears sacked Love once and had only one quarterback hit. Love took advantage of the Bears’ rush not reaching the pocket by exploiting one-on-one matchups in the secondary.

But Allen didn’t fully put the blame on the pass rush, which he said has improved each week. Allen said the Bears need to do a better job of putting teams in third-and-long situations where it’s easier to blitz.

“We’ve got to do a better job of getting teams to the longer distances,” Allen said. “When you’re playing games and you’re living in that third-and-2-to-3 world, it makes it a lot more difficult. So early down success, first and second down success, generally, when you’re able to have success on first and second down and get into third and longer situations, it’s advantageous to the defense.”

On balancing the good, bad in dirty kickoff

The dirty kickoff has given kicking teams an advantage this season the more it’s been used. But the lack of its execution has also led to some big mistakes.

Chicago got burned by a dirty kickoff that went wrong Sunday. Bears kicker Cairo Santos attempted the kick toward the end of the second quarter, but it didn’t drop in the landing zone. That gave the ball to the Packers at their own 40-yard line and Green Bay went on to score a touchdown with the short field.

“I really put that on me. I gotta coach that up better in terms of how we have to defend that. They had a good play. We didn’t defend it as well as we needed to. And really I gotta do a better job there.”

Bears special teams coordinator Richard Hightower said the kick wasn’t affected by the cold weather. He also didn’t think Santos having to switch up leg motions after making a 33-yard field goal played a role. Santos just missed the kick.

“It’s the contact on the football,” Hightower said. “So when they’re good, they’re good. Everybody loves them, ‘Hey, great job.’ But they’re also been issues, and it’s all the way across the league, like when they are short of the landing zone, when they have been close to the two-minute warning, and you know, they’re trying to drive, like all different types.”

The mistake didn’t discourage Hightower from trying it again. Santos had executed the play before, and Hightower still believed it could be a weapon for the Bears moving forward.

“I just take it to be every rep is its own rep,” Hightower said. “So, you know, and we’re looking forward to hitting some great ones in past games, and he hit some great ones in practice this week. And he hit some good deep ones this week. We’ll see what’s best pregame.”