Bears still working during early-season bye week

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LAKE FOREST – Some NFL coaches use their bye weeks to give players a long break from football.
Bears coach Lovie Smith is not one of them. Despite his reputation as a player-friendly coach, Smith had his players practice in a steady rain Thursday after they hit each other in full pads a day before.

“I just don’t think you can go that long without hitting,” said Smith, whose players will receive the next three days off before returning Monday to prepare for the Atlanta Falcons. “We make a point of at least getting in one padded practice [during a bye week]. I think it’s important.”

The aggressive strategy has worked in recent years.

The Bears are 3-0 coming off of bye weeks over the past three seasons, although none of those breaks has come as early as Week 5.

After this week’s break, the Bears will play 12 games in 12 weeks to finish the regular season.

“It came a little earlier than we [would have] liked,” defensive end Adewale Ogunleye said. “But we’re going to get healthier. I’m going to watch some more film, watch my plays. I’m sure coach [Rod] Marinelli is going to put a bunch of plays together of stuff that we’ve done wrong.”

As a team, the Bears have done several things wrong despite a 3-1 start to the season. Smith said the early bye week should allow the team to correct some ugly trends.

“You look at the video, you see a lot of things we can improve on,” said Smith, who emphasized the importance of faster starts and better tackling. “It’s good because you get a chance to evaluate what you’ve done. You don’t have to wait too long to make some of those necessary corrections.”