The 2016 Chicago Bears struggled on offense, and while penalties didn’t help, they were not as bad as in some prior years. The Bears were charged with 1.31 false start penalties per game, which was the ninth-highest rate in the NFL this season. They had more such penalties at home than away, but so did 15 other teams in the NFL. The Bears basically had three more false starts on the year than an average NFL team. This was slightly worse than last year, but nothing like the 2014 season, when they were the second-leading team in false start penalties per game.
2016 Bears in Context: Offensive Penalties
