Analysis: Bears defense building to something big, if they can only achieve consistency against better offenses.
Matt Eberflus had his Bears stats history book out in the wee hours Friday morning.
Or at least team publicists dug through archives for him to find something comparable to Thursday’s 16-13 win over Carolina. He trotted a comparable situation out from the not so good old days of former Bears coach Dave Wannstedt.
“Zero sacks, zero turnovers and zero offensive TDs allowed,” Eberflus said. “First time since ’98 here at the Bears. Those are good numbers. When you allow zero sacks and zero turnovers, that’s a winning formula for really winning football.”
Of course, allowing zero touchdowns is a good number and not something done often in the modern NFL.
With Eberflus commanding their defense since Week 2, the improvement has been gradual but obvious. It began with the run defense and the Bears lead the NFL in yards allowed per rush. They’re closing in on total yards rushing, as well.
Shutting down the pass remains the issue but when they’re getting play from the linebackers and secondary like they had Thursday night, it can happen, as well. Slot cornerback Kyler Gordon, in particular, had Eberflus’ eye after the game.
The slot cornerback, the three technique defensive tackle and the weakside linebacker in this defensive scheme were the positions Eberflus pointed at as most critical to scheme success when he took the Bears job. It was this way in the same scheme when Lovie Smith was running it in Chicago. The Bears had strong play at all three positions.
Defensive tackle Justin Jones had a sack, three QB hits and a tackle for loss. Slot cornerback Gordonhad a team-high seven unassisted tackles, two for loss and a pass broken up.
“He’s dynamic. We’ve had some, in our scheme,” Eberflus said, thinking back to Kenny Moore with the Colts. “There’s been some good nickels that have really taken over the game and done a good job as of recent, too. But that’s an important position. Those guys are right in the middle of the action. They’re right in the middle of the passing game because they’re on the strong side of the formation there and there’s a lot action there.”
The same is true of the weakside linebacker. T.J. Edwards had another big game with 12 tackles.
“TJ Edwards continues to play really well for us,” Eberflus said. “He now has 110 tackles and that’s the first in franchise history through 10 weeks to get that number. That’s a pretty cool number.”
This is saying a lot considering Brian urlacher and Lance Briggs played in a system nearly the same.
“The Will linebacker stands over the ball a lot,” Eberflus said. “Those three guys in the middle there (LBs) are really key.
“You want playmakers that have really good instincts, and he has that. That’s what we liked about him when he came out, and he’s proven that since he’s been here.”
This defensive turnaround showed up in the passing game on Thursday and if it continues there then the Bears really will have something going on that side of the ball.
They already have improved their run defense immensely since last year, leading the league at 3.2 yards allowed per rush. They’ve given up 56.1 yards rushing per game the last seven weeks without allowing a single team to reach 100 and have risen to second overall in rushing defense.
“I expect the production to even get higher,” Eberflus said. “We’ve gotta get more ball production from the entire defense. That’s something that we need to work on and get better at. Certainly had opportunities yesterday. We had some missed opps. So we really have to seize those opportunities.”
Tyrique Stevenson and Jack Sanborn had real chances to make huge interceptions but couldn’t come up with the ball.
The key to all of this is consistency against all opponents and not just a struggling team like Carolina.
The Bears did play better defensively against New Orleans but not against the Chargers. They have been better by and large since the k
It won’t hurt when they have the entire starting defense assembled and on the field when middle linebacker Tremaine Edmunds returns. It’s something they did in the opener only, and then they didn’t have Montez Sweat lifting the level of play from their pass rush across the front.
Then they really could see a defense transformed into the mold of the Eberflus Indianapolis defenses.
If it doesn’t turn this way down the stretch of this season, well, the 1998 Bears Eberflus mentioned had their big game without a turnover, without a sack allowed and without a touchdown allowed in their next to last game against Baltimore. A little over a week later Dave Wannstedt was fired.
The Bears had their last game without allowing a touchdown before Thursday against the Giants in a 2021 win, 29-3.
