Chicago Bears Still Searching for Playmakers in New 3-4 Defense
Published by Matt Eurich on September 22, 2015
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears
In order to compete on a weekly basis in the NFL, teams need to have playmakers on defense.
The Houston Texans have J.J. Watt and Brian Cushing, the Seattle Seahawks have Richard Sherman and Earl Thomas and the Green Bay Packers have Clay Matthews and Julius Peppers, but who are the Chicago Bears‘ playmakers?
Much of Chicago’s success in the past came when the team was led by playmakers like linebackers Dick Butkus, Mike Singletary and Brian Urlacher on defense, but those players are long gone.
Over the course of the last several seasons, the Bears have struggled to find any playmakers on the defensive side of the football.
After Chicago endured two of its worst seasons on defense between 2013 and 2014 under head coach Marc Trestman and defensive coordinator Mel Tucker, the Bears hired John Fox to be the team’s head coach and brought Vic Fangio over from the San Francisco 49ers to run the team’s defense.
With the addition of Fangio, the Bears made the move from a 4-3 defense to a 3-4 defense for the first time in team history.
During the offseason, defensive ends Jared Allen, Lamarr Houston and Willie Young moved to outside linebacker, defensive tackles Will Sutton and Ego Ferguson moved to defensive end and Shea McClellin moved from outside linebacker to inside linebacker.
The Bears signed outside linebackers Pernell McPhee and Sam Acho, safety Antrel Rolle and cornerbacks Alan Ball and Tracy Porter in free agency, and they also selected nose tackle Eddie Goldman and safety Adrian Amos in this year’s draft.
Chicago went into training camp with a lot of players playing new positions, but the defense showed some progress near the end of the preseason.
The Bears have a lot of big-name players on defense like Allen, McPhee and Rolle, but nobody stood out as a playmaker in Chicago’s first two games of the year.
Through two games, the Bears have not registered a sack and have only recorded one takeaway on defense.
According to Pro Football Focus, in Chicago’s first game of the year against the Green Bay Packers, the defense did not record a sack or a quarterback hit, but the unit did record nine quarterback hurries.
Per Pro Football Focus, McPhee led the way with three quarterback hurries, Goldman finished with two hurries and Young, Sutton, inside linebacker Christian Jones and McClellin each recorded one quarterback hurry.
Following Chicago’s loss to Green Bay in Week 1, Fangio talked about what the team needed to do against the Arizona Cardinals in Week 2.
“Obviously the most improvement we can make is just improving our pass rush and winning our one-on-one battles a little bit more than we did,” Fangio said, per SI.com’s Doug Farrar. “I thought we competed well, we executed the defense, you didn’t see people running free and that were obvious errors to the naked eye, to anybody. We were there.”
In Week 2 against the Cardinals, the Bears did a better job of applying pressure, but they still struggled to sack the quarterback. According to Pro Football Focus, the Bears recorded seven quarterback hits and eight quarterback hurries against Arizona on Sunday afternoon.
Allen made the only big play of the day on defense against Arizona when he tipped Carson Palmer’s pass up in the air and recorded the interception as he fell to the ground.
The NFL’s active sacks leader was happy about his interception, but Allen admitted his one play was not enough to turn the tide for the Bears against the Cardinals.
“Our scouting report was right on this week; hats off to the coaches and everything they gave us,” Allen said after the game, per ChicagoBears.com’s Larry Mayer. “Just tried to make a play on the ball and was fortunate. Obviously one play isn’t enough. We have to capitalize. We need to get off the field on third down.”
Since Chicago’s front seven has struggled to put pressure on opposing quarterbacks, the team’s secondary has suffered.
Rolle and Amos have not been tested at the safety position very much in the passing game so far this season, but starting cornerbacks Kyle Fuller and Ball were abused in back-to-back games by Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers and Arizona’s Palmer.
Rodgers threw for just 189 yards in Week 1, but he had his way with Ball all afternoon. According to Pro Football Focus, Ball was thrown at five times while in coverage, and he allowed four catches for 51 yards with two touchdowns. Rodgers threw at Fuller four times, and the former first-round pick gave up two catches for 46 yards—including a 25-yard completion to Davante Adams.
Palmer threw for just 185 passing yards in Week 2, but both Ball and Fuller were called for big pass interference penalties. Ball was called for a 42-yard pass interference penalty, while Ball was hit with a 38-yard pass interference penalty.
“We have to find a way to make plays on the back end, get our hands on the ball,” Ball said, per ChicagoBears.com’s Eli Kaberon. “We have to find a way to do more. Obviously (Sunday) wasn’t good enough. Last week wasn’t good enough. We’ve got to find a way to do more, whatever that means.”
Following Sunday’s loss to Arizona, WGN Radio’s Adam Hoge pointed out how poorly Chicago’s defense has played recently:
The Bears have made their fair share of mistakes on defense in the first two weeks of the season, but Allen thinks they can correct that.
“I think it’s all correctable,” Allen said, per ChicagoFootball.com’s Kevin Fishbain. “There’s nothing like a sense of panic or a woe is us or the sky is falling. It’s ‘quit doing dumb stuff and get it corrected.’ It’s all teachable. And then it’s just finding ways to make more plays.”
The Bears have a handful of players on defense with the ability to make big plays, but no one has been able to stand out so far this season. Unless a playmaker or two emerges in the next few weeks, it is going to be tough for Chicago to finish this season with a winning record.
Statistical information courtesy of NFL.com unless otherwise noted.
Matt Eurich is a Chicago Bears featured columnist for Bleacher Report and a member of the Pro Football Writers of America.
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