Bear Digest

Bears in Unfamiliar Situation with Run Defense Being Questioned

The lack of an explosive offense for now means Montez Sweat and Co. can't afford to give up many yards whether it's on the ground or in the air.

Gene Chamberlain

Jaquan Brisker and Darrell Taylor arrive to try and stop Kyren Williams in Sunday's Bears win, but the Rams running game took a toll.
Jaquan Brisker and Darrell Taylor arrive to try and stop Kyren Williams in Sunday's Bears win, but the Rams running game took a toll. / David Banks-Imagn Images
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The Bears defense has sometimes looked like Atlas in the first four games.

Instead of holding up the world, they've held up the Bears offense. Which weighes more? Hmmmm.

They know it's necessary and won't complain about it, as Caleb Williams' development is going to take play reps and they'll need to get through it somehow without an explosive offense backing them until such time.

What they can't tolerate is their own failures and they see one in particular.

"We got a little leaky that last game," defensive end Montez Sweat said.

The leaks came in the run defense. There's nothing wrong with a Bears pass defense ranked second in passer rating against (69.0). They've managed to pull up into 17th in sacks with 10, which is huge jump from 31st last year.

However, three teams have run for 119 yards or more against the Bears so far. This was the No. 1 run defense in the league last year. Now they're 18th.

"We definitely have got ... hit on some of our runs," cornerback Jaylon Johnson said. "Just not being disciplined, not being where we are supposed to be consistently.

"Things like that are going to happen, but for us and our standard, we definitely haven't—I don't even think—scratched the surface for what we know we can do because we're shooting ourselves in the foot."

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The Bears are up against a team capable of punishing them while they shoot themselves in the foot by being out of their gaps. Chuba Hubbard has two straight 100-yard games and averages 5.4 yards a carry.

"We just have to go back to that and make sure we own our specific areas on the field," defensive coordinator Eric Washington said. “The premise of our run defense is single gap control. We’re not a two-gap system. And so that’s a simplistic way of looking at it, but it really comes down to that: Control your area.”

It sounds simple enough to be in their gaps and stay there.

"Well, there's no such thing as an easy fix," Washington said.

He's confident they'll get back to basics and get it done, and pointed to the next-to-last Rams drive Sunday, when they had it at the 8 and plenty of time to drive for the go-ahead or winning points on the Bears defense.

"There was a great snapshot of the best-case scenario for our run defense in the (next-to-)last drive," Washington said. "The Rams ran an outside zone play, and I think we stopped that play for a negative gain."

Tremaine Edmunds got the credit for the tackle for a 1-yard loss. It put the Rams in a hole and they went three-and-out. The next time they got it, Stafford was backed up again and threw the game-ending interception on first down.

"We just need to be consistent and we will," Washington said.

If nothing else, Atlas was always consistent too.

Twitter: BearsOnSI

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.