Hollow Ranking for Defense?

The Bears defense had its flaws this season but currently ranks fifth in the league even if it hasn't been able to take away the football.

Like with much of this Bears season, even some of the limited success comes with dissatisfaction attached.

There are a number of misleading statistics on the ledger for Sean Desai's first Bears defense. Coach Matt Nagy isn't above pointing it out, although there's no real finger-pointing coming at this stage, after the offense has been mired starting with Day 1.

Regardless, if the Bears can stay where they are now in terms of overall yardage allowed compared to the rest of the league, then the first-year Bears defensive coordinator can say he had a top-five defense for his first season—one that could be his only Bears season as defensive coordinator. The Bears have been better than fifth on defense only once since they last went to the Super Bowl.

"The good thing with Sean is going into it he, at the NFL level, he never experienced calling plays," coach Matt Nagy said. "And I thought right from the very beginning, I thought he’s done a great job of adjusting and adapting to the NFL game."

The defense has been no worse than 16th all year, and that's a far cry from the Bears offense. That 16th ranking came after one week and their blowout loss to the Rams. They climbed gradually, then jumped from ninth overall to fifth based on holding the Giants to minus-10 passing yards, the third best regular-season performance by a Bears defense for any game in franchise history.

This let them climb all the way to third against the pass, although it definitely didn't hurt when they recorded sack No. 46 on a Sunday when Robert Quinn set the single-season franchise record with 18 sacks. They also had Roquan Smith set an unofficial single-season team tackles record with his 157th. 

On the other hand, they have been ranked 20th or worse in points allowed every one of the final 10 weeks except one and are 24th in scoring defense now. They also have had problems against the run all year and rank 24th.

Through all that, the critical taunting penalty on Graham Marsh and numerous injuries to key players like Khalil Mack, Eddie Jackson and Akiem Hicks, Desai has persevered.

"The thing I like about Sean is he is extremely calm," Nagy said. "And he does a great job of making sure that the guys feel that. There's no panic. He's super smart.

"So he does a great job of scheming with those coaches and preparing. He has evolved this year. It has been neat to see. I think you see it in a lot of games where the defense has come out and schematically done a great job. Guys are playing hard. His coaches are doing a great job with him."

Nagy looked back over his team's defenses under Desai, Vic Fangio (2018) and Chuck Pagano (2019-20) in four years and couldn't be too critical of this group, which besides injuries has also endured not being provided in free agency or the draft with viable left cornerback and nickel cornerback starters.

"And so and then coach Chuck retires and now you've got to find your third one and now you get a guy that's in-house that you really believe and trust and Sean's done a great job," Nagy said. "I think those three coordinators all in their own way have done a really good job of trying to put their specific blueprint or what they want to do on to the defense and then the players execute it."

Then Nagy got his own spin in on how Desai's defense could have done more to help his offense this year.

"Every year's a little bit different—the offense helps the defense; the defense helps the offense; special teams involved," he said. "And so I just—when you look at it in the end, really, there's one big stat that matters. In the end, no matter what team you're talking about, whether they have a rookie quarterback or veteran, whether they've got the best defense in the history of the world or not, what's the turnover margin? You know? 

"Do you take the football away on defense? And do you respect the football on offense? And you can have fun today and look at a good stat and check out the turnover margins in the NFL right now and I’ll betcha there’s some playoff teams in the top 10. That matters."

As for the Bears, that turnover ratio says minus-11 because this defense took it away only 16 times, even with all the strip sacks by Robert Quinn, Trevis Gipson adn Khalil Mack this season.

Jacksonville and the Jets were the only teams with fewer takeaways.

Bears Top 10 Defensive Rankings

Yards Allowed Since 2000

2005, 2nd

2018, 3rd

2021, 5th

2012, 5th

2006, 5th

2019, 8th

2010, 9th

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven