Dominant Bears defense still sees room to improve
It has to be a frightening thought to offensive coordinators around the league after what the Bears did to Kirk Cousins and Dalvin Cook last week, but the Chicago defense insists they can be better.
Short of removing limbs and taking away an opponent's uniform, there appears little room left for improvement to the untrained eye. When you look at the fact Khalil Mack has forced more fumbles by himself than half the teams in the NFL (4), and has more sacks (5 1/2) than Sunday's opponents, the Oakland Raiders, it appears he can't get better.
He's the first to say he can, and the Bears say the best is yet to come from the defense.
The Bears find flaws that other teams might not consider possible to fix.
The secondary looks at the Bears ranking 12th against the pass and gets irritated, even though some of the yardage has come against soft coverage later in games. Denver, Washington and Minnesota piled up yardage trying to overcome deficits and that might not seem a problem to some.
"But we know the quarterbacks are smart in this league and they'll find it so we have to fix ourselves," cornerback Prince Amukamara said. "I would say just miscommunication and still learning to play wth each other. Like there's times where we're on it and we know what the other person is doing and there's other times where we don't."
The secondary has only been together four games, at least the full secondary. Only 60 percent of them are holdovers.
One instance when communication wasn't there occurred early against Minnesota when Adam Thielen was running free behind Kyle Fuller, but an overthrow by Kirk Cousins prevented a quick Vikings touchdown.
"So I think the more games we play, the more reps we have, the more times we build that chemstry," Amukamara said.
Another way the Bears can improve defensively is simply to be healthy. Last week's effort was without starters Akiem Hicks, Bilal Nichols and Roquan Smith. They should have Smith back this week and possibly Hicks.
Nichols was their second-best defensive lineman last year and they've been able to handle the loss because of their depth with Roy Robertson-Harris and Nick Williams.
"We feel like we have a number of guys in that defensive room that kind of fill that role and are like that," defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano said. "You look at the defensive line, the linebackers, the back end.
"(Deon) Bush comes in and he's a football player and he can make plays. That's when you know you're really good. When that happens and guys have to step in and go play, the dropoff is nothing."
Linebacker Nick Kwiatkoski called it part of the defensive culture building since 2016 and as much a part of what they do as their pass rush or their coverage.
"We build the next-man-up culture," Kwiatkoski said. "Just things like that, go in there and we can run the same things and we can do the same stuff and won’t miss a beat."
The Bears also feel they can generate more turnovers. It took two games before they started taking the ball away like they expect.
Now they've got four interceptions and have seven forced fumbles, although they've recovered just four of them.
"We've just gotta keep it going," Pagano said. "It was great to see them come. It was great to see those guys make plays. But again, it's a byproduct of practice. We've gotta keep that thing going."
More turnovers beget more turnovers, says Mack.
"It's infectious, and I try to work on it every day," said Mack, who has forced four of fumble. "It's paying off so far. Hopefully it keeps continuing to do so."
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