No Denying Bears Defensive Rise

All numbers point to a Bears defensive rise even, with some unimpressive statistics against stronger opponents.

It's easy to twist numbers, particularly with a Jekyll/Hyde existence the Bears have had at times this season.

When it comes to their defense, however, progress is indisputable. The degree of advancement simply depends on metrics.

It's apparent their defense already has made the move toward consistency, if not dominance. It has only partly to do with achieving what no Bears team did since 1993 and win Monday without a touchdown.

Not only have the Bears broken into the top 10 in yards allowed, but they have now overtaken the San Francisco 49ers for the NFL lead in fewest yards allowed on the ground at 79.0 game. This lead is only likely to grow more this week when the 49ers must play and the Bears have their bye.

Seven interceptions in two games pushed the Bears up to eighth now in interceptions with 13. It let them improve their turnover ratio from last in the league to 21st at minus-4.

"Coach Flus is doing a great job calling the plays," Bears safety Eddie Jackson said. "We're going out there and were doing a great job executing and we're taking the ball and we're creating turnovers. That's the biggest thing."

Whether the defense has actually improved to elite level can be bandied about until the bye week ends, and probably will considering the lack of football the next week. Competition is one difficult metric to gauge. Sure, they manhandled moribund Las Vegas, Washington and Carolina on defense, stuffed the Vikings Monday night using  an astronaut as starter and with Justin Jefferson sidelined but have struggled greatly when challenged by more advanced passers like Patrick Mahomes, Justin Herbert, Derek Carr and even Jared Goff for at least a quarter.

Some defensive trends will be virtually impossible to reverse or offset in terms of overall statistics, like being ranked 28th in scoring defense.

This low rank comes largely from what Eberflus calls "non-traditional" touchdowns. Translated: Their own offense gave up four touchdowns and a safety and special teams allowed a punt return TD. Take those 35 points off the ledger and it pushes the Bears up five or six spots to 25th in points allowed. 

A more accurate gauge involves greater time and more games, and over the last eight weeks they've allowed 19.7 points a game. Few defenses would turn that down.

"So touchdowns scored on our defense is right in the middle of the pack," Eberflus said. "But we’ve gotta do a better job in the red zone, too. We've gotta own that."

They are last in red-zone defense.  

"And it's really third down and the red zone, we've gotta do a better job," Eberflus said. "So again, this whole thing, for us, is a self-scout operation here during this (bye) week. We're gonna look at every aspect of our football team, all the situations, to improve."

They're still next to last on third-down percentage even after holding Minnesota to 2 of 9 and Carolina to 3 of 15. Detroit went 8-of-11 and New Orleans 7-of-14.

"I like where our defense is right now in a lot of ways," Eberflus said. "We're building momentum. The guys are coming together. You can certainly feel that. Everybody can feel that. And it's gonna be something to watch here in the next five games."

A major reason for improvement has been the pass rush and using Montez Sweat in a way to complement the rush overall.

Eberflus credited defensive line coach Travis Smith Monday with lining Sweat and defensive end Yannick Ngakoue next to each other instead of on opposite sides of the line, resulting in Sweat getting free for a key early sack of Joshua Dobbs.

"We ran it a couple times," Eberflus said. "We lined up in that same alignment, did a couple other things out of that, had a nice third- or fourth-down stop out of that same alignment with a different pressure.

"But yeah, you definitely need to do that. Any time you can get a mismatch and put (Sweat) on a particular side, you're doing that for a particular mismatch, or you're creating an advantage for somebody else somewhere else. That's the benefit of having a player, like that."

Jackson remembers the Lions game still, even after the Vikings game had a more positive finish.

"Overall, defense I feel like we played lights out," he said. "We've just got to keep continuing to get better when it comes to the finish."

He's seeing more at stake than statistical ranks and momentum.

"We know what's at stake," Jackson said. "So we've got these last five games after this that we've got to win out in order for us to make the playoffs, and we feel like that's our focus right now."

It's not realistic, but no one will fault them for trying after they've been where they have much of this season.

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