Bear Digest

One Unexplored Method for Bears to Bolster Takeaway Totals

Matt Eberflus constantly stresses takeaways yet the Bears have failed badly in one aspect of this as they look on defense to cause a bigger impact.

Gene Chamberlain

Bears secondary members Jaylon Johnson (1) and Jaylon Jones (21) go through stretching prior to minicamp.
Bears secondary members Jaylon Johnson (1) and Jaylon Jones (21) go through stretching prior to minicamp. / Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports
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The Bears defense set a goal already of 40 takeaways this year, a lofty total even for a Matt Eberflus defense designed to create turnovers.

It's a goal given to them by coaches in a meeting room and projected off a slide.

"The first I've heard of that really was coach Flus probably said it last year for sure but this year on the first slide they put that up there," safety Jaquan Brisker said. "As a defense, that's what we are going to do is create turnovers. We are going to create a lot of turnovers, especially with the rush that we have. I feel like that's been big. Especially with him putting the detail like that, makes it easier for us."

The T in the Matt Eberflus HITS principle does stand for takeaways, but this seems unrealistic, although not impossible. It's not simply the No. 40 because the Bears have done this before, the last time in 2012 when they led the league in takeaways with 44. And they still fired coach Lovie Smith after they did it.

"I feel like the biggest thing for me and what we all talk about is takeaways, more takeaways," cornerback Kyler Gordon said. "We have the goal of 20 and 20—20 interceptions and 20 fumbles.

"However we gotta get it, we're gonna get it. Thats just kind of the standard that we're putting ourselves to, that we all hold each other to."

It's the breakdown which seems unrealistic, although not entirely unattainable.

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The Bears already showed they could get 20 interceptions.

They had 22 last year and didn't really even get started until the Montez Sweat midseason trade, about the time all of their injured defensive backs returned to the field. They only had six interceptions when Sweat arrived.

"How many did we have last year? 22?" Jaylon Johnson said. "So it's not like we are setting anything that hasn't been done or that can't be done. So it's very doable and I dropped two. So we could have had 24."

The real problem is getting the fumble recoveries for a 20-20 breakdown. No NFL team has recovered 20 fumbles since that 2012 season when the Bears had 44 takeaways. They made 20 recoveries then, and didn't even lead the league--the Patriots had 21 that season.

It was a little easier for the Bears to lead the league in fumble recoveries when they had Charles Tillman and his "peanut punch' knocking the football free after completions, or when a running back broke through the defensive line.

It's not forcing the fumbles where the real difficulty lies, though. The Bears were 19th with 13 forced fumbles, and can always stand to get better at getting the football loose. What they really need to improve at is actually falling on loose footballs. Last year they weren't a good team at recovering opponents' fumbles, forced or otherwise.

In fact, they were one of the league's worst defenses at picking up opponents' fumbles. They had only six defensive fumble recoveries last year. Only the Rams and Panther had fewer. The worst part of this, however, was only four teams had worst percentages for recovering opposing fumbles.

The Bears defense seems to have a good understanding of what Eberflus wants with his HITS principle.

"I think takeaways in this league is everything," linebacker T.J. Edwards said.

What they haven't seemed to grasp yet is how there are more ways to get takeaways than interceptions.

Look for more defensive drills falling on loose footballs at training camp.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven

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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.