All season, the Bears’ defense has pushed aside red flags about its inconsistency and pointed to the bottom line. For all the concerns, they’ve been good enough for the team to win 11 games.
Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen essentially went there again Wednesday by praising his unit for allowing just 19 points in the final regular-season game, a 19-16 loss to the Lions.
And while teams should win any time they allow that little scoring, the nuances of that performance were an issue. The Lions racked up 433 yards, controlled possession for nearly 60% of the game and gave the Bears just eight possessions offensively — down from the 11 per game they’d averaged.
“Ultimately, you look at points allowed,” Allen said. “That’s the No. 1 thing. It’s not always as clean as we want it to be, but our job is to give us an opportunity to win.”
The question isn’t whether that has worked, but whether it will continue to be viable for them in the playoffs, which begin Saturday night against the Packers.
The Bears got off to a rough start against them in their game at Lambeau Field last month and allowed quarterback Jordan Love to throw three long touchdown passes to build a 21-11 lead in the third quarter. The Bears rallied, but lost 28-21.
The defense was sharper in the rematch at Soldier Field two weeks later, a 22-16 victory in overtime, but it’s tough to judge that one when Love left midway through the second quarter with a concussion. He’ll play Saturday for the first time since.
The Bears also hope to have their defense mostly intact with the potential return of nickel cornerback Kyler Gordon, who was limited in practice Wednesday. Gordon hurt his groin and has been on injured reserve.
While Allen looks first at points allowed and whether the Bears win or lose, he’s aware of the other concerns. His defense makes big plays, but it doesn’t play steadily.
Their pass rush has struggled to pressure opposing quarterbacks, they’ve been outmuscled in the ground game and given up a ton of yards. Yet, they’ve often offset those flaws with two strengths: The Bears led the NFL with 33 takeaways and allowed opponents to score touchdowns on only 56.1% of their red-zone trips, a respectable 15th in the league.
They’ve played fairly well in the red zone, but have allowed the 12th-most red-zone trips in the first place. They led the league in interceptions (23) and were fourth in fumble recoveries (10), but also gave up the third-most plays of 20-plus yards (74). They allowed a startling 6.2 yards per play on first down, which spreads the playbook wide open for an opposing offense.
The Bears allowed more yards (361.8 per game) and points (24.4) than any other playoff team this season. Even strictly by Allen’s criteria, that’s troubling.
Linebacker Tremaine Edmunds said the defense has “a list of things” it wants to clean up after allowing 42 points to the 49ers in a loss two weeks ago followed by the Lions game and saw the issue as more of a player execution problem than a scheme problem.
Bears defensive backs coach Al Harris essentially echoed that when speaking of the secondary, saying simply, “Take scheme out of it… We’ve just got to cover guys.”
At this point in the season, Allen only has so many options. He didn’t play cornerback Tyrique Stevenson last week because he felt better about Jaylon Johnson — he still isn’t 100% healthy — and Nahshon Wright, so he could mix that up, but on the defensive line and at linebacker, the Bears have to roll with who they have and hope that’s good enough.
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