Chuck Pagano's Defense Unwilling to Do What's Necessary
Until the last few weeks Bears defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano has escaped scrutiny because the offense has been the chronic problem weighing down the team.
Now it's Pagano who deserves to be examined because his defense is failing.
One week they could use the excuse of Akiem Hicks' absence, but he played Sunday. While it helped the Bears enjoy their best day against the run all year, they also gave up 34 points and 402 yards passing to Matthew Stafford and the Detroit Lions.
The most highly paid and counted-on defensive players have failed during the greatest crisis. These are the players they expect to produce at such times.
The pass rush the Bears expected from their big three has vanished completely.
In the last four games, the Bears have no sacks, three hits on a quarterback and one tackle for loss from their big three.
Their highest-paid player, Khalil Mack, has 11 tackles and the only tackle for loss.
Quinn has gone 408 straight snaps without a sack, his only one coming on his first play of the season. He has had six tackles the last four games and a quarterback hit.
Hicks missed one game but in the team's last four games he's made two quarterback hits, 12 tackles, none for loss and hasn't had a tackle for loss since Nov. 1. His last sack came Sept. 27 against the Atlanta Falcons.
While they're examining their highest-paid defensive players, safety Eddie Jackson received a $58.4 million extension this past season and he has a career-worst 115 passer rating against when targeted. The two previous seasons he was at 40.5 and 57.6. He's allowing 73.3% completions after allowing 50.0 and 53.5% the previous two seasons.
These type of complete performance reversals are totally alarming.
So is the team's. Sun-Times writer Mark Potash Sunday pointed out how the Bears had given up six straight passer ratings over 100. It's worse than that, though.
They've allowed a combined passer rating to six quarterbacks of 111.47. They've given up 15 touchdown passes and made only two interceptions in that time. One interception was by Mack. The other was by defensive lineman Bilal Nichols.
It's obvious they haven't been making plays on defense. Getting the turnovers they need requires more pressure on the quarterback than they have produced, particularly Sunday when Stafford rarely did more than take a side step to get away from a potential pocket problem.
The Bears didn't blitz enough. That's because they never do. They are not willing to do anything necessary to reverse what has been an obvious problem. Pagano refuses to blitz.
The Bears have blitzed only 20.7% of the time this year according to Sportradar, the league's official stat partner. Only four teams have blitzed less.
A team can get away with this if their four-man pass rush is generating the heat, and indeed this was Vic Fangio's philosophy when he turned around this defense.
Yet the Bears have hurried a quarterback—caused him to get rid of the ball before he wanted—only 6.5% of the time. Only three teams have been worse at hurrying the quarterback.
When Fangio was in Chicago and the rush didn't produce desired heat, he was more willing to blitz. He didn't like it, but would do it.
This lack of defensive production is consistent with what happened with Pagano's team defenses in Indianapolis, where they were only ranked higher than 20th in the league once during his time as head coach.
A former defensive backs coach, he'd prefer to sit back and play coverage without blitzing and this can't work without an ability to pressure quarterbacks with four people.
Pagano hasn't been willing to do whatever was necessary to win and has failed this defense, much like the Bears offense has consistently failed this defense most of the year.
And now the defense itself is failing.
QBs vs. Bears Defense
Last 6 games
| Quarterback | Passer Rating | Yards/Attempt | Att/Completions | Yards | TDs/INTs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Jared Goff, Rams | 108.1 | 6.7 | 23-for-33 | 220 | 2 TDs, 0 INTs |
Drew Brees, Saints | 109.8 | 6.8 | 31-for-41 | 280 | 2 TDs, 0 INTs |
Tannehill, Titans | 104.9 | 7.5 | 10-for-21 | 158 | 2 TDs, 0 INTs |
Cousins, Vikings | 100.7 | 8.1 | 25-for-36 | 292 | 2 TDs, 1 INT |
Rodgers, Packers | 132.3 | 7.3 | 21-for-29 | 211 | 4 TDs, 0 INTs |
Stafford, Lions | 109.4 | 9.6 | 27-for-42 | 402 | 3 TDs, 1 INT |
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