Bear Digest

How Dennis Allen's Bears scheme mimics Vic Fangio's Super defense

The key to the last Bears defense and the new one under Dennis Allen isn't a lot different than what Vic Fangio did Sunday in helping the Eagles win the Lombardi Trophy.
Gene Chamberlain|
Dennis Allen's defensive scheme will be hoping to avoid the blitz just like Vic Fangio's did in Super Bowl LIX.
Dennis Allen's defensive scheme will be hoping to avoid the blitz just like Vic Fangio's did in Super Bowl LIX. | Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

If the great success former Bears defensive coordinator Vic Fangio enjoyed using a four-man pass rush to contain Patrick Mahomes in Sunday's Super Bowl puts the Eagles defense on the NFL's cutting edge, then the Bears might be well positioned defensively moving forward.

"He's so good against pressure that I was hoping we could play the game without having to pressure much, and that happened,” Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Fangio as saying after the Super Bowl. “They exceeded my hopes and expectations, but I did believe we could have a good pass rush game."

The four-man rush is what Fangio wanted when he was in Chicago using a 3-4 base, and it's what he uses now in a 4-3 base with Philadelphia. And it's also what the Bears have used under Matt Eberflus but will stick with under defensive coordinator Dennis Allen.

Fangio did not use a single blitz against the Chiefs.

Avoiding the blitz is Fangio's trademark like it was the hallmark of Eberflus' schemes and it still will be under Allen.

If this is the way to go in the NFL now, Allen's defensive scheme has the Bears well positioned. 

"I think we want to be an attacking aggressive style of defense," Allen said after being hired. "We want to take the fight to the offense and not let the offense dictate the tempo to us. We're going to be aggressive; we're going to challenge everything.

"We're going to play the game the right way. We're going to play a tough physical brand of football, and I think the brand of football that you come to expect at the Chicago Bears."

This sure sounds like Allen anticipates blitzing a great deal with Ben Johnson's team, but only at first glance.

The Bears really lack the personnel for it.

"Ben, in his press conference, made a great point that this has become a quarterback-driven league," Allen said. "That's what this league is. I think everything that we do is going to be based on how we affect the quarterback, and you affect the quarterback through rush and coverage. That's the pinnacle of what team defense is all about.

"We can be as great as we want to be covering everybody, but if we can't rush the passer, it's not going to matter and vice versa. If we can get to the passer quickly, but we can't disrupt routes and be competitive on the line of scrimmage. Then we're going to give up completions. I think those two things have to be able to work together.”

Allen isn't encouraging blitzing, just a better four-man pass rush so the coverage can work.

His past says he'll blitz possibly only a little more than Fangio blitzed with the Eagles

In 2024, the Saints blitzed only 20.6% of the time according to Stathead via Pro Football Reference. That's half a percent more than Fangio's Eagles, who were 28th in blitz percentage at 19.1%.

Of course, Allen wasn't the Saints defensive play caller throughout last season as he was fired after nine games. But the Saints never were higher than 21st in blitz percentage during the last three seasons, and in 2021 when Allen was the defensive coordinator under Sean Payton they were 27th at blitz percentage with 22%.

They blitzed so little last year that the Bears actually blitzed more (23.5%).

So, Fangio's scheme relying on four-man rush and twin safeties or cover-3 is basically not a great deal different than what Allen will use, except the Bears are more likely to deploy more man-to-man press coverage.

Just like Johnson with his offense, the Bears will be on the league's cutting edge and the approach was proved against Mahomes by the Eagles.

The key will be having the four rush men who get the pressure on the passer, and in this area GM Ryan Poles still has more work to do.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

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.