Bears Need to Work Up More of a Sweat

It seemed questionable if not downright disturbing when Bears coach Matt Eberflus responded to a question about snaps for Montez Sweat.

The Bears defensive end got in for 39 plays in Sunday's loss. While there were simply fewer plays for the defense to be on the field with the Bears owning the football much of the day, this total came up well short of what many would regard a full day's work for someone counting about $14.7 million against the salary cap this year.

"For sure, we want him out there more but those guys are rotating," was Eberflus' response.

Most teams rotate players up front. Eberflus says they're using their "fastballs" all the time and need rest.

In other words, they're going full speed straight up the middle against blockers every play and needed to get off the field every five to seven plays during the two-minute drive at game's end.

"You just gotta platoon them and get them in there fresh," he said. "And when those lead dogs are fresh, you put them back in."

When this was questioned further, the answer was, "That's how we do it."

Maybe they should "do it" differently because they caved in two straight drives at game's end without much heat on Jared Goff. If those were fresh pass rushers, bring some tired ones in, please.

It probably wouldn't hurt Montez Sweat to work one up, pun entirely intended. It's not his fault, of course. It's the Bears' use of him, or lack thereof.

While Sweat played for the Washington Commanders this year, he averaged 47.1 plays per game. He's at 41.3 plays per game with the Bears with a high of 44.

Sweat's Washington average workload would have been up around 50 if not for one game when he played very little, with 33 total against Atlanta.

There's merit to what Eberflus said considering the way they want defensive linemen into a gap and going upfield. They're always moving and pushing forward in one gap rather than holding up at the line of scrimmage on blockers, taking responsibility for two gaps.

Still, the dismissive phrase "That's how we do it," doesn't cut it.

The way they "do it," is averaging only 1.24 sacks a game after averaging only 1.18 last year when they also were last. The Bears have 15 sacks, which is two less than Carolina and dead last in the NFL for the second straight year.

It might be time to do something different.

They went out and traded for Sweat to pick up their pass rush. They signed Yannnick Ngakoue, DeMarcus Walker and Rasheem Green while moving aside young defensive linemen—Trevis Gipson off the roster and Dominique Robinson off the active roster for game days.

And this is what they get for it: 15 sacks for 11 games.

At least they are getting more pressures. They just didn't get any when it counted most on Sunday at game's end.

On Sunday they had 18 pressures, according to Pro Football Focus. They had 17 each of the first two games since Sweat came over, and this was about 2.5 pressures better per game than the 14.7 they averaged for the first eight games before Sweat came over. It's the "Tez effect."

However, for the year they are 29th in pressure according to Sportradar, and this despite being forced to blitz 23.8% of the time because they can't get there otherwise. Eberflus doesn't want to play defense that way. He wants seven back in coverage but has picked up blitzes to make up for rush shortcomings.

Last year with players deemed worse up front according to the marketplace, they were 31st in pressures, last in sacks and 25th in blitz percentage. Now, by blitzing more and adding Sweat, Walker, Green and Ngakoue, they are last in sacks, 29th in pressures and 18th in blitzes.

To get this very nominal move up in pressure, they also leave their secondary exposed more.

It hadn't created the takeaway effect they wanted until Sunday's three interceptions. If that's the effect they'll get every game, they can definitely live with it. But how often does a defense get three interceptions when they have one of the worst pass rushes in the league?

The gambling hardly seems worthwhile if this is the result, but they're still not getting home.

Sweat, himself, has a Pro Football Focus pass rush grade 5.9 points lower for his three games than he had with Washington for eight games.

Is it this scheme dragging him down, one which emphasizes more pressure on defensive ends to play as a group rather than freelance the rush?

It also might be time to just play the guy with the big money more than others, especially at game's end. Sweat had fewer snaps than Ngakoue did on Sunday.

Let the big dog eat, as they say.

The results all seem to add up to system failure, strategic failure or overthinking by coaches more than individual player failure, unless you think all the players Ryan Poles brings in here are bad.

In that case, they'd have an even bigger problem that it would appear.

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