Defensive Breakdowns a Bears Concern for Playoffs

Matt Nagy says he still has confidence in his defense.

Then again, when his offense has been where it's been throughout this season it's easier to maintain faith in a group of players still not far off statistically from their best years.

The problem for the Bears is those best years for their defense appear to have been in the past. The Bears defense finished the season out of the top 10 for the first time since 2016. They were 11th overall in yards allowed and a few plays Sunday caused reasons for fear when they play New Orleans' explosive offense as a seventh seed in the NFC wild-card playoffs.

A few plays bothered the Bears coach about his defense.

"But I just have a lot of trust in our guys," Nagy said.

Here are the plays Nagy found most troublesome about his defense:

1. Third-and-8 conversion by running back Aaron Jones on opening Green Bay Drive.

Jones took a short pass from the Bears 45, broke two tackles and eluded another tackle to pick up a first down. The Bears would have stopped the first Packers drive if they halted this play, and they would have had a 7-0 lead and the ball. Few teams stop Green Bay's opening drives.

"Times like that, you wish you could have made that play," Nagy said.

This occurred before Roquan Smith's elbow injury. Later, the Bears were playing with little-used Josh Woods in his place, and with two young backup defensive backs.

It was one of the few times they managed to get Green Bay into a third-and-long situation.

2. Three Potential Interceptions.

Eddie Jackson, Kindle Vildor and Barkevious Mingo had their hands on interceptions that could have changed the entire complexion of Sunday's game, but couldn't handle the ball. The one to Vildor clanged off his hands and went sailing for an incompletion and wasn't a real difficult catch. Jackson needed to go down low after one but had a shot at it. Considering Mingo is an outside linebacker, his would have been a special play but certainly one he could have made.

"So you'd like to get at least one of those three and you have to be a little bit opportunistic," Nagy said.

"Those guys know that. Now with where we're at right now in a win or go home type thing in the playoffs, we just want to go back to making sure that all of our guys are truly focusing on the fundamentals and techniques and the basics, right, so when you get out there you're able to truly just win your one-on-one battle and just play ball."

3. The Bomb

The 72-yard touchdown pass from Aaron Rodgers in the second quarter to Marquez Valdes-Scantling to put Green Bay ahead for good 14-10 came against a blitz by defensive back Duke Shelley. The Packers didn't pick up Shelley. He just didn't get there in time and Rodgers saw Danny Trevathan matched up on Valdes-Scantling, a mismatch they suspected they might get in that situation. With their right cornerback blitzing, it left safety coverage on the left side for Shelley's normal spot and Trevathan had no deep help on a much faster player.

Edge rusher Robert Quinn appeared confused before the play.

"There wasn't any confusion," Nagy said. "I know 94 was running around. That was by their formation and what they did. But that didn't affect the play at all.

"They ended up, we had a blitz there and we just got home a little bit late on the blitz to hit Aaron. And then we had Danny was isolated one on one right there on Scantling.

"Again, Aaron Rodgers has seen a lot of defenses, you know. You try to heat him up, there's gonna be some times where you're gonna have one-on-ones. And we talked about some defenders. That was one there where we look back and you'd love to not give up. That was unfortunate. Aaron made a good throw. The kid ran away from (Trevathan) and made a good play."

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