Turnover Shortage Dragging Down the Bears on Defense
If it hadn't been so important, Bears defensive players all could have kidded Khalil Mack and had a good laugh with him.
The dropped interception Mack had in his hands could have had a huge impact in Sunday's 19-11 loss to the Indianapolis Colts. It might even have gone for a touchdown return, a huge thought considering their own offense only produced a meager amount.
"I hold myself to a high standard when it comes to that," Mack said. "But yeah, I was devastated that I couldn’t make that play for our defense and our team.
"So, yeah, just understanding that, I'll go out and make as many plays as I can to forget about that one."
During training camp one day, Mack was going through linebacker drills chasing throws and made a couple one-handed interceptions.
"He's got the best ball skills on the team," defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano said. "You watch this guy just run around. You guys watch him before practice throw and catch and do this, that and the other. That would have been the last guy. I would have bet my entire salary, OK, on him making that play. I would have."
The problem with the missed opportunity goes well beyond one dropped pass in one game. The Bears defense hasn't had many turnover opportunities, and when they have they have been snakebit.
Besides the Mack drop:
Eddie Jackson had an interception and touchdown return called back against the Giants due to a pass interference penalty.
Mack's strip-sack against Atlanta set up a scoring opportunity after the Bears recovered but officials wiped it out with an unnecessary roughness penalty on Mario Edwards for a hit on Matt Ryan after the ball was stripped.
Roquan Smith's interception in the end zone was wiped out by replay when he had a foot out of bounds in the end zone.
Both Jackson and Tashaun Gipson had possible interceptions they couldn't pull in during other games.
The Bears are tied for 19th in takeaways with only four, and 21st in turnover ratio at minus-1.
Interceptions or quarterback fumbles often can be traced to pass rush, and the Bears have only eight sacks. This ties them for 18th in the league.
"Well, I would say this, of the four games that we played, the only game that I didn't feel our pass rush was Week 1," coach Matt Nagy said. "That was the only game. I do know that even though the numbers might not be there, the sack totals, there's a lot of times where you're affecting the quarterback and I feel like in that world we're doing pretty good.
"Now, the other part of this too, when we’re talk'ng about the defensive side, you start talking about field position and getting turnovers. I feel like we’re there. We're gettin' some. But I'd love to get a few more. And when you have opportunities you get turnovers, we almost had two, but almost doesn't count."
Pagano sees the need to be more dominant on first and second downs to force third-and-long situations.
If the defense could play with a lead for a change, it might help as well. Defenses with leads can dictate to the offense. They trailed virtually all game against Detroit, Atlanta and Indianapolis. However, they led almost all game against the Giants and still had it come down to one last-second pass.
"So it's a combination of playing good on early downs, starting fast, getting them in a third-and-long situation and then tying the coverage to where we can get them to hold the ball just a tick longer, one more second longer, a half-second longer," Pagano said. "I think the pressure, the sacks and hits will come."
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