Peaking Bears Defense Delivers Again

No one was attaching the phrase breakthrough to this Bears win afterward, even if it very well might have been.

Beating a division leader convincingly at home 28-13 like the Bears did to the Philadelphia Eagles trends in this direction even if it doesn't actually broach the threshold.

Too much waste on offense probably kept them from claiming status as an offense entering a new phase of higher quality play. Justin Fields said as much afterward.

Still, coach Matt Eberflus seemed on the verge of spiking the proverbial football on all critics who are urging a postseason change in staffs, and no one could have blamed him if his postgame press conference had included a few "I told you sos," about his defense.

He didn't go this far, although he had a definite lean in that direction. His defense has the proper pieces now and there is no doubt it's performing as designed and as billed from Day 1. You don't hold a team ranked second in offense to 13 points with flukish play. The only team to do better against them this year was Baltimore with six points.

"Yeah, I mean, as you acquire more talent, you can let those guys play and let those guys do things and play more coverage, and you can do that," Eberflus said. "We still pressured a bunch today, but I love our players.

"Offense, defense, and the kicking game, I love all of them, and they're doing a great job of, like I said, hanging together."

And oh by the way, back to the question about the defense.

"But in terms of answering your question, yeah, I feel a lot better about it," Eberflus said. "It's coming in the right direction, and you can certainly feel that on the field."

Jared Goff felt it, that's for sure.

With 1 1/2 sacks by Justin Jones, a sack each by Yannick Ngakoue and Montez Sweat, a half a sack from Gervon Dexter Jr. and nine quarterback hits, the Bears secondary knew the ball was coming out in a hurry or not coming out at all.

"At the end of the day, we had a lot of guys stepping up and making big-time plays, man," Tremaine Edmunds said. "Across the board from the D-line, those guys figuring out ways to get pressure on the quarterback, affecting the throws, getting in throwing lanes with sacks, QB pressures ... a lot off guys playing big-time ball."

Sweat's presence continues to make for better pressure on the QB. It's been undeniable since he arrived. It's only getting more efficient.

"Yeah I'm noticing with my teammates, like right beside me, I'm getting more familiar with the calls and the situations, stuff like that," he said. 'It allows me to play a little bit more fast."

The pressure let the Bears limit the Lions to 7 of 20 conversions on third and fourth downs and only 3.3 yards allowed per pass play.

The Lions did manage 132 yards rushing from running backs David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs. The Bears knew they weren't getting beat by 132 yards on the ground if they were taking the ball away again like they have been. They continued doing it with interceptions by Jaylon Johnson and Edmunds and a fumbled snap recovery by T.J. Edwards. They already lost to the Lions with a plus-4 turnover advantage once and weren't about to lose with plus-3 thanks to a defense that was led by 17 tackles from safety Jaquan Brisker.

"Sounds like my college stats for crying out loud," Eberflus said. "No, it's unbelievable to get 17 tackles. That's unheard of. I don't think that's ever happened in my career to have a guy have that many tackles. I honestly can't remember. I'll have to go look it up. That's amazing."

Actually, they had 17 tackles from Edwards in Week 3 this season but no one remembers because it came in a blowout loss and one of his tackles came on special teams.

Still, 13 of Brisker's tackles were solo, which really is amazing.

"We didn't do a good enough job in the run game, and they popped a couple runs on us," Eberflus said about the first half. "So we had to go back to the basics.

"The guys came out in the second half and did a really good job of executing the calls, and that gave us a chance to win it."

Forcing 11 turnovers in three weeks, getting after the quarterback and shutting things down goes a long way toward wins no matter who a team has as its quarterback.

The Bears have a defense and it's the Eberflus defense.

It's the type of defensive play needed to win championships and something that can give the powers that be at Halas Hall something to think seriously about at postseason decision-making time.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven