Bears Go Against Their Nature But It Works

Matt Eberflus suddenly is a blitzer and at least against the Commanders the Bears weren't too bad at it.

It seems Bears coach Matt Eberflus just loosened his tie a little bit, so to speak.

No longer content to sit still and watch the Bears defense fail to get heat on the quarterback, he has begun unleashing the blitz.

It's not the natural state for his defense. At least it wasn't with the Colts, although Eberflus debated this somewhat on Monday at Halas Hall.

"Yeah, no. We did it, we did it for sure," he said. "There were a couple of games where there was an uptick and, again, it's all based on the team, right?"

Sort of.

The Colts got as high as 27th in blitz percentage in 2019 but never higher. They did blitz 22.9$% that year.

The Bears were last in the league in blitz percentage at 14.1% but after this week they are up to 21st at 20.1%, according to Sportradar statistics.

"It's all based on the team and where you're at with your football team," Eberflus said.

No one is going to debate that fact. The Bears had been last in sacks with two, a year after finishing last with 20. They got five on Thursday in Washington, their highest total since Eberflus became the coach. He plans on using it when necessary.

"Pressure is paramount, and we're going to have to continue to do that, if it's with four, five or six guys," Eberflus said. "I think that's important to be able to do that.

"With our secondary coming back (to health), we'll be able to be more flexible with that in terms of pressure and what types of pressure we have."

If cornerback Jaylon Johnson, safety Eddie Jackson and slot cornerback Kyler Gordon come back this week, they'd have the full secondary and with better coverage than the subs provided, they could blitz without worrying as much about giving up big plays.

At least it would work this way in theory.

"Really, it's about the pressure," Eberflus said. "We have to get creative. Sending different pressure players I think is important, as you saw the other night."

Slot cornerback Greg Stroman Jr. had his first career sack in the game, a huge play at the time.

"Again, it's got to be done with the right kind of guys," Eberflus said. "The pressure player that's coming matters. That could be somebody from the front four but it could be somebody from the second level.

"Again, you got to adapt. You got to adjust a little bit. We'll see where it goes from here."

There is an alternative, of course. The defensive line could begin to get to the quarterback.

The defensive line has five of the seven sacks and edge rusher Yannick Ngakoue two. They didn't dominate Thursday's game but did produce three sacks in the second half as the game was getting out of hand or had become lopsided.

Key in there was the play of rookie Gervon Dexter. Dexter didn't get a sack but did have two QB hits, a tipped pass and Pro Football Focus gave him the highest grade of any Bears defensive player at 85.1. Only DJ Moore was higher on the night.

"I think he's just getting more comfortable," Eberflus said. "You could see his takeoff was better. I think he was throwing his fastball. Sometimes he has a tendency to read. So I just think he just is more consistent, and he's feeling that.

"I know one of the pressures was on a screen, but he still had to take off and did a nice job hitting the quarterback, and that's what we need, more hits on the quarterback."

With more of them, they can let Eberflus tighten that tie again and go back to rushing four and dropping seven into coverage.

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