Keys for Bears to Beat the Texans

There are coaching family trees all over the place in the NFL

Lovie Smith and Matt Eberflus are from the same tree, one which more or less started with the shell defense played by the Pittsburgh Steelers under Chuck Noll in the 1970s when he had a player in the secondary named Tony Dungy.

It was Dungy who really altered what the Steelers had been doing and came up with the Tampa-2 defense while with the Buccaneers and Smith was part of that defense. Eberflus' affilation with the scheme came, in part, from Rod Marinelli when both were in Dallas together in 2015. Marinelli had also been part of the Dungy defensive system in Tampa.

The Bears faced a family tree situation in the first two weeks on offense, as they were playing a team using the wide-zone Shanahan style of offense both times. This week it's a defensive family tree they must combat, but at least their own offense is familiar with the type of scheme they will see.

"I think it's helpful," Eberflus said. "When you're facing a similar defense, something that you have faced in camp and something that you're familiar with—both offense and defense—I think it's better. It's not as many adjustments during the course of the week.”

So who has the advantage?

"Who has an advantage? We'll see on Sunday," Eberflus said.

Here are the three keys for the Bears to make sure they are the ones with the advantage.

1. Gap Control

The Bears on offense need to get Texans defensive linemen and linebackers out of their gaps of responsibility. On the other hand, they need to stay in their own gaps on defense.

They always need to do this to some extent, but facing the same defensive scheme they play, the Bears offense knows the key to getting David Montgomery going like they did at Green Bay in the second half is by moving defenders out of their gaps.

This doesn't necessarily mean they need to pancake a guy like Teven Jenkins seems able to do and enjoys doing, but even a foot or two out of the gap is fine. Often, a player shooting a gap can overrun the play. He might be in the gap but well upfield and leaves a hole exposed. This has happened to the Bears' own defense several times so far.

Gettting Lucas Patrick back at center can be a huge help here. If the line has the right call for the front, they can find it easier to control gaps. That's part of the reason they wanted Patrick.

On the other hand, it's important for the Bears to get penetration and remain in their gaps because they could be shorthanded at linebacker with Matthew Adams out and possibly even Roquan Smith. Basic play in that scheme by staying in their lanes of responsibility can go a long way.

From what little the league has seen of Texans back Dameon Pierce, he's not a lot different than David Montgomery in that he is a player who runs with power and can make defenders miss, but he's not a real breakaway threat. He ran a 4.59 in the 40. So if they're in their gaps, they can get him turned and running laterally. The battle is more than half-won then. They just need to actually tackle him at that point, which, sadly, was problem for them last week.

They need to run the ball well here because this is a chief weakness for the Texans, just as it has been for their own defense. The Texans rank 30th against the run and the Bears 32nd (last).

2. Early, Easy Targeting

Justin Fields needs to get off the schneid early, so to speak. They want to quickly get him in a groove passing to his main targets, Darnell Mooney and Cole Kmet on some short drops. If he can hit them early, it will open up a few other players as the defense refocuses, and then the entire process goes better.

They haven't yet completed a pass to Kmet and only two for 4 yards to Mooney. Obviously this can't continue. Mooney has averaged 3.8 and 4.8 catches per game his first two seasons. Kmet had 60 receptions last year, 32 more than as a rookie.

These players are their impact players, and then perhaps Byron Pringle can even get involved as a receiver against a Texans pass defense ranked 24th in the league.

3. Do the Unexpected

This doesn't mean throw out the playbook, but especially on defense they need to come up with some innovations. They're not going to out-Tampa-2 Lovie Smith. He practically invented the scheme they play. They'll need a few exotic looks and disguised coverages.

On offense, they had the right idea with a flea flicker early last week but then didn't follow up with much offense at all for three or four series regardless of what types of plays they called. When two teams know what each other does, the one which can run the most plays unexpected should be able to win.

It doesn't even need to be the unexpected play call. It can be Fields and a receiver hooking up on the scramble drill.

What has to be remembered by the Bears is they're facing a defense that will be looking at Fields all the time, so scrambling will be difficult. Even going off script and using a scramble drill to complete a pass is something they might need to do. It might be the only way they can complete a deep ball considering how much zone Houston will be using.

When a defense is in zone and a quarterback breaks the pocket without heading upfield, the pass coverage basically becomes man-to-man coverage. Defenders have to latch on to a receiver. When it's a zone team suddenly becoming a man-to-man team, they're at their weakest.

What Fields can't do is improvise and then throw deep and over the middle against the Tampa-2. That's inviting an interception. Late throws need to be targeted at the sideline or short.

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