How Turning Up Heat Can Help Justin Fields

It was a sad statement and almost humorous one concerning the state of the Bears defense as constituted when Matt Eberflus was asked if he thought about letting the Detroit Lions score a touchdown at game's end.

Hadn't they really let enough teams score over the past three weeks?

Most likely what would have happened was Jamaal Williams would have run for about 10 yards and knelt down to let the clock keep running with the Bears down 31-30, out of timeouts and with less than a minute remaining. Williams ran around left end for 7 and picked up the first down anyway and Detroit killed the clock, which is probably similar to what the outcome would have been either way. The Bears would not have gotten the ball back.

The humorous aspect of this is suggesting the Bears defense allow points because it already looks like they are very good at doing this anyway.

Opponents have 115 points in five games, but to be fair only 94 have been the defense's fault. Two opposing defensive touchdown returns and a blocked punt for a TD accounted for the rest.

Still, 94 points in three games is no cause for celebration.

The greater problem is allowing points when they are most critical. Like with the offense at game's end Sunday, the defense caved in when it couldn't.

"That's going to take the whole group to get it done," Eberflus said. "In two-minute situation, defense has got to play better to not put us in that situation. Offense, when they're in there, we've got to execute and get it done. It's about the whole group. It's about the football team together."

The offense can score and has proven it, even if there is a problem at game's end. The Bears are the only team in NFL history to score at least 29 points in three straight games and lose all of them.

The offense just needs more time to develop the passing attack and better receivers/offensive linemen. They still are scoring now without this.

What the defense can do to complement Justin Fields' sudden rise is the issue.

If the Bears wanted to really go all out to win as many games as possible in the final eight weeks of this season, there is one way they can do it. Eberflus would not necessarily like this thought because it means swallowing his pride and doing something he hasn't traditionally done with his defenses.

The biggest defensive problem is lack of speed overall but also lack of a pass rush. When they had Roquan Smith and Robert Quinn, they at least had pressure on quarterbacks but weren't finishing.

Now they're not even getting pressure unless the blitz. They did it a little more than normal on Sunday and middle linebacker Jack Sanborn came away with two sacks. Sanborn isn't a player you'd think could blitz for sacks. Nicholas Morrow, who is just a shade slower than Roquan Smith is. They also had a sack from defensive tackle Justin Johnson, who had one of his most impactful games.

Eberflus knows what must be done. They need to keep blitzing.

"I think it's just really using our secondary pieces a little bit more," he said. "Using our safeties, our linebackers to really help the D-line there, and then we'll do whatever we can with those four or five guys or six guys, seven guys we have to unlock those guys."

In the last two games they have climbed from last in the league in blitz percentage at just over 14% to 30th at 14.6%. If they're serious about helping Fields from the other side of the ball, it needs to climb a good deal more.

Blitzing is risky business, something many teams won't dabble in and the percentages say this. Two of the best teams in the league are the Vikings and Bills, and Minnesota is last in blitz percentage (13.1%) and the Bills 31st (14%). Some teams blitz twice that amount or more and it doesn't mean they're bad. Tampa Bay and Dallas run high-risk defenses and are highly successful.

If the Bears want to give themselves chances to complement Fields over the final seven games, they should go full blitz. Turn up the heat to around 30%.

The Baltimore Ravens did this from 2018-2021. They had a quarterback comparable in style to Fields, Lamar Jackson. They finished top 10 in blitz percentage each of those seasons and managed to be competitive every year.

It might result in pressure and sacks, more three-and-outs or takeaway to get Fields the ball. Or it might result in more easy touchdowns for opposing offenses.

But what's the difference if it doesn't work?

They've already proven they can lose staying back on their heels with this group of defenders and Fields could use the help resulting from more possessions caused by blitzing and takeaways.

It's what they should look at unless, that is, they aren't really serious about getting a few wins and hurting their draft spot for next year.

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