Bear Digest

Tremaine Edmunds and Bears defense zero in on a rapid recovery

Normally the Bears' defense has found way to contribute even when coughing up chunks of yardage, and the numbers favor a bounce-back against Detroit.
Gene Chamberlain|
Bears defensive tackle Gervon Dexter Sr. (99) and defensive end Montez Sweat (98) try to tackle 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey.
Bears defensive tackle Gervon Dexter Sr. (99) and defensive end Montez Sweat (98) try to tackle 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey. | Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

In this story:

Chicago Bears

Very early in this season, Bears defensive coordinator Dennis Allen made it clear how much he hated talking about the game in the rear-view mirror.

That's fine for him but fans and media want to rehash and try to see what went wrong.

So it probably should have surprised no one when he stopped just short of saying "burn the tape," and forget about last week.

"I'm not going to spend a lot of time talking about last week," he said. "We've kind of moved on and we're moving on to Detroit. I'll say this, I don't think I coached well enough last week. I don't think we played well enough last week. And so, you learn your lessons. You go back and make the corrections that you need to make."

While Allen wanted nothing to do with introspective review, at least linebacker Tremaine Edmunds reminded everyone they are not always as porous as they showed against the 49ers, and they were happy to once again see the offense had their backs. It wasn’t a lot different than when special teams saved everyone against Minnesota, Washington and the Raiders, or the defense seemed to light a fire under the offense in the games with the Giants and Eagles.

"Obviously we don’t want to put them in that position," Edmunds said. "We want to help them. Special teams, we want all three phases playing as one. But to know that we have an offense that can go out there and score points, it definitely gives confidence to know that we can play with anybody."

There have been many Bears teams like the 1963 NFL champions were, when Hall of Fame defensive end Doug Atkins left the field after yet another takeaway and famously told quarterback Bill Wade and the offense to "hold 'em" as the two passed each other.

Those were the days you could win championships 14-10.

Defense normally carries its weight

The Bears' defense has done its job much of the year better than any other defense when it comes to getting back the ball, even if they can't always limit prevent opponents from getting to the end zone.

Their plus-22 turnover differential is the league's best partly because they've taken it away an NFL best 32 times while ranking first in fewest turnovers on offense with 10.

This is fairly rare. The Bills nearly did this last year with a league low of eight turnovers but their 32 takeaways were third best behind 33 by the Vikings and Steelers.

The last time a team led in takeaways and committed the fewest turnovers was in 2011 when San Francisco and Green Bay led with 38 takeaways each and the 49ers had a league-low 10 turnovers. The Packers were second that year in fewest turnovers with 14.

If the defense keeps up this end of its work, the offense won't complain. The offense knows what to do when the defense creates takeaways. The Bears lead the NFL in points scored after takeaways (104), although it happens so often that the offense should be up there with the most opportunistic teams.

Their turnover flow has slowed to a trickle. Although they have nine games with multiple takeaways, thy have just one takeaway in three of the last four games. The one game with more was three against Cleveland.

Allen knows the pass rush needs to be better against Detroit than it has been most of the year. Their ability to harass passers can lead to the takeaways.

"When you look at the quarterback and being able to affect him, there's a lot of max protection stuff, play actions, things (Detroit does) designed to help protect him and keep that pocket clean for him," Allen said. "And when they're able to do that, they execute at a really high level.

"So, that'll be a challenge for us trying to win the line of scrimmage. I think a lot of what they do starts in the run game, being able to run the ball effectively. (Lions RB) Jahmyr Gibbs is a hell of a player. And, I think as he goes, when he's really rolling, I think their offense really rolls. So, that'll be a huge part of what we have to do.”

The defense this week not only needs to rebound from last week, but also from Week 2 when Detroit scored 52 points.

"At the end of the day, like I said, it was Week 2 but we understand what happened," Edmunds said. "We all feel that still."

Their goal will be to make Detroit feel them and, at the very least, avoid placing everything on the offense's shoulders again.

More Chicago Bears News

Sign Up For the Bears Daily Digest - OnSI’s Free Chicago Bears Newsletter

X: BearsOnSI

Published | Modified
Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.