Bear Digest

What Bears defensive success could look like in the Dennis Allen era

Tracking the progress of the New Orleans' defense Dennis Allen coached reveals a possible route the Bears defense could take as soon as this year if they handle the scheme transition.
Gene Chamberlain|
Sam Darnold is swarmed under by Montez Sweat and the Bears rush last year at Soldier Field.
Sam Darnold is swarmed under by Montez Sweat and the Bears rush last year at Soldier Field. | Mike Dinovo-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

The progress of Ben Johnson's Chicago Bears offense will be easy to trace by looking at the scoreboard.

Statistically in Detroit, he had the offense humming right away when he took over. It was obvious by the big point outputs and big plays.

However, charting the success of this Bears defense under Dennis Allen will be entirely a different matter.

It's difficult to look back at the beginning of Allen's Saints defenses and comparing it to now with his start in Chicago because when he took over New Orleans' defense it was a complete rehab job on that side of the ball. He took over from 3-4 coordinator, Buddy Ryan's son Rob, and had to take a few years to get 4-3 personnel on board much like the Bears did when Vic Fangio converted them from 4-3 to 3-4.

Once the Saints did get their people in place, the result was something that hasn't been seen in Chicago since the Mike Ditka-Buddy Ryan era with the possibility exception of the 2018 season under Fangio.

Get out the Bear-Raid siren

Put it this way: During the Fangio era they came up with the Bear-Raid siren at Soldier Field to rally the defense on big downs, like third down or near the goal line, or even when the defense simply starts to dominate play. They'll be using it again if the Bears follow the path Allen's defenses did after he took over as New Orleans coordinator.

The Saints swarmed and dominated on the defensive line over a six-year period before Allen took over the entire team as head coach and key defensive players had begun to age.

The Bears believe they do have the players in place on the line to start dominating.

"There's no off," defensive tackle Andrew Billings said. "Me, Dex (Gervon Dexter), (Jonathan) Ford, Shemar (Turner), Grady (Jarrett), it's everybody. You’ve got to deal with everybody no matter who's on the field.”

The defensive front does need to adjust to a style of play where they are attacking the blockers instead of a specific gap.

"I think what's really the newest thing for us is the scheme," Billings said. "What we're seeing out there on the field every day, it's a lot of movement, a lot of things that we have to anticipate happening out there. That's really the biggest thing."

When the Saints started to bring their scheme to bear, they applied the kind of consistent pressure no Bears defense since Buddy Ryan's has.

They gradually began raising their quarterback hits, sacks and tackles for loss as the overall rankings reached the top 10 and top five for yardage and scoring.

In 2019, New Orleans had 50 sacks, 80 tackles for loss and 110 quarterback hits. They had even more QB hits with 113 the next year, and more tackles for loss with 81.

By comparison, Matt Eberflus' defenses never put up pressure numbers like that. Fangio's 2018 Bears had 50 sacks, 100 quarterback hits and 86 tackles for loss, but they had only one year at this level.

High level of line dominance

With more blitzes and a swarming front in a feeding frenzy, the Bears could head toward where the Saints got in 2020 when they led the league in interceptions largely because of all their pressure.

That was a defense fifth in scoring, fourth in yards, fifth against the pass, fourth against the run and third in takeaways.

The Bears found out all bout this defense because they scored only nine points against it in their last playoff game, a loss at New Orleans.

If they can make those strides faster because the personnel is more suited to their scheme, then Allen's defense could establish an immediate turnaround.

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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.