Bear Digest

Why Bears Defense Must Maintain Focus Against Matthew Stafford

The Bears defense ranks No. 1 in passer rating against, has carried the team going into a game against the Rams, but can't afford to be too opinionated about its own offense's failures.
Gene Chamberlain|
Matthew Stafford is a comeback king and the Bears defense can't afford to be in a close game against him.
Matthew Stafford is a comeback king and the Bears defense can't afford to be in a close game against him. | Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

The best way to describe the task facing the Bears defense this week is they have to maintain focus.

It works in several ways.

The Bears need to worry about how much Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford and coach Sean McVay can split up their defense with motion of all types Sunday almost as much as they need to worry about the team splitting in half over the offense's inability to support their brethren on the other side of the football.

Offense not supporting the defense is a longstanding Bears tradition dating back to the 1963 14-10 championship win over the New York Giants. Defensive end Doug Atkins had one thing to say to ineffective Bears quarterback Bill Wade that day as the defense was picking off Y.A. Tittle five times but could never put it away until the last interception by Richie Petitbon.

"Hold em," was Atkins' request of his own team's QB, as they crossed paths following yet another interception by the Bears.

Bears safety Kevin Byard approached that topic early this week when talking about his team's offense, and knows the defense needs to just worry about its own production instead of the struggles at scoring points.

"I think everybody kind of understands their (the Bears offense) position, you know, at times," Byard said. "Like I said, when you’re in a football game emotions are high. You know, but at the same time we have to continue to remind ourselves that 'hey, let's just do our jobs. Let's do what we need to do. Let's go try to get a turnover. Let's try to do more.

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"When things are always good I think the first thing you always have to do is look at yourself in the mirror and look at yourself first and say what can I do better, what can I do more to try to win a ballgame? We seen that happen in Week 1. So  I think we have to continue to have that mentality. Really, as long as you play in this league you kind of have to have that mentality. That's kind of how it goes."

Besides, if the defense is being challenged and beaten, then criticizing their own offense looks rather hypocritical. And this can happen against the Rams' 36-year-old QB.

The Bears defense is going to get challenged, because even with both of its top two receivers gone due to injuries, the Rams offense is capable of putting up points. They put up 27 last week and came back to beat the 49ers behind Stafford, whose comeback statistics now border on legendary.

"His arm talent has not waned at all," Bears defensive coordinator Eric Washington said. "He can make every throw on the field. He knows exactly what you’re in, so our disguise will be critical. And he just knows how to get the football out of his hand, how to get them into I would say an ideal play."

Stafford has 36 fourth-quarter comebacks and 45 game-winning drives.

That's more fourth-quarter comebacks than Johnny Unitas (34), John Elway (31), Russell Wilson (31), Fran Tarkenton (29), Brett Favre (28) and Joe Montana (26).  It's more game-winning drives than Favre (43), Elway (40), Wilson (39) and Unitas (38).

He's one short of Matt ryan and two from Dan Marino in game-winning drives.

Considering he played 12 of his 16 seasons for the Detroit Lions and they had only three winning seasons in his 12, his comeback heroics are pretty impressive.

Paired with McVay and his offense that relies so much on motion, Stafford frequently produces big plays regardless of his targets. And the Bears defense, which leads the NFL in passer rating against (66.2), still gave up big plays last week in the 21-16 loss to the Colts and struggling quarterback Anthony Richardson.

In fact, they have only faced more inexperienced quarterbacks to date, including last year's rookie phenom C.J. Stroud. So stopping big throws by Stafford is going to be huge.

"Yeah, we just want to maintain our leverage," Washington said. "We want to maintain our ability to stay over the top and always, every time we have an explosive play we don’t just look at one particular position. We have to make sure we look at how all of the pieces of our defense are functioning. Rush and coverage have to work together."

The motion makes things worse. The Bears found this out in their old defensive scheme in 2021 under Matt Nagy when they went to L.A. and got buried. They can't afford to tip off what they're doing defensively with their reaction to presnap motion.

"A lot of window dressing," Bears defensive end Montez Sweat said.

It catches the eye, though.

“If you're not careful, if you're not on top of the details of what you're doing you can all of a sudden kind of predict what they're doing just based on how the defense may move based on their motion," Washington said. "It gives you a little bit of information as far as safety rotation, maybe are you in a split safety configuration or do you have a person rotated down, are you playing zone or man?

"As talented as Matthew Stafford is, I'm sure he'll tell you he can use all the information he can get."

So far the Bears defense has stuck together, backed their offense and even impressed themselves a bit with their play.

"I give it a B+," Sweat said.

Until the offense starts to produce, they'll need A grades to win games apparently.

And they'll simply have to do what they do quietly or run the risk of tearing apart the team.

Considering the opponent and its use of deception this week, they need to keep their eyes and their opinions to themselves.

Twitter: BearsOnSI

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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.