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Why Kentavius Street Views Inconsistent Bears Pass Rush as Temporary

ESPN's pass rush win rate for Week 1 has the Bears ranked high, but players admit to inconsistency and see why it can improve.
Gene Chamberlain|
Montez Sweat and the Bears defensive line close in on Bryce Young in Sunday's 59-37 Chicago victory.
Montez Sweat and the Bears defensive line close in on Bryce Young in Sunday's 59-37 Chicago victory. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

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Chicago Bears

Getting too down on the Bears defense for their 37 points and 478 total yards allowed in Week 1 is probably as much of an overreaction as getting overly excited about their offense's 59 points.

It's one week, it probably means little in the grand scheme of 17 games, but still, there was the expected problem with pass coverage with two rookies in the secondary and also there was the issue everyone has feared all offseason, even back before they knew they didn't have two key DBs out against Carolina. Their pass rush needed to be better and really wasn't.

ESPN's pass rush win rate for Week 1 will tell you something different but they better go adjust their gauges. The Bears failed the real key and that was the eye test. The ESPN analytic says they were seventh in the league in pass rush win rate at 60% for Week 1, and this would be a great increase over last year's disaster when they rated near the bottom all year.

However, they had only two sacks and last year had three in the opener. Their best pass rusher by win rate was, of all people, Dayo Odeyingbo at 30%. Their supposed stout run-stopping defensive end came out at No. 10 in the league for Week 1 in pass rush win rate. However, it was edge Montez Sweat and defensive tackle Kentavius Street with the sacks.

The Bears wanted to communicate afterward how this is going to improve.

Street pointed out their concept is to rush "four as one."

"And it takes time to truly understand, like, how the edge is going to rush, how when I'm in with Grady (Jarrett), how he's going to rush," Street said Monday. "It's, you know, we're all elite athletes and we all want to get to the quarterback. But sometimes just our rush plans just don't mesh together sometimes, you know what I'm saying?"

Basically, they need to start understanding the scheme better and teammates better.

"It's something just gonna just naturally come with more repetitions," he added. "You know, sometimes — I know a coach growing up told me it takes 10,000 reps or something to fully master it. So I'm sure we're not even remotely close to mastering just playing off of each other.

"So it's something that'll continue to improve, not with just our starting front, but our defense as a whole getting that chemistry going together to understand where we're all going to be, and not even just understanding it but trusting that we're all going to be where we say we're going to be."

Hopefully it won't take 10,000 reps or we'll all be in our 90s by then.

More time together needed

Street tied it in with the full defensive unit.

“It was our first time out there as a full defense, it’s the first game of the year, there are a bunch of butterflies in our stomach and everything and I think a bunch of us just want to play the perfect game," he said. "Especially up front we want to strike every block perfectly, fit every run perfectly, and at the end of the day, you can’t be perfect. It’s an imperfect game.

"So, I think we were just a little inconsistent in our technique as a defense as a whole. I believe this week we’ll have a great chance to build on that. It wasn’t all bad. It wasn’t all good. It was uncharacteristic of our defense. We just want to build on the good stuff that we did and be very harsh about the bad stuff that we did do.”

Street got a little more specific about those who were trying to be perfect.

"So I think, you know, it being the first game that truly counted, I felt like we just, we really wanted to be perfect and it slowed us down or for some of the younger guys, maybe they went back to things that they were doing in college and gave them success and it's just a different league," he said. "Everything's fast. Everyone's had their eyes on you, studying you.

"So that was really the biggest thing. You know, just, don't be perfect and don't do your own thing. Do the techniques and the fundamentals that we've been coached to do."

The problem with 'we need more reps'

The problem with all of this regarding the defensive line itself is the only real change up front is with one defensive tackle and the backups. The edge rush should be very familiar with what Allen wants done because all of them played in Chicago last year. They could get a boost if Marcus Davenport's ramp-up ever reaches the right level and he is activated, but this is basically what they'll have on the edge and nothing is different.

Jarrett had a solid first game as a run stopper, coming in top 10 for run-stop win rate. However, it's the pass rush where they were underwhelming despite what ESPN's overall group metric said.

The Panthers were playing their first game of the season, too. So did 30 other NFL teams. Everyone can say they'll be better in Week 2. Former Bears coach Lovie Smith always harped about Week 2 will be the biggest leap in improvement of the season and it's a common refrain around the league.

The idea that the defensive line wanted to be perfect and shouldn't worry about this seems to contradict the work they're doing and let's face it, when he says some of the younger guys on the line started reverting to their college form he is talking about Jordan van den Berg. They only had one younger guy who was active at defensive tackle. The edges have all been in the league three years or more. And van den Berg had only 22 reps in the game.

The Bears' defensive line needs to step up and apply pressure in Week 2 against whichever quarterback the Vikings throw at them -- most likely Carson Wentz at this time -- because they have to know the Vikings and defensive coordinator Brian Flores will be throwing it at their own offense.

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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.

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