Chicago Bears Defense: the Road From Bad to Better

We love defense in Chicago. Hard-nosed, blue-collar, punch-you-in-the-mouth kind of defense. For years it was a certainty that above all else, the Bears would be a tough defensive team. Death, taxes and strong Chicago Bears defense all seemed to be on equal footing in terms of their inevitability.

The Lovie Smith era built on that tradition thanks to the Tampa-2 scheme he deployed and his stalwart in the middle making it go, future Hall-of-Famer Brian Urlacher. Things were good on that side of the ball during Lovie’s tenure and at times they were great. Throughout those times of defensive prosperity, however, an imbalance we always knew existed seemed to be holding the team back more than ever in the increasingly offensive-friendly NFL. And so Lovie was shown the door after 9 years of service were capped off by a 10-6 season in 2012, one in which the same narrative was believed to be impeding the Bears championship aspirations: solid defense but not quite enough offense to get the franchise where it needed to be.

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We needed an offensive mind. We needed a guy who could do with Jay Cutler and the offense what Lovie and a parade of offensive coordinators never could. We needed…. Marc Trestman?

As fans of any sports franchise often do, many of us drank the Kool-Aid and believed the hire could work. There were doubters out there, however, as there always are when a new HC is brought in. I distinctly remember Tim Brown railing against the choice on ESPN 1000’s Waddle & Silvy show, saying he never saw Trestman as head coaching material. It sounded a bit like sour grapes on Brown’s behalf because he also referenced the fact that during the 2002 season Trestman, then the offensive coordinator for the Oakland Raiders, made Jerry Rice the #1 receiving option over Brown.

I dismissed Brown’s comments in the hopes that he was wrong and still bitter after all these years. I wanted to believe the unconventional choice of a CFL coach lauded as an offensive genius and quarterback whisperer could be the guy to take the Chicago offense — and with it, the rest of the team — to a championship.

When you’re wrong, you’re wrong. And I was just that. Tim Brown, on the other hand, hit the nail on the head. Trestman, despite his intellect and offensive acumen, wasn’t the guy. Not to lead the team and certainly not to keep the tradition of strong defense going. Neither was defensive coordinator Mel Tucker for that matter.

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To some degree the collapse that ensued was inevitable as the veteran-laden Chicago Bears defense had begun to show its age in the latter portion of the Lovie Smith era. Who can forget the lumbering Urlacher returning a Matt Hasselbeck interception 46 yards for a touchdown in the Bears week 9 drubbing of the Titans in the 2012 season? He was still a formidable defensive force every time he was on the field, but Father Time slows down even the most invincible of our gridiron heroes.

Urlacher’s departure from the Bears before the 2013 season was unfortunately messy, but the obvious truth was that he was very near the end of an exemplary football career. Did he have another year or two left in the tank? Maybe. Phil Emery and Trestman intimated that they wanted him back, but only at the aged veteran discount of $1 million per year. I love ‘Lach and I’ll be in Canton in a few years when he’s inducted, but I couldn’t blame the Bears at the time for taking that fiscally responsible route. Also couldn’t blame a proud player like Brian for feeling slighted and turning down the offer. It seemed like so many other acrimonious partings of an aging star and the team for whom he starred, but the Bears would be alright without him… right?

Urlacher hasn’t played any defense since that time. And for the most part, neither have the Bears.

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So how bad did it get? Just ask Chris Conte how his ego felt after AP stiff armed the hell out of him during a dreadful overtime loss to the Vikings in December 2013. Peterson went for 211 on the ground that game, punctuated by his run in OT when he delivered the devastating facial. Need another example? Look no further than Fred Jackson’s abuse of ol’ #47 during the 2014 season opener against Buffalo. F-Jax had broken away with Conte the last line of defense. They met at the 20-yard line and Jackson’s initial shove was enough to get Conte off of him, but the second push about 7 yards later sent Conte reeling and falling on his backside at the 2. At least Conte had a good view of Jackson diving over him for the score. The Bears lost that game, appropriately setting the stage for a cover-your-eyes 5-11 campaign.

The problems obviously went deeper than just Conte but as two of the most memorable and visually striking examples of the defensive ineptitude we’ve seen recently, the demoralization they depict effectively encapsulates how far the Chicago Bears defense has fallen. That is who they’ve been. The opposing offenses have been better than the Chicago defenses week in and week out. Often embarrassingly so. Papa Bear can’t be resting peacefully with this going on.

Some frightful stats to chew on and how the Chicago Bears defense ranked amongst the 32 NFL teams:

2014:

6,033 total yards gained against (30th), good for 6.0 yards per play (30th). 4,230 of that came thru the air (30th). 34passingTDs given up (31st). First downs gained thru the air against the Bears: 227 (32nd). Points per game against: 27.6 (31st). Percentage of opposing offensive drives ending in a score: 44.6% (32nd). That averages out to 2.38 points per drive (32nd) for the opposition.

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2013: 6,313 total yards gained against (30th), good for 6.2 yards per play (32nd). First downs allowed: 353 (28th). Rushing yards against: 2,583 (32nd). The 31st-ranked team gave up over 400 less rushing yards. Rushing TDs allowed: 22 (31st). Yards gained per rushing attempt: 5.3 (32nd). First downs gained on the ground: 147 (32nd). Rushing yards per game for Bears’ opponents: 161.4 (32nd). Points per game against: 29.9 (30th). Percentage of opposing offensive drives ending in a score: 42.7% (31st). That averages out to 2.36 points per drive (31st) for the opposition.

If you didn’t know where that odor was coming from, now you do. That’s the unmistakable scent of a putrid defense. In 2013 at least the Bears’ offense showed up to the party and provided some hope that they could be an offensively driven team until the defense found its way. The offensive regression of OC Aaron Kromer’s unit in 2014, however, further exacerbated the problems on defense as the Bears became a team that struggled to stop anybody and one that couldn’t score with any consistency. The result of that disastrous recipe was a 3-game dip in the W column from the previous year.

And that’s where the Bears are at. How do they get from here to something more closely resembling an actual NFL defense? Well, all roads lead to better when the defense can’t really get any worse. A good place to start — a necessary place, really — is change. And there’s been a lot of that, the most significant of which are listed here:

Mel Tucker out….

For all that went wrong in Chicago, Mel had shown an ability to be an effective DC in previous stints with Cleveland and Jacksonville. One could make an argument that his failure in Chicago was mostly a case of personnel issues. His specialty is defensive backs, after all, and Chicago’s starting secondary featured a rotating corps of inept safeties coupled with an aging/oft-injured Peanut Tillman and a sometimes-effective Tim Jennings. Kyle Fuller came on strong as a rookie CB, but the best is yet to come for him. In other words, Mel wasn’t playing with a full deck. He moved on to a pretty nice gig as defensive backs coach at Alabama.

… and in comes Vic Fangio.

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A special thanks goes out to former Bears QB Jim Harbaugh for being so darn intense. His ability to wear out a locker room led to his dismissal as HC from the 49ers despite a successful tenure there and DC Vic Fangio was released from his contract amid the fallout. He brings with him the 3-4 front which ushers in potentially significant roster overhaul, so it could take some time to be as effective as some of his defenses in San Fran. The Bears also don’t have a Navarro Bowman or Patrick Willis on their roster, but Fangio is as good as any DC at getting the most out of the guys in the locker room.

New leaders are forced to emerge. Lance Briggs is gone and still looking for work. He might be more concerned about his restaurant than football nowadays anyway. Peanut Tillman is off to Carolina where, if he can stay healthy, is capable of putting together another year or two of high-caliber play. Julius Peppers departed for Green Bay last offseason. Other names that have left in the last two years: Major Wright, Corey Wootton, Henry Melton, Chris Conte, Stephen Paea and D.J. Williams. Some we miss, some we don’t. The point is that the defensive unit is being turned over and will continue to be as Fangio and GM Ryan Pace mold the roster. Some seasoned veterans remain (Jared Allen, Jay Ratliff, Tim Jennings) or were brought in (Antrell Rolle, Mason Foster) and their leadership is vital as is the example they set in the locker room for the next generation of guys. Kyle Fuller, Jon Bostic, Shea McClellin (gasp!) and the newly added Pernell McPhee will have their chance to step up. In the case of McClellin, probably his last chance.

A culture shift is underway. Trestman emphasized relationships and rearranged the locker room so players were no longer segregated by their position groups and instead were forced to sit next to teammates who they might not otherwise interact with often. A novel idea, sure, but one that became laughable as Trestman’s control of the team unraveled. He willingly signed off on Brandon Marshall’s weekly jaunts to New York for his gig on Inside the NFL. He gave L-Boogie permission to miss practice for personal reasons, not knowing it was to attend the opening of his restaurant. You get the picture. It was not a culture that demanded respect or accountability. The Kumbaya approach doesn’t work in the NFL, and thankfully that’s not how John Fox rolls. He’s an old school no-nonsense football guy, and the Bears locker room desperately needs an influx of that.

It won’t be an easy road to get back to the level of defense we expect as fans of the Chicago Bears, but we can plainly see where they’ve been and we know where they need to go. Some key pieces are in place and we’ll see how they come together in August and then soon enough when the real bullets start flying in September. Expect growing pains, but also improvement. Earning back the moniker “Monsters of the Midway” is the end game here, but there is a lot of work ahead and a long road to get there.

For now, I’ll settle for better. Bear down.

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