Chicago Bears: Where the defense ranks in meaningful statistics
Just as anticipated, the calling card for the Chicago Bears remains their defensive success. They’ve yet to score a single defensive touchdown, but by and large, Chicago’s identity is found on the defensive end. Heading into the Panthers game, they rank No. 5 in DVOA (-9.8). Here’s where they stand in other statistics.
Opponent points per game — 20.0 (4th in NFL)
Opponent rushing yards per game — 113.2 (16th)
Opponent rushing play percentage — 39,2 (12th)
Opponent rushing yards per rush — 4.4 (16th)
Opponent passing attempts per game — 38.0 (26th-most)
Opponent completion percentage — 57.3% (1st)
Opponent passing yards per play — 6.1 (3rd)
Opponent passer rating — 77.1 (2nd)
Sack percentage — 5.5 (19th)
Opponent passing play percentage — 60.7 (21st)
There’s a lot to glean from this information. They’ve uncharacteristically weakened as a run defense, in large part because of the loss of Bilal Nichols. It certainly doesn’t help that they’ve left a few tackles for a loss on the field. But, they’ve epitomized what it means to bend, but not break.
They’ve benefited majorly from the philosophy that offenses pass far more than they run, and that’s allowed them to play to their strengths. Teams are passing a lot of them, and they haven’t had much success.
The defense has followed the offense’s lead, in building an incredibly efficient team in the fourth quarters of games. As we’ll consider in the situational statistics part of this, the Bears are averaging 11.0 points per game as an offense in fourth quarters, and they’re giving up just 3.2 points, a league-best +7.8 point differential.
Opponents are running 66.2 plays per game on the Bears (No. 21), a testament to their ability to get off the field. Only one other team in the NFL has been more effective in getting teams off the field on third-down situations.
Unfortunately, that means they haven’t been as great on first and second down. This means that teams have been able to, at the very least, get down the field, and score, even if it hasn’t been touchdowns.
As the Chicago Bears grow more accustomed to one another, one has to expect that they’ll also begin to force more turnovers, even if they aren’t scoring at the rate they did in 2018. Here’s how they fare on the season.
Interceptions forced per game — 0.6 (T-16th)
Fumbles forced per game — 0.8 (20th)
Turnover margin per game — -0.2 (T-18th)