Sean Desai continues to show adjustments with Chicago Bears

The Chicago Bears defense has not quite lived up to standards. However, with so many key pieces missing, and Ryan Pace putting the team in a tough spot, it is tough to blame the coaching on defense as much as the offense. While some have failed and some have worked, you have seen that Sean Desai has been able to adjust to his opponent, and every week he comes out with a game plan that at least makes sense.

Before the Ravens game, I noted that the Bears blitz a lot less with Sean Desai than they did with Vic Fangio or Chuck Pagano. With Desai they have a blitz rate of 16.2%. However, the way to beat the Ravens offense is to blitz them, because you cannot sit back and let the running quarterback come to you.

This was true against Lamar Jackson, who saw the blitz 33% of the time, but even more true for Tyler Huntley, who ran the same offense as Jackson, just with less physical talent. Desai showed that he understood what the matchup dictated, and he was not going to sit back and run what he runs.

Desai mixed it up in a big way, blitzing 68% of the time. That is about 5x as much as the standard rate, and twice as much as Lamar Jackson get blitzed.

It could be considered obvious to blitz the young quarterback, but the gameplan was the one that he drew up for Lamar Jackson. Maybe a few more blitz calls came on game day, but they thought Jackson would start up until Sunday morning.

Desai has had his issues, but more than Matt Nagy, you can at least explain what he is doing on defense. He plays more multiple with his coverages, he moves his corners, and defensive lineman around based on the matchup, and he will blitz, or not blitz based on matchup. Kindle Vildor got beat for a few passes, and otherwise, the defense was lights out against a rookie. Do not put that on Sean Desai, who has been fine this season.