5 reasons to trust Alan Williams to turn Chicago Bears defense around
1. Chicago Bears’ defense improves in the second half of games
If you have watched the Chicago Bears this season you know this to be relatively true. In most games this season they go down 14-0 and you wonder how they will not get rocked, and all of the sudden it is the fourth quarter, and it is a tight game. The defense slowly but surely adjusts and finds a way.
It may be concerning that the game plan is not as great, but this is probably just that they do not have the personnel, but once the game turns into a chess match, the Bears can start to keep up.
It is not much, but from the first half to the second their EPA*100 allowed goes from 10.4 to 3.5. Beyond that, their success rate allowed on passes goes from 47.4% to 45.5%.
Teams passing against the Bears see their EPA*100 go from 17.8 to 2.4, and their success rate drop from 50.4% to 48%. Teams do improve in EPA running on them in the second half from 1.6 to 4.6, but the success rate is also down from 44%, to 43.1%, The runs are just more valuable in the second half because of the lead.
This is a fair argument as well. The defense improves when teams take their foot off of the gas, or when they have to run the clock out. This is why the EPA remains high, with the success rate dropping a bit.
Still, this would be easier to explain if the team was blown out of most games. Against Minnesota, Houston, New York Giants, Washington, Atlanta, and Miami we all saw tight games, or Chicago have a chance to win the game because the defense went from struggling to holding its own. You have to give that up to the coaching staff.