The Chicago Bears made many moves this offseason in the hopes of building a competent team around Caleb Williams. While many of the offensive moves were significant in the Bears' starting to look more competent in the Williams era, a lot of their success comes down to the defense.
Chicago Bears defense is improving under Dennis Allen
Even though Ben Johnson brings an offensive background to his head coaching resume, he is not afraid to admit that he made a great defensive coordinator hire.
"Dennis does a great job with instilling the confidence in those guys, putting them in the right spot. It's really working for us right now, and this team needs it. It's been the foundation for us the last four games."Ben Johnson
If you think back to just four weeks ago in Week 3, the Chicago Bears were one of the laughingstock defenses in the NFL. They were missing a lot of pieces, they looked lost on defense, and teams were throwing all over them. Even J.J. McCarthy mounted an impressive drive against this defense.
Fast-forward a month, and the defense is one of the most feared groups in the NFL due to how much they turn the football over. It helps to get a name like Kyler Gordon healthy and into the lineup, but at the same time, they lost Jaylon Johnson. A lot of this comes down to coaching.
Allen shifted T.J. Edwards into the MIKE role and made Tremaine Edmunds the WILL, which has improved both, but has turned Edmunds into a turnover machine. He has also mixed up the defensive alignments and rotations up front.
Beyond that, he has been keying on taking the football away, knowing that he may not have the defense to consistently stall drives. However, when the offense gives them that one opportunity, they pounce on it.
Some of the success comes down to opponents. They beat up on the Raiders and Saints, who have bad offenses, while Dallas and Washington were missing their top pass catchers for the game.
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Still, the Bears' defense took care of business, and more importantly, the arrow is pointing in the right direction as we approach the halfway point. The unit is not complete yet, but it looks to be much improved under Allen.