Dennis Allen must do one thing right now to possibly change the Bears' struggles

The Bears’ pass rush hasn't been nearly as effective as the team would've hoped through the first two weeks of the 2025 NFL season. 

The Bears have three sacks, all of which happened in the Week 1 loss to the Minnesota Vikings. For pressure rate (18.2%), non-blitz pressure rate (20.4%) and pass rush win rate (23%), the Bears are ranked 29th in all three of those categories. 

Those are categories that no defense wants to be at the bottom of this early in the season. Montez Sweat, the Bears’ top pass rusher, hasn't provided enough pressure off the edge through the first two games. He has three total pressures and no sacks. 

Dennis Allen faces the heat on what the Bears must do to fix pass rush issues in Chicago

Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen was asked how Sweat can capitalize when he does get one-on-one situations. 

“Yeah, well look, obviously we're two weeks into the season and so there's going to be plenty of more opportunities to do that,” Allen said. “I think we've got to do some things to create some more one-on-one situations. When you're in these games that kind of are either you're chasing points or they're kind of close games, it doesn't get into one of these games where it's a throw the ball every time, and I think that's where you're really able to kind of get after the quarterback a little bit. So look I think it's just really about trying to create some more opportunities for him and then just being consistent in terms of his technique and his fundamentals in his pass rush.”

Creating more opportunities could be a solution, but so could simply calling more blitzes. The Bears are 31st in blitz rate (10.9%). Although two games is a small sample size, it's a drastic difference from what Allen has done in the past. According to ESPN's Courtney Cronin, “in the past five seasons, including when Allen became New Orleans' head coach for three seasons, the Saints were ninth in pressure percentage (30.6%).”

Could the lack of blitzes be because of the injuries in the Bears’ secondary? With Jaylon Johnson and Kyler Gordon dealing with injuries and Tyrique Stevenson struggling, this is currently not a strength of this football team. Bringing additional defenders to rush the quarterback puts more pressure on the secondary to cover. 

But given that the Bears have struggled to get to the quarterback with just their front four, bringing the blitz might be worth trying against Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, who has thrown for 549 yards and two passing touchdowns against the Eagles and Giants defenses. 

Allen needs to try something different on Sunday against the Cowboys. The last thing Bears fans want to see is anything close to the defensive performance in Detroit. 

Read more: Declan Doyle addresses blunt truth of where Bears' offense needs to fix the most

“Like most quarterbacks it's trying to get him (Prescott) off the spot,” Allen said. “I think he's an outstanding player. I think he's playing at a really high level. He's certainly got command of their total offense. And so we're going to have to try to do some things to get him uncomfortable in the pocket. You know, hopefully we'll have some looks that have him hold the ball a couple of extra counts and try to affect him that way.”