For all the issues with Matt Eberflus, most of them self-inflicted thanks to his embarrassing weekly press conferences and blowing multiple fourth-quarter leads, his defense has been able to carry the team. It was his meal ticket that got him the Bears head coaching job.
Since Eberflus took over as the defensive coordinator last season, he was able to keep the team together with the help of general manager Ryan Poles after the acquisition of defensive end Montez Sweat. Sweat played a huge role in their turnaround in the second half of last season. That was more than enough for Poles to bring back Eberflus this season even though it was not a popular decision by many fans.
During the Bears' 20-19 loss to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, the defense was non-existent, especially their pass rush. Sweat, who had been dealing with an injury, has been very quiet all season. After a strong debut after being traded from Seattle, Darrell Taylor has also been quiet.
It did not help that the Bears did not blitz and were only able to get to Jordan Love twice. He was barely touched throughout the game and converted on multiple first downs to keep the drive alive. They were only 1/5 on third down conversion, but it was because they converted multiple second downs and they never faced many third down situations.
Because the pass rush was non-existent, the secondary was burned badly on multiple occasions. Both of the Packers' touchdowns in the second half were set up by a deep pass from Love. Their last score came when Christian Watson made a diving catch, got up and almost scored a touchdown as Jaylon Johnson was tripped up on the play while covering Watson.
The run defense gave up over 100 yards and held up pretty well on paper against Josh Jacobs. But with Andrew Billings likely out of the season with an injury, it could be the biggest headache for Eberflus when they still must face Christian McCaffrey of the 49ers and both David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs of the Lions twice. Both McCaffrey and Gibbs could have between 150 and 200 total offensive yards by themselves against the Bears' defense in their current shape.
Needless to say, PFF grade were very harsh on the entire Bears defense.
Chicago Bears PFF grades below average(60) vs GB:
— Nick Whalen (@_NickWhalen) November 18, 2024
57.9 Jaylon Johnson
54.7 Bryan Cowart
45.3 Kyler Gordon
44.4 Elijah Hicks
37.5 Chris Williams
35.2 Tremaine Edmunds
34.8 Jack Sanborn
31.3 Darrell Taylor
31.1 Austin Booker
Too many disappointing defensive performances
For a guy who always talks about playing complementary football, his defense was a major letdown yesterday.