Bears opportunistic defense are doing their part to win games
The Chicago Bears keep finding themselves in games that they have no business being in, due in large part because of their opportunistic defense. However, despite the production on the defensive side of the ball in creating turnovers, the Bears continue to drop games and now have a 3-8 record on the season. Despite their […]
The Chicago Bears keep finding themselves in games that they have no business being in, due in large part because of their opportunistic defense.
However, despite the production on the defensive side of the ball in creating turnovers, the Bears continue to drop games and now have a 3-8 record on the season.
Despite their struggles, the Bears defensive unit has proven to have a few playmakers leading the charge, if only they could get some help from the rest of the team.
The Bears defense played a phenomenal game in Week 11, despite allowing 31 points to the Detroit Lions. The unit finished the game with four takeaways and had their second game of the season with 3 interceptions (which is tied for the most such games in the NFL in 2023).
Rookie corner Tyrique Stevenson, linebacker T.J. Edwards and linebacker Tremaine Edmunds all came away with interceptions in the loss to the Lions.
The unit continuously put the offensive side of the ball in favorable conditions but the offense was unable to capitalize more often than not. On Sunday, Bears became the first team since 1932 to lose a game despite having a +3 turnover margin and over 40 minutes of possession time, according to ESPN 1000.
Embarrassing doesn’t even begin to describe it. The Bears had a 7-2 division rival on the ropes while on the road can couldn’t capitalize on the chances provided by the defense over and over again. It was a disappointing outcome after such a strong opening start to the game.
"We didn't finish it as a football team didn't finish it as coaches as players the right way and there's a lot of plays to be had out there," Bears head coach Matt Eberflus said after the loss.
The Bears offense scored just 10 points off the four turnovers and had an opportunity to win the game on the final drive before literally fumbling the game away.
"It's about finishing," Eberflus added. "It's about the finish. The positives are there to be able to run the ball and take the ball away. And that's something we've been hunting is taking the ball away and give ourselves good field position."
"Now, we can learn from that," he added. "We didn't get any points off of [turnovers] in the first half and the score could have been a little bit more starting off on the half. If you get the ball in plus field position on offense, man you got to punch it in. We'll take field goals but we gotta get some touchdowns here."
Sunday was the second time this season, and the seventh time since 2022, in which the Bears were able to force 2+ takeaways and still lost. That kind of outcome can't happen on a consistent basis and yet it continues to happen for Chicago. Despite allowing 31 points, the defense has genuinely been playing solid football in Chicago and are doing what it takes to win.
"They've been playing really good defense last six weeks and they played really good defensively at times," Eberflus said. "So, we'll just accentuate the positives and look at the plays that we need to get better on."
The Bears next opportunity to capitalize better as a collective team will come next week against the Minnesota Vikings next Monday night.
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