Defensive statistics through 4 games

[Bears4Ever_34]

Same thing as the other thread. This is a discussion about what you've seen from the defense through the first quarter of the NFL season, what you like, what you don't like, etc..

 

2013 Bears defense (4 games)

 

Total Defense: 21st (384 yds/gm)

PPG: 26th (28.5)

Yards per play: 28th (6.1)

3rd down percentage: 11th (40%)

Sacks: 30th (6)

TD's: 1st (3)

 

2012 Bears defense (16 games)

 

Total Defense: 5th (315.6 yds/gm)

PPG: 3rd 17.3 ppg

Yards per play: 4th (4.9)

3rd down percentage: 6th (36%)

Sacks: 8th (41)

TD's: 1st (9)

 

The Good:

 

- The turnovers are still coming

- They are doing a better job at getting off the field on 3rd down, compared to the first couple games. Still not as good as they were last year.

 

The Bad:

 

- Outside of the turnovers, they have been pretty much all bad at everything else. They are giving up points and yards at a higher clip than they ever have in recent memory.

- Only 1 sack from a defensive lineman.

- Giving up big plays in the run/pass game

- The tackling has been noticeably worse

- Gap integrity is as poor as I've seen

 

Thoughts:

 

- On a scale of 1-10, my panic meter is about a 7 for this defense. There is a lot more to be worried about on the defensive side of the ball than on offense. A poor defensive line will make for a bad defense more often than not, and we are certainly seeing that right now. The safety play has also been horrendous.

 

- Mel Tucker might not be very good. The fact that the defensive line has not performed well up to this point, with the same players, makes you wonder about how good Rod Mareneli may have been.

[madlithuanian]

Those stats look pretty much spot on to what my gut's been telling me.

 

It's really just not been working except our red zone D.

 

Either Tucker really is not doing a good job, or our guys aren't that good (either age or talent). I have a feel it's a little of everything.

 

We could see massive defensive turnover in staff and in players next season if we don't see improvement.

 

Same thing as the other thread. This is a discussion about what you've seen from the defense through the first quarter of the NFL season, what you like, what you don't like, etc..

 

2013 Bears defense (4 games)

 

Total Defense: 21st (384 yds/gm)

PPG: 26th (28.5)

Yards per play: 28th (6.1)

3rd down percentage: 11th (40%)

Sacks: 30th (6)

TD's: 1st (3)

 

2012 Bears defense (16 games)

 

Total Defense: 5th (315.6 yds/gm)

PPG: 3rd 17.3 ppg

Yards per play: 4th (4.9)

3rd down percentage: 6th (36%)

Sacks: 8th (41)

TD's: 1st (9)

 

The Good:

 

- The turnovers are still coming

- They are doing a better job at getting off the field on 3rd down, compared to the first couple games. Still not as good as they were last year.

 

The Bad:

 

- Outside of the turnovers, they have been pretty much all bad at everything else. They are giving up points and yards at a higher clip than they ever have in recent memory.

- Only 1 sack from a defensive lineman.

- Giving up big plays in the run/pass game

- The tackling has been noticeably worse

- Gap integrity is as poor as I've seen

 

Thoughts:

 

- On a scale of 1-10, my panic meter is about a 7 for this defense. There is a lot more to be worried about on the defensive side of the ball than on offense. A poor defensive line will make for a bad defense more often than not, and we are certainly seeing that right now. The safety play has also been horrendous.

 

- Mel Tucker might not be very good. The fact that the defensive line has not performed well up to this point, with the same players, makes you wonder about how good Rod Mareneli may have been.

 

[DABEARSDABOMB]

Same thing as the other thread. This is a discussion about what you've seen from the defense through the first quarter of the NFL season, what you like, what you don't like, etc..

 

2013 Bears defense (4 games)

 

Total Defense: 21st (384 yds/gm)

PPG: 26th (28.5)

Yards per play: 28th (6.1)

3rd down percentage: 11th (40%)

Sacks: 30th (6)

TD's: 1st (3)

 

2012 Bears defense (16 games)

 

Total Defense: 5th (315.6 yds/gm)

PPG: 3rd 17.3 ppg

Yards per play: 4th (4.9)

3rd down percentage: 6th (36%)

Sacks: 8th (41)

TD's: 1st (9)

 

The Good:

 

- The turnovers are still coming

- They are doing a better job at getting off the field on 3rd down, compared to the first couple games. Still not as good as they were last year.

 

The Bad:

 

- Outside of the turnovers, they have been pretty much all bad at everything else. They are giving up points and yards at a higher clip than they ever have in recent memory.

- Only 1 sack from a defensive lineman.

- Giving up big plays in the run/pass game

- The tackling has been noticeably worse

- Gap integrity is as poor as I've seen

 

Thoughts:

 

- On a scale of 1-10, my panic meter is about a 7 for this defense. There is a lot more to be worried about on the defensive side of the ball than on offense. A poor defensive line will make for a bad defense more often than not, and we are certainly seeing that right now. The safety play has also been horrendous.

 

- Mel Tucker might not be very good. The fact that the defensive line has not performed well up to this point, with the same players, makes you wonder about how good Rod Mareneli may have been.

I think Tucker is a very good D-Coord (his tenure in Jacksonville was good evidence of that). These issues have a combination with the Bears playing ahead, going up against some good offenses, and of course poor gap control and overall shoddy d-line play. We also have had injuries in our secondary. The dline will get better as Peppers gets back to 100%, however, our interior D is weak and that could create issues. Historically our D and LB core has been able to control the run which puts oppositions in a lot more 3rd and long situations that are advantageous to our defense. I have noticed poor gap control as a whole and that needs to get cleaned up. Conte has also been brutal. They need to get this cleaned up and I think they can, although they might need to make a deal for a starting DT if they somehow can.

[DABEARSDABOMB]

Those stats look pretty much spot on to what my gut's been telling me.

 

It's really just not been working except our red zone D.

 

Either Tucker really is not doing a good job, or our guys aren't that good (either age or talent). I have a feel it's a little of everything.

 

We could see massive defensive turnover in staff and in players next season if we don't see improvement.

Oh and to your last point...Marinelli is a stud (this is responding to Bears vs. you MadLith), but this isn't even close to the same Dline. Melton and Peppers were not at 100% in the 1st 3 games so hard to evaluate when your two best guys aren't playing right. They play right and we are talking about an above average d-line. However, going forward we only have one above average linemen. I know I harp on it, but the Bears royally screwed up on Idonjie. He'd look real good right about now.

[jason]

Could this also have something to do with Urlacher missing? I know it's now the popular thing to rag on Urlacher, call him greedy and washed up, say he was horrible last year if not multiple years before, but the simple fact is, the dude was the MLB for a long time. The captain of the team. And was getting better as the season progressed last year.

 

Peppers and Melton being injured affects performance.

Same for the coaching changes.

 

But Urlacher's absence hurts. Say what you want, but over the course of four games - an admittedly small sample size - his value appears to be worth a difference of about 60 yards. That's multiple stops per game. Multiple good reads per game. Multiple correct defensive audibles per game.

[Alaskan Grizzly]

Could this also have something to do with Urlacher missing? I know it's now the popular thing to rag on Urlacher, call him greedy and washed up, say he was horrible last year if not multiple years before, but the simple fact is, the dude was the MLB for a long time. The captain of the team. And was getting better as the season progressed last year.

 

Peppers and Melton being injured affects performance.

Same for the coaching changes.

 

But Urlacher's absence hurts. Say what you want, but over the course of four games - an admittedly small sample size - his value appears to be worth a difference of about 60 yards. That's multiple stops per game. Multiple good reads per game. Multiple correct defensive audibles per game.

 

Man Jason you're 'en fuego' today. Excellent note.

[madlithuanian]

Agreed.

 

However, I'm not really sure it's the physicality that we are truly missing. I lean on the leadership void that appears missing. Briggs is no Url. Peppy is no Url. Peanut is no Url. I'm just not seeing a real leader, especially by example, out there right now. Peppers finally had a good game, but his personality doesn't fit that of a true leader. Briggs doesn't appear to have it.

 

I think we all miss Url of old... And yesterday, I'mp retty sure even a hobbled old Url would have made a play or 2 to help the cause. But, his departure spell as much for the future as it does for the present. This team is moving on. And next season, I bet many of the names mentioned above will have moved on...

 

We need to get younger. On the OL and at WR, we did that.

 

Now we need to do so on the DL and the secondary. Virtual ooposites of the same coin.

 

Man Jason you're 'en fuego' today. Excellent note.

 

[DABEARSDABOMB]

Man Jason you're 'en fuego' today. Excellent note.

I think it has a lot to do with the respect Urlacher commanded too. People didn't want to try to force something near Urlacher. Past his prime he might have been but early performances indicate he was more valuable then we previously thought last year.

[Mongo3451]

I’m going to go out on a limb here and minimize the Urlacher effect. There are a lot of things that are different that are having a huge impact on our play.

 

1) We have a brand new defensive staff. You can keep the system as familiar as you can, but there is always going to be some confusion, because the head is not the same head the body is used to being led by.

2) We are not just missing Urlacher. Roach was an underrated part of our D. With his and Url’s departure we lost 2/3 of the starting LB core. Do we really think these guys are not in their gap because Urlacher is not calling the defense?

3) Julius Peppers, Henry Melton and Charles Tillman were all banged up in the pre-season. That’s a ton of talent that didn’t get much work. Peppers is getting better, Tillman is getting worse and Melton is out for the season. I’m thinking Tillman needs to sit a week to get healthy, as he has always been a liability in coverage when healthy and has made his mark with great tackling and turnovers. Tillman with a bad wheel is going to require a lot of safety help which opens things up elsewhere. While Peppers is getting up to speed WTF is McClellin? I’ve seen him games, but his impact has been negative so far. DL needs to step up.

4) Brian Urlacher. He may be missed on adjustments and audibles that we’ll never know the truth on. I’m sure there has been some. But, I am also sure that Briggs is experienced and capable enough to fill the void. That being said, I believe it to be a positive that Url is gone.

 

There are simply too many variables to give one person that much credit for success and/or failure.

[Alaskan Grizzly]

I’m going to go out on a limb here and minimize the Urlacher effect. There are a lot of things that are different that are having a huge impact on our play.

 

4) Brian Urlacher. He may be missed on adjustments and audibles that we’ll never know the truth on. I’m sure there has been some. But, I am also sure that Briggs is experienced and capable enough to fill the void. That being said, I believe it to be a positive that Url is gone.

 

There are simply too many variables to give one person that much credit for success and/or failure.

 

But credit earned where credit is due. There is no question the Bears defense is the same without Urlacher. A few years back when Urlacher was out due to injury, the team assigned Briggs the defensive play-calling duties. The team was noticably different and not nearly efficient on that side of the ball. Briggs does not recognize the needed adjustments as quck did Urlacher. And with the way teams are doing more audibles on the offensive side than in the past, that's a big factor.

 

That all being said, the offense did the defense no favors in last Sunday's games. Cutler's three interceptions not only shortened the field but put the defense on the field for longer durations. And with Peppers, Tillman, Williams and Anderson all getting older it was evident that it hurt all concerned.

[madlithuanian]

Agreed on Briggs. He bring only a fraction of what Url brought as a team leader. There is room for improvement mind you. But, from what I've seen so far, it's not even close.

 

That is a void that still needs to be filled. Briggs can up his game and do it to a satisfactory level. But it won't reach an Url level without having an Url-like player. A guy like Bostic could be a candidate as a longshot...

 

But credit earned where credit is due. There is no question the Bears defense is the same without Urlacher. A few years back when Urlacher was out due to injury, the team assigned Briggs the defensive play-calling duties. The team was noticably different and not nearly efficient on that side of the ball. Briggs does not recognize the needed adjustments as quck did Urlacher. And with the way teams are doing more audibles on the offensive side than in the past, that's a big factor.

 

That all being said, the offense did the defense no favors in last Sunday's games. Cutler's three interceptions not only shortened the field but put the defense on the field for longer durations. And with Peppers, Tillman, Williams and Anderson all getting older it was evident that it hurt all concerned.

 

[Mongo3451]

But credit earned where credit is due. There is no question the Bears defense is the same without Urlacher. A few years back when Urlacher was out due to injury, the team assigned Briggs the defensive play-calling duties. The team was noticably different and not nearly efficient on that side of the ball. Briggs does not recognize the needed adjustments as quck did Urlacher. And with the way teams are doing more audibles on the offensive side than in the past, that's a big factor.

 

That all being said, the offense did the defense no favors in last Sunday's games. Cutler's three interceptions not only shortened the field but put the defense on the field for longer durations. And with Peppers, Tillman, Williams and Anderson all getting older it was evident that it hurt all concerned.

I thought I gave credit. Do you remember the 2 years before Peppers joined the team? Urlacher was still playing at a Pro Bowl level and because we had a new coordinator and could not generate a pass rush, the defense sucked. Julius Peppers arrives and the same defense is suddenly good. I simply think that is the issue.

 

 

If our DL can pressure the QB, we should be fine. If not, we are going to be big big trouble.

[Bears4Ever_34]

To be honest, I don't think Urlacher would have made a bit of difference. The issue doesn't appear to be leadership, the issues are getting off blocks and getting to the quarterback.

 

I'm all for going to some 3-4 if that's what it takes to get pressure. Put Washington and or McCellin at OLB, and let them rush the QB. Keep the 1 gap responsibilities so you don't have to screw around with what the D-Line is doing every play, or if you wait until the offseason, maybe drafting a true NT is something that should be considered if they want to go with the 2 gap scheme.