Chicago Bears defense isn’t sacking the QB, but underlying numbers indicate that could change

LAKE FOREST – The Bears held a one-point lead in the fourth quarter against the Minnesota Vikings but simply couldn’t get their defense off the field.

Five times the Vikings faced third down, and five times they converted. That included a 1-yard QB sneak from Kirk Cousins to score the go-ahead touchdown in Sunday’s 29-22 Vikings win in Minneapolis. The Vikings drove 75 yards on 17 plays and ate up seven minutes of playing time.

That was pretty much the story of the game, too. Throughout the first half, the Vikings methodically picked apart the Bears’ defense. For the game, Minnesota went 12 for 15 on third downs.

The Vikings had only a few explosive plays in the game, but they dink and dunked their way down field all afternoon against the Bears’ defense.

“They did make some plays, but I still would like to think it’s more about us than it is about them,” Bears defensive coordinator Alan Williams said Tuesday at Halas Hall. “It’s still about owning your gap. It’s still about reading your keys. It’s still about tackling. It’s still about doing those types of things, more so than it is about them.”

A big part of the issue has been the lack of pass rush success.

Under head coach Matt Eberflus and his 4-3 defensive scheme, the goal is to create pressure with only four players rushing the passer. If the pass rush isn’t effective, it puts extra stress on the rest of the defense. In Eberflus’ four years as the defensive coordinator in Indianapolis, the Colts always were at or near the bottom of the league in blitz percentage, but they still found ways to be successful without sending an extra defender at the QB.

Currently, the Bears have the lowest blitz rate of all 32 NFL teams at 13%. They are sticking with that plan of rushing four, but the results haven’t come. They have only eight sacks on the season (tied for 25th most).

There are, however, reasons to think this might change. According to Pro Football Reference, the Bears lead the league in QB hurries with 29 through five games and a QB hurry rate of 17.9%. They also have the fewest QB knockdowns (times the QB hit the ground after throwing) with only seven. Those two numbers together would seem to indicate that the Bears are getting pressure, those pressures just aren’t resulting in QB hits or sacks. If the Bears keep pressuring the QB at a high rate, those results are going to come.

This could be the week where it turns around. The Bears face the Washington Commanders and QB Carson Wentz on Thursday night. Wentz is third in the league with 20 sacks allowed in five games.

“You want to do everything you can to do that,” linebacker Roquan Smith said of pressuring Wentz. “I think it’s going to start with stopping the run, and then when you put that … into his hands, putting the ball into his hands, with any team, making them one-dimensional [will] make any quarterback’s job tougher.”

A key matchup to watch this week will be Bears defensive end Robert Quinn against Commanders left tackle – and former Bears left tackle – Charles Leno.

Wentz has thrown six interceptions and fumbled six times already this season.

“I definitely think we have the guys to do the job, and every job that needs to be done,” Smith said. “It’s just about honing in each and every play because we’ve seen that we can do it countless times over and over again.”