The Chicago Bears defense is back to its old ways. Carrying the team forward to success. As the #1 unit in points allowed last season, they helped the team to its first winning record (12-4) since 2012 and first division title since 2010. The craziest part is how young the unit is. No player in the starting lineup will be over 30-years old with most hovering between 25 and 28. This means there is no reason to expect them to fall off a cliff.
Yet that is exactly what Andy Benoit of the MMQB tries to do. It’s no secret the longtime Sports Illustrated columnist is a critic of the Bears in general. His pieces have followed that line for some time now. He’s not a big believer in Mitch Trubisky at quarterback and seems to think too many weaknesses have opened up on the defensive side to get this team back to the playoffs.
His reasoning? Nothing new. The same excuse most of the others have already covered.
“Losing coordinator Vic Fangio to the head job in Denver proves huge. Fangio’s scheme, which was built on blurry matchup-zone coverages, was the soundest in football. Its presnap two-deep safety looks and complex coverage rotations protected corners Kyle Fuller and Prince Amukamara, who in turn could aggressively play the ball.
New coordinator Chuck Pagano is an accomplished defensive play-caller, but his system is built more on blitzing, which means one deep safety and man coverage on the outside. This exposes Chicago’s secondary, which is also simply less talented after replacing safety Adrian Amos and slot corner Bryce Callahan with erratic free agents Ha-Ha Clinton-Dix and Buster Skrine, respectively.”
Benoit convinced Chicago Bears defense is nothing without Fangio
Here’s the thing about Benoit. He’s utterly convinced himself that Fangio was the sole reason that the Bears defense became good at all. There is no question that the man was an outstanding coordinator. His efforts were undoubtedly a big reason for its success. The only reason though? Not even close. Let’s not forget that Benoit is an unabashed New England Patriots lover.
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No team offers a better example of surviving life from one defensive coordinator to another. They went from Romeo Crennel to Eric Mangini, to Dean Pees, to Matt Patricia, and to Brian Flores. That didn’t stop them from constantly fielding top 10 units in points allowed and winning championships.
The Bears finished 1st in the NFL last year. Repeating that feat is unrealistic. That doesn’t mean the defense will suddenly be bad. The last five Super Bowl champions ranked 7th, 4th, 1st, 4th, and 8th in points allowed respectively. Chicago doesn’t necessarily have to be the absolute best in that category. They just need to…you know…not suck.
Given the talent they have and an experienced coach like Chuck Pagano? That shouldn’t be too hard to manage.
