The Chicago Bears took home a victory in the opener against the Carolina Panthers. Most of the credit goes to the offense, which piled up 554 yards and 59 points. That made it easier to stomach a defense that allowed 37 points. It was certainly not the debut anybody was hoping for. Panthers quarterback Bryce Young had his way with them most of the afternoon, throwing for 361 yards and 3 touchdowns. Yet people are missing what makes that stat line look even worse for the Bears.
FTN Fantasy charted the data of every quarterback in week one. Among the numbers included was something called progression distribution. This revealed which reads each quarterback threw to on Sunday and how often. Love’s data is particularly interesting. No less than 65% of his passes in that game were to his first read. That was the 4th-most of any quarterback in the lead. It means the Bears’ secondary consistently left that first read open all day, raising major concerns about their coverage ability.
Bryce Young confirmed Dennis Allen’s biggest worry.
Allowing 361 yards is one thing. If your pass rush can’t get home, there really isn’t much the secondary can do. That isn’t the case here. Chicago sacked Young twice and pressured him 22 times. That is more than enough to disrupt his play. Unfortunately, the secondary failed to take advantage by leaving guys open so often. It turns out defensive coordinator Dennis Allen might’ve been hinting at the real concern. Before the season, he was asked about the state of the pass rush. Allen made it clear that getting to the quarterback is impossible unless your coverage can force the quarterback to his second or third read.
“Typically to affect the quarterback with a rush, unless you’re Myles Garrett or Von Miller back in the day, it’s really right at about 3.1 seconds…Prior to that, you’ve got to affect the quarterback with your coverage, meaning you’ve got to get him to have to go to his second or third read.”
In retrospect, Allen likely knew something we didn’t. Bears’ cornerbacks were victimized way too often in that game. Tyrique Stevenson allowed 77 yards and 2 touchdowns. Jaylon Johnson, insistent that he is aiming for a big pay raise after this season, allowed 127 yards. Only rookie Malik Muhammad did his job, allowing 55% passes completed in his direction, no touchdowns, and snagging an interception. One thing is clear. The Bears can’t hope to stop anybody unless that group improves. Quickly. Better quarterbacks than Bryce Young await this season.
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This defensive scheme was always reliant on corners.
If you look back at Allen’s best seasons in New Orleans with the Saints, they coincided with an excellent group of cornerbacks. You had All-Pro Marshon Lattimore, an older but still solid Janoris Jenkins, and a young C.J. Gardner-Johnson. Jaylon Johnson hasn’t really been the same player since that nasty core injury he suffered last season. It remains to be seen if he can regain his old form. Stevenson has always been a wild card. Terrible one week and good the next. Gordon can’t stay healthy. Muhammad has promise, but needs time to grow.
Somebody needs to step up. Otherwise, the Bears are in big trouble. Making life easier for a quarterback is never a good thing. Leaving their first read open so often invites pain and suffering. Allen knew this from the beginning. Scheming can cover it up only so much. Guys need to start doing their jobs. If it continues, you can bet cornerback will streak to the top of the priority list next spring.
