Time For Bears D To Earn Their Money

by Adam T on Nov 5, 2008 7:35 AM CST Comment 12 comments

This off season the Bears barely even whiffed at high priced free agents like Alan Faneca and Michael Turner. Part of the reason was so they could resign their own. The Bears gave big money to Tommie Harris, Lance Briggs and Brian Urlacher among others. But so far this season the Bears D have not held up their part of the deal.

Only one team in the NFL is spending more money on their D than the Bears.

The defense is ranked 18th in the 32-team NFL despite the fact the Bears have allocated a higher percentage of their salary cap to that area than all but one other team. The Bears have put 47 percent of the $116 million salary cap into their defense for this season. It's a massive amount of money when you consider they have just 32 percent of their salary cap -- the 26th-lowest amount -- invested in an offense that ranks 15th in the NFL.

The Bears defense was directly to blame for giving up leads late in games, which has accounted for the Bears 3 loses.

The Bears currently have 16 sacks which is 16th in the league. They rank 3rd in the league in INTs with 12. They rank 6th in the league in rush defense allowing only 81.8 yards per game. So it would seem the Bears defense is pretty good, but the Bears have only recently started showing signs of life on D.

The two biggest problems with the Bears defense is their inability to create consistent pressure on the QB. We have decent money wrapped up in that front 4, they should be able to get to the QB. Secondly, the Bears cannot stop the pass. Whatever scheme they are in is ineffective. They rank 29th in the league in passing yards allowed giving up 247.8 a game.

With Kyle Orton out for a few games and a tough schedule ahead the Bears defense needs to earn their money.

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only guy earnign his money out there

is briggs.

by mike b on Nov 5, 2008 9:05 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

Consistently, that's for damn sure

If he wouldn’t be injured and would even act like he plays defense, I’d throw Tillman in there.

I'M A MAN! I'M 22!

by ChiFan13 on Nov 5, 2008 10:50 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

i'd throw payne in there with briggs

i’ve liked what i’ve seen out of him this year, although he isn’t really making any money in terms of nfl pay scale. our big problem this year has been the 3 lineman with fat salaries…harris, brown and ogun. they aren’t doing shit and it is killing us.

i’ll still never understand why we are sinking so much money into tillman and vasher if they are just going to play soft coverage all the time. you don’t need top defensive backs to play soft zone, you just need a few guys with a little motivation and tackling ability. hell, mcbride/graham wouldn’t be a downgrade from tillman/vasher the way we are scheming this year.

by lopey986 on Nov 6, 2008 1:29 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Corners

are not our problem although Vasher has not gotten in synch yet this year. The biggest reason for the pass defense is our safeties. This includes Payne who has been good in run support and on blitzes but is still too late to the ball over the middle on slants and in the cover 2. Generally he and Brown play too deep for fear of the big play. Our corners being out may have contributed to this but they are back and need to start making plays on the ball, which to Browns credit he was better at last week.

by tfrabotta on Nov 7, 2008 3:17 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Who spends more on D than us?

Baltimore? Colts (I guess most of their money is wrapped up in 2 players though)?

Fire Ron Turner!!!
Fire Angelo!!

by GallopingGhost on Nov 5, 2008 9:32 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

Maybe Oakland

With Asomugha(sp?), DeAngelo Hall, and that lineman Tommie Kelly, I think his name is

by Edicus2288i on Nov 5, 2008 11:02 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Where is Whale and Harris?

Having to listen to more players this week whine about the fan’s booing of the D and Grossman, I have to think that it’s only going to get much worse if the DT’s don’t start playing up to their level of talent. That, more than any other reason, would account for the secondary’s poor showing this year. Peanut and Vasher are out there alone for longer periods of time than I can ever remember before.

by Waylon on Nov 5, 2008 11:13 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

When you

sign a bunch of players on the defense in an off-season and give some of them signing bonuses, it’s pretty easy to imagine why THIS YEARS cap number on D would be higher. Who cares? It doesn’t mean anything at all. Especially when you sign people at bargain prices during the offseason on offense, who, incidentally, have mostly worked out for us. Orton/Grossman/Hanie has the be the cheapest lineup of QBs in the league, Lloyd (obviously not due to injury), a rookie RB, an injury concern RB, not signing Berrian…plus Tillman and Vasher are starting to hit higher money years in their contracts. Methinks one of them will be traded in a few years or so. Probably the latter.

When people in your secondary get hurt, or don’t pan out at certain positions (Manning cough Manning), what do you expect? They’re generating enough turnovers and our O simply hasn’t capitalized on enough of them to put games out of reach. Or, we turn the ball over ourselves at crucial times. This simplistic view of our D is beyond goofy.

WCG: Seriously, you need to proofread your stuff. It’s nearly unreadable. You apparently don’t even use the spellchecker.

by mikebdot on Nov 5, 2008 11:15 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

lol really?

the offense really failed to capitalize on those turnovers in the minny game. yeah, we force some turnovers but we give up way too many points and spend way too much time on the field due to failure to stop a team on 3rd and long. this defense is underachieving terribly.

by lopey986 on Nov 6, 2008 1:31 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

and we'll all see a REAL defense this weekend

when we take on the titans.

by lopey986 on Nov 6, 2008 1:33 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Not sure

what exactly you are responding to here. Their defense is overrated. They’re built to generate pressure. I think we showed we can handle some of the league’s best pass rushers. Orton has excelled in getting rid of the ball quickly. When he doesn’t, he usually takes a sack. Not rocket science. I just hope Chris Williams comes in and gives the team a spark in the running game.

by mikebdot on Nov 7, 2008 1:31 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

The Atlanta game

is the only time we couldn’t stop them on third and long…when Vasher was out the whole game and Tillman was nursing an injury and ended up getting hurt on that offensive pass interference call.

We have one of the best third down defenses in the league.

Talking out of your butt is bad.

And, it was as I expected:

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/football/bears/1265864,CST-SPT-bearnt07.article

Tillman’s cap number for the year is very high. And the $10M cap hit for Hamilton is just plain not true. Maybe he’ll block six punts though.

by mikebdot on Nov 7, 2008 1:29 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs