Chicago Bears Sackwatch 2016: Week 4 vs Detroit Lions

The Chicago Bears’ pass protection wasn’t as stellar against the Detroit Lions as it was week three against the Dallas Cowboys, but it was still pretty damn good. They only allowed a lonely quarterback hit against the Cowboys, which is unheard of with the long line of J’Marcus Webbs, Vladimir Ducasses, Frank Omimales and Jordan Mills’ littering the Sackwatch through the years.

But against the Lions, Chicago allowed 2 sacks and 5 quarterback hits, which isn’t bad considering the nature of the two sacks allowed.

The Bears’ o-line is starting to play better together because they are starting to trust each other. Trust builds confidence, and confidence leads to less thinking and more reacting.

Sackwatch after 4 games

2010 - 18 Martz
2011 - 15 Martz
2012 - 13 Tice
2013 - 6 Trestman
2014 - 8 Trestman
2015 - 9 Gase
2016 - 11 Loggians

Sack 10 - First Quarter 4:14 Darius Slay
Sometimes a defense brings more people than an offense can block. In those instances it’s up to the quarterback to recognize the threat and to get the ball out to his hot receiver. On this play Brian Hoyer doesn’t even react to the free blitzer until Darius Slay was on top of him.

The pass protection holds up across the board, with running back Jordan Howard correctly getting the inside blitzer. This was just a well designed zone blitz by the Lions. Notice how they drop their defensive tackle and A-Gap linebacker off the line and how they send the double defensive backs to Chicago’s right. The Bears had to account for the DT and LB, and the 2 DBs timed their blitzes perfectly.

It was good execution by Detroit, but this sack is on Hoyer.

Sack 11 - Second Quarter :54 Kerry Hyder
I must have went back and forth on where to assign blame on this sack a dozen times. On one hand, it’s just one of those unfortunate sacks that occasionally happens when a quarterback tries to take off, but he ends up giving a blocked defender the angle to slip the block. So my original thought was to slap it in the Sacks Happen category.

The overall pass pro starts off decent enough. Right tackle Bobby Massie has his body between the top of Hoyer’s drop and his man, defensive end Kerry Hyder. When Hoyer decided to step up Hyder was able to slip Massie’s block, since Massie no longer had leverage, and get the sack.

It happens...

But...

Massie is playing a little too high and getting walked back too easily. Also, he gives up the inside instead of opening the door for Hyder to take an outside rush past his QB.

Take a look at right guard Kyle Long. His man tries to bull-rush him, and instead of staying square with the defender, he turns his shoulders ever so slightly to induce his man to the right. You never want to get beat to the inside.

After the first couple steps backwards by Massie, he should have worked his hips around to his right — just a smidge — and that would have induced Hyder’s path to the outside edge.

Left tackle Charles Leno allowed the hesitation move to get him off his technique, but he recovered well enough to push his man past the play.

Maybe I’m nitpicking, but I’m gonna give this one entirely to Massie.

Here’s how I have the individual Sackwatch after four weeks.

Jay Cutler - 3
Bobbie Massie - 2
Cody Whitehair - 1.5
Brian Hoyer - 1
Logan Paulsen - 1
Charles Leno - 1
Sacks Happen - 1
Jeremy Langford - .5

What are your thoughts this week?

Also, in case you missed it, I graded the Bears’ offensive line this week, so go check that out.