Chicago Bears Sackwatch 2021: Week 16 vs Seattle Seahawks

With four more sacks allowed to the Seattle Seahawks last Sunday, the 2021 Chicago Bears are now tied with the Baltimore Ravens with 49 sacks taken this season. They’re all alone at the top of this year’s sack percentage category at 9.7%, with second place Seattle being sacked on 9.1% of their drop backs. From a historical standpoint, the 49 sacks the Bears have allowed now ranks fifth all-time in franchise history.

The good news is the Bears play the Giants next, and they only have 29 sacks this season (26th overall), but Chicago finishes the year in Minnesota and the Vikings’ 44 sacks is currently tied for second most in the NFL.

On to the Sackwatch!

Sack 46 - Third Quarter 12:53 - Rasheem Green
This came one play after the Seahawks got a first down tackle for loss on David Montgomery, so they were backed up in a second and 14. Nick Foles gets to the top of his drop, feels a little pressure from the edges and then OMG WHAT IS SAM MUSTIPHER DOING!

The edge pressure wasn’t awful, and a pocket passer like Foles wants to gather step up and throw, but I don’t think he was expecting Mustipher to be on ice skates. Seattle defensive tackle Poona Ford (#97) bullies the Bears center into Foles’ lap.

Foles tries to bounce off and escape, but left tackle Larry Borom lost the inside to Rasheem Green. The FOX broadcast tried to point out that Seattle had good coverage, but on the replay there were actually receivers open if Foles had time to cock his arm and throw.

I’m giving this one to Sam, as it was the bullrush from Ford that doomed this play.

Sack 47 - Fourth Quarter 15:00 - Carlos Dunlap II
Borom gave up the inside move so quick on this one that it almost makes me think he was expecting a deeper drop from his quarterback. Borom’s set was too parallel with the line of scrimmage which opened up the inside for Carols Dunlap II.

The sack happened too quick for Foles to even hit his hot read, which was Montgomery out of the backfield. I know some may think that Montgomery should have chipped on Dunlap as he darted through the line, but I’m fairly certain that’s not how it’s designed. The back has a free release unless a linebacker blitzes, so this one is on Borom. There is no, ‘If the LT is beat like a drum to the inside stay in to help’ coaching pointer given to the running back on this play, so there’s no reason for Montgomery to deviate from his assignment. Borom got beat.

Sack 48 - Fourth Quarter 11:34 - Rasheem Green
This is another quick sack, and it’s another easy one to place blame.

Seattle moved defensive end Green to the inside and he beat right guard James Daniels with speed. Daniels didn’t cut off the b-gap quick enough and he wasn’t even in position to push Green past the pocket. Foles didn’t have a chance.

Sack 49 - Fourth Quarter 2:00 - Carlos Dunlap II
Dunlap came all the way over to the left after working on right tackle Germain Ifedi, but this was Dunlap’s hustle that led to the clean up strip/sack and not anything Ifedi did wrong. The pressure that spooked Foles was from defensive tackle Ford, who was working on Daniels, but after initially losing his footing Daniels recovered to push Ford past the pocket. Foles pulled the ball back and tried to make a play with his feet.

In hindsight Foles could have stayed in the pocket as every one else held their block, but that quick pressure sped up his internal clock. I feel it’s a bit nit-picky to give this one to the QB, because even if he stayed strong in the pocket he didn’t have anywhere to go with the ball, but he would have had more options had he done that. This one is on Foles.

Now let’s get to the freshly updated lists for this season.

Historical Sackwatch after 15 games

2010 - 50 Martz
2011 - 42 Martz
2012 - 43 Tice
2013 - 29 Trestman
2014 - 39 Trestman
2015 - 29 Gase
2016 - 25 Loggains
2017 - 38 Loggains
2018 - 33 Nagy
2019 - 41 Nagy
2020 - 35 Nagy
2021 - 49 Nagy/Lazor

The 2021 season is doing its best to keep pace with the Mike Martz coordinated, Jay Cutler was running for his life, 7-step drop, Frank Omiyale and J’Marcus Webb at tackle, 2010 season.

Here’s the individual 2021 Sackwatch tally after 15 games.

Sacks happen - 11.5
Justin Fields - 9
Jason Peters - 6
James Daniels - 4
Cody Whitehair - 3.5
Germain Ifedi - 3
Larry Borom - 2.5
Lachavious Simmons - 2
Teven Jenkins - 2
Sam Mustipher - 1.5
Alex Bars - 1
Khalil Herbert - 1
Nick Foles - 1
Andy Dalton - .5
Cole Kmet - .5

This last stat is fascinating probably just to me, but here’s the full list of defenders that sacked a Bear QB more than once this season along with their sack total from that game.

Week 1 - Rams: Justin Hollins 2
Week 2 - Bengals: Trey Hendrickson 1.5
Week 3 - Cleveland Browns: Myles Garrett 4.5, Jadeveon Clowney 2
Week 5 - Las Vegas Raiders: Yannick Ngakoue 2
Week 6 - Green Bay Packers: Kenny Clark 2
Week 7 - Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Jason Pierre-Paul 2
Week 8 - San Francisco 49ers: Nick Bosa 2
Week 9 - Pittsburgh Steelers: T.J. Watt 3
Week 11 - Ravens: Tyus Bowser 2
Week 13 - Cardinals: Jordan Hicks 2
Week 14 - Packers: Preston Smith 2
Week 15 - Vikings: D. J. Wonnum 3
Week 16 - Seahawks: Rasheem Green 2, Carlos Dunlap II 2

The Lions are still the only team (2X) that failed to have a defender register more than 1 sack against Chicago’s pass protection, but the Browns and Seahawks each has two.