Pelissero: Everyone passes against the Bears' defense

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Everyone passes against the Bears' defense

By Tom Pelissero

tpelisse@greenbaypressgazette.com


The last time an NFL defense faced more than 41 passes a game was the strike-shortened 1982 season, when in nine games, opponents put the ball in the air 375 times against Tom Flores’ Los Angeles Raiders.

That’s precisely the number of passes opponents have thrown against the Chicago Bears in nine games this season, compared to only 216 rushes.

Though the disparity almost certainly will narrow during the course of a three-game December homestand at often-windy Soldier Field, the way teams have targeted the Bears is at least as compelling as their No. 30 ranking in pass defense.

Take Sunday’s 21-14 loss to the unbeaten Tennessee Titans and quarterback Kerry Collins, who posted season highs with 289 passing yards, two touchdown passes — and 41 attempts — to bail out a high-powered running attack that managed all of 20 yards on 29 rushes.

The week before, Detroit’s Dan Orlovsky threw 47 times for 292 yards. The week before that, Minnesota’s Gus Frerotte threw 40 times for 298 yards.

The Bears’ numbers are respectable in yards per pass play (6.4, tied for the seventh) and opponent passer rating (76.6, 11th), and 12 of their 20 takeaways — tied for the league lead — are interceptions (Orlovsky and Frerotte combined for six).

But the latest in a season of big passing days by less-than-elite quarterbacks, coupled with one of the league’s least efficient pass rushes, had Bears coach Lovie Smith defending the virility of his Tampa-2 defensive scheme as his team prepared for Sunday’s game against the Green Bay Packers.

“With how we play pass defense,” Smith said in a conference call this week, “I assume most teams would want to pass it just about every time on us right now.”

Eight defensive starters remain from the Super Bowl XLI team of two seasons ago, plus two players who were starters before finishing that season on injured reserve. Opponents also threw on those Bears a lot (36.3 pass attempts per game), but they allowed far fewer passing yards — 194.4 per game, compared to 251.8 this year — on a league-low 5.8 yards per pass play.

“We’re just not stopping the pass very well,” Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher said. “We’ve done some things with our techniques that haven’t really worked. We haven’t played them like we should. We give up some plays, but it’s nothing that teams are doing to us. It’s just, we have to make plays when we get a chance to do it. We’re just getting out of position.”

Then there is the matter of the pass rush, which despite an increased emphasis on blitzing ranks 29th in sacks per pass play. Starting ends Alex Brown and Adewale Ogunleye lead the team with modest totals of three and 2½ sacks, respectively. Situational rusher Mark Anderson, who had 12 sacks in 2006, has none.

On Sunday, they’ll go up against a Packers offense coming off a brutal performance at Minnesota in which Aaron Rodgers was sacked four times and threw for only 142 yards.

Whether the Bears stick with the front-heavy game plan that’s been effective against opposing rushing attacks or make a significant adjustment to try to stem the airflow remains to be seen.

Smith strongly indicated it would be the former, telling reporters in Chicago: “Our scheme is good. We have to execute better. It’s kind of as simple as that. We’ve had success with this defense and we’re not going to change up. We’ll always tweak it. We tweak our defense each week. And it’s not like we play the same call each play. We do it all. But you still have to execute when it’s called.”

Packers offensive coordinator Joe Philbin said: “More and more teams are trying to make you one-dimensional, making you throw the football, outnumbering you (at the line of scrimmage). Obviously, (the Bears) did some of that to Tennessee, and they’ve done it to some other people as well. They’re aggressive. They’re not afraid to pressure. They’re confident in their guys.”

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Smith strongly indicated it would be the former, telling reporters in Chicago: “Our scheme is good. We have to execute better. It’s kind of as simple as that. We’ve had success with this defense and we’re not going to change up. We’ll always tweak it. We tweak our defense each week. And it’s not like we play the same call each play. We do it all. But you still have to execute when it’s called.”

What Lovie lacks in personality, he makes up for in stubbornness.