| 15 June 2010
The 2009-2010 off-season has been defined by a retooling of the offensive coaching staff and a pretty solid retooling of the defensive personnel. Most Bears fans are excited about the addition of Mike Martz, but are equally excited about the addition of Julius Peppers to the defense.
I however would like to state emphatically that is wasn’t the overall failure of the offense that caused the failure of the 2010 season but rather the problems on defense, most notably within Lovie Smith’s defensive scheme.
While most Bears fans are familiar with the Tampa-2 or Cover-2 defensive scheme, what they’re not as familiar with is the one gap scheme that Smith utilizes and how it plays into the overall success of the defense. Within the one-gap scheme the Bears rely primarily on speed , quickness and explosion instead of size and strength and occupying blockers at the point of attack. The defensive tackles are all classic one gap penetration attackers, they’re goal is to fire into the backfield between the splits of the offensive lineman and disrupt the play or drop the running back for a loss. It’s a down hill style of defense that is always in attack mode with little read and reaction. The defense is primarily attack your gap and get to the ball carrier with every player flowing to the football to make the play.
Over the years this has been a relatively successful defensive scheme, as the Bears have been at or near the top of the league in tackles for a loss or in NFL terms stuffed plays. In 2008 the Bears led the league in this category and in 2009 they were yet again near the top of the NFL. To put it simply this defense has done the job more often than not leading to a lot of third and long opportunities.
To run this defense not only does your front seven have to be aggressive, but it has to be disciplined within the defense. The discipline aspect of the defense comes from the defenders needing to maintain their gaps and not stack up more than one player in the same gap leading to cut back lanes for the running back.
Examples of when the Bears clearly struggled to maintain their discipline can be found specifically in the game against the Bengals. The defense seemed to hyped up to get Cedric Benson and deal out a little pay back that they often left major cut back lanes for Benson to exploit, which he did to the tune over 187 yards rushing.
Another important aspect of the one-gap scheme is for the defenders to be able to get off blocks and make tackles. Especially the linebackers, they need to be able to attack down hill and blast the blockers at the point of attack. In 2009 without Brian Urlacher on defense, Hunter Hillenmeyer struggled to make plays at the point of attack. Hillenmeyer in fact was far too often getting blow up or driven out of his gap which led big gains.
While Urlacher doesn’t exactly hold up well at the point of attack either, he has been able to use his quickness to better exploit and attack his gap. He is able to slip past blockers and into the backfield to make the play essentially playing dodge the blocker to relative success.
Lance Briggs on the other hand has always excelled at attacking in a downhill fashion and has always been afraid to take on blockers and make the play. Briggs excels in the one gap scheme because he is fearless in taking on blockers but is also very quick and instinctive. In a lot of ways Briggs plays like Ray Lewis in that he can get side line to side line but also be the guy to step up and make a big play in short yardage situations.
The one gap scheme is where the Bears get very little credit for their consistent success. They have usually been very solid at stopping the run and putting the offense in third and long situations.
Where they have struggled the most has been getting off the field on third and long situations. That has primarily been because they have struggled mightily to rush the QB. Even with a favorable sack total in the middle of the pack last year the Bears were far too inconsistent in applying pressure. The primary goal of playing the Cover-2 or even Cover-3 zone is getting pressure on the QB and keeping everything in front of you. The Bears in 2008 were the most blitz happy team in the NFL which completely contradicts the strategy behind the Cover-2 defense. Even with an attacking and blitzing style of blitzing where the Bears blitzed more than any other team in the NFL the Bears still failed to get pressure on the quarterback.
The question then becomes why were the Bears still unable to get pressure on the QB? The simple answer the Bears are arguably one of the worst blitzing teams in the NFL, but beyond that the personnel is designed to play zone and excel in playing zone. Charles Tillman and Zack Bowman do not excel in one on one coverage, the safeties are not ball hawking center fielders who make plays while the ball is in the air and the linebackers aren’t built to be pass rushers first.
Obviously this is why Tommie Harris and Julius Peppers playing well will make life easier on the Bears in 2010. The pressure will HAVE to come from the front four, it’s boom or bust getting pressure on the QB to force short throws in front of the coverage so that the linebackers can use their speed, the DB’s can step up and strip the ball and attack down hill.
As an example of the Bears’ major success with this defense in 2006 they led the league in third down conversion percentage and led the league with the fewest yards allowed per pass on average. They got pressure from the front four which led to quick throws where the defense could flow to the football and make the tackle.
The important aspect when thinking about the lack of defensive success for the Chicago Bears over the last few seasons is to state simply the Bears didn’t get to the quarterback. As is the fundamental principal with any defense, the object is simple find a way to put the QB on his ass. This was the simple truth with Buddy Ryan’s 46 defense, and it’s the same truth with the zone blitz defense that is so popular today. Success comes from getting in the face of the QB. It doesn’t come from a fancy scheme it comes from the personnel on the field and that personnel being able to do whatever it takes to get pressure.
Talk of the Bears not running an aggressive enough defensive scheme is completely misguided. The one-gap scheme is a very aggressive scheme by design. The scheme is all about attacking and penetration where as the two gap is more about occupying, controlling, and maintaining. The attacking style of defense has helped the Bears succeed in stopping the run in the past and likely will continue to do so. Attacking down hill and attacking one gap makes the defense simple yet very effective.
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