Bear Necessities: Matt Eberflus, Alan Williams stress need for more sacks
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The Chicago Bears defense has done a good job taking the football away this season. But there’s plenty of room for improvement when it comes to stopping the run and sacking the quarterback.
The Bears have totaled six sacks through three games, which ranks 22nd in the NFL. It’s not great, and head coach Matt Eberflus acknowledged that his defense needs to do a better job bringing pressure and getting home on the opposing quarterback.
“We need more,” Eberflus said, via NBC Sports Chicago. “We need more and, again, it can come from all levels. We need to come from pressure players, safeties, linebackers, nickels, and front. So it’s gotta come from everybody. Certainly we want our four-man rush to get going there and we will get that going, but certainly we need to have some from other spots as well.”
Chicago doesn’t blitz much under defensive coordinator Alan Williams. They rank 31st with a blitz rate of 7.3%. They’ve counted on their front four getting home, and they have a 33% pressure rate (4th in the NFL).
Last week, the Bears struggled to get after Texans quarterback Davis Mills, who at times had plenty of time in the pocket. Mills was sacked just once in the game.
“We do want more pressure, but we just want to make sure that at the end of the day when we look at the stat sheet that the sacks are timelyー which they wereー and that on third down we’re getting off the football field,” defensive coordinator Alan Williams. “That’s the most important thing. Each week, when we look at ourselves and scout ourselves, we see, ‘Hey, what do we need to improve on?’ and if that’s the case then we’ll do some different things to generate more pressure and some more sacks.
“And I don’t know if there’s such a thing as too many sacks, or too many pressures. There’s no such thing. That’s like a car too fast, or too much money. You can’t have too much or too many. Yeah, so we always want more pressure.”
The good news is the Bears face a Giants team with a turnstile offensive line in pass protection. New York has allowed 13 sacks through three games, which ranks 30th in the league. Chicago should be able to find success getting after Daniel Jones.
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