Over the first four weeks of the 2019 season, the play of the Bears offense generated a lot more questions than the play of the defense but the latter unit’s last outing caused a little more scrutiny on that side of the ball.
They gave up 169 rushing yards to the Raiders after allowing an average of 61.5 yards in their first four outings and didn’t record a sack after averaging over four a game to open the season. Safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix said that the performance left the Bears with a “chip on our shoulder” during the bye week and defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano said the team knows it can’t afford to play at that level again.
“It’s a wake up call,” Pagano said, via the Chicago Sun-Times. “I wasn’t any good. We didn’t play well. We didn’t execute. . . . We got away from all the things that we did in the weeks prior, as far as playing great fundamentals, great technique, setting the edge. All the things are a hallmark of a great defense, we just didn’t do. . . . They were better than us. We’ve got another chance, thank God.”
Their next chance will come against a Saints team bringing a four-game winning streak with them to Chicago. They’ve won a couple of those games without getting much from their offense, so the Bears will need to be sharper on both sides of the ball than they were their last time out.