Breaking Down the Defense - What We Need to Fix

There are 2 things that I have been especially critical of when evaluating Tucker's defenses.

1) Pre-snap Play call and alignment

2) Read-react mentality he preaches


Instead of just bitching about it, let's break down a play from when the Bears were healthy, the D players did (essentially) everything right, and we still got gashed for 6 yards on a run.


First down. In the first image (below) you can see we are in a relatively typical pre-snap cover 2, nickel formation. The offense is strong right, split left in a 3-wide set. And it's the Saints... This is a formation they can go either way with. Brees called the play in the huddle, but can easily audible at the line without changing the formation.





In the next image (below) you see the formation from a goal post cam. The one thing that should stand out to you is where Peppers is lined up. He's essentially playing the wide 9 leaving a huge gap between the T and the G. Anderson has that B-gap responsibility. Peppers has containment responsibility. I am a strong opponent of the wide-9. We have seen Forte and the Bears repeatedly gash the Lions - who used this dline alignment.






In the next image, you see the gap get exposed. Brees hands off and the offense simply runs a basic blast. The guard doubles down on our 1 technique and While you would like Peppers to bull the Tackle into that gap, the truth is he was never in this play due to his pre-snap set. Even though Anderson will hit the correct gap, he is playing read/react (as is Briggs). They have to not only respect the strong side run, they have to respect the play-action.





As the LB's were playing "read/react" Anderson is late to the hole. While some will blame him for this, you shouldn't. This is exactly what Tucker's scheme preaches. The guard, now releases from the double team on Collins and and shifts to engage Anderson.

Now, keep in mind we were in a 2-deep Safety set. Neither is in position to help out. Briggs and our Nickel (I believe it's Frey) begin to close in.





Anderson is easily taken out by the Guard. The gap is still a good 4 yards wide between our defensive players. Briggs is, at this point, the only player who can make the tackle. Unfortunately, this can't happen until a hefty 1st down, 6-yard gain.





6 yards on a first down run is unacceptable. This gives the O carte Blanche on 2nd down.


Now, the one thing that I will give you is that I saw this exact same play run by the Eagles with McCoy against this exact same formation when Briggs was just back from injury. The difference is that it went for 19 yards instead of 6.

But in both cases, it was the defensive play call and read/react mentality on 1st and 2nd down that hurt.

I can see a half dozen things wrong with this play.

I think the problem is, that none of them is a big thing. They are all little things.
Details that get overlooked too often and get ignored when someone is just looking for a single scapegoat on a play.

But it's true. When you combine them all together, what would be a 2 or 3 yard gain against a quality defense, turns into a 5 or 6 yard gain against a poor one.

Silverwulf said:

I can see a half dozen things wrong with this play.

I think the problem is, that none of them is a big thing. They are all little things.
Details that get overlooked too often and get ignored when someone is just looking for a single scapegoat on a play.

But it's true. When you combine them all together, what would be a 2 or 3 yard gain against a quality defense, turns into a 5 or 6 yard gain against a poor one.

Click to expand...

Or 20 against a horrible one.

One thing that I continue to question is why our Mike was coming out in nickel situations.

And this brings back the conversation to Urlacher.

Tucker noted that he didn't see Urlacher as a 3-down LB. Well, neither was DJ Williams. in fact, neither was Bostic when Williams went down.

I really don't like his defensive play calling.

Do you guys think he's going to pull DJ and leave Shea in on Nickel situation? You know, the guy who has looked unbelievably horrible in pass coverage...

Very nice breakdown. Thank you.

Tucker will be gone after this season. He is the biggest question mark in the organization. It will be a long season as Trestman and Emery are not going to fire themselves.

This board is for GIF's only now, actual footbawl discussion is now frowned upon. We need more posters!!!!!!!1!

It would help if Tucker had a decent LB who can be the QB of the defense.

Anderson doesn't have to respect the playaction if its going to the weak side. The RB is his responsibility in coverage. Attack the gap. If its a fake, hit the RB in the mouth, and he's out of the play.

Interesting comment about nickel personnel. The nickel is a pass coverage formation. So the Bears were trying to get their best pass defenders out there. But Anderson was so bad at run D (as was Wright and Frey) that it gave teams free rein to run on them. Having DJ/improved Bostic out there could help, but so will Mundy over Wright hopefully.

rawdawg said:

Anderson doesn't have to respect the playaction if its going to the weak side. The RB is his responsibility in coverage. Attack the gap. If its a fake, hit the RB in the mouth, and he's out of the play.

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Actually, you are 100% right. Nice catch. He has no responsibility for the TE release.

Interesting comment about nickel personnel. The nickel is a pass coverage formation. So the Bears were trying to get their best pass defenders out there. But Anderson was so bad at run D (as was Wright and Frey) that it gave teams free rein to run on them. Having DJ/improved Bostic out there could help, but so will Mundy over Wright hopefully.

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This is exactly what offenses are now adjusting to.

In the past, you would see 4-3 formations on 1st and 2nd downs as a rule. Now with many passing teams (Lions, Packers, Patriots, Saints) seeing 4-2 nickel on early downs, they are simply attacking the weak run formation with a solid RB.

This is why the Packers drafted Lacy. He basically gives Rodgers more options right at the line.

From this simple O formation, they can run right or left, play-action right or left, or simply release Graham at the line and see if Briggs can cover him.

If the Bears weren't in a deep zone, (for instance went to a single high) you might have seen Brees play action and hit the flanker on a mismatch.

I'll tell you. Not having a 6'-4" wide-bodied pass-defending Mike is painful...

i think what stands out most is that peppers doesn't move from where he initially lines up. it's a good break down of how terrible he was agains the run last year. just stand there and get blocked by the left tackle one on one. god forbid he crash down and at least close that gap a little. but no, just stand there, literally in the same spot he lined up in, and be manhandled by every single LT he faced.

good riddance. great player once. last year, weak.

ZenBear34 said:

i think what stands out most is that peppers doesn't move from where he initially lines up. it's a good break down of how terrible he was agains the run last year. just stand there and get blocked by the left tackle one on one. god forbid he crash down and at least close that gap a little. but no, just stand there, literally in the same spot he lined up in, and be manhandled by every single LT he faced.

good riddance. great player once. last year, weak.

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As I said,it would be nice if he could have Bulled the LT.

However, he still had contain responsibility. I think putting a guy like Pepper sin a wide 9 is probably the stupidest thing a DC could do.

With that, he definitely did not win this battle.

I have several break-downs of him beating double and triple teams last year.

card blanch

I just think we need to get younger on D, Biff agrees.

Mongo_76 said:

Actually, you are 100% right. Nice catch. He has no responsibility for the TE release.







This is exactly what offenses are now adjusting to.

In the past, you would see 4-3 formations on 1st and 2nd downs as a rule. Now with many passing teams (Lions, Packers, Patriots, Saints) seeing 4-2 nickel on early downs, they are simply attacking the weak run formation with a solid RB.

This is why the Packers drafted Lacy. He basically gives Rodgers more options right at the line.

From this simple O formation, they can run right or left, play-action right or left, or simply release Graham at the line and see if Briggs can cover him.

If the Bears weren't in a deep zone, (for instance went to a single high) you might have seen Brees play action and hit the flanker on a mismatch.

I'll tell you. Not having a 6'-4" wide-bodied pass-defending Mike is painful...

Click to expand...

I think u have to bring the SS down and at least show single high then back off into Cover 2 if u see pass in that formation. Though admittedly, Jimmy Graham complicates that and a great playaction QB.

But I think that's part of the reason the Bears went after a CB early in the draft. Can really man up on the WRs and commit an extra defender (SS) to the run.

You can copy and paste virtually the same play from the week-4 game against the Lions in Detroit. Tucker had two,deep safeties and three CBs defending against Reggie Bush and the inside zone. The Lions ran inside zone four straight plays and gashed the Bears for 75 yards. Inside zone will destroy a read and react defense like Tucker's defense. Here are more All-22 screen grabs from that Lions game. Notice the six men in the box or the seven men in the box to stop the run. Never did they walk the safety up to help stop the run he simply let the the Lions dictate everything.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/96729618@N07/sets/72157636163911824/

fun with ms paint

I appreciate the breakdown of the play. It is a welcome change of pace from the typical general bashing (trolling) on these boards.

I don't really think there's a big problem with the read-and-react methodology. Especially with the increasing number of read-option teams out there, it pays to figure out where the ball is going first before attacking. Having said that, I do prefer a more aggressive personality with our defense. With our vastly improved DLine, I have a feeling things will be much different this year. What we saw in Game 3 of the preseason is not exactly what we'll see in the season.

The problem with the Bears using the read-and-react methodology is that we don't have players fast enough to react anymore. Even in this particular play, we still could have stopped the ball. The problem was not one single Bears player won his individual battle. Peppers got stood up. Yes, he was playing Wide-9 contain but with a head of steam a younger Peppers would've at least pushed the tackle back a couple of steps. Frey got blocked by the WR (I have no idea how that WR got the inside position on him.) Anderson got stuffed by the guard and Briggs was too late on his react.

With the depressing outlook most have regarding the defense this season, I do have one thing to look forward to. It can't be worse than last season.

Mongo_76 said:

As I said,it would be nice if he could have Bulled the LT.

However, he still had contain responsibility. I think putting a guy like Pepper sin a wide 9 is probably the stupidest thing a DC could do.

With that, he definitely did not win this battle.

I have several break-downs of him beating double and triple teams last year.

Click to expand...

And those wins didn't get us much as they should have because QBs could simply step up. Peppers should have been who they moved inside when the Dline was decimated. Wooton could play acceptable DE but not DT. Both would have been more effective swapping spots since a DE has a hard time creating any pressure without a middle push. Peppers would have been more stout against the run as well. Moves like that, technique breakdowns and the play calling is why I didn't want Tucker back. That said, It's now his D with VG assistants and the players no longer depressed about Lovie. I'll give it a few games to see what he's got in his pocket. He's been given everything possible to make this work. Very few teams are absolutely set at every position. I don't have a problem with read a react but it needs to be proactive. DTs need to try and move forward and winning the leverage battles regardless of whether engaging or not. Regardless of system, D's need to stay disruptive and pressure oriented.

I don't like anything about Wootton at three, Collins playing one/shade & Peppers on the wide 9 with two safeties deep. That's insane, especially when you don't have tackle machines like Briggs & Ulacher capable of keying in on their gaps/shedding blocks in a Wide 9 formation vs the run. I wouldn't mind this as much out of a 3 deep coverage with the SS in the box but this nuts. It's too wide open to easy to read with old defenders, like Peppers too far apart on the 9, plus I'd also rather have a bigger, more powerful one/shade. I would have rather seen more of a basic 4-3 under with this personnel, especially with a smaller front with Wootton at the 3-Tech & Collins at the 1-Shade. They're going to get blown off the LOS too easy in wide 9 with little to no support from journeymen LB's(not counting Briggs), & DB's in a bland coverage scheme.

I understand there were injuries but IMO that should have been enough to change things up a bit & if they wanted to get creative instead of spreading old & banged up personnel thin in a wide 9, maybe pull the SS into the box, or blitz the LB's a bit more. Spreading everyone out with two deep & no disguise in the coverage/secondary at all, & a QB with history of getting the ball out quick & picking apart opposing defenses is a recipe for a disaster.

When Lovie was the HC & Marinellie was the DC & successful with this very same personnel you'd hear opposing QB's, like Peyton Manning, from time to time, talk about how to attack their defense. The first thing first thing they said every time was to spread them out first & foremost in order to run the ball & pass over the middle. Thankfully for the Bears opponents, like the Saints in this instance, Tucker implemented plays & formations like the wide 9 that took care of that for their opponents.