The Chicago Bears’ pass protection held up pretty well on Sunday in the first half, but as the Detroit Lions started to pull ahead on the scoreboard, their pass rushers were able to attack. All four sacks the Bears gave up came in the final two quarters when Detroit knew the Bears were playing catch-up.
The Bears get the Dallas Cowboys at home this Sunday, and their pass rush isn’t the same without Micah Parsons. It’ll be interesting to see what Dallas defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus has up his sleeve
to get after Caleb Williams, and if Ben Johnson has Williams ready to light up against Dallas’ poor pass defense.
While head coach of the Bears, Eberflus matched wits against Johnson’s Detroit offense six times, and some of Eberflus’ players are still playing on Chicago’s defense.
“Yeah, well, we’ve got guys in the building that know how his mind works,” Johnson said about Eberflus at his press conference on Wednesday. “So we have some information on just schematically how he liked to approach my offense in general and his feelings on Caleb. I feel like we know what he knows, and we’ll be just fine there.”
This Sunday could be a shoot-out, but before that, let’s get into this week’s Sackwatch.
Sack 3 – 3rd Quarter 9:33 – Marcus Davenport
This was a play action, but the Lions brought a blitz off the Bears’ left edge, and running back D’Andre Swift aborted the play fake to make sure he got to the blitzing Brian Branch. Left tackle Braxton Jones did all he could to stay with Aidan Hutchinson and take him inside. As soon as Williams got to the top of his drop, he had pressure from his right side, where Marcus Davenport beat Darnell Wright.
Nothing fancy from Davenport as he tried to win with speed, Wright overset to protect the edge, lost his balance, and Davenport took advantage by dipping inside for the sack. It looks like Reggie White’s old hump move, but I don’t think Davenport has that kind of power.
This one is on Wright, but if Davenport didn’t get there, Branch slipped Swift’s block and was on Caleb right after.
Sack 4 – 3rd Quarter 5:16 – Al-Quadin Muhammad
The Bears were down 38 to 14, and this was a first and 25 after a chop block penalty by Wright. Chicago’s pass protection held up good enough for Williams to work from left to right in his progressions.
There was a window to throw to tight end Colston Loveland on the slant, but I think he wanted to wait for the deep out form Olamide Zaccheaus on that side for a bigger chunk. However, he felt the pressure coming over his left tackle and quickly worked to his right for Rome Odunze, who was hung up after his chip block, which could have thrown off his timing. Had Rome released cleaner, he would have been available, so that was unfortunate. But also unfortunate was left tackle Braxton Jones getting worked backward.
The pressure from Al-Quadin Muhammad is what initially got Caleb off his read, and he also got home for the sack, so I’ll put this one on Jones.
Here’s a fun fact about Muhammad: in 16 games with the Bears in 2022, he recorded one sack, but in 11 games with the Lions, he has 4, three of which came in the three games he played against the Bears.
Sack 5 – 4th Quarter 14:32 – Brian Branch
It looked like Swift was set to block the linebacker threat in front of him, but on the snap, his linebacker dropped, so Swift adjusted and came across the formation to get the linebacker blitzing on the other side. It looked like a good play by him. If the pass protection up front was run to plan, then Caleb Williams would have been responsible for the free blitzer to his right, the guy that Swift picked up.
But Caleb’s eyes were looking left, which tells me that he thought the blitzer to the right was going to be handled immediately on the snap. This is a tough one to diagnose because I’m not entirely sure who Swift’s assignment was.
Based on who the five offensive linemen blocked, I’m inclined to put this one on the quarterback. Had Williams been looking at the free blitzer to his right, which I believe was his responsibility, he would have fired the ball to tight end Cole Kmet as he came out of his initial break.
Sack 6 – 4th Quarter 12:57 – Aiden Hutchinson
As Williams got to the top of his drop, he had Cole Kmet breaking towards the left sideline, and with how fast Hutchinson flew past Braxton Jones, this would have been his only play. With the Bears chasing points, Williams likely wanted to wait for Moore’s route to develop, but there just wasn’t time. Hutchinson’s pressure came a touch after two seconds, so Williams tried to scramble, but there wasn’t a path.
Hutchinson made a quick fake back to the inside, which froze Jones’s kick slide. Jones tried to engage but didn’t keep his feet moving, and Hutchinson flew right past him. Caleb didn’t even have time to get to his second read, so this one is on Jones.
Here’s the individual Sackwatch tally after two weeks:
Braxton Jones – 2
Caleb Williams – 2
Darnell Wright – 1
Drew Dalman – 1
And here are the total Bears’ sacks allowed through Week 2 going back to the Mike Martz era:
2010 Sacks – 5 (Martz)
2011 Sacks – 11 (Martz)
2012 Sacks – 9 (Tice)
2013 Sacks – 1 (Trestman)
2014 Sacks – 3 (Trestman)
2015 Sacks – 4 (Gase)
2016 Sacks – 8 (Loggains)
2017 Sacks – 5 (Loggains)
2018 Sacks – 6 (Nagy)
2019 Sacks – 5 (Nagy)
2020 Sacks – 5 (Nagy)
2021 Sacks – 6 (Nagy)
2022 Sacks – 5 (Getsy)
2023 Sacks – 10 (Getsy)
2024 Sacks – 9 (Waldron)
2025 Sacks – 6 (Johnson)
