Thread: what we learned Phi/Chi

How did the Bears limit Michael Vick? | National Football Post

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Breaking down Lovie's defensive game plan in the 31-24 win. Matt Bowen


Print This November 08, 2011, 12:37 AM EST
10 Comments



After watching the Bears 31-24 win over the Eagles on Monday night, the one topic I have to discuss is Lovie Smith’s defensive game plan. No question we saw some impressive QB play from Jay Cutler, WR Earl Bennett made a major impact in Martz’ scheme and the O-Line consistently won up front.
But I want to focus on how this Bears’ defense limited the production of Michael Vick (21-38-213-1 INT). Let’s break this down…
ICONBriggs and the Bears defense used a mix of coverage and pressure to slow down Michael Vick in the 31-24 win.
- Start with scheme. Tonight, the Bears led with their Cover 1 (man-free) defense and challenged both DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin outside of the numbers. Excellent work from CBs Charles Tillman and Tim Jennings playing with an aggressive style, showing some press looks and taking away the inside breaking routes of the Eagles’ playbook. Impressive secondary play from Chicago in man coverage situations.
- What happened to Cover 2 (or Tampa 2)? We will still see the Bears rush four and drop seven into coverage in situational football (3rd and long, red zone, two minute). But you can’t call this a core Tampa 2 defense after tonight. Again, a scheme they will always carry in the game plan. But vs. Vick, they wanted to play man-coverage and bring pressure.
- Zone pressure. Go back to Vick’s INT in the red zone. The Bears sent Nickel pressure (called “Nickel Fox”). Rush five and drop six into coverage. LB Lance Briggs (“middle hook” player) will read any route that works back to the middle of the field. Briggs gets a solid break on the ball and it leads to a Major Wright INT. The Bears used CB D.J. Moore, MLB Brian Urlacher, etc. to run their pressure schemes and force Vick off the spot in the pocket.
- Take away the deep ball. That’s a must vs. this Eagles offense. After the second Matt Forte fumble, Philly tried to run the deep post out of a slot formation. The Bears took that away, and throughout the night, these young safeties played the deep middle of the field (plus on top of the numbers in Cover 2) with enough depth to force the ball to go underneath. Yes, both major Wright and Chris Conte have to focus on their ability to tackle in the open field, but in this scheme, protecting the top of the defense is a priority. And they did that.
- The Eagles' QB is unique when he escapes pressure, but I didn’t see situations where he could turn the corner and pick up explosive gains. The Bears used some stunts up front when they sent four (Cover 1 and Cover 2) and for the majority of the night, limited Vick’s ability to make plays with his feet. He played like a frustrated QB. That's what you get from a defense that will pursure to the ball on a consistent basis.
Like I said above, the Bears have plenty of positives on offense to look at when you break down this win. However, this game plan from the Bears surprised me. Play man coverage and challenge the speed in Philly. A big win for a team that is now back in the playoff talk at 5-3.
Follow me on Twitter: @MattBowen41


I hope we see more of this, I think Tillman is highly underrated for his 1 on 1 coverage; this is a guy that could shut Moss down when he was in Minny. And I think Jennings might be a bump/run guy also. It's nice to see this team attacking the O instead of resting back waiting for the O to come to them.

How did the Bears limit Michael Vick? | National Football Post

NFP»Columns»The Players Page
RSS How did the Bears limit Michael Vick?

Breaking down Lovie's defensive game plan in the 31-24 win. Matt Bowen


Print This November 08, 2011, 12:37 AM EST
10 Comments



After watching the Bears 31-24 win over the Eagles on Monday night, the one topic I have to discuss is Lovie Smith’s defensive game plan. No question we saw some impressive QB play from Jay Cutler, WR Earl Bennett made a major impact in Martz’ scheme and the O-Line consistently won up front.
But I want to focus on how this Bears’ defense limited the production of Michael Vick (21-38-213-1 INT). Let’s break this down…
ICONBriggs and the Bears defense used a mix of coverage and pressure to slow down Michael Vick in the 31-24 win.
- Start with scheme. Tonight, the Bears led with their Cover 1 (man-free) defense and challenged both DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin outside of the numbers. Excellent work from CBs Charles Tillman and Tim Jennings playing with an aggressive style, showing some press looks and taking away the inside breaking routes of the Eagles’ playbook. Impressive secondary play from Chicago in man coverage situations.
- What happened to Cover 2 (or Tampa 2)? We will still see the Bears rush four and drop seven into coverage in situational football (3rd and long, red zone, two minute). But you can’t call this a core Tampa 2 defense after tonight. Again, a scheme they will always carry in the game plan. But vs. Vick, they wanted to play man-coverage and bring pressure.
- Zone pressure. Go back to Vick’s INT in the red zone. The Bears sent Nickel pressure (called “Nickel Fox”). Rush five and drop six into coverage. LB Lance Briggs (“middle hook” player) will read any route that works back to the middle of the field. Briggs gets a solid break on the ball and it leads to a Major Wright INT. The Bears used CB D.J. Moore, MLB Brian Urlacher, etc. to run their pressure schemes and force Vick off the spot in the pocket.
- Take away the deep ball. That’s a must vs. this Eagles offense. After the second Matt Forte fumble, Philly tried to run the deep post out of a slot formation. The Bears took that away, and throughout the night, these young safeties played the deep middle of the field (plus on top of the numbers in Cover 2) with enough depth to force the ball to go underneath. Yes, both major Wright and Chris Conte have to focus on their ability to tackle in the open field, but in this scheme, protecting the top of the defense is a priority. And they did that.
- The Eagles' QB is unique when he escapes pressure, but I didn’t see situations where he could turn the corner and pick up explosive gains. The Bears used some stunts up front when they sent four (Cover 1 and Cover 2) and for the majority of the night, limited Vick’s ability to make plays with his feet. He played like a frustrated QB. That's what you get from a defense that will pursure to the ball on a consistent basis.
Like I said above, the Bears have plenty of positives on offense to look at when you break down this win. However, this game plan from the Bears surprised me. Play man coverage and challenge the speed in Philly. A big win for a team that is now back in the playoff talk at 5-3.
Follow me on Twitter: @MattBowen41


I hope we see more of this, I think Tillman is highly underrated for his 1 on 1 coverage; this is a guy that could shut Moss down when he was in Minny. And I think Jennings might be a bump/run guy also. It's nice to see this team attacking the O instead of resting back waiting for the O to come to them.

Excellent game on many fronts!

But have we ever had success with the Wildcat? ...with Bennett? I mean I love the guy (Bennett), but as soon as he got behind center you knew it wasn't going to be pretty!

Also, Lach seems to be getting left out of this Grats party. At times (especially in the first Quarter), he looked like a one man D! My boy was busting up EVERYTHING!

It was nice seeing Vick being the QB getting hit almost every time he threw the ball instead of Jay. I think all around the offense and defense played a complete game. We had some moments where the eagles were getting the momentum but then we did something to give our team a spark and take the momentum back.

Originally Posted by soulman

I like Matt Bowen's hints for the game prior to and his post games analysis. He's about the most knowledgeable writer out there and he tells it like it is. Good posts Ric.

What I noticed about our CB play was that Peanut can get real physical with guys and totally screw up their routes and he can play the shorter routes with the best of them. That reach around deflection of that pass to Macklin was beautiful. But with Peanut you have to give him deep help. He doesn't have the wheels to turn and run with a 4.4 WR.

Jennings on the other hand has great speed and his shorter stature allows him to get in a guys hip pocket and ride the route with him. He surprised me all night long with his coverage. Philly has all those all-pro CB's and out guys outplayed them. Probably one of the best games I've seen out of our corners. They need to play that way when we're up against GB.

Conte had a good game but he needs to loosen up and come up in his coverage faster when the WR breaks his route. The guy is a very sure tackler though. Once again Wright's tackling abilities were suspect. He gets fooled too often. He had a chance to stop McCoy short of a first down on one of Philly's TD drives and he just plain whiffed. He stands too flat footed and doesn't run through his tackles. He's actually backslid from last year. Meriweather is beginning to "get it" as far as how he needs to play in this defense. Everything is position and no free lancing. The guy has Danieal Manning kind of speed though. I can see that's what Lovie was after picking him up. The guy can motor.

Soul, in bump and run, won't he get saftey help if his guy is going deep though? Or is he just on an island waiting to get exposed if he doesn't bump the guy off his route? Seems like Meriweather would be able to help out over the top if Tillmans guy got free.