The Chicago Bears victory over the Tennessee Titans to open the season was an ultimate team victory and helped show how deep and resilient the team plans to be during the 2024 season.
“That’s the NFL for you,” quarterback Caleb Williams said after the game. “It’s hard to win in this league. To have a team like this, to have an offense, defense, special teams, players, coaches, all these players here, it’s the NFL. It’s hard to win in this league. We’re excited, but we’ve got a lot more to get better at, a lot more to progress, get ready for this week.”
There's three areas in particular that helped steer the Bears toward a comeback victory in Week 1 while the offense struggled to get going , and it's the exact three things that can help the Bears return to the playoff this season.
Special Teams made a considerable, and lasting, impact
There's no question after Sunday's game that the Bears have arguably the best all around special teams unit in the entire league, and that's not a Monday overreaction.
Outside of a muffed kickoff return by Velus Jones Jr. , the Bears special teams unit played an incredible game on Sunday. Even after Jones was benched, Deandre Carter managed to return a kickoff 66-yards and had 64-yards on six punt returns. As for the team's punter, rookie Tory Taylor had the seventh longest punt over the weekend and pinned three punts inside the 20-yard line.
The biggest play on special teams occurred in the third quarter after Daniel Hardy blocked a punt that was scooped up and returned for a score by Johnathan Owens.
“That’s something we’ve been working on,” Hardy said after the game via The Athletic . “Really, in that moment, we were all talking about responding. It was a great team effort and we were doing our thing on defense. And we had to make a play and we did it on special teams together.”
Those kind of efforts on special teams don't go unnoticed and play a huge role in turning a game around like it did on Sunday. The blocked punt for a touchdown also got the home crowd cheering again after boo's starting raining down in the first half.
Defense has the ability to flip the switch
At halftime, the Bears Week 1 game looked like it was as good as over. Running back Tony Pollard was running all over the Bears defensive front and quarterback Will Levis was dicing up the secondary to put the Titans up 17-0 until the Bears managed to get three points before the break. Then, things switched for the Bears defense.
“The 17 points we gave up made us mad,” cornerback Tyrique Stevenson said. “We don’t roll like that as a defense. The second half, we just had to lock in on who we are and what we came here to do, and that’s to be a dominant defense and play Chicago Bears-style defense.”
That's exactly what the Bears were able to accomplish on defense over the final two quarters. In that span, the Titans offense never crossed the 50-yard line and never scored a single point while turning the ball over three times.
Stevenson made the biggest play defensively after Levis attempted to flip the ball outside to avoid a sack. Stevenson jumped the pass a returned it 43-yards for a touchdown. On the Titans final drive, Levis threw another interception to cornerback Jaylon Johnson that sealed the win for the Bears. That kind of performance proved why the Bears are among the best defensive units in football.
Rotation on the defensive front pays off
A big reason why the Bears defense were able to terrorize the Titans offense during the second half of Sunday's game was due to the pressure created from the defensive line and the rotation of players that helped everyone stay fresh on the field.
According to Next Gen Stats, the Bears generated pressure on 47.4% of Will Levis’ dropbacks, the unit’s 2nd-highest pressure rate in a game over the last three seasons. Three different Bears defenders (defensive tackle Andrew Billings, defensive end DeMarcus Walker, and defensive end Darrell Taylor) all finished tied with a team-high 5 pressures. Both of Levis' interceptions on Sunday came under pressure.
That's not something the Bears have been able to experience during the first two years under Eberflus' scheme. With the addition of defensive coordinator Eric Washington, there will be more of an emphasis on the defensive line and the rotation in 2024
"The reason we dress the number of defensive linemen that we do is to make sure that we can present an explosive group, especially in critical situations," Washington explained . "[DL coach Travis Smith] will do a good job managing that process... and just make sure that guys are fresh and explosive when we absolutely need it."
Related: Bears' season opening win against the Titans proves why Chicago has the perfect environment for a rookie quarterback
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