Bears defenders call injuries a lame excuse
A dozen players who started games on this year’s franchise-worst defense are eligible to become unrestricted free agents on Marsh 11.
There’s no chance all of them will return, but that’s good news considering how poorly coordinator Mel Tucker’s defense performed this season. The Bears allowed an NFL-worst average of 6.18 yards every time the ball was snapped. The defense also permitted 5.35 yards on every running play, the seventh worst in NFL history and the worst in the league since 1961. It was also last in rushing yards allowed.
The blame game has to start with Tucker. But the injury epidemic — many of them suffered by the best players on the unit — could save Tucker from the ignominy of being fired after one season.
Pro Bowl tackle Henry Melton missed 13 games. Two-time Pro Bowl cornerback Charles Tillman missed eight games. Seven-time Pro Bowl linebacker Lance Briggs missed seven games. Nate Collins, one of the replacements for Melton, missed 11 games. Linebacker D.J. Williams missed 10 games. Nose tackle Stephen Paea missed three games and was ineffective for at least three others. Defensive end Shea McClellin missed two games.
Add it all up, and it comes to 43 games missed by starters and 11 more by a key backup because of injuries.
But does that also add up to a free pass for Tucker after the Bears allowed 478 points and 6,313 yards, the most in franchise history by a wide margin?
“Guys got hurt, but I don’t think it should be used as an excuse,” said Collins, who can test free agency starting March 11. “All teams go through injuries. We probably got hit worse than other teams, but everyone has backups, everyone has reserves and you’re always as strong as your weakest link.”
The Bears’ defense appeared to have a lot of weak links that were exposed when starters went down. Unfortunately for them, very few backups stepped up when given the opportunity for more playing time.
Nine-year veteran tackle Jeremiah Ratliff, who played in the final four games after a lengthy layoff following off-season surgery for a groin injury, performed well. So did rookie linebacker Jon Bostic. But few other backups distinguished themselves.
Craig Steltz, who had a team-best 12 tackles in his only start when strong safety Major Wright was out with a hamstring injury, agreed that injuries are a weak excuse.
“Injuries happen all over the NFL,” Steltz said. “Guys just have to step up. I don’t think there’s ever a team that’s injury-free. That’s just something where there’s adversity, and we’ve got to step up and face it.”
Like Wright, Ratliff and Collins, Steltz is slated to become a free agent.
Wright insists that pointing the finger of blame at Tucker is wrong.
“At the end of the day, people have to do their jobs and face up to being the player that they’re supposed to be,” Wright said. “He’s going to take the majority of the criticism, but I think it’s within in the defense. It’s all of us. If one goes down, we all go down.”
Williams, another free-agent-to-be, said criticism of Tucker doesn’t take into account the patchwork lineup he was forced to cobble together from week to week.
“He didn’t really get to put out the defense on the field that he thought he was going to have,” Williams said. “But I felt he did a great job. It’s hard to go out there and compete with teams when you don’t have your guys out there. But I think he got the guys to rally around each other and give great effort.”
It remains to be seen if that’s enough to buy Tucker another year.
Follow Bob LeGere’s comments on Twitter @BobLeGere.
Bears defensive free agents
<b>Linebackers</b>
Ÿ James Anderson
Ÿ Blake Costanzo
Ÿ Jerry Franklin
Ÿ D.J. Williams
<b>Tackles/defensive ends</b>
Ÿ Nate Collins
Ÿ Landon Cohen
Ÿ Henry Melton
Ÿ Jeremiah Ratliff
Ÿ Cheta Ozougwu
Ÿ Corey Wootton
<b>Cornerbacks</b>
Ÿ Zack Bowman
Ÿ Kelvin Hayden
Ÿ Tim Jennings
Ÿ Sherrick McManis
Ÿ Charles Tillman
<b>Safeties</b>
Ÿ Craig Steltz
Ÿ Major Wright