Chicago Bears defense new and improved? Not yet

The Chicago Bears' “new and improved” defense was trumpeted often in the off-season, but it didn't look much better in Sunday's season-opening 23-14 loss at Houston.

For every positive, there was at least one negative.

For every play like Tracy Porter's first-quarter interception, there was an 18-yard touchdown on a screen pass to Texans rookie Will Fuller, who scored untouched.

Houston's first-round pick caught 5 passes for 107 yards and would have had about 80 yards more if he had not dropped a perfectly thrown Brock Osweiler pass near midfield after getting behind the Bears' defense.

New inside linebackers Jerrell Freeman and Danny Trevathan had impressive debuts, especially Freeman, who had a game-high 17 tackles. Freeman, though, did a much better job on the field than he did in evaluating the defense's performance.

“The way guys are flying around, (the) unwillingness to stay blocked with the big guys up front,” he said, when asked about positives. “Playing hard, guys knowing what they're supposed to be doing. We are a well-coached team.

“Vic (Fangio, the highly regarded defensive coordinator) puts us in a lot of positions where we've just got to play. (But) we've got to make a play when it comes.”

That last part was the problem. And the Bears are well-coached, but their play Sunday didn't accurately reflect that.

Trevathan had 11 tackles, including a sack. Nose tackle Eddie Goldman had 6 tackles and 2 hits on Osweiler.

But too many of the tackles came too far downfield to make an impact.

The Texans were allowed to convert an unacceptable 60 percent of their third-down chances; the league average last year was 39 percent. Even the defensive deficient 2015 Bears allowed opponents to convert just 44.3 percent.

So, hardly an improvement.

“It (results in) time of possession,” Bears coach John Fox said of the failings on third down. “It usually results in points, whether it's explosive plays or when you (just) move the chains.”

By converting 12 of 20 third downs, the Texans enjoyed a 12:38 advantage in time of possession. Still, considering the Texans were able to run 72 plays — compared to the Bears' 54 — the defense did well to permit 346 total yards, a fraction more than the 345.4 yards they allowed on average last year.

But, again, not an improvement.

An upgraded pass rush was an off-season goal, and the biggest boost was expected to come from first-round pick Leonard Floyd. He got more snaps (60) than any of the Bears' outside linebackers, had 6 tackles and split 1 sack with Goldman.

Fangio will find a way to utilize Floyd to goose the pass rush, but it will be a process.

The Bears got to Osweiler for 2 sacks, but more often the Texans' quarterback had far too much time to survey the field and go through his progressions.

“I thought we got after the quarterback pretty good,” Fox said. “I wasn't unimpressed with the pass rush.”

Objective observers would have simply said they weren't impressed.

After finishing in the bottom third in run defense last year, the Bears had much room for improvement. Sunday's results were mixed.

The Bears allowed 131 rushing yards (10.1 more than last year's average). But it took the Texans 35 attempts to get there, averaging just 3.7 yards per carry, a significant upgrade for the Bears, who allowed 4.5 yards per carry last year.

Houston's featured runner, Lamar Miller, dented the Bears for 106 yards, but he managed just 3.8 yards per try. Miller is a quality back with a career average of 4.6 yards per carry, but he didn't have a run longer than 12 yards Sunday.

Much like everything else on defense, the Bears were OK against Miller — sometimes.

“You have to play two halves,” said Porter, whose pick put the Bears on pace to double last year's franchise-low 8 interceptions. “If you don't do that, the other team has the ability to come back, much like what happened (Sunday).”

New and improved?

Not yet.

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