Bears' defense knows things must improve

It's only Bears cornerback Corey Graham's second season, but he seems to grasp the urgency of improving the pass defense, especially Sunday against the Green Bay Packers.

"Right now everybody's on thin ice," said Graham, who started four games when Nate Vasher was out and has played nickel back in the past two.

"It's real tense around here as far as the DBs. We know they're going to throw the ball - that's what they do - so we're going to go out there and try to make some plays."

The Bears' de- fense is predicated on takeaways, but the only one they had last week was a fumble recovery by Graham on a fourth-and-goal play that would have been stopped short of the goal line anyway.

Not counting the 4 interceptions in the Minnesota game, the Bears have picked off just 4 passes in the past five games. Even worse, they've allowed each of the past four opposing quarterbacks to throw for at least 289 yards. And none of those teams rank higher than 19th in passing yards.

Graham said that makes for a tense situation in the secondary.

"Why is it tense?" Graham said. "Because when you give up 300 yards to teams that don't normally throw the ball like that, it's going to be tense. It's our jobs on the line. We've got to go out there and be accountable. We've got to make plays, and that's what we plan to do."

Graham has played well enough to hang on to Danieal Manning's nickel spot even after Manning returned last week following two weeks on the sidelines with a hamstring injury.

But Vasher could have his playing time cut if the Bears decide to get more physical with Graham and Manning both on the field in nickel.

The Bears' other major malfunction on defense has been an inability to get to the quarterback.

They rank 29th in sack percentage, but the Packers' Aaron Rodgers has been sacked four times in each of the past two games and as a team they're 19th in protecting the quarterback.

Soft coverage and a weak pass rush have created a Catch-22 situation on the defense when it comes to stopping the pass. Is it because of shortcomings in coverage or the pass rush that opponents have been able to exploit the Bears?

"It's kind of rubbing a lot of people the wrong way here on this defense, and that's a good thing," said defensive right end Adewale Ogunleye, who had the Bears' only sack Sunday against Tennessee.

"Hopefully we'll all look in the mirror, myself included, and say 'I've got to play better to help out this pass defense.' "

Linebackers Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs have been utilized on blitzes to try to help the pass rush, but they've combined for just one-half of a sack.

"We've tried to attack more this year, and we have blitzed quite a bit this year," Urlacher told the Green Bay-area media. "We haven't gotten sacks, but we've been blitzing quite a bit. We're just not stopping the pass very well.

"We've given up some plays, but it's nothing that teams are doing to us. We just have to make plays when we get a chance to do it. We're just getting out of position for the most part on defense."

Just about every player on defense can say the same thing.