DOUBLY DETERMINED
Teams facing Paea might know better now than to repeat Bengals’ ‘slap in the face’
Stephen Paea thought the Cincinnati Bengals insulted him and the progress he has made. Their decision not to double-team him last week as the Bears’ nose guard felt like a huge slight. It fired him up more. ‘‘I did get a lot of one-on-one blocks, and they shouldn’t have done that,’’ Paea said. ‘‘When you get one-on-ones and you’re a nose, that’s a slap in the face.’’
The lack of impact plays by defense end Julius Peppers and defensive tackle Henry Melton in the Bears’ 24-21 victory overshadowed Paea’s performance, but he looks to be a big positive moving forward.
Defensive coordinator Mel Tucker said Paea graded out as one of the Bears’ best performers. He made two tackles for loss and had two quarterback pressures and half a sack. Pro Football Focus ratings had Paea with a defense-best 3.5 mark.
His performance should have sent a message to the Minnesota Vikings for the game Sunday at Soldier Field: Paea must be accounted for if you scheme against Peppers and Melton, as the Bengals did.
It’s tough to say whether that always was the case in 2012, when Paea started 14 games in his second season. Even Paea says he feels like a better player now, crediting his health (he had injuries before his rookie and 2012 seasons) and comfort level in the Bears’ scheme. He feels faster while the game has slowed down.
‘‘I have a lot to prove,’’ said Paea, whom former general manager Jerry Angelo moved up to draft at No. 53 in 2011. ‘‘I feel like the sky is the limit for me. I feel like I’m going to help this team out a lot.’’
Assistant defensive line coach Michael Sinclair, a three-time Pro Bowler for the Seattle Seahawks in the 1990s, said Paea has improved how he combats offensive linemen with his hands.
‘‘He’s already a powerful guy,’’ Sinclair said. ‘‘He’s very quick and has a fast switch. But I think in terms of learning how to set up his rushes and using your hands the proper way to attack a guy, that’s come in and that’s played a big part in his game this year.’’
It has made Paea a better pass rusher. He still comes out during most passing downs, but the goal is for that to end.
‘‘I want to be known as the best DT in the league,’’ he said. ‘‘It comes from just showing up. You earn your respect. You just don’t have somebody write up cool news about you. If you put it on tape, people will see it. The tape doesn’t lie.’’
The Bears’ Week 1 tape shows Paea will handle single blocks.
‘‘It makes a team ask, ‘Which guy are we going to double?’ ’’ Sinclair said. ‘‘You’ve got to have four guys who are constantly good rushers because it makes it hard in terms of, ‘Who do we double?’ You can’t just have two because you can take those guys away with double teams.So [Paea] has definitely done a good job of using his hands better, setting up his rushes. And the one thing that he has — and all good rushers have — is determination.’’