‘ D’ HOLDS UP ITS END
Team needs more strong showings from Fangio’s unit in next 2
Is it too much to ask Jake Arrieta to pitch a shutout in the playoffs, or at least keep the game tied into the seventh or eighth inning so the struggling Cubs offense can scratch out a run and win a critical game?
Every so often a team’s strong suit has to reach a new level in difficult moments. That’s kind of where the Bears are heading into Thursday night’s game against the Packers, followed by the Vikings on ‘‘ Monday Night Football’’ on Halloween. They need their defense — which has been pretty good this season — to step up with a huge effort to avoid a 1- 7 start.
Brian Hoyer might or might not find the end zone against a Packers defense ranked 10th in the NFL in yards and 19th in points allowed. But until Jay Cutler returns — probably even after he returns — Vic Fangio’s defense is going to have to take the next step. As Fangio put it, the defense “played pretty damn good” against the Jaguars last week. But giving the offense a chance to win the game obviously isn’t enough. They might have to take matters into their own hands. The Bears, for what it’s worth, haven’t scored a defensive touchdown since Week 3 of the 2014 season.
“That’s what you want to do as a defense. Especially scoring,” linebacker Jerrell Freeman said. “Being close is not good enough. You’ve got to take that next step. I know were 10th, 11th in all the categories. We want to be better.”
Fangio likes where his defense is headed. “The big picture is we didn’t win [ last week] — that’s really all that matters,” he said. “But there are some good things going. There are some guys growing. The unit’s growing. You take that and lean on it.”
Leaning on their defense is likely the Bears’ best chance against the Packers and Vikings. Last year on Thanksgiving night, the Bears stunningly stifled Aaron Rodgers — who came in as the fourthranked passer in the NFL ( 101.8, 23 touchdowns, three interceptions). Rodgers’ 62.4 rating that night ( 202 yards, one touchdown, one interception) is the second- lowest in his last 79 games.
It was Fangio’s finest moment with the Bears. Now he has to ratchet it up a notch against an even more mortal Rodgers — who has an 83.0 rating ( 18 touchdowns, nine interceptions) in his last 11 games, starting with that game against the Bears last year.
“You’ve got to play good,” Fangio said when asked how the Bears did it last year. “I know that sounds like a generic, nothing answer, but you’ve got to be able to win your one- onone battles. You’ve got to be able to deal with this guy scrambling and creating. He’s going to do that. You just have to play good.”
Even short- handed, the defense has done that for the most part, but breakdowns in the fourth quarter cost them against the Colts and Jaguars — leaving them on tilt at 1- 5. Simply put, the Bears have to be closer to perfect than they’ve been.
“We’ve done enough talking. It’s time to play,” Freeman said. “It’s just that simple. Everybody has the want- to. The give- a- damn factor is there. But when it comes to being on the little things and executing, you just have to execute.
“Vic’s made some great calls in the right situation. I can’t say anything about the offense — I don’t know. But [ on defense] guys aren’t executing the call. We’ve got to be better at that.” Follow me on Twitter @ MarkPotash.