What happened to this defense?

[CBS7]

I know the offense wasn't great today, but its been very good all season with Orton/Forte playing well. But there used to be a time where we could put up 150 yards of total offense up on a team and still beat them 19-7. With basically most of the same players we have now.

I say fire Babich. Just to try and light a fire under SOMEones butt. The defense has been crap for two years now, and a lot of last year had to do with injuries, but this year we are mostly healthy...

What do you think? Is it mostly on the players? Coaching?

[NoSkyy]

It has to be somehow a combination between bad DE play(wow?), bad coverages, aging linebackers and a bad scheme.

The whole eight man in a box thing fails, but that's like the only way we can stop the run. At the same time, our whole "let's bring everyone up to the line to scare the **** out of the QB" doesn't work either. I think today is the first time I've seen Urlacher make a defensive adjustment(which led to a pick)

I'm going to look up all the D-Line stats, compare them to the last few years and see if it really is the Dline(I think it's a big part of it).

On a side note, Mike Brown was LAYING out people today. He was a beast. +props to him.

[blumeany]

I think most analysts and fans are right in saying that all the issues that the defense is having start and end at the line of scrimmage. The front four just aren't doing their job. Vasher and Tillman were never shut-down coverage corners, they benefited from a front four that got to the quarterback and made them throw erratic passes.

This year, there is no pressure, QB's have all day and can wait for players to get wide open. I don't resolve the corners from the blame though. If you watched Green Bay, their corners were all over our guys - from when they lined up to when the play finished. Our guys basically played off the ball and didn't react until the ball was caught.

When you talk about the front four being the problem and you break it down, I think it comes down to Harris. He isn't creating the havoc and demanding the double teams that he used to. Thus, the ends no longer have an advantage.

The Bears are a case of the coaching staff trying to ramrod their system under the false belief that they have the talent to do it with. The sad fact is that their Super Bowl window has come and gone. We once had a defense that could win games for us, and it brought us to the Super Bowl, but unfortunately Angelo decided to play russian roulette with the quarterback situation and it killed us in the end.