Taking a closer look at the offensive and defensive schemes of the Detroit Lions Week 13 opponent: the Chicago Bears
The Detroit Lions (10-1) will take on the Chicago Bears (4-7) on Thanksgiving Day in Week 13. For the Lions, they’re riding a nine-game winning streak, while the Bears have lost their last five. The Bears made a change at offensive coordinator ahead of Week 11, and while they’re still working out how things will be different, they do look more efficient after a couple of changes in their approach.
Let’s take a look at the Bears’ coaching staff and how their offensive and defensive schemes operate.
Colts head coach: Matt Eberflus
Eberflus began coaching in 1992 at the University of Toledo and broke into the NFL with the Browns in 2009 working under head coach Eric Mangini and defensive coordinator Rob Ryan. When Ryan left for the Dallas Cowboys in 2011, Eberflus came with him, starting a seven-year stint with the team. While Ryan only lasted two seasons in Dallas, Eberflus was retained to work under defensive coordinators Monte Kiffin and Rod Marinelli. In 2018, Eberflus left Dallas for a defensive coordinator position with the Indianapolis Colts (under head coach Frank Reich) and four years later, parlayed that success into a head coaching position with the Bears.
Offensive coordinator Merry-go-round
When Eberflus was hired in 2022, he brought in Luke Getsy as his offensive coordinator. As the former Packers quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator, expectations were that he could turn around the Bears offense. But after two seasons, he was fired and replaced by Shane Waldron, who was a Sean McVay disciple (QB coach and passing game coordinator) and former Seahawks offensive coordinator. After just nine games, Chicago fired Waldron, and as an interim replacement, promoted passing game coordinator Thomas Brown.
So far in the NFL, there have been just two offensive coordinators fired this year: Waldron from the Bears… and Getsy from the Raiders. Chew on that for a minute.
Offensive coordinator: Thomas Brown (interim)
Brown, a former NFL running back, began his coaching career at Georgia, his alma mater in 2011. He bounced around at the college level for nearly a decade before landing a job with the Rams in 2020 as their running backs coach under McVay—whom Brown has known since high school. In 2023, Brown took an offensive coordinator position with the Panthers (learned from Jim Caldwell, who was in an advisory role) and eventually took over play-calling duties from head coach Frank Reich after a disastrous start that eventually led to the entire staff being fired. With Eberflus connected with Reich, and Waldron (via McVay) crossing paths with Brown in 2020, the Bears connected the dots and brought Brown into the fold as their passing game coordinator in 2024.
After working with No. 1 overall pick Bryce Young in 2023, Brown has used that knowledge when working with 2024 No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams.
McVay influenced West Coast offensive scheme
Waldron implemented a version of McVay’s West Coast scheme in 2024, and Brown has stuck with it while making some very necessary tweaks to fix some issues.
When exploring the Bears’ offensive stats for the season, they very rarely rank in the top half of the league and typically rank in the bottom third. Under Waldron, they had problems with execution, were not consistent in the passing game, struggled in pass protection, lacked explosive plays, lacked efficiency in the run game, didn’t run a blocking scheme to their offensive lines strengths, had too many pre-snap penalties, and became very predictable in their play calling. Overall, they did very little to help a rookie quarterback acclimate to the NFL.
Brown’s first order of business was to build confidence and get everyone on the same page. He scheduled more whole offense meetings to work on unity and got back to the basics to simplify the offense. He maintained the scheme’s West Coast roots, refocusing plays with more play-action, bunch sets, pre-snap motion, and so on.
In order to help Williams find a rhythm in the offense, Brown made a concerted effort to relay the play call in faster to allow the rookie more time to set up the play. Next, he put a heavier focus on the run game—and like we saw with the Colts’ shift last week—and will often stick with it, even if it’s not working. This is done deliberately to further remove pressure on the quarterback.
Additionally, and maybe the most impactful thing Brown changed, was highlighting and calling several plays that allowed Williams to get the ball out of his hands faster, often giving him one or no reads on the play.
Under Waldron, Williams took, on average, 2.9 seconds to throw his passes. But under Brown, the rookie has cut that number to 2.42 seconds. On the season, when Williams takes longer than 2.5 seconds to throw, his completion percentage is 51.7%, throwing for 1,419 yards, six touchdowns, and five interceptions. On plays where he gets rid of the ball in under 2.5 seconds, Williams averages a 77% completion percentage and has thrown for 937 yards, four touchdowns, and zero interceptions.
Potential problems for the Bears
While the Bears’ offense has found more success in the last two weeks—they finally threw a touchdown last game, after going a month without one—the two biggest changes they made to their offense feed right into the Lions’ strengths.
While the Bears will work to establish the run, the Lions have been incredibly efficient against running backs of late. Over the last three games, they have only given up, 40.7 rushing yards to running back per game, at a dismal 2.39 yards per carry.
Against the quick pass (under 2.5 seconds), the Lions’ defense is only allowing 66.7% of passes to be completed (best in the NFL) and their defensive success rate on such plays is 55.3% (fourth best in the NFL).
Defensive coordinator: Eric Washington
Washington entered the coaching ranks in 1997 at Texas A&M, where he would have crossed paths with a young tight end named Dan Campbell. In 2008, he got his first NFL coaching position with the Bears, coaching the defensive line (working under head coach Lovie Smith and defensive coordinators Bob Babich and Marinelli). Washington joined the Panthers in 2011 (coach Ron Rivera and DC Sean McDermott) and worked his way up to become their defensive coordinator for the 2018 and 2019 seasons. When the Panthers overhauled their staff in 2020, Washington departed for the Bills (under McDermott) and went back to coaching defensive lines. In 2024, the Bears hired him to replace Alan Williams, who abruptly retired mid-season, the year prior.
4-2-5 defensive scheme
In previous seasons, Eberflus instituted a 4-3 scheme in Chicago when he took over and the Bears continue to run a variation of that today. At their core, they’ve been a Cover-2 zone team with an attacking, one-gapping four-man front, heavy zone coverage, and minimal blitzing (around 20%).
Under Washington in 2024, the Bears spend around 20-30 percent of their time in their three-linebacker base formation, leaving the other 70-80% of defensive snaps for subpackage (mainly nickel) usage. The Bears still run Cover-2, but Washington has introduced more single-high safety sets (around 61% of the time, fifth most in the NFL). They stay in zone coverage around 70-75% of the time, still lean on their one-gapping front-four for pressure, and blitz a tick more, just under 24% of the time (23rd most in the NFL).
The overall strategy of these schemes is to sit back and allow offenses only short options while taking away the big play. They’re comfortable allowing offenses to move the ball down the field and feel confident their defense can capitalize on the offenses’ mistakes to stall drives or force turnovers. This is commonly known as a bend-don’t-break style of defense.
Defensive decline
While the Bears offense is working to find its groove, the defense has been on a slow and steady decline over the last five weeks.
On the season, the Bears only allow 19.7 points per game (eighth best in the NFL), but there’s a noticeable contrast between Weeks 1-6 when they went 4-2, vs the last five weeks when they went winless. Over the first six weeks they only allowed an average of 16.83 points per game, while over the last five, they’ve allowed 23.2 points per game—nearly a full touchdown more allowed. This week, they’ll face a Lions team that is averaging 32.7 points per game, the most in the NFL.
One of the biggest struggles the Bears are working through is with their pass rush. Overall, they have just 28 sacks on the season (13th most) but over their first six games they registered 18 sacks, and in their most recent five they’ve managed just 10 sacks—that’s a full sack less in recent games.
But the most problematic issue for the Bears’ defense right now is defending the run. Over the first six weeks, the Bears only allowed 112 rushing yards per game, but over the last five, they’ve averaged 151 yards allowed on the ground—nearly 40 more rushing yards allowed per game. This is reflected in their DVOA ranking where they currently sit at 30th in DVOA run defense. Enter Detroit, who is averaging 150.8 yards rushing per game, fourth-most in the NFL, and brings with them the No. 2 overall DVOA rushing offense.
