These first two weeks of the new season have been a mixed bag for the Cowboys, but one constant has been their offense. Dallas ranks in the top 10 in nearly every offensive metric, and they’re clicking in both the pass game and run game. They’ll face a tough test, though, in Week 3 when they go on the road to face the Bears.
Chicago hit the jackpot this offseason when they landed Ben Johnson, the highly- coveted offensive coordinator of the Lions, to be their head coach. But Johnson needed an ace defensive mind to manage that side of the ball, too, and he found a great one in Dennis Allen.
One of the best defensive minds in the game, Allen spent the past three seasons as the Saints head coach. He succeeded Sean Payton, under whom he was the defensive coordinator for seven seasons, during which time he crossed paths with Lions head coach Dan Campbell, hence the connection for Johnson.
Allen was the head coach of the Raiders before going to New Orleans, though it’s clear – with a 26-53 record between both franchises – that he’s a better fit as a coordinator. Allen called defensive plays as a head coach in New Orleans, too, and the Saints ranked eighth in EPA/play allowed and fifth in success rate allowed over his entire time running the defense there.
To put it simply, Allen’s defenses have been elite for a long time.
So far, he’s not having that kind of success in Chicago; the Bears are 29th in both EPA/play allowed and success rate allowed. Of course, that’s just two games, both against division rivals that are known for explosive offenses. The Bears also played both games without slot corner Kyler Gordon, and top outside corner Jaylon Johnson missed the first week and left early with an injury in Week 2. Linebacker T.J. Edwards also left that game with an injury. All three will miss this game.
On top of it all, Allen’s scheme is known to be fairly complex, so it’s not entirely surprising that players haven’t completely picked it up yet.
There are three traits that have been almost universal for Allen’s defense over the years. 1) He uses a ton of four-man fronts, second-most since 2016 to be exact; 2) He uses a lot of man coverage with matching principles; and 3) Allen makes heavy use of split safety looks before the snap.
That all has to do with pre-snap looks, really. A Dennis Allen defense pretty much looks the same every single week and every single play… until the ball is snapped. He’ll utilize a bunch of slides and twists and stunts on the defensive line, as well as blitzing in opportune moments, to throw extra stuff at the offensive line despite having just four men on the line of scrimmage.
His secondary also rotates their safeties a lot. Allen will show two high safeties nearly every play, but it’s hardly uncommon for one (or both) to come screaming down into the box when the ball is snapped. He also uses pattern matching concepts that allow his defensive backs to effectively split the difference between man and zone coverage based on what the offense is doing.
When it’s run with talented defensive backs who understand how the scheme operates, Allen’s defenses can be nearly unstoppable. The problem, right now, is that isn’t happening. It was always going to take time for the players to adjust to the complex coverage scheme, and losing both Gordon and Johnson so early on has only hurt the process. As such, the Bears are giving up 9.2 net yards per pass attempt, the most in the league by a wide margin.
That’s made it harder on the run defense, too. Chicago is surrendering 5.3 yards per carry, tied for fifth-most. They’re also giving up 3.04 yards before contact per attempt – most in the league – which means running backs are getting clean breaks all too often against this defense.
That’s great news for the Cowboys. Javonte Williams has anchored a surprisingly strong run game in Dallas, and Dak Prescott is playing some great football early on, with the duo of CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens already terrorizing better defenses than this ailing Bears unit.
Allen’s scheme is still settling in for many of these players. Allen may be an elite defensive play-caller, but it’s probably going to take a little bit before the Bears defense is operating at full capacity. This week against a hot Cowboys offense hardly seems like a recipe for a get-right game.
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