Potential Changes In Bears' Play Calling In 2009

Most all the talk in Chicago is about how the Bears' offense will change with Jay Cutler under center.

A more important question might actually be, what kind of changes will Bears' fans see in defensive play calling?

Ron Turner is still the Bears offensive coordinator, just as he was before the arrival of Cutler. On the other side of the ball, head coach Lovie Smith will be calling the defensive plays in 2009, which is something he has not done in his previous five seasons as Chicago's head coach.

Smith is a Cover 2 advocate.

Is he taking the reigns because he wants more traditional Cover 2 defense played?

Or does he think the Cover 2 is a defensive code that has been broken by NFL offenses and that it's time for a change?

Unfortunately, the answers to those questions aren't innate, but we can speculate.

Smith is taking over calling the defense because he feels that phase of the game has declined in recent years, which is true.

Since former defensive coordinator Ron Rivera was let go after the 2006 season, when the team went to the Super Bowl, the defense has been a disappointment even though the same personnel essentially exists.

I imagine the defense is going to look a lot like the defenses Smith ran in St. Louis when he was the Rams' defensive coordinator. Those defenses took a major back seat to the Rams "Greatest Show on Turf" offense, but were very solid.

You don't go to a Super Bowl, as the team did in 2002 with Smith as defensive coordinator, without a good defense.

The big change will probably be more effective use of the blitz.

The Bears struggled to pressure the quarterback, picking up just 28 sacks as a team in 2008, which put Chicago in a tie for 22nd best in the league. Defensive end Alex Brown led the team with six.

In 2007, the Bears were sixth in the league with 41 sacks and were tied for eighth with 40 sacks in the 2006 Super Bowl season.

Smith's biggest focus should be to increase pressure on the opposing team's quarterback.

That doesn't necessarily mean more blitzes. It does mean more effective blitzes and better disguised ones.

The blitz in football is the defense's risky play. Sometimes it works and you get the sack you were looking for or pressure the quarterback into a poor pass. Other times it is picked up and the offense usually has a pretty good shot at a big play.

The most successful blitzes are usually the unpredictable ones, where the offense isn't sure who is coming and from where on the field they are coming from.

Too often in 2008 the Bears showed blitz early and then actually delivered on what they were showing. The team's blitzing patterns were fairly obvious, even when watching on TV where you usually can't see the entire defensive set.

Smith will probably try to disguise blitzes better and change up when he blitzes in order to make an immediate impact on Chicago's defense.

The overall defensive scheme isn't going to change.

Chicago won't be playing a 3-4 defense and will probably stick with the Cover 2, even though it is a defense that has been around for a while and can be picked apart by good NFL offenses with ease.

Going over to offense, the play calling won't differ dramatically.

If you think that just because Cutler is with the team the Bears are going to break the huddle in a shotgun formation with four wide receivers 30 times a game and start chucking deep all the time, you will be disappointed when the season starts and that isn't the case.

Turner will still be calling lots of running plays and lots of underneath pass patterns just like he has in the past.

What many don't remember is that there were plenty down-field chances taken in Chicago's passing game during 2008. Many were not successful plays, though.

If Cutler can be accurate on deep throws like he was with Denver, it may seem like the Bears are going deep more often, but if you were to look at the play breakdown compared to previous years with Turner calling the plays, the percentages will probably be about the same.

The Bears offense isn't going to be radically different in the play calling in 2009 just because Cutler is the quarterback. The hope is the offense will just be more efficient.

Where things will probably change the most in play calling is on defense, where Smith will look to make the Bears elite again.