Beyond the numbers: Bears’ Sweat, coaches seeing results that don’t show on stat sheet
The stat sheet doesn’t say much about Montez Sweat. The Bears’ Pro Bowl pass rusher has only two tackles in two games and has yet to sack the opposing quarterback.
The game film, however, tells a different story. When the Bears coaches watch the film, they track a lot more than sacks. Sweat is doing a lot of things right, even if he’s not sacking the quarterback.
“How he’s factoring, statistically in our room with how we grade it all, he’s doing a really good job from the sense of factoring in the run game too [and] his ability to collapse the pocket,” defensive line coach Travis Smith said.
It’s a team effort among the four defensive linemen rushing the quarterback. Sweat is drawing double-teams and he’s drawing blocking help from tight ends and running backs. That typically frees things up for the other defensive linemen.
The Bears’ defensive line is playing at a high level. ESPN Analytics ranks the Bears as the No. 1 defense in terms of pass rush “win rate.” Their defensive linemen rank No. 2 in win rate on running plays, too.
“As long as we’re doing what we need to do and all the guys are around me and are balling, I’m fine,” Sweat said on Thursday at Halas Hall.
Defensive tackle Gervon Dexter’s sack on Sunday night against Houston is a perfect example. Sweat beat Texans right tackle Tytus Howard, while Dexter ran a stunt and found an open hole after changing directions. Both defensive linemen met at the quarterback.
Dexter even knocked Sweat down on his way to the sack. It went down as Dexter’s second sack of the season.
But it easily could’ve gone to Sweat.
“Obviously, he wants his [sacks] too,” Smith said. “So he has to keep trucking, keep rushing, keep fighting to get to that [quarterback]. And the bottom line is you have to beat our other guys there too.”
Sweat had 12.5 sacks last season in eight games with Washington and 9 with Chicago. He became the first player ever to lead two teams in sacks in the same season, which probably says more about the 2023 Bears and the 2023 Commanders than it does about Sweat. It earned him his first Pro Bowl appearance last season.
The Bears signed him to a four-year, $98 million contract just days after trading for him. Sweat is going to be a fixture of this defense for the next several years. He’s here to sack the quarterback, but he’s also not too worried that the sacks have been hard to come by so far in 2024.
The emergence of Darrell Taylor, who the Bears traded for in August, is already reaping results. Taylor had two sacks in the season opener. If he remains lethal on the opposite side, that should make it hard for teams to double-team Sweat so often.
“It’s just a matter of time,” defensive coordinator Eric Washington said. “He knows how to get to the quarterback and to end the play with a sack-fumble, and so those things will happen for him, and they will happen in bunches.”
With a rookie quarterback on the offensive side, the Bears needed a hot start from their defense. That’s exactly what they’ve gotten. The defense has kept the Bears in both of their first two games – and pretty much won the season opener against Tennessee.
The Bears’ defense is going to have to keep this level of play up while the offense sorts out its issues.
“There’s no frustration,” Sweat said. “We look forward to those challenges.”