Chicago Bears: Grading the team’s first half performance

Secondary: B

This is a much-maligned unit. Pace overhauled it and now it’s producing well. Marcus Cooper and Prince Amukamara came in and are productive. Kyle Fuller, a player who took a great deal of criticism from his own defensive coordinator Vic Fangio for his failure to play after a knee scope, changed the story. He’s been playing back to his rookie level.

Fuller does a good job of cutting off opposing wide receivers’ lanes. He stays with them and makes the passes thrown his way more difficult. Against the Ravens, he did exactly that, cutting the lane. As a result, the pass went off and into the hands of Adrian Amos, who took the ball 90 yards for a pick-six.

Amukamara did the same in the game against the Panthers. Cam Newton threw a pass and Amukamara was on his man and tipped the ball. Eddie Jackson took it 76 yards for another pick-six.

Speaking of Amos and Jackson, the teams finally has safeties to depend on. Jackson looks like a draft steal. The Bears picked him in the fourth round mainly because teams felt uncomfortable with his injury. Consequently, the Bears now have a safety who might be there for many years. Also, in the Panthers game, he recovered a fumble and took it 75 yards. He became the first rookie to have a 75+ yard fumble recovery and a 75+ yard interception touchdown return in the same season. He did it in the same game.

Amos came back strong after losing his job to free agent Quintin Demps. After Demps went down with an injury, Amos stepped back in and played lights out. He has 35 tackles and three passes defended. In addition to the interception, he has a forced fumble and a fumble recovery.

The secondary still gives up big plays at times. In order to win more games, the unit needs to cut down on the big play. They do such a good job during most of the game, it’s a shame that a big play here or there ruins it.

We hope to see more big plays by the secondary. They rank 10th in the league in passing yards given up and fourth in passing touchdowns allowed; they held the great Drew Brees to zero touchdown passes in Week 8. Now they need to continue that in the second half.