Bears brace for Raiders without Jarrett, Wright, Edwards

Ariana Pensy · Correspondent · 5 hours ago

CHICAGO - The Chicago Bears' defense finally put everything together against the Dallas Cowboys, holding Dallas to 14 points, generating four turnovers, and sacking quarterback Dak Prescott twice for a loss of 17 yards.

Two of Chicago’s turnovers last week came from linebacker Tremaine Edmunds, who caught two interceptions. He leads the league in picks and also leads the Bears in tackles with 29. Edmunds also has a tackle for loss.

With fellow linebacker T.J. Edwards out for the first three games, Edmunds has had to step up, and defensive coordinator Dennis Allen expects Edmunds to continue his current production.

“He’s a guy that we’re going to need to count on to play at a very high level, and so, I think anytime you have injuries wherever it may occur within your defense, not only are those replacements, they have to step up and perform at a high level,” Allen said. “But, you need some of your other playmakers to step up and even play better and so, I was proud of the way that he played last week. We need him to play at a Pro Bowl level, which I think he’s got that capability.”

Edwards will also be out on Sun. Sept. 28 (3:25 p.m. / CBS) when the Chicago Bears take on the Las Vegas Raiders. Defensive lineman Grady Jarrett will miss his first game of the season with a knee injury, and right tackle Darnell Wright has also been ruled out.

Not having Jarrett on the field against Las Vegas could hurt Chicago's run game. They have already struggled against the run and losing a big body on the interior of the defensive line will not help things.

This is especially true, going against a running back who put up over 2,000 rushing yards in his final collegiate season, Ashton Jeanty.

“He’s a violent runner. He gets into the second, third level of the defense. He’s seeking out contact. He runs extremely hard. I think he’s an outstanding player. He’s got great vision,” Allen said. “Really good feet and he runs tough, he runs violent and so, you got to get a lot of hats around the ball on him and really, you don’t want him to have free access into the second, third level of your defense because if he gets there, you got to bring your hard hat because (there’s) going to be a collision.”

Statistically, this defense has fallen short of expectations. They have given up the most passing touchdowns out of any team in the league and are allowing over five yards per attempt in the run game. Against the Dallas Cowboys, the defense allowed nearly 400 yards and allowed over 100 rushing yards for the third game in a row.

However, Allen is not as concerned with how the numbers look if the defense is not giving up many points.

“From a defensive perspective, the game is all about limiting points. That’s what it’s all about. It’s not about yards. It’s not about any of that stuff. It’s not about rushing, passing, whatever the case may be. It’s about limiting points and each and every game plan, how you go about doing that is going to be different and so, we attack each and every week as a new week. When we get the game plan and we start going on the game plan, it’s a blank slate when we walk in there the very first day,” Allen said. “Certainly, we want to be able to put our guys in the best position to have success whatever that may be without getting into any specifics game plan-wise … Obviously, the front has two aspects to it. There has (to be) the ability to stop the run and then there has the ability to get after the passer and so, we try to put a plan together that we think gives us the best opportunity to do both those things.”