Looking at it in a vacuum gives a different perspective, but realistically, teams won't win many games giving up points on 5 of six drives, especially when the only reason they didn't score on the 6th is they had multiple penalties. Counting on a team to stop itself with multiple penalties on a drive is not a good way to play defense. The Colts drove the ball up and down the field at will, we simply never stopped them, they stopped themselves.
The defense has been good all year so hopefully it was an abberation, but we have had a fair amount of luck too. Houston hung 500 yds of offense on us and if they hadn't been nearly as RZ challenged as we are and some poor coaching from BO, really should have won that game easily. The Lions game, we gave up back to back TD drives in the 4th qtr, lasting 3.5 minutes each, we weren't stopping them late and began giving chunk play after chunk play. The only thing that saved us is that they scored too fast and gave us time to make the GWD.
There are a few stats that are concerning with our defense. We are 22nd in opponent QB passer rating, 29th in opponent QB completion percentage and 26th in opponent 3rd down conversion percentage. For perspective, the Ravens and Bears defenses rank at least top 5 in all those categories. The Bears defense becomes more impressive when you realize, they have defended the 3rd highest number of drives this season, we have defended the 7th fewest. Our defense has benefited from our offensive style of play, slow methodical drives limiting opponents possessions. Our defense is getting better, but the Bears defense is legit dominant.
