Pompei: Rams-Bears is football’s oldest rivalry: offense vs. defense

Pompei: Rams-Bears is a celebration of football’s oldest rivalry: offense vs. defense

Dan Pompei

https://theathletic.com/702247/2018/12/08/pompei-rams-bears-is-a-celebration-of-footballs-oldest-rivalry-offense-vs-defense/

When​ the​ Bears​ and​ Rams play​ Sunday night​ on the​ lakefront, it will​ be​ a battle​ between potential playoff opponents.

It also​​ will be a conflict between attacking and preventing, tomorrow and yesterday, unstoppable force and immovable object.

That is, the Bears defense, which might be the best in the NFL, will try to stop the Rams offense, which might be the best in the NFL.

The Bears are winning the old-fashioned way, the way the Bears almost always have won. This franchise’s identity was shaped by two of the most dominating defenses in NFL history, the 1963 Bears and the 1985 Bears. What position are the Bears most known for? Middle linebacker. Since George Halas retired for good, the Bears have hired 11 head coaches. Seven of them have come from the defensive side of the ball.

The Rams are winning the new-fashioned way, with an offense that’s doing things that have never been done. And the Rams mostly have been about offense in their history. It was Bob Waterfield, a quarterback, who put the Rams on the map in 1945. Probably the greatest era in Rams history came from 1949 through 1955, when they were powered by wide receiver stars Tom Fears and Crazy Legs Hirsch. Their most recent glory came courtesy of Kurt Warner and “The Greatest Show on Turf,” an explosive offense for which the rest of the league had no answer.

This season, it’s 34.9 points per game scored for the Rams against 20.1 points per game allowed for the Bears. According to the Aikman efficiency rating, which takes into account seven statistics, the Rams have the No. 3 offense in the league and the Bears have the No. 1 defense.

The Rams are tied with New Orleans for the second-most points in the NFL at 419. They have the second-most first downs (303) and are tied for the highest yards per pass attempt (9.1).

The Bears have the most takeaways in the league (30) and have allowed the fourth-fewest points and the second-fewest rushing yards (1,030). Their opponent passer rating of 78.5 easily is the lowest in the league.

Vic Fangio, the Bears defensive coordinator, represents everything that’s right in coaching. He’s crafty and tough. He’s seen everything. In the fourth quarter of a tight game, he is a shark. He speaks plainly and delivers a message powerfully.

Sean McVay, the Rams head coach and offensive mastermind, also represents everything that’s right in coaching. He’s passionate, bright and creative. He isn’t bound by the way things used to be. A natural born leader, the 32-year-old McVay can connect with almost anyone.

Fangio was so impressed with McVay that he told a general manager friend that he thought McVay would be a good head coach before the Rams hired him away from Washington.

Everyone is looking for the next McVay, and every team is trying to be like the Rams. Even the Bears are trying to be like the Rams. They hired a young offensive-minded head coach like the Rams did and addressed the quarterback position in a very similar manner.

Teams aren’t trying to play defense like the Bears — at least they aren’t prioritizing it.

The most talked-about game of the year was the Rams’ 54-51 victory over the Chiefs. The pundits said it was the future of the NFL, which seems to be a stretch. For 54-51 to be the future, the league will have to evolve further. And more McVays will have to emerge.

What we can say — Fangio agrees on this point — is we are going to see a lot of shootouts, albeit with fewer total points than Rams-Chiefs. That clearly is where the game is going.

The reason is it’s never been easier to have an explosive offense. It’s never been more difficult to have an efficient defense.

It’s interesting how we got here.

In the 1990s, a style of defense gained popularity and began to spread. The zone blitz confused offenses by having linemen drop into coverage while linebackers or defensive backs blitzed. Among its most prominent proponents were Dick LeBeau, Dom Capers and Fangio.

In those days, Fangio was the defensive coordinator of the Panthers and Colts, and he probably blitzed more than any other coordinator in the league.

“That’s when defenses were ahead of offenses,” Fangio told me. “Offenses couldn’t consistently handle it. And that was the stimulus to bring on these offense that you are seeing today.”

Today’s offenses are different from offenses back then because they spread out defenses and attack all areas of the field. They create more indecision, and they utilize faster players.

The Rams are a good example. You’ll hardly ever see them with fewer than three wide receivers on the field.

“It used to be unusual when there were three wide receivers on the field,” Fangio said. “Now, you see that all the time. So, now there is another fast guy to deal with. The third wide receiver has replaced a tough-guy fullback who couldn’t make many big plays. And the tight ends are now receivers more than blockers.”

The Bears still have zone blitzes in their defensive playbook, but you won’t see them called frequently because offensive adjustments have made the zone blitz a risky call.

So, in a roundabout way, Fangio had a hand in the offensive revolution in football today.

Of course, there are other factors. Rules changes continue to make it easier for offenses, as defensive players are more tentative than ever and defensive intimidation is at an all-time low. Tackles that used to be celebrated can now cost a player money. The game has changed at the grassroots level, with more of the premier athletes gravitating towards offense, and then honing their skills at early ages in passing camps.

The offensive tilt, barring the unforeseen, is here to stay.

Fangio’s Bears defense is a rarity in today’s league. It’s solid at every level, and it’s been pretty consistent. He has the horses — especially since the additions of Khalil Mack and Roquan Smith — and he also has the right kind of ideology. Whereas many defensive coordinators make too many concessions to their opponent of the week, Fangio has his unit focused on playing sound, fundamental defense regardless of who is across the line of scrimmage.

That’s what the Bears are doing differently. Most defenses have become more ambitious to try to keep pace with offenses, but the Bears defense has remained simple. They don’t tip their hand before the snap, and they don’t play the same thing over and over, but they aren’t making this quantum mechanics.

Fangio has been associated with a lot of really good defenses. Given what’s happening in 2018, this could be his best. But we can’t make any declarations yet.

The real tests for the Bears defense are ahead, beginning Sunday night.