Chicago Bears Pass Protection Analysis on the Sack Allowed vs Seahawks

In the first two games since Caleb Williams returned, the Chicago Bears’ pass protection allowed 4 sacks to the Atlanta Falcons and then 3 to the New England Patriots. It’s not bad, and in context, I thought the pass protection was solid in each game, but it was still a much higher sack rate than a season ago, when he averaged just 1.4 per game.

The Seattle Seahawks defense featured 5 players with multiple sacks through their first seven games, and with the Week 8 matchup in loud Lumen Field in Seattle, I figured their defense would get the best of Chicago’s pass protection scheme a few times.

But the Bears only allowed 1 sack to Seattle’s vaunted defense, and I’ll break it down right here.

• Sack 19: 4th Quarter: 2-10-CHI 23 (14:02) (Shotgun) C.Williams sacked at CHI 13 for -10 yards (M.Morris)

After Caleb faked to D’Andre Swift, he looked downfield at Luther Burden III (outside the right hash), but he felt pressure off the left so fast because left tackle Theo Benedet was walked back into the pocket. Caleb drifted right and looked to Swift in the left flat, but didn’t have a clear throwing lane. Benedet did a nice job staying between his guy and his quarterback, but the problem was the depth he gave up, so even though his guy didn’t get the sack, he’s the reason this play was blown up.

If Benedet offered up just a bit more resistance, Williams could have hit one of his three checkdowns (probably Colston Loveland over the middle), but there wasn’t time to get through his progressions.

It looked like Swift was going to chip if Benedet’s guy took an outside rush. He got a small piece of the defender on the way to the flat, but with the Seattle rush end square to Benedet, there wasn’t enough for Swift to hit

Benedet set up inside first, then kicked out for the edge defender. In theory, that inside step would normally entice a defender to go around the edge, exposing his outside shoulder for Swift to target on his chip release and leaving Benedet in a good position as the defender redirected his rush inside. But the Seattle defender had his mind made up to bull rush on the play. Benedet likely didn’t expect it and was driven back.

Caleb was forced out of the pocket and ended up even with left guard Joe Thuney, who pulled right to block the edge after a Loveland release. Mike Morris (#94) just reached out and grabbed Williams before delivering the belly-to-back suplex.

The Bears did a good job mixing up the tempo and identifying the Seattle defenders all night long, which is hard to do

Here’s the individual Sackwatch tally after eight games:

Caleb Williams – 4.5
Sacks happen – 3
Garrett Bradbury – 3
Theo Benedet – 2.5
Ozzy Trapilo – 2
Jonah Jackson – 1
Colston Loveland – 1
Tyson Bagent – 1
Darnell Wright – 1

Historical Sackwatch after eight weeks of action.

2010 – 32 Martz
2011 – 21 Martz
2012 – 28 Tice
2013 – 12 Trestman
2014 – 20 Trestman
2015 – 14 Gase
2016 – 14 Loggains
2017 – 19 Loggains
2018 – 17 Nagy
2019 – 22 Nagy
2020 – 20 Nagy
2021 – 30 Nagy
2022 – 31 Getsy
2023 – 28 Getsy
2024 – 23 Waldron
2025 – 12 Johnson
2026 – 19 Johnson