Bears Matt Eberflus Defense

Here Come the Bears! The Matt Eberflus Era has begun! 

Matt Eberflus is an excellent football coach. He did very will in Indianapolis and had a pretty good roster with Darius Leonard, one of the best Mike LB in the game, Deforest Buckner at DT, and Kenny Moore one of the best nickel CB in the game.  Their's a misconception that the Colts didn't have great talent but that's not the case. They had a solid roster. That being said, he is an excellent coach and good coordinator.

He will excel with the defense in Chicago. He's going from a team that had trouble getting to the QB, #26 ranked Indianapolis to #1 Chicago! The Colts were 31st in pressure rate which was their achilles heal,  so having some studs at DE will only make his defense better. It  should be very exciting for him with Quinn and Mack. 

Just from watching his defenses, they are very well disciplined. They have a great understanding of what teams will do and rarely get caught out of position. 

Here is a closer look at Matt Eberflus and the defense he ran in Indy. Coach Eberflus ran a 4-3 with 4-2-5 vs 11 personnel. They didn't really deviate from a 4 hands front. He was more of a  a zone coverage team, but like every NFL team played some man concepts.  For example, he ran 44 snaps of zone vs. the Bills 4 man concepts and 6 zone blitz pressures.  He played a ton of cover 2 and 4 principles vs the Bills because of the Bills potent passing attack. 

But when he played the Patriots, with a rookie QB, who loves 21 and 12, they played  a lot more cover 3 and got the safety down in run support. He is an excellent game planner. 

They played some 4 deep secondaries, cover 2, cover 4 and cover 3  along with some man concepts sprinkled in at times. He also has some good sim pressures he runs, with both  cover 3, cover 2 and  man concepts. He also runs my favorite pressure concept a  6 man 2 under 3 deep pressures which he will use on 2nd and long and some 3rd and long situations. This defense is better when you know teams aren't really throwing hot as it takes away some of the deeper routes with 6 man pressure.

3rd down you'll see some man variations on 3rd & 1-3 and 3rd & 4-6 and mostly zone in other situations. You will also see some 2 under 3 deep on 3rd and long situations. Especially if you are running more vertical routes without any hot components.  

1. Early downs vs 12/21 personnel.

The Colts were committed to stopping the run. They ranked 11th in rushing yards per game.

They did an excellent job stopping the run vs. The Patriots. They run 2 cover 3 concepts on early downs. Some cover 3 weak(based on the passing strength). If they came out  2x2 formations with the tight end weak, with 2 wr to the formation, the weak safety would come down and be in the box. If it's a 3x1 formation they will bring the strong safety down. Just what they do with their cover 3.

But, as much as this is the case, it depends on who he's playing. When he played the Bills and better passing attacks, he was more cover 2 and 4 orientated and played mostly a 7 man box on early downs vs 21 and 12. So, he will adjust depending on the passing attacks. Eberflus is great game planner. 

Here is an example vs  The Patriots. The Patriots are in 21 personnel with Henry split 5 yards. He goes   4-2 but brings the safety down vs twins sets and 20 personnel plays cover 3. They are plus 1 in the run game. 

The other thing they do is which you will see them do more than other teams is move the DT late from a 3i to a 2i. You notice they will do this at times. This changes the blocking schemes late.

The Colts are very disciplined when they go cover 3 and his defensive players know where they are vulnerable. Patriots try to run a vertical concept with the TE later in the game, and the Colts safety plays it great as you can see to the bottom of the screen. He plays the 3 match concept perfectly.

You can see the SS #23 doing a great job as the Pats try to go play action and hit the TE in the seem.

 cover 3 weak  vs 12 vs the Cardinals, getting the extra run defender in the box. The ball is on the hash so they bring the safety weak and play 3 weak.

Some more cover 3 weak clips vs various teams

That is one of their cover 3 variations. The other is playing cover 3 strong. You will see that more vs 3x1 sets out of 12 personnel. 

Cover 3 strong:

This will be used vs 3x1 formations. Mostly with a tight end wing to that side. You also see it vs 21 personnel with 2 backs in the game. Below is with 3x1.

Cover 3 strong Clips from a few games.

Cover 1

The other thing you will see is some cover 1 on early downs. Sometimes with pressure, sometimes without.

Here they play man free and go CB over. By going CB over it give you a better run support player to the tight end side with the safety. 

In this example, they get a twins set with a TE/FB backside. They go CB over to allow their safety to come down and be the run support.  They are in cover 1. When they play cover 1 on early run downs they will many times bump the cb to the other side and let the safety play the tight end. It gives them better run support. 

Here's a few clips from the Patriots game.

Here you see the same alignment and man free coverage vs the Jaguars #37 is the Strong Safety, they leave him over the tight end and bump the CB over vs. the Jaguars. Better run support on the edge with the safety.

Here they run a cover 1 pressure

The Colts will play nickel vs 11 personal, 4-2-5 defense like many other teams on early downs. They decide to bring pressure. Here they are in nickel and run the sam on a nice run blitz thru the b gap. Again, getting a plus 1 advantage in the run game. Playing cover 1 on the outside.

Cover 2/4  concepts

Colts Vs Bills

The Colts played a lot more cover 2 vs the Bills. They disguised it as 3 weak and then went to their cover 2 look. On a key interception, they fooled the Bills, showed 3 and went 2. The Bills ran bootleg at it. Leonard does a tremendous job taking away the crosser and Allen tries to force it downfield and throws the pick into the cover 2 look. Great design by Coach Eberflus.

Leonard does a great job walling off the crosser.  The safety undercuts the deep comeback. Nice job defensively.

Here they play their nickel vs 11 on 2nd and 12 and just play a simple Tampa 2

Coach Matt plays some cover  2 /4  quite often. Below he plays some quarter quarter half.

Heres some more true Tampa 2 where the MLB will drop to 18 yards and not allow a WR to run to the middle of the field.  Yet, another part of the package. Eberflus plays some Tampa 2 

Some Bonus Cover 2 and Tampa 2 Coverage:

You will see some examples of the Colts cover 2

2. Fire zone pressures 

The Colts will run some fire zones with both c-2 , 1/4 1/4 1/2 , and cover 3. Some examples will follow.

This example they play zone to the 3x1 side and man to the 1wr side. Combo with a 5 man pressure.

3rd down coverages and efficiency:

This is an area they weren't the best in 19th/32nd. Maybe it was the lack of a great pass rusher or some matchups.  They were 26th in sacks which didn't help 3rd down rankings. 

3rd 1-3 & 4-6

Some man to man concepts

Like most teams you'll see some man free and 2 man concepts with some cover 2 on these downs.

Here's a nice pressure out of the load front on 3rd and 5 vs the Raiders.

They go man free but exchange responsibilities with the mike blitzing and DE dropping as a rat defender. Really a 4 man pressure with the mike adding in as 5th rusher when he sees the RB drop. nice design by Eberflus

The DE on the left starts upfield but is really just helping on the tight end. Taking away the TE on 3rd and 5. It turns out to be a nice 4 man inside pressure.

#57 drops into coverage, Leonard adds in as the 5th rusher when he sees the RB block.

3rd down 7+  and 2nd and long

At times you will see some 2 under 3 deep zone pressures on these downs

This concept is seen more at the college level but Eberflus runs it well with the Colts. It's a 6 man 2 under 3 deep. 

2021 Colts vs Bills week 11

The Colts ran it 3 times vs the Bills and were efficient on 2 with a big interception and also had great coverage the 3rd time but Allen scrambled for 8 yards in their 41-15 win week 11. The coverage definitely confused Josh Allen. The video clips are below

#1 Odd 6 man pressure with the LB looping to contain rush. The Bills try to run 2 vertical routes with a post and the Colts are sitting on it. Allen forced to run.

#2 2nd and 7

Double Edge pressure but the LB loses his contain and Allen scrambles for 8

The Blitz was not successful because the LB left his rush lane. Gave Allen an opening for 6 yards to run.

#3. Same blitz as #1 great coverage and a nice interception. Blitz gets home late and Allen is hit as he throws.Here is the blitz you saw earlier. 2 under 3 deep. Great coverage as they try to hit Diggs on a 20 yard comeback. Great coverage and break on the ball.

3rd and 8 vs the Colts 

Here's some bonus footage:

2 under 3 deep Eberflus Youtube

These are just some of the defenses you will see from Head Coach Matt Eberflus and the  new Bears defense. He is a very solid defensive coach and the Bears are lucky to have him.