PFF Grades: Andrew Billings was Bears’ best defender in Week 1

The Chicago Bears defense didn’t provide much to get excited about during Week 1’s loss to Green Bay. Jordan Love and the Packers’ offense put up 31 points — Justin Fields and the offense surrendered a pick-6 — and there weren’t any big plays, exciting sacks, or momentum-shifting turnovers produced by defensive coordinator Alan Williams’ unit.

In fact, the Bears had one of the worst pressure rates in the NFL in Week 1. They generated only six QB pressures and blitzed Love on just 16.7% of his dropbacks. Brutal.

Pro Football Focus published their Week 1 grades on Monday, and they weren’t pretty. The Bears’ defense did have at least one standout in defensive tackle Andrew Billings, who scored a near-elite 88.1 on 33 snaps. His grade would’ve been even higher had he not registered an atrocious 28.2 tackling score.

Among defenders who logged at least 20 snaps, it was the defensive backs who scored best:

Eddie Jackson: 78.8
Tyrique Stevenson: 67.2
Jaylon Johnson: 66.6
Jaquon Brisker: 64.2

One thing is pretty clear with these grades: they’re bad. It’s easy to understand why the Chicago Bears lost the game when three of the Bears’ five highest-graded defenders had scores in the 60s.

To make matters worse, only two Bears defenders had pass rush grades above 60 (Billings and DeMarcus Walker). Chicago failed on every level of the defense to impact Love and the Packers’ offense. They deserved to lose the game.

Embarrassing.

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