The Bears have only played one game so far this season, and that game was against one of the weaker teams in the NFL.

But for all intents and purposes, their defense didn’t have a bad game against the Detroit Lions last Sunday. 

Granted, it’s hard to base a prediction for an entire season off of one game because things can happen to affect an outcome, but to start, the defense looks good.

So what made them look so good on Sunday against the Lions?  You may be asking how can I say that they looked good when they allowed 14 points on two runs. 

You may also ask how they could look good when they almost let the Lions drive down the field and win. 

Let’s answer those questions and take a look at why this unit may end up being one of the best in the NFL before it’s all said and done.

One very important thing that has made this unit better in its first week is the fact that middle linebacker Brian Urlacher is back, feeling good, and playing pretty well.

As we saw Sunday, Urlacher was all over the field making plays and even had a sack, which helped the Bears defense out immensely. 

His leadership was exhibited during that game, and he showed us what the Bears missed while he was out last season.

Lance Briggs had a monster game, getting involved in many tackles, and had the highlight of the game on defense (forcing and recovering a fumble). 

He is clearly feeling good after having been injured in the preseason, and may have been feeding off of what Urlacher was doing this past Sunday. 

If both Briggs and Urlacher can play like this game in, game out, the Bears defense will be hot this season.

One other player worth mentioning who had a decent game on Sunday was Julius Peppers. Peppers had a sack and a forced fumble (recovered by defensive tackle Tommie Harris) and knocked the Lions’ starting quarterback, Matthew Stafford, out of the game. 

Also, if you watched the play of the defense closely, you would have seen that Peppers was in on several plays and was close to making several others.

Peppers exhibited his speed on one particular play.  As the Lions brought their running back, Jahvid Best, out on a sweep (to the side opposite where Peppers was at), Peppers broke free of his blocker, ran around the backside, and was in on the tackle of Best. 

He looked like a gazelle out there with that speed.  Hopefully, he plays like this on every play of the season while he is out there on the field.

So how can we call this defense good after allowing two touchdowns by the same running back during the game? 

The offense and how they handle the ball has a lot of bearing on what happens with the defense.  Both scoring drives for the Lions came after turnovers by the Bears.

Not only did these turnovers provide a short field for the Lions, but they put the Bears defense against a wall and they couldn’t stop the Lions from scoring on the short field.

Had the offense not given up those fumbles, the defense could have easily kept the Lions from scoring a single point.

There is cause for concern on the defense, however.  In the Cover 2 defense, both safeties play a critical role in coverage and supporting the run.  This means that both safeties have to be quick as well as hard hitters. 

As we will all remember, the Bears went out and grabbed safety Chris Harris from the Carolina Panthers in a trade and felt that all would be well now that he was back with the team.

During the preseason and in his first regular season game, Harris made some mistakes that allowed opponents to gain extra yards. 

He may be playing out of position, or else he’s not as good as he was in Carolina (where he was a hard-hitting ball hawk). 

The Bears are going to work rookie safety Major Wright into the lineup more, which may end up spelling the end for Harris as a starter.

The interior of the Bears defensive line got some pressure last weekend and while pretty stable they still need to work together to get a bigger and better pass rush going. 

Once teams start to double-team Peppers more, we will see some opportunities open up in the center of the defense. That should allow guys like defensive tackles Tommie Harris and Anthony Adams get some pressure and sacks on the QB.  

We have talked a lot about the pass defense, but let’s swing back to the Bears rushing defense and see how they look. 

Despite the fact that they allowed two rushing touchdowns last Sunday, the Bears rushing defense allowed an average of about one yard per carry and hardly any rushing yards.

How did they do this?  By having strong rushing defense by the interior defensive line as well as quick reactions by their linebackers.  If the Bears can do this, things will turn out all right for them.

Of course, there has only been one game so far this season and a lot can change between the first game and the last game. 

One key thing that will keep this defense solid is health.  In the past, key players on defense (see Urlacher and Pisa Tinoisamoa) have been injured for long period of time. 

This has disrupted the continuity of the Bears defense and has caused them many problems.  Keeping everyone healthy during the season will be important.

The play of the offense will also dictate how well this unit does.  Remember, they allowed two rushing touchdowns against the Lions in the first game of the season, and these two touchdowns came on the heels of fumbles by the offense. 

The offense has to help the defense by not fumbling the ball and putting them in a bad position.  If quarterback Jay Cutler and the offense can keep from making costly mistakes, the defense will be that much better.

We have yet to see the secondary tested and that’s going to happen this Sunday when they meet the pass-happy Dallas Cowboys.  If they can pass the test against Dallas then this unit will have come a long ways.

So let’s see how well they do this Sunday against Dallas.  This will be a huge test for this defense and if they do well, even in a loss, then they will have come a long ways and will win some battles with other teams this season.

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