Bear Down, Nerd Up: Replacing Roquan Smith’s elite production is no easy task

Roquan Smith’s absence is going to be felt, big time.

The Bears traded Smith to Baltimore on Monday in exchange for two 2023 draft picks and linebacker A.J. Klein. Smith is one of the NFL’s best at his position, a two-time second-team All-Pro.

The move was all about the future, but it also puts the Bears defense in a tough spot. Few players have the ability to stop the run, play coverage and rush the passer as effectively as Smith. Most players focus on only one of those things.

Per NFL Next Gen Stats, Smith leads the NFL since entering the league in 2018 with 330 defensive stops and a 6.4% sack rate on his pass rushes. He allows just 5.9 yards per target (fourth best).

The Bears just gave up 49 points to the Cowboys on Sunday, and things are only going to become tougher for defensive coordinator Alan Williams and head coach Matt Eberflus.

Here’s what other stats and figures made this week unique.

Dak attack: Based on the eye test, Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott was finding his receivers quickly against the Bears. The analytics back that up, too. On average, Prescott released the ball in 2.46 seconds on Sunday, according to Next Gen Stats. He was the second-fastest quarterback to release the football in Week 8, trailing only Tom Brady’s 2.37 seconds.

It’s especially notable that the Cowboys exploited the quick passing game because they weren’t doing that a week earlier when Prescott made his return from a thumb injury. Against Detroit in Week 7, Prescott ranked 21st out of 27 qualified quarterbacks with a 2.84-second time to throw.

That was a pretty drastic turnaround from one week to the next.

The Bears defense recorded only two QB hits. Safety Jaquan Brisker had the team’s only sack.

Dallas’ 442 yards of offense on Sunday marked the most allowed by a Bears defense in a year. Not since an Oct. 31, 2021, loss against San Francisco at Soldier Field, when the 49ers totaled 467 yards in a 33-22 win, did the Bears allow that many yards.

HITS in action: Safety Eddie Jackson had his fourth interception of the season on Sunday, coming in the second quarter against Prescott.

If there’s one bright spot for this Bears defense, it’s that the turnovers are coming. The Bears rank tied for sixth in the NFL with 13 total takeaways on the season. They rank tied for fourth with nine interceptions.

During Eberflus’ four years as the defensive coordinator in Indianapolis, his Colts defenses ranked in the top 10 in takeaways all four years.

His emphasis on creating turnovers has clearly had an impact. Last season the Bears ranked tied for 26 in the league with 16 total takeaways.

Three TDs: Quarterback Justin Fields threw for two touchdowns and rushed for another Sunday. It marked the first time a Bears quarterback had two passing touchdowns and a rushing touchdown in the same game since Mitchell Trubisky did so on Dec. 27, 2020.

Fields has rushed for three touchdowns already this year, the most by a Bears quarterback since Jim Harbaugh rushed for four in 1993.

Fields continues to zero in on Bobby Douglass’ 1972 team record of 968 rushing yards for a QB. Through eight games, Fields has 424 rushing yards.

Welcome to the end zone: Tight end Cole Kmet’s 10-yard touchdown catch marked his first touchdown since Dec. 6, 2020, against the Detroit Lions.

Kmet caught 60 passes for 612 yards last season. Among players with 550 yards or more, only two failed to find the end zone: Kmet and Jacksonville’s Laviska Shenault.

Tackling Eddie: Jackson matched his career high with 11 tackles. It’s typically a bad sign when a safety is leading the defense in tackles because it means receivers are catching the ball for big gains.

This was the fourth time Jackson totaled 11 tackles in a game. The Bears are 0-4 in those games.

Sack attack: Brisker, the rookie safety, had his third sack of the season. He is the first Bears defensive back with three or more sacks since Mike Green and Mike Brown did so during the 2001 season.

Snap counts: With Robert Quinn now in Philadelphia, a change was coming for the Bears at defensive end.

Al-Quadin Muhammad paced the position with 48 snaps, or 83% of defensive snaps, on Sunday. Trevis Gipson played on 67% of defensive snaps, while Dominique Robinson was on the field for 36% of snaps and Kingsley Jonathan was out there for 16% of snaps.

It was a season-high in snaps for Muhammad and Gipson. Gipson earned his first start of the season with Quinn gone.

Also notable was a season-high 13 snaps for undrafted rookie linebacker Jack Sanborn. Prior to Sunday, the Lake Zurich native played only one defensive snap all season. Sanborn has primarily been a special teams player. Against Dallas, he appeared to surpass veteran Joe Thomas (eight snaps) for the third linebacker spot in the base 4-3 defense.