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Jan 4, 2026; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Detroit Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown (14) runs with the ball against Chicago Bears safety Jaquan Brisker (9) during the first half at Soldier Field. Mandatory Credit: Matt Marton-Imagn Images Matt Marton-Imagn Images

Jaquan Brisker questions coaching after loss against Detroit

Originally posted on Chicago Bears on SI
By Jerry Markarian | Last updated Jan 4, 2026 11:45 PM ET

The Bears/Lions game may have come down to the wire with Detroit winning 19-16 via a last-second field goal, but the score didn't do the visiting team's offense justice. They largely dominated the game at the expense of Chicago's struggling defense.

The Lions' potent passing attack had the Bears' secondary on their heels all game, and their rushing attack was nearly just as effective. While they did a good job of holding them out of the end zone, they had an utterly pitiful performance between the 20s. They finished the game with 433 total yards and had 24 first downs.

Who was at fault for the defensive struggles?

When you have a performance as uninspiring as that one, there is much blame to go around. Bears' safety Jaquan Brisker seems to believe the coaching staff and their lack of adjustments should shoulder the brunt of it.

#Bears Jaquan Brisker on Lions scheme:

We were playing a whole bunch of man today. No help in the middle. Lotta picks and rubs. Really, they schemed us up, and we had to do a better job covering. They just got us in the right call. They just out schemed us, just being honest.”
— Mark Grote (@grotesports) January 5, 2026

Sheesh.

Even if Brisker has a point (which he does... they called far too much man coverage today), you never hear a player calling out the coaching staff in the postgame media session. He should've kept his opinion to himself.

The fact of the matter is everyone on the defensive side of the ball got outcoached and outplayed.

Should CJ Gardner-Johnson be in man coverage against Amon-Ra St. Brown? Absolutely not. Not without some sort of safety help over the top or middle. As far as the other assignments go, the Bears' secondary simply got outplayed. Jaylon Johnson looked slow (albeit against Detroit's fast receivers), Nahshon Wright got bullied early on, and TJ Edwards got caught out of position time and time again.

I know I'm going to sound like a Dennis Allen apologist here, and that's not my intention, because he really did not call a good game today. It was far too man-coverage-heavy even after the secondary showed that they can't keep up. However, it's important to note that their pass rush has been awful for much of the year.

The reason he hasn't been able to drop seven players into coverage is that the Bears' defensive line seemingly never gets home. They finished with three sacks today, but those all were when they had the right answer in terms of the play call, and the secondary held up well on the back end. They were coverage sacks.

I've seen some on Twitter saying the Bears should axe Allen in the offseason. Those are emotional knee-jerk reactions that disregard how well they've performed despite the personnel he was working with for much of the season. Their defense has held up remarkably well, even though they've been in shambles for much of the season.