Few people know Jared Goff better than Ben Johnson. The Chicago Bears head coach was by his side for three years, orchestrating the perfect offense to make the most of his strengths and hide his flaws.
That's why he knew that the best way to disrupt his rhythm was to put some pressure on him.
As the fans might know by now, that wasn't the case at all in Week 2, and the former No. 1 pick completed 23-of-28 passes for 334 yards and five passing touchdowns.
With that in mind, the first-year head coach may have put defensive coordinator Dennis Allen on notice, talking about how they allowed him to have a clean pocket all day long.
“We did not have any sacks, we didn’t get any quarterback hits or pressures, not to the amount we wanted to,” Johnson said, per ProFootballTalk's Michael David Smith. “Step No. 1 for us going into this game was trying to affect the quarterback. We came up short in that regard. We know with that particular player, when his pocket is clean, he plays at a very high level.”
This was a disappointing turn of events for a team that just gave defensive end Montez Sweat a four-year, $98 million contract extension.
Sweat posted 9.0 of the Bears' 40 sacks last season. Through two games, the team as a whole has only 3.0, and that's not going to get the job done very often.
Allen is known for his sharp defensive mind, but after giving up 21 points in the fourth quarter in Week 1 and 52 points in Week 2, he might already be on thin ice in the Windy City.
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