Friday, October 3rd, 2025, and we're going over to the defensive side of the ball for a progress report. Listen, when it comes to this defense right now, and I went back and watched all four of these games that they have played, they're a bit of an anomaly, because they are, you know, they're without question not good. They can't really stop the run. They don't really rush the passer. And their secondary is depleted by injury. But they make plays. And because they make so many plays, they're actually able to keep the team in the game. They're an exceptionally well-coached unit. You know, I'm watching the game against the Raiders, and on two of the touchdowns, if not three of the touchdowns, that the Raiders scored, Dennis Allen had somebody right in position to make the play. Twice it was stole. And they just didn't make the play. He's coaching the lights out of this group. So what's the progress report? What can they improve upon? Listen, I'm going to start the only place I know how, and that's Montez Sweat. Montez Sweat, now let me ask you a question to any Bears fan listening. You have watched them play against Aiden Hutchinson. You have watched them play against Max Crosby. You watched those pass rushers from Minnesota the first week. Does Montez Sweat even belong in a conversation with those guys? He is invisible in these games. He makes maybe a play or two in these games. And I said all summer long, in all my analysis of this team coming into the year, the only way this defense was going to be good was if they got a pass rusher to complement Montez Sweat. But the implication there was that Montez Sweat was going to be Montez Sweat two years ago, not 2024. He's 2024 Sweat. He's no good. He's a middle-of-the-road defensive end. And this defense, as the season goes on and these games start to ramp up in intensity, this defense cannot survive him being middle-of-the-road. So they've got to find a way to get more out of Montez Sweat. They've got to tackle better. And I think probably every analysis of every defense in the league is saying that. But for a defense like this, where they don't have stars, where their best players are injured, you cannot give teams free first downs. So they've got to be fundamentally sound. Dennis Allen, I'm sure, is coaching that. I am sure that Raiders tape lit a fire under his ass because the missed tackles are inexcusable. Stop trying to rip the ball out. Get the guy down. The whole job of this defense is going to be to get the ball back to the offense, which means you've got to get the opponent off the field. And that means you've got to be fundamentally sound and you've got to tackle, especially someone like Noah Sewell, who's all over the field when you watch him on tape. But he's out of control at times. And what T.J. Edwards does so well is he plays in control. Bring the guys down, fundamentals, tackle them. The other thing I mean about this defense is they just got to get healthy. And I just don't think, with how good Tariq Stevenson has been, almost called him Tariq Robinson, with how good he has been to start this season and outside of that one game, he has been magnificent. If they can somehow get Jalen Johnson back for the back end of this season, even if that's December, I think you're going to see how talented this secondary can be. Stevenson playing to this level with a healthy Jalen Johnson and Tyler Gordon in the slot, that's one of the best collections of corners in the league if Stevenson's playing to this level. And I think he's been great. We know what Brisker is. We know what Bayard is. Brisker's kind of been invisible, but that's been his role, really. Bayard's all over the field picking balls off. They've got to somehow, in this back end of the season, get Gordon back out there, get Johnson back out there, because Stevenson has been so good and made up for so much of last year. But until they get those guys all out there, I just think they're going to be limited in what they can do. They're limited by health right now. And that's really it. Montez Sweat, tackling and health. I can't think of anything else they can tangibly do. They don't really have the horses right now on that side of the ball. They're very much a bend-don't-break unit. And so far this season, it's worked outside of Detroit. It's worked. So we'll see moving forward. And I will tell you right now, when it comes to that Commanders game, my eyes are going to be on 98 the whole night. I just can't imagine he is happy with what he has put on tape the first month of this season. I don't know if it's effort. I don't know if it's injury or health. But he is just not the guy that came over in a trade two years ago. That's your Defense of Progress report.