Dennis Allen, Bears defense get aggressive in first preseason game

CHICAGO, Ill., — The Chicago Bears opened the 2025 preseason on Sunday afternoon against the Miami Dolphins in what was a back-and-forth affair between both teams. While the game ended in a tie, it still provided the coaching staff with an opportunity to evaluate the roster. 

Since the start of training camp nearly three weeks ago, a consistent theme has been the physicality and aggressiveness of the defense, a unit that's embraced a completely new identity compared to last season. Sunday's preseason contest was evidence that under Allen, the entire unit is turning over a new leaf. 

While second-year pass rusher Austin Booker was a major star throughout the afternoon, other top performers included cornerbacks Josh Blackwell and Terell Smith and linebackers Noah Sewell and Ruben Hyppolite. Booker would finish the afternoon with six tackles, three sacks, four quarterback hits, three tackles for loss, and a forced fumble. Sewell and Hyppolite, both of whom have been competing for a chance to be LB3, finished the afternoon with 11 combined tackles. 

"Book had himself a day," said Sewell. "What? Three sacks and a forced fumble? That boy had a day."

In the fourth quarter, with just 31 seconds left in the game, Allen called an all-out blitz as Miami faced a 4th-and-15 from the Bears 45-yard line. The result was an 11-yard sack with safety Alex Cook causing the sack and recovering the fumble in a play that led to a turnover on downs. 

Cook's sack, combined with the situation the Bears faced is evidence that with Allen calling the defense, he won't be afraid to get aggressive and take a risk, especially as a total roster evaluation continues. 

"Day in and day out, every day we attack the day the same," said Noah Sewell. "Physicality is highly preached in our defensive room, so we just try to uphold that."

It is worth noting that the coaching staff held most of the projected starters on defense out for the game, except third-year pro Tyrique Stevenson. While one preseason game doesn't tell the full story of just how good the defense will really be, one of the major questions the entire unit needs to answer is depth. The defense features a ton of high upside players who could serve as valuable depth pieces during the regular season. 

"We're halfway through camp, and the team chemistry is really coming together," said Johnson. "I thought at times we played with the physical nature that we keep talking about and we've been practicing towards over the course of camp."

With the focus now shifting to the upcoming week, the Bears will return to Halas Hall later this week to keep preparing for the upcoming season. With the coaching staff now possessing some game tape, seeing some of the defensive changes made will be very telling about who really stood out during Sunday's matchup as the defense continues to develop its identity. 

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The slide to a seventh-round selection in the 2025 NFL Draft raised questions about former Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers and his decision to leave college, and ESPN's Paul Finebaum piled onto those narratives in the wake of the draft. Finebaum scolded Ewers over the "terrible decision" to embark on his pro career rather than to use another year of eligibility. But while another year of college could have helped Ewers refine his skills and secure a more favorable draft position in 2026, it is no guarantee that would have been the case.

"I think it's a cautionary tale that you probably ought to get really good advice," Finebaum said on "McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning," this week. "Listen, as somebody who saw Quinn Ewers a lot this past year, he just wasn't that great. Everyone knows that. I mean, I walked around the Cotton Bowl at halftime of the Ohio State game, and I can't tell you how many Texas fans yelled at me. When I walked over to say hello, they said, 'Why is this guy still playing quarterback?' By the way, that was the team that came within a play or two of making the national championship."

The Miami Dolphins selected Ewers with the No. 231 overall pick as a projected backup to Tua Tagovailoa. He came off the board after more than a dozen of his peers, including fellow Day 3 picks Will Howard, Riley Leonard, Kyle McCord, Graham Mertz and Kurtis Rourke.

"So you have to be smart," said Finebaum. "He just let his ego get in the way, and he made a terrible decision. He would not have been at Texas. We all know that. They didn't want him anymore. He would have been somewhere like Carson Beck making a lot of money, having a good time and maybe working on his skills as opposed to being humiliated the way he was."

Another season at Texas always seemed unlikely with the Longhorns ready to hand the keys to the offense to longtime backup and former No. 1 overall recruit Arch Manning. But Ewers was staunch in his assessment of the transfer portal and stated at the NFL Scouting Combine that it was "never a thought for me" that he might seek a new school — even with the reported potential to earn upwards of $8 million in NIL.

Across 36 games at Texas, Ewers completed 64.9% of his passes for 9,128 yards and 68 touchdowns with 24 interceptions. He led the Longhorns to consecutive College Football Playoff appearances in his final two seasons and won the 2023 Big 12 championship.