Dennis Allen faces familiar foe as Bears prepare for Saints

Ariana Pensy · Correspondent · 4 hours ago

CHICAGO - Chicago’s defensive coordinator Dennis Allen has spent most of his NFL coaching career with the New Orleans Saints. Now, he has to game plan against the Saints' offense as the Chicago Bears prepare to face New Orleans this coming Sunday (Noon / FOX).

Despite the history, Allen is looking at this game as just another game.

“I spent 15 out of my 24 years in the league at that place. So, obviously, I got a lot of fond memories of being there and yet, it’s another game and that’s where our focus is this week and I think we got a good opponent. I think this is a team that, as you watch the tape, they continue to get better,” Allen said. “They’ve got a lot of skilled position players that I think are really explosive - receivers, tight end, runners. All those guys are good players. I think offensive line-wise, in particular, the right side of the offensive line, Fuaga (?), Eric McCoy in there at center, Cesar Ruiz at the right guard, first round pick at left tackle, moving Trevor Penning inside to guard, another first round pick. So, I think this is a team that’s continued to improve in every single one of their games. They’ve been in every single one of them. So, we got a challenge this week.”

Allen had two stints with the Saints. His first was from 2006 to 2010, when he served as their assistant defensive line coach and secondary coach. He would return to New Orleans in 2015 as a defensive assistant and also served as the interim defensive coordinator that year. After that, Allen became their defensive coordinator from 2016 to 2021 before being promoted to head coach before the 2022 season. Allen spent three seasons as their head coach before being let go during the 2024 season.

Throughout his stints as a defensive coordinator, his teams have consistently emphasized forcing turnovers.

While that was not evident in the first two games of the season for Chicago, it has been in the last three games, as the Bears have committed 11 turnovers during their three-game win streak.

“I think our guys did a really good job going out and executing the plan and really the run defense. It’s not as complicated as a lot of people might think it is. It gets down to really fundamentals,” Allen said. “It gets down to being able to strike blocks, being able to get off of blocks, linebackers coming down hill, secondary guys getting off blocks, keeping the ball inside. All those kinds of things are important. So, it really was more about us playing with our fundamentals and our technique and I thought our guys did a good job of that last week.”

In Chicago’s most recent win, the defense had three turnovers, including a fumble recovery near midfield after Washington’s quarterback, Jayden Daniels, fumbled the ball in a wet environment on a crucial third and one.

While some may have attributed this to luck, Allen saw it as a culmination of how the defense played throughout the game.

“Obviously the other night, the conditions I think kind of help for some of the ball security issues. But, it’s one of those things where (that’s) how the ball comes out in our league. The ball comes out with top-down punch out,” Allen said. “So, when you have a lot of guys swarming the ball, a lot of times these ball carriers start worrying about and more concerned about the guys that are trying to tackle them and so, they lose a little bit of focus on protecting the football and that’s when they’re vulnerable to giving it up to us.”