CHICAGO — In the new world of Chicago Bears football, the defense has allowed 478 yards or more on four occasions since the start of last season.

The latest example was Sunday’s season-opening 59-37 victory over the Carolina Panthers, the type of shootout the Bears haven’t been accustomed to and rarely had a chance in during seasons past.

The Panthers wound up with five touchdowns. Three came on short fields and two on possessions that started in Bears territory. The defense forced a three-and-punt on three occasions, and the unit had two takeaways. But it’s worth wondering if this is going to become a semiregular thing.

Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen sure as heck hopes not, and it should be noted the Bears are 2-2 in the four games in which the opponent has reached 478 yards. There was the 47-42 victory in Cincinnati in Week 9 and then high-scoring road losses against the Detroit Lions in Week 2 and San Francisco 49ers in Week 17. The Bears were blown out by the Lions but had the ball at 49ers 2-yard line on the final play of a 42-38 loss.

You have to look over a span of nine seasons — 2016 through 2024 — for the previous four examples of the Bears defense allowing that much yardage in four regulation games. Before coach Ben Johnson’s arrival, the Bears were 3-28 in regulation games in which the opponent piled up that much yardage.

“I’m not going to spend a lot of time talking about last week,” Allen said in answer to the opening question of his news conference. “We’ve already gone through that, made the corrections that we need to make.”

That’s a refrain Allen used regularly last season. At least he was consistent and it wasn’t an escape hatch for him after grisly showings. Allen said pretty much the same thing after good games as well. In this instance, he pressed the replay button just two questions later when asked about the interception rookie Malik Muhammad II made against Panthers quarterback Bryce Young.

“You’re going to keep asking about last week, aren’t you?” he said.

Muhammad’s pick with five seconds remaining in the second quarter ensured the Bears took a 31-24 lead into halftime after they had scored just 17 seconds earlier on Caleb Williams’ 29-yard run. The defense gave up six touchdowns in the final two minutes of the first half last season.

“He did a good job running with the over route,” Allen said. “Stayed in phase and made a really good play.”

This is the spot Allen is in with media availabilities on Thursdays during a normal week. He moved on to preparation for the Minnesota Vikings by Monday evening. Come lunch time Thursday, he’s not interested in backtracking to Carolina. He’s also in a position where discussion of wide receiver Justin Jefferson and the Vikings will be in the vaguest terms as not to give away strategies. What’s left to chat about? Oddball current-events topics such as the Kennedy Center or Kash Patel’s appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee or maybe the woes of the Cubs bullpen and Sox offense?

Allen is considered a very good coordinator, and the Bears did some good things on defense last season. Holding the Los Angeles Rams to 17 points in the divisional round of the playoffs at Soldier Field probably should have been enough to advance.

He’s also a coordinator with a ton of experience working with an elite offensive play caller. Consider that for a six-year stretch in that role in New Orleans from 2015-20, the Saints were top eight in points scored each year and top five for five of those seasons.

So, Allen has a pretty good idea of where improvement needs to begin. The red zone seems like a great place to start. The Panthers were 4 for 4, and if the Bears can be solid in the red zone, even middle of the pack, they’re going to have chances for success. No opponent is going to want to trade touchdowns for field goals against the Bears.

Former Bears defensive coordinator Ron Rivera used to say “figures lie and liars figure” when you threw a bunch of statistics at him. There probably aren’t any numbers that would really paint the Week 1 showing in a positive light, but Pro Football Reference had the Bears second in the league with 21 quarterback pressures, which it defines as hurries, knockdowns and sacks. The Vikings were tops with 22. Who would have figured, right?

That’s a sign that there were too many rushes linemen didn’t finish and is probably a greater indictment of the coverage played on the back end. But at least they were able to get Young off his spot regularly.

Allen borrowed from Johnson in saying the Bears are in a race to improve as they wait to see if Carson Wentz or Kyler Murray (concussion protocol) starts at quarterback for the Vikings.

“No. 1 is we’ve got to do a better job of executing our job and making sure that we’re eliminating the mental mistakes in terms of just not being exactly where we need to be when we need to be there,” he said. “I think that’s a big focus. There’s a lot of areas that we have to improve. We’ve got to do a better job controlling the line of scrimmage, both in the run game and the pass game. We’re working to improve those things this week.”

The Bears were in man coverage 65.2% of the time Sunday, the second-highest figure in the league in Week 1, leaning heavily on Cover-1. The Panthers didn’t present a ton of speed on the outside, and maybe the Bears thought they could win physical matchups. Perhaps the goal was to force Young to throw accurately into tighter windows.

Whatever the reason for the strategy in Week 1, Jefferson is the kind of receiver who could score resounding 1-on-1 wins against man coverage if given too many opportunities. Allen mixed and matched a lot last season, and while Allen versus Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell is the undercard match after Johnson versus Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores, it’s also intriguing.

The Bears’ 59-point explosion was the second-most by an NFL team in Week 1. It’s reason to scan what the record book looks like through two weeks. The 1969 Oakland Raiders are No. 1 with 95. The 2024 Saints are tied for fourth on the list with 91.

Allen was the head coach in New Orleans when the Saints opened by blistering the Panthers 47-10 and Dallas Cowboys 44-19. The team was quickly crushed by injuries to many of the top players, and a seven-game losing streak followed with Allen losing his job midseason.

“What I do know is that Week 1 is no indication of Week 2,” Allen said. “Everything starts over every single week. So whatever happened in the past, good or bad, it doesn’t really matter. You learn from it and then you have to be able to move on.”

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