Bears rookie safety Jaquan Brisker making a good first impression

Jaquan Brisker had five pass break-ups, two interceptions and one fumble recovery at Penn State last season.Bears coach Matt Eberflus’ emphasis on takeaways seems like just another new-coach cliche. Every coach wants his defense taking the ball away.

But as we learned from the Lovie Smith era, an obsession with takeaways can indeed make a difference. Under Lovie, the Bears were so wired to take the ball away, defenders would scoop up even clearly incomplete passes in training camp and take off for the end zone.

It was to an almost annoying degree, but there was a payoff. Under Lovie the Bears led the NFL in takeaways in 2006 (44) and 2012 (44) and were in the top eight in seven of his last…