Dennis Allen isn't typically vulnerable in front of cameras. And he definitely isn't one for dancing in front of them. But for a minute on Sunday in the bowels of Soldier Field — surrounded by nearly 100 players, coaches and staff — the Bears defensive coordinator dropped his stoic, hard-nosed exterior for an authentic moment in the center of the locker room.

How could he not have? Moments prior, coach Ben Johnson began delivering another memorable post-win speech and announced that for the time being, he had just one game ball to hand out following the Bears' 26-14 victory over New Orleans. None of the players knew whose hands that football was about to land in, but as Johnson listed out the defense's accomplishments — four takeaways, four sacks, 44 rushing yards allowed — it became clear.

Johnson paused before bellowing, "Dennis Allen, come here!" The room exploded and players swarmed Allen, who danced in the middle of his defense.

"It's why you coach," Allen told ChicagoBears.com. "You coach for the locker room. You play, and you have that bond and that camaraderie within the locker room and then coach to coach, that's all you get, is that feeling in the locker room. It's exciting.

"It feels great to be a part of a group that really appreciates what you're doing and believes in what you're telling them. To see that and to see that belief come to life and to see those guys have the success that they're having is really gratifying to me as a coach."

Allen's energy generated reciprocal gratification from his players, who were ecstatic to see their defensive leader let loose.

"That emotion was great, to be honest," safety Jaquan Brisker said Monday. "He was turnt, he was turnt up. I like that. He was out of his element. He's all super tough and things like that. But it was good to see him having fun, enjoying it with the players and coaches and the rest of the locker room."

Players then proceeded to shout, "speech!" as the center of the room cleared with all eyes on Allen and his game ball. The longtime, well-respected defensive coordinator — who spent 15 of the previous 24 seasons in New Orleans — didn't hesitate to speak candidly, saying that he loves being in Chicago and coaching "this group of guys."

As the Bears prepared to face the Saints, Allen refuted any attention regarding the storyline of facing his former team. In his weekly press conference, he fielded multiple questions on the topic and in each response, spoke highly of his "fond memories," but made it clear that the game was "going to be about the players on the field."

Those comments weren't just a deflection in front of microphones and cameras — they were a true representation of Allen's mindset. It's the same way he approached meetings and practices with coaches and players alike. Safety Kevin Byard III and defensive tackle Chris Williams said Allen didn't bring up his time with the Saints all week.

However, Allen knew the importance of displaying his emotions in front of the entire locker room — as brief as it was.

"I was in New Orleans for 15 years and I enjoyed a lot of my experience there," Allen said. "It didn't end well. I'm back in an environment that I really enjoy. Working with a group of guys and seeing them have the success that they're having is gratifying for me.

"There's something about building something from the ground up, starting somewhere and seeing guys improve each and every week, because we're getting better as a defense. And we're not a finished product yet."

Allen's speech held more power inside the locker room than he might have initially thought, and it resonated in a unique way for each player.

"That definitely hit me, being undrafted and getting cut multiple times and finally getting some traction over here with the Bears," Williams shared. "I definitely connected to what he said there and felt that energy. There have been times in our room where he's been real with us, too, but you could tell that was raw and genuine emotion there, too.

"That was something that he didn't bring up to us in the beginning of the week, but that's something that was in his heart. I could tell it felt good to him for that to happen."

Linebacker D'Marco Jackson, who has seen playing time in each of the last three games, likely felt the coordinator's words the hardest, having been drafted in the fifth round by New Orleans in 2022 — Allen's first year as head coach. Jackson still remembers receiving that life-changing call from Allen, which felt like "a breath of fresh air."

Since that moment, Jackson said he and Allen have built a special connection through the coach's leadership, wisdom and ability to effectively communicate with his players. So when Jackson was released by the Saints at the end of training camp in August before being signed by the Bears a day later, those same feelings from draft night flooded his mind.

"When I got the call to come here, it was another sense of relief of knowing like, 'Okay, this is my next step,' the relief of knowing who I'm getting in Dennis Allen," Jackson said. "I know who he is, what type of person, what type of coach I'm getting. I love being in the building with him. I love working with him. His jokes, how he repeats them all the time, but it's just funny still just to hear them."

At least for now, Jackson's favorite moment with Allen is celebrating the Sunday's win and the defense's dominant performance together.

While Jackson felt a strong sense of pride radiating from Allen during his locker room speech, more importantly, he watched as the larger group reciprocated the energy.

"Guys are already bought in, but just going that extra mile, I'm a firm believer that you can go so much further together," Jackson said. "Especially from a coach's standpoint, a player can only go as far as the relationship with their coaches and them feeling a little bit of fight back. So, him expressing that vulnerability and having guys huddling around him and believing in him, it just builds an even tighter bond of our defensive unit."

Through six games, the defense sure looks bought in to the message Allen has been preaching since the day he was hired.

"We want to be an attacking, aggressive style of defense," he said Jan. 30. "We want to take the fight to the offense and not let the offense dictate the tempo to us."

In the Bears' past four games, the defense has logged 15 takeaways, including at least three in each contest, and leads the NFL with 16 total, including a league-best 11 interceptions. Against New Orleans and quarterback Spencer Rattler, the unit forced a strip sack (Montez Sweat) and three interceptions (Nahshon Wright, Byard and Tremaine Edmunds).

The defense's success may appear as a simple cause and effect – Allen defines their identity as built on aggression and takeaways, then the players execute said vision – but in reality, the process of constructing a culture that players buy into, work at on their own accord and mold into their own requires continuous commitment and a willingness to persevere through the inevitable challenges of a football season.

"It comes with consistency of message," Allen said. "You can't just talk about it. You gotta live it. You gotta breathe it. You gotta go out in there and practice it. You've got to see those results in practice. Taking the ball away starts with conscious effort. It starts with understanding where the ball is. It's prepared knowledge. It's creating population around the ball.

"When you do that, all of a sudden our guys start to see it happen — they see it happen in practice, and then they see it carry over into the games, and then they start believing in the message, and they start building confidence. That's how takeaways come in bunches.

"That's why we call them takeaways, because we don't believe that the offense just gives it to us. We've got to go out there and earn it."

Allen and his staff are demanding and intense, and possess some old-school mentalities. Jackson likens the process of trusting Allen's vision to that of going to the gym. There can be frustrations while pushing yourself during consistent workouts and seeing little or no results right away. But if you stick to the process, the results will start to show.

"He's really building a culture and a standard across the board when it comes to the defense," Jackson said. "Just tough, relentless, like the effort is never questioned when getting to the ball. Creating that culture helps guys to see that, 'okay he's demanding this,' but when you start getting the takeaways that come with it, you're like, 'okay, I understand.'

"And you see how the defense is performing now. You see guys getting to the ball, you see a swarm around the ball carriers. All our guys are just hunting."

While the barrage of takeaways over the past month has been the obvious highlight for Allen's defense, it's far from the unit's only calling card. They possess the league's third-lowest third down conversion rate and have begun tightening up the run defense, as evidenced by a crucial fourth-and-1 stop from Sweat and a limited rushing attack (44 yards) by the Saints Sunday.

The group also succeeded at attacking the quarterback against New Orleans, with a season-high four sacks, including two from the secondary. Brisker and nickel back Kyler Gordon and each recorded the first sacks of the season on the same drive Sunday, with Allen blitzing both third-year pros off the edge just two plays apart.

"Both of those guys are excellent blitzers, so 'DA,' he's putting guys in position to make plays and do what they do best," Byard said Sunday in the locker room. "Two great young players that are gonna make great plays for us and continue to make great plays for us."

Several defensive players have identified a common thread between their standout plays. They praise one another for their performances, takeaways or opportunistic stops, but they also credit Allen for putting them in the best position to succeed.

"He does what he can to push the best out of you," Williams said. "He has a standard, and if you're in his room, he knows that you could play at that standard, and he does his best to bring that out of you."

That superpower not only stems Allen's 24 years of NFL experience, but his continued commitment to mastering his personnel and self-scouting.

While Allen and his coaching staff spent hundreds of hours with their players over the course of the spring and summer, nothing compares to live action when assessing where they fit within a scheme. Still, Allen took responsibility for the defense's slower start to the season, specifically as it relates to takeaways, saying, "that's probably because I didn't have as good a feel for the personnel and how to put them in the best position to be successful."

Over the past few weeks, Allen has seen a jump in players using what he calls "tactical clues" to make plays on the ball and generate takeaways. That's both a credit to the amount of preparation his players put into understanding opposing offenses each week and his coaching staff's dedication to scouting themselves and their opponents.

"We all spend countless hours watching the tape and studying our opponent," Allen said of his staff. "Our job as coaches is to try to provide some visual evidence and some visual tips to say, 'when you get this look, here's the two things that you've got to be ready for, and this is where your opportunity to make a play is going to come.' That just comes from a ton of tape study, and the picture's not clear early on in the week.

"I think the picture becomes more and more clear as you get to Thursday, Friday. Even on Saturday, you're starting to see, 'okay, I got it. I see where these things are happening.' And so you're giving your guys some little nuggets that help them go and make a play."

While there's been no shortage of made plays from Allen's defense, the group remains just as hungry at 4-2 as they were at 0-2. At the end of his speech Sunday, Allen reminded the players, "four ain't enough."

Whether he was referencing the Bears' four takeaways or their four consecutive victories, his message applies just the same. Players echoed that sentiment in their postgame interviews. Hearing them repeat his messaging proves to Allen that "the guys believe in what we're preaching."

That synergy took time, though. Nine months ago at the NFL Combine, Allen told ChicagoBears.com, "everybody has to believe in the culture that I'm trying to build. That starts with me and creating that vision for our staff. Then when we get the players in, it's our job to create that same vision and pass that on down to the players."

Allen doesn't remember there being an "A-ha!" moment where the players committed to his standard, instead describing it as a gradual process. However, Sunday served as confirmation that commitment has taken place.

"When you start off, everybody's trying to feel everybody out, and you go through growing experiences — some of them growing pains, some of them good growing experiences," Allen said. "But it's a never-ending process. You've got to keep watering this plant or else it dies. We've got to keep feeding into, it's not about what we play, it's about how we play and our culture.

"I think that's what makes us different than the other 31 teams."