The anguish inside the Chicago Bears locker room was palpable Sunday night after a 19-13 loss to the Houston Texans at NRG Stadium.
It wasn’t just that the Bears lost. After all, they entered as 6½-point underdogs against the reigning AFC South champions.
It was more about the way they played on a prime-time stage, particularly on offense, with penalties and turnovers and execution miscues defining the night and preventing the Bears from starting 2-0 for the first time in four years.
As the Bears try to regroup for a Week 3 trip to play the Indianapolis Colts, Tribune reporters Colleen Kane and Dan Wiederer talk through four key topics from Sunday’s loss in true-or-false format.
True or false: The Bears’ biggest issue right now is protection for Caleb Williams.
Dan Wiederer: True. We were careful with the phrasing of this one, meeting Bears coach Matt Eberflus at least halfway with his insinuation that the offense’s protection problems aren’t entirely an offensive line issue.
“I believe protection is everybody,” Eberflus said during his postgame news conference Sunday. “Protection involves the tight ends, the runners, the offensive line. It’s the quarterback. It’s everybody involved.”
Still, this is a problem Eberflus and offensive coordinator Shane Waldron need to troubleshoot in a hurry. All hands on deck.
Williams was sacked seven times Sunday — two on scrambles for no gain — and hit 11 other times. He had few moments to feel relaxed and patient in the pocket. And as the game progressed, the Texans dialed up more pressure to increase the disquiet for the Bears offense.
The result was a second half in which Williams went 11-for-22 for 83 yards with two interceptions and five sacks as the Bears managed only three points in eight possessions.
Whether it’s shoring up the offensive line, establishing a more reliable running game, altering the play calling or whatever, the Bears have to find a better approach in Week 3 to settle things down offensively.
Colleen Kane: Exactly. The Bears knew it would be a tough test against Texans defensive ends Danielle Hunter and Will Anderson Jr., and they didn’t pass. NFL Next Gen Stats had Hunter and Anderson combining for 17 pressures.
Sometimes it was an offensive lineman getting beat. But as tight end Cole Kmet told reporters Monday at the weekly day-after news conference, it also might be receivers not running the right routes, causing Williams to hold the ball too long. It might be a miscommunication issue up front or protection adjustments not being made properly to address the opponent’s pressure.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily a talent issue up front,” Kmet said. “I don’t think we were necessarily getting overmatched totally physically up front. But us getting on the same page, mentally speaking, can lead to those adjustments, and we can see those sacks come down a little bit.”
You’re right in putting it on Eberflus, Waldron and their staff to find solutions to this problem and to the run-game issues.
The latter is also a major problem. The Bears are averaging 77.5 rushing yards per game and 3.52 yards per rush, ranked 28th and 29th in the NFL. And Williams has 59 of their rushing yards.
There’s a lot to figure out in the days ahead.
True or false: The Bears defense looks like a playoff-caliber unit.
Kane: True. I’m not saying the Bears defense is perfect, but it turned in another darn good performance, especially in the second half, against a strong Texans team.
The Bears obviously wanted more takeaways than the one they had Sunday, but that play came at a huge moment, with the Texans threatening to make it a two-touchdown game late in the fourth quarter.
Running back Cam Akers got the ball on first down at the Bears 4-yard line, and defensive tackle Andrew Billings knocked it loose. Safety Kevin Byard said Sunday the ball changed hands a few times under the pile, but he came away with it.
The Bears also probably wanted to get to quarterback C.J. Stroud more than the three sacks and four QB hits they totaled. And they obviously want to correct the breakdown that allowed Stroud to hit Nico Collins for a 28-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter.
But they held the Titans and Texans to three total points in the second halves of those games. And what I found exciting is the plays continued to come from many defensive players. Where it was T.J. Edwards, Jaylon Johnson and Billings in Week 1, it was Tremaine Edmunds, Jaquan Brisker and Kyler Gordon on Sunday.
They looked sharp in many instances, and that intrigues me about what they can do against the Colts in Week 3.
Wiederer: That forced fumble by Billings was exactly the kind of “no quit” effort Eberflus was lauding from his players after the game and again Monday afternoon. As you mentioned, the Texans were on the doorstep of a win-sealing touchdown. Even a field goal there probably drives the nail into the coffin.
Instead, the 311-pound Billings, late in the fourth quarter in the Texas heat, dug deep to make a play in the clutch, and Byard quite literally had to dig deep to pull the ball out of the pile. That’s exactly the kind of competitive edge and playmaking prowess that has this defense on the verge of becoming great.
Through two games, the Bears defense has been on the field for 14 second-half possessions — excluding Sunday’s game-ending kneel-down — and has allowed only three points while creating four takeaways.
That speaks to a unit equipped to be the engine of a playoff team. Now it’s about stacking such performances consistently.
True or false: The officials’ failure to penalize Azeez Al-Shaair in the second half was inexcusable.
Wiederer: True. In a game with 23 penalty flags thrown — two were declined — it’s incredible Land Clark’s crew missed not one but two opportunities to penalize Al-Shaair during the same sequence in the third quarter.
The hit the Texans linebacker put on Williams along the sideline during a scramble was borderline. By the letter of the law, it might not have registered as a late hit, but it certainly seemed to qualify as unnecessary roughness with the force Al-Shaair delivered to Williams’ upper body as he was running out of bounds at the end of a 10-yard gain. Let’s be frank. Most NFL quarterbacks get that call.
Far worse, though, was that the officiating crew missed Al-Shaair’s right uppercut to the face of Bears running back Roschon Johnson during the ensuing fracas. A personal foul would have given the Bears a first down at their 34-yard line instead of needing to punt. You can bet the league office will have its say with a nice fine letter sent to Al-Shaair this week.
Al-Shaair acknowledged that his punch was “unacceptable” and vowed to take accountability for his flare-up. But he also took exception to the way the Bears surrounded him after the hit on Williams.
“There are some things that you say that have to answer for,” he told reporters after the game. “I feel like there were some crazy things said. Obviously I’m trying to get up and dudes are pushing me on the ground. So for me, it was more so I see a swarm of orange (jerseys) and I’m trying to protect myself. Because people are saying all types of things to me. Where I’m from? Stuff like that, you don’t take it lightly.”
Kane: I can see where Al-Shaair maybe felt cornered by Bears players or angry at their words, but I imagine they felt the need to defend their quarterback. And as Al-Shaair said himself, it was “unacceptable” to pop up and punch Johnson and keep going after Darnell Wright. The Bears absolutely have the right to be annoyed at the missed call.
Later, when Al-Shaair took down Williams for a 1-yard gain, he stood and stared at the Bears sideline for several seconds, pointing and seemingly talking trash. That only added to Bears fans’ ire.
True or false: Caleb Williams has a long way to go to reach C.J. Stroud’s level of rookie success.
Kane: True. But we already knew that heading into Sunday’s game.
Stroud’s 2023 season, in which he threw for 4,108 yards and 23 touchdowns with five interceptions on the way to being named offensive rookie of the year, is more the exception than the rule when it comes to first-year quarterbacks.
As we’ve said before, Williams always was going to go through some growing pains this season. It just so happens that issues with the running game and protection have made those pains very evident in the first two games.
When Williams was asked what bothered him the most about the performance, he pointed to not being able to pull out the win in the end and to his two interceptions, which he said “is not really my thing.” One of the interceptions was what Eberflus called a “50-50 ball” to DJ Moore that Derek Stingley Jr. made a nice play on. But the other interception was underthrown and off the mark into heavy traffic instead of to where only Kmet could get it.
Williams’ accuracy improved Sunday, but it still was off in some instances, one of many things he continues to work through.
This isn’t to say Williams can’t get to Stroud’s level at some point. He just has a lot of work to do.
Wiederer: Don’t forget, Williams had a third interception: a third-quarter throw to Rome Odunze that Kamari Lassiter easily picked off after Williams climbed the pocket and slid to the right but then forced a leaping throw to the left sideline 35 yards down the field. That was, to put it bluntly, a horrible decision.
That turnover was mercifully negated by a holding call against linebacker Henry To’oTo’o. Yet it was a reminder of the learning experiences Williams will endure over the next four months as he finds his way in the NFL.
On the bright side, Williams showed several encouraging signs of growth from Week 1 to Week 2 with the passing attack, most notably during the Bears’ two first-half scoring drives.
Still, Stroud seemed to be operating with far greater comfort and command. He was rarely shaken and took care of the football all night. He went turnover-free and was sacked just three times. And most impressively, he made a handful of big-time plays to lift the Texans to points. His 28-yard touchdown pass to Collins came on second-and-24.
He also needed only 26 seconds and two completions to position kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn for an end-of-half field goal, a poised and purposeful response after the Bears scored their only touchdown.
In time, the Bears will be looking for Williams to make such winning contributions on a regular basis. For now, it’s about mastering the baby steps early in the journey.
