The point of these posts was for me (and hopefully, all of us) to allow ourselves t🔥o take a breath after Bears games whether good or bad, separate ourselves a bit from the result, and then take a look at things in terms of the big picture.
Last night was an easy game to make a lot of snap judgments about. Some of those snap judgments I’m still agreeing with today, others I’ve let die down a bit in my brain after calming down. But either way, there’s a whole lot to dive into after last night’s 19-13 loss to the Texans.
Bears vs Texans Takeaways
I’m going to choose to start with the positives. The defense is legitimately good. Like a Super Bowl-caliber defense. They held one of the more loaded offenses with an elite quarterback to 19 points and three field goals beyond 50 yards. They absolutely held up their end of the bargain last night, and at all three levels, they’re getting some elite play. What I appreciate most is they seem to get better as games go on as well. They’re able to play the chess match and adjust throughout games as opposed to just sitting and doing what they do and hoping it works for 60 minutes.
Two things that jumped out at me last night: Andrew Billings is a monster, and Jaylon Johnson is getting star cornerback treatment. Teams just aren’t really throwing his direction much at all. I feel like those are just going to be common themes all season.
OK, fine, let’s talk bad. The offensive line was just brutal. We’ll get more into it later in the week with In The Trenches once the All-22 comes out, but you didn’t need the film to know how badly the Bears got beat up front. The thing that bothers me most with this offensive line is that (outside of Coleman Shelton getting overpowered at times), most of the mistakes they’re making aren’t physical. So many of their miscues are either mental mistakes or poor technique. On the plus side, that does mean I think a lot of what’s going wrong can be fixed. But on the downside, it’s just unacceptable how frequently these issues keep popping up.
Last week, against Tennessee, the Bears saw one of the best interior DL combos in football. This week, against Houston, they saw one of the best edge rushing duos in football. I said in the OL/DL preview I was worried that Houston would try and exploit the Bears’ interior OL by moving/stunting up front and creating matchups with their edge rushers and our interior OL. That’s what happened quite often, and it worked quite often.
I understand getting beat physically, it happens on the offensive line and really at any position in sports. But the Bears offensive line is struggling with basic stunts. Again, we’ll cover this a bit more in the film breakdown, but there are quite literally day-one errors that just can’t keep happening at any level, let alone the NFL.
I’m going to withhold any specific offensive line criticisms until the tape comes out and I can include clips in In The Trenches.
Enough with the Gerald Everett TE1 stuff. He’s a nice player and a very solid TE2 option. Cole Kmet just got paid, he’s a captain, and he’s proven over the past few seasons he’s a legitimately very good NFL tight end. Start utilizing him like one, Shane Waldron.
I thought Caleb Williams looked significantly more comfortable last night than in Week 1, at least in the first half or so. He was getting the ball out fast and making throws on schedule. In the second half, things started to fall apart when DeMeco Ryans just decided “I’m going to blitz the hell out of them until they stop it.” At that point, Caleb did get a little hero ball-y but that’s going to happen with a rookie QB at times.
The biggest criticism so far is that Caleb has yet to hit the deep ball, and that’s what made him so dangerously good at USC. Granted, he had much wider windows to hit, but he’s had plenty of good looks on passes down the field in the first two weeks that he’s just flat-out missed. I’m very high on Caleb Williams, and I think he’ll continue to progress as the season goes on, but that’s the next step he has to take, and it really should start next week. He’s got weapons, he’ll have a little more time, and teams will see what Houston did and replicate that which means his weapons will have a lot of one-on-one matchups. DJ Moore, Keenan Allen, and Rome Odunze are going to win a lot of those matchups, so Caleb is going to have to start proving he can hit them.
This is my weekly bullet about Tory Taylor being awesome. That guy is just a weapon.
The Bears need to try to run the ball in between the tackles more. When in doubt, just try to keep things as simple as you can. Darnell Wright is a mauler on the right side. Go under center, let your linemen get in run-heavy stances, and just let them try and tee off.
Talked about this play with this morning. Get under C and let the big boys go downhill a little more , play action off this . — Olin kreutz (@olin_kreutz)
Last night was a bummer. But at the same time, the Bears were on the road against a Super Bowl contender and a top 5 QB in the NFL, and they had the ball near midfield with a minute left and a chance to win the game. They’re a talented offense but a brand-new one. , and offense always takes longer to come along than defense. The lows have been low, but I don’t think this team is far off.
Just wild how widespread poor qb play is across the league. Prepping for Countdown tonight and there are so many numbers that illustrate it. Rookie struggles are one thing, but it’s not just them.— Scott Van Pelt (@notthefakeSVP)
We NEED to start seeing progress, and as soon as next week. But I really don’t think this team or this offense is as far off as it looks. Clean up the fundamentals up front, let Caleb get his feet wet, and let Shane Waldron and the offense get in sync. If these mistakes are still flaring up in November, we have a problem. But for right now, let’s let the growing pains play out which should be significantly easier to tolerate with a defense that’s playing at an elite level.
Matt is from the Chicagoland area and has been working in Chicago sports since 2015 with stops at WGN Radio, the Chicago Blackhawks, Stadium, and NBC Sports Chicago prior to landing at Betsperts. Matt covers just about everythi🗹ng for Betsperts and Bleacher Nation but focuses on the NHL and college football.
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