One number will stand out in the Chicago Bears’ loss on Sunday night to the Houston Texans: 7. The Texans’ defense sacked Caleb Williams seven times for 40 yards. He was hit 11 times and pressured 36 times.
Those hits impacted the rookie quarterback, leading to the Bears’ first loss of the season.
The game never felt like it was in the Bears’ control. The defense played their hearts out to give the offense a chance to take the lead on its final possession of the night. However, a mix of Williams’ errors and a shaky offensive line play contributed to the final busted drive of the evening.
Here is one stud and three duds from the Texans’ 19-13 win over the Bears.
Chicago Bears Stud
The defense
The Bears defense limited the Texans explosive offense to 19 points. CJ Stroud went 23/36 for 260 yards and one touchdown. But the Bears didn’t give up many big plays to one of the league’s scarier offenses.
The Texans ran for just 75 yards on 22 carries.
The Bears’ offense was completely unhelpful in the second half. After two consecutive offensive drives ending in interceptions from Williams and then another ending in a punt, the Bears defense could have folded when the Texans drove the ball to the Chicago 4-yard line with 6:38 to go in the game.
Instead, Andrew Billings forced a Cam Akers fumble, which Kevin Byard recovered. The Bears would drive down for a field goal, and the Bears’ defense would make another critical stop.
Unfortunately, the Bears’ offense wasted a great performance by the defense.
Chicago Bears duds
The offensive line
Williams attempted 37 passes on Sunday night. He was pressured 36 times. (Williams also ran five times for 44 yards, the leading rusher for Chicago.) Giving up 36 pressures on 42 passing attempts is a special kind of suck.
The pressures that turned into scrambles were the offense’s best rushing attempts. Sans Williams’ rushing attempts, the Bears ran the ball 17 times for 27 yards.
The offensive line can’t run or pass block. They have no identity. There is nothing they do well.
Nate Davis, Braxton Jones, and Coleman Shelton were especially bad all night in the trenches. The deep offensive line that general manager Ryan Poles praised before the start of the regular season is pure fantasy.
Caleb Williams
Williams finished 23/37 passing for 174 yards and two interceptions. The interceptions came on terrible throws. The first interception came from a ball that was intended for DJ Moore but was terribly underthrown. The next came on a panic throw where he escaped what would have been a sack to underthrow Cole Kmet in triple coverage.
The offensive line didn’t help Williams, but there were mistakes that he needs to own.
On the Bears’ first possession, he took another sack (like the one he took in Week 1) of ten yards on a third-down play that turned what would have been a 43-yard field goal attempt if he had thrown the ball away into a 53-yard attempt.
Through two games, Williams has no touchdown passes. (It doesn’t help that Rome Odunze and Keenan Allen have dropped passes in the end zone.)
Tyrique Stevenson
Stevenson came into Week 2 hot off of winning Defensive Player of the Week for his performance against the Titans. Stevenson was eaten up by Stroud on Sunday night. Nearly every big pass the Texans made was one Stevenson was in coverage for.
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