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Bears Week 1 overreactions: What All-22 tells us about Caleb Williams, O-line

11 September 2024Last Update :
Bears Week 1 overreactions: What All-22 tells us about Caleb Williams, O-line

During halftime on Sunday, as the Chicago Bears trailed the Tennessee Titans 17-3, the boos could be heard along the lakefront and the calls for firings and cuts and trades were all over social media.

The offense had a dud of a first half, and a full game, really, except for the all-important fact that it protected the football.

The easy and fair response is, it’s one game. It’s the season opener. It was Caleb Williams’ NFL debut. Rarely do things go swimmingly in the first game of the season, especially for a rookie quarterback. It’s even easier to lean on those sentiments after the Bears pulled off the comeback victory.

That game won’t work against the Houston Texans next week, though. And it’s not as if Williams and the offense were simply off, they put up numbers — in a victory — not seen in Chicago in 18 seasons.

After watching the game again with the All-22 camera angles and going through TruMedia stats, let’s consider some of the reactions or overreactions, and what might be a concern — or the right amount of optimism — moving forward.

All screenshots courtesy of NFL+

Caleb Williams’ misfires

Williams lamented his misses in response to the first question of his first NFL postgame news conference. He overshot running back D’Andre Swift in the flat, but that wouldn’t have been a long gain.

On the second drive, Williams had an opportunity for a big play to wide receiver Keenan Allen down the left sideline. Allen ran an out-and-up and beat his man. Williams saw it, but his throw landed well out of Allen’s reach.

 

DJ Moore was also wide open on the other side of the field, and Williams even could’ve hit rookie Rome Odunze on a post if he ripped it. The pocket didn’t help, either. More on that in a bit.

Williams also mentioned missing receiver DeAndre Carter when he recognized the Titans had switched to Cover 0 with no safeties over the top.

“Ended up missing him, we were on a different page,” Williams said.

This came in the second quarter, and Williams also could’ve taken a shot down the other sideline to Odunze.

One of Williams’ strongest attributes, his precision, just wasn’t consistent enough against the Titans. Take this throw to Odunze, which is low and behind the rookie.

Williams said part of his learning process this week will be “getting back in the lab” with his pass catchers “just to make sure we’re on the same page at the end of the week, making sure that when we have these chances, when they want to go Cover 0, that we make them pay.”

This incomplete pass to Allen early in the third quarter wasn’t a Cover 0 situation, but it did appear to be a case of the QB and receiver needing to be in sync. Allen had stopped his route, sitting between the coverage, but based on Williams’ throw, he expected Allen to continue.

One of the perks of covering the Bears for over a decade is being able to differentiate poor quarterback performances. Williams is also going to get the benefit of the doubt doubly in this case — it’s his first game, and we don’t need to run through all the great quarterbacks who had miserable NFL debuts. Williams’ resume is also stronger than the QBs who have come before him — Heisman Trophy, unquestioned No. 1 pick, etc.

He did make a couple of key plays, especially on the two field goal drives. His 11-yard scramble on third-and-10 was a nice example of his awareness and athleticism. This slant to Moore, preceded by Williams holding the linebacker in place, was also impressive. And he would’ve had a passing touchdown in the second quarter had Allen held on.

Williams ended Week 1 last in the league in yards per attempt (3.2), 30th in completion percentage (48.3), 27th in passer rating (55.7) and 30th in EPA (expected points added) per attempt (-0.37). It’s safe to assume those ranks won’t stick.

We’ve seen enough of Williams from his time at USC to training camp to believe the overthrows won’t be part of his game. There weren’t a bunch of instances of holding on to the ball too long. It was just a rough outing, and maybe a sign that it’ll take more time, but not necessarily a sign to panic.

The O-line’s miscues

The Bears’ No. 1 concern coming into the season was the offensive line, and the unit did nothing to change that.

Williams was sacked only twice and hit five times, but the pressure often wrecked plays that might have been set up for success if the QB had time.

In the first half alone, each of the six offensive linemen had at least one bad rep, but the real glaring issues came on the interior.

Let’s go back to Williams sailing it over Allen’s head in the first quarter. He had a hand in his face after Titans rookie defensive tackle T’Vondre Sweat beat guard Teven Jenkins.

The worst play of the game for the offense, Williams’ 19-yard loss on a sack, happened when center Coleman Shelton lost at the snap, and right guard Nate Davis didn’t offer any resistance. When Williams turned around after the play fake, he didn’t even have a chance to throw the ball away.

“You’ve just got to really stop that penetration,” coach Matt Eberflus said Monday. “They can’t get on the quarterback that fast. When you do that, that play’s gonna be OK. He tried to evade the sack, he tried to move around, they just got him too fast. We’ll get that cleaned up.”

Eberflus didn’t fault Williams for not dirting the ball, or just throwing it into the ground, because Sweat got to him so quickly.

When Williams scrambled for that first down in the fourth quarter, he was forced to make a play with his legs after right guard Ryan Bates got run over by Titans defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons.

When a team’s perceived weakest room doesn’t play great in the opener, then it might not be an overreaction. However, there are a few things worth noting. The Bears did not grade out poorly from a pass-blocking perspective.

And we might look back at the Titans having one of the better interior defensive lines if Sweat performs the way he did next to Simmons. In the end, Bates ended up playing more snaps than Davis. He might not be at 100 percent after missing time at the end of camp, so maybe when he gets another full week of practice under him, he’ll play better and can win that job.

“We’re gonna look at it this week and we’ll see where it is,” Eberflus said. “Both guys have played guard a long time and both are proficient at the job.”

Shane Waldron’s scheme

There were a few Luke Getsy and Matt Nagy jokes circulating on social media Sunday afternoon.

The stats did not reflect on Waldron’s first game as Bears play caller. However, as I noted in Monday’s Live Room, I came away with more questions about personnel than scheme.

Some of the plays above show situations where Bears receivers got open, and whether it was a bad throw or a missed block, the play didn’t work out. Here’s another one — a play-action pass play designed to go to Allen, who’s wide open.

In the backfield, fullback Khari Blasingame failed to hold his block, and Williams got hit on the throw.

On the few plays the Bears employed their fullback, things didn’t go so well. Here are the outcomes from Blasingame’s offensive snaps (not including the kneel-downs):

• A toss to Swift for 1 yard on second-and-4
• A Khalil Herbert run for no gain on third-and-1
• The aforementioned play-action pass that was deflected
• A toss to Swift for a loss of 3 yards
• Swift’s 3-yard run out of the “wildcat”

That’s not to put full blame on Blasingame for those plays — if we did that exercise for just about any Bears offensive player, it’d look similar — but just an example that the personnel didn’t always seem to be right. As colleague Adam Jahns noted, the tight end snap disparity was surprising, as Gerald Everett got more playing time than stalwart Cole Kmet. And when the Bears went hurry-up late in the third quarter, that kept Everett and Travis Homer on the field, and Swift and Kmet on the sideline.

A game featuring that little production is bound to lead to some adjustments from Waldron, especially with an opponent like Houston — on the road — coming up. Let’s see how the scheme and personnel look Sunday night and chalk this one up similarly to Williams’ performance.

Defensive masterpiece

Bears fans can also overreact in the other direction. Is this defense even better than its high expectations? Are we talking 2018 or 2006?

The Bears’ defense and special teams combined EPA according to TruMedia was 24.0, a single-game high in the Eberflus era. The defense-only EPA was the team’s second best in Eberflus’ 35 games, trailing only the performance against Cleveland last season.

The second-half defensive EPA was 22.35, which is the second best in the NFL since 2021.

After halftime, the Titans had 10 carries for 25 yards. Will Levis ranked 32nd out of 32 quarterbacks in Week 1 with a minus-1.92 EPA when facing a blitz. He had a 26.2 passer rating in the second half.

Eberflus singled out T.J. Edwards, Darrell Taylor, DeMarcus Walker and Tyrique Stevenson, but rewatching the game confirmed that defensive tackle Andrew Billings was also outstanding. The Bears even put him at defensive end for a snap, but from the interior, Billings got into the backfield often.

Billings had four pressures, the second most in his career. He had a run stop for 1 yard, two QB hits and a tackle for loss while finishing second to Walker in snaps for the defensive line.

If the Bears are getting that kind of production from Billings, who is not one of the “stars,” that’s a very positive sign for this group. For the defense to be that dominant without getting huge stats from Montez Sweat, too, is encouraging. We’ll learn a lot more about them by how they handle C.J. Stroud and company on Sunday night.

(Top photo: Mike Dinovo / Imagn Images)

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