HOUSTON — Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams took the field with an opportunity to clean up the offensive mess that was the first 58 minutes, 23 seconds against the Houston Texans at NRG Stadium on “Sunday Night Football.”
It was the type of opportunity that quarterback Justin Fields, his predecessor, was ultimately judged for not succeeding in.
Williams had the ball on the Bears’ 20 with 1:37 remaining and one timeout to use.
A touchdown and an extra point would win the game.
Instead, the Bears delivered the following in a 19-13 loss against the Texans:
- First-and-10 from the Bears’ 20: a 27-yard catch-and-run from Williams to rookie receiver Rome Odunze.
- First-and-10 from the Bears’ 47: a dropped pass by tight end Gerald Everett.
- Second-and-10: a sack by Texans defensive end Danielle Hunter — who left right tackle Darnell Wright quickly in his dust — for an 8-yard loss.
- Third-and-18: a 1-yard scramble by Williams during a play on which the Bears were penalized for illegal formation.
- Fourth-and-17: a missed deep shot from Williams to Odunze, where they clearly weren’t on the same page.
6 different Texans recorded at least one sack tonight 🤘 pic.twitter.com/lx9EZlrN9A
— Houston Texans (@HoustonTexans) September 16, 2024
Sunday night wasn’t Williams’ “Welcome to the NFL” moment.
It was his “Welcome to the Chicago Bears” reality, where offensive play calling is questioned, pass blocking is always suspect, eggs are routinely laid on the road in prime time and the pressure to be the one who fixes everything by becoming everything remains enormous.
Williams was 23-for-37 passing for 174 yards and two interceptions. He was sacked seven times. Through two games, he has 267 passing yards. Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud threw for 260 and a touchdown on Sunday night. The Bears have scored only one offensive touchdown in two games: running back Khalil Herbert’s 2-yard run in the second quarter.
In the locker room after the game, Williams sat silently at his stall for a few minutes while his teammates showered, changed and headed for the team buses.
“I think just kind of taking in the moment, understanding I’m trying to figure out what I need to get better at obviously,” Williams said. “I haven’t watched the film. I haven’t done all those things yet. Just trying to figure out what areas I was off, what areas we were off to have the outcome we had, which is not winning the day. That was kind of the process going through my mind right after the game.”
There’s no questioning Williams’ toughness after Sunday. The Texans beat up Williams and he kept getting up, kept trying to make plays out of seemingly nothing. Hunter and Will Anderson each had a sack and a half on Williams.
Linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair also had a jarring hit on Williams on the Bears’ sideline that set off a scrum among players and an earlier shot on the Texans’ sideline that looked like a potential late-hit penalty.
“Get up, play ball,” Williams said. “They didn’t throw the flag. Just get up and play ball and keep going.”
That’s endearing. But no one questioned the toughness of Fields or Mitch Trubisky, either. The toughness of Jay Cutler became part of his “Don’t Care” lore.
“I’m a little bruised up,” Williams said. “Took a couple hits today.”
The issue is that we’re talking about Williams’ toughness when we should be talking more about touchdowns.
You expected some growing pains for Williams. You thought there would be some bad plays, even some bad interceptions. And you knew there would be mistakes.
What you didn’t expect was all the issues that have seemingly marred Bears seasons for years and years regardless of head coaches, coordinators and quarterbacks to seep into this season this early and with such prevalence.
This season was supposed to be different. Instead, the good vibes from training camp have quickly transformed into a growing list of concerns, especially on the offensive side.
A different story can and should be written about the defense. In Week 1, it feasted on turnover-prone quarterback Will Levis and the Tennessee Titans and produced a victory. On Sunday, the defense was good enough to give Williams and the offense a chance in the final two minutes.
But Williams and the offense aren’t good enough to succeed in those game-defining moments yet.
“We didn’t execute the way we needed to,” Williams said.
Not even close.
So when will the Bears get there?
The Bears can’t run the ball and they can’t consistently protect Williams. Against the Texans, the penalties — including those after breaks — also added up. It all makes for a losing predicament for a young quarterback.
Williams threw two interceptions trying to make plays when his team needed him to. Part of that is learning what he can and can’t do in the NFL. Those will happen. The other part felt very Bears-like.
Everything said after the loss to the Texans is everything we’ve heard before after similar defeats. The offense isn’t on the same page. Protection is a team issue involving more than the offensive line. The issues are found in the details. And there is plenty of time left in the season to fix their issues and win games this season.
That is true. It’s only Week 2. No one is reaching for the panic button yet.
But we know it’s there.
These are the Bears after all.
(Top photo: Eric Gay / Associated Press)
