There were plenty of questions for the Bears heading into today’s game against Lovie Smith & the Houston Texans and after today’s uninspiring 23-20 win a good deal of those questions still remain for coach Matt Eberflus and his team.
The game started off well for the Bears as they used their first two drives to put 10 points on the board. It was at this point the Bears seemed on the verge of running away with the game but the Texans responded with 14 unanswered points and had the Bears reeling. The game began to feel like last week’s game with the Packers. The Bears’ offense screeched to a complete halt. Worse yet, the defense was heavily exposed through the air as the Texans’ young QB David Mills took advantage of the inexperience of the Bears’ young secondary.
The Bears would pull to within one on a Cairo Santos 50-yard FG and then the Bears got the ball back with a minute to go in the half. They would convert for a 1st down on a 9-yard run by Khalil Herbert to get to the Bears’ 28. With all 3 timeouts in his pocket, Matt Eberflus elected not to take a timeout which resulted in 25 seconds running off the clock before Justin Fields was sacked on their next play. Series over. Half over. Fans rightfully booed as the team headed to the locker room for halftime.
The 2nd half became the Khalil Herbert Show as he put on a running exhibition and scored the game’s only TD in the 2nd half to give the Bears a short lived 20-17 lead. The Texans would add a FG to tie the game and actually had the ball with less than 2:00 minutes to go in the game and the chance to drive for the game winning FG. On a 3rd & 1 play David Mills’ pass was picked off by Roquan Smith. The Bears would clinch the victory on a last second FG by Santos.
This game was supposed to separate the Bears from what was believed to be inferior competition. What ended up happening was the Bears had to fight and claw their way to an ugly win that did nothing to separate them from the bottom dwellers in the NFL. If anything, it furthered exposed just how far the Bears are from being a legitimate team that can go toe to toe with teams that have proven talent. The offensive line continues to struggle with pass protection. The wide receiving corps continues to struggle with getting separation. The front 7 of the Bears defense struggles to consistently shed blockers and apply pressure to the QB. The secondary is just as inexperienced as they are young and Justin Fields has gone another week without showing any real improvement. The only thing the Bears have going for them is their running game and that took a major hit today when RB David Montgomery went down with an apparent knee or ankle injury.
The Good, Bad & Ugly
- The Good: Khalil Herbert was a monster today. After David Montgomery got injured early in the game, Herbert easily had the best game of his young career. The RB had 20 carries for 157 yards and 2 TDs. He added another 2 catches for 12 yards. Herbert ran hard, found the holes provided by his blockers and most importantly, put tacklers in a spin cycle once he got past the front seven. The Bears team running game was masterful as they ran for 281 yards on 40 carries. The running game helped the Bears win the time of possession battle as well as convert on 6 of 14 third down plays. On the defensive side Bears fans finally saw the big Roquan Smith game. Roquan had a monster game with 16 tackles (6 solo, 2 TFL) and the game saving interception late in the game where he read QB David Mills perfectly and jumped the passing route.
- The Bad: The Bears’ secondary, which was missing CB Jaylon Johnson due to injury was taken advantage of for the 2nd consecutive week as they were beat in one-on-one situations as well as being out of position in zone coverage that led to some big pass plays. RB David Montgomery got rolled up on in the 2nd quarter and didn’t return. Coach Matt Eberflus said after the game that Montgomery was “good” and his status is “day to day”. The Bears should know more by Monday afternoon on Montgomery’s status for Week 4. The offensive line continued to struggle in pass play situations as they gave up 5 sacks to the Texans defense. Because the run game was working so well the offense didn’t run with that many pass plays (in total the Bears threw the ball 17 times). The time management will definitely be questioned as the Bears sat on 3 time outs with 40 seconds left in the 1st half.
- The Ugly: QB Justin Fields’ struggles last week against Green Bay looked like a picnic compared to today’s game. Fields was 8 for 17 with 106 yards and 2 INTs. He was sacked 5 times today though 3 of those sacks came from poor footwork and lack of recognition on the field. Worse yet the two picks he threw were completely his fault. On the 1st INT, Fields overthrew a wide open Cole Kmet that landed in the hands of the Texans’ Jalen Pitre. The 2nd INT was even worse as he was going for Darnell Mooney but threw into triple coverage and Pitre picked up his 2nd INT of the game. Darnell Mooney had no separation and if Fields had not locked on to Mooney he would’ve seen that both Kmet and Herbert were open and could’ve picked up the 1st down. Fields’ footwork was bad, his throws weren’t accurate and he seemed unsure of himself. These are the things a young QB will have to go through and what the team will learn about him will depend on how he is able to handle adversity. It doesn’t help he doesn’t have an OL that can pass block or a #1 WR. He’s got to deal with what he has and make the most of it.
The Score’s Laurence Holmes offered his thoughts:
Here’s my initial reaction to an interesting #Bears win… https://t.co/ZYbDW87OHJ
Originally tweeted by Laurence Holmes (@LaurenceWHolmes) on September 25, 2022.
Next up: The Bears travel to MetLife Stadium to take on Saquon Barkley and the New York Giants.
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