DJ Moore’s face told the entire story in Houston. The Bears suffered a brutal beat down at the hands of the Houston Texans though the score was not indicative of just how badly they lost.
For the 2nd straight week, the Bears offense looked less than pedestrian as they only mustered 205 net yards of offense. That’s a paltry 3.1 yards per play. For the 2nd straight week the run game was nonexistent as the team gained only 71 yards on 22 carries. D’Andre Swift, the big free agent pickup at RB, had 14 carries for just 18 yards.
Then there’s Caleb Williams. Williams was under siege the entire night as he was sacked 7 times and also suffered 11 QB hits. There were some throws that Caleb simply can’t throw and other throws that he HAS to make. Williams finished 23 for 37 for 174 yards and 2 INTs. He also led the rushing attack with 5 carries for 44 yards.
And then there’s the offensive line. No one on the offensive line had a good night. In addition to giving up 7 sacks, there were 36 QB pressures on 42 QB drop backs. Coleman Shelton had another dreadful game at center. Nate Davis looked completely lost.
On the bright side, the defense had another stellar game single-handedly keeping the Bears in the game and even giving the offense one more chance to win it. Tremaine Edmunds led the way with 11 tackles & 1 sack. Kevin Byard also had 11 tackles & 1 TFL. Jack Sanborn & Gervon Dexter each added a sack.
The Texans got the early lead with an opening FG drive and stretched the lead to 13-3 before the Bears finally scored their 1st offensive TD of the season on a Khalil Herbert 2 yard run.
The 2nd half got very sloppy & physical as both teams were heavily penalized. At one point as Caleb Williams was scrambling he was decked as he was going out of bounds by Azeez Al-Sharir. The Bears teammates quickly got in Al-Sharir’s face and then in a scrum Al-Sharir punched Roshon Johnson. No flags were thrown. The Texans’ physicality overwhelmed the Bears and they couldn’t match their intensity.
Grading The Bears:
Offense: 2nd straight week of sub-250 yards of offense. Caleb Williams looked rattled as he was physically annihilated. The OL looked overmatched by HOU’s blitz schemes. The TEs had trouble blocking, the run game was atrocious and 1 offensive TD in 8 quarters is not it. Grade: D-
Defense: The defense got 3 sacks, a critical 4th quarter, goal line turnover and held a high powered Texans team to 310 yards & 1 offensive TD. And despite CJ Stroud going 23 for 36 for 260 yards & 1 TD if you hold the Texans to 19 points then you should win the game. Grade: A
Special Teams: 2 more FGs for Cairo Santos and a strong game from Tory Taylor. He had 6 punts for an average of 47.3 yards with 2 of those punts inside the 20 yard line. Grade: B+
Coaching: The two challenges by Matt Eberflus should be a fireable offense. Throwing a challenge flag because your CB threw a tantrum is not strong coaching. Shane Waldron continues to look like the poor man’s version of Luke Getsy. At least the defensive scheme was good enough to keep them in the game. Grade: D
Next Up: The Bears should be 0-2… and a bad 0-2 at that. This coaching staff has to come up with a fix for that OL in a hurry or they’re going to get Caleb Williams killed. There’s a lot of cleaning up to do before heading to Indianapolis for Sunday’s date with the 0-2 Colts.
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