Bears Overwhelmed by Texans' Defense: Chicago Falls Short in Gritty Showdown
Caleb Williams was sacked 7 times in the Bears' tough loss.
Sunday Night Football returned to Houston for the first time in nearly 5 years. Reigning Rookie of the Year CJ Stroud faced off against the Bears #1 overall pick Caleb Williams. Both teams come into the game 1-0 winning in completely different ways. The Bears, beat Tennessee last week without scoring an offensive TD. The Texans on the other hand, put up over 400 yards of total offense beating the Colts in a shootout.
The game opened with both teams finding success early moving the football, driving down to each score a field goal. On the Texans second drive, Nico Collins was flagged for a 15-yard penalty in the redzone. The very next play he took it 28 yards for the games opening score. Caleb Williams and the Bears struggled to find a running game, but were accurate in the first half going 12/15 for 91 yards.
Late in the second quarter, the Bears were able to drive down and punch in a short touchdown run by Khalil Herbert. They trailed 13-10 with 30 seconds to go in the half. The Bears then messed up, getting a 5 yard penalty on the kickoff allowing for Houston to drive into field goal range and kick a 59 yard field goal to make it 16-10 at the half.
After halftime, it was a complete defensive battle. The Bears were able to keep the Texans from doing much of anything with the ball. On the other side of the ball the offense began to struggle. They could not stop the blitz. Houston blitzed a staggering 41.7% of the time, resulting in 7 sacks. They got pressure on Willaims on the majority of his throws in the second half resulting in two takeaways. The second interception Caleb was able to spin out of trouble and looked to find Kmet down field before being picked off.
In the 4th, both teams were able to muster field goals. Leaving the Bears a roughly a minute and half down 19-13 with the ball and a chance to win it. On 4th and 17, Caleb and Rome Odunze were not on the same page resulting in a incomplete pass and the Texans surviving.
Chicago, lets pump the brakes here. The offensive line has not been good and is struggling to handle pressure. Caleb has looked pedestrian, which is completly normal for rookie Qbs who have made 2 NFL starts. The good news, the Bears are 1-1. They just lost by 6 to a team that is believed to be a Super Bowl contender. The wideouts do not look to be in sync yet with Caleb and the chemistry and feel for the game will take a little bit of time.
Overall, this is not the worst case scenerio. They didn't get beat by 40. Caleb has struggled but he remains positive and eager to get better which he will. The get to face a team next week in the Colts who has given up 100 yard rushers the past 2 weeks. The Bears need to run the ball to help set up the rest of the offense. Look for the Bears to lean on swift early and have a much improved offense against Indianapolis next week.
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