The Chicago Bears and rookie quarterback Caleb Williams step into the national spotlight Sunday night when they play the Houston Texans and quarterback C.J. Stroud at NRG Stadium.
Both teams won their season openers, but in different fashion. Defense and special teams fueled the Bears’ win against the Tennessee Titans, while the Texans rode Stroud and running back Joe Mixon past the Indianapolis Colts.
As kickoff approaches for “Sunday Night Football” in Week 2, here’s our snapshot look at the game.
Players in the spotlight
C.J. Stroud and Caleb Williams
The comparisons come naturally this week between Stroud, the No. 2 pick in the 2023 draft, and Williams, the top pick in 2024.
The Bears certainly would love for Williams to follow the trajectory of Stroud’s rookie season, in which he threw for 4,108 yards, 23 touchdowns and five interceptions on the way to being named Offensive Rookie of the Year.
But Williams wasn’t playing into that storyline this week as he tried to regroup from a Week 1 showing in which he completed 14 of 29 passes for 93 yards, no touchdowns, no turnovers and two sacks for a loss of 29 yards.
“It’s not motivation for me, from him,” Williams said. “My motivation is to be the best for the Chicago Bears, win games, get to the playoffs.”
However, Williams was willing to discuss how he can improve from his NFL debut. He said not rushing his drops was on the top of his priority list to improve in Week 2, noting that was at fault for one of his incompletions to wide receiver Rome Odunze.
“I rushed my drop and tried to juice it in there a little bit and missed,” Williams said. “I didn’t need to. Just trying to hurry up and get the ball to him, getting it in his hands as fast as possible so he can make magic and do what he does. It’s just making sure I’m trusting the drop, trusting the reads and getting through them.”
Stroud, who threw for 234 yards and two touchdowns in Week 1, had some bad ones in his rookie season too. And his advice this week to Williams is “be yourself.”
“Understand whatever got you here is just good enough,” Stroud told Houston reporters. “You don’t gotta be a superhero. You don’t gotta try to make all the plays. Sometimes the boring plays are good.”
Keep an eye on …
Football remains an 11-on-11 battle. But man, it feels like a pretty intriguing 3-on-3 clash will unfold Sunday between the Texans’ top three receivers — Nico Collins, Stefon Diggs and Tank Dell — and the Bears’ top three cornerbacks — Jaylon Johnson, Tyrique Stevenson and Kyler Gordon.
Stevenson was named NFC Defensive Player of the Week thanks to his 43-yard game-winning interception return for a touchdown in Week 1. But Johnson had a more impressive game, collecting an interception of his own while also recording two passes defensed and two tackles for a loss and playing a big role in limiting the Titans receiving trio of Calvin Ridley, DeAndre Hopkins and Tyler Boyd to a combined 76 receiving yards on seven catches.
Collins, meanwhile, turned six catches into 117 yards in the Texans’ season-opening victory while Diggs snagged a pair of low-red-zone touchdown passes from Stroud.
Pressing question
How will Cole Kmet’s role evolve in Week 2?
Kmet was on the field for only 27 of the Bears’ 56 offensive snaps against the Titans and saw just one target from Williams — a 4-yard catch in the red zone in the final minute of the first half.
To put it bluntly, that’s not enough. None of that’s enough.
Kmet’s usage in Houston will now fold into the evaluation of how well new coordinator Shane Waldron can find improvements in Game 2 to enliven an offense that managed just 148 total yards in the opener while averaging 2.8 yards per play, the worst output of any team in Week 1.
“We know Cole is one of the top tight ends in the league,” Waldron said Thursday. “He does a great job for us. He has done nothing but the right thing ever since I’ve been around him. So that’s more on us, starting with me, in getting the reps a little bit more balanced. But it also goes back to playing efficient football.”
Like much of Chicago, Waldron was bothered by how little rhythm the Bears offense had Sunday. Before they used their final possession for a pair of clock-killing kneel-downs, the Bears ran 51 plays and had only one gain of at least 15 yards while seeing 27 plays go for 2 yards or fewer. They also had only one possession reach the red zone, which limited that part of the play-calling library.
Still, as Waldron gets his feet on the ground, he will face a weekly test of keeping his top playmakers — of which Kmet is one — in the fold of the offensive attack.
On edge
Texans defensive ends Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter present a big challenge for the Bears and offensive tackles Darnell Wright and Braxton Jones, especially after Williams said he was rushing his drops against the Titans.
Bears fans know Hunter well from his eight seasons with the Minnesota Vikings before he signed with the Texans in the offseason. Anderson was the Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2023 after he totaled seven sacks and 22 quarterback hits in 15 games.
“They do a great job condensing the pocket but working edges and getting to the outside,” Waldron said. “For (Williams) it starts with the trust of himself and everyone around him. Going in and having all the confidence in the world in Darnell and Braxton on the edge and knowing that’s a great starting point for us. Now you can play with those clean feet, play in a clean rhythm, because you do have that great trust in everybody around you.”
At the combine last year, Anderson, who played at Alabama, said Wright, of Tennessee, was the toughest offensive tackle he faced in college.
While the offensive line had some issues against the Titans, Eberflus thought Wright played well, and now the right tackle will look to build on that against two familiar faces.
“(Wright) was aggressive,” Eberflus said. “He was good in his pass sets. The run game demeanor was good. I thought he had a really good performance.”
Injury updates
Guard/center Ryan Bates (elbow/shoulder) and fullback Khari Blasingame (hand/knee) won’t play against the Texans after missing practice Thursday and Friday. That means the Bears will go with Nate Davis at right guard after they rotated Davis and Bates in Week 1, and Eberflus said Davis had a “really consistent” practice week to gear up.
Wide receivers Keenan Allen (heel) and Rome Odunze (knee) are questionable to play, and Eberflus said the Bears would wait until game day to determine their statuses.
Odunze sprained his knee in the opener but returned to practice in a limited capacity Friday. He said he felt good testing it out but will know more Saturday as he sees how the knee responds. Doctors told him he is not at risk of making the injury worse.
“Whether it’s structurally sound and whether or not you’re at risk of further injuring it, I think that’s the No. 1 question you need to answer,” Odunze said. “Then after that, it’s can you be yourself out there? Can you play through the pain? What’s the soreness going to be like the next day? Are you going to be able to weather through that? For me, it’s just that pain tolerance at this point and being able to work through what I can work through.”
Allen missed practice all week as he deals with an ongoing heel issue that he tried to play through in Week 1. Eberflus left open the possibility that the 12th-year veteran could play even without practicing.
“We just wanted to give it some rest,” Eberflus said. “That’s really what the idea this week was, just to rest and let it heal and let it feel good so he’s able to move and cut and do the things he does.”
Defensive end DeMarcus Walker is also listed as questionable as he deals with a foot injury. But he practiced in full Friday.
The Texans declared safety M.J. Stewart (knee) out. Guard/center Juice Scruggs (groin) and running back Dameon Pierce (hamstring) are questionable.
Predictions
Brad Biggs (1-0)
Figure the Bears will be better offensively in Week 2. It would be tough to be a lot worse, but it shouldn’t be overlooked that they did not turn the ball over against the Tennessee Titans in the opener. If the Bears can win some extra possessions with some takeaways, they will have a shot here. Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud started his career last season with 192 pass attempts before his first interception. Running back Joe Mixon hasn’t fumbled since 2021, with 612 touches since the start of the 2022 season. But if the Bears can emphasize the “T” in Matt Eberflus’ HITS principle, they could pull off the upset.
Texans 24, Bears 20
Colleen Kane (1-0)
The Bears defense was impressive in the second half in Week 1, but C.J. Stroud, Joe Mixon, Nico Collins and Stefon Diggs present a real test this week as to whether this can be a top-five unit. It feels like Bears quarterback Caleb Williams should fare better in his second start against a Texans defense that gave up 27 points to the Indianapolis Colts. But injuries slowing Rome Odunze and Keenan Allen don’t make it any easier in a tough road game, and it’s hard to pick a rookie who struggled in Week 1 over Stroud and Co.
Texans 27, Bears 24
Dan Wiederer (1-0)
Coming off an energizing comeback win, this is a tough ask for the Bears. Rookie quarterback. In a still-evolving offense. On the road for the first time. With a depleted receiving corps.
As Caleb Williams himself reiterated Wednesday, “This job is hard. The NFL is hard.” Sunday’s game will be another case-in-point of that principle for a young quarterback acclimating to the challenges of the NFL. Williams will make more big plays Sunday night than he did against the Titans. But against a talent-loaded Texans offense, the Bears defense won’t have nearly as many result-swinging contributions. The Bears are on their way to becoming an upper-tier team in the league. But in a measuring-stick prime-time game, the final result shows us they’re not there yet.
Texans 27, Bears 16
