GLENDALE, Ariz. — So much for a classic bounce-back spot for the Chicago Bears. A week after a disastrous last-second loss at Washington, they got steamrolled by the Arizona Cardinals, a 29-9 loss that only adds to the mounting list of poor road performances under coach Matt Eberflus.
Here are 10 thoughts after the latest setback with tension sure to mount at Halas Hall.
1. The best thing for the Bears would be a bye this week — they need to consider some big changes — but that’s not happening.
The next best thing for Matt Eberflus and everyone else involved might be Tuesday’s election. They could use something to take a little focus off their struggles.
At least Eberflus was clear the buck stops with him in his postgame comments after his defense was trampled for 213 rushing yards, the offense couldn’t get any momentum going in yet another slow start and there were some timely and costly penalties.
That encapsulates most of what has been wrong through the first half of the season. The defense has been leaky against the run. The offense can’t get anything going in the first quarter and while the Bears haven’t been hit with a ton of penalties, boy, they come at really inopportune moments. Rinse. Repeat.
Eberflus defended how the Bears played the Jayden Daniels’ Hail Mary for the Washington Commanders last week — and the strategy on the game’s penultimate play — and he wore it for a blitz call that didn’t work against the Cardinals on a 53-yard touchdown run by Emari Demercado with four seconds remaining in the second quarter. It was a killer because as poorly as the Bears had started, they were in position to head into the locker room trailing by one five and would get the ball to start the third quarter.
Demercado ripped through a massive hole — and I will break down this play in a bit — and he was gone. Just as the Bears allowed a long play at the end of the fourth quarter to lose the week before, they allowed a huge run here that staked the Cardinals to a 21-9 lead.
“That’s on me,” Eberflus said. “I called a pass defense, a pass pressure and they ended up running the ball. I can make a better call there. That’s on me. I do believe that our run defense needs to shore up. When you have a big run like that, the numbers go up, but we know how to do it. We’ve done it in the past with the same guys. It’s important that we shore that up and make sure we do a better job. Starting with the coaches and then the players after that.”
The offense looked like it might have something going at the start after the defense produced a snappy three-and-out by the Cardinals. It took eight plays but the Bears went from their own 21 to the Arizona 39 and even overcame an offensive pass interference call against Keenan Allen. But D’Andre Swift, who was limited to 51 yards on 16 carries, lost 2 yards on first down. There was a short pass and then an illegal formation penalty followed by a sack and the ball was at midfield before a punt.
“That first drive we were going backward and forward too many times,” tight end Cole Kmet said. “That’s hard to do over the course of the drive. So we have a 12-play drive there, and I don’t know if we even crossed the 30 (they reached the Cardinals’ 37) after 12 plays just because of going back and forth so many times. It’s hard to sustain. We were getting some plays off there. Doing some good things. Unfortunately, not to get points there at the end of the first drive.”
That’s been a theme of the season. The Bears have only scored 10 points in the first quarter this season. Only the Philadelphia Eagles, who got a touchdown in the first quarter of their 28-23 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars, have less; they’re at seven.
“(I take) full responsibility for that,” Eberflus said. “We’ll work with the offensive staff (Monday) morning as we watch this tape tonight and find answers. Find answers for running the ball, first. Making sure you do that and setting everything off of that. Then making sure we have good actions off of that to start. On first and second down. Then when we get the protections, we have to make sure — I know we got six sacks today and the pressure was there — we’re good with flipping those things and making sure our protection is clean. When you protect your quarterback – and our quarterback’s a good quarterback – he can get the ball down the field and do a good job there.”
Then, there were key penalties. Defensive tackle Gervon Dexter was called for unsportsmanlike conduct on a field goal for leverage — using a lineman to help him jump. The Cardinals accepted the penalty and it was a four-point move, as they went from Chad Ryland’s 32-yard field goal to a 1-yard touchdown run for Trey Benson to go ahead 14-6 with 3:14 remaining in the second quarter. The Bears had only six penalties for 33 yards but the Dexter call and a chop block on Swift in the end zone resulted in a safety. So penalties led to six points. Not the difference in a blowout but an ongoing issue.
“I know I jumped and I know the rules,” Dexter said. “The rule says you are not allowed to leverage off somebody but I haven’t seen the play yet. We’ll see when we watch it.”
This wasn’t the way the Cardinals are accustomed to winning big. For that to happen, usually quarterback Kyler Murray has to be Superman. He was ordinary, completing 13 of 20 passes for 154 yards and running only twice for 6 yards. It’s the second time this season the Bears have lost when an opposing quarterback has completed 13 or less passes (Anthony Richardson was 10-of-20 in Week 3 at Indianapolis). Wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. had two receptions for 34 yards.
“Not too many times have I been able to play in a game like that and play the way I feel like I played — not up to my standard — and be able to win the way we did,” Murray said.
After a gut-wrenching loss at Washington, the Bears now have to process being run over by a middle-of-the-road Cardinals team that is 5-4 and was ransacked by the Commanders earlier. The Bears (4-4) are three games behind the Detroit Lions in the NFC North, and the idea of chasing a playoff spot seems unrealistic right now when considering they are 3-18 on the road since the start of the 2022 season.
“You gotta take the perspective of we’re a 4-4 football team,” Kmet said. “It hurts because you feel like we should be in a better spot than we are. You look back at some of the other games and we can’t dwell on those games. I think the fact of the matter is you look at this just like any other loss. It’s a loss and you move on from it but that was an ass-kicking. We got our asses kicked.
“We gotta be able to regroup, come in Monday and be able to move on here and get back on a winning track. Look, we’ve dealt with two losses in a row already this year. So, we know what that’s like. Had a heartbreaker last week and then getting our ass kicked this week. We gotta be able to rebound and move forward with it.”
At least there was ownership after this defeat. It doesn’t make the outcome any easier to accept. But no one dodged the facts and fortunately, quarterback Caleb Williams is not believed to have a serious injury after getting his ankle twisted at the end of the game.
2. I have to think there is a possibility Matt Eberflus will consider appointing someone new to call offensive plays.
Offensive coordinator Shane Waldron is in a rut calling plays. The Bears have been explosive only against some pretty bad defenses and they faced another team that, statistically, was in the bottom quarter of the league in a lot of significant categories. The Cardinals looked like a fierce unit, though, and that is what the Bears have been doing way too much — making pedestrian defenses without key difference-makers look legitimate.
Arizona entered last in the NFL on third down with opponents converting at a 52% clip. The Bears were 3-for-14 (21.4%) and they’ve struggled on third down all season. They entered the game 24th in the league on first down (5.01 yards per play) and that’s been a consistent issue.
The offense can’t establish tempo — and the Bears have tried. They are disjointed and have no rhythm in the passing game despite having what, on paper, appears to be a wealth of skill position talent. Too often, they have the look of a poorly coached team that lacks self-awareness in critical game situations.
If Eberflus is feeling pressure — and I have to imagine he is — he could be at the point where he’s got to consider a significant change. I generally shy away from “fire the coach” strategies. It’s a last-ditch ploy that most times doesn’t lead to a lot of significant improvement, but the Bears are really struggling here.
There are issues the team is working through on the offensive line — and those aren’t going to suddenly disappear if someone new is calling plays — but Waldron isn’t a dynamic guy in front of the offense in the meeting room and that’s a part of it. The coach has to be able to sell the plan and the vision with energy. The sense I get is the players would welcome a change.
What are the options? Thomas Brown is the passing game coordinator. He called plays for part of the season in Carolina last season. That didn’t go well, but what of that involved Panthers quarterback Bryce Young? Quarterbacks coach Kerry Joseph would be another possibility.
“They’re all kind of intertwined,” one coordinator for another team said. “Because they’ve all worked together before. So, I don’t know how that works if they do that.”
Is public perception a consideration here too? Jayden Daniels is the clear frontrunner for offensive rookie of the year for the Commanders. Bo Nix has been playing better in Denver. Drake Maye has been doing OK for New England. Daniels is throwing to Terry McLaurin and a collection of guys. Nix is throwing to Courtland Sutton and a collection of other guys. Maye is throwing the ball to who? The Patriots roster is a mess.
The Bears have Rome Odunze, who they drafted No. 9 overall, DJ Moore, who is being badly underutilized, and Keenan Allen, who looks like he was a trade addition the Bears haven’t been able to use. Tight end Cole Kmet is rarely seeing the ball. The Bears have far more skill players for their rookie quarterback than these other teams. Even if public perception isn’t in play, the results through eight games have been problematic and for Eberflus, in Year 3, it could be enough for him to feel the urge to try something different.
The Bears looked like they were struggling to find an offensive identity early in the season and now at the midpoint, they don’t have anything they do with any real consistency, nothing for Waldron to hang his hat on. Maybe Eberflus shakes things up and I say that recognizing it’s often a knee-jerk reaction. In this instance, something might need to change.
3. The Bears made the move they had to in pulling Tyrique Stevenson from the starting lineup.
They can’t preach accountability and everything that comes with it and then ignore his well-publicized mistake when the Hail Mary play began and he was interacting with fans at Northwest Stadium. Everyone saw it and then, in the heat of the moment, Stevenson forgot his assignment, a huge consequence in the game-winning play.
Terell Smith started in his place Sunday with a plan for Stevenson to rotate in, a plan that was ditched when Smith went out with an ankle injury after nine plays. The Cardinals didn’t throw a lot, but Stevenson played well. He had seven tackles and five solos, both tied for a team-high and two pass breakups. One was a Kyler Murray pass that hit him in the back as he was shadowing Marvin Harrison Jr., the other was a well-defended play on third-and-4.
The Bears informed Stevenson before Wednesday’s walk-through of their plan and he briefly went back inside the building before returning to the field. It’s not like he ditched a practice.
“Honestly, my feelings were a little hurt, disappointed,” Stevenson said. “But decisions were made. I can’t go against the decisions. I’m here to be a team player, be a great guy for this team, and that’s what I stood out to do this week.
“We’re all human. I feel like if you don’t hear something that you want to hear, everybody has the opportunity to walk away and collect themselves.”
This was a delicate situation for the Bears for a number of reasons. First, they really value Stevenson and believe he’s improving in his second season. Second, he’s really well-liked by his teammates. That matters. If Stevenson was a guy on the margin of the locker room, it would be different. He’s not and you can tell.
“Everybody done (messed) up in their life,” cornerback Jaylon Johnson said. “It’s no different. At the end of the day, you bounce back, continue to show up, continue to do your job, continue to love those around you. It don’t make no difference. Just as his mess up is on ESPN, it’s no different than life. It’s easy to come back and love him. It’s easy to come back and fight for him. That’s what I hope each one of you all would do when you all mess up in your all’s lives. It’s no different.”
For the Bears, it’s a focus issue for Stevenson. They want him dialed in all the time. In practice. In meetings. In games until the clock reaches zero. If they can harness him a little better, it should lead to more growth. The Bears’ concern matches up with what I’ve heard elsewhere as well. A national scout for another team, who was struck by the days of fallout from the Washington game, dug into his team’s scouting report on Stevenson from 2023 when he was coming out of Miami.
“Lacks focus and sometimes he just wanders,” the scout said was on part of the report.
If the Washington game can serve as a learning point — and perhaps motivation — I think Stevenson ultimately could benefit from an embarrassing moment that won’t be forgotten any time soon. If he does, the Bears will have a better player.
“Guys know who I am,” he said. “They know how passionate I am. They know all I want to do is win, and I want to come in here and lay myself on the line for them. Nothing was looked at different. Nobody said anything.
“I was tested as far as the media, as far as proving to the guys I’m not going to let the media bring me down. And then just proving to the whole building that one play don’t define me, which that is true. And when I get my opportunity, come out and do what I did today.
“You don’t put things like that aside. You take them as they go, and you add them to the resume. I think this is going to be on my resume to always keep me locked in in every game until the end of the game.”
4. Matt Eberflus was thinking about keeping Arizona out of field-goal range at the end of the second quarter and that is just what the Cardinals were aiming for — a shot at three points.
It was third-and-5 from the Cardinals’ 47-yard line with 12 seconds remaining with Arizona coach Jonathan Gannon having two timeouts in his pocket. Eberflus sent a blitz and defensive back Josh Blackwell and defensive end Darrell Taylor wound up in the same gap. I think Taylor was supposed to fill the B gap, but as it was there was a gaping hole with a two-high shell behind it.
“You’re trying to do a good job there and make them punt,” Eberflus said. “Not let them get in the field goal range with the time that they had.”
The Cardinals were not aiming for a home run. They wanted 5, maybe 6 yards from Demercado and a quick timeout to give kicker Chad Ryland a shot at a field goal of around 65 yards.
Said tight end Trey McBride, who blocked middle linebacker Tremaine Edmunds on the play: “We were expecting them to all drop.”
“Before the play, Kyler (Murray) was like, ‘Everybody, let’s block. Let’s pop this one,’” running back Emari Demercado said. “It popped. Once I cut up through the hole, I was like, ‘I gotta score right here.’”
The Cardinals had a man on three Bears defenders at the second level. Defensive end Austin Booker, hustling from the back side, dove and tried to trip up Demercado but missed.
Demercado told me he didn’t even look at the scoreboard as he was running to see how much time was remaining and consider potentially heading out of bounds or giving himself up and calling a timeout.
“I made that choice,” he said. “I am not getting tackled.”
Instead of being up five at halftime, the Cardinals went ahead 21-9.
“I think being on the other side, that hurts,” Murray said. ” Could be demoralizing if you let it, but that was definitely huge for us to be able to go up another score.”
The Bears didn’t have any response in the second half so maybe it was demoralizing.
“Anytime someone scores a touchdown that kills momentum,” cornerback Jaylon Johnson said. “First touchdown killed momentum. The second touchdown killed momentum with the (Gervon Dexter) penalty. I felt like we didn’t have no momentum the whole damn game. I didn’t think we had any momentum to kill.”
5. Lost during last week’s inquisition into the Hail Mary and botched fullback dive play was a careful examination of more macro issues the Bears are dealing with.
There’s ongoing discussion involving the slow offensive starts but not enough focus on why the offense has been challenged in unlocking wide receiver DJ Moore.
He’s the best skill position target Caleb Williams has to work with and with the exception of the 105-yard, two-touchdown game he had against the Carolina Panthers, Moore hasn’t been utilized nearly enough.
There was an immediate course correction for Moore within the offense last season. Recall he had only two targets in the season-opening loss to the Green Bay Packers. Moore was targeted on two of the first three passes the next week against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and wound up with six catches (seven targets) for 104 yards. He went on to have career-highs in catches (96), yards (1,364) and touchdowns (eight) in what was a poor passing offense.
For whatever reasons — plural — the Bears haven’t been able to make things click for Moore under offensive coordinator Shane Waldron yet. And that’s got to be of concern as it involves a player who was rewarded during training camp with a $110 million, four-year contract extension that includes $81.525 million guaranteed.
It’s not like the Bears can claim that coverage by opposing defenses has been rolled to Moore with such frequency that there have not been opportunities. If that were the case, there would be consistent one-on-one matchups that would have made it easier for rookie Rome Odunze, Keenan Allen, Cole Kmet or whomever to pile up big numbers. That hasn’t been the case either.
The Bears made more of an effort to get Moore going in Week 9. He was targeted nine times but had only four catches for 33 yards. That’s after he had only 23 targets over the previous four games. Through eight games, Moore has 37 receptions for 374 yards and three touchdowns. He’s been targeted 60 times so the Bears are completing only 61.7% of passes intended for him down from the 70.6% rate he was at last season.
This is one of Waldron’s real problems: there’s too much talent that isn’t being utilized.
“You’re going to have that up and down throughout the season,” Moore said last week when I asked him if he felt like he and Williams were close to getting on the same page. “When coverages roll or push it to my side and I’m the only person over there. It’s hard, but you’ve got to understand the game. And then he progresses on, you’ve got Keenan, Rome Cole, D’Andre, you’ve got (other) playmakers that can make plays too.”
OK but doesn’t the offense have to feed the beast?
“There is a certain element (to that), but if the beast is tamed by like three people, you can’t break the chain and go crazy,” he said. “I’m cool. I know my role when it comes to certain plays and I don’t want to go outside of that and mess up somebody else’s chances of getting the ball. Like I said, we’ve got all these playmakers out here. You can’t just break the leash and run your own stuff.”
There’s not an easy solution to this or anything else ailing the offense. The Bears have had some misses targeting Moore. They’ve had some deep-ball misses.
“I think when you get to that situation if you are Shane Waldron, you have to design plays specifically for him to get the football,” a scout said. “There should be an area of his call sheet that says ‘Get the ball to DJ.’ And there has got to be four or five plays that you trust that you know are going to work and they’re easy throws for the quarterback. Inside slants, dig routes, throwing a fade when you’ve got a defined 1-on-1 situation. Knowing when to scheme your shots off play action. He should be the primary target on shot plays.
“I think they’ve tried. It seems their go-to answer too often is to throw him a wide receiver screen. Wide receiver screens are not as easy as they look and the defenses are too fast, they are excellent at cutting off the ball and they’ll tackle. So you gotta have a better answer than that. It might be something as simple as, ‘Hey, let’s bump him inside to the slot. Let’s move him around. Let’s get him in motion.’ You have to look at how Cooper Kupp gets the ball all the time. Kupp rarely sees press coverage because he’s in reduced sets. He’s in bunch formations. He’s moving before the snap and Sean McVay does a great job of giving him free access off the ball and now he’s doing the same exact thing for Puka Nacua. These guys are not elite frame guys at the line of scrimmage. They have great feet and they have great hands and they’re really good route runners. They’re getting a jump start over everyone else because offensive coordinators are giving them a free run off the football and they can get to top speed and they’re not getting re-routed. That is a big part of it too. How you align your guys means everything.”
There’s a lot to go through. Kmet has had one target, one catch and 14 yards in the last two games.
“Look, I am never going to be one to complain for targets or anything like that,” Kmet said. “I live by a saying that those who complain about how the ball bounces tend to fumble it when it comes their way. That’s kind of what I always tell myself and I am always looking at things on tape that I can get better at and what ways to get more open and all of those things.
“Sometimes it’s the flow of the game and just how things operate. You get behind the chains here and there and it’s hard to really get things going into your offense. I would love to be more involved in the pass game. There’s a lot of layers to that. I don’t think it’s a lack of not trying or whatever it is. There’s a lot of layers to it for sure.”
Moore isn’t complaining either but the Bears’ plan — to spread out an Arizona secondary that is super thin at cornerback — didn’t work. It failed miserably for a lot of reasons.
“It’s gotta be intentional,” wide receivers coach Chris Beatty said when I asked him about Moore’s production. “We gotta make sure that the targets are there for him. And moving forward, it’s not just him. It’s in general we gotta make sure that the ball gets spread around but we make sure that the right people are touching it as much as they can for us to be successful.
“Some of that is what they give you and some of that is you need to go take it and be aggressive. It’s all a process. You’re learning with a young quarterback. Trying to figure out what can he handle? And at the same time how do we make sure that all of these other mouths get fed? It’s a fine line figuring it out or juggling that.”
6. Defensive tackle Andrew Billings was rewarded with a contract extension during the first week of November last season and it got me thinking … is there anyone right now in a similar position?
I’m not sure there is a perfect comparison to this year, but if you put Billings’ situation in 2023 side-by-side with right guard Matt Pryor, there sure are some similarities. Pryor made his sixth start at right guard on Sunday, and when you listen to how they talk about him around the building, it’s that he’s a “starter” and not a stop-gap measure as they’ve juggled injuries (Ryan Bates, Larry Borom, Bill Murray and even Teven Jenkins) and performance issues (Nate Davis).
Billings was 28 last season when he signed a $2.75 million, one-year contract. The Bears were his fourth team in four years (excluding 2020 when he opted out because of COVID-19) and he’d crossed the line to becoming a journeyman. Pryor is 29 and he signed a $1.175 million, one-year extension the first day of free agency, projecting as a potential swing tackle at the time.
I should point out that because Pryor’s contract is a veteran salary benefit deal — a measure that reduces his salary-cap hit — he’s not eligible to sign another contract until the season has ended. That would not preclude the team from discussing the possibility of a new contract with him however.
Billings turned into a perfect fit for what the team was seeking in Matt Eberflus’ defense and quickly emerged as a leader for young players on the line. Pryor has fit in seamlessly. Like a lot of things, it’s often about timing and fit and in Pryor’s case, the Bears didn’t have to show interest in him a second time for him to realize it was something he ought to explore.
They expressed interest in him going into free agency in 2023 when he wound up signing with the San Francisco 49ers on a one-year deal. When Pryor hit the market again this year, there the Bears were again.
“When I heard they were still trying to get me here, I jumped on it just because if any team is showing that kind of interest in you two years in a row, you better act,” he said. “There was no hesitation coming here. I didn’t wait to try to figure out (free agency).”
Pryor cited a relationship with Bears assistant general manager Ian Cunningham, who was in Philadelphia in 2018 when the Eagles drafted him in the sixth round out of TCU. He’d gotten to know offensive line coach Chris Morgan a little bit too as Morgan, then with the Atlanta Falcons, put him through a workout when he was coming out of school.
Why not give it a shot?
Halfway through the season, there is a chance Pryor profiles like Billings in terms of being a guy who could go from a one-year deal to being part of the future. All signs point to general manager Ryan Poles focusing heavily on the offensive line in the offseason and while the day after a bad loss when the quarterback was sacked six times isn’t the best time to start a discussion about a new contract, follow me here. The situation has a similar feel and Pryor’s versatility — he can play all four spots but center — makes it easy to envision him being part of the plan in some capacity.
“I’d love to stay here longevity-wise,” Pryor said. “I am going to keep doing the best I can and hopefully by the end of the season they want to keep me around.”
When I chatted with Brian Baldinger, a former offensive lineman and NFL Network analyst last week, Pryor was the first player he cited when I asked about the offensive line beginning to play a little better.
“They’ve got Matt Pryor in there now and he’s playing good football next to Darnell Wright,” Baldinger said before the Commanders game. “Protection wasn’t there in the beginning of the season. Now, Caleb (Williams) trusts the protection and he’s staying in the pocket more, making throws. You saw it start against the Rams and it’s continued to get better. Stability up front has helped and they didn’t have it at the beginning of the season.”
The Bears recommended Pryor drop weight after he was signed. He’s got a huge frame at 6-foot-7 and played last season around 370 pounds. Before training camp, he adjusted his diet and cut off eating after 8 p.m. The result? He showed up for training camp ready to roll between 350 and 355 pounds. The bigger adjustment, Pryor says, was that he dropped about 3% body fat.
“Obviously, if you cut a couple pounds you are going to feel a little more light on your feet,” he said.
While the team works through the situation at left tackle with Borom replacing Braxton Jones (knee) against the Cardinals and waits to see how Bates could fit into the puzzle, there’s a sense Pryor might be best for them at right guard. The sample size remains small and the Bears are going to encounter some better defenses, but he’s a guy who has maximized his opportunity to this point.
“Matt has done a really good job of being a pro,” Morgan said. “He’s all in. He likes it here. He’s wanted here. That’s a big piece of it. He’s been around. He’s done a really nice job of kind of embracing this place and we’re embracing him. He’s doing some good things. He’s got a chance to be a special player. He’s just big and so strong. He’s got that anchor. He’s a great teammate. He’s a big man. Strong man.
“He’s done everything we’ve asked of him. He’s a starting player for us.”
7. Everything was pointing up for Caleb Williams coming out of London after he threw four touchdown passes in a blowout of the Jaguars.
He was on a mini-heater in terms of being accurate and coming out of the bye and in the last two games it’s been a mess.
Williams completed 22 of 41 passes for 216 yards and was sacked six times — at one point on three consecutive offensive plays. I thought the pass protection was OK in the first half. The Cardinals figured out what the Bears were doing protection-wise and there were too many jailbreaks after that, especially when the Bears were trailing big in the fourth quarter. There were no answers. Not enough explosive plays.
Keenan Allen had a bad drop. Rome Odunze had a ball go off his hands. Williams missed some throws. He didn’t have a turnover, but it was a rocky outing and he’s 32 of 65 for 347 yards over his last two games.
“We kind of wanted to get his eyes down,” Cardinals linebacker Zaven Collins said. “He’s a great player and as you can tell one of the first plays of the game I spun, counter-spun, fell on the ground and got up. Went to get him, chased all the way to the sideline, slipped again, got up again, chased him back again in bounds. He’s all over the place. The play style he has is very rare because he has great pocket awareness and it was kind of on our mind the entire game throughout the week to get that done.”
The biggest concern postgame was Williams’ ankle, which got twisted up at the end of the game.
“I landed wrong and just kind of tweaked it. Then the last play, the dude grabbed my ankle and gator rolled,” he said. “I tried to get off of it because when you stay on it, that’s when bad stuff starts to happen and (it) breaks and all of that. So tried to just let my body go so I could fall and roll with him.
“I’m OK.”
Tracking Caleb Williams: How the Chicago Bears QB is performing in his rookie season
Matt Eberflus pointed out that defensive players were in until the end of the game when asked why Williams was on the field down 20 with little time remaining. The ongoing offensive struggles are a way bigger issue than Williams being on the field through the final play.
“Obviously expectations of myself are always gonna be high,” Williams said. “They’re still high. We still have nine games. It’s gonna keep being high every game we go into. We just have to figure out, what’s the next step. I have to figure out how to get the win this next week. This game’s over, can’t change this game, but we definitely can change the future.”
Wiliams cited negative plays — and there were too many on the opening drive — as why the offense cannot begin clicking early. It’s back to work searching for a solution.
“You have to find answers,” Eberflus said. “Three weeks ago, we were doing this right and it was looking good. Now we have to find answers. That’s why I always say this league is week-to-week.”
8. The Bears have been relatively healthy for most of the season, at least avoiding a slew of season-ending injuries.
But they missed defensive end Montez Sweat — and I think the club felt like there was a good chance he would suit up — and there were concerning injuries coming out of the game.
Sweat suffered a shin bruise in the loss at Washington last week and after stretching before Thursday’s practice, he sat out.
“We worked him out before the game,” Matt Eberflus said. “It was just too painful when he was turning the corner to make the rush so we’ll see where that is. But again, there’s pain when you turn the corner. When you’re a defensive end, your ankle has to have flexion in it. You have to make sure that you’re able to have that mobility in your lower extremities to be able to play the way he plays.”
Defensive tackle Andrew Billings left with what was announced as a chest injury; Eberflus called it a pectoral muscle injury. As I said last week when guard Bill Murray went out with a pec injury, those rarely end well. Murray was placed on injured reserve and my guess is the Bears are bracing for bad news with Billings, which would be a significant blow to a defense that has struggled — as it did here — defending the run.
Add in right tackle Darnell Wright (knee) and special teams standout Jaylon Jones (shoulder) going out and there’s a lot to sort through. There’s probably a decent chance nickel cornerback Kyler Gordon (hamstring) is back this week and the team is optimistic safety Jaquan Brisker (concussion) will make it through protocol soon, but these new injuries will take a toll and test depth.
9. With Tuesday’s 3 p.m. trade deadline almost here, it looks like the Bears will probably stand pat.
Khalil Herbert would like an opportunity to play and a trade might facilitate that, but as I’ve written a couple of times, the Bears value him knowing how quickly injuries can wipe out a running back room.
“Putting my head down and just being ready and staying in my faith,” Herbert said when I asked how he’s approaching the looming deadline and his lack of playing time. “Doing a lot of praying.”
On Sunday, Herbert was inactive for the second consecutive week. Herbert is in the final year of his rookie contract earning $1.055 million. He will be an unrestricted free agent after the season.
“I just want to play,” he said. “That’s all. I feel like I can help the team when I am on the field.”
The Bears granted Herbert’s agent permission to shop a trade, but it stands to reason that unless another team came with an aggressive offer — something like a fifth-round pick — it would not make sense for the Bears. Does thinking shift with the team having lost two in a row? I don’t know. If so, there is a day and a half to put a deal together.
“I’ve talked to (GM Ryan Poles),” Herbert said. “There’s only so much they will say or things they will do.”
So Herbert is forced to walk what is a fine line being a competitor who wants a chance to play while also being a good teammate who doesn’t want to be a distraction. If there is a silver lining for a back who has averaged 4.8 yards per carry in his career, it’s that Herbert will be viewed as a fresh back who is healthy in March.
10. Nice for undrafted rookie free agent Reddy Steward to make a big play in his debut, stripping Cardinals wide receiver Marvin Harrison from behind by punching the ball out.
It was the first of two takeaways, another reason why the 20-point loss is stunning. The Bears were plus-two in takeaways for the game.
Steward had two interceptions in the preseason finale at Kansas City and the Bears stashed him on the practice squad, elevating him for the game as a fill-in for Kyler Gordon, giving him playing time that Josh Blackwell had been getting.
“(I found out) sometime at the end of the week,” said Steward, a Troy product. “Just doing my job filling in for Kyler and stuff. I was ready for it. It felt great. It’s really normal. Football is football. Still learning a lot from these guys. Just keep working, waiting for my opportunity and I was ready for it.”
10a. The Bears have not been great in prime time but it looks like they are at least a possibility to be flexed in Week 11. That’s going to depend at least in part on how the league’s appetite is for more Aaron Rodgers. The New York Jets (3-6) are scheduled to host the Indianapolis Colts (4-5) in NBC’s prime-time slot on Nov. 17. If CBS has protected the late-afternoon game that features the Kansas City Chiefs at the Buffalo Bills, there aren’t a lot of great options to be flexed.
The Packers, who dropped to 6-3 after a loss to the Lions, at the Bears is scheduled to begin at noon. Other possibilities include Seattle (4-5) at San Francisco (4-4) and Baltimore at Pittsburgh. I doubt the latter is a candidate as the Steelers play on Thursday night and the Ravens are on “Monday Night Football” in Week 12. There is one other matchup that currently involves two teams above .500: Atlanta (6-3) at Denver (5-4).
The deadline to flex games for Week 11 is Tuesday.
10b. On the defensive line, Dominique Robinson wasn’t just active for the first time this season with Montez Sweat out — he started. Robinson finished with three tackles. Defensive tackle Chris Williams had a couple of nice pass rushes and collected one of three sacks. Jacob Martin, in his second game, also had one.
10c. The Fox crew of Kevin Kugler, Daryl “Moose” Johnston and Laura Okmin will call the Bears-Patriots game on Sunday at Soldier Field.
10d. The Bears opened as a seven-point favorite over the Patriots at Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas for Sunday’s game at Soldier Field.
