On a gorgeous, perfect afternoon for football at Soldier Field, it was an effort that was far from pretty that wound up getting the job done for the Chicago Bears in a 24-17 victory over the Tennessee Titans to begin the season.
The much-hyped debut of No. 1 draft pick Caleb Williams will be remembered more for a defensive surge in the second half, a big pick-me-up from special teams and mistakes the rookie quarterback avoided making as the Bears rallied from a 17-point deficit to win the season opener for the first time since 2020 in Detroit.
The difference in the game was Tennessee’s young quarterback Will Levis, a second-round draft pick in 2023, made catastrophic mistakes in the second half. The Bears forced him into some of those miscues and then they pounced, as the defense picked up an offense whose effort will not be good enough to beat many teams on a weekly basis.
Here are 10 thoughts after the season opener.
1. Most of the highlights Caleb Williams had in preseason were made on extended plays, outside the pocket with him creating time and space and then flashing off his gifted arm talent to make big plays.
“He’s had some wow throws, there have definitely been some of those,” said an assistant general manager for another NFC club after preseason ended. “Watching it, you’re wondering if he’s going to be like almost all of these young quarterbacks. They want to see it before they throw it and he’s not going to trust it otherwise. It almost seemed what he wanted to do was go Aaron Rodgers, go off-schedule and find the guy. Backyard football.”
The “wow” throws were not there against the Titans and I’d bet that was an emphasis of the Titans coaching staff: Contain Williams in the pocket and make him play from there. The final statistics were not pretty. He completed 14 of 29 passes for 93 yards with a long completion of 13. The only positive that stood out — and it should not be brushed aside — was Williams did not commit a turnover. If the Bears had one of those on offense — kickoff returner Velus Jones Jr. was responsible for the team’s only giveaway — it probably would have been a killer.
Williams remained poised despite the slow start and he didn’t appear to press, which often leads to forced mistakes. The Bears won despite totaling only 148 yards of offense, which typically leads to a loss.
Since 2000, teams with less than 150 yards of offense are 20-148 (11.9%) with the Bears having an inordinate number of games that fit in that category. They’re now 2-10 when failing to reach 150 yards of offense in that span. The previous victory was a 23-13 win over the Minnesota Vikings on Dec. 3, 2006, on a day Devin Hester had a punt return score and Lovie Smith’s defense totaled five takeaways to back Rex Grossman, who was 6 of 19 passing for 34 yards and three interceptions.
“He’s smart as a whip and knows the offense,” coach Matt Eberflus said of Williams. “And we’ve just got to keep playing well around him as he grows and reinvests and improves. He’s going to learn a lot these first three, four games in terms of the NFL looks and speed and all the things we have to do.”
Keenan Allen dropped what looked like it would have been a touchdown on second-and-goal from the 6-yard line in the second quarter. Teams count on a veteran wide receiver to make a play in that situation and the ball just went off his hands, a play that led the Bears to settle for a field goal after a 67-yard kickoff return by DeAndre Carter gave the offense premium field position at the Titans’ 34-yard line.
The Bears had starting field position at the Tennessee 48, 34 and 31 and on their own 43 in their 10 possessions. To not get an offensive touchdown on one possession has to be bothersome for coordinator Shane Waldron.
Protection wasn’t always great and it appeared the Bears had some issues on the interior going against standout defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons and rookie T’Vondre Sweat, who was a rock in the middle at 362 pounds. Williams tried to escape by going backward and he’ll learn quickly, maybe after this week, that retreating in the NFL is usually a bad idea.
“I would say offensive play — obviously, we didn’t perform how we wanted to,” Williams said. “We want to be the most efficient team out there, myself included. Didn’t perform the way I wanted to. I missed a few passes that I normally don’t miss. All these other things. I think there’s small things that always lead up to big things, make those moments and things like that a lot bigger, that make games a lot closer.
“Just the small things, whether it’s a pass play that I had to D’Andre Swift in the flat that I missed a little bit in front of him, whether it’s missing (DJ Moore) a little bit on the end route on the backside, a little bit in front of him. All these small moments that happen throughout the game that felt like I was in the right place, the right time, and I would say I was seeing it well. Just missed and misfired and placing the ball where I wanted to.”
Williams fired too long for DeAndre Carter, who was open behind the Tennessee secondary on third-and-4 from midfield in the second quarter. The second-reaction plays that led to some big profits in the preseason, sometimes against reserves playing for the opponent, didn’t materialize. The Titans found a way to have someone in his face or in close pursuit when he was outside the pocket and while he took only two sacks, the Bears didn’t get those chunk plays needed to really ignite a drive.
“We made it hard for him with different things we do defensively,” Titans safety Quandre Diggs said. “He’s learning. I think today was a good learning experience for him. No matter if people say he played bad, he was able to get a win today. We had the momentum, if we would have gotten the ball (from Williams) that would have really flipped it.”
Combined with a rushing attack that really struggled to get going — the only carry by a running back that went for more than 6 yards was D’Andre Swift’s 20-yard gain with less than four minutes to play when he hurdled Diggs — the Bears were sort of stuck in the mud for four quarters.
“We got stalled,” center Coleman Shelton said. “We never really got in a rhythm as an offense and you can see we finally started getting it in toward the end of the game there on that drive (when the Bears went from their own 11 to the Tennessee 43 before punting with 2:33 to play). So, it was really trying to find a rhythm, find our groove and get going.
“(Williams) was great at staying positive and keeping us going and realizing we were in the game the whole time.”
The off-schedule plays are going to come. Williams’ skill will be on display and he’ll have to iron out some of the small timing issues that seemed to be just off in the passing game. Waldron needs to find a rhythm.
“It’s just not just being on the same page passing-wise,” Williams said. “And run game, we’ll be better. Obviously, it’s great to get this first win. And we’re all excited, went into the locker room, celebrated. I sat down, enjoyed the moment. And just watching the other guys, I understand that I need to be better, I will be better. And then just taking in the first one. It’s unbelievable.”
2. “Hard Knocks” captured Bears GM Ryan Poles early in training camp, after negotiations to trade with the New England Patriots for Matthew Judon broke down, telling director of football administration Matthew Feinstein that “if (Judon) has 20 sacks or something, yeah it’ll make me sick.”
Imagine how Poles will feel if Darrell Taylor, who the Bears acquired before roster cuts for a sixth-round draft pick, has 12 sacks.
Taylor got off to a big start with two sacks and a career-high eight tackles with a strip-sack of Will Levis in the fourth quarter to set up a 48-yard field goal by Cairo Santos.
Defense is ballin'
: #TENvsCHI on FOX pic.twitter.com/fHOZu5ybab
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) September 8, 2024
It could be the Bears found just the right player with the right skill set to line up on the opposite side of Montez Sweat. Scouts say Taylor has speed and a good get-off and can be proficient hunting the quarterback, which is supported by the 21 1/2 sacks he had for the Seattle Seahawks over the previous three seasons. He’s not considered great against the run but — guess what — the Bears traded for him to boost their pass rush and if Sunday’s debut is a sign of things to come, they’re going to use him primarily on passing downs.
The Bears had chipped into the Tennessee lead but the Titans were on their own 48-yard line on third-and-6 when Matt Eberflus blitzed with middle linebacker Tremaine Edmunds coming up the middle. Running back Tyjae Spears chopped down Edmunds but Levis wasn’t able to climb the pocket and floated out to his right.
Taylor used a jab step on Titans’ first-round draft pick J.C. Latham at left tackle and quickly swiped his hands. Then, it was a foot race. What Taylor does best.
“I just came off the edge and saw the ball was within my reach,” Taylor said.
What does that look like, especially in the fourth quarter of a one-score game?
“Your eyes get big,” Taylor said as his eyes bulged out of his head. “It’s like seeing a million dollars, really. So my eyes got big and I knew it was an opportunity for us to cause a turnover and give the ball back to our offense.”
Taylor knocked the ball out and weak-side linebacker T.J. Edwards recovered on what was a big day for the defensive end who is in a contract year and earning $3.136 million this season. He got the nod over rookie fifth-round pick Austin Booker and Daniel Hardy, who both played well in preseason. The Bears opted to go with experience more often and Booker had a tough time on the Tennessee drive that finished on a 26-yard touchdown run by Tony Pollard. The Titans were running right at Booker.
“Straight energy,” Eberflus said of Taylor. “He brings it every single day. I love his passion. He fits in right with our guys. I had a short meeting with him, told him about us and how we operate and he loved it. So, it’s good that he’s here.”
Said Taylor: “It definitely feels great — it’s my debut and I show my teammates what I am all about and show them what I am willing to do for this team.”
When he met reporters after the trade last month, Taylor’s head was still spinning in his new surroundings. He was processing being part of a business transaction. His former team, the one that drafted him, flipped him for a late Day 3 draft pick as the Seahawks deemed he wasn’t a great fit for what they were transitioning to on defense.
“It definitely hurts,” he said. “But that’s what the league is about. Trades happen every year. That’s why I am here and I’m here to make an impact on this defense and on this team. That is my only goal.”
I pointed out that the metaphor Taylor used when he described seeing Levis holding the ball as he turned the corner can be applied to him at the end of the season as well. There’s a bag of money — and it’s got way more than a million dollars in it — if he has a big season.
“It’s definitely sitting there,” Taylor said. “For sure.”
And if Taylor can pursue that bag after the season — from the Bears or any other team — Poles will feel pretty damn good. Judon, by the way, had five tackles and a half-sack in his debut for the Atlanta Falcons, an 18-10 home loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
3. Some shrewd adjustments on defense and strong play by the secondary swung this game for the Bears.
That and the scoop-and-score on the first blocked punt for the team in 12 years.
The Titans controlled the game in the first half because of the success they found on the ground. Tony Pollard had seven carries for yards at halftime and Tennessee had 16 rushes for 115 yards in the first half against what, a year ago, was the NFL’s No. 1 run defense.
It looked like Matt Eberflus switched things up in the second half and went to a Wide 9 look with his defensive ends. Tennessee was attacking them on the edges in the first half — that is where Pollard’s long touchdown run came — and countering and the Bears couldn’t contain the attack. So, the Bears widened out their defensive ends with a goal of funneling the action back inside and Tennessee kept trying to go there with no success. The Titans had only 25 yards rushing in the second half on 11 carries.
By widening everything out up front, the Bears created more one-on-one blocks and they were able to win more of those. A lot of times the idea of halftime adjustments are really overblown, in my opinion. Adjustments are happening all the time on the sideline. There is a small army of coaches in a box, a sideline full of tablets with all the plays to review and coaches to make shifts or subtle changes on the go. The 12 minutes teams have at halftime is a chance for a quick breather, a fast bathroom break, some fluids and a few coaching points. That’s it. But from the looks of things, the Bears adjusted here and Tennessee didn’t have a counter.
Eberflus was also aggressive in going after Will Levis — it sure looked like the Bears were comfortable putting their cornerbacks in man-to-man situations on more than a few occasions. Levis overshot Calvin Ridley when he had Tyrique Stevenson beat down the sideline.
But the Bears held up, the rush clearly got to Levis and the cornerbacks made huge plays at big moments, none bigger than Stevenson’s 43-yard interception return for a touchdown with 7:35 remaining, the go-ahead score.
Levis tried to flip the ball away for an incomplete pass as DeMarcus Walker was wrapping him up on one of the four quarterback hits the defensive end had. It was the kind of terrible play that will be on highlight reels for Levis for months to come if he continues to struggle.
“I was thinking sack, let’s get off the field, good (stuff) there for the defense,” Stevenson said. “And then, in a split-second, he let it go. And then, I ain’t gonna lie to you, next thing I know I am in the end zone doing my dance. Everything was just a blur.”
Levis didn’t factor in the game situation. The Titans were ahead 17-16 and it was third down on their own 45-yard line. Take the sack and even with only a modest punt, the Bears are starting inside their own 30-yard line.
“The way our defense was playing, it’s killer,” Tennessee coach Brian Callahan said. “It’s killer.”
This underlies my point about Williams not making the kind of catastrophic mistakes young quarterbacks commit that simply doom their teams.
“That thing is going to be on blooper reels for the rest of his career,” Stevenson said. “He lost the game based off him making a decision he didn’t have to make. Eat it, punt it and make our offense come back. Instead, he throws it to me.”
Jaylon Johnson added a pick to seal the game when Levis, again under pressure (the Bears totaled 10 quarterback hits), lofted a pass off his back foot. As out of sorts as the Bears were on offense, they found adjustments needed to sync the entire thing together on defense and that propelled the rally.
4. As important as the 3 1/2 sacks Daniel Hardy had in preseason to him finding a spot on the back end of the 53-man roster, the 40 snaps he had on special teams in those exhibitions were probably just as critical.
If you followed the clues the coaching staff was leaving — Matt Eberflus and others talked about what great shape the defensive end was in and how well he was moving — it was clear the best chance Hardy had to earn a job was proving he could help on special teams. When the team decided to go heavy at defensive end — they kept six on the 53-man roster (one or two more than most teams) — Hardy had a spot.
He took a step toward securing that position with a blocked punt midway through the third quarter that safety Jonathan Owens scooped up and ran 21 yards for a touchdown. The Bears looked well on their way to defeat at the time. Little was going right and if the Titans played mostly mistake-free football (they did not), it would be a disappointing opener for the home crowd.
Bears block the punt and Jonathan Owens scoops it up for six!
: https://t.co/waVpO909ge pic.twitter.com/vJFzPGQ3se
— NFL (@NFL) September 8, 2024
Hardy overpowered linebacker Jake Gibbens and was on top of punter Ryan Stonehouse for the Bears’ first blocked punt since a 2012 meeting with the Titans. It was a pressure that special teams coordinator Richard Hightower put on. His unit, with the exception of the massive gaffe by Velus Jones Jr., played very well. They played hard. It appeared the Bears looped some players to the left on the block and got the guard to lean inside. Hardy had a clear path. Earlier in the game, the Bears tried confusing Tennessee by rolling a cornerback on a punt.
“It’s an amazing feeling to be able to accomplish something like that with your teammates and I wanted to find Coach Hightower and let him know,” Hardy said. “As a special teams coordinator, you’ve got to put a lot of pressure on guys to be able to call something like that. You can run into the punter and the offense has a fresh set of downs. I wanted to let him know I had his back.
“It is something we drew up. Something we had been working on all training camp. And you know, just a huge thank you to Coach Hightower for trusting us to get that done. We were feeling the momentum a little bit but we needed a spark on teams, we needed to help fuel the offense, defense, everything. Fantastic call trusting us to get the job done.”
Hardy, who had 128 snaps on special teams for the Los Angeles Rams in 2022, knows that’s where he’ll have to make his biggest impact right now.
“Making the 53 is more than just playing on offense and defense,” he said. “They gave me a job and I am doing the best I can with it. Just being grateful to be here. Not taking anything for granted. I am looking for ways to impact the game in a positive way.”
5. With a chuckle and affirming nod Mark Sanchez looked at his Week 1 assignment when Fox unveiled its schedule for announcers to open the season.
There isn’t another broadcaster at the network — maybe anywhere — who better understands the situation, pressures and expectations that will be and have already been thrust upon Caleb Williams.
That’s because once upon a time, Sanchez was the fifth pick in the draft in 2009 by the New York Jets, the heir apparent to franchise icon Joe Namath. Sanchez, who was a backup for the Bears in 2017, doesn’t just have an idea of what Williams will encounter for another quarterback-starved franchise, he’s walked a very similar path.
Sanchez, a tanned and toned California boy, was the next coming of Broadway Joe at the beginning of his career, and the hype (and hope) only grew as the Jets reached the AFC Championship Game in his first two seasons.
So, if anyone can describe what Williams will experience in the journey that is the beginning of his NFL career, it’s Sanchez, who also starred at USC and got to know Williams during the last two seasons in Los Angeles.
“It’s so funny,” Sanchez said Wednesday. “How much this plays into this broadcast. Not about me but more about the situation. I gotta go in there and replace Joe Namath and he’s gotta go in there and be Sid Luckman and Jim McMahon. That’s a lot. How many times have these fans had a preseason Hall of Famer in the last 20, 30 years? ‘Hey, this is the guy! This is the guy!’ Somehow they’re not there. It’s not always the player’s fault. Sometimes it’s the situation. Sometimes it’s the circumstances but that’s stuff that you can’t really focus on but there is just a lot of noise to it.
“And you win the first game out of the gate and it’s ‘Yep, we got our guy.’ You lose the first game out of the gate and it’s, ‘Oh man, here we go again.’ Those kind of things, navigating those seas is difficult for a young guy. That market is every bit as tough as New York because there is only one team. At least in New York if you’re playing well and the Giants stink or the other way around, they can kind of deflect some of the fire coming your way. It’s a white-hot spotlight and that’s not easy.”
It’s so hot the last two first-round picks at the position before Williams — Justin Fields and Mitch Trubisky — each explained at different times why they had shelved their social media accounts when the noise and frustrations of the fan base had escalated. It’s a pressure cooker trying to be the answer for an organization that, through no fault of the current quarterback, has bungled the position time and time again, regime after regime.
That is precisely one of the pitfalls ahead of Williams, the kind of cavernous drop that can swallow up a quarterback, all of his promise, all of his talent and leave everyone to extend their arms and ask the same question, “Where did it go wrong?”
“The default answer is try and block it out and focus on what’s important and win on Wednesday so you can win on Sunday, all those cliches that everybody is going to tell him,” Sanchez said. “But it is nearly impossible in today’s world to just completely tune that out. It’s impossible with the phones and all the social media stuff and he’s a guy that is really the first superstar NIL player, the first of his kind. Not like LeBron James, who went high school to pro, but that kind of projection, you know what I mean?
“And I don’t know what you say to him other than, ‘Yeah, you try to block it out but you’re inevitably going to see some of it and people are going to bring it up when you’re signing autographs, it’s going to come up in press conferences.’ They’re already telling him nobody has thrown for 4,000 yards or 30 touchdowns. This guy has got to go win games. Don’t worry about all of that. All of that stuff is going to take care of itself and a lot of that stuff is out of your hands.”
Getting to know Williams as he has — and Sanchez said he’s tried to act as a sounding board and he’s not one to reach out unless he’s asked — the 37-year-old wonders if the Bears’ rookie is uniquely wired to thrive under the spotlight instead of melting. Sure, it’s a dangerous line to walk but the only chance for success is for Williams to be true to himself — he is who he is.
“It’s going to be interesting to watch and he’s one of those guys that, in some ways, feeds off all of that stuff, which is part of his personality,” Sanchez said. “So, telling him to lock it up and totally change his approach, I don’t think that is the right advice either because he’s more active on the social media platform and he has other interests outside of football. But you lose three games in a row and everyone is going to say, ‘Oh man, that fashion show in Milan doesn’t sound so good.’ That’s the way it goes.
“The GQ cover in New York (in September 2011), people gave me heat for that. ‘He spent all that time at the photo shoot.’ The photo shoot was five hours. But you throw an interception and it’s, ‘Well, you could have been studying your playbook.’ Is that totally fair? No. But the thing Caleb signed up for isn’t totally fair. It’s so funny he could be an absolute superstar there. There is buzz around him. They’re comparing him to Michael Jordan and I’m like, ‘Holy smokes!’ That’s a lot. How are you going to handle that?
“Some of the advice I would give, I guess, is bring the guys with you. Bring them to the movie premiers and Broadway shows and fashion shows and all of the stuff that you can do individually unless it’s something you are passionate about that is kind of your one thing. But bring them with you. When I got invited to Broadway shows, I wouldn’t go unless I had 10 tickets. I’d decline. Because when you go as a group it turns into a team bonding session instead of just, ‘Hey, this guy is out and about. He doesn’t focus. He’s got too many interests. He’s got too many irons in the fire.’ That turns down the heat a little and it gives him time to learn his guys.”
Sanchez pointed out the Hollywood narrative that Williams is cast in, at least in some spaces, and laughs.
“He’s not even from Southern California,” Sanchez said. “He was there two seasons. I was. I was just this surfer dude, GQ, pretty boy from California and that is a tough narrative in a tough East Coast city, New York, where you hear, ‘You ain’t ready for this.’
“Then, when people got to meet me, got to know me, all right, maybe he is OK. You can’t fight that initial stigma. This guy (Williams) is from D.C.”
Nor can Williams battle the storyline that he’s here to replace Luckman, McMahon, whoever and lead the Bears in ways they’ve only imagined, at least in the Super Bowl era. Maybe Sanchez is right. Maybe his understanding of the obstacles ahead of Williams and the way he’s wired is accurate. Just maybe Williams is ready for this. Sunday’s debut wasn’t pretty but Williams was measured afterward. He knows he’s going to have to be better.
6. The Bears have already given up on Velus Jones Jr. as a punt returner.
Last month, they effectively gave up on him as a wide receiver in a crowded position room and switched him to running back. And if he cannot return kickoffs for them, well, he’s running out of ways to make himself useful.
Jones found a solid role as a kickoff returner last season. He averaged 27.4 yards per return on 16 attempts last season and there has been a feeling the NFL rule changes on the kickoff would make him a potentially bigger weapon.
So, when Jones muffed the first kickoff return of the season — then inadvertently kicked the ball forward from the 3-yard line to the 23 where Tennessee’s Julius Chestnut recovered it — it was “here we go again.”
Jones’ mishaps on punt returns are well documented. He had two killer muffs as a rookie in 2022 that directly led to losses to the New York Giants and Washington Commanders. He had a third fumble that season — on offense — against the Philadelphia Eagles and there was a dropped touchdown pass.
The Bears yanked him from punt returns and he hasn’t been seen there again. They pulled him from kickoff returns after this mishap, pairing DeAndre Carter, the new punt returner, with running back Khalil Herbert.
“I just took my eyes off the ball,” Jones said. “I’ve caught that ball like a million times. So it’s like sometimes you can get lackadaisical. Then, I didn’t realize when I looked for it, I actually kicked it. So, that was just an unfortunate thing. Never happened to me before. It’s the small details. Just gotta go back to square one, just looking everything in.”
Jones had his momentum going forward when the mistake happened. It was setting up to maybe be the start of a big return because he would have been at full speed in an instant. And then the ball hit off his chest and was — pfft! — gone.
“Facts, facts, facts,” Jones said. “It really sucks but we got the win at the end of the day and I appreciate my teammates for having my back and, you know, that was where I am just trying to focus on the next play.”
Does Jones fear this will number his days as a return man? He still got some spot play on offense — he had two carries for 11 yards and caught one pass for eight yards — but the old saying is “the more you can do” and you have to start wondering what the Bears will have in mind for Jones if there’s actually less he can do.
“It’s no concern,” he said when I asked about potentially being benched on kickoff returns. “Obviously, I am a competitor. I know what I bring to the table and like I said, that was unfortunate. I know the staff believes in me. They’ve seen me return how many kicks? Really, ain’t much to say about that. Definitely that can’t happen.”
Matt Eberflus supported Jones after the game and that’s not surprising. Coaches rarely predict the demise of a player in a postgame setting. But as giddy as the Bears were to keep Jones on the 53-man roster in the final episode of “Hard Knocks,” their faith just had a big hole poked in the middle of it.
“I was proud of Velus,” Eberflus said. “I really was. I know that wasn’t what he wanted, obviously. He did a nice job coming in at the halfback position, did a nice job getting north. I thought he did well. We’ll evaluate in terms of kick return as we go.”
7. DeeJay Dallas is the answer to the trivia question that will come up years from now.
Who was the first player to have a kickoff return for a touchdown when the NFL made massive changes to the special teams play in 2024?
Dallas of the Arizona Cardinals hit the Buffalo Bills for a 96-yard touchdown on Sunday, the only score on a kickoff through the first 15 games of the season. DeAndre Carter of the Bears had the second-longest return — 67 yards. There was one other return of more than 50 yards heading into the Monday night game between the New York Jets and San Francisco 49ers.
What does the small sample size of games show us so far? There were returns on 34.6% of kickoffs, so the number has increased but maybe not to the level the league imagined. The competition committee’s newfangled approach to the kickoff was put in place to encourage more returns. The league has been crusading for ways to make the play safer for years with a goal of reducing head injuries but an all-time low 21.8% of kickoffs were returned last season.
Some teams didn’t fear the possibility of a big return. The Bears covered five kickoffs and had only one touchback for Cairo Santos. New Orleans covered nine returns in a blowout victory over Carolina with only one touchback. The Panthers had a long return of 31 yards and averaged 25.8 yards on their nine attempts. Kansas City, New England, Atlanta, Indianapolis, the New York Giants and the Los Angeles Rams booted nothing but touchbacks.
The tally going into Monday night? 156 kickoffs, 54 returns, 100 touchbacks and two kicks out of bounds.
Fifteen games is a small sample size — and the ball will fly in outdoor stadiums while the weather is warm — but the results were a dramatic departure from what we saw in the preseason, which is not surprising. There were returns on 70.5% of kickoffs in preseason and that was because the teams wanted to see how the new rules worked and test out various strategies.
NFL owners approve a radical overhaul to kickoff rules, adopting setup used in XFL
Then, real games began on Thursday in Kansas City and the kickoff was back to being the play with rare action. There were 11 kickoffs between the Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens and nine touchbacks spotted at the 30-yard line. On Friday in Brazil, Green Bay and Philadelphia had 10 touchbacks on 13 kickoffs with the Packers’ Keisean Nixon taking the final kickoff out from 8 yards deep in the end zone with 27 seconds remaining, a desperation move for a big play.
The Bears and Titans combined for three touchbacks and seven returns. The Titans’ Jha’Quan Jackson had five returns for 127 yards (25.4 average) with a long of 30.
Will we see more touchbacks in Week 2? That’s going to depend on a lot of factors. Game situations. Perceived ability of the return man. Leg strength of the kicker. How much does the head coach want to risk?
The original discussion in the spring was to have touchbacks spotted at the 35-yard line. Some I chatted with believed that would incentivize coaches to avoid kicking the ball into the end zone. In order to get the dramatic rule change passed, the touchback spot was shifted to the 30 and through what again is a small sample size, we’re not seeing as much change as probably some expected or hoped.
One special teams coordinator I texted predicted this will be the status quo for the first few months of the season until the weather is colder and the ball doesn’t travel as well off the tee.
“It’s going to be touchbacks until we get a better feel for what the officials and the teams are going to do,” said another coordinator.
For one week, anyway, the Bears didn’t show fear covering kickoffs and cornerback Jaylon Jones tallied three special teams tackles.
8. Titans running backs Tony Pollard and Tyjae Spears combined for seven receptions for 23 yards.
This is notable from the standpoint this is one area where the Bears allowed what you could call a lot of hidden yardage a year ago.
In 2023, the Bears allowed 1,003 receiving yards to opposing running backs, far and away the most in the league. The Los Angeles Chargers were next at 772 and only three other teams allowed more than 700. Not only did the Bears allow the most yardage, but they were also 32nd in the league in yards per reception for opposing running backs at 9.4.
This is getting into the weeds a little bit but with 23.6% of opponents’ passing yardage going through running backs, it was worth exploring. Aaron Jones of the Green Bay Packers had receptions of 51 and 35 (touchdown) yards in the season opener last year. Atlanta’s Tyler Allgeier scored on a 75-yard screen. There were three other completions to running backs that went for more than 30 yards.
The Allgeier play is an outlier. Nickel cornerback Kyler Gordon blitzed from the side Allgeier released to and the Falcons had it blocked up well. Should the Bears have prevented a touchdown? Yes. But this was an example of the right call at the right time by Atlanta.
The vast majority of the 107 passes completed to running backs last season were checkdowns, though.
“You really gotta look at it,” linebackers coach Dave Borgonzi said. “You came up with a few of those — Allgeier, Aaron Jones, (Austin) Ekeler had one against us in L.A. But if you look at it as a whole, when you play a lot of zone defense, when they check the ball down, those count as receiving yards for backs.
“When you play zone defense and they throw checkdowns, that’s the intent of the coverage. So, you can pick out three or four plays and that’s fair. We could have done a better job with coverage but if you look at the whole thing, it’s the checkdowns where the backs get yards but when they’re checking it down, that means the zone coverage is doing its job because they’re throwing it down as opposed to over your head.”
Where the Bears are likely focused is preventing the chunk plays to running backs. Because they play such a heavy percentage of Cover Two and Cover Three, it’s the natural outlet for the quarterback when the secondary takes away the intermediate and deep routes.
You’re not going to see a team mount a 70-yard touchdown drive simply dumping it down to a running back play after play. Eventually, the offensive coordinator and quarterback get bored and they’re going to make a mistake or the defense is going to make a play. But the defense as a whole needs to do much better than allowing opposing running backs to average nearly a first down on every reception.
“As backers, that is always an emphasis for us,” said weak-side linebacker T.J. Edwards, who had 15 tackles and 10 solos. “Especially for how we play an attacking style. Screens and outside perimeter throws and runs are always going to be things that we face. So, it’s definitely something you want to improve on. Anything that has hurt you in the past, you know you will continue to see until that fire has been put out. We’re kind of ready for it all. As linebackers, we take that to heart. I feel like we’ve put an emphasis on it.”
9. In a bid to find their best five starting offensive linemen, the Bears are rotating guards again.
It’s something they did with Lucas Patrick and Teven Jenkins in 2022 and on Sunday, Nate Davis started at right guard and newcomer Ryan Bates rotated in throughout the game. It was a planned move and the goal has to be finding a starting five the team wants, settling on it and sticking with it all the while hoping to avoid the injury bug that hit the team in the trenches a year ago.
Davis missed the first half of training camp with a groin injury and Bates was out the second half of camp with a pre-existing shoulder issue. So, the competition the team originally wanted — Bates battling Coleman Shelton to be the starting center — never got going. Once Davis returned, it looked like a three-man competition for two starting spots but Bates quickly went out.
Now, the Bears have to sort through possibilities in the regular season.
“It felt good,” Bates said. “I’ve only had one week of practice. I had to figure it out quick.”
Bates had to figure it out against some pretty stout interior players and that didn’t make it easier. The hope moving forward is that he can manage the shoulder issue.
“I’ve dealt with it before so I know how to handle it,” he said. “I know how to work around it.”
Does he look at it as a job competition heading into Week 2?
“Of course,” Bates said. “Every week, everyone is competing. That is the way the NFL works.”
10. Northern Illinois still was the talk of college football Sunday morning, fresh off a stunning upset of then-No. 5 Notre Dame.
Coach Thomas Hammock was going through game tape in the solitude of his office less than 12 hours after arriving back on campus in DeKalb, having given his staff and players the day off (the Huskies have an open date in Week 3).
“The crazy thing is when you’re watching the tape, you forget all of the little things that happened throughout the course of the game,” Hammock said. “Because your mindset during the game is the next play. There were some critical plays in that tape when you watch the full copy — offense, defense and special teams — that I had honestly forgotten about that happened.”
What happened — a 16-14 victory, sealed when Cade Haberman blocked a 62-yard field-goal attempt as time expired Saturday in South Bend, Ind. — won’t be forgotten for a long time at NIU. Not the go-ahead field goal by Kanon Woodill with 32 seconds remaining. Not the huge day for running back Antario Brown. Not the two sacks by Devonte O’Malley. Not any part of it.
It was the first victory by a Mid-American Conference school over an opponent ranked in the top five. It was the first time NIU had beaten an opponent in the top 10. The Huskies upset No. 15 Maryland in 2003, the highest-ranked opponent they’d beaten previously. That was 21 seasons ago.
NIU entered the AP Top 25 on Sunday at No. 25, while Notre Dame tumbled to No. 18.
“It changes the trajectory of your program,” said Hammock, who posted a photo on social media Sunday morning of former Huskies coach Joe Novak walking off the field after an upset of No. 21 Alabama during that same 2003 season. “I think it changes the trajectory of the school. We want to increase enrollment and get the excitement back on the NIU campus. In turn, that will help us as a football program.”
As this picture sits in my office of Coach Novak after the Alabama game. I can truly say I know the feeling!!!#TheHardWay pic.twitter.com/gieBgH11W1
— Thomas Hammock (@NIUCoachHammock) September 8, 2024
Hammock, 43, is in his sixth season at NIU after leaving a job as the Baltimore Ravens running backs coach to return to his alma mater. He was part of what Novak built, first as a player and then as a position coach.
He has tried to systematically build the program, knowing it would be tough for NIU to be a major player in the transfer portal. He preaches family and development and hard work and had his players believing they could go to Notre Dame and succeed.
“We’ve got a veteran team,” he said. “A lot of guys that have been here and a lot of seniors that have been through highs and lows.
“We’re good in the trenches — the O-line and D-line. Those games normally come down to that aspect of the game, and we built our team inside-out. I was very confident that we could at least match up in the trenches and then we’ll figure out the rest when the game starts.”
Staff and players return to work Monday, and the Huskies don’t play again until Sept. 21, when they host Buffalo in their MAC opener. I asked Hammock how he could prevent what might be natural human instinct — a letdown next time out.
“We prepared for this since January,” he said. “I’m talking about handling success. I’m talking about handling failure. It’s the next-play mentality. The next-day mentality. Flush it and move on. We’ve already had that training and they’ve been around here long enough to understand.
“We have always talked about the fight for consistency, so my message will not change. We have to fight to be consistent, and part of being consistent is building your routine, sticking to your routine and then obviously moving forward.”
That’s what Hammock was doing as he finished going through game tape — moving forward — but it’s a time-consuming project. It was a 2½-hour bus ride back from South Bend. He spent the entire ride answering more than 300 text messages.
“I never wanted to be a guy that didn’t respond to people, no matter what level I was at,” he said. “Because when I was a young coach and you reach out to other coaches and they don’t respond — I never wanted someone to have that feeling toward me.
“It’s just an acknowledgment: ‘Hey, I got your message.’ I try to be conscientious because I think that’s important in this profession.”
And now Hammock and the Huskies are on to the Buffalo game with a little — OK, a lot — more attention on his program.
10a. Explosive plays were limited for the Bears. They really didn’t have any with the exception of the 20-yard run by D’Andre Swift. That’s one of the most key statistical categories for defensive coaches. They’re more concerned with limiting big plays than they are third-down rankings, run defense stats or just about anything else that could be at the top of their list. Caleb Williams and the Bears will have to be more explosive.
10b. Keep an eye on Titans defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson to become a candidate for head-coaching openings in the near future. Wilson, who was a pro scout for the Bears from 2008 through 2011, has been rising the ranks as an assistant coach working for the Rams in St. Louis and Los Angeles, New York Jets, Philadelphia Eagles and last year with the Baltimore Ravens. This is the first time Wilson, 42, has served as a coordinator. Word is some within the Eagles organization were upset Wilson wasn’t promoted to coordinator in Philadelphia after the 2022 season, leading him to depart for the Ravens where he worked with Kyle Hamilton, who was named All-Pro in 2023.
10c. Strong safety Jaquan Brisker had 10 tackles, five of them solo, and I thought defensive tackle Gervon Dexter showed up pretty well. Dexter had four stops, one sack and two quarterback hits. That’s a nice start for a second-year player who had a solid second half last season.
10d. The Houston Texans opened as a 6 1/2-point favorite over the Bears at Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas for next Sunday night’s game at NRG Stadium.
