The mood was glum late in the first half Sunday at Soldier Field with the Chicago Bears trailing the Tennessee Titans 17-0 in their season opener and showing few signs of life. Dropped passes, fumbled kickoffs, sloppy penalties. The early start was a total buzzkill for so many Bears fans who bounced into the season with such high hopes for this team.
But then the Bears awakened and rallied. Starting with a blocked punt by Daniel Hardy, which turned into a 21-yard touchdown return by Jonathan Owens, the Bears made a series of game-changing plays on special teams and defense and clawed their way to an improbable 24-17 victory.
Next up: a Week 2 prime time showdown in Houston against the Texans.
But first, Tribune writers Dan Wiederer and Colleen Kane assess all that happened Sunday, offering layered analysis in true-or-false format.
True or false: Caleb Williams’ first NFL start was worth crumpling up and throwing right in the trash.
Dan Wiederer: False. False, false, false. To the contrary.
As crazy as it may sound, Sunday’s debut for Caleb Williams may turn out to be a blessing in disguise. Sure, the numbers were pretty ugly — 14-for-29, 93 yards, no touchdowns and a 55.7 passer rating. And the video was even uglier, evidence of a rookie quarterback who never found his rhythm, didn’t have his “A” stuff and had only four completions of more than 10 yards — and none longer than 13 — on 33 designed passing plays. But I’m serious when I say this is a performance Williams should and will wrap his arms around, leaning into his struggles as a valuable learning experience.
“I understand that I need to be better,” Williams said. “And I will be better.”
Sunday was a right-out-of-the-gates reminder of just how fast the NFL game moves and how steep the rookie learning curve will be. It was a sobering cue of how much work the Bears offense still has ahead to carve out an identity. It was a bucket of cold water dousing what had been a pronounced build-up of hype regarding Williams’ potential with the Bears. But for a player with such an earnest and constant desire to learn, this should also turn out to be stimulating as Williams seeks to steady himself and the offense heading into Week 2. And it certainly helps that the Bears did enough around Williams on defense and special teams to escape with the win.
Colleen Kane: Williams is going to have such clunkers in his rookie season. We knew this. The Bears knew this. And they have been open about the challenges Williams will face during what they hope is his ascent to becoming their franchise quarterback. It’s why general manager Ryan Poles has stressed more than once that he wants Williams to lean on the veteran talent around him as he grows.
This performance was learning experience No. 1 in what is sure to be a string of them during his early NFL development. As Williams said after the game, he had miscues and misfires, including overthrowing receivers and taking two sacks for a loss of 29 yards.
But there were a few positives. Williams didn’t commit a turnover. (If he had, that might have changed the outcome.) Multiple players and coach Matt Eberflus said Williams navigated the rough outing with poise. And he handled the postgame aftermath with maturity too, acknowledging his mistakes and vowing to be better.
Because the defense and special teams carried the Bears to the win, it gives Williams and the offense a chance to work on correcting those mistakes with a much more positive vibe around Chicago this week. And that’s a win for everyone.
True or false: Beyond just Williams’ performance, the offensive showing left a lot of questions.
Kane: True. We went into this game with a lot of unknowns about this retooled offense under new coordinator Shane Waldron, and what we found was there were a lot more problems than just Williams on Sunday.
The interior of the offensive line had issues against the tough Titans defensive tackles as the Bears relied on new center Coleman Shelton and rotated Ryan Bates and Nate Davis at right guard. Eberflus said after the game the rotation was due to recent injuries for Bates and Davis, but I’d think the Bears want to have the line settled soon.
One of Poles’ big offseason signings was running back D’Andre Swift, but the running game was not very effective against the Titans. Swift had 10 carries for 30 yards, though he did have one highlight reel 20-yarder that included hurdling a defender. Khalil Herbert may have some flaws in his game, but seeing him get on the field for six snaps — totaling two carries for 4 yards — was a little surprising to me given that Roschon Johnson was inactive.
I also found myself asking where Cole Kmet was, even if the Bears brought in tight end Gerald Everett in the offseason. That’s not a knock on Kmet, who had 73 catches for 719 yards in 2023. He was on the field for 48% of the Bears snaps, making a catch on his only target for 4 yards.
It’s early, and Waldron and the Bears offensive coaches are also working out kinks. But I think there’s a lot more we need to see from the offense beyond Williams.
Wiederer: I typically like to afford new coordinators the month of September to iron out some of the wrinkles within an offense, whether that’s the play-calling flow or the preferred personnel groupings or the way the ball is distributed. But I will admit, there were some things Sunday that raised an eyebrow. In the second quarter, for example, Williams missed a third down deep shot to DeAndre Carter. But more concerning was on that play, out of an empty backfield set, the Bears had Carter, Everett and Travis Homer split out to the left with Swift, Kmet and DJ Moore all on the sidelines. On third-and-4.
Even before the snap, that felt awkward.
I also scratched my head late in the game when the Bears — with a seven-point lead — called a bubble screen to Velus Jones Jr., who has proven to be one of the least reliable players on the team in terms of ball security. The risk-reward calculus there felt iffy.
This team, with this level of talent, should be at a different stage than that. Now we’ll get to see where things go Sunday night in Houston. And that now includes heightened scrutiny on the interior of the offensive line as well.
True or false: The Bears defense made a strong statement with its performance Sunday.
Wiederer: True. This was everything Matt Eberflus’ defense talked about being all offseason. Especially after halftime. This was a unit that showed it could take over a game and create a surge of energy that just keeps building.
In the second half alone, the Bears were on the field for seven possessions and posted a shutout, allowing only 65 total yards and four first downs while creating three turnovers. Those were three big, big takeaways, none more important than Tyrique Stevenson’s game-winning pick six midway through the fourth quarter. Stevenson’s Sunday-saving 43-yard touchdown return came after DeMarcus Walker corralled Titans quarterback Will Levis and forced him into an inane throw.
“I bet he regrets that now,” Walker said with a smile after the game. “Just take the sack, son.”
The Bears defense was swarming in the second half, limiting Tennessee to 2.2 yards per play. The Bears also got a forced fumble from newcomer Darrell Taylor — which was recovered by T.J. Edwards — plus a victory-sealing interception from Jaylon Johnson. Perhaps best of all, the D played with poise and steadiness even after the Bears fell behind by 17 points. So, yeah. Wow. That was a statement.
Kane: I have to be honest, all training camp I was pulling back on the narrative that the Bears wanted to be a top-five defense — just because we hear such talk every August, and it doesn’t always materialize. But man, the Bears defense looked good Sunday, even if it wasn’t against an elite quarterback.
Most promising to me was the defensive line, which came into the season with the most questions.
In the back seven, Edwards was all over the place making plays. But I expected that after I saw what he did last season. I expected Johnson to carry his impressive camp play into the regular season. I knew Jaquan Brisker could make flashy plays.
But I wasn’t sure what the Bears were going to get from their defensive linemen beyond Montez Sweat.
Taylor and Walker — two of the biggest talkers on the defense, we’ve been told — showed up in a big way Sunday. Taylor had two sacks, including the strip-sack, and eight tackles. Walker had four quarterback hits. And there were also some big plays by defensive tackles Andrew Billings and Gervon Dexter. That should get Bears fans really excited.
True or false: The Houston Texans will present a tougher test than the Titans did Sunday.
Kane: True. I liked what safety Kevin Byard said when asked about how he can tell if a team is headed in the right direction after the opener. “Week 1 is usually like overreaction week,” he said.
Byard wasn’t denying that the Bears defense had a strong showing Sunday. They were proud of what they did in the second half against the Titans. But to prove that’s the new standard for the defense, they need to perform like that consistently.
Now they get a chance to go up against the Houston Texans and 2023 AP offensive rookie of the year C.J. Stroud, who threw for 234 yards and two touchdowns in a 29-27 win over the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday. Joe Mixon had 159 rushing yards. Nico Collins had 117 receiving yards.
And though the Texans gave up 27 points to the Colts, Williams and the Bears offense have their own new set of challenges against a Texans defense that includes Danielle Hunter and Will Anderson. Williams also will have to maintain the composure his teammates talked about while playing in his first prime-time game on his first road trip.
It could be one of the Bears’ bigger early tests.
Wiederer: It’s a great test. And it should be fun to watch Sunday night. You have done a nice job documenting how explosive the Texans offense can be with Stroud slinging it around to Collins, Stefon Diggs and Tank Dell. The Bears, with Eberflus at the controls, will have to find different ways to make life uncomfortable for Stroud.
As for Williams? The one test he didn’t get to take Sunday — thanks to Stevenson’s triumphant pick six — was having the ball in his hands with the game on the line in the final stages of the fourth quarter. It would have been interesting to see how he would have responded, particularly within a game where it was obvious that he didn’t have his “A” stuff.
Who knows? Maybe Sunday night’s game will put the rookie quarterback into such a moment. But to get there, the Bears won’t be able to fall behind by 17 points early and expect their unity and belief to catalyze another rally.
The Bears rose up Sunday in a “should win” game that, truthfully at halftime, they really had no business winning. But now they step up in class and will get another test of their response.
