HOUSTON — The Houston Texans got here from all over the place. All angles, all pace, all converging for a town-hall assembly on high of Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams.
When it was over, the Bears’ No. 1 general draft decide had been sacked seven occasions, which is greater than any quarterback in a recreation on this younger season. According to the league’s Next Gen Stats, Williams was blitzed 20 occasions in passing conditions and pressured 36 occasions on 37 dropbacks — the latter stat gave the impression of the Texans had been lining up for each snap of their SUVs.
The finish outcome was a predictable 19-13 loss that felt all-too acquainted in Chicago: with a quarterback struggling, a protection holding the last rating respectable and a set of problems which may not have a fast repair. All of that … and ache.
“A little bruised up,” Williams stated afterward, when requested about the punishment he absorbed in the loss. “You know, I took a couple hits today. I’m gonna get into the ice tub and do all the things I need to do to make sure that my body’s ready for tomorrow, practice on the other days and obviously next game.”
For the Bears, it’s a regarding inflection level early in the season. Maybe not a second for panic after solely two video games, however definitely an indication that one thing could have to basically change in the scheme to strive and even out some very actual protections points. They can get away with some of this towards a struggling Tennessee Titans crew who additionally trucked the center of the Bears’ offensive line in a Week 1 win for Chicago. But they are not going to get away with it towards a franchise like the Texans, which is constructed with the variety of structure the Bears are striving for: A frenetic, nasty protection up entrance with a stingy secondary; a franchise quarterback who seems destined to be a particular variety of distinction maker for the subsequent decade and past; and a surrounding forged of high-end ability place gamers who might go toe-to-toe with some other offense in the league.
There are a couple of basic underlying variations for the Texans. They have an offensive line that has been scrubbed right into a presentable unit over time, and a working recreation that noticed some key offseason funding with the acquisition of Joe Mixon and Cam Akers alongside Dameon Pierce. That trio is supposed to kind a decent working rotation when all three gamers are finally wholesome.
The intent of the Texans was clear heading into this season. Even after quarterback C.J. Stroud put up a traditionally well-polished rookie season, the franchise wasn’t going to lean into him turning right into a 40+ pass-attempts-per-game participant. Instead, offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik was going to scheme to realize the variety of stability that helped his offensive line maintain Stroud protected. That’s why you noticed Houston cut up 36 speeding makes an attempt between working backs and wideouts in Week 1. It’s a formulation that was the intention towards the Bears, too, earlier than Mixon was knocked out of the recreation by a hip-drop deal with early in the third quarter.
Even with Mixon’s leg harm, Sunday evening ought to resonate with the Bears. What the Texans have achieved for Stroud, the Bears must do for Williams. Starting with the offensive line that already seems to be overwhelmed to the level of being in comparison with the items that usually left Justin Fields getting flattened in the previous few seasons. To the level that Williams was pressured a number of occasions from each place on his line. From left deal with to proper and all the things in between. And a pair of occasions, from the tight finish spot.
This produced an offensive movement that by no means appeared settled or sharp, with Williams crusing a number of throws over the heads of his receivers, or throwing ill-advised passes on the run — some hinting at the out of construction chaos that apprehensive some expertise evaluators main into the 2024 NFL Draft. But if you would like Williams to function in construction, you have to offer the construction he can belief. That’s not what occurred towards the Texans, and it’s why he’s exiting the second week of the common season with no landing scored so far, and a pair of passing performances which might be nothing lower than ugly.
“You look at it, obviously we have seven sacks on the offensive line — everybody is going to talk about those types of things,” Bears head coach Matt Eberflus stated. “I believe that protection is everybody. Protection is the tight ends, it’s the runners, it’s the offensive line, it’s the quarterback. It’s everybody involved. … In terms of running the ball, we obviously want to run the ball better than what we did. It was OK, but not good enough. We’ve got to establish the run game. I think that’s always a good friend to a young quarterback when you can do that.”
Unquestionably, there may be going to be warmth on new coordinator Shane Waldron, whose play-calling has produced 353 yards of offense by two video games, with one of the worst working video games in the league. That’s opposite to what Waldron was purported to carry to the desk from his two-year stint as offensive coordinator of the Seattle Seahawks — when he helped stability out the scheme between the run and move. His work in Chicago was anticipated to be the reverse, taking the Bears additional away from a run-heavy offense and hanging a stability with Williams’ capacity to inject a high-octane passer into the center of the scheme. The outcome has been a multitude, and it was on full show towards the Texans.
While Waldron’s hand in the scheme will get consideration, it gained’t be sufficient to deflect from the offensive line, which repeatedly bought crushed by the Texans in a large number of methods. The encapsulation of which got here late in the fourth quarter, on a drive that would have seen the Bears pull out a comeback win. Driving with momentum and dealing with second-and-10 on their very own 48-yard line, Bears proper deal with Darnell Wright (who additionally had penalty points), whiffed horribly on defensive finish Danielle Hunter, who obliterated Williams for an 8-yard loss that the quarterback by no means noticed coming. It successfully ended the recreation, sucking all the momentum from Chicago and leaving the Bears to supply two extra wheezing performs that produced a 1-yard run by Williams and a badly missed incompletion thrown a full zipcode away from rookie wideout Rome Odunze.
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These sorts of offensive line problems are hardly ever fixable inside of a season, except you possibly can both scheme safety packages that transfer a quarterback and take strain off his line, or dial up a working recreation that permits blockers to impose themselves and discover some chemistry. Time will inform if the Bears can do both. But the purpose and measure needs to be clear now. They have some hallmarks of what the Texans have change into. Now they understand how far behind they’re in the construct. That was half of the message that Stroud imparted onto Williams when the two met midfield after Williams had been crushed the majority of the evening.
“I just told [Williams] that everything that got you here is going to take care of you in the long run,” Stroud stated. “Don’t put your head down. Don’t let a hard time humble you. It’s not going to be easy. You got picked at No. 1 for a reason.”
Stroud was speaking about Williams’ expertise. He simply might have been speaking about the earlier failures of the final high-hopes quarterback that led to Williams’ choice in the draft. After the Texans hammered Williams on Sunday, these Justin Fields failures and some of the problems that precipitated them appear nearer in the rear view mirror than anybody realized.
