HOUSTON — When Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams was asked late Sunday night how his body was feeling after the Houston Texans’ 19-13 victory at NRG Stadium, he offered a half smile and a not-very-surprising answer.
The Texans sacked Williams seven times on “Sunday Night Football,” hit him 11 times and constantly harassed the rookie as the Bears offense once again didn’t produce as needed.
“I’m a little bruised up,” Williams said. “I took a couple hits today. I’m going to get in the ice tub, do all the things I need to do to make sure my body is ready for tomorrow and practice on the other days and then obviously next game.”
As the Bears search for answers on how to spark an offense that has scored just one touchdown in the first two weeks, coach Matt Eberflus offered two places to start in his postgame summary. One is establishing a better run game. The Bears totaled just 71 rushing yards — 44 of them from Williams, who also took some big hits on his rushes.
And another is eliminating the sacks, hits and pressures of Williams, who completed 23 of 37 passes for 174 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions.
Eberflus didn’t single out the offensive line, which has had some uncertainty on the interior and recently lost guard/center Ryan Bates to injured reserve. Instead he said afterward it falls on “everybody.”
“That’s an everybody thing,” Eberflus said. “We’ve got to do a great job with the O-line, tight ends, backs. Rhythm and timing on the passes. What’s the play design in terms of getting the ball out? His reads and all that. Again, it’s everybody, so we’ve got to clean that up.”
The Bears had some offensive line troubles in the season-opening win over the Tennessee Titans facing tough defensive tackles T’Vondre Sweat and Jeffery Simmons. Williams was sacked twice.
On Sunday night, it was defensive ends Danielle Hunter and Will Anderson Jr. who wreaked havoc going against tackles Braxton Jones and Darnell Wright. Each had 1 1/2 sacks. Next Gen Stats credited Hunter with nine quarterback pressures, Anderson with eight, Azeez Al-Shaair with four, and Mario Edwards Jr. and Folorunso Fatukasi with three each.
“You’re always wanting the protection to be firmer and better, of course,” Eberflus said. “But we played against two good ends today. Danielle is a heck of a player. Will is a heck of a player. They have great motor, and those guys are in the top 10 pass rushers in the league for sure. It was a big challenge for us, but again, we need to be firmer, and we need to be better at protection for everybody.”
Hunter and Anderson made their plays at some of the biggest moments.
They combined on a swarming sack for a 10-yard loss that forced the Bears to settle for a 53-yard Cairo Santos field goal on what at first looked like a promising opening drive.
Hunter, who made life difficult for past Bears quarterbacks during his eight seasons with the Minnesota Vikings, had Williams in his grasp early in the fourth quarter — even tearing Williams’ jersey. The quarterback escaped and made an ill-advised throw that Kamari Lassiter intercepted, Williams’ second pick of the night.
Hunter also had a sack on the Bears’ third-to-last play.
Despite the offensive struggles, the Bears still had a chance to win it in the final two minutes. The drive started well with Williams’ 27-yard pass to wide receiver Rome Odunze. But after an incompletion, Hunter blew by Wright to sack Williams for a loss of 8 yards. Two plays later — a 1-yard Williams run and an incompletion to Odunze — and the Texans had won.
“It starts up front with our defensive line,” Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said. “The way they were rushing together, the way we were covering in the back end, that really set things apart for us. Credit to ‘Sting’ (Derek Stingley Jr.) and Kamari (Lassiter) for the way they cover, allowing those guys to get the pressure. You don’t get pressure unless the coverage is tight. Those guys cover well and allowed the rush to get there.”
When left guard Teven Jenkins was asked what was going to be top of mind this week as the offensive line prepares for a Week 3 meeting with the Indianapolis Colts, he went simple: “Protecting Caleb,” though he didn’t have many immediate answers to how it could be fixed.
Eberflus called Williams’ handling of the pressure “learning moments,” though surely the Bears would prefer he didn’t have so many of them in a game. Williams, at least, said that he didn’t think he had any serious ailments after the many hits.
“There were certain points where I think he did a really good job riding up in the pocket and making some good throws, so some really good positives there to look at,” Eberflus said. “Then also he was able to evade the rush a couple times and get on the perimeter a couple times. He has to be careful with the football after he gets out there when he throws the ball in a scramble drill. So great learning moments there for him in terms of the pressure that you’re talking about, of what to do and when to do it.”
