The Chicago Bears dropped to 1-1 on the season after a 19-13 Week 2 loss to the Houston Texans. While the score was close and the Bears had a chance to win the game on the final drive, the offense had problems throughout the game and let down a Bears defense that turned in an excellent performance against a high-powered offense. But who was most to blame for this loss? We’ll assign blame here to three parties who could have done much better and helped Chicago secure a win to move to 2-0 on the season.
The Bears offensive line
The biggest reason the Bears lost to the Texans in Week 2 was the play of the offensive line. This unit was dominated by the Texans defense, allowing seven sacks and playing a big part in two interceptions.
Rookie quarterback Caleb Williams has been sacked a league-leading nine times through just two games. This is bad on its own, but all NFL fans know that it is even worse when you are protecting a rookie quarterback.
Young signal-callers like David Carr and Bryce Young have had (or are currently having) their careers ruined by taking too many sacks in their first few seasons.
Yes, the Texans have one of the most dominant young pass-rushers in the game in Will Anderson Jr. and DeMeco Ryans defense that blitzed like crazy on Sunday night and fly to the ball. Still, seven sacks is simply unacceptable.
If the offensive line could have given Williams a little more time throughout the game, the Bears could have come away with the win either on the final drive or maybe even well before that.
QB Caleb Williams
While the Bears' offensive line was not good at all in Week 2 against the Texans, they shouldn’t take all the blame for the seven sacks and two picks. Williams himself deserves some blame, too.
The No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft has been the best player on every field he’s stepped on since he was a child. Williams has an incredible amount of natural talent, and that talent has allowed him to dominate as a kid, in high school at Gonzaga in Washington, D.C., and in Lion Riley’s offenses at Oklahoma and USC.
He’s in the NFL now, though, where 300-pound men move like defensive backs and defensive backs are as fast as Olympic sprinters. Running around and waiting for the perfect throw to open up is no longer an option. If you do that, players like Anderson will find you and try to take your head off.
Williams has had several “you’re not in college anymore, bud” plays in his first two games, and if he doesn’t start making reads and throws quicker (especially behind this offensive line), he is going to get killed.
Head coach Matt Eberflus
The other thing that is not fair to do after the Bears' loss to the Texans is to put all the blame on the players between the lines. Chicago head coach Matt Eberflus should eat his piece of the blame pie as well.
Getting his O-line and QB to play better is one thing, and having his team commit seven penalties was another, but his challenges also put the Bears in a bad spot as well. Eberflus lost two challenges in this game, costing his team two timeouts, which would have come in handy on that last drive.
The first was on a Stefon Diggs catch that happened right in front of him on the sideline, while the second was a Kyler Gordon interception that the cornerback implored him to challenge. The problem was a first glance at the replay quickly and easily showed that both calls were 100% correct.
In a close game, those timeouts were huge, and Eberflus wasted them both.
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