For a second consecutive week, I’ve found myself needing to take the full 24 hours to wind down from a bad Bears loss. The bad was, yet again, bad. But I still think we came out with a few positives from this one.
A few instant judgments from yesterday’s loss have most certainly stuck around, and I think unfortunately we’ll have a few of the same over-arching issues from last year linger through this year. However, there are some things to build on too.
We’re all still mad, so let’s talk about it.
Bears vs Colts Takeaways
- Caleb Williams was really, really impressive. Did he make his share of mistakes? Sure. He’s a rookie and has a bad offensive line protecting him. There are going to be times when he doesn’t set his feet and throws a late ball that gets picked off. He’ll learn from those mistakes. He’s shown significant progress with each passing week so far, and there hasn’t been any reason to believe he won’t continue to do that.
- Patrick outlined it after the loss, and he’ll break it down even further in the tape review. But of all the problems the Bears had yesterday their QB wasn’t one of them. He needs to clean up his deep accuracy a touch, and he’s at times on a different page with his receivers, but that will improve with time. Yesterday he was decisive, saw the ENTIRE field (as you can see from the pass chart), and started to show off his chemistry with Rome Odunze. Also, he can do things like this. The flashes are there, the special is there, and we’re only three games in:
- Now, to the elephant in the room. We’re now on pace for yet another first-round quarterback to have a new offense to learn in year two. Caleb is farther along than both of the previous QBs were, so I don’t think it will kill his development, but it’s another example of this organization being shortsighted. I love Matt Eberflus as a defensive coordinator. He seems like a guy the players really like too. But week after week he proves he’s in over his head as a head coach. He’s quite clearly the worst head coach in the division, and Shane Steichen just beat him with a QB who does things like this.
- Time and time again Flus’ teams have fallen flat in important moments. There never really seems to be a sense of urgency from the opening snap. The staff never seems to be organized or fully on the same page – how do you not already have a two-point play ready after the TD to make it 14-9? That’s every bit as much on Shane Waldron for not having something ready and being in his coach’s ear as it is on Eberflus for not being aware of the situation.
- All in all, coaching is a problem, and just about everyone knows it. Most of us knew it last year, and even if Jim Harbaugh was never going to happen, knew a change was likely necessary. Sure I (and many) talked myself back into Eberflus when they brought him back because it was the only option. But since the preseason I’ve been saying it’s time for Flus to prove his worth. He’s got the roster (mostly), he’s got the QB. And all he’s done is hire an OC who seems to be lost, keep (and promote) an OL coach that has the group that’s underachieving massively, and had the same exact miscues with game management we’ve been seeing for years now. He’s a nice guy, he’s a good defensive coordinator, he’s just not a head coach that this team is going to achieve their goals with at the helm.
- I’m still not sure what Shane Waldron is doing offensively. Roschon Johnson was the Bears best back on Sunday and averaged nearly four yards per carry, but still saw five fewer carries than D’Andre Swift. I have no problem with Khalil Herbert getting the ball on the goal line a couple of times, but how Johnson didn’t get a handoff there was mind-boggling.
- Then there was the speed option call. The look sucked, the play call sucked, the decision sucked, and the execution sucked. Everything about that decision was brutal. Having said all of that, there was no reason for that play to get blown up as badly as it did either. The OL got destroyed at the line of scrimmage (we’ll look at that for In The Trenches this week), and there was no excuse for their execution to be that poor. Everything about that play call, from the call to the execution was awful. Even if the play call is awful (which it was) there’s no reason it should have looked that bad.
- Flipping back to another positive: Rome Oduzne and Cole Kmet were both very good (except when Kmet was asked to go one-on-one in pass pro with the Colts’ top edge rusher). Caleb was looking for Kmet often on third downs, and by golly, it worked! Who knew running plays to your very good tight end on third down would end up working?! As for Odunze, he was getting more separation from defenders this week, caught his first TD, made a nice play on the deep ball, and looked like the big play threat the Bears hoped he’d be. He also looked significantly healthier than last week.
- I’m still just infuriated that the Bears essentially lost because they jumped offsides on a punt. That’s another thought that popped into my head just now. Just another example of an unacceptable mistake that falls on the coaching staff.
- Oh, and while we’re on things that annoy me. Somehow Trey Sermon’s forward progress wasn’t stopped on his touchdown run where he was CLEARLY stopped, but on Anthony Richardson’s interception to Andrew Billings early on this play was somehow ruled dead. Make it make sense.
- I’m sure the Bears will be able to clean up a lot of these issues against a team like the Rams who, despite being incredibly banged up, we’re coached to a win against the Niners on Sunday. Certainly, Matt Eberflus and his staff’s issues will progress in the right direction against Sean McVay!