Bear(ing) the News – A Chicago Bears Blog

Offense

• The Bears were without Darnell Wright today and started Theo Benedet in his place. Benedet had a rough day but not because he didn’t play well. It was because he was dealing with Maxx Crosby all day. Ozzy Trapilo was inserted the last series in the first half. Benedet switched to the left in place of Braxton Jones. I was never clear on what happened to Jones. It may have been performance related but he hasn’t been healthy this year.
• Crosby was a monster in this game. Batted passes, tackles, sacks, and even an interception. He was all over Caleb Williams and D’Andre Swift. He was a massive problem for the Bears offense. Eventually they started to flat out double team him on every play towards the end of the first half.
• Williams was under pressure all day today and not just by Crosby. The Bears offensive line had a very difficult time keeping the Raiders out of the offensive backfield and they smothered the Bears.
• Similarly, the Bears just could not get their run game going. Swift was constantly being hit in the backfield before he had a chance to make a play.
• Ben Johnson apparently really likes to try to get Williams out on the naked boot but I’ve yet to see it work. Opposing defenses are all over it and the Raiders are no exception.
• Williams did a good job on occasion against the blitz today. He tends to look to Olamide Zaccheaus over the middle when pressured. I thought that Adam Achuleta’s criticism of Williams was unfair. He was a bit more than “uncomfortable” today. He was under siege. I thought he did about as well as you could expect under the circumstances.
• It appears that Williams was finding Cole Kmet more often today which is a step forward. On the other hand it was midway through the 4th quarter before he found DJ Moore.
• I would also say that, although he still missed a few, Williams was a bit more accurate today, another step forward.
• A couple series that tell a story today. 12:14 left in the second quarter. 1st and 10 from LV 24. Fumble recovery for a loss of 6 yards, followed by a sack for a loss of 10 yards. Punt instead of field goal. 6:51 left in the second, first and 10 from the Las Vegas 14, -2 yard run, second and 12 from the Las Vegas 16, 0 yard run, third and 12 from Las Vegas 16, 10 yard penalty, third and 22 from the Las Vegas 26, -2 yard run, field goal instead of a touchdown. This was the story of the game offensively.

Defense

• The Bears started this game without Jaylon Johnson and Kyler Gordon in the defensive backfield and without Grady Jarrett and Chris Williams on the defensive line. These were already weak areas of the defense. They were also without TJ Edwards but fortunately Noah Sewell has proven to be a good back up.
• Andrew Billings had a good day against the Raiders center, beating him on both 3rd and 4th and 1 in the first quarter and generally clogging up the middle when he was in there.
• Having said that, the defensive line struggled today. Ashton Jeanty broke out to have a good day as the Bears were his get right game along with the Raiders offensive line.
• Kevin Byard had himself a day against Raiders quarterback Geno Smith. Smith threw the ball to Byard twice in the first half after late changes in coverage that Smith evidently had a difficult time with.
• Miserable day for Smith today with multiple interceptions. He appeared to me to be having a difficult time adjusting to late, pre snap coverages by the Bears. Nice job by Byard and Tyrique Stevenson taking advantage.
• Give credit to Stevenson today. He threw his body around in a very high effort game.
• As the game wore on, late in the 3rd quarter into the 4th, I thought that there were too many missed tackles. This isn’t the first time this season that I thought that the Bears defense looked tired late in the game.
• Honestly, as weak as this defense was on both on the back end and, especially, up front even before injuries, it’s astounding that they’ve managed to perform as well as they have. It’s tough to watch at times.

Miscellaneous

• Bears fans didn’t take over the standout today but you could hear them when they had something to cheer about. I think estimates that it would be 50% Bears fans may have been over blown, though.
• I loved the interview from Johnson coming out of half time. To say he was a bit snippy with Aditi Kinkhabwala is a little bit of an understatement. One look at Johnson on the sideline tells you how much he hates losing.
• The Bears special teams did well today. Huge big play with the blocked field goal at the end and none given up. Cairo Santos has a good day. Tory Taylor kicked the ball off at the end of the game with less than 2 minutes left and a 1 point lead.
• The Bears didn’t commit what I would call an excessive number of penalties but they combine with all of the with other mistakes to kill drives. Not as many are pre-snap penalties as at the beginning of the season but this has to get cleaned up if they are going to beat good teams.
• The Bears won the turnover battle but the game was characterized by the fact that they couldn’t take adequate advantage of them.
• I’d say overall a step forward for Caleb Williams today. I thought his accuracy was better, especially considering the pressure he was under. His mobility outside the pocket was a huge difference in the game. And he drove teh team to a game winning touchdown under duress. Having said that, a better team would have won this game handily. Defensively the Bears feel like they are hanging on by a thread. Not many quarterbacks are gong to hand you 3 interceptions the way that Geno Smith did today but when you get them, you have to take advantage of them. Ands the lack of a running game continues to be worrying. A step towards competency at quarterback is a step toward the future for this team. For now, I guess you take that and the win and have a good week.

Offense

• Caleb WIlliams had forever to throw early in the game. Nice effort from the offensive line in that respect.
• Pretty surprised to see the trick play in the first quarter. They were pretty deep in their own territory so it was a gutsy play. It could’ve been a disaster.
• Nice to see Luther Burden involved in the game plan.
• It was really nice to see Williams complete those deep passes. His poor accuracy deep has, of course, been the major criticism of him and his career so far.
• Having said that, Williams accuracy really suffered this game. He didn’t look relaxed despite the fact that he got very good protection. I guess it’s just another one of those games where you grow. You hope so.
• It was halfway through the third quarter before DJ Moore had a catch. I was glad to see they got hm more involved after that.
• I was kind of surprised that Kyle Manangai didn’t see the ball until laid in the first half. I thought he’d be more a part of the plan earlier.
• It got better in the third quarter but the run game wasn’t great today. I kind of wondered if Ben Johnson didn’t start handing it to the wide receivers just to jump start it. To their credit, they ran off a lot of time in the second half with it.
• Despite the fact that the run game wasn’t particularly good, it was nice to see the play action pass work so well for the Bears. That has to be the heart of the offense.

Defense

• The Bears got blown off the ball again in this game. Dallas looked like they could run the ball almost any time they wanted. Every once in a while they brought 9 guys up to the line to try to stop it but you can’t do that every time.
• As usual, the opposition attacked Tyrique Stevenson despite the absence of Jaylon Johnson on the other side. That’s some disrespect that he has unfortunately earned. Of the two, I personally have less confidence in Nahshon Wright. Wright looked lost in coverage at a couple critical moments during the game.
• Those quick touchdowns early in the first quarter didn’t give the defense much of a rest. The Cowboys also went to the no huddle early. It did kind of make me wonder if they weren’t planning on eventually trying to wear the Bears down. The defense felt all day like a rickety ship that might sink at any moment.
• I did think that the defense put out a high effort today. They were all rallying to the ball all game.
• The pass rush wasn’t good again today. They need an answer to this. All of the warts from last week were very evident.
• As color man Tom Brady pointed out, the Bears had some success, crowding the line and faking the blitz, and then dropping it into coverage. Quarterback Dak Prescott had a bad habit of simply dumping the ball off in the face of the simulated pressure.

Miscellaneous

• The Bears kickoff returns seem like they are always shorter than they should be. The first drive stated on the 15.
• Nice play by Tyrique Stevenson literally taking the ball away from the Dallas running back early in the first quarter. That must be a dream play for any defensive player.
• 6 penalties for 41 yards is better but I think. It’s still too many. They occurred at critical times and would have really hurt in a closer game. They still have work to do here.
• The Bears won the turnover battle 3-0 and, as is usually th case, it had a huge influence on the game. I would dare say that the Bears defense might not have held it together without them.
• With comments about poor practice habits during the week, I was genuinely worried that Ben Johnson might start to lose the locker room if they’d lost this game, especially if they played poorly.

That said, it was very good to see the Bears take advantage of Dallas on a day when they played really poorly, especially on defense. I certainly have nothing against Matt Eberflus, who I think is a class individual, but he must already be under some pressure there. There was a lot of poor play on the defense, especially in the back field. The Bears offensive line was superb protecting Caleb Williams.??

Williams made progress today but I’m sure there will be words during the week about ways that he can improve his accuracy as, to my eye, he missed too many throws.

Defense

• This game was easy to figure out on the defensive side of the ball. The Lions offensive line dominated the line of scrimmage. Jared Goff had forever on to throw. They ran the ball far too easily.
• I wouldn’t say that the Lions ignored Jaylon Johnson while he was out there, they certainly did throw more to Tyrique Stevenson’s side of the field far more often. With a lot of success. The Bears have a corner back problem. Even when Johnson is out there.
• The Bears gave up far, far too many big plays today as the Lions racked up 500 yards of offense. Too many mistakes. Just too many.

Offense

• Caleb Williams looked good today, I thought. At least until things got out of hand and the game fell apart. He was usually on time and more or less accurate. For some of us, you can stop there and figure it was a good day. For the rest…
• It looked to me like it was tough going for the much touted inside of the Bears offensive line. There wasn’t a lot of room to run. Where they found it, it was off tackle and to the outside. Two Williams quarterback sneaks in the first half on the wrong side of the Bears forty yard line to turn the ball over on downs was good proof of that.
• Speaking of that turnover on downs, how many times have we seen head coaches try to show how tough the Bears are only to see it thrown back into their face in situations like this? I know that Ben Johnson wants to go for it on fourth down more but you have to use a little common sense. If the Bears were going to be able to sneak it across the line on fourth down, they would have been successful on third down. For heavens sake it might be a good statistical play for a mathematical guys but some teams are still going to be good at it and some teams aren’t. Make them prove it in less critical situations before you do something like that.
• The Bears had a false start in the first quarter and Williams waited until the last minute to throw the ball into the ground. He got hit. That was lazy and it shouldn’t happen.
• I was surprised that Williams spent so much time in the shot gun. Perhaps it’s easier to run the silent count from there but I would hope to see him more under center in the future. You can do play action from the shot gun – and they did. But it’s not as effective.
• Williams leaned a lot on Rome Odunze today, which is good. Honestly, he’s probably the Bears best receiver. But Olamide Zaccheaus is Williams’s safety valve, I think. When he needed a big third down, he seemed to be on the radar a lot. I think the Bears tried to force it just a bit to DJ Moore last game.

Miscellaneous

• A kickoff out of bounds handed the Lions far too easy field position in the first half.
• On a related note, the Lions appeared to winning the field position game. Special teams is a bit of an issue for this team early in the year, I think.
• The penalty count was eight but t felt like a lot more than that. Just repeated shooting themselves in the foot over and over again. It was frustrating to watch, especially early on.
• On a related note, does anyone still think all those false starts are WIlliams’ fault? Or maybe it’s his cadence on the silent count?
• The Bears lost the turnover battle. The fumble at the end of the first quarter. Killer. So many mistakes…
• Apparently it’s not enough for the Bears to give a game away themselves, the officials have to help out the Lions with an error at the end of the half. Nice.
• This game was a challenge to my assertion that the year is about Williams. He was better than last week. But the team…. So, so many mistakes. ??The only person in the world more frustrated watching this than the fans at home might have been Johnson. So many things to correct. It’s going to be a long year.

Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune answers your questions:

Is DJ Moore RB2 this week? — @nflchikennugget

I don’t think so. Rookie Kyle Monangai was on the field during the portion of practice Wednesday that was open to the media. I imagine there’s a decent chance the Bears will elevate Brittain Brown from the practice squad for Monday’s game, especially if Roschon Johnson, who wasn’t spotted at practice Wednesday, is unavailable.

I never saw a concept run away with the imagination of both fans and the media more than the idea that Moore might be the backup running back this week for the Bears. Or any kind of running back for that matter.

One of the main reasons why rookie running backs have a hard time getting on the field in the NFL is because they don’t know how to pass block. Even without Monangai or Johnson, I can’t imagine the Bears putting the protection of Caleb Williams into Moore’s hands. If Moore gets the ball as a running back at all, my guess is that it’s as no more than the occasional gimmick.

If I’m a defensive coordinator, I’m telling my guys that if they see Moore hit the backfield, it’s a pretty good guess he’s getting the ball. Because unless he’s running a pass route, it’s unlikely he’s going to be able to do much on the field without it in his hands.

Brad Biggs at the Chicago Trubune answers your questions

“Please articulate what you believe are Ben Johnson’s measures and key indicators of success for Caleb Williams. Help the casual fan understand how he will be evaluated so we know what to look for inside of this offense. — @2004_cjp”

“Johnson is looking for Williams to be comfortable and efficient playing on time and from the pocket. He looked like that in the second preseason game against the Bills, who rested their starters. He didn’t look like that in the preseason finale against the Chiefs starters. Does he regularly hit the top of his drop and — boom — deliver the ball on time and accurately? Does he efficiently work from his first to second and sometimes third reads? Is he comfortable climbing the pocket to create space and time to deliver a throw?

“Williams excels when it comes to second-reaction plays and operating outside the pocket and in the creative world. That stuff shines when he’s in the two-minute offense. To be an elite NFL quarterback, he has to be able to win from the pocket on a regular basis, and that was a struggle during his rookie season. Williams also needs to show a mastery of pre-snap assignments, which will help the Bears avoid some of the penalties they’ve had in camp and the preseason. The cleaner the operation is pre-snap, the better idea the quarterback will have of what the defense is doing post-snap.”

As I was reading this, I was thinking about an amusing section of a recent episode of The Bill Barnwell Show where Barnwell asked his guest, Gregg Rosenthal which of two seasons he thought Bears fans should prefer:

1. Bears go 8-9 but Caleb Williams is the 8th best quarterback in the league the second half of the season
2. Bears go 13-3 on the strength of their defense and make the playoffs.

Before the second scenario was described, even before Barnwell could even finish describing the first scenario, Rosenthal said, “That’s the season I want! I don’t care!” I could only laugh and nod my head.

Absolutely that’s the season we want. Bears fans know better than anyone that defensive success without a quarterback only leads to short-term gains. Williams being a top ten quarterback in the second half of the season means a long future of competitive football.

Being something of a downer by nature, there are visions of Mitch Trubisky‘s first pre-season game in my head as I think about Williams performance against Buffalo in this preseason. Trubisky looked exactly like Williams did and we all know that led nowhere.

Given that Williams first season was a complete organizational failure, I’ll more or less say the say same thing I said last year. No matter what the record in 2025, if Williams looks like that at all in the second half of the season, it will have been a success.

Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune has 10 thoughts after the Bears preseason finale:

The overriding theme for the offense throughout training camp was inconsistency, and I don’t think we saw a ton of explosive plays either (at least not as many as I would have expected). It’s going to take some time. No one expected this to be polished after three preseason games.

It was interesting after Friday’s game when [HC Ben] Johnson again mentioned the bye week, which comes in Week 5. Previously he talked about sorting through the left tackle situation until maybe the bye. He referenced it again in regard to the offense as a whole.

“We have plenty of time to assess what has gone on over the last few weeks and what direction we have to go here for the opening game,” he said. “To be honest with you, we might have to ebb and flow a little bit after that opening game. Usually it will take up until the bye week. I think it is placed at just the right time to identify who we are and what we are going to be for the rest of the season.”

Something tells me that the bye week is going to be optimistic.

Johnson’s offense reportedly took 12 practices to install, and they weren’t done until shortly before practices began against Buffalo. Probably, Johnson will choose to concentrate upon a subset of the plays that he thinks the team will be able to execute well to begin the season. But he installed them all for a reason.

Almost certainly related to the inconsistency, QB Caleb Williams‘s accuracy has also reportedly been an issue throughout camp. Just from the brief glimpses we got of him the last two games, especially the last one against Kansas City, I’d say he shows the signs of a man who is thinking and not reacting. Thinking about the play, thinking about the pre-snap look, thinking about his mechanics, thinking about everything. The head is connected to the arm, and when athletes do that, accuracy suffers.

I don’t think we’ll see the offense be all it can be, or Williams be all he can be, until at least halfway through the season when things slow down and become more natural to the participants. To be perfectly honest, I strongly suspect that it’s going to be more like halfway through next season.

There are going to be some rough times before that, and some people in the media will start to become very critical, especially of Williams, who is beyond his rookie grace period in his second year. In fact, it’s already started and it’s just the preseason.

My advice to fans would be to have patience. Williams has a lot of bad habits to leave behind, and it won’t happen overnight, especially in this new environment. We may not know for sure whether Williams and this offensive coaching staff are going to be able to help each other effectively for a long time yet.

Kevin Fishbain at The Athletic answers your questions:

If Tyrique Stevenson takes a step and the CB newcomers impress, would the team kick the tires on trying Terrell Smith at safety? A lot of decisions for the safety room have to be made soon, and he seems like he’s someone who needs to be on the field more. — John R.

Now, if you’re looking for potential trade chips — again, this is not a report, just summer speculating — you could look at these two players, especially if the Bears feel good about rookie Zah Frazier. This is a position of depth. This will be a pressure-packed season for Stevenson. He can get a new deal after 2025, and he’d love to be known for more than the Hail Mary in Washington. The talent is there, but can defensive coordinator Dennis Allen and defensive backs coach Al Harris get it consistently? Former defensive backs coach Jon Hoke often waxed poetic about Smith, whose main challenge has been staying healthy.

You’re right, John, that the Bears have some questions at safety in the future with both starters on expiring contracts and no one necessarily waiting in the wings. I’m always hesitant, however, to suggest a position change. Smith probably has the instincts to play safety, but it’s not a position he’s played in his football career — unless he did it before high school. Interestingly, when looking at Dane Brugler’s 2023 scouting report of Smith, he writes, “he has an intriguing blend of length, speed and physicality to match up with NFL receivers on the outside. He is a physical press-man corner prospect.” That would seemingly line up well with Allen’s defense.

Having Smith as the top backup at corner is a nice commodity, especially on his contract. But if the Bears feel really good about Frazier, then maybe it’s a discussion worth having. Until then, they’re probably better off with Smith at his usual spot.

I have a feeling that this discussion is centered upon the wrong cornerback when it comes to who will be on the roster in 2026.

A lot depends upon the kind of year that Stevenson has, but this might be a situation where some good drafting has put the Bears into the position of finally picking up a compensatory pick.

Players with Stevenson’s past aren’t always let go immediately. But eventually the team in question is faced with a choice and that choice is usually to let the problem child go.

Stevenson’s emotions might leave him wound too tight for the Bears to be able to depend on him long-term. Letting him walk and replacing him with Smith might bring very little change in terms of skill level, and especially if Frazier works out well, there could finally be the kind of depth at a position of strength to allow a player to leave for a reasonably expensive contract and be replaced with a cheaper option and a fourth-round pick.

Of course, this would also require the Bears to finally stop having to build their team through the free agent market at other positions. A huge assumption, but if they manage it, it would be a sign of health that we haven’t seen in Chicago in a long time and that we’ve never seen long-term.

With Stevenson’s past, he might need to have a lights-out season to interest the Bears in signing him with the players waiting in the wings behind him.

Safety is an issue with Kevin Byard, Jonathan Owens, Jaquan Brisker, and Elijah Hicks all in the final year of their contracts. Something tells me that GM Ryan Poles sees this position as one that can be filled easily with mid- to late-round picks and second-tier free agents. He certainly hasn’t been in any hurry to invest in the position. If so, presumably Allen is on board. So it will be interesting to see how he uses the talent he has at the position.