Instant Reactions: Caleb Williams, Bears' offensive line fail first primetime test

If you weren’t sure why the Bears elected to work the right guard position by committee in Week 1, it became abundantly clear in Houston.

The offensive line struggled to keep Caleb Williams upright, and when the rookie quarterback could escape the pocket, the ball was going the other way.

It’s another week that leaves fans looking for more from the offense, and on a night where the Bears’ defense couldn’t play hero ball all night, it came back to bite Caleb Williams’ offense.

The defense forced one turnover when Andrew Billings punched the ball free from Texans running back Cam Akers in the fourth quarter. Not enough.

Caleb Williams wasn’t perfect, but it’s tough to lay the blame on a quarterback making his second start with Coleman Shelton and Nate Davis being pushed into your lap on just about every snap.

Caleb finished the game: 23/37, 174 passing yards, 0 touchdowns, 2 interceptions, 51.0 rating. Williams also led the Bears in rushing, picking up 44 yards on five runs.

Nicholas Moreano

The Bears were outmatched in all three phases against the Texans on Sunday night. Offensively, it was a nightmare for Caleb Williams and the entire unit. So far through two games, Shane Waldron’s offense lacks any kind of identity, and, like many Bears’ teams of the past, the offensive line is a major issue. Williams couldn’t keep the ball out of harm’s way like he did last week as the rookie quarterback threw two interceptions. The defense limited the Texans to 19 points, but allowed Nico Collins to catch eight passes for 135 yards and a touchdown. The defense will be fine, but the offense has a lot of areas that need to be addressed as the team heads into Week 3.

Adam Hoge

The Bears’ offensive line is a huge problem. Penalties, confusion, lack of fight at times. It’s not good. And it’s hard to see how it will improve without personnel changes. Caleb Williams took an absolute beating Sunday night and the Bears didn’t have an answer once DeMeco Ryans started heating things up. We all thought this was a great situation for Williams to develop. The offensive line has proven otherwise in the first two weeks of the season.

Mark Carman

With 1:37 to go the Bears got the football with a chance to win the game. Which was incredible considering the Bears had zero ability to protect Caleb Williams all night long. Credit to the defense for keeping hope alive when the Bears should have lost by 3 touchdowns with how bad their offense looked. The drive ended after one completion to Rome Odunze and a bunch of the same things we saw all night long. Two weeks into the season, Shane Waldron’s offense is under the microscope as is Ryan Poles’ offensive line.

Kevin Kaduk

The offense struggled and the defense kept it close. Were you expecting something else? The Bears are where most thought they’d be after two weeks, though no one had the Bears scoring just one touchdown through eight quarters of football.  Matt Eberflus needs to tighten up the process that leads to him throwing needless red flags. Same goes for the players on the field drawing too many yellow flags. None of it might matter if the offensive line can’t figure out its issues, but thankfully they won’t be facing Danielle Hunter and Will Anderson Jr. every week.  The season officially begins in Indianapolis next week.

Greg Braggs Jr.

The Chicago Bears simply aren’t ready for this kind of stage yet. This kind of team. Doesn’t mean it can’t happen at some point this season but it’s clear the offense has a looooong way to go. How does Waldron want to run this offense? What personnel does he want to use? Are the players ready to execute whatever game plan that is? How do you develop Caleb Williams properly while also trying to win games? Is being conservative with short throws the answer? Or do you air it out and let him make some mistakes? Does the o-line need time to gel? Or do changes to the o-line need to be made? So many questions to be answered and the games just keep on coming. Let’s hope they find some answers week to week and eventually find some consistency. At the end of the day, they’re just not there yet.

Patrick Norton

Nothing like talking about next year’s draft in Week 2. If you’re capable of playing offensive line, please report to Halas Hall immediately. Caleb Williams didn’t look good, but how are these conditions built for a rookie quarterback to succeed? Back to the drawing board for Week 3. We’ll see you at Joe’s on Weed St. where we’ll either see the offense’s first decent performance of the season, or you can enjoy the rest of the CHGO crew screaming about the Bears’ inept o-line.