The Chicago Bears (2-1) escaped Soldier Field with a 23-20 victory over the Houston Texans (0-2-1) on Sunday, which featured some positives and negatives.
The Bears run game absolutely dominated with 281 yards on the ground, including 157 from Khalil Herbert, while Justin Fields and the passing offense continued to struggle against the 26th-ranked secondary in the NFL. Chicago’s defense bent but didn’t break, where they had two interceptions, including Roquan Smith’s pick, which led to Cairo Santos’ game-winning field goal.
Here’s a quick breakdown of what we saw during the game and how we graded the Bears in this win.
Offense: C-
It was a rather inauspicious start for the Bears offense, which fumbled (and recovered) their first snap of the game. But they recovered with a field goal on their opening possession, which gave way to another frustrating outing in the passing game. Justin Fields had a “trash” performance (his words, not mine), where he completed 8-of-17 passes for 106 yards and two interceptions. He also had two fumbles. It was clear that offensive coordinator Luke Getsy lost confidence in him, as evidenced by calling run plays on several third-and-longs.
While the passing offense is an utter disaster, Chicago’s run game has emerged as one of the best in the NFL. The Bears gained 281 yards on the ground against the Texans, which is the most for Chicago since 1984. But it wasn’t David Montgomery who led the charge. After Montgomery exited with a lower leg injury in the first quarter, Khalil Herbert carried the offense on his back to the tune of 157 yards on 20 carries (7.9 average) and two scores.
There’s still plenty of work to be done in the passing game (including the offensive line), but the run game has been a thing of beauty over the last two weeks.
Defense: B-
The Bears defense has become a unit that’s making takeaways a priority, as evidenced by their performance against Houston. Linebacker Roquan Smith and safety Eddie Jackson came up with huge interceptions when the team needed them, including Smith’s which led to the game-winning field goal. Jackson has now snagged two interceptions in the last three games, and he’s been one of the best players on the team through three games.
There were still some struggles against the pass, which was to be expected without top cornerback Jaylon Johnson, where rookie Kyler Gordon made some good and bad plays and Davis Mills threw for 245 yards on 20 completions. But the Bears defense held the Texans to 92 rushing yards, the first time they’ve allowed less than 100 yards on the ground all season.
Chicago failed to bring much pressure on Mills, aside from a fourth-quarter sack by Justin Jones, which was a bit of a disappointment. While there are still some areas to clean up on this young defense, they stepped up when they had to. They held Houston scoreless in the fourth quarter and the Texans converted just 2-of-12 third-down conversions on the day.
Special Teams: A-
Cairo Santos once again saved the day for the Bears with his game-winning 30-yard field goal. Santos accounted for 11 of Chicago’s 23 points on the afternoon, connecting on all three field goal attempts and two extra points. Trenton Gill had a solid afternoon on his four punts, where he averaged 45.5 yards per punt and pinned Houston inside their own 20-yard line on one of them. There were some concerns on special teams, including in the return game and the Bears getting fooled on a fake punt attempt in the third quarter, which led to a Texans field goal. But, overall, a solid day on special teams, thanks to Santos.
Coaching: C
Head coach Matt Eberflus continues to struggle with time management. At the end of the first half, the Bears defense forced a Texans punt, which gave Chicago’s offense an opportunity with 1:04 left. Eberflus was armed with all three timeouts, but he didn’t use any of them and let the team run five plays for 18 yards before heading to the locker room at the half. Eberflus explained his reasoning, and also admitted his shortcomings.
While offensive coordinator Luke Getsy leaned heavily on a thriving run game, he showed a complete lack of faith in his quarterback, which didn’t help with Fields’ confidence in what was an ugly game for him. Getsy called run plays on third-and-10, third-and-17 and third-and-6 in the first half after Fields threw an interception. That’s not what you want to see when developing Fields is the most important part of this season.
