Bear Digest

Chicago Bears Week 2 Report Card: So many breakdowns to break down

Grading the Bears: It's not a good sign when Caleb Williams' mediocre game was actually one of the better efforts in Sunday's 52-21 Bears defeat.
Gene Chamberlain|
Brian Branch wraps up Caleb Williams for one of four sacks the Bears gave up on Sunday.
Brian Branch wraps up Caleb Williams for one of four sacks the Bears gave up on Sunday. | Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

Bears quarterback Caleb Williams struck a chord Sunday after a 52-21 loss to Detroit much like he needed to as a team leader, the captain on offense that he is.

"How do I come to terms with it?" Williams said. "We've got 15 more games. It's the first two games and there's been on multiple occasions teams that rallied back and go on a run and that's what we're focused on.

"To do that you've got to focus on the next one."

Admirable determination, but the problem with focusing on the next one is the next opponent focuses on the last one.

The Bears defense choked and collapased in Week 1 but Sunday they just skipped the choking and went right to the collapse.

The Dallas Cowboys will get the film of what Dennis Allen's defense did Sunday, particularly without Jaylon Johnson on the field, and the Bears are sure to see plenty of what ailed them Sunday when the teams play at Soldier Field this week. The Lions never had an incompletion once Johnson left the game. Maybe they should have given Johnson even more money than they did on his extension, after all, because they couldn't stop a single pass without him.

It's a copy cat league and what the Lions did to confuse a Bears  defense playing some of the time without T.J. Edwards, all of the time without Kyler Gordon and most of the time without Johnson on Sunday will be attempted again by an opponent.

Nahshon Wright, Nick McCloud and Noah Sewell need better play and their teammates need to be better communicating with them on the field.

Beyond that, the Bears' defeat served only to show how far away they are from being a competitive team.

There will not be many teams who give up over 50 points in a game this  year and when the Bears last gave up more than 52 they actually allowed over 50 two straight games under Marc Trestman.

So it's possible there could be that to look forward to this week again.

In the meantime, here are the grades and they're exactly as a 52-21 defeat should be.

Running game: C-

The bottom-line number looks fine, even good. If they average 5.0 per carry from non-quarterbacks running the ball no one would complain. It wasn't just backs piling up yards late after the game was out of hand. Backs and receivers averaged 5.8 yards per carry in the first half. The problem was while the Bears were running better and even had a 20-yard run from D'Andre Swift, the Lions were scoring at will. Running tends to be less important then. The biggest failure of the Bears' running game was Williams being unable to gain a yard on two attempts in the first half on sneaks in his own territory.

Passing game: D

While Williams seemed to take a step forward and Rome Odunze definitely did with career highs in catches (7) and yards (128), the Williams and DJ Moore connection regressed to last year when they couldn't hit 10 yards per catch. The tight end and slot receivers are supposed to be the most dangerous spos in Ben Johnson's offense and tight ends and slots were targeted three times each for 46 total combined yards. Williams threw a stupid interception at a time when the game was still in question and pass blocking was shaky all game unless it was Joe Thuney blocking. 

Run Defense: F

Allowing 5.9 yards a carry and 171 yards to non-quarterbacks is a formula for total failure in the NFL. The big strength of Bears edge players was supposed to be how stout they were against the run, but both Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery took runs to the outside for good yardage. The interior couldn't stop a run in short yardage as tackles Gervon Dexter, Grady Jarrett and Andrew Billings played a couple yards off the line of scrimmage.

Pass Defense: F-

Jared Goff wasn't perfect. He had a 156.0 passer rating, which is 2.3 short of perfection. They gave up 100-yard receiving efforts to both Jameson Williams and Amon-Ra St. Brown and did it with Williams on only two completions, which is pretty tough to do. Receivers fan wide open through the coverage scheme. The strength of the team was supposed to be their secondary and without Johnson, Gordon and injured backup Terell Smith, they're left defending with players who might not even be capable of playing on another roster. Allowing five completions of 29 yards or longer says the Bears secondary didn't cover, didn't communicate and didn't tackle anyone. Other than that, they had a wonderful game. The pass rush showed up for about two possessions in the first quarter and couldn't be found afterward, including Montez Sweat again.

Special Teams: C-

They didn't get called upon to do much positive but the last thing they needed after the way the first game ended was Cairo Santos kicking off out of bounds to give up field position, and that's exactly what he did. They seem to be getting better at kick returns with Luther Burden breaking one 36 yards and a team 26.9-yard average but that's what happens when you're getting a lot of reps. No one wants a lot of kick returns in a game. Tory Taylor seemed to clean up his act a bit, with a better average and net than the game's best punter, Jack Fox.

Coaching: F

The total failure of Allen' defense began in camp when they had Terell Smith reduced to third team while neither Wright nor McCloud played better and were getting practice time ahead of him. These two were players who had problems in coverage with other teams and it continues here. Josh Blackwell somehow is kept behind McCloud in the nickel despite being a better backup. Their decision to have Dominique Robinson active but Tanoh Kpassagnon on the practice squad is a total personnel/defensive coordinator failure. Kpassagnon seems like the only defensive lineman playing at times, and Robinson has started like he played for three-plus years. Someone needs to light a fire under Sweat because he's been less than a non-factor. Until Sunday, they always seemed like they could at least count on their safeties and even that didn't work out Sunday. On offense, the lack of plays called for tight ends is alarming when they're supposed to be the focus.

Last week the coaches seemed to be upset when reporters were referring back on Thursday and Friday to things that happened in the opener. They were moving on, they said. This week they should expect to be asked all the way through Friday’s practice about last week’s game because it sure seemed Sunday like reporters were the only ones who had paid attention to things they had done poorly in the opener.

Overall: F

It's too soon to draw conclusions about the coaching staff's efforts relative to the season, but the lack of impact from draft picks in two games makes a grade for GM Ryan Poles an easy one to produce. A team is the sum of its parts and if you're putting inferior talent on the field then you're going to get an inferior product out the other end.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.